The Catholic church in which the Victorian mystic Teresa Higginson was said to have received rapturous visions of the Crucifixion is threatened with closure after the archdiocese withdrew its support for the provision of the Latin Mass there.
The Archdiocese of Liverpool has announced that either St Mary’s, Wigan, or nearby St John’s Church will close.
Both churches are Grade II-listed and pre-date the Catholic Emancipation of the 1829, with St Mary’s built in the neo-Gothic style in 1818 and St John’s in the neo-Classical style a year later.
St Mary’s is the church where <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/the-wigan-teacher-who-bore-the-stigmata/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Higginson worshipped at a time in her life when she was being oppressed by Devil and receiving divine apparitions.</mark></a>
St John’s, a former church of Jesuits who ran a mission in the Lancashire town between 1686 and 1933, is acknowledged as one of the most beautiful Catholic churches in the England and was included in <em>Fifty Catholic Churches to See Before You Die</em>, the acclaimed 2020 book by Elena Curti.
The future of both churches, each of which are extremely well attended by local Catholics and produce disproportionate vocations for the archdiocese, was thrown into crisis earlier this year with the death of Fr John Johnson, the parish priest of St Mary’s.
St John’s has already been clustered with neighbouring parishes of St Patrick’s and St William’s, so a solution to keeping St Mary’s open was sought by converting it into a shrine church under the custody of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest.
The canons, who celebrate the liturgy exclusively in the Tridentine rite, came out twice a week from New Brighton, the Wirral, on a provisional basis to offer Mass and confessions.
There was no local opposition to the Masses, which were well attended, attracting worshippers not only from Wigan but from the surrounding towns, but the archdiocese decided however that they would not continue and that the closure of one of the churches was a preferable solution to the shortage of priests.
Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool issued a decree in June merging the parish of St Mary with St William’s, which incorporates St John’s, St Patrick’s and St William’s, under the care of Fr Ian O’Shea.
Then it was announced at the weekend that one of the two historic churches must close and that parishioners of each church will be invited to make representations to the archdiocese about why their church must stay open.
A statement read out at Masses said: “As we prepare for the future, aware of the great heritage that has been passed to us, it has been decided that, with the two churches of St Mary and St John being so close together, only one church should remain in sacred use.
“So along with St Patrick’s, St William’s Parish will have two churches. We will begin a process of consultation to decide which of St Mary’s or St John’s (and their associated buildings) should be closed.”
St Mary’s is well known because of its connection with Higginson, who went to Mass there daily.
In the biography, <em>Teresa Helena Higginson</em>, author Lady Cecil Kerr dedicates several early chapters to the mystical phenomena experienced by the visionary when she was teaching at the adjacent primary school.
One chapter, entitled “St Mary’s, Wigan”, tells of how Higginson was attacked by the Devil, was tempted by every kind of sin, and received numerous divine apparitions. When she was making the Stations of the Cross in St Mary’s, Higginson on one occasion went into a state of ecstasy.
Before she left Wigan, Higginson received the stigmata and the mystical espousal of a bride of Christ.
The expulsion of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest came amid rumours of a fresh crackdown by the Vatican on access to the Latin Mass.
This prompted nearly 50 prominent British figures of culture, academia and politics to last month sign a letter to the Times appealing for continued access.
The letter echoes the sentiments of the famous “Agatha Christie letter” of 1971, which was signed by leading cultural figures of that time and which persuaded Pope St Paul VI to grant an indult permitting the celebration of the pre-conciliar rite in certain circumstances.
The new letter hails the ancient Mass as a valuable cultural artefact, “a cathedral of text and gesture” and an irreplaceable spiritual treasure, with a unique ability to “encourage silence and contemplation”.
It was organised by Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan, a patron of the Latin Mass Society, and signed by Lord Moore of Etchington (Charles Moore), a fellow patron, former newspaper editor and a high-profile convert to the Catholic faith.
The letter says: “On July 6, 1971, <em>The Times </em>printed an appeal to Pope Paul VI in defence of the Latin Mass signed by Catholic and non-Catholic artists and writers, including Agatha Christie, Graham Greene and Yehudi Menuhin.
“This became known as the ‘Agatha Christie letter’ because it was reportedly her name that prompted the Pope to issue an indult, or permission, for celebration of the Latin Mass in England and Wales. The letter argued that ‘the rite in question, in its magnificent Latin text, has also inspired priceless achievements ... by poets, philosophers, musicians, architects, painters and sculptors in all countries and epochs. Thus, it belongs to universal culture’.
