Displacement Without Resolution: Broken Bay, the Vetus Ordo, and the Burden Placed on the Faithful
A Community Uprooted
On 17 March 2026, His Excellency, the Most Reverend Anthony Randazzo, Bishop of Broken Bay, issued a pastoral letter announcing the cessation of the long-standing Sunday celebration of the Extraordinary Form at St Benedict’s, Arcadia. For nearly a decade, the faithful had gathered there weekly, forming not a transient grouping but a stable liturgical community rooted in continuity, discipline, and habit. The Bishop himself acknowledged that their fidelity constituted “a genuine witness within the Diocese.”¹
This acknowledgment is of particular importance. It concedes that the community was not merely tolerated but positively recognised as a source of ecclesial vitality. It had arisen organically in the wake of Summorum Pontificum and endured through years of consistent participation, pastoral provision, and familial integration. Its removal from St Benedict’s is therefore not a neutral administrative adjustment but a disruption of a settled ecclesial reality.
A parish church is not a fungible venue. It is the locus of continuity, where repetition becomes tradition and presence becomes belonging. To remove a community from such a place is to interrupt more than geography; it is to unsettle the rhythms by which faith is lived.
The Terms of the Decision
His Excellency’s letter presents the decision as the outcome of a careful and exhaustive discernment, governed by three criteria: a suitable church, an appropriate Sunday time, and the availability of clergy.² Acting in fidelity to Traditionis Custodes and subsequent Roman clarifications, he emphasises both diligence and constraint: “no stone has been left unturned.”³
Yet the decisive admission follows: “it has not been possible to do so in a single location and time in the way I had hoped.”⁴ This sentence is not incidental. It establishes that the final arrangement is not the harmonious resolution of competing goods, but a compromise in which those goods remain unresolved.
The outcome is therefore displacement rather than integration. The Mass is transferred to St Leonard’s, Naremburn, at 4:00pm on Sundays, effective 3 May 2026, with pastoral care continuing under the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter.⁵
What is presented as stability is, in fact, reconfiguration under tension.
The Geography of Burden
The relocation from Arcadia to Naremburn is not pastorally neutral. It introduces a significant increase in travel time for many of the faithful, particularly families whose participation depended upon proximity. Distance, in ecclesial life, is not an abstract inconvenience; it is a determining factor in participation.
Over time, distance filters the faithful. Those with flexibility and resources continue; those constrained by circumstance diminish in attendance. The result is not immediate collapse but gradual thinning—a community reduced not by prohibition but by practical erosion.
For families with young children, the burden is acute. Sunday worship is not an isolated act but part of a wider domestic rhythm. Extended travel, particularly in an urban environment, introduces fatigue, logistical strain, and cumulative difficulty. What was once habitual becomes exceptional; what was once stable becomes fragile.
The Question of Time and the Anthropology of Sunday
If distance imposes strain, the retention of a late afternoon time intensifies it. The faithful had, after extended consultation, expressed a clear and reasonable willingness to accept relocation—provided that the Mass be scheduled in the morning.
This request was not merely pragmatic. It reflects the deeper anthropology of Catholic life. Sunday morning is not an arbitrary preference; it is the natural axis of the Christian week. It is the hour in which the family gathers, the community converges, and the day is consecrated at its beginning rather than its end.
To relocate the Mass while retaining an afternoon time is to displace the liturgy from that axis. It becomes something deferred, accommodated, and fitted around competing demands. For families, this inversion carries cumulative consequences: fatigue, disruption, and, over time, diminished participation.
Consultation and Its Limits
The faithful report that consultation occurred over a period of 12–18 months. They engaged constructively, expressed willingness to accept inconvenience, and proposed a clear condition under which the arrangement would remain viable: a morning Mass.
Here, the limits of consultation become apparent. When the principal concern identified by the faithful is not reflected in the final decision, consultation risks becoming procedural rather than substantive. The process may be thorough; the outcome may still fail to address the central pastoral reality.
The divergence between process and outcome is itself a source of strain. The Bishop emphasises complexity and effort; the faithful experience the result as a disregard of their most pressing need.
Unity Invoked, Inequality Experienced
His Excellency expresses the hope that this “final resolution will bring stability and grace to everyone involved.”⁶ The language is proper, even necessary. Yet unity, if it is to be more than rhetorical, must be realised in equitable conditions of participation.
Where one group of faithful bears a disproportionate burden—greater distance, less convenient timing, increased difficulty—unity becomes asymmetrical. It is preserved formally but strained materially. The faithful attached to the Vetus Ordo are not resisting ecclesial authority; they are being asked to sustain that authority under conditions that others are not required to bear.
The question is therefore not whether unity is affirmed, but whether it is embodied.
