Madam, – “Since when has going to Mass been a source of revenue?” asks Angus P Roche (February 23rd).
My late father, a London barrister, was keen to point out that the canon lawyers’ reason for stating that one had not attended Mass if one was not there for the Offertory – and equally that attending Mass in a private chapel did not fulfil one’s Sunday obligation – was entirely linked to the necessity of putting a coin in the plate.
Equally, the Egyptologist, the late Dame Margaret Murray, is on the record as stating that in all the inscriptions she had deciphered, the only curses she had come upon were against those who interfered with the endowments of the clergy. Plus ça change. – Yours, etc,