“We shall return,” a buoyant Fr Glen Tattersall said after the final traditional Latin Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne last night. Source: The Australian.
The cathedral was packed with a crowd of 850 people, every pew from the front the back and across the cathedral transepts were taken.
They came in business suits, in strollers, on trams, and in fluoro tradie gear. Most were rugged up in heavy coats against the Melbourne winter, which did not dim the spirit of the cathedral lit with candlelight and optimism.
Melbourne Archbishop Peter A Comensoli sat in the sanctuary, but did not address the congregation.
Acting on an edict from the Vatican, Archbishop Comensoli has been forced to stop the popular Mass at the cathedral, which has been held weekly since 2011.
Many of the people said they sometimes went to the new Mass in English, but preferred the traditional Mass for the greater transcendence it offered.
In his sermon, Fr Tattersall recalled the words of the then-Bishop George Pell, who was the auxiliary bishop of Melbourne, when he celebrated the traditional Latin Mass in St Patrick’s in June 1992.
“It was the first traditional Mass celebrated by a bishop in an Australian cathedral since 1970,” Fr Tattersall said.
In that memorable sermon, he said, Bishop Pell acknowledged the widespread interest in the Mass.
“Bishop Pell said: ‘This is a precious inheritance; it is not ours to improve or to prune. It is the source of faith and repentance, the source of everlasting renewal. To the extent that we depart from this central tradition of worship and conversion, that we damage or pollute this core, we are weakened and enfeebled’.”
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Hundreds take part in final Latin Mass at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral (By Tess Livingstone, The Australian)
