Prayers for crash victims at Archbishop of Liverpool installation

‘The community will come together after this tragic event. We have to help people understand Christian faith in that, the hope that Christ gives, that he walks with us,’ said Archbishop John Sherrington.

The Church must “help people understand Christian faith” amid tragedy, the new Archbishop of Liverpool said ahead of his installation.

Archbishop John Sherrington was installed at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King on Tuesday, the day after a car drove at speed into crowds celebrating Liverpool F.C.’s Premier League title. More than 20 people were hospitalised, including a child and an adult with serious injuries.

Speaking ahead of his installation Mass, Archbishop Sherrington told The Tablet that he would offer “prayers with those who are suffering” and the families affected as he took possession of the cathedral which “is often described as the soul of the city”.

He said the Church had a role to “help people move on in this” after the Bank Holiday weekend festivities were struck by tragedy: “It’s really how sorrow and hope and joy are all muddled up, and everything can change so dramatically in a moment, and that’s perhaps something about life – it’s part of life and we can sometimes forget that.”

He continued: “The community will come together after this tragic event. We have to help people understand Christian faith in that, the hope that Christ gives, that he walks with us.”

Immediately after the rite of installation at the start of the Mass, where the apostolic nuncio Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía presented Pope Francis’ apostolic letter appointing him to Liverpool, Archbishop Sherrington remembered the tragedy. “We pray for peace with justice,” he said, and addressed it again in his homily.

“The shadow of the Cross has fallen again on Liverpool,” he said. “I know that the people of Liverpool will unite and be close to those who are suffering. This is part of who we are.”

Clergy and laity from the Diocese of Nottingham, where Sherrington was ordained a priest, and from the Diocese of Westminster where he served as an auxiliary until his appointment in April, attended the Mass alongside ecumenical and civic guests from Liverpool. The former Archbishop of Liverpool Malcolm McMahon and his predecessor Archbishop Emeritus Patrick Kelly were among the scores of concelebrants, alongside bishops from across the country and prelates from Eastern Catholic Churches.

In his remarks to The Tablet, Archbishop Sherrington said he recognised the “great vibrancy” of the archdiocese but also how it had “changed so dramatically in terms of population and the practice of the faith” over the past five years, posing “a task of evangelisation”.

The report of Liverpool’s archdiocesan synod in 2021 recorded a Sunday Mass attendance of 47,000, down from 264,000 in 1962, setting the terms of the pastoral plan published by the archdiocese that Advent. Archbishop Sherrington said his ministry would build on that plan and its “understanding that we’re here to spread the faith” and “how we help people to find again and develop that seed of Christian faith”.

Bishop John Sherrington appointed Archbishop of Liverpool

Beneath the mitre – a power made perfect in weakness

Stay updated — add us as a preferred news source on Google: