Catholic Police Guild

The Catholic Police Guild

The prayer of the Catholic Police Guild reads: ‘...Grant that we may this day, and every day, overcome all temptations, especially to injustice and disloyalty, and with our minds inflamed by Thy Holy Spirit perform all our duties in such a manner as may be pleasing to Thy Divine Will so that when called to report for the last time we may not be found wanting ...’

Police officers and staff, like all of humanity, will be charged at their Judgement. In the meantime, policing and Catholics therein have unique powers over the temporal affairs of society – a very great duty and responsibility. Sir Robert Peel’s policing-by-consent model is based on the principle that ‘the police are the public, and the public are the police’ which should provide some solace that the police act with impartiality in the best interests of all. And yet when is it possible to satisfy all?

Founded in 1914 on the Feast of Corpus Christi, about six weeks before the out-break of the Great War, the Guild derived from the inspiration of Monsignor Howlett, Administrator of Westminster Cathedral. In those days large numbers of Irishmen (then part of the United Kingdom) had settled in London and many as police officers with the Metropolitan Monsignor Howlett Force. A Guild could provide Catholic pastoral support particular to policing, partially to counter-balance anti-Catholic hostility and partially to help Catholic officers to police Man’s law, increasingly divergent from God’s law, whilst personally living out the latter.

The Guild today and since 1974 is a national organisation with a constitution approved by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. It has five stated objectives: • to provide a fraternal environment through which members may exercise their professional roles and duties within the teachings of the Roman Catholic faith. • to provide a focal point of opportunity for all employees of the police service of England & Wales to refer when in need of spiritual guidance in respect of their professional duties. • to foster respect and love within the family. • to foster the belief in justice and loyalty. • to encourage integrity, sincerity, truthfulness, kindliness and strength of character.

For the first fifty years the Guild was a significant organisation mustering more than 500 officers, and a marching band, to parade through London each November for the annual Requiem at Westminster Cathedral.

But as the Catholic Herald noted in 1977, “since the early 1960s the numbers have been dwindling [with] fewer practising Catholics, a mounting disinclination to take part in avoidable parades, fewer Irishmen seeking to better themselves within the ranks of England's various establishments. Take your pick.” Since then, the Guild has had variable membership, but has continued with fraternal support, pilgrimages, papal audiences, stewarding at major events and often carrying the statue for the Rosary Crusade of Reparation.

In the last decade membership and activity has been centred in the Northwest of England. During Lent this year, the London region acquired a new Chairman and committee to help rejuvenate the Guild for all London police forces. Building from a very low base, they are offering the First Monday Masses in the Extraordinary Form at Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, for the Guild and policing. Further Masses, catechesis, talks, fraternal events, pilgrimages and devotions will help to build virtue amongst Catholic officers and staff when exercising their duty. And in time, God willing, the Guild will find its voice to help policing answer modern conundrums with supernatural and enduring truths. As above, when is it possible to satisfy all? In policing it seems never! But the real answer is when there is a common understanding of natural law and God’s law as the foundation of family and society.

Society needs Catholics to stand-up and participate, to be knowledgeable about the Faith and unerring Truth, to be compassionate and unbiased. Catholics within policing are on the front-line in this regard with societal hostility for the institution without and ideological hostilities within. The Guild, more than ever, is needed now to help officers and staff, and to pray for those departed who lived out this heavy burden.

Anyone with a connection to policing (either serving, retired or as an associate) can join the Guild for free at www.catholicpoliceguild.co.uk/join. If you are not formally associated with policing, remember Sir Robert Peel’s founding principle that the ‘police and the public and the public are the police’ – and add your prayers for the just work of the police on your behalf helped by a successful Guild. Let us also pray that one day hundreds of officers, supported by thousands of the faithful, might again be on parade for the most solemn of ceremonies at Westminster Cathedral.

Monsignor Howlett