Oremus March 2019

March 2019 | Edition Number 245 | FREE

Westminster Cathedral Magazine

St John of God worked to aid the sick and dying in Spain during the 16th century.

Brothers and Sisters across the world continue his work today.

2

Oremus

MARCH 2019

CONTENTS

Inside Oremus

Oremus Cathedral Clergy House 42 Francis Street London SW1P 1QW T 020 7798 9055 E oremus@westminstercathedral.org.uk W www.westminstercathedral.org.uk

Oremus, the magazine of Westminster Cathedral, reflects the life of the Cathedral and the lives of those who make it a place of faith in central London. If you think that you would like to contribute an article or an item of news, please contact one of the editorial team.

Patron The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster Chairman Canon Christopher Tuckwell Editor Fr John Scott Oremus Team Tony Banks – Distribution Zoe Goodway – Marketing Manel Silva – Subscriptions Berenice Roetheli – Proofreading Eucharia Sule – Office Assistant

Cathedral Life: Past & Present Stabat Mater – A Cathedral Concert for Lent Growing in Our Faith

by Fr Andrew Gallagher Palestrina’s Offertoria Explored

by Jonathan Allsopp Cathedral History: The Missing Sea of Westminster

by Patrick Rogers Cathedral History in Pictures: Cardinal Hume on Palm Sunday

by Paul Tobin

Features

Design and Art Direction Julian Game Registered Charity Number 233699 ISSN 1366-7203 Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily represent the views of the Editor or the Oremus Team. Neither are they the official views of Westminster Cathedral. The Editor reserves the right to edit all contributions.

Publication of advertisements does not imply any form of recommendation or endorsement.

Unless otherwise stated, photographs are published under a creative commons or similar licence. Every effort is made to credit all images. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission.

10

2 4 10

14 16 & 17

23

A Saint Recognised: John Henry Newman 6 Celebrating Young People: Nominations Invited 7 Doctors Question the Royal College of Physicians 8&9 A Church for Refugees in Istanbul 9 I Beg Your Pardon

by Fr John Scott 11 A Candlemas Homily for Religious

by Cardinal Vincent 12 & 13 Pope Francis Visits the Roman Rota 13 The Life and Times of Mr Thomas Churchill

by Edwin H Burton 14 & 15 M. Jean Guillou RIP – Organiste titulaire and Visionary 20 & 21 The Guiding of Providence 21 Free Displays at the RA, January - June 22 Holy Family School – Completed by Thomas Doherty 26 The Mysterious Supper – A Syrian Icon Restored 31

18

20

Regulars

St John of God (8 March) has his feast kept as a Commemoration, on account of falling in the Lenten season. Here he is seen as a figure on the choir stalls of the former Carthusian monastery of Buxheim in Bavaria. © Memmingen

From the Chairman 5 Monthly Album 18 & 19 Cathedral Diary 24 & 25 In Retrospect 27 Crossword and Poem of the Month 28 Friends of the Cathedral 29 St Vincent de Paul Primary School 30

26

Printed by Premier Print Group 020 7987 0604

MARCH 2019

Oremus

3

EXERCISING THE MIND

Join the Companions ... and help us to keep publishing Oremus free of charge Although Oremus earns income from the advertising it carries, we rely on donations to cover our production costs.

The Companions of Oremus was established to recognise those who give generously to support us. Open exclusively to individuals, Companions’ names are published each month (see page 7). All members are invited to at least one social event during the year and Mass is offered for their intentions from time to time.

If you are able to support us by joining the Companions of Oremus please write to Oremus, c/o Clergy House, 42 Francis Street, London SW1P 1QW or email oremuscomps@rcdow.org.uk. Members are asked to give a minimum of £100 annually. Please mention in your email or letter how you would like your name to appear in the listing. If you are eligible for Gift Aid, please provide your name and address, including postcode.

Thank you for your support.

Getting to Know You Fr Andrew Gallagher When was the last time you studied the Catholic faith? I don’t mean the last time you listened to a homily or read an article in Oremus (both, of course, commendable). When did you last spend time reflecting on what God reveals to us? The Lord himself tells us that we must: ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind’ (Luke 10:27). Through regular devotions and prayer, and receiving the Sacraments we grow in our love for God through our heart, soul and strength, but the most neglected part is often through our mind. The last time seriously spent studying our faith was for many of us as teenagers before Confirmation, which we remember when we are asked about our faith and cannot explain it in any coherent way. But part of growing in our love for God means that throughout life we need to commit to time reflecting on what we know about God – studying scripture, the teachings of the Church, and the lives of the saints.

This Lent, the Cathedral introduces a programme to help parishioners grow in this aspect of their love of God. This is difficult here, as we know that our parish embraces a wide spectrum of people with lots of other commitments, but we are seeking to provide as many opportunities as possible for those who come here to join in.

4

On four Tuesdays in Lent we will show a DVD presentation called The Joy of Hope, produced by CaFÉ, the Catholic Evangelisation organisation.

This series investigates the teachings found through the words of St John in the Book of Revelation, and talks in detail about the hope we can have in the future promised us by Jesus Christ. The same episode of the DVD will be shown at three points during the day to cater for the time you are able to come – each episode lasts up to 25 minutes with a chance for discussion afterwards led by one of the Cathedral Chaplains. Each session will finish in under an hour and we encourage everyone to try and get to as many of them as possible – and to bring a friend!

The Joy of Hope will be shown on Tuesdays 12 and 19 March, 2 and 9 April at 9am, 1pm and 6.30pm in Cathedral Hall. All are welcome.

Oremus

MARCH 2019

FROM THE CHAIRMAN

The Administrator writes In a few days’ time we shall be entering into another season of Lent, the traditional time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. In former days, perhaps more than the present time, the question on everyone’s lips was: ‘What are you giving up for Lent?’

The call to fast from something that one enjoys is still very relevant and now covers a much wider field than just sugar in tea or chocolate in general. There was a phase when some people would say: ‘I don’t believe in “giving up” but rather in “taking on”’.

Instead of fasting, their emphasis was on prayer and good works. Personally I think that there is a place for both or rather for all three forms of observance.

Lent is also a time for deepening or extending our faith, and your Chaplains have been giving time to discussing this. This year we are hoping, amongst other things, to run on Saturday mornings and Thursday evenings of Lent ‘Life of Prayer Workshops’ organised by Fr Julio. There is also a proposal to have Days of Recollection for the various groups already active in the parish and a Day of Adult Formation, possibly on the Lenten Tuesdays. By offering these activities on different days of the week and at different times, we hope that there may be something to suit everyone. There will, of course, be the customary Stations of the Cross each Friday evening. We hope that, through these various proposed activities, opportunities will be given for us all to make this Lent a particularly spiritual season, and I invite everyone to make the most of them, in addition to your own private acts of fasting, prayer and almsgiving.

Westminster Cathedral Cathedral Clergy House 42 Francis Street London SW1P 1QW Telephone 020 7798 9055 Service times 020 7798 9097 Email chreception@rcdow.org.uk www.westminstercathedral.org.uk Cathedral Chaplains Canon Christopher Tuckwell, Administrator Fr Daniel Humphreys, Sub-Administrator Fr Julio Albornoz Fr Michael Donaghy Fr Andrew Gallagher, Precentor Fr Rajiv Michael Fr Michael Quaicoe Fr John Scott, Registrar Sub-Administrator’s Intern Oliver Delargy Also in residence Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Victories Music Department Martin Baker, Master of Music Peter Stevens Obl. OSB, Assistant Master of Music Jonathan Allsopp, Organ Scholar Cathedral Manager Peter McNulty Estates Manager Neil Fairbairn Chapel of Ease Sacred Heart Church Horseferry Road SW1P 2EF

On his behalf, may I thank all those who attended Fr Michael Quaicoe’s farewell party and all who have contributed to funding his expenses during his year’s residence studying in Rome. I feel sure that once he has settled down he will be writing himself for the pages of Oremus.

And on another note entirely, may I draw your attention to the new and enhanced lighting in the chapels of St Augustine and St Gregory, and the Holy Souls. This has created a stunning effect and enables us to appreciate the mosaics and other decoration of these two chapels. If you have not done so already, please find time to visit them yourselves.

Wishing you all a very rich and prayerful Lent With every blessing

MARCH 2019

Oremus

5

A NEW ENGLISH SAINT

On Wednesday 13 February Pope Francis authorised the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to issue a decree attributing a miracle to the intercession of the Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman. The move clears the final hurdle in the cause for his canonisation. Following the announcement, Cardinal Vincent said: ‘This is wonderful news which will be greeted with thanks to God by people across the world. Newman's exploration of faith, depth of personal courage, intellectual clarity and cultural sensitivity make him a deeply admired follower of Christ. He brings together so many of the best of Catholic traditions shared well beyond the Catholic Church. His canonisation will be welcomed especially in the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion. For me the truly remarkable nature of this moment is that this is an English parish priest being declared a saint. During his life the people of Birmingham recognised his holiness and lined the streets at the time of his burial. I hope every parish priest in England will hold his head high today knowing Cardinal Newman is declared a saint’.

Blessed John Henry Newman was a priest, theologian, writer and preacher. His life spanned most of the 19th century. He was an Anglican for the first half of his life, and became a Catholic in the second half. Born in London in 1801, Newman studied at Trinity College, Oxford, was a tutor at Oriel College and for 17 years vicar of the university church of St Mary the Virgin. He published eight volumes of Parochial and Plain Sermons as well as two novels. His poem, the Dream of Gerontius, was set to music by Sir Edward Elgar.

After 1833, Newman was a prominent member of the Oxford Movement, which emphasized the Church's debt to the Church Fathers and challenged any tendency to consider truth as completely subjective. Historical research made Newman suspect that the Roman Catholic Church was in closest continuity with the Church that Jesus established.

In 1845, he was received into full communion as a Catholic.

Two years later he was ordained a Catholic priest in Rome and joined the Congregation of the Oratory, founded three centuries earlier by St Philip Neri. Returning to England, Newman founded Oratory houses in Birmingham and London and for seven years served as Rector of the Catholic University of Ireland.

Before Newman, Catholic theology tended to ignore history, preferring instead to draw deductions from first principles. After Newman, the lived experience of believers 6

© National Portrait Gallery

A Canonisation in Sight: John Henry Newman was recognized as a key part of theological reflection.

Newman eventually wrote 40 books and 21,000 letters that survive. Most famous are his book-length Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine, Apologia Pro Vita Sua (his spiritual autobiography up to 1864) and Essay on the Grammar of Assent. He John Henry Newman as a accepted Vatican I's teaching Cardinal, by John Everett on papal infallibility whilst Millais carefully noting both its limits and its strengths. When Newman was named a cardinal in 1879, he took as his motto Cor ad cor loquitur (Heart speaks to heart). Newman died in 1890 at the age of 89 and more than 15,000 people lined the streets for his funeral. He was buried in Rednal (near Birmingham) 11 years later. After his grave was exhumed in 2008, a new tomb was prepared at the Oratory church in Birmingham.

The cause for his sainthood was opened in 1958 and he was declared Venerable by Pope St John Paul II in 1991 after his life of 'heroic virtue' was recognised. Pope Benedict XVI beatified Newman on 19 September, 2010, at Crofton Park, near Birmingham. The Pope noted Newman's emphasis on the vital place of revealed religion in civilized society but also praised his pastoral zeal for the sick, the poor, the bereaved and those in prison.

