Oremus October 2019

October 2019 | Edition Number 251 | FREE

Westminster Cathedral Magazine

John Henry Newman 1801 – 1890 Saint of the Month

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Oremus

October 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 the Editor.

Patron The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster

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Cathedral Life: Past & Present An Assistant Arrives

by James Coeur-de-Lion

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A French Revolt – Jean Guillou’s Work for Nine Organs Comes to Town 8 Obituary – Jim Griffett RIP

by Colin Mawby KSG

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Cathedral History: The Missing Gospels

by Patrick Rogers 12 & 13

Chairman Canon Christopher Tuckwell

On Pilgrimage to South Wales (Part II)

by Louise Sage 14 & 15

Editor Fr John Scott

Cathedral Chaplains – The Annual Overview

Oremus Team Tony Banks – Distribution Zoe Goodway – Marketing Manel Silva – Subscriptions Berenice Roetheli – Proofreading Ellen Gomes – Archives

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Cathedral History in Pictures: Archbishop Amigo’s Obsequies in Westminster Cathedral

by Paul Tobin

Design and Art Direction Julian Game

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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.

Believing in the Resurrection (Part II)

by Fr Christopher Clohessy

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A Special Room in Birmingham

by Fr Daniel Humphreys

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Catholicism and Public Life in Scotland (Part II) by Patrick Grady MP 10 & 11

The Task of the Theologian by the Rev Dr Ashley Beck

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Art and Christianity

by Laura Moffatt

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News from Rome: Relics and Rapprochement

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Two Great English Cathedrals

by Dr Michael Straiton KCSG

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This 1891 lithograph is taken from a portrait of Newman in 1824 and was published in the American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events, Volume 15 (1891) by Appleton and Co. of New York.

Printed by Premier Print Group 020 7987 0604

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Features

How to Build a Monastery (Part I)

by Bishop Mark Jabalé OSB 20 & 21

October 2019

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Regulars From the Editor

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Monthly Album

18 & 19

Cathedral Diary and Notices

24 & 25

Crossword and Poem of the Month

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Friends of the Cathedral

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In Retrospect

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St Vincent de Paul Primary School

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ASSISTANCE AT HAND

Join the Companions ... and help us to keep publishing Oremus free of charge Although we earn income from the advertising which we carry, Oremus relies on donations from readers to cover its 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 in the magazine each month (see page 7). All members are invited to one or more social events during the year and Mass is offered for their intentions from time to time.

If you would like to support us by joining the Companions, please write to Oremus, Cathedral Clergy House, 42 Francis Street, London SW1P 1QW or email oremuscomps@rcdow.org.uk with your contact details, including postcode. Members are asked to give a minimum of £100 annually. Please mention how you would like your name to appear in our membership list and if you are eligible to Gift Aid your donation. Postal subscriptions to Oremus may be purchased through the Cathedral Gift Shop’s website or by using the coupon printed in the magazine.

Thank you for your support.

A Journey of Faith James Coeur-de-Lion St Bernadette Soubirous once said: ‘If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces .. never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again. That’s the beauty of being alive. We can always start all over again.

Enjoy God’s amazing opportunities bestowed on us. Have faith in him always’. It is with great joy and faith that I embark on a new journey in my life, seeking to carry out the will of God on every path he leads me upon.

I have been part of the diocese of Northampton for over 20 years, and from a young age, with the support of my family, especially my parents, I embarked on a journey discerning the vocation to religious life. In 1993 my dear uncle, now known as Frère Marie Irenée, received his religious clothing in the Oasis of Peace community. I was 4

blessed to be present on the occasion, being just 10 years of age, and received a deep desire to serve God in a similar way to my uncle.

I was attracted to the spirituality and way of life of that community, but as the years passed, God gently called me in the depths of my heart, and with warmth, I felt his love move me towards a discernment of the vocation to priesthood. In all of my experiences, I constantly felt the Blessed Mother at my side, encouraging me in her loving guidance. After some time in seminary, I decided to take a change of direction, and although I have left that particular path to ordination, my experiences there provided me with foundations to build upon in different settings. I have always been active in the Church as an altar server, musician, and youth leader.

I worked in the National Health Service for over 10 years, where I truly enjoyed my time in Medical Education. The work of the NHS is one which I am greatly proud to have been part of, establishing wonderful friendships along the way. This year, I am delighted to be working in Westminster Cathedral as the new Pastoral Assistant, and look forward to being part of the team, serving the community and living this wonderful new opportunity.

James joins the Cathedral as Assistant to the Sub-Administrator.

Oremus

October 2019

ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRMAN

The Editor writes This month the Church in this land rejoices in the Canonisation of John Henry Newman, by birth and early upbringing, we proudly claim, a Londoner. Many are going to the Canonisation Mass in Rome, but Oremus will pay its part in the celebrations by printing a piece of Newman’s writing in each edition through till next October, so that we can hear the voice of the saint.

Here he writes of the Christian call: ‘All through our life Christ is calling us. He called us first in Baptism; but afterwards also; whether we obey his voice or not, he graciously calls us still. If we fall from our Baptism, he calls us to repent; if we are striving to fulfil our calling, he calls us on from grace to grace, and from holiness to holiness, while life is given us.

Abraham was called from his home, Peter from his nets, Matthew from his office, Elisha from his farm, Nathanael from his retreat; we are all in course of calling, on and on, from one thing to another, having no resting-place, but mounting towards our eternal rest, and obeying one command only to have another put upon us. He calls us again and again, in order to justify us again and again – and again and again, and more and more, to sanctify and glorify us.

It were well if we understood this; but we are slow to master the great truth, that Christ is, as it were, walking among us, and by his hand, or eye, or voice, bidding us follow him. We do not understand that his call is a thing which takes place now. We think it took place in the Apostles’ days; but we do not believe in it, we do not look out for it in our own case. We have not eyes to see the Lord; far different from the beloved Apostle, who knew Christ even when the rest of the disciples knew him not. When he stood on the shore after his resurrection, and bade them cast the net into the sea: ‘that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter “It is the Lord”.

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 John Scott, Registrar Sub-Administrator’s Assistant James Coeur-de-Lion 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 Callum Alger, Organ Scholar Cathedral Manager Peter McNulty Estates Manager Neil Fairbairn Chapel of Ease Sacred Heart Church Horseferry Road SW1P 2EF

There is nothing miraculous or extraordinary in his dealings with us. He works through our natural faculties and circumstances of life. Still what happens to us in providence is in all essential respects what his voice was to those whom he addressed when on earth: whether he commands by a visible presence, or by a voice, or by our consciences, it matters not, so that we feel it to be a command.’

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THE CHRISTIAN HOPE

Resurrection – Part II Fr Christopher Clohessy

‘I believe in the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come ...’

We believe in the resurrection because we know there are some things in this world that simply cannot be fixed without it – broken things, injustices, fragmented lives too damaged to mend or to be put back together again on this side of life. If justice exists, then injustices must be redressed. If they cannot be redressed here in this life, there must be some other opportunity in which they will be. The truth is that people can endure the most appalling things if they know there is resurrection, if they have heard the inner voice of God which whispers: ‘There is more to come’. We believe in the resurrection because we see it embedded in nature and in daily life: things – days, seasons and years, plants and vegetation, ideas and dreams – die and rise again. Every day and night consist in an endless cycle of things dying and rising again.

We also see people living it. Resurrection is not just about life after death. It is about a way of living, our spirituality here and now. We practise dying in small ways: dying to prejudice, to harmful opinions, to stagnant ideas, scraping off the old layers of one old life and then another.

Those linen cloths left behind in the tomb by Jesus remind us that part of the resurrection story for our lives is about leaving things behind, that have to be surrendered if we are to rise to a new type of life. And we live resurrection by practising rising from whatever tomb we have holed ourselves up in or have allowed others to build around us, scraping off more old layers.

Can we prove any of this? A father promises his son a bicycle for Christmas. The boy is beside himself with excitement; Christmas is months away, but the bicycle is all he can think about. Occasionally, although he does not doubt his father’s promise, when his parents are out, he searches the house. Looking in hiding places, in cupboards and under the stairs, he finds no sign of the bicycle. Still he does not doubt; his father has promised it, and has never failed to keep a promise. On Christmas morning the boy races downstairs and there is the bicycle to which he has so looked forward. It was just as his father had promised.

Here, then, is the promise that the Father has made about the glories that await those who try to love God and neighbour. This world with all its transience, its fears, its mysteries, its separations, will pass, and life for us is made new. The angels await us – ten thousand times ten thousand of them, says the bible, in glad assembly. The spirits of the saints await us, those who have achieved the goal. While we live, they encircle us, an unseen cloud of witnesses spurring us on to become one with them. God the supreme Judge awaits us, to whom we will give an account of our lives.

Jesus awaits us, ready to plead our cause at the throne of 6

Fr Christopher, in Rome

the Father. All this is the promise of the Father. We could go searching for some signs of these things, some proofs that they really do await us, but we would have as much success as that boy, peering into cupboards and under the stairs. No, as with the boy, we believe the promise solely on the word of the one who has made it. That is faith! In the meantime, until in an hour of his choosing he calls each one of us homewards, we must live our lives in the light of eternity.

That colours how we handle every relationship or circumstance. All kinds of things, our goals and even problems that once seemed so important, start to appear petty and unworthy of our attention. Our values begin to change; we use time and money more wisely. We place more importance on relationships and character and less on wealth, achievements or even fun. Our priorities are restructured. St Paul wrote: ‘I once thought all these things were very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done’.

Our lives are a journey back to the house of the Father.

It has nothing to do with death and dying, everything to do with how we choose to live every day, nothing to do with our quality of life, everything to do with the quality our lives are adding to the lives of others. How, then can I live so that my death will be fruitful for others? Is it possible to prepare for my death with the same attentiveness that my parents had in preparing for my birth?

Fr Christopher is a well-known summer supply priest, who teaches Arabic Studies in Rome.

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October 2019

BIRMINGHAM’S SPECIAL ROOM

The Room of a Saint Fr Daniel Humphreys

© Lastenglishking

Birmingham, the ‘Venice of the north’on account of its many canals, may not be a particularly popular destination for a day out. Despite this, I travel there to visit the Birmingham Oratory, a fine building with rather lovely Stations of the Cross, well-appointed shrines and an impressive sanctuary and high altar. The main reason was to see the room of the most famous of the Oratory Fathers – Blessed John Henry Newman.

He established the first Oratory of St Philip Neri in the English-speaking world at Maryvale near Birmingham in 1848. It then moved to Alcester Street near the town centre, where a disused gin distillery was converted into a chapel. Finally, in 1852, the community moved to its present home in Edgbaston, where the Church and Oratory House stand much as Newman’s private chapel at the Newman knew them.

Birmingham Oratory The fine library reveals the intense learning of the soon-to-be saint, whilst his room reveals his deep piety, sanctity and real humanity. One briefly enters the world of some 130 years ago, for the room has been left as it was at the death of Newman on 11 August 1890. It is certainly a shrine, but it does more than raise the mind and heart to heaven. It speaks of the call to holiness as something for each one of us. In the room where this holy man spent so much of his time there are letters and memorabilia, a wellused desk, many pairs of spectacles and favourite books and pictures. And the crowning glory is an altar, where the saint daily offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and prayed ardently for the living and the dead.

The Catholic Church will declare Blessed John Henry Newman a Saint on Sunday 13 October. My short visit to his former home was a blessed experience, and a reminder of his unique and God-given sanctity. Above all else, it was a glimpse of heaven in the ordinary, of everyday holiness which is given by God and for which we give thanks and praise. May the prayers of this new saint aid and guide us all, like a kindly light leading us home to the place where ‘those angel faces smile, which I have loved long since and lost awhile.’

Cardinal Vincent will preside at Solemn Vespers of St John Henry Newman in the Cathedral at 3.30pm on Saturday 19 October and the Archbishop of Canterbury will preach.

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Companions of Oremus We are very grateful for the support of the following: Mrs Mary Barsh Mrs Else Benson RIP Dr Stuart Blackie 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 Christiana Thérèse Macarthy-Woods Paul Marsden Pamela McGrath Linda McHugh Peter McNelly in memoriam James Maple Mary Maxwell Abundia Toledo Munar Chris Stewart Munro Mrs Brigid Murphy Kate Nealon Cordelia Onodu Emel Rochat Berenice Roetheli John Scanlan Mr Luke Simpson Sonja Soper Tessa and Ben Strickland Eileen Terry Robin Michael Tinsley Mr Alex Walker Jacqueline Worth Patricia M Wright and of our anonymous Companions If you would like to become a Companion of Oremus, see page 4

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A FRENCH REVOLT

A Nine-Organ Extravaganza in the Cathedral The Cathedral is to host a ‘oncein-a-lifetime' fundraising concert, featuring a remarkable nine organs.

The event, at 7.30pm on Wednesday 20 November, will be the UK première of La Révolte des Orgues by Jean Guillou, which features nine organs with percussion. It is being organised by the Cathedral in association with the Royal College of Organists and Viscount Classical Organs Ltd, which is supplying seven digital organs to complement the Cathedral’s two pipe organs. The aim is to raise funds in support of the music in the Cathedral and the Royal College of Organists’ outreach campaign, which aims to promote the organ as a musical instrument and improve access to those interested in learning to play.

The Cathedral’s Master of Music, Martin Baker, who will be joined by organists from across Europe for the performance, said: ‘The complex logistics and performance skills

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Martin Baker, the Cathedral’s Master of Music, presenting the Royal College of Organists’ Medal to Jean Guillou in March 2018

associated with this work mean that performances are rare, so this can very much be considered a once-ina-lifetime opportunity’. Sir Andrew Parmley, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Organists, comments: ‘This will be an amazing experience.

Can you imagine the sound of nine organs in the wonderful acoustic of Westminster Cathedral? We want people of all ages and backgrounds to come and enjoy this remarkable spectacle and hopefully be inspired to play the organ’.

Jean Guillou, who died in January 2019, made an immense contribution to the organ world. He was Organiste Titulaire at St-Eustache in Paris, and known worldwide as a composer of instrumental and vocal music focused on the organ, as an improviser, and as an adviser to organ builders.

La Révolte, composed in 2007, originates from Guillou’s conceptual design for an organ in the new concert hall in Tenerife (completed in 2003). The composition came into being when he devised the distribution of the organ’s pipes in multiple cases arranged around the audience.

The concert will also feature popular organ works by Bach, Vivaldi and others, and will include an improvisation. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.co.uk - search on Westminster Cathedral.

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October 2019

OBITUARY

A Lay Clerk Remembered Colin Mawby KSG, former Master of the Music Jim Griffett was a tenor lay clerk in the Cathedral Choir from 1965 to 1974. When I auditioned him, I was aware of a superb voice, ideally suited to the Cathedral acoustic, and was very amused to hear him tell me that he had a choice of two careers – a professional singer or a professional wrestler.

After much thought he chose the former!

Jim was highly sensitive to words and this gave great colour and depth to his singing. His expressive range was formidable and the Cathedral acoustic added great vitality and excitement to his voice. From the smallest pianissimo to the largest fortissimo Jim's singing was unique and awe-inspiring.

His plainchant was superb and I recall how much the boys enjoyed it. His presence in the choir was treasured by all.

He had fine personal qualities, a committed family man who loved dogs, breathed loyalty and always gave me the greatest support. He was the driving force behind the recording that was financed and published by that great Cathedral patron, Viscount Furness. Jim loved the Cathedral and considered his time in the choir to be one of the happiest periods in his life.

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He also founded one of the of the country’s most successful male voice groups – Pro Cantione Antiqua. He employed the finest singers and the group undertook countless tours. It made many CDs with the best recording companies and specialised in polyphony and early music. Jim also had a great career in Europe as a soloist in works such as Monteverdi's Vespers, working with leading conductors and orchestras. He was a very fine teacher and, in later life, successfully prepared many young men for Oxbridge choral scholarships. He was very proud of this work.

When Jim was at the Cathedral he had a good friendship with Cardinal Heenan, and when he retired the Cardinal gave him a beautiful pewter tankard inscribed with his coat of arms and the years during which Jim was in the choir. This was one of his most treasured possessions, and the Cardinal's generosity underlines why I reverence him and consider knowing him one of the greatest privileges of my life.

I have a great respect for Jim and am sure he has quickly become a great asset to the heavenly choirs. May his great soul rest in peace. In Paradisum deducant te Angeli.

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FAITH NORTH OF THE BORDER

Catholicism and Public Life in Scotland Patrick Grady MP

The Church has of course been vocal on many of the questions around life and moral issues that have been part of public debate, and – perhaps unlike on the questions of social teaching – is not in a majority or even consensus opinion. Abortion law has been devolved to Scotland, and while the Scottish Government has said it has no plans to change current arrangements, that doesn’t mean others might try through backbench routes in the Scottish Parliament or different civil society groups will come forward with proposals. Much as in Westminster, the question of assisted suicide has been repeatedly rejected by legislators, but there are repeated attempts to revisit the issue.

For those of us in the Scottish National Party at Westminster, there is an additional aspect to what are often called ‘conscience issues’. Our party’s longstanding convention has been not to vote on issues that are devolved to the Scottish Parliament. Indeed, subsidiarity and the principle of decision-making being taken at the level most appropriately close to those affected by it is a key concept in Catholic Social Teaching. So when ‘conscience’ or ‘life’ issues emerge at Westminster, all of us in the SNP – of whatever faith or none – have to carefully think through what impact the policies may have in Scotland, what the wider consequences of voting on ‘devolved’ issues could be, and whether there are more fundamental principles at stake.

Beyond the immediate questions of ‘life’ issues, are broader policies related to some of these topics, such as the question of exclusion zones around hospitals or clinics providing abortion services. Much of this kind of regulation is clearly devolved in Scotland, but has been the subject of considerable debate. Such debate in turn relates to the even wider context of the role of religious or faith-based perspectives in public dialogue and political debate. And from there it’s not difficult to get to some of the longer-standing challenges, especially in the west and central Scotland, around sectarianism. My own parish priest, Canon Tom White, has been in the news in recent months after he was spat on outside his church as an Orange Walk went past at the end of a service.

This inevitably gets linked to questions about the role of Catholic schools and faith-based education. But the reality is that there is a broad consensus, and as long as there is demand from parents, provision will continue. That’s been reinforced by last year’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Education (Scotland) Act which brought the Catholic schools into the state system in Scotland – we marked the anniversary of the Third Reading with a Mass and Reception here in the House of Commons, and earlier in the year the First Minister reiterated the Scottish Government’s support for Catholic schools and spoke of the valuable contribution they make to our society and culture.

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There is also a strong ecumenical – and indeed inter-faith – movement in Scotland. I’ve experienced a warm welcome from different faith communities; attending religious worship is always a fascinating, and on many occasions an uplifting and spiritual experience. I found this particularly on a recent visit to the Garnethill Synagogue in Glasgow, when much of the reading, praying and singing from the Torah and the Psalms was readily familiar, but also in the local Gurdwara and Mosques. Christian ecumenism in Scotland is perhaps best exemplified in the Iona Community, the island which was the historic base from which St Columba evangelised and is now a place of retreat, reflection and prayer for Christians of many different traditions. And that willingness to work and act together of the Christian churches undoubtedly helps to strengthen their value and voice in public debate.

I spoke earlier about the Catholic demographics in Scotland, and interestingly it’s probably fair to say that we are in fact a little over-represented, at least in the SNP Group here in the House of Commons. But we should always do more to encourage more of our fellow Christians to become active in public life, and this is a theme that has been touched on recently both by Pope Francis and then by the local bishops.

Bishop Nolan of Argyll & the Isles, who is also the Bishop President of J&P Scotland, recently wrote an open letter and it put quite powerfully: ‘Each of us has to ask ourselves: How can I influence public opinion if I never express an opinion in public? How can I influence government and politicians if I never let them know what I think? In a democracy it is never enough just to allow ourselves to be governed, to presume that those who make decisions will make the right decisions, that the values we have are the values that they will put into practice.

Democracy puts an obligation on the citizen to be engaged with the political process, to work for the good of society, to be active in trying to achieve good government - and not just leave it to others. The followers of Jesus Christ are called to be like John the Baptist. He was a voice crying in the wilderness.

Christians are called to be a voice for the voiceless, a voice upholding the dignity of every human person, a voice proclaiming the values of Jesus Christ, a voice urging governments and politicians and those in power to act always for the common good of all humanity. We are that voice: sometimes we may shout, sometimes we may whisper, but we are a voice that should never be silent.’

That’s an extensive quote, but I think it’s justified as it says perhaps more clearly much of what I’ve been trying to express here. They are encouraging words for those of us already in public life, but they should also be an encouragement for those who are considering becoming more active.

