REGINA | 77
REGINA: Yes, tell us about the ordinations.
FR DE MALLERAY: We at St Mary’s Warrington are very grateful to our local ordinary, Archbishop Malcolm McMahon O.P., for having ordained two priests for our Fraternity at St Mary’s Shrine, last 17 June. For the first time in fifty years, the ceremony was performed according to the traditional Latin rite.
REGINA: You had a number of British and American FSSP priests there
as well.
FR DE MALLERAY: Yes, Fr Josef Bisig, Rector of our American seminary in Nebraska, and one of the main founders of our Fraternity 29 years ago, was the Assistant Priest to the Archbishop. Fr Matthew McCarthy served as Subdeacon. Although he has worked as pastor at our parish in Atlanta and now in Lincoln, Fr McCarthy is an Englishman who grew up in Wigan, fifteen minutes north from Warrington. Fr Simon Harkins, currently serving as Bursar to our North American District, is also one of our UK vocations (from Scotland) and acted as Deacon of Honour during the ordinations. More of our British (and American) seminarians served in various capacities.
REGINA: Is this historic?
FR DE MALLERAY: In June 1968, Pope Paul VI approved a new rite of priestly ordination. But already in June 1967, the very first priestly ordinations in the freshly consecrated metropolitan cathedral of Liverpool took place in English. Thus, for half a century, there hadn’t been in the Liverpool Archdiocese (and probably neither across England) a traditional ordination in the Latin rite. In addition to the objective grace of two new Catholic priests, these ordinations provided Catholics in England with an eloquent signal. It showed 1) that EF communities produce vocations and 2) that the hierarchy supports it.
REGINA: Does your hierarchy support this?
FR DE MALLERAY: Our local ordinary, Archbishop Malcolm Mc Mahon, O.P.
is generously supportive. Within one month, he conferred the sacraments in the extraordinary form at St Mary’s twice: confirmation and holy orders.
REGINA: Do you detect a sea change in the thinking of some of the English Catholic hierarchy?
FR DE MALLERAY: Like many bishops in England and in Europe, our Bishop buries many more priests each year than he ordains. In Warrington (like everywhere in the country), the number of priests in active ministry diminishes, leading to the amalgamating of parishes. In each local church, fewer Holy Masses are offered, and even less confessions heard.