Friars take 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 Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate in June. Since then, parishioners say ­people are required to kneel to receive communion and women are 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 parish website states that 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. But since the friars came we’ve been plunged back into the days before Vatican II.”

Jean Watson, who has been serving the parish as a catechist  for 30 years, also described a “reversion”, adding: “I was a child in the parish before Vatican II and it wasn’t even like this then.”

Bishop Egan has since said that another traditionalist order, the Sisters of Maria Stella Matutina, will reside at St Joseph’s, Grayshott, to help evangelise.

The friars and diocese declined to comment.