Can they or can’t they authorise a better Missal? And if they can, what’s stopping them? Two weeks ago, the retired bishop of Portsmouth, Crispian Hollis, wrote remorsefully to The Tablet, regretting his part in approving the Missal currently in use throughout the English-speaking world. “I am partly responsible for the appalling texts with which we have now been saddled. I am sorry!”

His letter has prompted another retired bishop, Thomas McMahon, the former Bishop of Brentwood, “to add my own mea culpa”.