Cathedral Chaplains pictured 14

Westminster Cathedral College of Chaplains

the normal sacramental programmes, the visiting of the sick, the chaplaincies at the Choir School and St Vincent de Paul Primary School and much else. A significant ministry of the Cathedral is the provision of confessors for the daily celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a very privileged and worthwhile responsibility.

The life of a Cathedral Chaplain is a very rich and diverse one, often quite exhausting, but never dull, and we are all very conscious of the great privilege entrusted to us of serving God and his people in this great Cathedral. Left to right:

Fr Hugh MacKenzie

Guild of the Blessed Sacrament, Further Studies, Chaplain to the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth

Fr Mike Maguire

Precentor, Prefect of the Sacristy, Confirmation Course, Guild of St John Southworth, Assistant Vocations Promoter

Fr John Scott

Registrar, Cathedral Communications, Editor of Oremus magazine, Sacred Heart Church, Westminster School Confirmation Course, Catholic Grandparents’ Association, SVP School Governors, Editor of the Westminster Year Book

Fr Slawomir Witon´

Administrator, Chairman of the Friends, WCCS School Governors, Chair of the Safeguarding Committee, Editor of the Newsletter

Fr Brian O’Mahony

Sub-Administrator, Rector of the College of Chaplains, Chaplain to WCCS School, Guild of St Anthony, Marriage Preparation, Lecturer at Allen Hall Seminary

Fr Vincent Mbu’i SVD

Chaplain to SVP School, Children’s Liturgy, First Holy Communion Course, RCIA Course

Fr Michael Donaghy

Masses in Residential Homes, Baptism Preparation, Legion of Mary, Cathedral Oblates, Filipino Club, Interfaith Representative

Carrara – The Marble of Tuscany

Patrick Rogers

A carved Statuario capital at the entrance to the Vaughan Chantry

When marble is mentioned many people will think of the structures of ancient Rome. Others may remember the buildings and sculptures of the Renaissance, London’s Marble Arch or churchyard monuments. Most of these originated in the Carrara region of Italy, the world’s largest producer of white marble. But the area produces around 60 varieties of marble, some coloured, and many of them can be found in Westminster Cathedral.

Carrara lies between the mountains and the sea in north-west Tuscany. The main quarries are in the Colonnata, Fantiscritti and Ravaccione valleys, but the marble mountains of the Apuan Alps stretch 20 miles from Carrara in the west to the villages of Seravezza and Stazzema to the east. The marble was formed some 200 million years ago from the remains of marine creatures accumulating on the seabed. Gradually these became exceptionally pure limestone. About 50 million years ago the European and African continental shelves collided and forced the region downwards. The immense heat and pressure recrystallized (metamorphosed) the limestone into shining white marble which was later forced upwards again to form the Apuan Alps.

In England the white marbles of Carrara have traditionally been divided into Sicilian, Vein and Statuary. It is still not clear why the name Sicilian was used in England and nowhere else. One theory is that the first ship to bring it here was called the Sicilia, but it seems more likely that the ship called in at Sicily, perhaps because of a storm or to obtain a false customs declaration at a time when the Italian mainland was

Cardinal Hume rests beneath Acqua Bianca in the Chapel of St Gregory and St Augustine controlled by Napoleon and imports from there were banned in England. Sicilian, or White Carrara (Bianco Carrara) is extremely hardwearing and is the only pure white marble which can be used outside, so it was used for Marble Arch, the Albert Memorial and numerous municipal and graveyard monuments and gravestones. The other types are softer and deteriorate in the open air. In Vein marble (Bianco Venato) the markings are more accentuated. It is generally used for the decoration of the interior of buildings and includes varieties like Arabescato, made up of white polygonal shapes divided by grey veining. Statuary (Statuario) is softer still and easy to carve, but liable to staining and decay as a result of environmental pollution. Second Statuary or Vein Statuary also contains some veining, but is hard enough to be used for paving.

Fine-grained Statuary marble (suitable for sculpture) is found in stratified beds all along this mountain range. In Westminster Cathedral it was used for the column capitals, each one of which took two stonemasons from Farmer & Brindley three months to carve, using chisels and hand-drills in situ. More recently a variety of Carrara marble called Acqua Bianca (white water) was used for Cardinal Hume’s tomb in the Chapel of St Gregory and St Augustine. Most marble from the Carrara region is not, in fact, pure white. Veining and shading results from the presence of mineral deposits during formation. Lightly veined Second Statuary was used for the marble floor of the Cathedral while the more heavily veined Arabescato is on the walls and floors of St George’s Chapel. Below the stratified beds of white and white vein marble in the mountains, lie beds of a generally blue-grey colour. The darker grey were known in England as ‘Doves’ and examples can be seen at the corners of the Chapel of the Holy Souls. Lighter blue-grey marble, traversed by darker veins, is Bardiglio Fiorito. It paves the narthex floor and is on the walls and floor in the Holy Souls Chapel.