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October 2019

FAITH NORTH OF THE BORDER

(Part II) The constitutional question has been central to politics in Scotland for several years now, perhaps longer. If once upon a time the Catholic community in Scotland could be stereotyped as largely working class, of Irish descent, and committed almost en-bloc to voting Labour, that is certainly not true or possible now, if indeed it ever was. A number of key members in leadership positions within the SNP throughout the 80s and 90s – not necessarily Catholics themselves – made a conscious and determined effort to reach out to the leadership of the Church as well as to the community more widely. Scotland’s bishops and cardinals were always held in high esteem, and would be listened to, even if what they were saying was not taken to be mainstream policy. Whether individual Catholics supported independence or not in the 2014 referendum, there was no question that such respect and esteem for the Church would not continue in an independent Scotland. In the SNP, we want to win independence for Scotland based on support from as wide a cross-section of Scotland’s population and demographics as possible. People of all social backgrounds, of all faith traditions, should be able to feel comfortable and included in the concept of an independent country.

The warm welcome for Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 was a demonstration that the Church could and will continue to play a visible role in public life in Scotland. I have many happy and abiding memories of that day in September – after days of rain, the weather was remarkably dry – perhaps miraculously, given the amount of prayer for good weather that had been taking place - and we were afforded a beautiful sunset and ‘gloaming’ as the Pope’s Mass drew to a close in Bellahouston Park. It was before the changes to liturgical language, and the crowd’s almost Hampden-roar level response of ‘And also with you’ to Benedict’s softly accented greeting at the Sign of Peace was, for me at least, a stand-out moment, almost as if everyone there wanted to have a personal exchange with this small, holy man. I’d declined the offer of seats with some friends from the City Council near the front, and spent the day with two of my siblings as part of my parish delegation (although given that our PP at the time, Mgr Peter Smith, had managed most of the logistics, we still had a pretty good spot!). I remember my wee sister in particular being slightly taken aback by such a large crowd – around 60,000 – and perhaps her sudden realisation that being a Catholic in Scotland wasn’t necessarily, or didn’t have to be, something to be experienced in isolation.

There have been other fruits of that visit and other initiatives by Popes John Paul, Benedict, and Francis, that are inspiring a new generation to explore and experience their faith and how best it can be lived. The Night Fever movement has a regular spot in Glasgow (also at St Aloysius in the city centre) and is a very 21st-century take on Exposition and October 2019

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Patrick prepares for Lent

Adoration, but in no way anything other than reverent and beautiful. The University Chaplaincies across the country are helping young Catholics become more confident about their faith and more willing to engage in public life from a faithbased perspective. The Chaplaincy at Glasgow University in my own constituency, Turnbull Hall, produces significant numbers of converts and vocations each year – priests, monks, sisters – and even a bishop in the shape of the former chaplain, John Keenan, who was made Bishop of Paisley in 2014. This new generation is very much at the forefront of the new evangelisation.

When they are promoting the moral teaching and the social teaching of the Church, or giving expression to them both in daily and public life, that is undoubtedly one of the best kinds of evangelisation – preaching the Gospel, but not only using the words. We can see this in the work of agencies like SCIAF, CAFOD, Justice & Peace, seeking to make concrete differences to difficult lives on a daily basis. We can see it in the communities our Catholic schools are seeking to build, and the care provided by Caritas agencies to the sick, the housebound, those left behind materially or spiritually by the modern world. This is, almost literally, the Good News – a way of presenting what a fairer society, a more just world, the Kingdom of God, can look like in reality.

There are, of course, challenges, but there is always more to be hopeful about. At the start of his pontificate, Pope Benedict famously said that: ‘The Church is young’. He was (of course) right – it is only 2,000 years young. It has a lot longer and a lot further to go. The Church in Scotland has been around for a long time; it has been, and still is – as I hope I’ve been able to show – distinct in many ways, but still, of course, part of that universal tradition, that universal vision.

It has a voice and a role to play in public life, and it still has plenty to give.

Patrick Grady is the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Glasgow North and is the Chief Whip of the Scottish National Party at Westminster; he also worships at the Cathedral.

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CATHEDRAL HISTORY

Our Lady of Walsingham and the Missing Gospels

John Trinick’s opus sectile image of Our Lady on the pulpit, recording the revival of pilgrimage to Walsingham after 400 years, incorporates the inaccuracies of Professor Tristram’s drawing of the Priory Seal

Patrick Rogers Let us take a look at the representation of Our Lady of Walsingham which appears on the Cathedral pulpit. Close inspection reveals that the Book of the Gospels held by the Holy Child in the stature at Walsingham is absent and if you look more closely still, you will notice that the seven rings on the uprights of Our Lady’s high-backed throne, symbolising the Seven Sacraments, have been reduced to four on the Cathedral pulpit’s image.

It must be admitted that we do not know what the original statue of Our Lady of Walsingham looked like.

The Priory of Augustinian Canons at Walsingham was established in 1153 and the wooden statue enshrined in the Holy House nearby seems to date from about that time. For three hundred years Walsingham ranked with Jerusalem, 12

Rome and Santiago de Compostela as one of the major shrines both of and beyond Europe, whilst English monarchs from Henry III to Henry VIII were pilgrims and benefactors.

In 1511, the year of Henry VIII’s pilgrimage, Erasmus also went there. He describes the statue as: ‘a small image, neither excelling in material nor workmanship, but in virtue most efficacious’. Some 20 years later, on 18 September 1534, the Prior of Walsingham, Richard Vowel, together with his Canons, acknowledged the Royal Supremacy and four years after this the statue was taken from the shrine and burned at Thomas Cromwell’s house in Chelsea. The Canons were pensioned off, the Priory was destroyed and the Hoy House, which had contained the statue, was burned to the ground.

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October 2019

CATHEDRAL HISTORY It is more than a little ironic that Henry VIII’s resolve to exert his personal authority over the Church resulted in our best evidence for the appearance of Our Lady of Walsingham, for attached to the acknowledgment of the Royal Supremacy of 18 September 1534 was a clear impression of the 13th century seal of Walsingham Priory. Now in the British Museum, this is of white wax about three inches in diameter. On one side appears the Priory Church and on the other is Our Lady, with a lily-sceptre, enthroned on a high-backed throne adorned with seven rings. On her left knee is the Holy Child, holding the Book of the Gospels.

The other evidence we have for the appearance of the statue at Walsingham is derived from pilgrim souvenir badges or tokens. With pilgrims journeying to the shrine from far afield, these have been discovered in King’s Lynn, London, Salisbury and elsewhere. A variety of different badges can be associated with Walsingham, but many other other shrines of Our Lady existed in medieval England and, since few tokens were inscribed, those from Walsingham are difficult to distinguish. In addition, almost all were crudely moulded from lead, are usually damaged and show little detail.

It was not until the late 19th century that there was a resurgence of interest in Walsingham, but by then there was not a single Catholic living there. In 1897, however, the parish church of the Annunciation was built in King’s Lynn, the centre and port for most medieval pilgrims visiting Walsingham.

Included in this new church was a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham, based on the 13th century Holy House of Loreto and furnished with a statue modelled on Our Lady of Cosmedin in Rome. Pope Leo XIII declared this to be the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Meanwhile, in Westminster, Cardinal Bourne had instructed Lawrence Shattock, the Cathedral architect, to remodel the pulpit. John Trinick was commissioned to produce a new panel for it in opus sectile (cut and painted glass) representing Our Lady of Walsingham. Although to be in the same style as the pulpit, this clearly needed also to resemble the new statue at Walsingham. Indeed, the blessing of the pulpit occurred only the day before that of the statue. Both Tristram’s drawing and Trinick’s initial design had been completed by March 1934 when the latter appeared in an exhibition of liturgical art. It seems clear that Trinick took his design from Tristram’s drawing and so, like the 1934 statue, the Book of the Gospels was omitted and the seven rings were incomplete.

Twenty years afterwards, on the Feast of the Assumption in the Marian Year of 1954, the Papal Delegate crowned the statue in the Slipper Chapel; but it was not the 1934 statue based on Tristram’s drawing. Recognising that this lacked important details shown in the Walsingham Priory seal, a new statue was carved by Marcel Barbeau for the occasion and this is the one in the Slipper Chapel today. Our Lady’s throne is adorned with the seven rings of the Sacraments, whilst the Holy Child holds a small Book of the Gospels in his left hand in token of the Word made Flesh. So, even if we cannot be sure that the statue we see and venerate today is the same as that seen by medieval pilgrims, at least we know that it resembles Our Lady of Walsingham as shown on the seal of Walsingham Priory. Meanwhile, the Cathedral pulpit’s image bears witness to a history of rediscovery marked by trial and error!

Meanwhile an Anglican lady, Charlotte Boyd, had bought the 14th century Slipper Chapel, the last of the wayside chapels on the pilgrim road to Walsingham. In 1894 she became a Catholic. But the shrine was now formally at King’s Lynn and the Slipper Chapel remained unused. It was not until July 1933 that the newly-appointed Bishop Youens, whose diocese of Northampton then encompassed Walsingham, publicly pledged to restore the pilgrimage to its original home and set about restoring the Slipper Chapel as a shrine. Cardinal Bourne seized on the idea and announced that he would lead a National Pilgrimage there. So, on 19 August 1934, the Cardinal led 12,000 pilgrims back to Walsingham, and the first Mass since the Reformation was held in the Slipper Chapel, the new National Shrine.

For the occasion Bishop Youens had commissioned Professor Ernest Tristram, a medieval historian, to design a new statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, the gift of Miss Hilda Carey of Torre Abbey in Devon. Tristram accordingly made a drawing of the 1534 seal impression of Walsingham Priory and this was used to carve a small wooden statue of Our Lady, enthroned

by Bishop Youens in the Slipper Chapel on 16 August 1934, three days before the National Pilgrimage. But it is clear from a photograph of Tristram’s drawing, which appeared in the Illustrated London News at the time, that important details were omitted, notably the Book of the Gospels and the seventh ring symbolising the Sacraments. And so these were also omitted in the new statue.

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The statue as carved by Marcel Barbeau for the Marian Year of 1954, now venerated as Our Lady of Walsingham, complete with the Book of the Gospels and the rings symbolising the Sacraments

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ON PILGRIMAGE TO SOUTH WALES (CONCLUDED)

Saints in South Wales Part II

© Tony Hisgett

Louise Sage

St David’s Cathedral

Following dinner on the Tuesday evening, we all went for a long walk through the town of Tenby, down to the harbour, past the old Lifeboat Station and round the point - very good for the digestion. We did not realise that so many famous people had visited or stayed there, for example Horatio Nelson and Lady Hamilton, George Eliot and Prince Albert, as evidenced by Blue Plaques on the houses.

The following morning saw us on the coach coach to St David’s, Britain’s smallest city, to visit the Cathedral after a stop at St David’s and St Patrick’s Church in Haverfordwest for a concelebrated Mass. Fr Liam Bradley, who accompanied us to St David’s, is also parish priest at the market town of Narbeth, a few miles from Haverfordwest, which was also featured as a Great British Break by the Sunday Times in its August Travel section.

