Obligation

I was unable to attend the Extraordinary Form today, although I shall be able to make it for Corpus Christi. We don't all live in London, you know? And in any case, we should not have to seek out the Extraordinary Form merely in order to keep the Ascension on the Biblical day, 40 days after Easter.

There are, however, those in England who will still be keeping it on the same day as the Pope. In the Church of England. Quite a senior member of which once asked me in all seriousness whether or not we were still keeping Christmas Day on 25th December rather than moving it to the nearest Sunday. If I miss anything about the Church of England, then it is the way in which it would never do anything as crass or as philistine as this.

We had rather hoped for a reversal when Archbishop Nichols was installed on the real Ascension Day. So, where is it? Meanwhile, liberals like ecumenism. Let them do the ecumenical thing by doing the Ultramontane thing, restoring the Epiphany and Ascension Day, and with them Corpus Christi, to their proper days, as kept both by our separated brethren and by our Holy Father.