It was only the second time since the Reformation of the 16th century that a Mass has been celebrated at the abbey, formerly a Benedictine foundation dating back almost a thousand years.
The Mass was arranged by the Shrewsbury deanery with the permission of the Church of England and was celebrated by the Rt Rev. Mark Davies, the Bishop of Shrewsbury.
The abbey was full to capacity as hundreds of local Catholics and about a dozen priests turned out for the event on a blazing Saturday afternoon.
The Mass began with the singing of the Te Deum, in which the congregation asked for the intercession of such saints as St Winefride, whose tomb used to lie in the abbey, and such local martyrs as the Elizabethans Blessed Robert Johnson and Blessed Richard Martin.
In his homily, Bishop Davies recalled the example and inspiration of the saints.Bishop Davies said: “We have come together as part of this year-long celebration to the historic Abbey Church of Shrewsbury where we are reminded of the many, what the Book of the Apocalypse calls ‘a huge number impossible to count’ who have walked this path of faith before us.
“The Letter to the Hebrews describes them as ‘a great cloud of witnesses’ encouraging us on every side.
“At a moment when we hear voices say Christianity stands on the wrong side of history the eloquent silence of these stones, which have witnessed here so many crises and calamities in England’s history, remind us of the side of history on which we wish to forever stand.
“As we declare at the end of this Mass: with all the saints! The great saints of our history and those men and women of whom nothing is remembered except the witness of their faith which they left as an inheritance for us.”
Bishop Davies also spoke of the present situation of Church and noted the rapid pace of secularisation which may leave Christians in a minority by the end of the decade.
He
said this represented “one of the most momentous changes in our history
since the missionaries sent by Pope Gregory arrived on the coast of
Kent in the Spring of 597 AD”.“However, I wish to suggest today in this Abbey Church so bound-up with our long Christian story this may not be an entirely negative development,” the Bishop continued.
“It may serve to dispel ambiguities and will surely require of Christians a greater clarity in both our teaching and our witness.
“As Catholics we speak of this situation as demanding nothing less than a ‘new evangelisation’, a new proclamation of the Gospel in our time. It is ‘new’ because we face a new and changed situation.
“It was surely with this in mind that our Emeritus Pope Benedict called for the Year of Faith we are now celebrating.”
He added: “This Year is to be an invitation, in Pope Benedict’s own words, to ‘rediscover the joy of believing and enthusiasm in communicating the faith’ and ‘to profess the faith in fullness and with a renewed conviction’.
“This is surely what is needed as we stand at a crossroads, a true crisis in our history.”
The congregation was first welcomed into the abbey by the Rev. Paul Firmin, the vicar of Shrewsbury Abbey and St Peter’s, who described them as “my brothers and sisters in Christ”.
“I am absolutely delighted to welcome you here today,” he said. “I understand that this may be the second Roman Catholic Mass since the Reformation.
“That makes it about one every 200 years,” he joked. “I hope it won’t be 200 years to the next one – I sure we can arrange that.”
Shrewsbury Abbey was founded in 1083 and by the early 16th century was one of the most wealthy and important of more than 600 monasteries throughout the country, and was ruled by a “mitred abbot” who also sat Parliament.
It was dissolved in 1540 by King Henry VIII and the shrine of St Winefride, today a patron of the Diocese of Shrewsbury, was desecrated.
Following improvements in ecumenical relations since the Second Vatican Council, Benedictine monks were about a decade ago permitted to celebrate Mass at the abbey for the first time since its dissolution.
(Photos by Simon Caldwell)
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