If you are a London priest – in either Westminster or Southwark – you will see us at the Chrism Mass as you walk in procession to the Cathedral. We will be there with our placard and our thank-you cards, and in recent years have come to be regarded by many of the clergy as a standard part of the proceedings.
“Thank you to our priests” says the placard, and we hand out small holy pictures with a thank-you message from Catholic women.
It began in Southwark some years ago, the independent initiative of a small group of us including Mac - a teacher - and myself. We were distressed by seeing at St George's Cathedral a group of people calling for women's ordination. On the one day in the year when priests gather to affirm their consecrated service to the Church, and receive the sacred oils which are central to their ministry, it seemed just so wrong that they were subjected to any form of campaigning.