When elevated to the rank of cardinal, Newman made a speech (the Biglietto), in which he said: ‘In a long course of years I have made many mistakes. I have nothing of that high perfection which belongs to the writings of saints, viz., that error cannot be found in them; but what I trust that I may claim all through what I have written, is this, - an honest intention, an absence of private ends, a temper of obedience, a willingness to be corrected, a dread of error, a desire to serve Holy Church, and through divine mercy, a fair measure of success. And, I rejoice to say, to one great mischief I have from the first opposed myself. For 30, 40, 50 years I have resisted to the best of my powers the spirit of liberalism in religion … the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another, and this is the teaching which is gaining substance and force daily.’

Oremus

MARCH 2019

YOUTH IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Do You Know Someone Award-winning?

Nominations are now open for the fourth Celebrating Young People Awards. The awards – powered by Catholic charity Million Minutes – honour the achievements of young people across the country who make our communities a better place. There are eight award categories, which take their names from Catholic social teaching and recognise the enormous, often unseen, social action of young people. Parishes, schools and individuals are being invited to nominate young people. If you know an unsung hero or heroine or a group that has worked together to help their community, put them forward for an award now. The nominees will be invited to attend a special ceremony in London's West End in July. Cardinal Vincent Nichols will be the guest of honour and present the Pope Francis Award to one lucky young person.

Danny Curtin, CEO of Million Minutes says: ‘Across the country young people are changing our world in quiet and unassuming ways - week in and week out. They can inspire the rest of us to live out social action in our communities.

Young people get an increasing amount of stick in the media and wider society, but their energy and commitment is so often inspirational. To our Adult & Young leaders reading, this is your call to action: nominate a young person or group you know for a Celebrating Young Peoples Award today’. ’Celebrating Young People Awards’ was launched in 2015, inviting nominations for six award categories based on Catholic Social Teaching: promoting dignity of the human person, community and participation, the dignity of workers, solidarity and peace, the option for the poor, and the care of creation. There is also an award for inspiring youth minister and the main youth Award, the Pope Francis Award, selected and presented by Cardinal Vincent Nichols. Nominations close on 24 May 2019.

CYPA is run by Million Minutes, a charity founded in 2011. It raises money and supports youth action and advocacy activities that give voice and support to young people to transform their lives and their world, inspired by Catholic Social Teaching. It supports young people making a difference through participation in society, assuming responsibility and developing as leaders. It works alongside other organisations, including For Jimmy, the Cardinal Hume Centre, and the Young Christian Workers. Its champions include TV chef Delia Smith, Abbot Christopher Jamison OSB and Margaret Mizen OBE, mother of Jimmy Mizen, who was murdered in 2008, who now runs For Jimmy.

For more information see: www.millionminutes.org MARCH 2019

Oremus

Companions of Oremus

We are very grateful for the support of the following: Mrs Mary Barsh Mrs Else Benson in memoriam Dr Stuart Blackie Mr Denis Board Anne Veronica Bond Richard Bremer Francis George Clark Daniel Crowley Ms Georgina Enang Alfredo Fernandez Fred Gardiner Connie Gibbes Zoe & Nick Goodway Mrs Valerie Hamblen Bernadette Hau Mrs Henry Hely-Hutchinson Mrs Cliona Howell Alice M Jones & Jacob F Jones Poppy K Mary Thérèse Kelly Florence M G Koroma Raymund Livesey Barry Lock Alan Lloyd in memoriam Clare and John Lusby Pamela McGrath Linda McHugh Peter McNelly in memoriam James Maple Dionne Marchetti Mary Maxwell Mrs C Mitchell-Gotell Abundia Toledo Munar Chris Stewart Munro Mrs Brigid Murphy Kate Nealon Raymond O’Sullivan Emel Rochat Berenice Roetheli Patrick Rogers RIP John Scanlan Mr Luke Simpson Sonja Soper Tessa and Ben Strickland Eileen Terry Robin Michael Tinsley Mr Alex Walker Christiana Thérèse Macarthy-Woods Jacqueline Worth Patricia M Wright and of our anonymous Companions

If you would like to become a Companion of Oremus, see page 4

New in Cathedral Gift Shop We are pleased to announce an exquisite addition to the range of gifts available in Westminster Cathedral Gift Shop.

Cross pens are renowned worldwide for their design and quality and we now have for sale a luxury ball-point pen which comes with the Cathedral logo and in its own box.

This will make an excellent gift for a loved one on that special occasion.

Retail Price: £35.00

7

NO ROOM FOR NEUTRALITY

What Do You Think, Doctor?

Care Not Killing is welcoming the creation of a new doctors' group, which opposes assisted suicide and euthanasia and promotes better palliative care. The group, Our Duty of Care, has been set up following the announcement by the leadership of the Royal College of Physicians that they intend to adopt a neutral stance on 'assisted dying' - unless at least 60 per cent of doctors actively vote for the status quo. The highly unusual move requiring a super-majority has provoked a major backlash from doctors who see this as an attempt by the College to bounce them into a neutral position, which they believe will be seen as a significant softening of the previous position. An open letter organised by the campaign, in conjunction with other doctors’ groups, has already been signed by nearly 1,500.

Dr Gordon MacDonald, a spokesman for Care Not Killing commented: ‘We welcome the creation of this new campaign group, which understands the ethical and practical problems of changing the law on assisted suicide and euthanasia. They rightly recognise the dangers of normalising suicide and the pressure that many disabled and terminally ill people are under - the fear, whether real or perceived, of being a burden. This is what we see in the US and elsewhere’. In 2017 in the state of Oregon 55.2 per cent of those ending their lives did so not because of their condition, but because they feared being a burden.

This compared to just one in five (21 per cent) who were concerned about the possibility of inadequate pain control, or were experiencing discomfort. In 1998, when the law was first enacted, there were just five terminal conditions listed as causes of death of the 27 assisted suicides. By 2017, the conditions listed as the causes of the 143 deaths included arthritis, arteritis, sclerosis, stenosis, kidney failure, and musculoskeletal systems disorders, endocrine/ metabolic diseases (e.g. diabetes) and gastrointestinal disease. Many of these are not considered terminal.

produce a specific result. The letter questions the unfairness of requiring a super-majority of 60 per cent to maintain the College's position of opposition. It also questions why the poll: ‘deliberately uses the language of those pushing for a change in the law to allow doctors to kill their patients’. The group argues that the term 'assisted dying' is wholly without meaning - there is either assisted suicide or euthanasia. ‘Assisted suicide is where one person/s facilitates the death of another by providing them with a poison that they ingest, as happens in Oregon. This is currently prohibited by the Suicide Act 1961. Euthanasia is where one person/s administers poison to another as happens in Holland. It is prohibited by the same laws that cover homicide.

In Holland, which passed its euthanasia law in 2002, it was originally restricted to mentally competent terminally ill adults. This is no longer the case. Deaths from euthanasia have steadily increased from around 1,800 in 2003 to over 6,500 in 2017. This included 169 with dementia; 83 were for people with a psychiatric disorder; and 293 were for people with an accumulation of geriatric pathologies, what we could call “old age”. Amongst these deaths was the case of Aurelia Brouwers a 29-year-old Dutch woman. Aurelia suffered from a range of mental health issues, but she was not terminally ill or disabled.

In December 2017, her life was ended despite her documented and treatable psychiatric problems. The Dutch law has now gone even further - under the Groningen Protocols it has been extended to include non-mentally competent children’.

Care Not Killing has written to Dr Andrew Goddard, the head of the Royal College, raising its concerns about the current RCP poll, which seems to have been designed to 8

© Paul the Archivist

Dr MacDonald continued: ‘The figures in Washington State were similar, with more than half of those ending their lives fearing being a burden, while the range of conditions that meet the criteria to access the lethal cocktail of barbiturates has expanded. Put another way, if an insulin-dependent diabetic refused treatment, in both states they would meet the criteria for assistance in ending their lives. At the same time, we have seen cases with those who require expensive medical treatment that is potentially life-saving or simply life-extending being refused this, but offered assisted suicide’.

The London home of the Royal College of Physicians; we need to know their commitment to life.

Oremus

MARCH 2019

A CHURCH FOR REFUGEES

The letter to Andrew Goddard goes on to challenge why the poll fails to ask about Physician-Assisted Suicide and spell out other impacts on doctors such as: 'fundamentally altering the doctor-patient relationship, the problems seen in Holland where palliative care lags behind other countries such as the UK, significantly higher suicide rates in places like Oregon and the difficulties associated with making an accurate psychiatric assessment’.

Dr MacDonald noted that: ‘Those pushing for a change in the law fail to address the issue around treatable clinical depression, which plays an important role for many requesting assisted suicide. Even those who do not suffer from depression can experience a phenomenon known as "demoralisation", which can also trigger suicidal thoughts. This is why those who oppose changing the law and those from the disability rights community talk cogently about the pressure that disabled people and the terminally ill can feel under. This is why policymakers in

UK Parliaments have rejected changing the law more than a dozen times since 2004 and most notably the rejection of the Marris Bill, which was comprehensively rejected by the House of Commons in 2015, by 330 to 118. It also explains why every major UK doctors’ group is opposed to legalising assisted suicide and euthanasia along with the British Medical Association, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Association for Palliative Medicine and the British Geriatric Society’.

Care Not Killing is a UK-based alliance bringing together around 50 organisations – human rights and disability rights organisations, health care and palliative care groups, faithbased organisations and thousands of concerned individuals.

It has three key aims: to promote more and better palliative care; to ensure that existing laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide are not weakened or repealed during the lifetime of the current Parliament; and to inform public opinion further against any weakening of the law.

A New Church for Istanbul Fides

The construction of the new church was first announced in 2015 by the then Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu during a meeting with representatives of Turkish nonMuslim religious minorities. At that time, the SyroOrthodox Christian community present in Turkey had seen a noticeable increase in the number of its faithful, with the arrival of refugees from war-torn Syria. In the early years of the Syrian conflict, the Turkish authorities set up a refugee camp for Christians in Syria, capable of hosting 4,000 refugees. Currently, there are about 25,000 Syriac Christians living in Turkey, mostly concentrated in the suburbs of Istanbul. Many of them live in the areas near the place where the new church will rise.

MARCH 2019

Oremus

© Dosseman

Construction work on the first church to be built in Turkey since 1923, will begin next February. The news was announced on Tuesday 8 January, by Bulent Kerimoglu, mayor of Bakirkoy, the district of Istanbul where the new church will be built. The news was reported to journalists after a meeting between the mayor and Syro-Orthodox Bishop Yusuf Cetin. The construction works should last for a maximum of two years. The church will be built in an area not far from the Ataturk International Airport, and will accommodate more than 700 faithful.

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople has his residence, offices and Cathedral of St George in the residential district of Istanbul called Phanar. During the last century many restrictions have been imposed upon the Orthodox community in the city, not least the requirement that the Patriarch be a Turkish citizen, albeit serving Greek Orthodox faithful. The Cathedral of St George shows no external splendour, although the interior of the church displays a richness that is characteristic of Orthodoxy and its worship.