The Cathedral, with approximately 300,000 visitors a year, lies sunk in a hollow, quite invisible from the nearby sea, and so the first sight of it is in looking down rather than it being seen from afar. It was built in the Norman style in the 12th century, giving pilgrims the opportunity to visit St David’s shrine. Constructed of the local fine-grained purple Cambrian sandstone, it has survived both the collapse 14

of its central tower and an earthquake in the 13th century.

The floor slopes noticeably, the levels at the east and west ends of the building differing in height by about 14 feet.

St David was an ascetic, misogynist and charismatic leader who established a monastery here in the 6th century and spread the Gospel right across South Wales. The shrine was restored and rededicated in 2012, and large colourful icons of Ss David, Patrick and Andrew now adorn the niches. At Westminster, of course, we have the splendid mosaic of St David written by Ivor David and installed in the Cathedral in 2010 prior to its being blessed by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Britain.

We then walked to St Non’s Retreat run by the Sisters of Mercy, who warmly welcomed us with refreshments. The Retreat has both a ruined and a modern chapel, and a holy well considered to have healing and miraculous powers.

St Non was the mother of St David and the site of the ruined hapel is traditionally his birthplace. Although the ruin cannot be accurately dated, it is considered to be one of the oldest in Wales. It was wonderful to be there, so peaceful and spiritual, with stunning views across the rocks facing out to the Atlantic.

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October 2019

ON PILGRIMAGE TO SOUTH WALES (CONCLUDED)

Our prayers for good weather were answered, as we travelled by boat for a full day visit to Caldey Island on the Thursday. One and a half miles wide and two miles long, just off the coast near Tenby, the island has been home since the 1920’s to a small community of Cistercian monks and a number of villagers, some employed by the Abbey Estate, and each summer it receives around 55,000 visitors.

However, it is known that Celtic monks settled on the island in the 6th century, with a monastery standing there for the next thousand years. We were met at the landing slip by Fr Gildas, the monastery cook, who was great fun; over 6 feet tall, well-built and suitably bearded, he had been in the community for 36 years. As he guided us around the island, he talked us through the history of early Christianity in South Wales at the same time.

Friday, our final day, was the feast of St John Jones, which we kept at a concelebrated Mass with Fr Mansel Usher who warmly welcomed us to St Teilo’s church. On the train back to London everyone agreed that we had spent a great week in a wonderfully different country. We are now looking forward to another Pilgrimage organised by the Guild of St John Southworth in 2020.

© Natalie-S

Although we were not allowed access into the monastery, the island offers an enjoyable experience, with its own Post Office and museum, a perfumery and a chocolate factory. There are nature trails with many varieties of flowers and plants, including rare orchids and the monks

have introduced red squirrels to the island, which flourish alongside black swans and loads of ducks on ponds. There are also two ancient chapels - St David’s and S. Illtud’s. The former, dating from Norman times, has foundations thought to be those of a Celtic chapel built in the 6th century. Its baptismal font was made by the artist and sculptor Eric Gill, creator of the Stations of the Cross for us in Westminster. At the invitation of the Abbot, we were privileged to join the community for Sext at 12.15 pm in the Abbey church. A few of us also walked right across the island to the lighthouse with its fantastic views, whilst in the evening we attended an excellent concert given by the Tenby Male Voice Choir, enriched with much audience participation.

The Cistercian Monastery on Caldey Island October 2019

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Westminster Cathedra Cardinal Herbert Vaughan had originally envisaged Westminster Cathedral being served by a monastic community, but decided to set up a College of Chaplains, drawn from the ranks of the diocesan priesthood, and this College was established in 1903.

He wrote of the chaplains that their chief motivation should be a desire to serve God as apostles, through a life of prayer and public liturgy.

Throughout its life, the centre of the College’s being has been the daily celebration of the Mass and the Prayer of the Church, and it remains so to this day. The Chaplains meet together each day for Morning Prayer and each chaplain will celebrate one of the regular Masses.

Originally the chaplains lived together with the Archbishop in one house, but later the house was divided into Archbishop’s House and Clergy House.

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In the early days there were twenty or more chaplains at the Cathedral; our ranks have now been thinned, but we maintain a degree of common life by sharing meals and recreation as well as the liturgical duties. The Administrator oversees the whole life of the Cathedral on behalf of the Archbishop and his duties run from liturgy to maintenance, from staffing to finance, and from catechesis to parish visiting.

The Sub-Administrator looks after the domestic arrangements of Clergy House, the duty rotas by which the daily life of the chaplains is governed, and the day-to-day running of the Cathedral. The Precentor has responsibility for the Cathedral’s liturgy, co-ordinating special services, liaison with the Music Department, and the management of the Cathedral diary. The Registrar maintains all the Cathedral records and documents.

Canon Christopher Tuckwell Administrator; Chairman, The Friends; Chairman, Oremus; Editor, Weekly Newsletter; Officiating Chaplain to Wellington Barracks

Fr John Scott

Fr Michael Donaghy

Registrar; Editor of Oremus Magazine; Cathedral Communications; Sacred Heart Church; Confirmations at Westminster School

Masses in Residential Homes; Visits to the Sick and Housebound; Legion of Mary; Ecumenical and Interfaith Representative; Winter Night Shelter

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October 2019

al College of Chaplains Each of the chaplains has a specific pastoral responsibility, either in the cathedral parish or in a wider context, and these include the normal sacramental programmes, the visiting of the sick, the chaplaincies at the Choir School and St Vincent de Paul Primary School, visiting the Passage Day Care Centre, an Officiating Chaplaincy at Wellington Barracks and much else.

One of the major works of the Cathedral is the provision of Confessors for the six hours of Confessions heard each day, a very privileged and worthwhile ministry.

Fr Daniel Humphreys

Fr Andrew Gallagher

Sub-Administrator; Rector of the College of Chaplains; Chairman of Safeguarding Committee; Marriage Preparation; Acting Chaplain to Westminster Cathedral Choir School; Marriage Preparation

Precentor; Prefect of the Sacristy; Guild of St Anthony; Children’s Liturgy; Confirmation Course; Guild of St Anthony

Fr Julio Albornoz

Fr Rajiv Michael

Chaplain to St Vincent de Paul School; Oblates; First Holy Communion Course

RCIA, Adult Formation; Mother and Toddler Group

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

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MONTHLY ALBUM

Volunteering is Good for You Those of us who work in the Cathedral and get paid should be and often, I hope, are profoundly aware of and grateful for the tasks regularly undertaken by the Cathedral volunteers. The words ‘Thank you’ may not be said every day, but they are said loudly and clearly at the Annual Volunteers’ Party, held after Mass which has been offered for the intentions of all who so willingly offer their time and abilities to the Cathedral. The place simply could not

A Distinguished Visitor This year’s Malta Day Mass saw the Cathedral welcome a distinguished Maltese celebrant in the person of Cardinal Prosper Grech OSA, now in his 94th year. Created as the Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria Goretti in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI, he was the first member of the Augustinian Order to become a cardinal in 111 years. He has had a notable academic career in Rome, where he founded the Augustinian Patristic Institute, but has also pursued research both in Oxford and Cambridge. Malta Day is always a colourful occasion, although shorn of its fireworks on the piazza this year, but we were glad to be able to host a more domestic occasion later in the week for Cardinal Grech when he celebrated a baptism in the Cathedral.

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function without so many who make the maintenance of its life and witness a part of their Christian discipleship. Those present at the Party were particularly pleased to be joined

by Canon Christopher and to wish him well as his recovery continues and his health improves. The camera snapped a number of groups chatting as it circulated around the Hall, but in the end it seemed best to get everyone into one smiling group. Thank you all!

Life Labyrinth This labyrinth spent a week on the piazza as part of this year’s London Design Festival. Lots of people walked by with interest and a fair number got out their phones to take pictures and, presumably, share them. It certainly provided convenient seating, although, as the image shows, some people were more interested in looking out from the installation than venturing into it. Entitled ‘PATTERNITY’, its ‘bold monochrome style will reflect the brickwork of Westminster Cathedral and the communal seating pays homage to the geometries of the cathedral’s architecture’. If you did not take the chance to walk the labyrinth, you missed out on ‘a pattern-based journey that takes visitors on a personal meditative walking experience that is proven to have both psychological and physical health benefits’. Labyrinths, of course, have long been known to Christianity and are famously found in churches, like the 13th century one in Chartres Cathedral. The ultimate benefit of walking a labyrinth, of course, is coming closer to God, the source of all life.

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MONTHLY ALBUM

Spotted!

If you have not seen Fr Michael Quaicoe (right, in disguise), then it probably means that you have not been at Mass for the last month. He has been spending a month at the Cathedral, helping out with cover, spreading laughter and avoiding the heat of the Roman summer. We wish him well as he now returns to Rome and hope that he will enjoy a quiet return to diligent study!

Bidding Farewell

Much Cathedral work goes on behind the scenes.

One such worker is Tom Preddle, the subject of a recent Retirement Coffee Morning in Clergy House Common Room (seen, right, with Michelle Roca of the Diocesan Deaf Service). He has given the last 13 years to looking after the cleaning and ordering of Cathedral Hall, with its multiplicity of activities, from Bach Choir rehearsals and relocated Cathedral Masses to Tea Dances and Blood Transfusion sessions.

Customary congratulations on retirement were offered to Tom and he responded with a poem on how his time might, or might not, now be spent.

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HOW TO BUILD A MONASTERY

A Steep Learning Curve (Part I) Bishop Mark Jabalé OSB ‘What shall I do with you, then?’

Those were the words my Abbot said to me. At the age of 50, a monk of the Abbey of St Michael and All Angels, at Belmont, just outside Hereford, I had just ended a 17 year stretch as Headmaster of the school. I had already tried to resign a few years before, but the Abbot had refused, saying: ‘Stay on, Mark, I haven’t got anyone to replace you’. But at last, in 1983, he accepted my resignation; hence his question. I answered that he was the Abbot, and that I would do what I was told. So, he asked me to go to Peru, to build the monastery Belmont Abbey was to start.

Some years before, the Abbot had been giving a retreat to the nuns at the convent in Tyburn, who had a foundation in Piura, Peru; Mother Xavier, the Mother General, told him that the bishop of that diocese wanted to have a community of monks in his diocese; so, would Belmont consider it? He said he would think about it, not intending to do anything. But over the next few months Mother rang him so often to remind him, that finally he gave in and went through the process of consulting his Council and the Community, thinking they would turn down the idea; but it went through.

Thus, in 1981, he sent three members of our community to start in the parish of Tambogrande, a small town in the north of the Piura Province, near the Ecuadorean border, with the aim of purchasing land and starting a monastic foundation. Hence, his question to me; and his decision that I should be the one who, although totally unqualified, should build our monastery. Talk about being promoted to the level of your incompetence ...

