EWTN is HUGE, thus Birmingham is VERY important. EWTN is the face of the Church that Rome wants America and the world to see. It has been key to the reform of the reform of the liturgy. People see Mass as celebrated on EWTN and ask why their parishes seem more like a floor show. Also, EWTN is instrumental to the implementation of Summorum Pontificum. The best way to learn the old mass is to see it. On the tv it can also be explained.EWTN makes the diocese of Birmingham one of the most important in the nation.
Indeed it is.
To date, I believe, the three indult masses allowed in Bishop Baker's diocese are all Sunday afternoon liturgies. This is better than an outright stonewalling, but not much. People committed to the spirituality of the 1962 missal take the eucharistic fast seriously. Asking them to put off Sunday Mass until an untraditional and inconvenient hour, denying themselves meanwhile the innocent pleasure of a little breakfast and a cup of coffee, is insensitive to a point approaching insult. I sincerely hope I'm wrong about Bishop Baker, but this meagre provision for traditionalists -- including some who may be struggling to remain in communion with their bishop -- strikes me as decidedly second-class.