9

EXPLORING PALESTRINA

Offerings for the Offertory Jonathan Allsopp

The Italian Renaissance composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina is perhaps the most common composer to appear on Westminster Cathedral music lists, and for good reason! Born in 1525 and dying in 1594, Palestrina wrote 105 separate Mass settings (by contrast, the most eminent English Renaissance composer, William Byrd, wrote just three!), hundreds of motets, and various other works including Magnificats, hymns and secular madrigals. His music is regularly and rightly regarded as the zenith of Renaissance polyphony, and has been studied by academics for centuries. Among the vast numbers of publications and collections from Palestrina’s life, it is his final publication that we now turn to.

1593 saw the publication of Palestrina’s Offertoria Totius Anni secundum sanctæ Romanæ ecclesiæ consuetudinem (Offertories for the whole year according to the custom of the Holy Roman Church) by Francesco Coattino, a Roman publisher who published a number of Palestrina’s other works.

A collection of 68 motets for five voices, it sets the Offertory texts for the entire liturgical year and all its major feasts.

Composers throughout history, towards the end of their lives, have often sought to write works which sum up the range of their compositional style, a magnum opus: J S Bach’s B minor Mass and Art of Fugue are prime examples. In his Offertoria, however, Palestrina gives us not just 68 concise and perfectly crafted examples of his work, but 68 ultimately useful motets perfectly suited to the liturgy; each motet is roughly around three to three and a half minutes long, an ideal length for the Offertory.

Palestrina’s music is perhaps the diamond which crowns the repertoire of Westminster Cathedral Choir; it is exquisitely crafted, beautifully melodic and highly approachable.

10

© Sailko

Were you to consult a typical music list at Westminster Cathedral, you would be presented with a wealth of composers. Westminster Cathedral Choir sings a wide repertoire of music, from the earliest Gregorian chant (the daily diet of the choir) all the way through to more recent contemporary works. Several pieces crop up year after year: the Victoria Tenebræ Responsories are a staple of Holy Week, the Allegri Miserere is a must for Ash Wednesday, and our own Master of Music’s arrangement of Christus vincit is a rousing close to Mass on Christ the King. The liturgical year brings with it specific texts for specific seasons and feasts.

The ‘Ordinary’ texts of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei) never change, but the ‘Proper’ of the Mass (Introit, Gradual, Alleluia/Tract, Offertory, Communion) is constantly in rotation. In a typical choral Mass, the Choir sings the Introit, Gradual, Alleluia/Tract and Communion texts to chant from the Graduale Romanum, which leaves the Offertory. Very occasionally the Offertory chant is used, but most of the time a motet is sung.

Therefore, to pay tribute to this master of the Renaissance, the Cathedral Choir is singing all 68 Offertoria during the liturgical year 2018 2019. We began on Advent Sunday with the opening motet of the set, Ad te levavi animam meam, and have worked our way through the other three Advent motets so far at the time of writing (Deus tu convertens, Benedixisti Domine and Ave Maria).

Many of the other motets will be heard as they were meant Palestrina, depicted in the concert hall to be, on their of the Palazzo Chigi Saracini specific feast day: the vibrant Ascendit Deus will be heard at the Vigil Mass of the Ascension, a grand setting of Benedictus sit Deus Pater will appear on Trinity Sunday, and the meditative Scapulis suis will open the Sundays of Lent.

Due to the nature of the Christmas holidays, motets for feasts such as St Stephen (26 December), the Holy Innocents (28 December) and St Thomas Becket (29 December) will be moved to other suitable days. Elegerunt Apostoli Stephanum for the feast of St Stephen initially proved difficult to programme, but the Precentor knowledgeably informed the author that Monday and Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter contain the readings about St Stephen, so the problem was solved!

We hope that performing all of Palestrina’s Offertoria will prove an exciting project for this year and we very much hope that you will be able to join us for some of the Masses at which they will be heard. A complete list of when each motet will be performed can be found on www.westminstercathedralchoir.com. A line from Iubilate Deo universa terra, I think, sums up this project nicely: psalmum dicite nomini eius (sing praises unto the honour of his Name); there will certainly be plenty of that!

Jonathan Allsopp is the Cathedral’s Organ Scholar, serving his second year here.

Oremus

MARCH 2019

I BEG YOUR PARDON

And at the Hour of our Death Fr John Scott

It is not always the case that a dying person is able to receive Holy Communion. If they are, then it is called Viaticum, food for the journey. The Blessed Sacrament is given in the usual way, but then the priest adds this prayer: May the Lord Jesus protect you and lead you to eternal life.

A question was put the other day: ‘Someone who was dying was given the Apostolic Pardon – what is that?’ The answer in short is that it is a grace of God which the Church makes available in the particular situation of a person actually dying. We are familiar with the Anointing of the Sick, but the Pardon goes further in the light of an individual being about to depart this earthly life.

Insofar as they are able, the dying person makes their confession, even by joining in the simple penitential rite mentally if necessary, and then the priest gives the Pardon in these words: Through the holy mysteries of our redemption, may almighty God release you from all punishments in this life and in the life to come.

MARCH 2019

Oremus

May he open to you the gates of paradise and welcome you to everlasting joy. or By the authority which the Apostolic See has given me, I grant you a full pardon and the remission of all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit.

A commentator describes the Pardon in this way: ‘The prayer is a supreme act of mercy and has great power, drawing on the authority given to St Peter to “bind and loose” (Matthew 16:19). It is a gift to a soul on their deathbed and has the added benefit of giving peace to family and friends, assuring them that they have done all they could do to bring a soul closer to the gates of Paradise’.

Together these prayers reinforce our awareness of the importance of the Church’s ministry to the dying; we are given these aids to a good death, so let us use them, both for others and with the hope of receiving them ourselves.

Ignaz von Wessenberg (1774-1860) on his deathbed having received the Last Sacraments, by G. Gagg, 1860.

11

A HOMILY FOR CANDLEMAS

© Michael Spiller

Religious Celebrate the Presentation and

Longstone Lighthouse

Cardinal Vincent Nichols It is a real pleasure for me to see so many women and men in Religious and Consecrated Life here in the Cathedral today. As I thank you for your presence, I thank you too for all that you do in the service of Jesus Christ and his Church. Today’s feast does much to enrich our understanding of both.

The infant Jesus, one of so many who would have been presented in the Temple every week, was picked out by Simeon as the Saviour, bringing light and glory both for those who know God, and those to whom the Good News must still be brought. Through your commitment to consecrated life, you too have seen in the infant Jesus a Saviour, and you too have been chosen

by God to play your part in spreading the message of salvation. This theme of light is most characteristic of the Feast of the Presentation. The symbolism is rich indeed. And I should like to reflect on this now.

I was recently given a card with a picture of a lighthouse on the front, offered to me as an image of my ministry. My first thought: a lighthouse 12

is no use without the light! There would be no lighthouse without the light at its heart. There would be no Church without Christ. It is through Christ that we can come to see the face of the Father; it is in Christ that we seek to live; it is with Christ that we walk, each day of our lives.

in our purpose, in acknowledging our utter dependence on Christ for all we do, as we seek to live out the promises we have made. Without him, without his light, we are useless. When our faces are turned towards him, then we may just reflect his light more fully, despite the faults that mark us and distort his light.

Then a second thought: The effectiveness of a lighthouse depends to a great extent on what surrounds the light: the mirrors and how those mirrors that reflect the light are arranged, where the lighthouse is placed, how well it is looked after. To see the Church as being like the mirrors in a lighthouse, reflecting the light of Christ, is to recall an image of the Church that dates from the Fathers. The prophet Malachi speaks of the ‘Sun of Righteousness’, a phrase that maintains its familiarity for us through one of our best-loved Christmas carols. Christ is indeed that Sun from which the Church derives a certain ‘borrowed splendour’, just as the moon borrows its light from the sun. This is not just a nice image from an ecclesiology textbook. It is helpful in grounding us

A third thought: The placement of a lighthouse is critical. If it is in the wrong place, then its effectiveness is compromised, and ships may founder on unmarked rocks. For people who have consecrated their lives, being in the right place to shine the light of Christ for others is so important. In the Church of today, it is so often Religious sisters and brothers who have the gift of knowing where that is. You often know the rocky places on which you must make your presence visible. There are no lighthouses in the amusement arcades of Great Yarmouth! The outstanding witness and work of Religious in the fight against modern slavery is just one example.

The most recent edition of Oremus, the Cathedral magazine, contains an article about the unique role of Religious in Oremus

MARCH 2019

A HOMILY FOR CANDLEMAS/ POPE FRANCIS AT THE ROTA

their Consecration fighting human trafficking in the UK. It tells how the Religious are involved in direct, front-line ministry to those who have fallen victim to traffickers.

How grateful I am to all those who are responding so generously to this need in our diocese today.

Thought number four: A lighthouse can be technically brilliant and perfectly placed, but if it is not maintained then, sooner or later, disaster will strike: the light will go out. All Christian people must take the time to maintain their faith, but it is a special priority for those who are committed to Christ in the ways that you are. That work of maintenance is expressed, certainly, in our commitment to our communities.

Charity in a community can sometimes be a raw thing; it often has to be an act

of the will; but we cannot do without it as we seek to conform ourselves more closely to Christ, day by day. But above all, our work of maintenance stands or falls in our life of prayer: an essential and indispensable component of our relationship with God. Temptations to cut corners are everywhere: there are so many needs, important ones, that must be met; there are any number of people who need our help, or administrative tasks to be done. But we must never let the good prevent us from seeking the perfect. Today, as we renew our commitment to consecrated life, let us renew, in particular, our commitment to prayer; let us commit ourselves afresh to conform our lives, through prayer, to the ‘compassionate and trustworthy’ Christ of whom the Letter to the Hebrews speaks.

One final thought: When the lighthouse has done its work, when it has guided the ship safely to harbour, what will those who disembark find?

Some of you may have visited the tidal island off Newborough on Anglesey: ‘the island of the blessed’, some call it. There the lighthouse is dwarfed, at the highest point of the island, by a towering cross. The island is associated, too, with a patron saint of lovers. Our works of witness and faithfulness cannot be separated from the Cross, for us, or for those we serve. But our work can, and must, be underpinned by love. Love for one another, expressed not least in the charity of community living; love for those to whom we minister; above all, love for Jesus Christ, the light that the darkness cannot overcome, whose Presentation we celebrate today.

The Goods of Marriage Pope Francis met with members of the Apostolic Tribunal of the Roman Rota at the end of January. In his address he praised the virtues of unity and fidelity, which he said members of the Rota frequently experience in their service.

The tribunal is the Catholic Church's highest court, and primarily hears cases regarding the nullity of matrimony, though its jurisdiction extends to any type of judicial and non-administrative case related to Canon Law.

The book of the Rota’s decisions in 1697

The Holy Father said the two ‘marital goods’ of unity and fidelity first of all pertain to the essence of the Church of Christ. Society, he said, frequently does not help couples live these virtues. ‘The MARCH 2019

Oremus

society in which we live is becoming more and more secularized, and does not promote growth in faith, with the result that the Catholic faithful must struggle to witness to a way of life modelled on the Gospel.’ Unity and fidelity are necessary, not only in a married couple's relationship, but also in all interpersonal and societal relations.

‘We are all aware of the inconveniences that arise in civil society when promises are not kept,’ he said.

The Church's ministers need to help prepare couples for a life of generous unity and faithful love. This preparation should be done long before marriage and as couples near their wedding date, as well as throughout their married life. ‘Pastors are the main actors in this matrimonial formation, by virtue of their office and ministry, he noted, though all layers of the Church community need to be involved in preparing couples. He turned to the example of Ss Aquila and Priscilla, a married couple who helped St Paul in his evangelizing mission, whom the Apostle to the Gentiles called his synergoi, or fellow workers.