I was. So ended my career as a school teacher, and so began my interlude in Peru.

My first question to the Abbot was if I could have an appeal to raise the money for the project. He refused, telling me that this project should be 20

Belmont’s and Belmont’s alone. So, my job was first, of course, to learn Spanish, then go to Tambogrande to our parish, find a plot of land to buy, and build a monastery. Simple? No! But a monk does what he is asked by his Abbot. So, having bid farewell to the staff and the pupils at the end of July, and my community and my parents in the middle of September, off I went to Cochabamba, in Bolivia, for an intensive Spanish course run by the Maryknoll Fathers. Intensive it certainly was, four solid hours every morning of one-to-one tuition; you couldn’t help but learn the language.

I couldn’t help looking back at my final days at Fribourg University, in 1960, when having defended my thesis, and been congratulated by the faculty, I came out of the room and threw my briefcase over the edge of the bannister to the ground floor, saying: ‘Not another day’s study in my life!’ Obviously, God knew better.

At the end of that course, not only was I able to speak and preach in Spanish, but I also had dreams in my new language ... that, I was told, was how you knew you were beginning to really know a language.

So, from Cochabamba to the parish house in Tambogrande, where I arrived two days before Christmas 1983. Frs Luke, David and Paul, the three pioneers from our community, were living and running the parish, which was to be be my base as I looked for the right plot of land.

That was where I tasted the kind of life I was to experience for the next three years. Each of us had a small bedroom, there was a common room and a small kitchen. The bathroom, outside, boasted no bath but a shower, which produced a trickle of water only occasionally, when the running water was on in the town; and cold, not hot, water of course. Electricity, well yes, but again only occasionally; and then, only for a couple of hours. When there was no running water, we simply

had to keep water in buckets when it came on for half an hour in the day and use it for washing, cooking, and drinking. Before drinking it, the water had to be boiled for a good hour, and then filtered through special filters.

Without a doubt, a new life for me; but my companions had already been living it for over two years. And I found you soon get used to it; after all, it’s only creature comforts. Just to underline the fact I would have to get used to new conditions when I arrived, in my room there was only a bed, with the promise that the rest of the furniture would come very soon. I managed to get hold of a chair, so for the next three weeks until furniture arrived I lived out of my suitcase.

Three priests to look after one parish might sound like luxury, until I tell you that the size of the parish was that of a large English county, numbering about 100,000 parishioners. Each one of the brethren looked after one third of it. My new job, apart from sharing in the Mass schedule at the parish, was to be bursar for our little community and to set about finding the land, buying it and planning and building the monastery. But, of course, whenever one of my brethren went away for a few days, or for their holiday, I was expected to take on that sector of the parish until they returned.

At weekends also, of course, I took my turn saying Masses in the main church, or going out to far-flung villages of the parish for the inevitable procession, Mass and baptisms; and it was not unusual to do two or three of these on a Sunday, with some 40 to 50 baptisms at each; then return to do the evening Mass in the Tambogrande Church. For one who had had the relatively easy life of a schoolmaster, this certainly was a new experience.

Life in the Institute in Bolivia, doing my Spanish course, was a bit like living in a West End Club. Here, my new surroundings could not Oremus

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HOW TO BUILD A MONASTERY

have been more different: most of the town’s sanitary facilities existed in only a very few houses, meaning that all kinds (and I mean all kinds) of waste ended up in the streets, creating an all-pervading smell throughout. I found this particularly offensive and difficult to live with at the start. But I discovered the amazing adaptability of the human body; within the space of only a few weeks I stopped being conscious of the smells and sights which at first I had found so revolting. I had arrived on the day before Christmas Eve so, my first major experience was for the Christmas celebrations. Midnight Mass and the morning Masses done, Fr Paul suggested we go out for lunch to a nearby farm, run by a good lady parishioner by the name of Señora Donatilla; and off we went, with me riding pillion on Fr David’s number 2 motor cycle, Paul in charge; David was out on his best bike and Luke out in the field with our Toyota truck.

We got there, and the Señora was delighted to have us for lunch, which was chicken and rice; my chicken leg I remember describing as coming from a bird which had obviously run in the 1936 Berlin Olympics marathon - it was that tough, I could not actually sink my teeth into it. After the 6pm evening Mass, Fr Luke welcomed me back in the house with the words: ‘Mark, what would you like for supper?’ I asked him what there was, and he answered: ‘Not a lot’. What it ended up being was stale bread swimming in hot milk made from powder, lightly sprinkled with sugar.

A Christmas Day I will remember for ever ... That was the very first taste of what my life was to be.

But I was determined to make a success of my latest assignment; so, I settled with a will into my new surroundings with Luke, David, Paul and a young Peruvian who was seeking to join our community. I took my turn at the Masses and everyday October 2019

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chores, and reorganised the kitchen, food and other supplies as bursar, so as never to have another Christmas meal like that one. Alongside that I started to look around the area for a suitable site to build our new monastery. We all decided it had to be out of the town, as the new community would otherwise never get any peace, Peruvians being particularly friendly and constantly wanting to be involved. A monastery had to have the ability to shut out all outside interference, at least some of the time. I visited a number of possible sites, but could find little that would be suitable. Soon, though, Paul

said that he had heard that a plot of land north of Tambogrande, on the way to the Ecuadorean border was for sale. It was up on the side of a hill, had all the attributes for the right site - water, the view, seclusion and yet easy accessibility; it had some 45 acres of land, about three-quarters of which could be cultivated, where we might grow fruit and vegetables, plant fruit trees, and a vine; and the property could be made reasonably secure.

To be continued; Bishop Mark is Bishop Emeritus of Menevia and frequently assists at Confirmations in the Cathedral.

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THEOLOGIANS AT WORK

We Need to Speak Dr Ashley Beck

You don’t need to look much further than the political crisis which continues to unfold. To suggest to many Catholics, even clergy, that how we look at this country’s relationships with the rest of Europe should be guided by that element within the Christian moral tradition which we call Catholic Social Teaching, or that how we look at the secular state should be enlightened by St Augustine of Hippo, or that migration has to be seen as a moral issue, rooted in what we teach about the charity and love, or that Christian teaching might have something to say about truth-telling among politicians and others in public life - including people who claim to be Catholics – all these things, and more, cause the eyes to glaze over.

By and large people won’t engage in the argument or even challenge the sort of things which I have asserted: you are simply dismissed. Indeed, a theological approach to Brexit often causes offence; you're just another of the 'experts' attacked

by Michael Gove during the 2016 referendum campaign. Sadly, in the Catholic community in the UK 22

this is further nurtured by a deep anti-intellectualism, a suspicion of theology in itself, at all levels. And yet we have to assert that all these things are theological; an absence of theological language shows an absence of God. And so it is that as the country faces what is surely the most serious moral and political crisis since the Second World War, and when many of our own people and others are seeking moral leadership, the churches seem to have virtually nothing to say. What makes this vacuum even more alarming is that all that has happened in the last three or four years points to yet another theological reality: the presence of moral evil.

I think the first book my friend David Brown wrote, in 1983, was called Choices, and the very title of the book can help us understand where we are. People, communities, voters, politicians, make choices.

Moreover, ethical choices are linked and have serious consequences.

Ethical reflection, drawing on our traditions, helps us understand why political and public life has become so toxic and aggressive. If people in a referendum make choices which are fuelled by suspicion and fearfulness, by nationalism and insecurity, the problems don't go away; there are consequences. Real moral reflection on Brexit can show that the poison and nastiness which have got so much worse than many of us feared in June 2016 are not incidental, an unintended consequence or side effect of an action. Pope Francis has not been afraid to point this out. Our Lord's shrewdness in the Sermon on the Mount, when he says: ’A bad tree cannot produce good fruit’ (Matthew 7:17), is surely the text for today’s Britain. Moral evil in society is about the theological idea we call sin – much of what we see in our country is about corporate, social and structural sin, linked to sinfulness in the hearts

© Jonathan Cardy

Theological language, how we speak of the things of God, is our theme. I have been struck by Theo Hawksley's image of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) as a way of describing how we are now operating as theologians. It seems to me that this applies not only to teaching theology and religious studies in schools, universities and elsewhere, but to our overall engagement as theologians with issues facing society and the Church. In both settings it seems that the very idea of speaking theologically is viewed with suspicion or incomprehension. That we should encounter this in society, more and more divorced from the practice of religion or even our religious roots, should not surprise us; that we should experience this in the Catholic Church is surely profoundly shocking.

Christ looks out over the altar of the Chapel at St Mary’s University

of men and women, brought about also by ignorance: but ignorance can sometimes be culpable.

It seems to me that theologians have a leadership responsibility ourselves. All of us in our different ways are trying to tell the people we teach or work with that the language of God, theological language (even if it is a form of TEFL) has something to say about the whole of life. If we push the language of God out of this or that crisis or moral issue, we're pushing God out. Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said, at the height of his struggle with apartheid, and referring to the political struggle in his country, that if these things are not God's, whose are they? If we really believe that leadership in the Church is not the exclusive preserve of those ordained to sacred office, then as a community within the Church, as Catholic theologians, we need to show leadership ourselves at this time, even if it feels as if we're in what feels like, to use Michael Kirwan’s words, a ’land of screams’.

The Rev Dr Ashley Beck is a Senior Lecturer at St Mary’s University, Twickenham and currently President of the Catholic Theological Association, at whose Annual Conference he gave this address.

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October 2019

ART AND CHRISTIANITY

Seeking Beauty for God Laura Moffatt This year the organisation first founded as Art and Christianity Enquiry (ACE) celebrates its 25th anniversary as a fully-fledged educational charity. From humble beginnings as a network of art world professionals, clergy and academics brought together by its founder, the Rev’d Tom Devonshire Jones, sometime Anglican vicar of St Mark’s church, Regents Park.

The organisation soon began to collaborate on educational events such as study days at Tate Britain and the National Gallery, as well as mounting its own international conferences and lectures in churches and cathedrals across the country.

What was first known as the Bulletin – beginning life as a folded sheet of A3 – developed into our own quarterly members’ journal, Art and Christianity which publishes its 100th issue this coming winter. Other developments in the organisation came around the time of the millennium when, in response to a bounty of new art commissions in churches and cathedrals, we set up the ACE Awards for art, architecture and a book. These awards, along with reviews in our journal, have established a benchmark of critical judgment on new art in places of worship, works of art which are often overlooked, misrepresented by the mainstream press, or given scant regard and context. Our awards are now run once every four years, and this year we are delighted that the judging panel includes Laura Gascoigne who writes regular art reviews for The Tablet.

