Defiant church allowed Sunday Mass, for now

And do we need any more evidence that the Roman Catholic Church reads GodBlogging?

In a stunning move, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley has offered an olive branch to parishioners battling the closing of St. Albert the Great - a proposal a source said will allow Sunday Mass to be celebrated in the Weymouth church until all appeals are final.

As we said yesterday, this is a wise move, all things considered. In a way thi sis akin to how the backlash following the switch to the venacular mass was handled following Vatican II. In that case they allowed the Latin mass to continue to be said at certain churches, thus undercutting a lot of the criticism had they just "banned" it all over.

Of course if the legal and ecclesiastical appeals all fail they'll still be up the proverbial estuary without a mode of propulsion, but you know.