‘We are struck and moved by Paul’s high recognition of the missionary work of these spouses, and at the same time we recognize how this synergy was a precious gift of the Spirit to the first Christian communities.

The Pope also listed several ways in which the Church can help married couples live in unity and fidelity: nearness to the Word of God, catechesis, frequent reception of the Sacraments, spiritual direction, and charitable works towards other families and those most in need. Married couples who live generous unity and faithful love are a special resource for the Church's pastoral work. ‘They offer everyone an example of true love and become witnesses and co-workers in the fruitfulness of the Church itself.’ This type of married couple, he said, ‘reflects the image and likeness of God’.

Pope Francis invited members of the Roman Rota tribunal to deliver justice with their juridical sentences.

Their rulings, he said, help to correctly interpret Marriage law and promote the spiritual health and faith of spouses.

13

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PRIESTHOOD

A Priest in Poverty – Mr Thomas Churchill Edwin H Burton Among the thousands of dim old records kept at Archbishop’s House [now at the Diocesan Archives in Kensington] one sometimes finds hidden away among papers dealing with the bygone history of the Church in this country, a letter or document which is of more direct human interest. One such letter, which certainly has not lost the power of awaking sympathy after two hundred years, is found among the papers belonging to the year 1704. It is the letter of an old priest, who begins: ‘After 52 years being missioner, to turn beggar I am ashamed’. He is writing to the President of the English College at Douay to ask him to obtain some help from the Pope, ‘whose priest and missioner I am’. In it he gives the story of his life, which is a story of labour for the Church, of varied fortunes and repeated misfortunes, all heroically undertaken and patiently suffered till it ends in old age and poverty and helplessness, and this pathetic cry for aid.

A good deal is known about the writer, but here we have only space to give a brief summary of this one letter, which tells much of the life and trials of a priest in a period of which the records are scanty. It was not the age of martyrdoms, but every priest had to face persecution, pursuit and sometimes capture, spoliation and imprisonment; and of all these the Reverend Thomas Churchill had his share.

The Duke of Marlborough, from a junior branch of Mr Thomas Churchill’s family, by an anonymous artist

14

Thomas Churchill came of the well-known family which gave us that great general, the Duke of Marlborough, to say nothing of statesmen of some notoriety. But as he is careful to point out, he belongs to an elder branch. ‘I am a gentleman born of a more ancient stock than the present Duke of Marlborough,’ and he explains that his grandfather, in the time of James I, ‘raised this Duke’s ancestor to be his clerk and afterward to be Register of Lincoln’s Inn’. He had an unfortunate boyhood, for he tells us that after his grandfather died of the plague, the trustees so mismanaged the estate that his father received no benefit, and, hoping to improve his affairs, undertook a voyage to the Indies, during which he was lost at sea. Meanwhile his wife died of the plague, leaving Thomas, then a boy at school, an orphan; and the lad, being neglected by his relatives, was left to the care of an old nurse.

‘This,’ he says ‘was God’s pleasure, for by this means I fell into the hands of my mother’s brother, the Reverend James Haselwood,’ and through this good priest the boy was received into the Church and in due time sent to Douay to study for the priesthood.

In 1653 Thomas Churchill returned to England a priest, and after several difficulties, during which he was forced, as he quaintly observes, ‘to play the coney and dig my own bury,’ he managed to provide means of exercising his holy ministry.

‘Within two years after the Restoration,’ he says, ‘I had got excellent Church stuff and all things fit to put in a chapel, if toleration had been granted us; but these goods I did not long enjoy. In Christmas night, whilst I was helping some in the country, a fire broke out in my lodgings in London and consumed all.’

Not disheartened, he made a new start and we get an interesting glimpse of the activities of a priest in those days.

‘Then,’ he continues ‘I betook myself wholly to the country, and in the plague years, which raged most in the year 1665, most of the poor farmers in Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Middlesex were under my charge and, God be praised, in all that sad time there was not a child of 13 years of age but once a month or five weeks I saw at the sacraments. This course I held till Oates his plot [the so-called Popish Plot fabricated

by Titus Oates, which ran on between 1678 and 1681] at the beginning of which when Mr Edward Petre was taken at Sir Charles Shelley’s in the Hall, I was in the Chapel, over the hall, saying Mass, and afterwards they making a new search for arms, I slipped into the room of a servant who was sick and frantic in his fits. And so I escaped their hands in the name of Our Lord, but this did not fright me out of my circuit. When by day I could not, by night I travelled, till on the day the Lord Oremus

MARCH 2019

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PRIESTHOOD

© Robert Chambers’ Book of Days

Saddened and now advanced in years, he followed King James in France and Ireland. Then he went into Scotland to aid the English Catholics who went to help Dundee, and he saw fighting both by land and sea. After Dundee’s death he was captured and imprisoned for two years. When he escaped, he went to La Hogue and afterwards to Dunkirk, whence he ventured to return to England, only to be taken and imprisoned once more. As nothing could be proved against him he was released, but told that his presence in the country was dangerous both to himself and those who should harbour him. So he returned to Dunkirk, where his old age was spent. His last days were sad. Writing this letter in September, 1704, in handwriting which strangely recalls that of [Blessed John Henry,] Cardinal Newman in his old age, he says he has been there seven years – ‘three of them little better than bedridden, the use of my limbs being taken from me, all my money is spent and I cannot earn’. He needed constant help and the small pension he had from the exiled court was quite insufficient. So he ends: ‘For God’s sake consider my sad condition. You know the style of the Roman Court and without supply from thence through your intercession in short time I must inevitably starve, who am, dear Sir, your old acquaintance, friend and servant, Thomas Churchill’.

What help came and whether it came in time, we know not. Mr Churchill died during the following year, and only the bare fact of his death is recorded.

This account was published in the March 1919 edition of the Westminster Cathedral Chronicle.

Titus Oates, fabricator of the Popish Plot, was finally unmasked, tried and pilloried

Stafford was called to the bar, that very day, betrayed by a false brother, one Lewis by name, a narrative was published against me in which all constables and other officers had orders to take me up wherever they could find me.’ Exposed to this danger, Mr Churchill fled to Flanders, where he remained half a year, till he returned to England under an assumed name as chaplain to lady Stafford, with whom he lived seven years.

An unexpected field of labour was now opened up to him, for when King James came to the throne and times grew better for Catholics, the Catholics of Jamaica petitioned to have priests sent over to them. Mr Churchill was interested, and finding no priest able to go he volunteered to undertake the work himself. The king gave him a pension of £200 a year and the Duke of Albemarle, who was going there as governor, added another hundred. At first he was very successful in his new sphere of work. ‘I opened chapels, I preached, said divine service (i.e. said Mass), visited the sick, buried the dead, publicly. I got leave for my priests to go in a distinct habit, and orders that if any did molest them, they should be severely punished. In time I got foundations for four parishes, all this in less than a year.’ At length it was determined that he should return home to report to the king the progress of affairs.

But as soon as he arrived, James fled and William III became king. They were evil days for Catholics and Mr Churchill fell a victim to the mob, for though he escaped, they plundered all his goods and soon after he learned that all the results of his labours in Jamaica had perished.

MARCH 2019

Oremus

15

CATHEDRAL HISTORY

Part of Bentley's drawings for the marble sea

The Lost Sea of Westminster Patrick Rogers The main players in this historical drama are a Cardinal in a hurry, an architect who knew that time was running out for him and another architect with an eye for a bargain. The action takes place nearly one hundred and twenty years ago in South-west London and Norwich. In the summer of 1901 Cardinal Herbert Vaughan, the founder of the Cathedral, was a disappointed man. The Thirteenth Centenary of the landing of St Augustine had come and gone. So had the Golden Jubilee of the Restoration of the Catholic Hierarchy on 29 September 1900 – a date provisionally fixed for the Cathedral’s consecration and opening. Yet the building was still unfinished. Writing in The Tablet in June 1902, the Cardinal sadly explained that a further £16,000 was required for work to be completed and to pay off liabilities. Canon Law requires that a church must be free of debt before consecration can take place.

Meanwhile, John Francis Bentley, the Cathedral architect, was working impossible hours. Since starting on the Cathedral in 1895 he had suffered two paralytic strokes – the first in late 1898 and a more serious one in the summer of 1901. He had experienced considerable disappointment when the Cardinal had overruled him – ordering what Bentley regarded as an unsuitable altar of unadorned Cornish granite, Algerian onyx columns (subsequently rejected) for the baldacchino, and a pulpit and throne made in Rome. Knowing that time was running out for him, Bentley rapidly laid down a scheme for the marble revetment of the nave, sanctuary and side chapels.

But his main concern was the floor. Bentley’s plan for the nave floor consisted of wave-like cipollino marble, inset with many types of fish – an allusion to the Church as a ship carrying the faithful over the troubled sea of life. His designs show the 16

floor divided into 10 foot by 9 foot sections, each containing five waved bands with inlaid fish. Alternate compartments of light grey marble framed by small black and white squares are interspersed at regular intervals by pink or blue tesserae set in a ground of golden yellow, all enclosed within a 9 inch dark marble border. Each 10 foot panel is divided from its neighbour by a 2 foot 9 inch strip of light marble running the length of each bay. Between bays in the breadth of the piers are 4 foot circles of rose-red marble, alternating with lozenges of green enclosed in tesserae-filled squares of equal diameter.

‘What a grand floor!’ wrote Cardinal Vaughan when the design finally reached him in October 1901 and promptly had it costed. The estimate was £1 per square foot or £15,000 for the whole area. This would have doubled the debt on the Cathedral to £31,000 (£2.15 million today) and would have postponed consecration indefinitely. To Bentley’s dismay, the Cardinal cancelled the scheme. Writing after the architect’s death a few months later, he justified his decision on the grounds of cold, damp and the noise of chairs scraping on the marble. But it is clear that the overriding factor was economic.

Some concession was made years later in the shape of marble paving (to Bentley’s designs) of the main entrance narthex and between the piers and columns. But the nave was fitted out with wood block flooring.

Now the scene switches to Norwich, to the boardroom of the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society on 6 December 1901. George Skipper, architect for Surrey House, the company’s new head offices, announces to the directors that a large consignment of very fine marble ordered for Westminster Cathedral has unexpectedly become available.

A strike in the Italian quarries has resulted in it arriving too Oremus

MARCH 2019

CATHEDRAL HISTORY late to be used there. Skipper had inspected the marble and provided samples. The interior of Surrey House could be fitted out with it at the bargain price of £8,139. The board approved. The marble was bought, decoration proceeded and Surrey House was completed and occupied in 1904.

Surrey House is now a cornucopia of polished marble - and what marble! Column after column – six in the vestibule, forty more in the 60 foot by 60 foot marble hall – more main columns than in the whole of the Cathedral but in a fraction of the space. Slab after slab on the walls and galleries, many of them 2 inches thick. The columns in light green Greek cipollino, very strikingly patterned, together with dark green verde antico. Greek rosso antico and lighter red Skyros on the 30 foot high walls. Also on the walls staircases and floors are Italian varieties – pink and white alabaster, violet breccia, grey bardiglio, white-veined pavonazzo and white statuary from Carrara. Particularly attractive are the eight little pillars of rare yellow Siena which support the air fountain in the centre of the hall.

