From the Editor

Fr John writes

Dear Parishioners, Friends and Readers of Oremus

Clergy House sounds superficially quieter than usual as I write this, but there is a clue to its cause on the Administrator’s door – a notice which bids one enter at one’s own peril, illustrated by a fierce-looking virus. At the weekend, the Administrator, Fr Michael Donaghy and I all tested positive for Covid-19, a sharp reminder that although much normality has returned, the unwelcome visitor has yet to depart. Oremus, of course, sets its own timetable and attempts to cock a snook at sickness, so the office has been in action to prepare this edition, not all editing being easily undertaken in a horizontal position on the sofa. Anyway, the positive clergy are keeping an eye on their tests and hope to be in public action for the coming busy end of June, when so many feasts resemble nothing so much as a whole fleet of London buses arriving simultaneously at a stop.

It seems best to use this editorial to alert you to two forthcoming events of significance for the Cathedral. First, from Saturday 3 to Monday 5 September, we shall be hosting the relics of St Bernadette, which are being brought on tour around the UK. It is anticipated that they will arrive in time for an 11am Mass on the Saturday and will then depart after the 8am Mass on the Monday morning. To be sure, it will make for a busy Sunday, but we want as many as possible to be able to share in the blessing which the visit will bring. St Bernadette was the unlikely one – impoverished and uneducated – to whom Our Lady chose to appear at Lourdes and to make her the apostle for what was to become the great Shrine. Blessed Mary chose well, for Bernadette had a depth of character and a particular simplicity which carried her through many trials to sanctity.

Rather later in the Autumn, on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 October, we have the much-delayed visit to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham, to complete the Dowry Tour during which the image visited each Catholic Cathedral in England, until the pandemic brought a halt, with Westminster alone left unvisited. There has been some impatience to complete the Tour and we will be glad to welcome Our Lady here at last. Appropriately, the Saturday is the diocesan feast of the Blessed Martyrs of Douai College, the seminary that sent so many priests back to this country to keep alive during the years of persecution the knowledge and practice of the Catholic Faith and of devotion to Christ’s Mother.

Details of both these events will feature in the September Oremus, to which you can look forward on return from what will, I hope, have been a good summer break.

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 Witon´ , 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