HUSBANDS BOSWORTH, England — A historic Catholic church in central England that stood on the brink of closure is now flourishing, thanks to a priest of the personal ordinariate for former Anglicans who took over the running of the parish after the COVID-19 lockdown. 

St. Mary’s Catholic Church, situated in the picturesque grounds of Bosworth Hall, a Catholic stately home in the village of Husbands Bosworth in Leicestershire, had been served by priests from the nearby town of Market Harborough since the end of the Second World War until the pandemic struck. 

“The church was closed during lockdown and the Diocese of Nottingham decided that would be it,” said Father Matthew Pittam, a former Anglican vicar and now a priest of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. 

“I found out it had been closed and, as we had always wanted to establish an ordinariate parish in Leicestershire but never quite been able to, I approached [the owners] Robert and Susan and said, ‘How about we reopen it as part of the ordinariate?’”

Robert and Susan Turville-Constable-Maxwell, members of one of the oldest Catholic families in England and the owners of Bosworth Hall, agreed to Father Pittam’s proposal, and Masses officially began being celebrated there on July 4, 2021.

Until then, Mass attendance had already been dwindling. For many years, it had one early morning Sunday Mass but that had recently moved to another nearby location. Now every Sunday the church is full, with around 60 regular parishioners of all ages and many young families. Over Easter, the number rose to more than 100. 

“We’re now thriving which took us all by surprise,” he told the Register. “We’re pulling in people from all over the place, local people as well, particularly younger families, who are happy to travel a reasonable distance for what we offer.” Already the parish has received “quite a lot of people into the Church,” he added. 

“It’s convenient,” said Robert Constable-Maxwell who, having worshiped at the church for almost 90 years, is delighted it could remain open and even flourish through the ordinariate. “We’re a very long established Catholic family and it cut a lot of corners to do it like that, so it was a major plus.”

St. Mary’s Church was built in 1873 by Sir Francis Fortescue-Turville, the then owner of Bosworth Hall. Designed by Victorian architect Gilbert Blount, the church has particularly fine wall paintings by the English architect and interior designer, W.H. Romaine-Walker. The church also has a rare “privileged altar,” meaning a plenary indulgence is also granted to an individual soul for whom a Mass is offered. The fixed altar also only allows for ad  orientem worship (the priest celebrating facing the Lord with the congregation) and the church already had an altar rail. 

The revival of the church coincides with its 150th anniversary this year.

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England and Wales was established in 2011 following Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, which allowed Anglicans to come into communion with the Catholic Church while retaining the Anglicans’ distinctive patrimony. Father Pittam was one of the first Anglican vicars to join the new canonical structure. 

A trained psychologist, Father Pittam, who is also parish priest in the nearby town of Monks Kirby, puts its successful revival down to three reasons: the historical significance of the church built towards the end of the recusant period and the long and significant Catholic history of Bosworth Hall; the ordinariate liturgy which fills a niche for people wanting traditional Catholic worship but linked to English spirituality; and engaging with the village through social media and leafleting the local people, inviting them to come to Mass. 

The parish has also been indirectly helped by the decline of the Anglican church in Husbands Bosworth. The village has about 1,500 people but the Anglican church nearby has a service once every six weeks. At Easter, the Church of England had almost no services at all in the benefice. The nearest Catholic churches are also six miles away.

But much of the turnaround in the fortunes of St. Mary’s Church is down to the enthusiasm of Father Pittam as well as the support of its parishioners. “It’s a team effort, lots of people got behind it all,” he said. 

The ordinariate’s presence at St. Mary’s has been positive in large part because this particular ordinariate parish has a foundation to work from, Father Pittam said. 

“It is really remarkable what Father Matthew has contributed to the church at a time when church attendance is cascading downwards all around us,” Robert Constable-Maxwell told the Register. 

“I feel a genuine esprit de corps developing among the congregation,” he continued, “and it’s been a genuine pleasure getting to know the people and they getting to know us and being part of a community like that.”