We will never know for sure what happened over a century ago and how the marble became unexpectedly available. As a pamphlet on Skipper’s firm of architects put it in 1980: ‘The reasons have never been adequately elucidated’. The firm of Farmer and Brindley, which undertook the marble work in Surrey House, was one which did much of the work (including the paving) in the Cathedral. They could well have imported the marble on Bentley’s instructions.

It seems very likely that Bentley, knowing that after two strokes the sands were running out for him, and determined to supervise as much of the work in the Cathedral as he could, went ahead and ordered the marble for his sea in the expectation that it would be approved. As the Cardinal was later to write: ‘Mr Bentley was a poet; he cared little for economy’. The Cardinal’s decision must have come as a bitter blow. So what would the Cathedral’s marble sea have looked like? Bentley’s drawings, his marble floor in the narthex and the fish and other sea creatures on the floor of St Andrew’s Chapel can give us some idea, though only a very limited one. For the rest we can only imagine.

© Adrian S Pye

The marbles which suddenly became available to the market at the end of 1901 closely resemble those intended by Bentley for his marble sea. The huge amount of wavy green cipollino, smaller quantities of verde antico, rosso antico, Skyros, Siena, bardiglio and the rest would have served him very well. The existing paving of the Cathedral’s entrance

narthex and that between the columns and piers employ virtually the same marbles. The explanation of a delayed shipment in 1901 is unconvincing. The Cathedral’s structural nave columns were in place by December 1900 and decorative marble work did not start until 1902.

The Marble Hall at Surrey House – looks familiar?

MARCH 2019

Oremus

17

MONTHLY ALBUM

Beneath the Grand Organ, Cardinal Vincent blesses the candles

Although the Mass for Religious and Consecrated Life always takes place on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, it has not always included the full Candlemas ceremonies. This year it did; and Cardinal Vincent’s homily can be read on pages 12 and 13 of this edition. In one sense, Candlemas has lost some of its domestic immediacy since the introduction of gas and then electric lighting.

The older practice was to include within the blessing of candles not only those used on the day, but those to be burned in the church through the year, as well as any supplies which the faithful might bring from their own homes for blessing. We can hardly bring our electricity bills for blessing; but perhaps next year we might bring at least a token candle or two from home, to be burnt later before a crucifix or statue?

© Mazur/catholicnews.org

© Mazur/catholicnews.org

Religious Illuminated

Different habits, facing in different directions, apparently, but all illuminated by the same light.

18

Oremus

MARCH 2019

MONTHLY ALBUM

A pilgrimage to the Cathedral for the Annual Lourdes Mass has the advantage of less changeable weather than is frequently encountered in Southern France. In other respects many of the sights are familiar; the faces of the sick, the helpers and the ordinary pilgrims. Redcaps were out in force with banners and torches, and the musicians set the scene both before and during Mass in acclamation and in quieter reflective tone during the anointing. It is a most worthwhile event and reminds us of what we have the chance to experience in its fulness on the Diocesan Pilgrimage in the summer.

A central part of the Mass is the Anointing of the Sick, carried out by all the priests present

© Comms office

© Comms office

Mass in honour of Our Lady of Lourdes

Our Lady is processed out of the Cathedral

Honouring St Blaise

The crowd awaits the Blessing of Throats after the 12.30pm Mass

We do not do as much as we might like to keep the feast of St Blaise. By an unfortunate clash of Calendars, his day is not observed liturgically here in Westminster, since we keep the day of three English saints and Archbishops of Canterbury, Laurence, Dunstan and Theodore. Therefore maintaining the Blessing of Throats is the best that we can manage, although even that had to be transferred this year, since February 3rd fell on the Sunday and the numbers in the Cathedral precluded offering the blessing. Still, the usual crowds turned out on the Monday, when Fr Daniel (in green vestments for the 12.30pm Mass), Canon Christopher and Fr Andrew took their turn in blessing. Describing the rite to a Confirmation Group, Fr John was immediately asked if the blessing candles are The candles lie ready, with the text of the lit. No; although there is a photo from the 1930s of children having their throats blessing attached and a red stole, a reminder blessed at St Etheldreda’s, Ely Place with the candles lit. Those were the days! that St Blaise is honoured as a martyr MARCH 2019

Oremus

19

JEAN GUILLOU RIP

© G. Garitan

The Death of a Visionary Titulaire

Jean Guillou in 2014

With sadness we record the death of Paris’ longest-serving organist, the world-renowned Jean Guillou, titulaire at Saint-Eustache. Last year he was awarded the medal of the Royal College of Organists; the citation for the award reads: Jean Guillou was born in 1930. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 15 years and studied with Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, and Olivier Messiaen. He was awarded the premier prix in organ, harmony, counterpoint, and fugue. In 1955, M. Guillou was appointed professor of organ and composition at the Instituto di Musica Sacra of Lisbon, and after a period in Berlin he returned to Paris, where he was appointed titular organist of the church of Saint-Eustache in 1963.

A distinguished interpreter of organ literature spanning the 18th century to the present day, Jean Guillou is also recognised as a leading composer.

His works range from symphonies and concertos for piano and organ, to chamber and choral music, solo organ works, and works for organ with other 20

instruments. His organ compositions often mirror his virtuosic and poetic playing and improvising, and they explore inimitably unique soundcolours through innovative registrations.

Some works are titled generically, such as the early Fantaisie and the monumental Toccata; some works carry poetic or literary titles, such as the two Ballades ossianiques, the seven Sagas, and the ground-breaking Alice in Organland. This is a 30-minute concert work (and homage to Lewis Carroll) for organ and narrator which explores the tonal diversity of the organ. M. Guillou provided his own text, as he has done in other works. The organ is not an isolated instrument for him. There are seven organ concertos, and works for combinations such as piano and organ; piano, organ, and percussion; flute and organ; and cello and organ. The majority of his works are published by Schott Music.

M. Guillou has also enriched the repertoire through a series of extraordinary transcriptions of works by composers as diverse as Bach, Handel, Liszt, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky. As an outstanding pianist, he revived Julius Reubke’s Piano Sonata, and has played both the organ and piano sonatas of this composer in concert and on a recording. He has made more than 100 recordings and has taught interpretation and improvisation in many masterclasses worldwide.

With the publication of his book The Organ: Memory and Future, M. Guillou has emerged as a leading figure in the field of organ theory and design. His ideas have generated remarkable fruits across Europe. Several revolutionary organs built according to his plans can be heard through his recordings. His aims have been to craft a new, richer, and more poetic organ, and to exploit the instrument’s complex, varied nature.

For instance, at the Tenerife Auditorium,

M. Guillou thought up the idea to add eight supplementary keyboards to this multi-sectional instrument, allowing the organ to be used by an ‘orchestra’ of organists playing simultaneously. This configuration allows for the interpretation of symphonic transcriptions, repertoire, improvisations, and new works.

Espousing innovation, and showing passion and absolute commitment to the acts of performance, composition, and organ construction, M. Guillou has been a towering figure for more than six decades. In recognition of his distinguished achievement in organ playing and composition, the Medal of the Royal College of Organists is awarded to M. Jean Guillou.

Martin Baker adds: La Révolte des Orgues is a work for 9 organists, 9 organs, percussion and of necessity - a conductor. It begins with a single pecked note on the first organ, followed by three rapid strikes on the woodblocks and a period of silence, and over 30 minutes builds to a climax of apocalyptic proportions. Written for the opening of the organ in the Tenerife concert hall (but not actually performed there until May 2015), La Révolte has received twelve performances around Europe since May 2007. The conception of a work on this scale (and title) is typical of the radical creativity of the late Jean Guillou, the French organist/ composer whom I have been privileged to know and work with over the last 12 years, but whose influence has been emanating from Paris since the 1960s.

One might say his musical language is ‘beyond grammar’ - there is very little on the page that looks familiar and yet, as the capacity audiences at performances of this work have shown, his music captures the imaginations of the general public, not through any cheap trickery but primarily through the electrical surge that courses through Oremus

MARCH 2019

© Chabe01

JEAN GUILLOU RIP/DIVINE INTERVENTION?

The church of Saint-Eustache, in the Parisian district of Les Halles; not a small church

everything he writes and plays. I last saw him in April at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg for the most recent performance of La Révolte. It was his 88th birthday; he improvised with the freshness of someone in his 20s, played his own transcription of Mussorgsky’s Pictures from memory, then went on to play (as always) the most difficult

part in La Révolte. The hall was packed and he received extended standing ovations after both halves. He is a great loss to the musical world, but it is some comfort to know that his incredible achievements were acknowledged last year by his acceptance of the highest honour of the Royal College of Organists.

Readers may gain an insight into one aspect of M. Guillou’s playing by watching this: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=grPzRBResVQ . When news of M. Guillou’s death was received, Peter Stevens played Saga 6 at the end of the Sunday 5.30 pm Mass, which he had previously played in the composer’s presence at the RCO award ceremony.

When It’s not your Time

On 9 February 1996, the London Docklands bombing occurred when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated a powerful truck bomb in South Quay. The blast devastated the area and caused widespread damage.

Two people were killed, and more than 100 were injured, some permanently.

The attack marked an end to the IRA’s 17-month ceasefire.

MARCH 2019

Oremus

I had left work at after 6pm on that Friday and the DLR wasn’t running; not unusual, as it was an often unreliable service plagued with many problems. I walked with a colleague in the hope of picking up a service from South Quay. We thought we might go for a drink at a bar near the station, which was packed with Friday evening workers, to bide some time until the trains were up and running.

We didn’t have enough cash between us for even one drink (incidentally, the bar took some of the blast). The station was partially cordoned off with tape, but we were free to move around, even walking under the bridge, unwittingly past the truck and close to the kiosk where the shopkeepers died.

Many people were milling about, and it looked like something had been going on. My colleague suggested we take the bus from the stop right outside the station. However, there

was a sizeable queue, and I preferred to keep moving and walk to Westferry station, about ten minutes away, to pick up a train from there, which we did, about the time that the bomb exploded.

We had walked within a few feet of where the bomb had been planted, and avoided waiting around. It was as though we were being guided away to safety, divine intervention maybe?

© Belfast Telegraph

My father was stationed in East Africa for much of the Second World War, serving in the RAF. He never spoke much of it, just saying: ‘war is a terrible thing’. He did mention this to me, though, which has stuck in my mind ever since I was a teenager. He was due to go on a training exercise as part of a plane crew but, for some reason, was swapped around for another serviceman at the last minute.

The plane crashed on takeoff and there were no survivors.

Devastation from the Docklands bomb in 1996 21

NEWS FROM THE ROYAL ACADEMY

Free Displays at the RA, January - June The Royal Academy of Arts has recently undergone a transformative redevelopment, providing 70 per cent more public space across its two-acre campus. This has enabled the Royal Academy to expand its temporary, free displays offer, exploring the RA’s collection, the work of its Royal Academicians, and the activity of the RA Schools, which celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2019.

New Free Displays The Making of an Artist: Learning to Draw The Vaults From 5 January The Vaults exhibit The Making of an Artist: Learning to Draw presents a formidable selection of plaster casts from the early years of the RA Schools, displayed together with works on paper from the RA’s Collection, illustrating the ways in which drawing was taught at the Academy for over 200 years from 1769. The more recent history of the RA Schools is the focus of a new display entitled The RA Schools since 1945, which includes life drawings made by current Academicians Paul Huxley and Bryan Kneale during their time as RA Schools students; Leonard Rosoman’s drawing of the RA Schools corridor haunted by the ghost of former Keeper W.W. Russell; a sketchbook of work made in Madrid by former RA Schools student Lesley Hicks after receiving the Richard Ford Award; and Vanessa Jackson’s sketches of work shown by prospective RA Schools students at interview.

