Inside The Lines

Margaret and I continue our road tour of our neighbors to the North, specifically the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Quebec. We were on the road all day yesterday, arriving in Edmundston, New Brunswick late in the afternoon. Edmundston is about three hours short of Quebec City, our next major destination.

It occurred to us that it might be nice to attend Saturday night Mass, so I pulled up a map of Catholic parishes designed for travelers like ourselves. This proved to be more complicated than I thought. There are about twelve Catholic parishes within 20 miles of our hotel. I did not realize that we are sitting in a town that juts between Quebec and Maine. There are no Saturday Masses in New Brunswick; presumably this is not a coincidence but the preference of French Catholics of whatever diocese we happen to be in. (That is, the diocese never applied for the Saturday night indult.) Now that I think of it, there is a Catholic cathedral in Edmunston, so this must be the mother city of the diocese.

There are Saturday night Masses across the river. I don't know what diocese that is, (Bangor, Maine, possibly?) but the river is also an international boundary between New Brunswick and Maine. So, going to Mass on Saturday night involves going through customs with a loaded car. I decided to pass, and take our chances this morning on this side of the river.

One other question will be sorting out which local churches speak French and which ones English. Boy, this is turning into a project.

I remember years ago that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was one of the last of the U.S. dioceses to apply for the Saturday night indult for the Vigil Mass. This resulted in a massive flux of Catholics crossing the bridges into the Diocese of Camden on Saturday night. I guess the Philly pastors didn't appreciate the lost revenue and it is my understanding that the City of Brotherly Love now breaks bread in its own churches on Saturday nights.