Downham Market

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        • UF Downham

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          23 Archive Record results for Downham Market

          23 results directly related Exclude narrower terms
          GB ARCHON 2913 DEA-05-01-02-03-10 · Part · 16 March 1976
          Part of Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA)

          side 1: "A Warning / from / Peter Simple / of the Daily Telegraph / and an Amplification"
          side 2: Article "Sign" by Peter Simple, reproduced from the Daily Telegraph, 16 March 1976
          sides 3/4: "An amplification - from one of the faithful" by Margaret S Kenworthy-Browne

          Unknown
          GB ARCHON 2913 DEA-05-01-02-01-64 · Item · 28 August 1975
          Part of Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA)

          Suggest Canons Burditt and Frost and Frs Philpot and Wace for Commission on the division of the [Northampton] Diocese.
          Downham Market is an issue on which we must stand - "whatever the personal holiness of Ossie (and God alone is the Judge here), he is corrupting a holy thing - and this is the hidden evil." Unwavering leadership is required. Confront Ossie with the obedience he owes, and, that the Pope has formally specified the circumstances in which the rite may be celebrated.
          Tony Sketch should be given Downham market as his charge and say a publicised Mass there.
          PPs (Aldeburgh, Wymondham, Felixstowe and Ipswich) make change-over on October 7th.

          Clark, Alan Charles Rev DD (1919-2002)
          GB ARCHON 2913 DEA-05-01-02-01-133 · Item · 26 November 1975
          Part of Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA)

          Compliments slip: Bishop Secretary: "Tony Sketch will arrange to deliver the enclosed - less the carbon - to all Downham Market parishioners when he distributes his invitations to the real Mass."
          Page 1: letter to the congregation at Downham Market - explaining, now that the legal procedure is over, the sorrow he feels in acting against Fr Baker. Obedience to the Holy Father means accepting the changes away from the Tridentine Mass. Expects support for Fr Sketch. Notes of explanation included.
          Page 2-3: Notes headed: "1. Your present position"; "2. The Missal of Pope Paul VI"; "3. The Bishop's dealings with Fr Baker"

          Grant, Charles Alexander Rev LCL BA (1906-1989)
          GB ARCHON 2913 DEA-05-01-02-01-155 · Item · 9 August 1976
          Part of Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA)

          Fr Baker celebrated Mass without approval in the old rite without permission, preached without faculties and heard confession in an unsatisfactory conditions. He is reported as saying "Since the Vatican Council there have been two churches, one of which is the modern one with new doctrines, new morality, and new liturgy. They can't excommunicate me for that Church because I have never been a member of it. But I intend to remain loyal to the real Church." He has been on radio and television and has caused us considerable embarrassment. Can you persuade him to remain in Downham Market; he intends to return in the next month?

          Lindsay, Hugh Rev (1927-2009)
          GB ARCHON 2913 DEA-05-01-02-01-154 · Item · 4 August 1976
          Part of Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA)

          The proposed Mass has no ecclesiastical authority - Fr Baker has not sought leave to offer Mass. Despite Fr Baker's defence of following his conscience he has overlooked the duty to educate his conscience - cites a few examples. Bishop says the Fr Baker is neglecting the guidance of Vatican II, the Pope, Bishop Grant and Bishop Clark. Even if you cannot accept these, consider deeply before leaving Downham Market to share your personal difficulties in other dioceses.

          Lindsay, Hugh Rev (1927-2009)
          GB ARCHON 2913 DEA-05-01-02-01-156 · Item · 9 August 1976
          Part of Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA)

          Asks Fr Baker not to make another public trip to Newcastle. Fr Baker has broken Church laws. If Fr Baker has trouble with the Novus Ordo Mass then he can say it in the former rite "sine populo" [without the people] - do this and no more. Better to stay in Downham Market

          Lindsay, Hugh Rev (1927-2009)
          GB ARCHON 2913 DEA-05-01-02-01-136-1 · Part · 26 December 1975
          Part of Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA)

          Being discredited by the Bishop for a love of the same Mass that the Bishop professes. Repudiate charge of being disobedient as he is following his conscience. Challenges the four area covered by the Bishop's secretary (Fr Morgan). Ludicrous allegation that Fr Baker's ministry is harmful - much support, sympathy and encouragement received. Will continue to offer Mass in Downham Market.

          Baker, Oswald Charles Rev (1915-2004)
          GB ARCHON 2913 DEA-05-01-02-01-153 · Item · 30 July 1976
          Part of Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA)

          Invited to offer the traditional Mass at Newcastle on 8 August. Telling the Bishop through courtesy following his admonition in the Catholic Press. Questions whether his reasoning can be found by the Bishop to be at fault. Offers Fr Wathen's "The Great Sacrilege" as an non-refutable authority. Fr Baker is trying to do God's Will - not defiant to authority but does not agree with the requirement for blind and unquestioning obedience.

