No Priests
Next Sunday 28th July, I’m sorry to say, due to unavoidable circumstances, there will be no 9am or 11.15am Mass due to no priest being available, and not for want of trying! However, the Saturday 6pm Mass will be celebrated as usual, and there will be a one-off special 6pm Mass on Sunday evening. There is also the option of the Italian Mass at 4pm with Fr Belsito. Apologies for any inconvenience. The normal Mass schedule will resume the following weekend.
Fewer Masses due to a lack of priests has become a reality. Parishes formerly run by three or four priests now have only one. When I arrived here in 2015 we were four priests, although two were retired. And had God not sent us Fr David, I would today probably be the only priest at St Mary’s. So we are very fortunate to have just one church but with two priests.
We are also very fortunate in that we have a daily Mass. Many priests today find themselves responsible for two, three or even four churches, which means there is no longer the possibility of a daily Mass in each building. Most churches today are doing very well if they have one or two Masses during the week with a Sunday Mass, and if they’re really lucky they might have a Saturday evening Mass too. In some parts of the country people have for a while now had to travel further afield to find a Mass. But even this is not sustainable in the long run, as more and more pressure is being put on the remaining priests, many of whom are well past retirement age, and others suffer from burnout and breakdowns. In fact the present system would collapse entirely were in not for priests coming from abroad and retired priests helping out. And priests trying to come from abroad often face massive difficulties obtaining visas.
Three priests in our Loughborough Deanery retired in 2022 and no one has replaced them, thus the various recent amalgamations of parishes in the area. Sometimes a bishop has to make the hard decision to close a church which can be very upsetting for the people, but often there is no alternative. Nottingham Diocese right now has just two seminarians, and their ordinations, assuming they stay, will not be soon. It takes seven years to form a priest. And the Rosminians have no seminarians from this country. So you see that there are going to be occasions when it won’t always be possible to stick to the regular schedule of Masses, as we are now at the stage where there is no slack in the system. In the not too distant future it could come to the point when you won’t have regular access to a priest.
However, next weekend, in addition to the one-off 6pm Sunday Mass at St Mary’s, on Sunday morning there is an 8.30am Mass at Mount St Bernard’s Monastery, an 11am Mass at Sacred Heart, Loughborough, and a 10am Mass at St Winefride’s in Shepshed. Please remember, vocations are born in the home and in the family. Will you please all do your bit by praying hard for vocations and promoting priestly and religious vocations within your own homes and families.
Fr Paul Gillham, IC