It's Sunday once again and the most church attendance will not be at the Cathedral of St. Michael but somewhere else because for most non-essential Catholics

There is, in fact, 

 

Ontario Premier Ford has declared that attending church is as essential as buying pool noodles - non-essential retail. The blame for this lay at the door of the man pictured above. Ford reduced church attendance to ten persons; Collins cancelled the public Mass and would let nobody attend other than at a contrived Communion service. He had his Mass you did not. What clericalism! Collins thinks this is a victory and thanked the Premier for his munificence.

As churches "fill" to the maximum of 15% per Mass I thought it might be fun to show you where the largest attendance will be today and what form of the Holy Mass it will be and offered by which group of priests.

On Aldgate Avenue in Toronto's south Etobicoke community, there is a former Baptist church long ago purchased and owned by the Society of St. Pius X known as the Church of the Transfiguration. The priests serve the faithful in Toronto, Orillia, Sudbury and St. Catharines from St. Michael's Priory and a few years ago, began a school in New Hamburg, west of Kitchener where there is also now a church in town sold to them by the Lutherans. During the varied CCP Virus fascist lockdowns, it is important to note that these priests did everything imaginable working within the draconian orders to provide the faithful with the Mass, in person and the sacraments. Unlike the man pictured above they did not close their church. They did not refuse Holy Communion and they did not refuse Baptisms as some Ontario bishops went so far as to do. These priests did not abandon the faithful. There is a fundraiser for a new church in Toronto worthy of support at this link.

Northwest of Toronto, in Markham, is a massive church and privately-owned. It is on the old farm of Canadian mining magnate, Stephen Roman. Roman had a vision - to build a cathedral for his Slovak-Byzantine Rite Catholic community surrounded by houses and shops recalling his village in Slovenia. In 1984, Pope John Paul II, whilst on a trip to Canada, blessed the bells and cornerstone of the already constructed walls and roof but yet, unfinished cathedral. Once able to be occupied the church was consecrated by the Slovak bishop. For complex reasons, the bishop later left in a dispute with Roman's heirs. Fast forward to 2021. Helen Roman-Barber heads the foundation which owns the church and has made it available to other Catholics. Jesus the King Melkite Church is there due to a fire at its home a number of years ago.

The Church of the Transfiguration on Aldgate normally has three Masses on Sunday, the third being at 5:00 P.M. It seats about 120 under normal circumstances with overflow in the hall. Due to demand and attendance restrictions, that Mass at 5:00 has been replaced now by two, one at 4:00 P.M. and one at 6.00 P.M. -- but not at the Church of the Transfiguration on Aldgate but at the Cathedral of the Transfiguration in Markham. Occupancy is at least, if not more than St. Michael's Cathedral, normally around 1,000.

How fitting, after months of denial of the Mass and Sacraments to the faithful that more people will be able to attend the Mass today offered by the priests of the Society of St. Pius X than that of Cardinal Collins in his own Cathedral.