Also at this time, ACE appointed its first Art in Churches Officer and initial steps were taken to consolidate and promote the potential for churches to engage with contemporary artists, or to host exhibitions such as the touring Methodist Modern Art Collection. Of course, much of the advice and consultation we have given over the years happens under the radar, but we sense that there is increasing recognition – from the Church of England’s committees who deal with changes to the fabric of their buildings, as well as from the Roman Catholic Church – of the need for specific and expert guidance within the procedures that exist. As an example of this, earlier this year we published a set of case studies and guidelines for installing temporary works of art in churches. These can be found on the ‘curating’ page of our website.

Our anniversary year also sees the culmination of a major educational programme called Visual Communion. This has been conceived as a series of ecumenical ‘soundings’, each taking place in a different regional centre – Durham/Ushaw, Coventry, Chichester and Winchester – and feeding into a final symposium to take place at the Wallace Collection in London on 29 November. The symposia have drawn upon collections of ecclesiastical art and design as well as the architecture of sanctuaries and chapels. We have also been able to offer rare opportunities to handle and view closely different materials and media, including textiles, silverware, sculpture, painting and furniture.

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St Augustine’s church, Hammersmith, as reordered

Our final event chaired by Professor Tom O’Loughlin – with Bishop Rowan Williams as our keynote speaker alongside the art historian Deborah Lewer, the German Reformation specialist Bridget Heal and a panel that includes Lida Kindersley, Gill Hedley and Tina Beattie – aims to draw together the diversity of visual culture explored in the four preceding symposia and to showcase the outstanding body of artistic endeavour that has been shaped by this central Christian tradition. In the run-up to the event, we are delighted that Maria Cristina White da Cruz, who sits on the Cathedral’s Art and Architecture Committee, will lead a tour of the Cathedral on Tuesday 26 November with special emphasis given to the chapels and sanctuaries and their decorative schemes.

While we have much to celebrate in looking back over the last quarter of a century, the organisation is primarily motivated by what the future holds. Next year we plan to address issues of ecology and the environment in both our curatorial and educational programmes, a forward-looking endeavour if ever there was one. We heartily welcome new members and hope that readers of Oremus would be likely to find attending our events and supporting our work a rewarding and enriching experience.

Membership to Art and Christianity starts at £20 per year. You can request a free sample issue of our magazine by emailing us at: mail@artandchristianity.org.

Tickets for Visual Communion on 29 November can be purchased from www.artandchristianity.org/v-c or telephone 020 3757 5492.

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DIARY

2019

St John of Capistrano (Feast Day 23 October) was born towards the end of the 14th century and was educated to become a lawyer (he is the patron of jurists). Practicing in Naples, he met with success and was appointed as the Governor of Perugia. However, in a war with a neighbouring town he was betrayed and imprisoned. This effected a change in his life and, aged 31, he joined a Franciscan community. Within a few years he set off on a preaching apostolate which took him as far as Russia. Most notable is his appointment, at the age of 70, to lead the Christian army against the Turks at the battle of Belgrade, in which a great victory was won.

The Month of

October

Holy Father’s Prayer Intention: Evangelisation That the breath of the Holy Spirit engender a new missionary ‘spring’ in the Church.

Tuesday 1 October

Ps Week 2 St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor 9.30am Red Mass – Bishop Nicholas Hudson (10.30am Mass cancelled) 5.30pm Chapter Mass 6.30pm Curry and Quiz Night in Cathedral Hall

Sunday 6 October Ps Week 3 27th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Tye – Missa Euge bone Palestrina – Vir erat in terra Organ – Fugue (L’Orgue mystique XLIX) – Tournemire 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction, with Chorister Induction Bevan – Magnificat octavi toni Gardiner – Te lucis ante terminum Organ: Rhapsody no. 1 in D flat – Messiaen 4.30pm Deaf Service Mass in Cathedral Hall 4.45pm Organ Recital: Peter Stevens (Westminster Cathedral) Monday 7 October

Our Lady of the Rosary

Tuesday 8 October

Feria All day NHS Blood Transfusion Service in Cathedral Hall

Wednesday 9 October

Bl John Henry Newman, Priest (St Denis, Bishop, and Companions, Martyrs St John Leonardi, Priest)

© Didier Descouens

OCTOBER

Dering – Iesu dulcis memoria Organ: Allegro maestoso (Sonata in G) – Elgar 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Victoria – Magnificat septimi toni Tallis – O salutaris hostia Organ: Praeludium in F sharp minor (BuxWV 146) – Buxtehude 2pm Silver Sunday Tea Dance in Cathedral Hall 4.45pm Organ Recital: Callum Alger (Westminster Cathedral)

Monday 14 October

Feria (St Callistus I, Pope & Martyr)

Ps Week 4

Tuesday 15 October

St Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor All day NHS Blood Transfusion Service in Cathedral Hall

Wednesday 16 October

Feria (St Hedwig, Religious St Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin)

Thursday 17 October

St Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr

Thursday 10 October

St Thérèse in Lille Cathedral

Wednesday 2 October

The Holy Guardian Angels 11am Mission Together Missio Mass (10.30am Mass cancelled)

Thursday 3 October Feria

Friday 4 October

St Francis of Assisi Harvest Fast Day

Saturday 5 October

Friday Abstinence

Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday 2.30pm Diocesan Altar Servers Mass Bishop Paul McAleenan 6pm Vigil Mass with Adult Confirmations – Bishop Nicholas Hudson

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Friday 11 October

Friday Abstinence St John XXIII, Pope 5.30pm The Association of Papal Orders attends Mass – Bishop Michael Campbell

Saturday 12 October

Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday (St Wilfrid, Bishop) 2pm Rosary Crusade Procession 4pm Extraordinary Form Mass in the Lady Chapel 6pm Victoria Choir sings at Mass

Sunday 13 October

ST EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, Patron of the Diocese and of the City of Westminster 9am Family Mass 10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Byrd – Mass for five voices Bruckner – Os iusti

© Pushkin Museum

© Ad Meskens

Feria (St Paulinus of York) All day NHS Blood Transfusion Service in Cathedral Hall

St Ignatius, suffering martyrdom

Friday 18 October

Friday Abstinence ST LUKE, Evangelist 5pm Sung Vespers at Westminster Abbey 5.30pm Said Mass 6.30pm Youth Summit Event

Saturday 19 October

Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday (Ss John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions Martyrs St Paul of the Cross, Priest 3.30pm Solemn Vespers of St John Henry Newman – Cardinal Vincent Nichols 5.15pm Halo Party in Cathedral Hall Oremus

October 2019

DIARY AND NOTICES Sunday 20 October

Ps Week 1 29th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 10.30am Solemn Mass (Men’s voices) A. Gabrieli – Missa Pater peccavi M. Martin – Sitivit anima mea Organ: Toccata – Preston 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Suriano – Magnificat octavi toni Byrd – Diliges Dominum Organ: Sicilienne (Suite Op. 5) – Duruflé 4.45pm Organ Recital: William Fox (St Paul’s Cathedral)

Monday 21 October

Monday 28 October

Feria

Ss SIMON and JUDE, Apostles

Tuesday 22 October

Tuesday 29 October

St John Paul II, Pope

Blessed Martyrs of Douai College

Wednesday 23 October

Feria (St John of Capistrano, Priest) 7.30pm Grand Organ Festival Recital: Martin Baker (Westminster Cathedral)

Thursday 24 October

Feria (St Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop) 5.30pm Golden Jubilee Mass – Mgr Vladimir Felzmann

Friday 25 October Feria

Morales – Beati omnes qui timent Dominum Morales – Ecce sic benedicetur Organ: Finale (Symphonie VII) – Widor 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Viadana – Magnificat octavi toni Victoria – Dixit Dominus Organ: L’ange aux parfums (Les Corps Glorieux) – Messiaen 4.45pm Organ Recital: Joseph Beech (Durham Cathedral)

Friday Abstinence

Saturday 26 October

Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday (Ss Chad and Cedd, Bishops) 10.30am Aid to the Church in Need attends Mass

Wednesday 30 October Feria

Thursday 31 October

Feria 5.30pm Solemn Vigil Mass – fulfils obligation for All Saints’ Day 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.

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St Chad looks out from his church in Rochdale

Sunday 27 October

Ps Week 2 30th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 9.30am-1.30pm SVP Book Sale in Cathedral Hall 10.30am Solemn Mass (Men’s Voices) Lassus – Missa In te, Domine, speravi October 2019

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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. 1.30pm: Legion of Mary Group II 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.

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CROSSWORD AND POEM

The Rosary in English Prose and Verse Of small coral about her arm she bare A pair of beads gauded all with green Geoffrey Chaucer Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers For I will be thy beadsman, Valentine William Shakespeare

All night she spent in bidding of her bedes And all the day in doing good and godly deedes Edmund Spenser

And so the babe grew up a pretty boy, A pretty boy, but most unteachable – And never learnt a prayer, nor told a bead Samuel Taylor Coleridge

… wende to holi churche, And there bidde my bedes Alan Frost August 2019

Clues Across 1 Ellis Peters’ sleuthing monk of books and TV (7) 6 ‘--- ad --- loquitur’. motto of Cardinal (to be St) John Henry Newman (3) 8 ‘-- --- beginning was the Word’, opening of St John’s Gospel (5) 9 London born and bred satirical painter of such works as The Rake’s Progress (7) 10 ‘The ----- Altarpiece’, famous polyptych in Belgian city’s cathedral of St Bavo (5) 11 First name of For Whom The Bell Tolls author who converted to the Catholic faith (6) 13 Celtic language of Ireland and the Western Isles of Scotland (6) 15 Legal district of London, and its Church (6) 17 Russian scientist whose work with dogs led to the concept of the conditioned reflex (6) 20 Official Council in Rome, effectively the governing body of the Catholic Church (5) 21 London football club, originating in Woolwich Ordnance Depot (7) 23 Seed of the oak tree, Celtic symbol of life (5) 24 --- Perignon, Benedictine monk eponymously linked to the development of champagne (3) 25 Series of Crosses named after deceased wife of Edward I, such as at Charing Cross (7) Clues Down 1 Early Saint associated with Durham, in whose cathedral is his tomb (8) 2 Beast attacked by Archangel Michael in Rev 12 (6) 3 ‘We traverse ----’,We Three Kings carol (4) 4 ‘Lux Aeterna’, ‘Perpetual -----’, Communion Antiphon in a Requiem Mass (5) 5 Appearance of the bodily wounds of Our Lord on a living person (e.g. Padre Pio) (8) 6 Popular item on the breakfast table (6) 7 ‘Eternal ---- grant unto them, O Lord’ (4) 12 ‘-------- Mundi’, painting by Leonardo da Vinci of Christ as Saviour of the world (8) 14 Supporter of Charles I and his son against the Protestant Roundheads (8) 16 Sister of Moses and prophetess (6) 18 Name of Liverpool Airport taken from local pop star (6) 19 Forty Martyrs priest, named after 1 Down, relic (skull) at Lanherne Convent in Cornwall (5) 20 Early Saint, Bishop of Mercians, dedicatee of Birmingham Cathedral (4) 22 ‘---- Vacante’, when a See is without a Bishop, especially when Vatican is without a Pope (4)

ANSWERS Across: 1 Cadfael 6 Cor 8 In The 9 Hogarth 10 Ghent 11 Ernest 13 Gaelic 15 Temple 17 Pavlov 20 Curia 21 Arsenal 23 Acorn 24 Dom 25 Eleanor Down: 1 Cuthbert 2 Dragon 3 Afar 4 Light 5 Stigmata 6 Cereal 7 Rest 12 Salvator 14 Cavalier 16 Miriam 18 Lennon 19 Mayne 20 Chad 22 Sede

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William Langland

Behold the child, by Nature’s kindly law, Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw: Scarves, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage, And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age: Alexander Pope

She then rose and dried her eyes, and taking a crucifix from her neck offered it to me.

