Tablet Denigrates B-iritual Parish

A few weeks ago, it was announced that Bishop Philip Egan of the Portsmouth Diocese was to create a bi-ritual parish in Gosport, which is not far from Portsmouth. The church chosen was St Mary's and Fr Seraphino Lanzetta, who formerly belonged to the Franciscans of the Immaculate, together with some brothers arrived in the parish in mid June. An additional Latin Mass was introduced each weekday (7.30am Mon to Fri and 9.30am Sat), but otherwise the schedule of Masses was left unchanged, including Sundays when the only Masses (9.15am and 11.00am) remain Novus Ordo. An item in the parish newsletter announced that there were to be meetings following the Saturday Latin Mass to give guidance to parishioners on following the Mass in its traditional Latin form. The latest edition of The Tablet (that periodical that claims to be Catholic, but devotes most of its energies to attacking the Catholic Church) includes an item headed "Friars accused of taking parish back in time". It quotes two women as making claims that that turn out to be totally false and without foundation. It is interesting to note that these claims have now been deleted from the website edition. There is more detail in Fr Brown's blog, Gateshesd Revisited. This incident demonstrates yet again what a disreputable periodical The Tablet is. Firstly, they have printed a story based on information that was not only incorrect, but malicious. Secondly, they clearly failed to check out a story, which was based on assertions that were so improbable, that anyone with any knowledge of Catholic affairs would regard with suspicion. Thirdly, the story was already five weeks out of date. They are clearly slow in picking up news at The Tablet. As has often happened in the past, The Tablet has scored an own goal. Whilst trying to ridicule Bishop Egan and his moves to make the traditional Mass more widely available, The Tablet succeeded in giving publicity to the bi-ritual parish in Gosport, whilst ending up with egg on its own face. We must hope that a later move will be to include a Sunday Latin Mass in the parish schedule.