          Baker, Oswald Charles Rev (1915-2004)
          Fr Oswald Baker - Latin Mass
          GB ARCHON 2913 DEA-05-01-02 · Subseries · 1 January 1950 to 2 July 2004
          Part of Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA)

          This is a collection of documentation about Fr Baker during a period of his differences with his Bishops about the Church's approach to Latin Mass. This includes correspondence, newspaper clippings and published material.

          Fr Baker served as a curate at Luton, High Wycombe and Wymondham, Norfolk, before going to Downham Market in 1949. When the New Mass came out in 1969, Fr. Baker refused to say it and continued to offer exclusively the Tridentine Latin Mass as codified by Pope St. Pius V in 1570.

          In 1975 Father Baker was suspended by Bishop Charles Grant. Bishop Grant told Fr. Baker not to say Mass in his Church, so Fr. Baker said Mass in his Presbytery instead. With the help of donations a house was purchased for his presbytery and chapel, at 48 Bexwell Road, Downham Market, named the "St. Pius V Chapel". He said Mass there until his death in 2004.
          In 1984 he explained that the present Pope was "no more a Catholic than Ian Paisley - and no more a pope than Billy Graham". He added that "the new Mass is a sacrilegious parody of the true Mass: it is sinful to take part in it."

          Baker, Oswald Charles Rev (1915-2004)
          GB ARCHON 2913 DEA-05-01-02-02 · File · 20 August 1975 to 15 November 1976
          Part of Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA)

          EDP 20-8-1975; letter; Status of Downham: RC protest
          EDP 21-8-1975; article; Downham Catholics fight to keep traditional Mass; image of mother and daughter with petition for the Bishop
          Daily Mail 25-8-1975; article; Pop goes Communion with paper cups and Co-op sliced / The Watchfield faithful get a taste of religion; 3 images - Sister Verity on drums / Bishop of Reading on stage / Communion in a paper cup
          Guardian 25-8-1975; letters; Mass revolt of the Catholic Loyalists
          Unknown 26-8-1975; letter; Traditional Mass?
          Universe 29-8-1975; article; "Latin" priest supporters plan demo
          The Times 29-8-1975; article; Bishop's warning on priest offering Mass in old form
          Sunday Times 31-8-1975; article; Latin lovers in protest; image Fr Baker
          Sunday Times 31-8-1975; article; Priest in Mass protest; 2 images - procession; Fr Baker
          The Observer 31-8-1975; article; This rite is not wrong say 300 Catholics; image of Fr Baker
          The Times 3-9-1975; letters; The Tridentine Mass
          Catholic Herald 5-9-1975; letters; End wrangles of amateur liturgists
          Catholic Herald 5-9-1975; article; Latin protest "cause of distress"; cartoon
          EDP 8-9-1975; letters; Downham Mass
          EDP 9-9-1975; article; Priest "refuses to see Bishop"
          EDP 11-9-1975; letters; Downham Mass
          EDP 11-9-1975; article; Downham priest asked to resign
          Guardian 12-9-1975; article; Priest says he is hounded
          The Universe 12-9-1975; article; Fr Baker won't meet Bishop Grant
          The Times 12-9-1975; article; Canon law to be used to remove priest
          The Guardian 13-9-1975; article; Latin mass takes to road
          The Times 13-9-1975; letters; The traditional Mass
          The Sunday Telegraph 14-9-1975; letters; Tridentine Mass and Anglican voluntary principle
          The Guardian 14-9-1975; article; "Sensual" girls at Sunday mass
          The Times 15-9-1975; article; Knives are out for Roman Catholic dissidents
          EDP 17-9-1975; letters; Downham Mass
          The Times 18-9-1975; letter; The traditional Mass
          The Times 19-9-1975; article; Bishop's aim "to make new Mass available to all"
          The Times 19-9-1975; article; Bringing the church to the people
          EDP 19-9-1975; article; Bishop on his duty over the new mass
          The Times 22-9-1975; letters; The traditional Mass
          The Times 22-9-1975; letter; Catholic traditionalists
          EDP 22-9-1975; letter Downham Mass
          EDP 30-9-1975; letter Downham Mass
          Sunday Express 31-8-1975; article; Catholics march to banned Mass
          Unknown undated; letters; Downham Catholics and their Mass
          The Sunday Times 31-8-1975; article; Latin lovers in protest
          EDP 1-9-1975; article; Procession backs Downham priest; 2 images: procession; Fr Baker
          The Telegraph 1-9-1975; "Liturgical bingo" of English Mass
          Lynn News & Advertiser 2-9-1975; article; Catholics on the March / Downham Mass dispute grows; 2 images: procession; Fr Baker
          EDP 2-9-1975; letter; Downham Mass
          EDP 4-9-1975; letters; Downham Mass
          EDP 6-9-1975; letter; Downham Mass
          The Times 9-9-1975; re-typed by unknown; article; [Bishop Grant statement]
          Catholic Herald 12-9-1975; article; Guarding against false gods
          EDP 18-9-1975; letter; Downham Mass
          The Guardian 20-9-1975; [photocopy] article; Church militant
          EDP 23-9-1975; letter; Downham Mass
          The Times 26-9-1975; letter; The traditional Mass
          Catholic Herald 26-9-1975; article; Bishop Grant on Downham Market issue
          Lynn News & Advertiser 10-10-1975; letters; In support of Fr Baker / And against..
          The Telegraph 21-11-1975; [photocopy] article; Bad Marks for Latin
          Evening News 30-6-1976; article; Rebel priest opens centre for Mass in city
          The Journal 2-7-1976; article; Catholic Bishop hits at old Mass rebels; 2 images: Fr Baker; Bishop Clark
          Cambridge Evening News 9-7-1976; letter;
          EDP 17-7-1976; letter; Mass
          EDP 19-7-1976; letter; In reply to Fr Baker
          EDP 12-11-1976; article; Disused shop setting for Downham Mass
          EDP 14-7-1976; letter; Mass: rebel priest "follows ruling"
          EDP 15-11-1976; [reprint] article; Rebel Archbishop's "Woolies" mass; 2 images: Archbishop Lefebvre; Archbishop Lefebvre and Fr Baker