She saw, I suppose, the doubt in my face, for she put the rosary round my neck and said, ‘For your mother’s sake,’ and went out of the room.

Bram Stoker

My sensibility was formed by the dolorous Murmurings of the rosary Seamus Heaney

… in the drawer of the headmaster’s desk at the Leys School, Cambridge (A Methodist Foundation) there is a treasured relic which bears the tag ‘John Wesley’s rosary’.

John Wesley

I found another dead badger the other day – skin no good but I am getting its teeth for my rosary Ted Hughes

Numb were the Beadsman’s fingers while he told His rosary, and while his frosted breath, Like pious incense from a censer old, Seem’d taking flight for heaven, without a death, Past the sweet Virgin’s picture John Keats

To submit a poem whether by yourself or another for Registered Charity number 272899 consideration, please contact the Editor – details on page 3.

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October 2019

THE FRIENDS OF WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL

Autumnal Activities Christina White

Forthcoming Events Tuesday 1 October: Curry and Quiz in Cathedral Hall. Doors open at 6.30pm and the quiz will begin at 6.45pm. Bottles may be brought in, £1 corkage charge. Pay bar and raffle tickets on sale. Menu choices are chicken madras, lamb korma or vegetarian biryani. Please indicate food choice when booking. Tickets £18 The last days of summer in the Park

I walked through St James’s Park this morning to enjoy one last glimpse of summer, as the image shows, before the Friends’ Autumn programme begins.

October events commence with the Curry Quiz on Tuesday 1st and you may bring your own wine/beer, with corkage of £1 per bottle. This is an experiment and we hope that saving money on refreshments will encourage quiz-goers to be extra-generous with the purchase of raffle tickets. Wine and beer will also be on sale. Fr Daniel is our quizmaster and our Head Sacristan, Richard, will support him.

A trip to Aylesford Priory has been arranged for Thursday 10 October.

Founded in 1242, parts of the medieval foundation survive including the Prior’s Hall and Courtyard with the Pilgrims’ Hall beside the river Medway. The outdoor Shrine to Our Lady with its four chapels has fine modern religious art. The coach, accompanied by a Cathedral Chaplain, will leave at the preferred later time of 9.30am. We will have Mass at the Priory, followed by a Ploughman’s lunch and a guided tour in the afternoon.

Blessed John Henry Newman will be canonised in Rome on Sunday 13 October and, in honour of the event, Cardinal Nichols will preside at Ecumenical Vespers in the Cathedral on Saturday 19 October with the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Revd Justin Welby, preaching. The Friends have arranged a Halo Party in October 2019

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Cathedral Hall, to take place directly after Vespers which are open to all and commence at 3.30pm.

And, an early reminder that the Friends are participating in the Big Give Online Appeal, which goes live on Tuesday 3 December. Funds raised will be for the completion of the Tower Appeal and there will be details of this and all our autumn/winter events on the Cathedral website, where you may also download a copy of our latest newsletter and events list. If you haven’t joined already, please do consider joining the Friends. Membership makes a lovely Christmas gift and all monies raised go to support Westminster Cathedral.

Last, but certainly not least, we are gearing up for the Cathedral Christmas Fair on Sunday 1 December. There will be reminders in the Cathedral Newsletter, and we need your donations. The bottle tombola is a particular draw, and I ask you to bring your donations of wine, olive oil, ketchup, beer, whatever you have spare, to Clergy House. A generous donor has enabled us to offer £500 cash as the main prize for the Christmas Raffle and the second prize is £250. Tickets are at Clergy House or will be available in the Cathedral after Masses in November (but not on Remembrance Sunday). The puddings will be arriving in the first week in October and Sticky Toffee is back on the menu. Please place your orders at Clergy House.

Thursday 10 October: A day trip to Aylesford Priory in Kent, to include lunch, Mass and a guided tour. The coach leaves Clergy House at the later time of 9.30am. Tickets £38 Saturday 19 October: The Halo Party – marking the canonisation of England’s first saint in more than 50 years – in Cathedral Hall after Ecumenical Vespers in the Cathedral.

Halo Party at 5.15pm. Tickets £15 Tuesday 12 November: Fr Nigel Woollen – Newman and the Rosary: Talk in the Clergy House Library, to begin at 7pm. Doors at 6.30pm.

Please come to Clergy House Reception. Tickets £10 Thursday 14 November: The Mithras Temple and the Guildhall Art Gallery, with Paul Pickering. Meet at the main entrance to London’s Mithraeum at 10.45am for our group booking at 11am. The visit will last approximately one hour. We then have free time for a sandwich lunch before meeting at the Guildhall at 1.45pm for our art tour to start at 2pm. We will also be visiting the amphitheatre in the Guildhall.

Tickets £25

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

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CATHEDRAL HISTORY

Cathedral History: A Pictorial Record The Requiem Mass for Archbishop-Bishop Peter Amigo (1864-1950) – Thursday 6 October 1949 Paul Tobin The death of the Archbishop-Bishop took place whilst Mass was being offered in his room, which meant that he enjoyed the rare privilege of being mentioned in the Memento of the Living and the Memento of the Dead in the same Mass.

Bishop Peter Amigo, originally a priest of the diocese of Westminster, was appointed as successor to Cardinal Francis Bourne as Bishop of Southwark in 1904 and was to rule that diocese for over 45 years (1905-1950). In 1937 he was given the personal title of Archbishop, hence his style of address as Archbishop-Bishop, which differentiated him from a Metropolitan Archbishop (i.e. the archbishop of a diocese with suffragan sees, such as is the case with Southwark nowadays).

Much has been written about the alleged feud between Cardinal Bourne and his successor at Southwark, so maybe there is some irony that, because St George’s Cathedral had been badly damaged in the Second World War, Cardinal Bernard Griffin (Archbishop of Westminster 1943-1956) gave permission for the Funeral Mass to be celebrated here at the Cathedral.

This effectively, if temporarily, turned Westminster into the Cathedral Church of Southwark, so that the rite of Five

Absolutions of the body of ArchbishopBishop Amigo could be carried out at the end of Mass, celebrated by the Bishop of Portsmouth (Bishop John Henry King). For the record, the Five Absolutions were given by Bishop Scanlan (representing the Scottish Hierarchy), the Archbishop of Cardiff (Archbishop Michael McGrath), the Archbishop of Armagh (Archbishop, later Cardinal, John D’Alton), the Archbishop of Liverpool (Dr Richard Downey) and the Apostolic Delegate (Archbishop William Godfrey, later Archbishop of Westminster 1956-1963).

The funeral cortège left the Cathedral and ‘passing through great crowds, proceeded to St George’s Cathedral, Southwark where, in accordance

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with his own wish, the Body of the Archbishop was interred in the Crypt…’

The burial ceremony was performed

by Bishop William Brown, Titular Bishop of Pella, who was Auxiliary Bishop in Southwark from 1924 until his death in 1951 at the age of 89. In the picture, the mitred figure seen in front of the catafalque is Archbishop Godfrey, with clergy from the dioceses of Southwark, Westminster, Portsmouth and Brentwood, who were part of the province of Westminster at that time and are seen on either side of the catafalque.

Sources: Westminster Cathedral Chronicle November 1949; The Southwark Record November 1949 Picture: The Southwark Record

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Oremus

October 2019

FIFTY AND ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

In retrospect: from the Cathedral Chronicle Training for Ecumenists

A Universal Requiem

All who are in touch with the many-sided work for Christian Unity will be interested to hear that a beginning is being made to train ecumenists and equip leaders for this important and indeed essential work. The Westminster Ecumenical Commission has arranged a pioneer course on Ecumenical Principles which will consist of lectures and discussions on Thursday evenings, starting 2nd October at 7.30pm at the Catholic Central Library. Three lecturers will deal with the spiritual, sacramental and practical aspects of the subject: Fr Emmanuel Sullivan SA, Fr Francis Fenn SJ and Fr Herbert Keldany, who will open the course with a paper on the Range and Limits of Ecumenism … The charge for the course is £1.

It is thought possible that the Holy Father many grant permission throughout the world for one Requiem Mass to be celebrated on Sunday November 2, for the repose of the souls of those of all nations who have fallen in the Great War. It is a consolation to feel that all can at least here join in mutual prayer and supplication for the eternal rest and happiness for the gallant men of all the belligerent nations who, in complete or virtual willingness, went forth to fight and fall in defence of their fatherland. Nor will those men and women be forgotten who at home or abroad died violent deaths in work of indirect warfare, or fell as victims of aerial bombardment. In such united universal acts does Christianity declare and renew its unity and charity. Our enemies mourn their dead as we mourn ours. ‘Careful to keep the unity of the Spirit’ with our ‘one Faith and one Baptism’, we can, thank God, unite with them in the great Requiem Mass, the same Mass that matters the world over, in supplication to God to hold their dead and our dead in his ‘everlasting arms’.

The Christmas Fair For many years the devoted committee and members of the Cathedral Altar Society have organised a Christmas Fair. The cost of the upkeep and replacement of vestments and altar linen for the Cathedral is so heavy that it was found that an annual collection was insufficient cover all calls on the Society, and so the Christmas Fair became an annual event to help meet the deficiency. As a result the Altar Society has been able to relieve the Administrator of the Cathedral of a heavy burden which would otherwise have to be borne from the Offertory collections.

This year has seen the formation of a Parish Council.

It is hoped that this will in time enable parishioners and people who use the Cathedral regularly to meet together, with their priests, and provide one of the means of developing a stronger sense of community.