‘He has been here and fired a gun’: Turner, Constable and the Royal Academy A special display in the Collection Gallery 12 January – 31 March The Royal Academy will reunite works by two of the RA Schools’ most illustrious graduates, J M W Turner (1775-1851) and John Constable (1776-1837), in a retelling of one of the most legendary events in the history of the Summer Exhibition.

© Tate Britain

On the eve of the Summer Exhibition 1832, Academicians gathered for Varnishing Day, an opportunity to make last minute revisions to their artworks. When Turner saw his cool-

John Constable’s The Opening of Waterloo Bridge 22

toned seascape Helvoetsluys hung next to Constable’s scarletflecked Thames scene The Opening of Waterloo Bridge, Turner allegedly added a small dab of red paint to his canvas, which he then converted into an image of a buoy floating in the sea.

His intention, seemingly, was to suggest by the nonchalant addition of this one pictorial detail that Constable’s painting, traversed by swathes of scarlet paint, was unnaturally ruddy in character. This is a judgment that later critics and even filmmakers (such as Mike Leigh in Mr Turner, 2014), have tended to support. By reuniting both pictures in the newly inaugurated Collection Gallery, the RA invites visitors to make up their own minds regarding the relationship between the two rivals.

The Anatomy Professor: Doctors, Death and Dining at the RA The Tennant Gallery 18 January – 17 March Celebrating 250 years of the Royal Academy Schools, The Anatomy Professor: Doctors, Death and Dining at the RA will shine a light on the Academy’s Professors of Anatomy. Tainted by rumours of bodysnatching and skulduggery, anatomy was a controversial subject, yet the Royal Academy promoted anatomical training for artists when it was founded in 1768, appointing the influential physician William Hunter (17181783) as its first Professor of Anatomy.

Hunter was followed by a succession of anatomists and physicians with very different approaches as well as wide-ranging specialisms and interests from embryology and psychiatry to hot-air ballooning and Japanese art. The professors were often closely involved with the social life of the Academy, and one of them, John Marshall (1818-1891), even ran the RA Dining Club. The display will feature portraits of selected professors alongside exhibits relating to their lives and involvement with the Royal Academy. Also on show will be selected items from the Academy’s important collection of anatomical art works, including a striking plaster cast of a flayed cadaver made by William Hunter.

Invisible Landscapes: Imagination (Act III) Architecture Studio 2 February – 1 April Invisible Landscapes is an almost year-long programme of experimental interventions exploring the impact of emerging technologies on architecture and society. The final act, Imagination (Act III) will look at how virtual and augmented reality is pushing imaginative possibilities of architecture, blurring the boundaries between the physical and the virtual. This project presents different visions in which new technologies are being employed to reconfigure, in the near future, how we relate to the world around us and of architectural production.

Oremus reproduces Constable’s The Opening of Waterloo Bridge here as incentive for readers to visit the Royal Academy this month and make their own judgment as to the contrast with Turner’s work.

Oremus

MARCH 2019

CATHEDRAL HISTORY

Cathedral History: A Pictorial Record Cardinal Hume in Procession on Palm Sunday, 5 April 1998

Paul Tobin In the picture Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster (1976-1999), is seen processing down Ambrosden Avenue from the Cathedral Hall, where the Blessing of Palms had just taken place, in order to enter the Cathedral through the West Door. As the Cardinal entered the church, the choir would sing the Ingrediente Domino to the well-known setting by George Malcom, Master of Music (1947-1959).

From left to right can be seen Frs (now Monsignori) Philip Whitmore and Jim Curry. The Deacon is the Rev Laurence

Hemming and behind the Cardinal is Canon Daniel Cronin, Master of Ceremonies, in purple cassock with two current Cathedral servers, Joseph Samuel and Patrick Neal on either side of him. Judging by the vestments, this was obviously a very windy day.

The flat on the first floor (with balcony) was for many years occupied by the former Prime Minister, Lord (Harold) Wilson and his wife, Mary until their deaths in 1995 and 2018 respectively. Lady Wilson died at the age of 102, the first prime ministerial spouse to become a centenarian.

✁

I wish to receive Oremus by post PLEASE COMPLETE IN BLOCK CAPITALS I wish to receive Oremus by post I enclose a cheque for £

payable to Oremus

I enclose a donation of £ Name: Address: Postcode: For further information please call Oremus: 020 7798 9052 or go to Gift Shop On Line: www.westminstercathedralshop.co.uk and click on ‘Subscriptions’.

We would like to thank our readers for their continued support and all those who send donations.

Annual postal rates: UK £25; Europe £50; Rest of the world £60.

Send to: Oremus, 42 Francis Street, London SW1P 1QW United Kingdom

MARCH 2019

Oremus

23

DIARY

The Month of

March

Holy Father’s Prayer Intention: EVANGELISATION: That Christian communities, especially those who are persecuted, feel that they are close to Christ and have their rights respected.

Friday 1 March

Friday Abstinence ST DAVID, Bishop, Patron of Wales Ps Week 3 2.30pm World Day of Prayer Service at St Margaret’s Church, Parliament Square

Saturday 2 March Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday 6pm Victoria Choir sings at Mass Sunday 3 March Ps Week 4 8th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) MacMillan – Westminster Mass Dupré – Laudate Dominum Organ: Dupré – Esquisse in B flat minor (Trois Esquisses) 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Bevan – Magnificat octavi toni Schütz – Cantate Domino Organ: Reger – Dankpsalm 4.30pm Deaf Service Mass (Cathedral Hall) 4.45pm Organ Recital: Tim Harper (Ripon Cathedral)

Monday 4 March Feria (St Casimir)

Tuesday 5 March Feria 5.30pm Chapter Mass

Wednesday 6 March

Fast & Abstinence ASH WEDNESDAY Ashes are imposed at all Masses 5.30pm Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Plainsong – Missa XVIII Allegri – Miserere mei, Deus Byrd – Emendemus in melius

24

© Francesco Bartolozzi

2019

’Make your fold with the sheep; flee from the wolves: depart not from the Church’, St Cyril admonished his people. He himself was hounded by enemies and heretics for most of his life, and although he was often in exile from his diocese, he never abandoned the Church. Born about 315, he was brought up in Jerusalem and speaks about the appearance of the sites of the Nativity and Holy Sepulchre before they were ‘improved’ by human hands as if he were a witness. After being ordained he was put in charge of the instruction of catechumens, and we still have these lectures as a witness to the teaching of the Early Church. Consecrated as bishop of Jerusalem, and often under attack, he lived to attend the Council at Constantinople in 381 where the Nicene Creed and orthodoxy triumphed, which gave him eight years of peace in Jerusalem before he died in 386, at about seventy years old.

St Cyril of Jerusalem

Thursday 7 March Lent Feria (Ss Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs)

Friday 8 March Friday Abstinence Lent Feria (St John of God, Religious) 6.30pm Stations of the Cross Saturday 9 March Lent Feria (St Frances of Rome, Religious) 3pm Rite of Election (First Service) 4pm Extraordinary Form Mass (Lady Chapel) 6pm Schola of the Cardinal Vaughan School sings at Mass

Sunday 10 March Ps Week 1 1st SUNDAY OF LENT 9am Family Mass 9.30am – 1.30pm SVP Book Sale (Cathedral Hall) 10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Plainsong – Missa XVII Palestrina – Scapulis suis Malcolm – Scapulis suis 3pm Rite of Election (Second Service) 4.45pm Organ Recital: Martin Baker (Westminster Cathedral)

Sunday 17 March Ps Week 2 2nd SUNDAY OF LENT 10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Palestrina – Missa Emendemus in melius Palestrina – Peccantem me quotidie 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Plainsong – Magnificat primi toni Sheppard – Media vita 4.45pm Organ Recital: Jonathan Allsopp (Westminster Cathedral) Monday 18 March Lent Feria (St Cyril of Jerusalem) 5pm First Vespers 5.30pm Vigil Mass of St Joseph

Tuesday 19 March ST JOSEPH, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Patron of the diocese 4.45pm Solemn Vespers (Boys’ Voices, Main Sanctuary) 5.30pm Solemn Mass (Men’s Voices) Hassler – Missa secunda Palestrina – Veritas mea Ett – Te Ioseph celebrant Organ: Tournemire – Postlude Choral (L’Orgue mystique XX)

Monday 11 March Lent Feria

Tuesday 12 March Lent Feria 5.30pm Notre Dame University attends Mass

Wednesday 13 March Lent Feria © Didier Descouens

MARCH

Thursday 14 March Lent Feria

Friday 15 March Friday Abstinence Lent Feria 6.30pm Stations of the Cross Family Fast Day Saturday 16 March Lent Feria 6pm Woldingham School Choir sings at Mass

The Death of St Joseph by Domenico Clavarino

Wednesday 20 March Lent Feria 10.30am, 12.30, 1.05 and 5.30pm Mass in Cathedral Hall 7.30pm Stabat Mater Concert: Music and Meditations Oremus

MARCH 2019

DIARY AND NOTICES Thursday 21 March

Wednesday 27 March

Lent Feria

Friday 22 March Friday Abstinence Lent Feria 6.30pm Stations of the Cross Saturday 23 March

Lent Feria 5.30pm Society of St Augustine attends Mass

Thursday 28 March Lent Feria

Lent Feria (St Turibius of Mogrovejo, Bishop) 6pm RCIA Scrutiny at Mass

Friday 29 March

Sunday 24 March

Saturday 30 March

Ps Week 3

3rd SUNDAY OF LENT 10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Berkeley – Mass for Five Voices Tallis – Suscipe, quaeso, Domine Palestrina – Super flumina Babylonis 2pm Filipino Club Tea Dance (Cathedral Hall) 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Viadana – Magnificat primi toni Tallis – Si enim iniquitates Organ: Bruhns – Praeludium in E minor 4.45pm Organ Recital: Peter Stevens (Organ) and David de Winter (Tenor) (Westminster Cathedral)

Monday 25 March

THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD 5pm Solemn Second Vespers 5.30pm Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Palestrina – Missa Nigra sum Victoria – Ave Maria a 8 Organ: Mulet – Carillon-Sortie

Friday Abstinence Lent Feria 6.30pm Stations of the Cross

Lent Feria 6pm Peterborough Chamber Choir sings at Mass

Sunday 31 March Ps Week 4 4th SUNDAY OF LENT (Laetare) 10.30am Solemn Mass (Schola of the London Oratory School) 12pm RCIA Scrutiny at Mass 3.30pm Solemn Vespers (English) and Benediction 4.45pm Organ Recital: Francesca Massey (Durham Cathedral) Key to the Diary: Saints’ days and holy days written in BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS denote Sundays and Solemnities, CAPITAL LETTERS denote Feasts, and those not in capitals denote Memorials, whether optional or otherwise. Memorials in brackets are not celebrated liturgically.