          Various
          GB ARCHON 2913 DEA-05-01-02-03-12 · Part · 19 September 1976
          Part of Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA)

          Redemptorist publication "Christian Encounter" - reverse page for local parish notes
          Page 1 - printed
          Page 2 - "Are Traditionalists disobedient? (concluded)" - traditional mass dates from 1570 - persistent challenges to legality of New Mass - even the Pope will not invoke it as a legal instrument - its introduction is visible a mistake.

          Baker, Oswald Charles Rev (1915-2004)
          GB ARCHON 2913 DEA-05-01-02-03-6 · Part · 3 August 1975
          Part of Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA)

          Redemptorist publication "Christian Encounter" - reverse page for local parish notes
          Page 1 - printed, but proper of Mass crossed out
          Page 2 - "Topic - Women's Dress in Church" - a description of the nature/style of dress for a woman at Mass.
          "Strictly and exclusively the complete unchanged traditional Catholic Latin Mass of St Pius V at Downham Market"

          Baker, Oswald Charles Rev (1915-2004)
          Obituary Fr Oswald Baker
          GB ARCHON 2913 MIS-01-40-2 · Part · 15 July 2004
          Part of Miscellaneous Deposits

          "Father Oswald Baker - Roman Catholic parish priest who became a rebel because he insisted on celebrating only the Tridentine Mass"
          Obituary Text:
          Father Oswald Baker
          Daily Telegraph, 12:03AM BST 15 Jul 2004
          Father Oswald Baker, who has died aged 89, attracted national attention in 1975 when he insisted on using only the traditional Tridentine Latin Mass in his Roman Catholic parish of Downham Market, Norfolk, instead of the new liturgy imposed following the Second Vatican Council.
          A significant number of priests was distinctly tepid about the pedestrian modern English substitute for the rite which had been introduced by Pope St Pius V in 1570; and some discreetly obtained permission to continue using the traditional Latin on the grounds that they were too old to change.
          But the authorities in Northampton diocese felt that they had to act against Baker because he declined to offer the new Mass in a rural area where it was otherwise unavailable; they found themselves confronted by a steely rebel.
          It quickly became clear that Baker enjoyed strong backing from the majority of his parishioners, who formed a "1570 Society" to support him. Catholics started coming from all over the country to hear his Sunday Masses; and lay people throughout the English-speaking world wrote in their hundreds to assure him of their wholehearted agreement with him.
          At a time when toleration was supposed to be in vogue, the Catholic Church was particularly embarrassed to find itself looking both narrow and tyrannical.
          As the situation developed Baker showed every sign of enjoying himself. He made barbed remarks about Masses which made use of pop music and "sensuous dancing girls". The Daily Telegraph, which often had a reporter in the congregation, recorded one sermon in which he pointedly referred to St John of the Cross, who was jailed by his superiors for his beliefs in the 16th century, then was released to become Vicar General of Andalusia.
          To general laughter from his parishioners, Baker continued: "There is something about them, these priests who gain a misleading reputation for disobedience." He then added: "These bishops. They will have their little joke." Meanwhile, the new parish priest dispatched by Bishop Charles Grant was celebrating the new liturgy for a minority of Downham Market Catholics in the town hall.
          After politely refusing twice to obey his bishop's orders to celebrate the new rite or to resign, Baker was formally suspended as parish priest of St Dominic's by a decree of removal. The couples he married from then on had to have a civil service before they came to his chapel, but there was no attempt to deprive him of his faculties to celebrate Mass.
          Baker eventually gave up the church, too, though he was allowed to keep the presbytery; and benefactors bought, for £15,000, a house in the town to serve as his chapel. From there he continued his ministry, which intensified his fight against the Vatican II reforms.
