In February, 2004, after four years of of persistent effort by the authors of this site, Bishop Kurtz granted an indult for the Latin Mass once a month at St. Stephen Church in Chattanooga. It was far short of the "wide and generous application" Pope John Paul II envisioned in his Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei. St. Stephen Church in Chattanooga was chosen because we located a priest, Fr. McGinnity, who was willing to make his parish available for the Mass and we got agreement from the priests at St. Francis de Sales Church in Mableton, Ga. to come to Chattanooga. These developments overcame the last two hurdles Bp. Kurtz placed in our way. We worked under the restrictions of Ecclesia Dei, which left it to the Ordinary to grant the indult and set its conditions.

In February, 2005, the agreement with the priests from St. Francis expired, and Fr. McGinnity started offering the Mass. We had a regular attendance of over 110 devoted Catholics.

In September of 2005, Fr. McGinnity was transferred to Cleveland, where he continued to offer the Mass. We could not find another priest in Chattanooga who was willing to take over the offering of the Mass, so we were unable to get an indult for another Mass in Chattanooga. Those 110 devoted Catholics were without the Latin Mass. Under Ecclesia Dei we had no other recourse.

After our success in gaining the first indult, others came forward and offered their help in trying to get another indult in Knoxville. In November of 2005, a second indult was granted. Masses were offered at St. John Neumann Church in Farragut, TN. That Mass was subsequently transferred to St. Therese Church in Clinton, TN.

In Cleveland, Mass attendence in time built up to about 50 devoted Catholics. In June of this year, Bp. Stika, afer only three months in office, reassigned about 40 priests, including Fr. McGinnity. He was reassigned to Madisonville.

Now, however, we are operating in a new environment. With Pope Benedict XVI's Motu Proprio Summorium Pontificum, and especially Art. 5.1, we no longer need the Bishop's indult for the Mass. In this environment, many priests, especially the younger ones, are learning the rubrics of the Mass and are more than ready to offer it. This is why we are going to be able to offer the Mass in Cleveland instead of abandoning the faithful Catholics there as we were forced to do in Chattanooga. Our new mission should be to support these priests who desire to offer the Mass. We must be the counter force to those who oppose compliance with the Pope's Motu.

It is a new time, and a new way of thinking is called for. No longer should we be thinking of enclaves of indult Masses. The whole small world of the diocese of Knoxville is our oyster. It is time to rid ourselves of the restrictive thinking that established the indult feifdoms. We must now return to the parishes we had to leave as a result of Ecclesia Dei, and require that our "rightful aspirations" be met in surroundings that promote a normal parish life. We must make use of those priests who have learned or are learning the Latin Mass by asking to have them offer Mass in their parishes. Only in this way will we be able to integrate ourselves into regular parish life and no longer be viewed as outsiders with some hidden agenda that threatens the existing state of affairs. We are not the red headed step children, and as long as we exist in our present enclaves, we will always be so considered and so treated. We, too, are devoted Catholics and deserve a place within the normal structure of the Church.