THE first-ever Mass to be broadcast in Latin and
Welsh was heard last Sunday on the BBC's Welsh Home Service. It came from the little church of St. Michael and All Angels, Ruabon, Denbighshire.
It was a Dialogue Mass, with the celebrant — Fr. Owen Hardwleke. parish priest of Ruabon — facing the people. Two specially written Gradual and Offertory hymns were sung, and the 0 Salutaris was sung in Welsh and Latin
during the distribution of Holy Communion.
An explanatory commentary for radio listeners was given in Welsh by Fr. John Fitzgerald, Carmelite Prior of Llandeilow, Caernarvonshire. A sermon in Welsh was preached by Fr. R. Gwilym Jones, parish priest of Portmadoc. The Liturgical Leader, linking the congregation with the priest at the altar, was Fr. Daniel Mullins, of Cardiff.
Members of the Welsh Catholic Society travelled from various parts of Wales for the broadcast,
and a number of singers came from Oswestry.
Henry Edwards writes:
The broadcast was a model for all in Wales, and even in England. How fitting it was that history should he made at Ruabon. This industrial town on the edge of the beautiful vale of Llangollen is not far from Chirk, where in Penal days Mass was said in the castle while Squire Edwards stood by the battlements armed with a blunderbuss to keep the pursuivants away. 11 I had had any doubts about the singing, they vanished when I heard the men's voices singing or only Welsh voices can. The memory of it will abide with me