Fridae

Last night's final service follows the decision by made by the Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols who said that the lesbian and gay ‘Soho masses’ held at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Soho, central London, are inconsistent with the church’s main teaching on sexuality, reports the BBC. The Masses for gay Catholics have been held fortnightly at the church for the past six years.

The service had been running for six years at the church in Soho. Photo: BBC

The move comes as the Catholic church fights plans for same-sex marriage. Nichols, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, has been one of the loudest voices opposing government plans to allow same-sex marriages.

Nichols said in a statement: "The moral teaching of the church is that 'proper use of our sexual faculty is within a marriage, between a man and a woman, open to the procreation and nurturing of new human life'.

"As I stated in March 2012, this means 'that many types of sexual activity, including same-sex sexual activity, are not consistent with the teaching of the church'".

The statement continued: "For many years now the diocese of Westminster has sought to extend the pastoral care of the church to those who experience same-sex attraction. This care as been motivated by an awareness of the difficulties and isolation they can experience and by the imperative of Christ's love for all.

"In recent years, this pastoral care has focused on the celebration of mass at Our Lady of the Assumption church in Warwick Street. Over these years, the situation of people with same-sex attraction has changed both socially and in civil law. However, the principles of the pastoral care to be offered by the church and the church's teaching on matters of sexual morality have not."

He said after six years of the masses, it was "time for a new phase".

The Guardian reported in January:

"The services, intended to be particularly welcoming to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Catholics, had been held at Our Lady of the Assumption church in the West End for six years with the blessing of senior clergy but had attracted criticism from traditionalists.

The cancellation by Archbishop Vincent Nichols will be seen as a victory for those who lobbied for an end to what they see as an affront to church teachings.

The special masses have been contentious since they were set up. The archbishop is said to believe that the pastoral care of the lesbian and gay church community should now be uncoupled from the sacrament of Mass, and that the community should not be singled out to have "special" masses.

Pastoral care will continue to be offered, though not a mass, on Sunday evenings at Farm Street Church of the Immaculate Conception in Mayfair, central London, when the new arrangements come into force during Lent, from mid-February, in the run-up to Easter, Nichols said in a statement on Wednesday."