“Recently there have been worrying reports from Rome that the Latin Mass is to be banished from nearly every Catholic church. This is a painful and confusing prospect, especially for the growing number of young Catholics whose faith has been nurtured by it. The traditional liturgy is a ‘cathedral’ of text and gesture, developing as those venerable buildings did over many centuries. Not everyone appreciates its value and that is fine; but to destroy it seems an unnecessary and insensitive act in a world where history can all too easily slip away forgotten. The old rite's ability to encourage silence and contemplation is a treasure not easily replicated, and, when gone, impossible to reconstruct. This appeal, like its predecessor, is ‘entirely ecumenical and non-political’. The signatories include Catholics and non-Catholics, believers and non-believers. We implore the Holy See to reconsider any further restriction of access to this magnificent spiritual and cultural heritage.”
The letter was signed by Robert Agostinelli; Lord Alton of Liverpool; Lord Bailey of Paddington; Lord Bamford; Lord Berkeley of Knighton; Sophie Bevan; Ian Bostridge; Nina Campbell; Meghan Cassidy; Sir Nicholas Coleridge; Dame Imogen Cooper; Lord Fellowes of West Stafford; Sir Rocco Forte; Lady Antonia Fraser; Martin Fuller; Lady Getty; John Gilhooly; Dame Jane Glover; Michael Gove; Susan Hampshire; Lord Hesketh; Tom Holland; Sir Stephen Hough; Tristram Hunt; Steven Isserlis; Bianca Jagger; Igor Levit; Lord Lloyd-Webber; Julian Lloyd Webber; Dame Felicity Lott; Sir James MacMillan; Princess Michael of Kent; Baroness Monckton of Dallington Forest; Lord Moore of Etchingham; Fraser Nelson; Alex Polizzi; Mishka Rushdie Momen; Sir Andras Schiff; Lord Skidelsky; Lord Smith of Finsbury; Sir Paul Smith; Rory Stewart; Lord Stirrup; Dame Kiri Te Kanawa; Dame Mitsuko Uchida; Ryan Wigglesworth; AN Wilson and Adam Zamoyski.
The Agatha Christie letter of 1971 was signed by 105 intellectuals, musicians, politicians, and cultural figures.
They argued that the Latin Mass has “inspired a host of priceless achievements in the arts - not only mystical works, but works by poets, philosophers, musicians, architects, painters and sculptors in all countries and epochs”.
“Thus, it belongs to universal culture as well as to churchmen and formal Christians,” their letter said.
Signatories included the Controller of Radio 3, the Director of the National Gallery, a former Director of Music at Westminster Cathedral, two Anglican bishops, the philosopher Iris Murdoch, the sculptress Barbara Hepworth, the soprano Joan Sutherland, the novelist Robert Graves, and many others. An earlier petition, in 1966, had been signed by Benjamin Britten and W.H. Auden; a later petition, in 2007, was signed by Franco Zeffirelli and René Girard.
They persuaded Pope St Paul to allow the traditional Latin Mass to be celebrated at first only in England and Wales, but permission was extended to the whole world in 1984.
Restrictions were fully lifted by<em> Summorum Pontificum</em>, the 2007<em> motu proprio</em> of Pope Benedict XVI but were partially reimposed by Pope Francis <em>Traditionis Custodes</em>, his <em>motu proprio</em> of July 2021.
Two further waves of restrictions followed, leading to bishops cancelling the Old Rite Mass in parish churches all over the world.
Last year, Pope Francis explained that the restrictions were necessary to prevent the Old Rite from being misused “in an ideological way”.
The Pontiff told a group of fellow Jesuits in Hungary that he was afraid of the rise of ideological “restorationism”, which he believed was a form of indietrismo, an Italian word meaning “backwardness”, agitating against the reforms of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s.
Francis said the trend toward restorationism also ran counter to the intentions of Pope St John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI when they liberated the traditional form of the Latin Mass from restrictions imposed after the Council.
“Going backwards does not preserve life, ever,” he said. “The danger today is indietrismo, the reaction against the modern. It is a nostalgic disease.”
According to news sources, new restrictions are being planned because of the resistance in the Church to Traditionis Custodes and the rescripts, with young people in particular drawn in increasing numbers to Mass in the traditional rite, rendering the actions to suppress the Old Rite effectively defunct.
