In Retrospect

In retrospect: from the Cathedral Chronicle

Editorial Policy In so far as the editor had adopted a policy for the News Sheet, it has been to bring out the positive and hopeful elements in this time of transition and change through which the Church is passing. Negative influences are constantly at work in all of us, and so it is confidence in growth and the work of the Holy Spirit that we have aimed to put across. There is a great deal to be thankful for, and this is the note that ought to be struck loud and clear, as we approach the festival of Easter. Major Roche RIP Albert Roche, who died in January, was a very wellknown figure at the Cathedral. He was often to be seen at prayer in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, and frequently served Mass and attended Vespers, before his health began to fail. His special devotion was the Rosary, and it was his custom to say this regularly on the pavement outside No. 10 Downing Street. The Prime Minister and his wife were, it appears, aware of this small bearded man quite unselfconsciously praying in public; something, I suppose, very few of us would have the ‘nerve’ to do! He used also to do the same at Speakers’ Corner and on Tower Hill. A considerable number of people gathered in the Holy Souls Chapel for his funeral and went on to the burial service at Mortlake. He spent his latter days living with the Little Sisters of the Poor. [Those who travel along Whitehall will know that the gates and anti-terrorist devices of Downing Street, not to mention the armed police, will now speedily prevent any attempt to follow Major Roche’s practice of praying the Rosary outside No. 10 – Ed.] from the Westminster Cathedral News Sheet of March 1970

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Oremus Varia In the United States, they say, refined society has succeeded in banning as improper the word leg, which must be replaced by limb, even when the possessor is a boiled fowl! This refinement, it is asserted, is not unknown in England. Would that some refinement, not in word but in deed, might be introduced in regard to the prevailing vulgar and grotesque fashion among women of displaying their legs and other limbs. Protests and reasoning – even of Cardinals and Bishops – have little effect, apparently, on ladies fed on ‘fashion’. It was ridicule that killed the hobble skirt, and apparently the only way to check the present unseemly display of bare flesh is, as Fr Bernard Vaughan might have put it, to pour ridicule down the ladies’ bare backs! Where do these barbaric fashions originate? ‘Fashions of dress,’ wrote Cardinal Manning, ‘come from some obscure room, in some luxurious and corrupt city, where, by a sort of secret society of folly, rules are laid down and decrees come forth year by year, which are followed with a servility and, I may say, with a want of Christian matronly dignity, so that the foolish fashion that some foolish person has foolishly invented is propagated all over the civilised countries of Europe.’ February the eleventh, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, has become a very popular day at the Cathedral. This year at the ‘Children’s Service’ the Cathedral was more than half filled with adults; in the evening the galleries were crowded and every available space in the great nave occupied to the very doors. The singing by the immense congregation, without the help of any select choir, was effective enough, the voices keeping well together, considering the absence of support from an organ, the want of which has been long felt, capable of filling the vast spaces of the Cathedral. The question naturally suggests itself: why does not the Cathedral possess an instrument proportionate to its size – an organ which might be used to lead the singing of such great popular assemblies now so frequent? Whatever may be the answer to this question, it is understood to be the wish of the Cardinal Archbishop that the matter should be taken vigorously in hand and a suitable organ built in one of the galleries of the nave as soon as possible. There are doubtless difficulties in connection with skilled labour and the best material, but judging from the present state of affairs, current prices are as likely to fall as the Cathedral itself! It is probably the best building for sound in London; and the best sound for the Cathedral will be a packed congregation singing to the accompaniment of the best organ in London … Who will help? from the Westminster Cathedral Chronicle of March 1920