          Oswald Charles Baker was born on May 1 1915 in the Angel Hotel at Clowne, Derbyshire, where his father was the landlord. The family moved to Great Yarmouth, where he attended the grammar school.
          Young Oswald soon lost his provincial accent. He went to the Jesuits' Campion House in Middlesex before going to the prestigious French seminary to become "a gentleman of St Sulpice"; but, in 1938, he was asked to leave after publishing an article suggesting that the Treaty of Versailles had been too severe on Germany to be the basis of a lasting peace. "I was always a rebel," he later recalled. On returning home Baker offered himself to the Jesuits, but this was in the days before the Society of Jesus looked kindly on rebels; and Baker was earning a living selling books in Glasgow when a Dominican he met suggested that he become a friar.
          But that did not work out either, and he eventually met a secular priest at Hyde Park, who recommended he go to Oscott seminary at Birmingham. After being ordained priest in 1942, Baker served as a curate at Luton, High Wycombe and Wymondham, Norfolk, before going to Downham Market in 1949.
          After the battle with his bishop, he initially rejoiced when Archbishop Lefebvre's Society of St Pius X sent young priests to England. Like Baker, these die-hards considered that in refusing the new Mass they were following in the footsteps of the Reformation martyrs who had refused to accept the introduction of Protestantism.
          But when Lefebvre visited Baker, the latter thought that the nominal recognition granted the Frenchman by Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II was a sign of weakness. Firmly adhering to Cardinal St Robert Bellarmine's teaching that a heretical pope automatically loses his office, Baker found himself branded a "sedevacantist" (one who believes that the see of St Peter was vacant).
          In 1984 he explained to an astonished reporter that the present Pope was "no more a Catholic than Ian Paisley - and no more a pope than Billy Graham". He added that "the new Mass is a sacrilegious parody of the true Mass: it is sinful to take part in it."
          He maintained to the end that, despite what any bishop might say, he still occupied his office of parish priest.
          As an assiduous reader of The Daily Telegraph, he would write letters to correct what he judged to be faulty grammar or faulty theology. He was convinced that the one led to the other. One letter, which attacked an article about the Pope and contraception, informed the editor that this had contained the paper's most erroneous statement since it had criticised Catholic objections to a visit to Britain by President Tito of Yugoslavia in 1953.
          Gradually Baker's congregation dwindled to about 20, though it would swell when the film producer Mel Gibson, who bought a house nearby, appeared for Sunday Mass and stayed for coffee afterwards. Seven years ago, Baker vacated the presbytery; and though crippled by spinal trouble, he continued to stagger to the altar to mutter a rapid Mass.
          A quiet, kindly man who had been a practitioner of martial arts in his younger days, on July 2 Father Oswald Baker declared: "I am ready to die" - which he then did.

          The Daily Telegraph / The Sunday Telegraph
          GB ARCHON 2913 DEA-05-01-02-01-155-1 · Part · 5 to 9 August 1976
          Part of Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA)

          Photocopies of local press coverage about Fr Baker inaugurating a Tridentine Mass centre in Newcastle.
          page 1: Article: Rebel priest to celebrate Latin Mass; Article: Booted out but unrepentant; letter: Oath of Loyalty
          page 2/3: article: Old faith alive in the North
          page 3: article: A choice of Masses today
          page 4: article: North Catholics defy their Bishop

          Various
          GB ARCHON 2913 DEA-05-01-02-01-110 · Item · 11 September 1975
          Part of Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA)

          The root of the trouble at Downham Market is not the use of Latin but the disobedience of Fr Baker. Catholics not properly prepared for the changes, hence those being upset. Arbitrary experimentation by some priests have not helped - hence a longing for the old familiar Mass. The new rite has been established as valid and free form doctrinal error.

          Barker, Marion Tess OSB