A reader of Rorate Caeli from Tallahassee has sent us the following message:
I am writing today to inform you of our group, tentatively going under the name "Tallahassee Latin Mass Society", and of our efforts to establish the Traditional Latin Mass here in the Eastern Deanery of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee.
We began to organize the TLM back in 2008 with the apparent blessing of our bishop, John Ricard, who gave it over to my parish pastor for his approval. He did so, and we had a very successful TLM in which over 400 people attended (this was June 2008). Our pastor himself did not do the TLM (it was done by a priest who came in from Pensacola, three hours drive away), but he allowed it to be held at the parish. We then had a very successful TLM High Mass in September 2008 in which over 300 people showed up.
Since then, though, we have been struggling. After our initial successes, the diocese and the parish suddenly became very indifferent towards the desire to establish regularly scheduled TLM's. My pastor did allow them to be held four times a year, but then they would be scheduled on Sundays when other things would be held so that attendance was practically guaranteed to be down. As well, we haven't had a regular priest to offer the TLM despite requests to the chancery to help us out here. We have had a young priest from a nearby parish do our TLM's held in June 2009, October 2009, and January 2010. Since then he has been "unavailable". Our further requests to the chancery have been met with "we need to prioritize other things". Though of course we see the value of other things and the limited resources of our diocese, does this mean that we who have shown our numbers and commitment to the Traditional Latin Mass do not have any standing in the diocese at all?
We recently had a very generous offer from a priest in the FSSP to come to Tallahassee and do a weekend Latin Mass Conference, but my pastor shot it down as "not appropriate". We really are not asking for much, just a consistent, regularly scheduled Traditional Latin Mass in a city where many have shown they truly need it. We have plenty of priests in Tallahassee, including retired ones. Would not one learn or refresh their skills on the TLM and offer it? Apparently not.
We are getting the strong impression that the diocese wanted us to fail in the first place, but when we showed success they turned cold. I do know that there is anti-TLM sentiment in the chancery, and Bishop Ricard personally is not supportive of the TLM at all. At this point, we are in a losing battle, and I worry that what we started so well will just die off due to a lack of availability and consistency. It would be great if Rorate Caeli readers could keep us in prayer and support as we "soldier on" and pray that in time we will be like the persistent widow in the parable, who finally gets the judge to give in just to have some peace! God bless you all.
Sincerely yours in Christ our Saviour,
Stephen Mozier
