The Diocese of San Angelo will expand its Traditional Latin Mass offerings from August 30 with a monthly Mass at a church in Midland, Texas, the diocese announced on Thursday, August 6.
“Motivated by the salvation of souls, Bishop Sis announces that the Traditional Latin Mass, 1962 Missal will be offered beginning Sunday, August 30, and thereafter on the last Sunday of each month,” said a graphic shared on social media by Fr Ryan Rojo, the diocese’s director of vocations and seminarians.
The Diocese of San Angelo, Texas, consists of 29 counties in central and west Texas. It is bordered by the Diocese of El Paso to the west, the Archdiocese of San Antonio to the south, the Diocese of Austin to the east, the Diocese of Fort Worth to the north-east and the Diocese of Lubbock to the north.
The monthly Mass will be celebrated at 3pm in the Holy Family Chapel at St Ann’s Church, something Rojo hopes will enable people from the western part of the state, as well as south-eastern New Mexico, to attend.
“This is just a beginning as the diocese discerns a path forward to provide for our people,” Rojo said, adding that “other priests of the diocese will be learning the Mass in the weeks and months ahead”.
The Diocese of San Angelo has a weekly celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass at St Mary of Scotland Catholic Church in San Angelo, which is located more than 100 miles from Midland. This will not change.
On X, users pointed out that the location of the new monthly Latin Mass is a short distance from an SSPX chapel. That chapel also celebrates the Latin Mass monthly because of priestly availability, according to its website.
It was not immediately clear whether the chapel in Midland celebrates Mass on the last weekend of the month, as no Mass dates or times are listed on its website.
Following the July 1 illicit consecrations of four men as bishops in the SSPX, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith declared that the four newly consecrated bishops and the two consecrating bishops had incurred automatic excommunication.
Bishops throughout the United States have requested that the faithful not attend SSPX Masses and instead attend diocesan Masses.
