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Post by Beinidict Ó Niaidh on Oct 28, 2008 14:31:44 GMT
I hear from other threads mention St Peter's Fraternity in Newbridge - is there going to be an update on this thread?
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Oct 29, 2008 12:14:37 GMT
Yes - this is true Beinidict.
On the second Sunday of the month, Fr Brendan Gerard FSSP flies from Rome to say Mass in Cill Mhuire, Ballymany at 1 pm. Cill Mhuire is the chapel of ease of Newbridge and is located at the southern end of the town of Newbridge (close to the Curragh).
This provision is understood by the Bishop to be a response to petitioners in the diocese, mainly in Carlow and Newbridge. At present it is 'ad experimentum' - if it doesn't work, it may be withdrawn. So the onus is on the people of the diocese not to allow this happen.
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Post by Askel McThurkill on Nov 25, 2008 11:57:26 GMT
I would have thought Newbridge or Kildare in general is a bad place to start.
Naas is the biggest centre of population in the county (or diocese as far as I can see). That's as near to Dublin as makes no difference.
There may be a swelling of population as people move out from Dublin, but these are young commuters whose focus is on Dublin and who are not known to go to church in large numbers.
Given Dublin is sewn up by the chaplaincy and Limerick is gone to the Institute, I'd have said Cork or Galway might be the place to start.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Nov 26, 2008 11:59:34 GMT
You've got a point there.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Feb 19, 2009 10:16:10 GMT
Since October, the FSSP have been sending a priest to Newbridge to say Mass on the Second Sunday. This enjoys the support of Bishop Moriarity who is financing the venture for six months. The bishop was at the inaugural Mass in October and at the January Mass. I don't believe any Irish bishop has shown this kind of interest in the Mass in their dioceses.
Unfortunately, the numbers at the Mass (and don't take my word for it: log on to the St Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association for the stats) have been pretty much in free fall since October (c. 60 in October; 30 in November; low 20s in both December and January; low teens in February, but that was a snowy day). This doesn't look good.
The St Conleth's association blame the FSSP. I don't believe this is fair. The FSSP came originally at the St Conleth's group's invitation. At some point the leadership of the St Conleth's group developed an animus towards the FSSP, and this was represented in an online scrap on this very thread between Monkeyman and Braveheart. I also write this with care as I believe the association also took exception to some of my contributions. I am sorry if this is the case, but I don't believe that the association have handled matters in Newbridge very well.
I should state that the Newbridge Mass is a diocesan provision and that it is not exclusively focussed on Newbridge and to this extent I will not put the blame on the St Conleth's group. There are petitioners for the traditional Mass in Carlow too who are refusing to go as they want the Mass in Carlow but they don't see that by not attending Newbridge they are weakening rather than strengthening their case for Mass in Carlow, especially as some of them are passing Newbridge on the way to St John's, Mounttown Road.
I know another factor in the equation was that the curate in Ballymany Chapel, Newbridge, has a brother who is a regular attender of the SSPX, but I am not sure how much support the Mass has had from this quarter.
Next month is the last of the six months the bishop has financed. It will be up to the FSSP and the congregation between them to decide where they go from here. If it comes to an end, and people in the diocese aren't satisfied, Bishop Moriarity will be able to say that he tried everything.
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Post by hibernicus on Feb 19, 2009 17:14:03 GMT
"I don't believe any Irish bishop has shown this sort of interest in the mass in their diocese". This I think is a bit unfair to Bishop Hegarty of Derry.
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Post by eircomnet on Feb 19, 2009 22:13:57 GMT
I don't know anything about the Kildare situation but what I do know is that there has to be a promotional effort to highlight the Mass as people often are unaware . I know that when the Kilkenny group arranged a once off Latin Mass in the local Friary there was an attendance of between 150 - 200, but it involved a lot of work including posters & newspaper articles and possibly radio exposure.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Feb 25, 2009 9:53:29 GMT
I don't know anything about the Kildare situation but what I do know is that there has to be a promotional effort to highlight the Mass as people often are unaware . I know that when the Kilkenny group arranged a once off Latin Mass in the local Friary there was an attendance of between 150 - 200, but it involved a lot of work including posters & newspaper articles and possibly radio exposure. Here we have the problem. It is clear there are people on the ground in the diocese, but none of them are taking responsibility. The St Conleth's Association is in Newbridge. They are not happy because the bishop has not given the Mass under their terms. Which is ironic since an historical gripe the association had with the LMSI was that the LMSI took responsibility for the Mass in various dioceses begining with Limerick and the St Conleth's Association insisted that the matter was up to the Bishop. Now the bishop has taken the initiative, but they are not happy. Equally, there is a group in Carlow who are not happy because the Mass is not in Carlow. But from what I know of the Carlow people, they don't want to be co-operative or helpful; they want Cardinal Hoyos to humiliate the Bishop by ordering him to institute the trad Mass in Carlow cathedral. That isn't going to happen unless they can show that they have exhausted all means of getting the TLM in the diocese. And they clearly haven't, when they are ignoring a Mass in Newbridge.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Feb 25, 2009 9:54:23 GMT
"I don't believe any Irish bishop has shown this sort of interest in the mass in their diocese". This I think is a bit unfair to Bishop Hegarty of Derry. Correct. Bishop Hegarty is without contest the Irish bishop with most interest in the Mass.
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Post by Beinidict Ó Niaidh on Apr 23, 2009 11:38:37 GMT
Rumour has it the FSSP are about to pull out of Newbridge. Anyone know anything about this?
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Apr 24, 2009 9:16:22 GMT
As far as I'm aware, there is no change to the situation in Newbridge. Though I am not sure commentary on the St Conleth's Heritage Association blog is helping the matter.
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Post by hibernicus on Sept 3, 2009 14:59:08 GMT
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Sept 9, 2009 13:41:18 GMT
St Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association are running with an agenda. The blog points out what the attendance in, differentiating who is local (how local? Parish? County? Diocese? This is not specified) and who is from outside. It juxtaposes this with the figures they get at their approximately monthly Masses, usually in assorted venues up and down the same diocese, which are uniformly higher.
What they fail to contextualise is that an occasional Mass often attracts more people than a regular Mass, that people are never too quick to change their Sunday Mass going patterns to something that is less than every week, that Newbridge is comparatively small (catchment is irrelevant here) and many other reasons. The point that the Association would attract a better crowd than the FSSP is at best unproven.
The sad part of this, is that this is bigger than Newbridge or the Kildare & Leighlin diocese. One doesn't act in opposition to the largest papally chartered traditional institute for the crack. Or for anything other than the most serious reasons. There have been some localised problems overseas with individual FSSP priests, but the business in Newbridge is not about theological quirks. Yet it might end any prospect of the FSSP coming permanently to Ireland. Thankfully, the apostolate in Newbridge is continuing.
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Post by Askel McThurkill on Sept 10, 2009 11:39:00 GMT
Al,
Will you for God's sake ignore the St Conleth's CHA? He's only looking for attention.
Askel.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Sept 11, 2009 12:52:40 GMT
Al, Will you for God's sake ignore the St Conleth's CHA? He's only looking for attention. Askel. You probably have a point there, Askel.
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