High noon for the parish EF Mass

It doesn't have to be a High Mass - just a Latin Mass at noon

Take a quick gander at any of the Diocesan websites or the LMS guide to Masses around the country (provided you know where Southwark begins and ends, isn't it time we did away with Dioceses marked by archaic boundaries?)

So many Sunday Masses are scheduled for 5pm on a Sunday afternoon.

Come on Fathers....what the heck are you playing at?

Remember "Suffer little children to come unto me?" I don't think that Our Lord would approve of you only giving the 'manic' slot to the Latin Mass in your parish.

Parents will recognise the 'manic' slot as that period around tea-time when the children are worn out, tired and hungry (or fed and even more tired and scratchy).

So, effectively, by offering an EF Mass at 4 or 5pm you are barring young families from attending.

Perhaps you would like to try advertising an OF Mass at that time to see what response you would get.

Let's forget all the current brouhaha about the 'new' Pope and get back to the business of providing for the souls in your care.

Offer an EF Mass at 12 noon on a Sunday.....OK, OK, perhaps every other Sunday - who could possibly object to that?

And, while you are about it, conduct a survey on aged parishioners/Catholics who do not appear at Holy Mass.

My dear old house bound sister-in-law is still without the Sacraments - a situation that has been going on for over 3 years.

Why? Because the new PP says that she should "Grow up" and not expect to receive Holy Communion from a priest (he never said a dicky bird about going to an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion for Confession, though).

You would think, would you not? That in leafy Sussex of the Diocese of A & B, a parish priest would bend just a little, maybe  once a year? Twice a year?

Come on, once a month for crying out loud - where's the Church of the poor and lonely when you want it?

No wonder, when I walk out of church after Mass I hear the rattle of zimmer frames (actually, not true in my parish because we do, in the main, have our Masses at a child friendly time).

But at St Elsewhere's it is the norm.

No children. No young parents. No future.