Rome’s Call for Generous Inclusion
This local situation must be read in light of recent guidance communicated by His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, on behalf of Pope Leo XIV. Addressing the bishops of France, the Holy See acknowledged that “a painful wound continues to open in the Church concerning the celebration of the Mass.”⁷
The proposed remedy was explicit: “concrete solutions that would generously include those sincerely attached to the Vetus Ordo.”⁸ The emphasis falls not on mere provision, but on generosity—on arrangements that facilitate real participation rather than nominal access.
Measured against this principle, the Broken Bay arrangement appears incomplete. It provides for continuity in form while risking diminution in practice. It satisfies the requirement of provision while falling short of the imperative of inclusion.
A New Curial Context: Law and Its Application
The significance of this decision is heightened by a recent development of considerable importance. His Excellency, Bishop Randazzo, has been appointed Prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, the Roman Curia’s principal authority for the interpretation of canon law, by Pope Leo XIV.⁹
This appointment situates him at the centre of the Church’s juridical life. The Dicastery is responsible for the authentic interpretation of the Code of Canon Law, the resolution of legislative questions, and the maintenance of coherence in ecclesiastical governance.
The juxtaposition is therefore striking. The same prelate now entrusted with the universal application of law is locally implementing a decision whose pastoral consequences raise questions of proportionality and equity. This is not a contradiction, but it is analytically significant. It highlights the perennial tension between law and its application—between juridical order and pastoral reality.
Canon law, properly understood, is not an abstract system imposed upon life. It exists for the salvation of souls (salus animarum suprema lex). Where its application produces outcomes that risk diminishing participation in the sacramental life, the question is not whether the law has been followed, but whether it has been applied in its proper spirit.
Intent, Constraint, and Prudential Judgement
It would be unjust to attribute to His Excellency any intention of harm. The letter is marked by gratitude, respect, and a clear desire to navigate a complex situation under constraint. The reference to Roman directives indicates that the decision is not purely local but shaped by broader ecclesial considerations.
Yet constraint does not eliminate prudence. Within the space permitted, choices remain. The determination of time—morning or afternoon—is not doctrinally fixed but pastorally discerned. It is precisely here that the possibility of generosity emerges.
A decision that foreseeably results in diminished participation, particularly among families, invites reconsideration—not as a concession, but as an exercise of episcopal care.
A Modest and Reasonable Petition
The request advanced by the faithful is notably restrained. They do not seek to overturn the decision. They do not contest authority. They ask only that the time of the Mass at St Leonard’s be reconsidered—that it be placed in the morning, at 10:00 or 10:30am.
This request aligns directly with the Roman call for “concrete solutions.” It preserves order while alleviating burden. It enables continuity not merely in form but in lived reality.
It is, in every meaningful sense, a reasonable petition.
Stability or Attrition
His Excellency expresses the hope that this decision will bring “stability and grace.” That hope will not be realised through structure alone. Stability in the Church is lived, not declared. It depends upon the ability of the faithful to gather consistently, without undue impediment, and to integrate the liturgy into the fabric of their lives.
A community sustained over nine years represents a significant pastoral investment. If its conditions of participation are materially worsened, the likely outcome is not immediate rupture but gradual attrition. Attendance will diminish incrementally. Families will attend less frequently. Some will cease altogether.
This is the quiet mechanism by which communities disappear: not through prohibition, but through inconvenience.
Conclusion: The Hour That Determines the Future
The present arrangement is not beyond revision. The Bishop himself acknowledges its imperfect character. Within that admission lies the possibility of adjustment.
A single change—a morning Mass—would materially alter the situation. It would reconcile authority with charity, law with its purpose, and provision with participation. It would transform a burdensome arrangement into a sustainable one.
In the final analysis, the question is not whether the Vetus Ordo will continue in Broken Bay. It will. The question is whether it will continue as a living reality, or as a diminished provision sustained under strain.
The answer may depend on something as simple—and as decisive—as the hour at which the Mass is offered.
¹ Diocese of Broken Bay, Pastoral Letter to the Faithful on the Celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, 17 March 2026: “a genuine witness within the Diocese.”
² Ibid.: “three essential considerations have guided us: first… a church suitable… secondly, a Sunday time… thirdly, the provision of clergy.”
³ Ibid.: “no stone has been left unturned.”
⁴ Ibid.: “it has not been possible to do so in a single location and time in the way I had hoped.”
⁵ Ibid.: “a weekly Sunday Mass at 4:00pm at St Leonard’s Church, Naremburn… effective from Sunday 3 May 2026.”
⁶ Ibid.: “this final resolution will bring stability and grace to everyone involved.”
⁷ Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Letter to the Bishops of France on the Liturgy (2026): “a painful wound continues to open in the Church concerning the celebration of the Mass.”
⁸ Ibid.: “concrete solutions that would generously include those sincerely attached to the Vetus Ordo.”
⁹ Holy See Press Office, Appointment of Bishop Anthony Randazzo as Prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, 25 March 2026.
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