THE LONG AND WINDING HISTORY OF Jesuit life in Liverpool

Br Ken Vance SJ tells the story of the Jesuit presence in Liverpool, which came to an end at Easter when the church of St Francis Xavier was handed over to the Archdiocese of Liverpool.

St Francis Xavier’s church (SFX) in Liverpool opened on a wet Monday afternoon in December 1848 and was crowded with worshippers for the opening ceremony. Soon after, it was visited by the then Jesuit General Superior, Fr Jan Roothaan SJ . In fact, he visited Liverpool twice –he must have liked it! However, it was 175 years before another Jesuit Father General made a visit. On Tuesday 11 April 2023, Fr Arturo Sosa SJ arrived to celebrate the church’s 175th anniversary and to mark the departure of the Society of Jesus from Liverpool.

The fortunes of SFX during the intervening 175 years were similar to those of the great city of Liverpool in which it is located. At the turn of the twentieth century, there were more millionaires in Liverpool than anywhere outside London. By the 1980s, the Thatcher government was talking of leaving it to its ‘managed decline’. Likewise, SFX expanded and flourished for its first hundred years of existence, and then swiftly followed the city in its degeneration.

However, the presence of Jesuits in the area goes back much further than the foundation of SFX. In 1580 Edmund Campion and his colleagues based themselves at Meols Hall near Southport, home of the Hesketh family, regularly saying Mass in Liverpool for the small congregation that still existed in the town of about 2,000 inhabitants. This work carried on when they moved to nearby Crosby Hall, home of the Blundell family, and in 1707 Fr William Gillibrand SJ managed to build the first

Jesuit chapel in the town, disguised as a warehouse. Sadly, with the suppression of the Society of Jesus this work ceased, although the ex-Jesuit Fr John Price continued to minister there and renewed his vows when the Society was restored in 1803. The chapel he served was demolished to allow the building of the diocesan church of St Nicholas in 1813.

Almost thirty years later, in 1840 a group of men with Jesuit connections met in the Rose and Crown inn near the centre of the town to discuss the possibility of building a church to be staffed by the Society. The Society of St Francis Xavier quickly managed to purchase a parcel of land known as the Angel Field and by 1848 presented the new church to the English Provincial Superior. Some years earlier, in 1842, a small school had been established nearby, which was to grow into SFX College. The adventure had begun.

Swiftly SFX grew into the largest Catholic parish in England and Wales and by the 1880s had more than 12,000 parishioners and an average Sunday Mass attendance of almost 6,000 worshippers. Meanwhile the college, with over 400 students, was the largest Catholic secondary day school for boys in the country, growing alongside the parochial schools which in 1891 educated over 2,000 pupils.

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century the parish continued to flourish, with hundreds of men serving in the forces during the two world wars. The parochial school numbers increased considerably, then in 1962 the college moved to a new site on the outskirts of the city. However, all was soon to collapse. Most of the houses in the parish were substandard, if not semi derelict. The 1959 BBC documentary, Morning in the Streets, helped expose the desperate living conditions and encouraged the local council to embark on a massive slum clearance programme which decimated the area. St Francis Xavier’s imploded. Within a few years the parish was almost non-existent. The church and derelict school buildings were surrounded by vast acres of wasteland and demolished housing.

It took several decades – and a threat to demolish the church nave – before any sort of light was to be seen on the horizon. In 1997 Hope University College, situated on the outskirts of Liverpool, was looking for a city-centre campus. With a bit of coaxing and much encouragement by the Archdiocese of Liverpool, they moved into the derelict school and church buildings. At the same time the building of social housing encouraged people to move back into the area. This gave the parish a new lease of life and a renewed interest in the Victorian jewel that was SFX church. Energy was returning to what has been described as ‘the most moving repository of Victorian art in the country’. The Heritage Lottery Fund financed the re-roofing and rewiring of the Grade II* church. Hope University spent over £30 million in renovating the buildings for their Creative Campus, with more than £4 million raised to return the church to its former glory.

In 2008 Liverpool was nominated as the European Capital of Culture. SFX responded in typical manner by launching a year-long programme of celebrations, the highlight being the ‘Held in Trust’ exhibition. For two months the church nave displayed treasures which were normally housed at Stonyhurst College. Mary Queen of Scots’ prayer book vied for attention with gems such St Thomas More’s hat, stunning vestments embroidered during the sixteenth century persecutions and beautiful illustrated manuscripts defaced by the so-called reformers. From dawn to dusk the church was filled with visitors from all over the country and from many parts of the world. A corner had been turned in the life of SFX. Although the parish still suffered from neglect and social deprivation, the parishioners, who had been deeply involved through the celebratory year, felt a great pride in their parish and the area. The sleeping giant that was SFX was slowly re-awakening.

Fr Sosa praised and thanked the Jesuits and all of their co-workers who laboured in Liverpool for the greater glory of God.

Since then, much has been achieved. Links with a joint Anglican/Roman Catholic primary school which opened in 2004 have been deepened, a strong relationship with Notre Dame secondary school has been forged and the neighbours, Hope University, are regularly involved in parish life.

Sadly, just before Christmas 2022 it was announced that the Society of Jesus would be leaving SFX. The reduced numbers of Jesuits in the British Province meant that two of the ten parishes staffed by the province were to be handed over to their respective dioceses. Corpus Christi, Boscombe moved last year and SFX was handed over just after Easter.

Fr Sosa’s visit took the form of a Mass, thanking God for the 175th anniversary of the church and to remember and thank the tens of thousands who have worked alongside the Jesuits since they arrived in the area. His flight to Manchester was brought forward by several hours and so he and his companions – Fr Victor Assouad SJ and Fr Fratern Masawe SJ – had time to explore Liverpool. They first visited the Catholic cathedral where Sean Rice’s stunning statue of Abraham caught Fr Sosa’s eye, as Abraham is the patron of the Jesuit Universal Apostolic Preferences. Moving on to the Anglican cathedral, a similarly impressive building, the group finished by posing in front the Beatles statue at the Pier Head (see the resulting photo on page 10).

During the evening Mass, Fr Sosa spoke of the impressive history of SFX and the work of Jesuits in Liverpool. He also praised and thanked all their co-workers who laboured for the greater glory of God. Following the Mass he joined in the reception, before fortifying himself with a supper of Scouse, crusty bread and beetroot in preparation for his journey to St Beuno’s in North Wales. On the following Sunday the final Jesuit Mass was celebrated in the church and on the next day the Jesuits left Liverpool.

As one wise parishioner said: ‘We’ll miss you, but I’m sure it’s not the last we have seen of Jesuits in Liverpool’.