Could you work for the

Diocese of Westminster? © Galleria Regionale della Sicilia, Palermo

Join our broad and diverse community today

The Virgin at the Annunciation by Antonello da Messina

Tuesday 26 March

Lent Feria All Day NHS Blood Transfusion Service (Cathedral Hall) MARCH 2019

Oremus

Visit jobs.rcdow.org.uk for the latest opportunities and more information on employee benefits

What Happens and When

Public Services: The Cathedral opens shortly before the first Mass of the day; doors close at 7.00pm, Monday to Saturday, with occasional exceptions.

On Sunday evenings the Cathedral closes after the 7.00pm Mass. On Public and Bank Holidays the Cathedral closes at 5.30pm in the afternoon.

Monday to Friday: Masses: 7.00am; 8.00am; 10.30am (Latin, said); 12.30pm; 1.05pm and 5.30pm (Solemn, sung by the Choir). Morning Prayer (Lady Chapel): 7.40am. Evening Prayer (Latin Vespers* sung by the Lay Clerks in the Lady Chapel): 5.00pm (*except Tuesday when it is sung in English). Rosary is prayed after the 5.30pm Mass.

Saturday: Masses: 8.00am; 9.00am; 10.30am (Solemn Latin, sung by the Choir); and 12.30pm.

Morning Prayer (Lady Chapel): 10.00am. First Evening Prayer of Sunday (Lady Chapel): 5.30pm.

First Mass of Sunday: 6.00pm.

Sunday: Masses: 8.00am; 9.00am; 10.30am (Solemn, sung by the Choir); 12 noon; 5.30pm; and 7.00pm. Morning Prayer (Lady Chapel) 10.00am.

Solemn Vespers and Benediction: 3.30pm. Organ Recital (when scheduled): 4.45pm.

Holy Days of Obligation: As Monday-Friday, Vigil Mass (evening of the previous day) at 5.30pm.

Public Holidays: Masses: 10.30am, 12.30pm, 5.00pm.

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament: This takes place in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel every Monday to Friday following the 1.05pm Mass, until 4.45pm.

Confessions are heard at the following times: Saturday: 10.30am-6.30pm. Sunday: 11.00am1.00pm; and 4.30-7.00pm. Monday-Friday: 11.30am-6.00pm. Public Holidays: 11.00am1.00pm.

Sacred Heart Church, Horseferry Road SW1P 2EF: Sunday Mass 11.00am, Weekday Mass Thursday 12.30pm Funerals: Enquiries about arranging a funeral at the Cathedral or Sacred Heart Church, Horseferry Road, should be made to a priest at Cathedral Clergy House in the first instance.

Throughout the Year Mondays: 11.30am: Prayer Group in the Hinsley Room. 6.30pm: Guild of the Blessed Sacrament in the Cathedral Tuesdays: Walsingham Prayer Group in St George’s Chapel 2.30pm on first Tuesday of the month; 6.30pm: The Guild of St Anthony in the Cathedral.

Wednesdays: 12.00pm: First Wednesday Quiet Days on the first Wednesday of every month in the Hinsley Room.

Thursdays: 1.15pm: Padre Pio Prayer Group at Sacred Heart Church. 6.30pm: The Legion of Mary in Clergy House.

Fridays: 5.00pm: Charismatic Prayer Group in the Cathedral Hall – please check in advance for confirmation.

Saturdays: 10.00am: Centering Prayer Group in the Hinsley Room. 2.00pm: Justice and Peace Group in the Hinsley Room on the last of the month.

25

A VISION FULFILLED

The Holy Family School Completed Thomas Doherty For most schools, being ‘full’ means all spaces have been filled and the waiting list is back in operation. For us it means something very different. Holy Family Catholic Primary School started with Reception in a church hall back in 2012.

In 2013 we moved into a brand new building, with purposebuilt classrooms, extensive play space and forest access. In September this year we welcomed our first Year 6 classes and are now ‘full’, Nursery through to Year 6. The expansion of community schools is well reported, but the expansion of faith schools is not underreported, it simply is not happening.

We are special, then! In Westminster diocese, we are the first new Catholic Primary School in over 50 years.

We share our site with Holy Family Church and I would say to future planners that if you want a successful Catholic Primary School, then build it alongside the parish church. We are an Outstanding School (Ofsted 2014, Diocese Inspection 2016), but we are more than this! Our beauty lies in not being able to identify where the parish church ends and school begins.

Our guidance comes from Fr Neil, who is not just a welcome visitor but an integral part of the school. Our challenge comes from committed governors. Our drive comes from serving the children and families of Holy Family, and we are able to do all of this because of the dedication of our staff team.

Being ‘full’ is a joy and a blessing, and a privilege for me as Headteacher. Floreat Holy Family School!

Mr Thomas Doherty is the Headteacher of Holy Family School, having served previously at Westminster Cathedral Catholic Primary School in Pimlico parish, and has previously written for Oremus.

Bambang Sunshine Project

© Holy Family School

Eight Thames Bridges Walk 2019

Bishop John Wilson preaches at the Mass

On Thursday 18 October last year we welcomed Bishop John Wilson to our parish of Acton West to celebrate Mass alongside our Parish Priest, Fr Neil Reynolds. At the end of the Mass Bishop Wilson blessed our now ‘full’ school. We sang and prayed together celebrating a truly special day. I was able to address the congregation and, once the ‘Thank yous’ had been shared, I spoke to the most important people in the church, the children: ‘This, all of this, is for you! When we speak of our history, we speak of you. When we speak of the now, we speak of you. When we speak of the future, we speak of you. How special to be part of something that is so unique. You remind us that although so many gathered in this church today will speak of “our school” or “my school”, you truly are the only ones who have the right to say this, for this is “your school” and for the children yet to join and yet to be born it will be “their school”.’

26

The annual Sponsored Walk initiated by the late Eric Considine in aid of Filipino Children with Disabilities in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya will be held on Saturday 9 March.

In this 11th year of fundraising for the Sunshine Project, participants are invited to meet on the Cathedral steps at 10:30am, to start walking promptly at 11. We walk at our own pace and normally finish within three hours, with a get-together in the Cathedral Cafe for refreshments afterwards.

All are warmly welcome to share in supporting this worthwhile Project.

Contact Flora for a sponsorship form and more information on 07375 649160 Oremus

MARCH 2019

FIFTY AND ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

In retrospect: from the Cathedral Chronicle Pilgrimages to the Holy Land were for many centuries made under very trying conditions – humiliations of all kinds were met with. When we read of hardships and great peril entailed by a journey to Jerusalem being endured with cheerfulness and for no prospect of material gain, it is not very difficult to understand that if men were so resolute about facing such hardships, the consolation and spiritual gain of visiting the Holy Places must have appealed to them very forcibly. And it is easy to realise that their example and enthusiasm would create in those unable to undertake such journeys an ardent desire at least to reproduce these pilgrimages at home. It is undoubtedly to this longing to share in the spiritual privileges of those who travelled beyond the seas that we owe the first suggestion and the later developments of the present exercise of the Way of the Cross.

Thus it is seen that some of our devotions may be not so much spontaneous as imitative. They have been accepted, as in this case, as a good substitute for something better, because they have brought within the reach of all some practice of piety which had before been regarded as the merit or privilege of the few. Take the example of the Rosary or of the Little Office of Our Lady. It was the ambition of the early ascetics to recite the entire Psalter of 150 psalms each day. Many amongst the laity wished to imitate them, but being busied with the everyday concerns of life found the task beyond them. Someone conceived the idea of representing each psalm by a ‘Hail, Mary’ and thus, by imitation, was begun a devotion afterwards known as Our Lady’s Psalter, and later on as the Rosary. Again, many wished to recite the divine office, binding on all in holy orders. It was found too difficult by the laity, and in its stead was originated the much shorter and simpler one now known as the ‘Little Office’ of Our Lady. And in the case of the devotion in question, people at home were taught to join in a make-believe pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which did not take up much time but greatly stimulated their devotion to the bitter sufferings of Christ, just as much as, or even more than, a perilous journey over the sea.

It is to this simple idea, then, of a miniature pilgrimage to the Holy Land that we owe the present devotion of the Way of the Cross, a devotion for many long centuries dear to the hearts of the poor in every part of the world. It has, MARCH 2019

Oremus

of course, gone through many variations both as to form and order, number and subject, of the various stations, but the devotion itself may be said to be as old as the very gospel story. It has attached to it many indulgences which can be fully gained if the person performing it is in a state of grace and, while moving if possible from station to station, meditates upon the sacred Passion of Christ.

It is the work of the Church ‘to draw us with the cords of Adam’ to the feet of ‘Jesus Christ and Him Crucified’. This devotion, if carried out as it should be, is a powerful aid in this direction, and at this time of the year there seems no need for excuse in thus briefly calling attention to it.

The Stations of the Cross in the March 1919 Westminster Cathedral Chronicle

In my eyes the main reason for an Offertory Promise Campaign has always been to create a higher standard of generosity in our giving at the Sunday Offertory collection, whereby we may obtain a standard of giving that is in accordance with the fifth commandment of the Church which tells us we are bound in justice to support our Church according to our means. Now if this laudable objective could be obtained no church would be short of money, every parish would have sufficient to meet its own needs, enough to go ahead with building and rebuilding programmes, ample to meet the school quota with something put by for any eventuality. For make no mistake about it, the reason any church or parish is short of money is because we as Catholics are failing in our duty to the Church on the one day a week when we fulfil our obligation to attend Mass.

What we give on Sunday at the Offertory is a matter of justice. There is an old hackneyed phrase – ‘the Church is not a beggar seeking charity’, and one might add ‘and it never will be’. But as long as so many of us go on giving what amounts to a pittance then we must forgive those outside our Church who think by our giving we are denying what we proclaim.

The Offertory Promise Campaign by John H Jackson in the March 1969 Westminster Cathedral News Sheet 27

CROSSWORD AND POEM

A Hymn to God the Father John Donne Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun, Which was my sin, though it were done before?

Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run, And do run still, though still I do deplore?

When thou hast done, thou hast not done, For I have more.

Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won Others to sin, and made my sin their door?

Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun A year or two, but wallow'd in, a score?

When thou hast done, thou hast not done, For I have more.

Alan Frost: February 2019

Clues Across 1 St Catherine -- -----, Doctor of the Church who advised Popes (2,5) 6 River giving name to cathedral and city in southern England (3) 8 & 22 Down: Former Cardinal, buried in same Cathedral chapel as 9 Across (5,4) 9 ------- Challoner, 18thc. bishop, buried in Chapel of Ss Gregory & Augustine (7) 10 Geoffrey of -----, father of King Henry II, giving name to his royal line (5) 11 Name by which Beethoven’s Third Symphony is known (6) 13 See 4 Down 15 The chaplet of prayer to Our Lady associated in origin with St Dominic (6) 17 Used in laundry for stiffening collars (6) 20 Cleanse of impurities or sin, strong Lenten association (5) 21 Country of many islands, capital Nassau (7) 23 Head coverings particularly associated with nuns (5) 24 Gift of the shepherds at the dinner table? (3) 25 Child of a husband or wife by a previous marriage (7)

I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun My last thread, I shall perish on the shore; But swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore; And, having done that, thou hast done; I fear no more.

John Donne (1572 – 1631) spent the earlier part of his life as a Catholic, but at the urging of the King was ordained in the Church of England in 1615, finally becoming Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, where his funeral effigy (for which he posed during his lifetime) may be seen, having survived the Great Fire of London and the destruction of the old Cathedral.

