FROM THE EDITOR
Fr John writes Dear Parishioners, Friends and Readers of Oremus The front cover of this edition rightfully features Our Lady, but with a slight twist, as she is pictured in the company of St Philip Neri, the ‘Apostle of Rome’. As the calendar changes from year to year, so some saints lose their days to Sundays or major feasts, and this year it is St Philip’s turn. Perhaps our near neighbours in the Brompton Road will find a way to ensure that he still receives due honour! Two pieces seek to reflect our Christian insistence on the importance of each and every human life; I have included a catechism by the Holy Father on the ways in which the elderly can be open to and guides for the younger generation, whilst the good news that Parliament has, for the 12th time in recent years, again rejected ‘assisted suicide’ has to be tempered by a realisation that those who seek to change the law show few signs of giving up – so we must ourselves fight on. Two and a half years ago I published an extract from a travel diary of Victorian members of my own family who visited Egypt in the early 1860s. Some of you were kind enough to say that you would be interested to read more, but then Covid-19 came and I had not got round to do anything about this, until an email arrived from Washington USA. In the world of interconnectedness, a reference to the extract in Oremus had appeared on an information sheet listing known European travellers in Egypt in those years and my correspondent was anxious to know if there was more material. Well, there is, so you can be transported back to the world of Victorian exploration and its particular perspectives as reported back home in letters to family in Leeds.
Westminster Cathedral Cathedral Clergy House 42 Francis Street London SW1P 1QW Telephone 020 7798 9055 Email chreception@rcdow.org.uk www.westminstercathedral.org.uk Cathedral Chaplains Fr Sławomir Witoń, Administrator Fr Brian O’Mahony, Sub-Administrator Fr Michael Donaghy Fr Hugh MacKenzie Fr Mike Maguire, Precentor Fr Vincent Mbu’i SVD Fr John Scott, Registrar Also in residence Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Victories: Sr Angelina, Sr Celeste, Sr Fatima and Sr Jesuina Music Department Simon Johnson, Master of Music Peter Stevens Obl. OSB, Assistant Master of Music Marko Sever, Organ Scholar Cathedral Manager Peter McNulty Estates Manager Neil Fairbairn Finance Manager Agnes Dabrowska Chapel of Ease Sacred Heart Church Horseferry Road SW1P 2EF
With Easter falling as it did, I have been able to include several images from the Holy Week liturgies. The Chaplains were gratified by the support of the faithful as Holy Week progressed, culminating in full houses at all the Easter Day Masses. We were greatly assisted by the priests who volunteered to come and assist with Confessions, and numbers suggested that many people who could not come to Reconciliation during the time of the pandemic have been able to return. A very particular angle on Holy Week is offered in the Palm Sunday homily of Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, which I reproduce. It is the day on which ‘The Disappeared’ of the troubled years in Northern Ireland are commemorated and appeal made for information leading to discovery of their bodies. Here is a real reminder of the continuing cost of reconciliation so that peace may finally be established and communities healed.
MAY 2022
Oremus
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