Walsingham shrine in search of new leadership

The Catholic shrine at Walsing­­ham is looking for a new director after the Marist Fathers announced they were leaving after almost 50 years, writes Christopher Lamb.

Following the appointment of Marist priest Alan Williams as Bishop of Brentwood, the order, which has run the shrine since 1968, said it was “not in a position today” to replace him with a new director. It is understood that this is due to declining numbers of Marists.

A process has now started to find a replacement from among the clergy of England and Wales. This decision was taken following discussions between the Bishop of East Anglia, Alan Hopes – in whose diocese the shrine is located – the Marists and Cardinal Vincent Nichols.

The Roman Catholic National Shrine in the Slipper Chapel, roughly a mile away from the shrine itself, was established by the English hierarchy in 1934. The shrine was first established in 1061 in the grounds of a destroyed Augustinian priory now privately owned by the Gurney family. There is a larger Anglican shrine closer to the ruins of the priory which is closely associated with the Anglo-Catholic movement in the Church of England. There is also an Orthodox presence nearby.