Leading London parish replaces sung Latin with Filipino folk music. And its Magic Circle PP is set to be a bishop

Our Lady of Victories

[Update: You will see from the comment thread below that a Filipino seminarian is among those criticising Mgr Curry for scrapping most of the sung Latin worship.]

I'm about to make a new enemy among the ranks of the Catholic clergy. But I don't see how one more will make any difference – and, anyway, judging by his rudeness when he met me at a dinner party a few years ago, he's no great fan. So here goes.

Monsignor James Curry, parish priest of Our Lady of Victories, Kensington, one of the capital's oldest Catholic churches, is short of curates and so has decided to merge the Sunday Solemn Sung Mass with the Filipino Folk Mass. And guess who loses out? Inevitably, the professional choir so carefully assembled over the last few years, which will now be required only once a month. On all other Sundays, the newly formed Filipino Folk Group will be singing the liturgy at noon. Meanwhile, the informal 10 am Family Mass moves to 10.30.

And so a leading Westminster priest chips away at yet another piece of the Latin heritage of the Church. No disrespect to folk singers from the Philippines, but I would have thought the traditional Catholic culture celebrated and promoted by this Pope might take precedence. But in matters aesthetic the Holy Father's writ does not run in many London churches, it seems: for example, the revised liturgy at St Etheldreda's, Ely Place, is definitely more Paul VI than Benedict XVI.

If the Catholic Church in Westminster diocese had really taken to heart Joseph Ratzinger's The Spirit of the Liturgy, Mgr Jim's gesture might be a controversial one. But it hasn't. When Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor was Archbishop, all manner of politically correct iconoclasm was encouraged. Now his former private secretary, Mgr Curry, is indulging in a little dumbing-down of his own.

And, if rumours are correct, he may soon have even greater authority to influence the diocese, for the Congregation for Bishops – whose members, quite coincidentally, include one Cormac Card. Murphy-O'Connor – is thought to have considered forwarding Mgr Curry's name to the Pope as an auxiliary bishop for Westminster.

Bishop Jim Curry. With several Westminster vacancies coming up over the next year or two, I'd place a bet, if I were you. What do they call this system of appointments in Rome? Ah, yes. Il cerchio magico inglese.