Developments in the Diocese of Leeds

There is an interesting development concerning the provision of the Latin Mass in the Diocese of Leeds. A meeting took place last week involving Bishop Marcus Stock (Bishop of Leeds), Fr Tim Wiley (the priest with responsibility for Latin Mass provision in the diocese) and Neil Walker (the LMS rep for Leeds).  It seems that it was agreed that there should be a church within the diocese that can be considered a "home" church for the Latin Mass. I am not sure whether this means a church that would be used exclusively for the traditional liturgy - I am presuming not.  The idea is that new arrangements will be put into place in September when it is customary to move priests.

Although there are Latin Masses every Sunday at two locations in the Leeds Diocese, there are others at venues and times that vary from week to week.  I have always thought that this is an unsatisfactory arrangement, because people turn up at the wrong place or the wrong time.  It seems that this problem may be rectified in the Leeds Diocese.

It is also possible that the new arrangement may be even better with a church providing traditional liturgy exclusively, or almost exclusively.  Such arrangements apply in the Shrewsbury Diocese at New Brighton, in the Lancaster Diocese at Preston and in the Liverpool Diocese at Warrington. In these three cases, one of the traditional orders of priests have been invited to take charge of a church that would otherwise be surplus to requirements.