Archbishop McMahon: "No more requests for this faculty will be granted"

The Archbishop of Liverpool, Malcolm McMahon (aged 72) has long been touted in some circles as a Traditionalist.

This may be because he invited the FSSP (Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter see here) to Warrington and had carried out ordinations in the Traditional Rite.

It may be because he likes dressing up in the clobber:


Whatever the reason, I have been very suspicious. He has always struck me as wonky. He has made some very peculiar comments about education, stating that he wants "age-appropriate sex education in all our schools" & said pregnant, unmarried teachers would be "exciting for the children". This is in direct contradiction to Vatican guidelines The Truth & Meaning of Human Sexuality which plainly teaches that it is wrong to intrude on children's natural innocence, and that sex education should not be introduced at primary school level. McMahon was the instigator, gate keeper and later the defender of LGBT infiltration of the Catholic Education Service when they used documents directly copied from LGBT propaganda organisations to publish spurious guidelines on "biphobic bullying". He serves as Chair of the Department of Education and Formation of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, Chair of the Catholic Education Service

He was also notoriously unhelpful when Alder Hey hospital sought to over ride the wishes of Alfie Evans parents and kill him.

The Archdiocese of Liverpool was in a pretty sorry state when he became Archbishop. But McMahon has done nothing to halt the decline and it is difficult to see how these restrictions will do anything about the 90% lapsation rate or for the remaining 10% who do practice but are mostly over 50. The truth is that the FSSP in Warrington are an oasis in the desert that is the Archdiocese of Liverpool. Now McMahon is strangling that oasis.

McMahon has now issued an officious and cold (though, to be fair, faithful to the Pope's intended aim) instruction on the Pope's horrendous Moto proprio, Traditiones custodes.



This instruction now means that only three named priests can licitly offer the old Mass publicly. 

++McMahon's purported restriction on private Masses is itself illicit, since he lacks the proper authority to impose such a restriction. The actions of a self important bully.

Is this McMahon's manifesto for the Archbishopric of Westminster?

Sadly it looks like this is becoming the line for English & Welsh bishops. Many of us were pleased by the initial pastoral tone of the bishop's response, but this increasingly seem to have been merely a holding message...Now we are seeing the true modernist colours of our pastors, all eager to please Pope Francis irrespective of whether he talks sense or not. And irrespective of the damage wrought to priests and communities.

The thing is, this is only going to get worse. The letter follows the spirit of the Motu proprio and I hear this is what Arthur Roache is asking bishops to do.

Comments

  1. Do you know what will happen to the Shrine of St walburge, Preston?

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  2. Do you know what will happen to the church of st walburge, Preston?

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  3. Any info on the Church of St Walburge, Preston? Will that also be suppressed?

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    1. No not yet Vincent. That's Lancashire so a different bishop (Paul Swarbrick). We'll have to wait and see if this trend develops into a CBEW policy. Fundamentally you can see that he is basically following the Pope's direction.

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    2. I understand. However is not Preston part of the Liverpool archdiocese? The decree mentions different geographical areas of Liverpool so I thought Lancashire would be covered by that.

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    3. A way round might be to off not to stick to the letter of the 1962 rubrics. No one could object to the new lectionary. Indedd , recently when the new lectionary included the Johannine eucharistic discourse in John Ch 6, the EF does not include that at all. A compromise could allow communion in the hand and on the tongue at all masses as sometimes either can be refused.Would the Archbishop allow a reform of the reform, a hybrid mass. Such would address the flaws in both the EF and OF. He is right to insist that people accept the validity of the EF and the teachings of Vatican I and II.

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  4. St. Walburge's and English Martyrs's in Preston are in Lancaster Diocese and not Liverpool. I'm reliably informed that the Bishop of Lancaster, Paul Swarbrick is very supportive of the ICKSP in Lancaster. Before the ICKSP arrived, Fr. Paul Swarbrick, as he then was, was parish priest of Sacred Heart and St. Walburge's so he knows the church and parish. It will be interesting to see how he handles his diocesan priests but at the moment he's just carrying on as usual.

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  5. Is not Preston not part of the Liverpool archdiocese? And there part of the geographical region of the diocese?

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    1. No, see: https://www.lancasterdiocese.org.uk/our-people-places/parishes-and-their-churcheschapels/

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  6. Robert, are you serious? Where have you been? Crumbs.

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  7. So have some masses been suppressed in Liverpool or is this just the status quo remaining.

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    1. It means that only three named priests can licitly offer the old Mass publicly in the Archdiocese.

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    2. Existing Masses have been allowed to continue, although permission is needed to change any times or days. It means that other priests, (and there are a number of them) and myself, who offered the TLM on special occasions or occasionally cannot now do so.

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  8. Yes I would say so. Pope Francis has confirmed that Traditiones custodes doesn't apply to the FSSP. See my blog post here This is despite Archbishop McMahon's eagerness to follow Arthur Roche in clamping down on the Traditional Latin Mass.

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  9. Actually I have just posted on that very issue here
    I don't think McMahon particularly wanted the FSSP in his Archdiocese, I think their inclusion is more about the shortage of priests and the need to keep parishes in certain areas. I think the same can be said of bishop Egan, especially when one considers his attitude towards the Marian Franciscans in Gosport, see this post.
    It's appears that Archbishop Arthur Roche over stepped the mark with Traditiones custodes and has fallen out of favour with the Holy Father who has ridden back on the initial draconian document. I think we are OK for now. Steady as she goes!

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  10. The River Ribble is the boundary between Lancaster Diocese and The Archdiocese of Liverpool. North if The Ribble is Preston and that's in Lancaster. Lancaster Diocese was only created about 100 years ago and the Lancashire part of it was in Liverpool before that. Cumberland and Westmoreland were in Hexham Diocese. Lancaster Diocese is Lancashire North of The Ribble and Cumberland and Westmoreland. Lancaster, Liverpool and Salford Dioceses all border each other. I can imagine they might be merged in the future as numbers of practising Catholics continues to fall. Liverpool was once the smallest Diocese but the largest by population. As with Salford and Lancaster, it's Catholic population was comprised of Recusant Lancashire Catholics and those of Irish immigrant ancestry, plus some of Italian ancestry. A combination if Mass lapsation, falling birth-rate and emigration from The Diocese has left Thd Archdiocese with a much smaller population than at the time The Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ The King was opened in 1967. When + Worlock became Archbishop of Liverpool in 1976, on thd death of + Andrew Beck, 45% of baptised Catholics attended weekly Sunday Mass. By the time Worlock passed away in 1996, that had slumped to 19%. This fall even made the regional BBC Northwest News. The fall continued under + Kelly and now only around 10%, or 50,000, baptised Catholics now practise. Parishes are merging with some closing. The Benedictines of Ampleforth once had a large presence in South and Central Lancashire between The Ribble and The Mersey which goes back to before Ampleforth was built. In fact, theh had planned to have their Abbey in Lancashire until they were given thd land ag Ampleforth. The Ampleforth Benedictinez have pulled out of Warrington, Brownedge St. Mary's and recently they pulled out of St. Mary's in Leyland. Douai also has 2 parishes in Lancashire at Ormskirk and Scarisbrick. Catholic Lancashire is no more. Salford Diocese has gone the same way as Liverpool.

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  11. Mcmahon left the Nottingham diocese under a cloud. A faithful and longstanding head teacher was 'thrown under a bus' by him and his cohort of careerist clergymen.

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