A Catholic priest has expressed surprise at the Archbishop of Westminster’s decision to scrap gay-friendly masses at a Soho church.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols said the fortnightly “Soho Masses” were not compatible with the Church’s teaching on sexuality. But Canon Pat Browne of Pimlico’s Holy Apostles’ Catholic Church, said the issue had been discussed before the services were created five years ago.
Canon Browne, who has addressed the gatherings at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Warwick Street, said: “I had not conceived of something like this happening.” The Soho Masses are “welcoming and open to all Catholics, with an active fellowship of many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Catholics”.
Archbishop Nichols said “people with same-sex attraction” would continue to receive pastoral care, but added the moral teaching of the Church was that “our sexual faculty” should be for the procreation of human life within marriage.
