Rev. John Johnson retired from active ministry at the historic St Mary Church in Wigan, Archdiocese of Liverpool, at the end of 2023 for health reasons and died in April.
Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool invited the Roman Rite Institute of Christ the King to take over that church.
McMahon has a reputation of being rather friendly towards the Mass and has already celebrated it himself.
But recently, the Archbishop's invitation came to an abrupt end. At the Mass on 7 July, Canon Cristofoli of the Institute said that he had been told the day before that it would be the final Mass.
He explained that the archdiocese had decided not to hand over the pastoral care to the Institute because of unspecified "financial considerations".
The Institute had offered to buy the church and a house in Wigan for the priests to live in: "This offer has been rejected by the trustees of the archdiocese."
A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Liverpool added: "Archbishop Malcolm has written to the Institute …More