Clues Down 1 Person in charge of workers in architectural or other projects (8) 2 ‘Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui ------’, Glory Be (6) 3 Saint who began monastic organisation in Ireland, Feast Day 21 March (4) 4 & 13 Acr: Lyte’s famous hymn, sung at Wembley Cup Finals (5,4,2) 5 Second name of the apostle who betrayed Our Lord (8) 6 Prophet who appeared with Jesus and Moses at the Transfiguration (6) 7 Son of Isaac, brother of Jacob (4) 12 Daughter of King Lear in Shakespeare’s play (8) 14 A recipient of a Letter from St Paul (8) 16 Tuesday preceding the start of Lent (6) 18 Recipients of Letters from St Paul (6) 19 Bottomless pit used as a reference to hell (5) 20 ‘---- and Circumstance’, march (one of several) by Elgar (4) 22 See 8 Across

ANSWERS Across: 1 Of Siena 6 Exe 8 Basil 9 Richard 10 Anjou 11 Eroica 13 With Me 15 Rosary 17 Starch 20 Purge 21 Bahamas 23 Veils 24 Pie 25 Stepson Down: 1 Overseer 2 Sancto 3 Enda 4 Abide 5 Iscariot 6 Elijah 7 Esau 12 Cordelia 14 Ephesian 16 Shrove 18 Romans 19 Abyss 20 Pomp 22 Hume

28

Donne’s funeral effigy, engraved by Wenceslaus Hollar

To submit a poem whether by yourself or another for consideration, please contact the Editor – details on page 3.

Oremus

MARCH 2019

THE FRIENDS OF WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL

A Moorish House and a Bombed Church

The former church of Our Lady of Victories, after the bomb had hit

Christina White Mea culpa. I confess I didn’t know that Our Lady of Victories in Kensington was once the Pro-Cathedral of the Westminster diocese and therefore a focus for the faithful before the building of Westminster Cathedral. The church is situated in an area that has long been associated with the practice of the faith, with the last recorded Catholic priest in Kensington before the Reformation being Fr Thomas Batemanton. Post-Reformation, the significant French population in the area – refugees from the Terror in their homeland - became the motivating force for a Catholic revival and Mass was said again in Kensington from 1794, continuing to the present day.

The parish church of Our Lady of Victories was opened on 2 July 1869, the Feast of the Visitation, and was designated as the Pro-Cathedral. It thus became the centre for national worship: a High Mass was celebrated in 1887 to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee and in 1888, the church marked the Golden Jubilee of Pope Leo XIII. Sweet Sacrament Divine – beloved by generations of Catholic grandmothers – was composed by a curate of the church, Fr Charles Cox. The church, unlike our Cathedral, took a direct and devastating hit in the blitz of 1940. Parishioners continued MARCH 2019

Oremus

to gather for Mass at various localities in Kensington, including the Odeon cinema and the Convent of the Assumption in Cavendish Square, whilst a major appeal was launched to build a new church. The architect Adrian Gilbert Scott – son of George Gilbert Scott Jr who had designed St John the Baptist Catholic Cathedral in Norwich - was appointed. The church was opened on 16 April 1959, so it seems appropriate that the Friends should choose to visit in its anniversary year. The consecration was finally performed in 1971 by Bishop Derek Worlock – formerly curate in Kensington and later the celebrated Archbishop of Liverpool who, with his Anglican counterpart Bishop David Sheppard, did so much to bring Catholics and Anglicans together in what had been a divided city.

Today the interior of Our Lady of Victories reflects the fashionable style of the 1950s. As we are visiting on St David’s Day, we will be joining the congregation for morning Mass followed by a private tour. I have arranged lunch for the group and then in the afternoon we have a tour of Leighton House – the former home and studio of the celebrated Victorian artist Frederick, Lord Leighton. With its Moorish interiors and fabulous tiling the house couldn’t be more different to the calm interior of Our Lady of Victories. Paul Pickering will be our guide. Please note that the group will meet at Our Lady of Victories in time for the 10am Mass and there will be a lot of walking involved. No coaches!

Towards the end of March we have another Paul Pickering tour at the National Gallery focusing on the development of the altarpiece.

We wanted to offer something with a Lenten theme and this seemed appropriate. In April we have Christopher Somerville, author and journalist from the Times, who is

coming to Cathedral Hall to talk about his tour of some of England’s most beautiful Cathedrals. Westminster Cathedral was on the list and made a lasting impression. Books will be on sale and Christopher will be signing copies – a lovely Easter gift.

Tickets for all Friends events are available through Clergy House Reception or directly from the Friends Office.

Forthcoming Events 1 March: Our lady of Victories and Leighton House. Please meet at the church at 9.45am for Mass at 10am Lunch included. Tickets £25 29 March: The Development of the Altarpiece in Italy from the 13th century to the Baroque, with Paul Pickering at The National Gallery.

Meet in the lobby of the Sainsbury Wing at 1.45pm for 2pm. Tea to follow. Tickets £20 11 April 2019: An evening with Christopher Somerville - writer and journalist from The Times on his new book ’Ships of Heaven: The Private Life of Britain’s Cathedrals’.

He has dedicated a chapter to Westminster Cathedral. The talk will take place in Cathedral Hall.

Doors open at 6.30pm. Talk at 7pm. Refreshments will be served.

Tickets £10.

Contact us • Write to: Friends’ Office, 42 Francis Street, London SW1P 1QW • Call: 020 7798 9059 • Email: friends@ westminstercathedral.org.uk Registered Charity number 272899

29

ST VINCENT DE PAUL PRIMARY SCHOOL

Saints in Mosaic – St David of Wales Dylan, Year 6

I think Westminster Cathedral has the nicest priests in it [Thank you, Dylan – Ed.]. I go to Mass at the Cathedral every Sunday. The priests are nice and friendly because they come outside after Mass to talk to you. They greet everybody. I think the Cathedral is pretty because in the chapels they have mosaics, which are nicely coloured.

The chapels are very organised and neat. When I go to the services it makes me have a good feeling inside of me.

I have seen a lot of changes in the Cathedral. I have seen chapels change, they used to be dark and gloomy but now they are bright and colourful. One of the brightest mosaics is of St David of Wales. You can find it on a pillar in between the Chapel of St Andrew and the Chapel of St Paul. You would notice it straight away because it stands out with its sparkles, and it glitters with gold. It has another two colours that stand out, which are red and green. It has red and green in it because the Welsh flag is red, green and white. The new mosaic is described as ‘new, fresh and alive’ and I think that is very true. The mosaic was designed by a Welsh artist called Ivor Davies and made by Tessa Hunkin of London’s Mosaic Workshop.

St David looks young in the mosaic, like a young man with a number one haircut. I think this will appeal to young men today. What is weird about this mosaic is that it has some Welsh dolerite stone at the bottom of the mosaic. This stone comes from the place where St David was preaching in the town of Brefi and nobody could see him or hear him. Suddenly the ground that David stood on rose up and then everyone could hear him and see him, so the legend goes.

In the mosaic, there are lots of symbols that tells us about him. One of the symbols is a cup that has water pouring into it. It reminds us of St David’s mother, called St Non. On the night he was born, there was a storm, and a spring of water appeared near his birthplace and the spring of water is still there today. Some of the water from the spring was used to bless the new mosaic in the Cathedral. It was blessed by Pope Benedict XVI when he visited Great Britain on 18 September 2010. The white dove in the mosaic reminds us of the Holy Spirit. When St David was young, a dove was seen following him. The monks and people of Henfynyw, the monastery where he learned how to read and write, knew that he was special.

The mosaic has a Gospel book in it. The Gospel reminds us of the Good News that the Saint spread throughout the country of Wales. I notice that he is really hugging the Gospel in the mosaic because he thinks that the Good 30

News is so important. Another symbol in the mosaic is a shepherd’s staff. The shepherd’s staff reminds us of St David being the Bishop of Wales, behaving like a shepherd to his people.

As I went to the Cathedral to see what the mosaic looked like in real life, I found a mitre floating at the very top of the mosaic. The mitre reminds us that St David is a little bit like an apostle at Pentecost, with the flame above his head. This reminds us that he was filled with the Holy Spirit and filled with courage to tell the people of Wales the Good News. My impression is that the mosaic is the richest mosaic in the cathedral, I also think that it is a good way to honour the people of Wales and their saint.

If you want to visit the mosaic on a special day, pick the 1st of March because that is St David’s Day. Oremus

MARCH 2019

GOOD NEWS FROM SYRIA

An Icon Rewritten and Restored Fides

A copy of the icon of the Mysterious Supper - stolen from the shrine of Ss Sergius and Bacchus in Maalula in 2014 when the Syrian village was occupied by al-Nusra jihadists – has been placed on the ancient altar. The initiative to have a faithful copy of the icon written and brought back to Maalula was inspired and brought to completion thanks to the collaboration between NGO Perigeo, the Zaccaria Institute of the Barnabite Fathers of Milan and the University Center for International Solidarity (CESI) of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. The return of the icon: ‘testifies that the violence of terrorism can only strengthen the identity of those who believe in peaceful coexistence,’ said the organisers.

civil war, there were 5,000 Syrians living in the rock village of Maalula, most of them Christians, both Greek-Catholics and Greek Orthodox.

In the original icon of the Mysterious Supper (of SyroPalestinian workmanship, as well as in its reproduction), the double representation of the Crucifixion and of the Last Supper is represented. The upper part depicts the crucified Christ with the Blessed Virgin and the apostle John, the beloved disciple, while the lower half shows a representation of the Last Supper in detail: Jesus, instead of being at the centre of the scene, is on the left side of the table, in the position of ’he who serves.’

The table surrounded by Jesus and the apostles is shown in a semicircular form, similar to that of the central altar of the church (which is actually an ancient pagan altar, adapted to the cult of the Christian mysteries in the first centuries after the birth, death and resurrection of Christ.

During their visit to Syria, the leaders of the institutions involved in the initiative also delivered a reproduction of Our Lady of Providence, donated by the Barnabite Fathers to Mar Ignatios Aphrem II, Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church, along with some contributions for initiatives and projects to support groups of young people in Damascus, Maalula and Aleppo. Maalula itself, 55km northeast of Damascus, is known worldwide for being one of the places where Aramaic is still spoken, the language of Jesus. It houses both the monastery of St Tekla – home to a Greek Orthodox female monastic community – and the sanctuary, dedicated to Ss Sergius and Bacchus, that belongs to the Greek-Melkite Catholic Church.

Between September 2013 and March 2014, the rock village of Maalula was occupied by jihadist militias, in one of the most intense phases of the Syrian conflict. After the reconquest of the village by the Syrian government forces, the devastation suffered by the Christian places of worship was revealed. In particular, serious damage was inflicted on the Greek-Melkite shrine, where the church itself was badly vandalised, religious objects, images and sacred books had been destroyed, and both the icons kept in the sacristy and the bells had disappeared, along with the cross that surmounted the dome of the convent.

The sanctuary of Mar Sarkis (St Sergius), was founded at the end of the fifth century and is dedicated to the saints Sergius and Bacchus, Roman soldiers martyred for their faith under the Emperor Galerius (250-311). Hotel Safir is on the hill above the sanctuary, a hotel that dominated the village and had been chosen as the headquarters of the rebel militias. Before the MARCH 2019

Oremus

31

TAB

Heading goes in here somewhere Subheading goes in here somewhere Name in here

32

Oremus

February 2017