Tens of thousands of people expected to attend a special Mass when Pope Benedict XVI visits Birmingham, will hear it said in Brummie the Vatican has revealed.
The Pope will beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman at the event on 19 September.
‘The Holy Father will conduct the Mass in Brummie, a language in which he is fluent,’ a Vatican spokesman said. ‘It was decided to eschew English and Latin in favour of Brummie because the Pope believes that a Mass said in Brummie will be sound more mysterious and inscrutable.’
But there have been strong protests from civic leaders in nearby Coventry and Walsall. ‘People here won’t know what the heck the Pope’s on about. It’s time the Catholic Church went back to a language ordinary folk can understand,' a Coventry councillor is believed to have said.
