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Remembering
May 1980 40th anniversary of the National Pastoral Congress By Pat Jones, a member of the Congress National Committee in 1980 Forty years ago this month, the Catholic community of this Archdiocese provided an amazing feat of hospitality. The National Pastoral Congress took place from 2nd to 6th May 1980, and has never been repeated. Around 2,000 people took part in this five-day conference, including 200 local delegates. All those who came, representing parishes, lay organisations, religious communities and chaplaincies, stayed in the homes of Liverpool Catholic families. As hosts, the people of this diocese provided all that was needed to make the Congress work. This was a stunning piece of generosity and organisation. The local organising committee drew deeply on the strengths of the diocese at that time. The wellorganised groups of the UCM, the CWL and others were crucial. So too were our schools. Six Catholic secondary schools around the city, and what was then Christ’s College, now Liverpool Hope University, provided the venues. The great opening and closing liturgies were in our Cathedral, and the final plenary session took place in the Philharmonic Hall. Around the Congress, the ‘fringe’ of concerts, exhibitions, musical events and a 4
Catholic Pictorial
floating disco cruise on the Royal Iris for the youth delegates, all celebrated Liverpool’s strengths. In one of the special editions of the daily newspaper provided for the Congress by Catholic Pictorial staff, a delegate from London was interviewed. Michael Whyte is reported as saying ‘There seems to be so much enthusiasm among everyone I’ve met. I don’t think Londoners would have reacted in the same generous way as the people of Liverpool. They have opened their hearts to us as well as their doors’. It is hard to imagine this happening today. People would want en-suite rooms, and their own cars. In 1980, all the diocesan coaches arrived at Burtonwood Services on the M62, where the local organising chief, Michael Sampson, ensured they were decanted onto other coaches taking them across the city to their local venues. Bishops travelled with their delegates and participated alongside everyone else. The leadership at every level was in the hands of collaborative teams of laypeople, priests, religious and bishops, with laypeople in the majority. The hospitality and spirit of the Catholic
‘The leadership at every level was in the hands of collaborative teams of laypeople, priests, religious and bishops, with laypeople in the majority.’
community here was vital as a backdrop and support system for an event that is still a landmark in the life of the Church in England and Wales. It took place just 15 years after Vatican II, when we were just beginning to understand its teaching. Cardinal Hume spoke about the Congress as a way to ‘absorb the lessons of the Second Vatican Council and put them into practice’. It was only two years since John Paul II had been elected pope, bringing fresh energy and generating excitement and hope. Cardinal Hume himself had only been at Westminster for four years, and Archbishop Worlock had come to Liverpool around the same time. The city of Liverpool was yet to endure the difficulties and painful experiences of the decade ahead. Mrs Thatcher had just been elected. The Congress was not just the six days in Liverpool. In the two years beforehand, there was consultation in which every member of the Catholic community was invited to take part. Eight discussion leaflets were widely circulated and diocesan reports were drawn up. Delegates were elected, proportionately according to the mass-going population in each place. Over 100,000 replies to a survey about priority themes were received. Dioceses held local meetings of their delegates before they came to Liverpool. Throughout the preparation, and in the Congress itself, prayer was a