Many parishioners have offered their services in all kinds of ways, but nevertheless funds will be required if practical ventures are to be organised. For this reason the committee of the Altar Society has kindly consented to share their ‘Day’ with the Parish, and this year the proceeds of the Christmas Fair will be divided between the Altar Society and the Parish Council. It would be very sad if, as a result of this, the Society were unable to meet all their commitments. We do appeal, therefore, to all our readers to make a special effort to support this special Parish Occasion. from Chronicle in the October 1969 Westminster Cathedral News Sheet October 2019

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Music and Scholarship In matters of musico-ecclesiological research, the persistent manner in which only German writings were pushed in this country concealed from most of us the amount of quiet, patient research going on in other countries. A notable example of this is Il Codice 59, by Mgr Casimiri, Maestro di Cappella at the Lateran, and published by the Polyglot Press in Rome. Up to the present, our knowledge of this valuable codex, containing autograph compositions by Palestrina, has been confined to what Dr Haberl of Ratisbon had to say about it. Once upon a time Haberl was regarded as the ultimate authority on all matters connected with ecclesiastical music. Then came the crushing exposures of his incompetence, first by Dom Molitor, and then by Mgr Respighi (Papal Master of Ceremonies). But though Haberl, as a Plainchant authority, has long been discredited, the fact that he was equally untrustworthy in his editions of Palestrina and Di Lasso was only known to a few students.

In his valuable book, Mgr Casimiri shows the worthlessness of Haberl’s work even as an editor of polyphonic music.

He devotes no less than 30 pages to a catalogue of Haberl’s blunders in the transcription of Codex 59. So now let us hope that the Haberl legend is laid to rest for ever, and that the bogus character of the much-vaunted German Cecilian scholarship will be recognised for the fraud that it really is. from the October 1919 Westminster Cathedral Chronicle 29

ST VINCENT DE PAUL PRIMARY SCHOOL

The Rosary Beatriz Nogueira, Year 5

We are now approaching October, the month of the Rosary. During this month we try our best to pray the Rosary every day. The Rosary is dedicated to Our Lady, therefore it is very special to us. As a school we try praying the Rosary every day in October. When we can’t pray a full Rosary, we try to pray at least a few decades.

At St Vincent de Paul, we sometimes use our fingers if we don’t have a Rosary, but we can bring our own Rosary beads to school. We can pray a decade with our fingers as we have ten fingers and a decade uses ten beads.

A Rosary is made up of five decades. A decade is one Our Father, ten Hail Marys and a Glory Be. We begin praying the Rosary by making the sign of the Cross. Then, whilst holding the crucifix piece, we say the Apostles Creed. Next, we pray one Our Father, three Hail Marys and one Glory be. Now we pray a decade and finish it with the Fatima prayer. We finish with the Hail Holy Queen.

When we pray the Rosary we think about a story in Jesus’ life. These stories are called Mysteries. There are 20 Mysteries in total, which are divided into four groups of five: the Joyful Mysteries, the Mysteries of Light (also known as the Luminous Mysteries), the Sorrowful Mysteries and the Glorious Mysteries. I like the Joyful Mysteries the most, because they are about my favourite part of the Bible: the Nativity. The Sorrowful Mysteries tend to be the trickiest ones as they are about the sad parts of Jesus’ life. However, they are the ones that show us that Jesus loves us more than anything we can imagine.

The importance of the Rosary was mentioned by Our Lady, when she appeared in Fatima. Actually, my family tradition of praying the Rosary is linked to Fatima. For 30 years my Dad has been going on a walking pilgrimage to Fatima every year. I have always longed to go there and last year I had the chance to visit with my family. Fatima is very important to us because it was where Our Lady appeared to the three little shepherds. Since I was little I heard about the story of Fatima and of how our Lady asked the three children to pray the Rosary every day in order to achieve peace in the world (it was the time of World War I).

My great-great-grandmother was a witness to one of the minor miracles along with a vast crowd of hundreds.

On that occasion, flower petals started coming out of Our Lady’s hands. My great-great-grandmother told the family that she could not see Our Lady, but she saw the shower 30

of petals falling from the sky. She also mentioned how she tried to grab one of them to put inside her prayer book and how they mysteriously melted away and disappeared.

Our Lady also said that it is very important that we pray for the souls of everyone, especially the ones in most need. When we pray the Rosary with love, we are helping our Lady and Jesus to save as many souls as possible.

This is very important. Our Lady taught us that saving just ourselves is not enough, we have to strive to get as many people saved as possible. Praying the Rosary is one of the best ways to achieve this.

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October 2019

RELICS AND RAPPROCHEMENT

St Peter, Shared Vatican News

On 2 July, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had given some relics of St Peter to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Orthodox Archbishop of Constantinople.

In a letter now published the Holy Father explained the motivation behind his gift.

Pope Francis reviews what he calls: ‘the uninterrupted tradition of the Roman Church’ which ‘has always testified that the Apostle Peter, after his martyrdom in the Circus of Nero, was buried in the adjoining necropolis on the Vatican Hill’. Recounting how the tomb: ‘quickly became a place of pilgrimage for the faithful from every part of the Christian world’, the Pope describes how the Emperor Constantine erected the Basilica dedicated to St Peter over the site. The letter goes on to explain how, in June 1939, immediately following his election, Pope Pius XII decided to undertake excavations beneath the Vatican Basilica.

These works: ‘led first to the discovery of the exact burial place of the Apostle and later, in 1952, to the discovery, under the high altar of the Basilica, of a funerary niche attached to a red wall dated to the year 150 and covered with precious graffiti, including one of fundamental importance which reads, in Greek, “Peter is here”. This contained bones that can quite reasonably be considered those of the Apostle Peter’. These relics are now enshrined in the necropolis under St Peter's Basilica.

Pope Francis with Patriarch Bartholomew

we aspire and for which we fervently pray and work’. In an exclusive interview with Vatican News and L'Osservatore Romano, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew describes the gift as ‘a new milestone’ and a ‘crucial step’ in the journey towards Christian unity.

Pope Francis describes how Pope St Paul VI had nine fragments removed and placed in the private chapel of the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace. The nine fragments were placed in a bronze case bearing an inscription in Latin, which reads: ‘Bones found in the earth beneath the Vatican Basilica considered to be those of Blessed Peter the Apostle’. ‘It was this same case, containing nine fragments of the bones of the Apostle’, writes Pope Francis, ‘that I desired to present to Your Holiness and to the beloved Church of Constantinople over which you preside with such devotion’.

Pope Francis shares how he: ‘reflected on our mutual determination to advance together towards full communion’, and how he ‘thanked God for the progress already made since our venerable predecessors met in Jerusalem over 50 years ago’.

The Pope says he thought of the gift that Patriarch Athenagoras gave to Pope St Paul VI: ‘an icon depicting the brothers Peter and Andrew embracing, united in faith and in love of their common Lord. This icon,’ concludes Pope Francis, has become: ‘a prophetic sign of the restoration of that visible communion between our Churches to which October 2019

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TWO GREAT ENGLISH CATHDRALS

Rochester and Norwich in Recollection Dr Michael Straiton KCSG

In 624 Justus became the fourth archbishop of Canterbury. He consecrated and despatched St Paulinus on his mission to Northumbria. In 762 a local lord then granted land to the bishop, a gift that was confirmed by Offa, King of Mercia who had control of the local territory. After the Norman conquest, William the Conqueror in 1077 appointed a monk Gundulf as the first Norman bishop of Rochester. In 1080 Gundulf began the construction of a new Rochester Cathedral, to replace Justus' church. He also founded St Bartholomew’s Hospital just outside the city. The Norman cathedral was dedicated in 1130 by the Archbishop of Canterbury assisted by 13 bishops and in the presence of King Henry I. Seven bishops of Rochester were originally regular monks between 1215 and the Dissolution. In 1504 St John Fisher was appointed bishop of Rochester when he became tutor to the young Prince Henry. In 1535 32

Rochester Cathedral sits by the River Medway

King Henry VIII broke with Rome and appointed himself head of the Church in England. In May of that year the newly-elected Pope Paul III created John Fisher as Cardinal Priest of San Vitale. This enraged Henry on account of the bishop’s refusal to accept that the monarch was indeed Supreme head of the English Church. A trial was held, Fisher was condemned to death and was beheaded on Tower Hill on 22 June 1535. The execution had an effect opposite to that which Henry intended, as it created a parallel with the martyrdom of St John the Baptist, who was also beheaded, and whose death coincided with the feast day of St Alban, the first martyr of Britain, on 22 June. On 17 December 1538, with patience finally exhausted, Pope Paul III excommunicated Henry.

An Anglo-Saxon settlement and two churches were demolished to make room for the building of Norwich Cathedral. It was founded in 1096 and dedicated in honour of the Blessed Trinity. The Cathedral is an early 12th century building, though modified by later additions and alterations. From the 1400s onwards there was extensive church building in the city. Today 31 medieval churches are still standing, some open for worship.

Norwich Cathedral was one of the earliest places in Britain to have a mechanical clock, that was installed in 1273. It was replaced in 1325 by an astronomical clock but that was destroyed in the 17th century. Next year the cathedral is hosting ‘Dippy’, the Natural History Museum's replica dinosaur diplodocus skeleton, for four months.

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East Anglia was originally converted to the Catholic Faith by St Felix during the reign of King Sigebert in the early 600s. In 675 St Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, divided the see into two, named Dunwich and Elmham.

The see of Elmham came to an end when St Edmund, King of the East Angles, was murdered by the invading Danes on 20 November 869. He was acclaimed as Patron Saint of England and was venerated as such until he was replaced by St George by King Edward III when he founded the Order of the

© Poliphilo

The diocese of Rochester was founded by St Justus, who was sent from Rome to Kent by Pope Gregory the Great in AD 601 to join St Augustine of Canterbury, who made him the first bishop of Rochester in 604. King Ethelbert of Kent gave permission for a church to be built on the site of the present cathedral, to be dedicated to the apostle St Andrew, named after the monastery in Rome from whence Augustine and his 40 monk companions had set out for England in 597.

Garter in 1350; the cult of St George was further advanced by Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Dunwich was subject to massive sea erosion and most of the buildings that were present in the 13th century have disappeared, including eight churches. However, the remains of the Franciscan priory and the Leper Hospital of St James can still be seen. © Prioryman

Two cathedrals, built when England was a Catholic country, have been in the news recently. A nine-hole crazy golf course has been set up in the nave of Rochester Cathedral, whilst a helterskelter has been installed in the nave of Norwich cathedral. The Canon,whose idea it was, told the Daily Telegraph that: ‘Its sheer presence helps to keep the rumour of God alive’. These initiatives have increased the number of visitors to both ancient buildings but have also aroused controversy.

The Presbytery of Norwich Cathedral Oremus

October 2019