First Latin Mass Personal Parish

It has been announced that Bishop Egan of the Portsmouth Diocese is to erect a Personal Parish for those attached to the traditional form of the Mass.  It will be centred around Reading, where the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter have their own house and have been offering Mass at the Church of St William of York for the last 17 years. 

Fr Matthew Goddard of the FSSP will be the Parish Priest, and the announcement states that the new parish will be based at the Church of St William of York until a permanent home is found.  At present, use of the church is shared between the FSSP and the the local novus ordo parish.

The new personal parish, which will be dedicated to St John Fisher, will be the first Latin Mass personal parish in Britain, and only the fourth in Europe, although there are about 40 in the United States.  It will differ from the shrine churches in New Brighton, Warrington and Preston, in that a parish has certain duties, including maintaining baptismal and marriage records.

The suggestion that St William's is a temporary home, will lead to speculation that the FSSP will be handed a church for their exclusive use at some future date.  Presumably, this will happen as a result of some reorganisation and amalgamation of parishes in the Reading area.