St Thomas More Catholic School in Wood Green, north London has celebrated its 70th anniversary with a Mass celebrated by the Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols, where he reflected on the readings from The Letter of St James, 1 Peter and Matthew’s gospel, suggesting steps that students could use to help them both grow in their faith, work hard on their studies, and treasure the variety of life. The cardinal blessed a new statue of St Thomas More by art teacher Kevin Brankin and spent time talking with students about their faith and his own. A school spokesperson told The Tablet: “Considering the difficulties that communities across the nation and world have faced over the last few years it seemed particularly pertinent that we mark this significant milestone and bring our school community together for a special celebration.”
The visit to Britain of the relics of St Bernadette concludes on 30 October to 1 November at the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family of London. The relics have this month visited Norwich, Southwark Arundel and Brentwood cathedrals among other places. In Norwich alone, between 1500 and 2000 people visited the relics between the Thursday and Saturday. “The visit of the Relics of St Bernadette brought a time of particular joy, peace and prayer to our community here at St John’s Cathedral for which we are very grateful,” said Fr Michael Smith, from the cathedral. “People were able to connect with Bernadette through the nearness of her physical presence with us and we pray that the graces we have received from God during this time will bear fruit in our lives. We have much to thank God for.” In a homily, Bishop Alan Hopes said Bernadette is the saint who “teaches us that God uses the humble and the weak,” and that “God calls each one of us from our mother’s womb at the moment of our conception”.
Bishop of Shrewsbury Mark Davies has inaugurated a Stockport church as a Eucharistic shrine of perpetual adoration to inspire prayer for priestly vocations. Bishop Davies dedicated St Joseph’s Church in the town centre of Stockport as “a place of continuous Eucharistic adoration with a special mission to intercede for new and generous vocations to the priesthood and the sanctification of priests”. Catholics are being invited to sign up to participate in a schedule of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament that there may be sufficient numbers for this prayer to continue from morning till evening. In his homily, Bishop Davies said: “This mission of adoration and intercession is a response to Pope Francis’s invitation for the young to be attentive to the silence of the Eucharist in order to discover their unique vocation in life. And that of his predecessor, Saint John Paul II, whose memory we celebrate today, who invited the whole Church to rekindle ‘Eucharistic amazement’ at the dawn of this new millennium; and to understand the Catholic Priesthood in the light of the Eucharist.”
Archbishop William Nolan of Glasgow has been formally invested with the pallium, a vestment symbolic of his authority as a metropolitan Bishop, blessed by the Pope. The pallium, a white woollen garment decorated with six black crosses, worn around the neck and shoulders, was conferred upon Nolan, by Archbishop Gugerotti, the papal nuncio, on Sunday 22 October. Nolan, appointed Archbishop in February this year, will attend a vigil against nuclear weapons at Faslane naval base alongside the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rev Dr Iain Greenshields, later this month on Saturday 29 October.
A Mass of Thanksgiving for the Centenary of Carfin Grotto has been celebrated by the Bishops of Scotland and the Papal Nuncio Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti. The Mass, celebrated at St Francis Xavier Parish Church, included a torchlit procession through the Grotto, recently named Scotland’s Marian Shrine. Carfin, founded in 1922, is a replica of the Lourdes grotto built by striking workers in the interwar years. Held the day before Pope Saint John Paul II’s feast day, the Mass incorporated several settings from polish composer Henryk Jan Botor’s 2016 Missa Ioannis Pauli Secundi.
A unique ecumenical “shared Church” in Warrington, used by a Catholic and an Anglican congregation, is to close after years of falling attendance. The Church of the Resurrection and St Bridget, built in 1988, was the fulfilment a long-held ambitions by Archbishop Derek Warlock and Anglican Bishop David Shepherd, who became famous for their mutual commitment to ecumenism in the 1980s. Originally built to cater to the growing population of Warrington New Town, the church has suffered falling attendance for many years, with the local parish priest describing the closure to local media as “only to be expected”. Elsewhere, another historic Church in Oldham, built in 1839, is to be demolished after a reprieve earlier this year to allow for environmental surveys to be taken. St Mary’s Church had suffered, according to the Diocese of Salford, substantial water damage and extensive dry rot in recent years.
Durham University’s Centre for Catholic Studies has launched a £400,000 scholarship fund in partnership with the Faithful Companions of Jesus, to mark the congregation’s bicentenary. The funds will support up to five annual awards for postgraduate candidates in Catholic Theology or Catholic Studies, covering home-level tuition fees and maintenance grants of up to £17,000. Female applicants from the north east are particularly encouraged. Commenting on the partnership, Sr Bríd Liston FCJ, area leader for the congregation, noted “the commitment of the FCJ society to education in the north east of England, particularly in Middlesbrough and Hartlepool, for over 150 years”.
The Diocese of East Anglia has invited its parishes to conduct their own versions of the Mexican Posada journey for Advent this year. Traditionally featuring a young couple dressed as Mary and Joseph, who spend the days of Advent travelling from house to house asking for a room for the night, the diocese has for several years encouraged parishes to run a “modern” Posada using a statue of Mary and Joseph and the donkey. The diocese said that it would help households to prepare for Christmas and to meet other members of the parish, especially those isolated since the pandemic.
Charles O’Brien, a Pevsner Architectural Guides editor, will be delivering a talk on Wednesday 23 November at St John's Centre in Guildford in person and online, titled: “Revising Pevsner – a new look at Surrey's church architecture”. He will talk about Surrey's church architecture as documented by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner and Ian Nairn in the original 1962 volume for Surrey in 1962 which has now undergone its first ever revision. Tickets from thelittleboxoffice.com/scpt all proceeds to Surrey Churches Preservation Trust.
Dublin priest Fr Aquinas Duffy, who founded the missing.ie website after his cousin Aengus Gussie Shanahan disappeared in 2000, has appealed to anyone who has “any piece of information” about missing schoolboy Philip Cairns to come forward. Some of the remains of the priest’s 20-year-old cousin were found a year after he went missing but were unidentifiable at the time. “Because they could not be identified, they were sitting in Forensic Science Ireland’s laboratory for years.” Fr Duffy told the Irish Mirror. Advances in extracting DNA enabled the police to identify the remains in 2018. “We finally got to have a funeral. And this is what I want for Philip [Cairns]’s family. I feel the long-term missing are the forgotten people,” the Dublin parish priest said.
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