Cardinal Vincent Nichols celebrated a Mass to mark the 150th anniversary of the Catholic Union at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, last week. The Cardinal paid tribute to the Union’s work representing lay Catholics to Parliament and the Government since its foundation in 1870. The Union’s President, Sir Edward Leigh MP, and former President, Lord Brennan, were both present, along with members and friends.
The ruins of a large medieval chapel have been uncovered in Bishop Auckland. It was built by Anthony Bek during his 1284-1310 reign as Prince-Bishop of Durham and destroyed in the 1650s. Uncovered during a five month dig, the Bishop’s chapel was one of the largest in England, rivalling continental chapels such as Paris’s Sainte-Chapelle in size and opulence. The chapel will be the subject of a special exhibition at Auckland Castle, from Monday 4 March to Sunday 6 September.
The Bishops’ Conference has appointed a priest from the Archdiocese of Birmingham, Fr Jan Nowotnik, as the National Ecumenical Officer and Secretary to the Department for Evangelisation and Discipleship at the Conference Secretariat in London. Fr Nowotnik, who is currently finishing his Doctoral Studies at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome, in the Faculty of Theology, will replace Canon John O’Toole in September.
Catholics must learn from the faith and the expressions of faith and holiness in other Churches, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has said. At a Mass of thanksgiving for the life and witness of Blessed John Sullivan SJ, the Church of Ireland convert who was renowned for his care for the sick and dying as well as his personal holiness, the Archbishop said: “Communion with what the Bishop of Rome stands for can appear fully in men and women who do not espouse the full Catholic tradition as we understand it.” He described Blessed John Sullivan as the model of an ecumenical Saint. The Mass in Gardiner Street church in Dublin was attended by the Church of Ireland Primate, Archbishop Michael Jackson, as well as members of the Jesuit community in Ireland. While Catholics consider full communion with the Pope to be an important dimension of Catholic life, the Archbishop warned: “We often have the idea that the absence of full communion as meaning no communion.”
The Bishop of Shrewsbury, Mark Davies, has asked Catholics in his diocese to say the Angelus daily in preparation for the rededication of England as Mary’s Dowry on Sunday 29 March. Angelus prayer cards are to be distributed to every parish in the diocese. In a pastoral letter due to be read out in churches on 29 February and 1 March, Bishop Davies said that the invitation to entrust England to Mary took place amid the de-Christianisation of society. “In a time of amnesia – forgetfulness – of the Christian past, we recall how England began with this desire to say “yes” to God’s grace, in order that a once pagan people might share Christ’s victory in the wilderness by learning to live “by every word which comes from the mouth of God” and worshipping and serving the Lord God alone. Our national identity would be forged by the Christian faith we now share,” he wrote.
Churches in the UK are being asked to take part in a new online survey to explore the value they add to local communities. The survey by the National Churches Trust is part of a new research study by the charity into the way churches support local people, as well as being places that carry out and host activities and services that meet the needs of the local community. The deadline for completion is 4 March.
After devastating floods in South Wales wrecked hundreds of homes and businesses in the aftermath of Storm Dennis, Archbishop of Cardiff George Stack visited Treforest and Pontypridd and sent a letter of solidarity to parishes in Monmouth and Ross on Wye. “The threats to life, homes and other property are a telling reminder of the power of nature and make the debates about ecology and global warming very real” he said. Elsewhere, many church schools – such as St Bernard’s Catholic High School in Barrow in Furness and St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary in Windermere - were among more than 35 schools forced to close earlier this week due to heavy snow fall in Cumbria and southern Scotland.
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