A FIFE Catholic who has long campaigned for the return of a traditional Latin Mass to churches is toasting some success.

Alex Kirkwood, a convert to Catholicism from Glenrothes, has been championing the re-introduction of Tridentine Mass to Catholic churches in Scotland via his own website and his personal contacts in the church for more than 20 years.

Now Mr Kirkwood is celebrating the fact that Cardinal Keith O’Brien recently granted a weekly Latin Mass in Edinburgh—the first time in 40 years that such a weekly Mass has been held in the capital.

The Tridentine Mass was abolished following Vatican II, or the Second Vatican Council, in the 1960s, with a new simpler Mass introduced with a different text. Vatican II marked a fundamental shift towards the modern Catholic church and use of ordinary language was permitted in the celebration of the Mass.

Mr Kirkwood said the alterations did not please everyone, and prompted him to join a growing worldwide movement for the old Mass to co-exist alongside the new Mass.

“In the 1980s, the ultra-conservative French cleric, the late Archbishop Lefebvre, broke away to found his own movement, the Society of St Pius X, to keep the traditional beliefs alive. He was against the Vatican II and was never reconciled with his church.

“Pope John Paul II, also a conservative, urged respect for those attached to the old rite and set up his own group, the Fraternal Society of St Peter, to preserve the old Mass. He freed up the rules on its celebration, which had been very restricted, especially in Scotland. But there are only two churches in this country and they’ve broken away from the mainstream church, so it has been difficult to keep the tradition in Scotland.”

He felt the turning point may have been the recent death of a prominent Edinburgh woman who founded the Una Voce group, seeking to restore the Tridentine Mass in Scotland. She left her mansion to the Fraternal Society of St Peter, thus giving them a foothold in Scotland which, Mr Kirkwood believes, meant negotiations over a regular Latin Mass could be completed.

The Mass is held every Sunday in St Andrew’s Church, Belford Road, Edinburgh, at 11.30 am.