The Tablet is at it again. Fr Ray Blake has spotted the following onslaught on Bishop Egan, who, as he says, is not exactly one of the Tablet’s favourite prelates. The headline is “Friars accused of taking Portsmouth parish back in time”:
Parishioners at a church in Portsmouth diocese say they have been driven out by an order of traditionalist Franciscans who have been put in charge. "The Bishop of Portsmouth Philip Egan handed over St Mary’s, Gosport, to the Franciscans of the Immaculate in June. Since then, parishioners say people are required to kneel to receive communion and women asked to cover their heads at Mass. "The order attracted controversy in 2013 when Pope Francis dissolved its General Council and forbade the friars to celebrate Mass in the Extraordinary Form without permission. However the friars celebrate Mass in the old rite six days a week at St Mary’s. "Dr Amanda Field, a convert to Catholicism, says she has stopped attending the church after six years. 'We used to have something really special here. The church was packed; people had to stand in the porch. But since the friars came we’ve been plunged back into the days before Vatican II,' said Dr Field.
