Oremus December 2019

December 2019 | Edition Number 253 | FREE

Westminster Cathedral Magazine

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee

NEWMAN IN ADVENT

Thoughts on Heaven St John Henry Newman

We are apt to deceive ourselves, and to consider heaven a place like this earth; I mean, a place where everyone may choose and take his own pleasure. We see that in this world, active men have their own enjoyments, and domestic men have theirs; men of literature, of science, of political talent, have their respective pursuits and pleasures. Hence we are led to act as if it will be the same in another world. The only difference we put between this world and the next, is that here (as we know well) men are not always sure, but there, we suppose they will be always sure, of obtaining what they seek after. And accordingly we conclude, that any man, whatever his habits, tastes or manner of life, if once admitted into heaven, would be happy there.

Not that we altogether deny that some preparation is necessary for the next world; but we do not estimate its real extent and importance. We think we can reconcile ourselves to God when we will; as if nothing were required in the case of men in general, but some temporary attention, more than ordinary, to our religious duties – some strictness,

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during our last sickness, in the services of the Church, as men arrange their letters and papers on taking a journey or balancing an account. But an opinion like this, though commonly acted on, is refuted as soon as put into words.

For heaven, it is plain from scripture, is not a place where many different and discordant pursuits can be carried on at once, as is the case in this world. Here every man can do his own pleasure, but there he must do God’s pleasure.

It would be presumption to attempt to determine the employments of that eternal life which good men are to pass in God’s presence, or to deny that that state which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor mind conceived, may comprise an infinite variety of pursuits and occupations.

Still so far we are distinctly told, that the future life will be spent in God’s presence, in a sense which does not apply to our present life.; so that it may be best described as an endless and uninterrupted worship of the Eternal Father, Son and Holy Spirit. ‘They serve Him day and night in His temple, and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them …’

Oremus

December 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 A New Vestment, given in memoriam,

by Richard Hawker

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Count Benckendorff’s Granddaughter – An Obituary 10 Cathedral History: St John Southworth, The History of his Body

by Patrick Rogers 16 & 17 At the Summit, with Westminster Youth Ministry 20

Chairman Canon Christopher Tuckwell

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Cathedral History in Pictures: When Southwark Lay in Ruins – The Consecration of Bishop Cowderoy

by Paul Tobin 22 & 23

Editor Fr John Scott Oremus Team Tony Banks – Distribution Zoe Goodway – Marketing Manel Silva – Subscriptions Berenice Roetheli – Proofreading Ellen Gomes – Archives Design and Art Direction Julian Game Registered Charity Number 233699 ISSN 1366-7203

The Dealy Brothers RIP

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Our Lady’s Teams Celebrate their Anniversary

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The Christmas Celebration – Book Now!

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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.

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Features St John Henry Newman on the Life of Heaven

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Meeting St Matthew

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An Exhibition and Auction: Journeys in Hope by John Woodhouse

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Book Notice: Fr Bernard Basset SJ’s Newman at Littlemore

by Fr John Scott

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A Change of Name: The formerly Secret Archive

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Our Lady, formerly in Upper Street

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How to Build a Monastery (Part III)

by Bishop Mark Jabalé OSB 12 & 13 An Appeal for The Finding of Moses at the National Gallery 14 & 15 Christians in the Middle East – Two Perspectives

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Regulars This 18th century image of the young Mary Immaculate being held by St Joachim is in the Diocesan Museum of Agrigento. The identity of the artist remains unknown. The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is not a Holy Day of Obligation in this country, but the Cathedral welcomes many on this feast from countries where it is a Holy Day. © José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro / CC BY-SA 4.0

Printed by Premier Print Group 020 7987 0604

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From the Chairman Monthly Album

18 & 19 21

Friends of the Cathedral Cathedral Diary and Notices

24 & 25

Crossword and Poem of the Month

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In Retrospect

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St Vincent de Paul Primary School

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MEETING ST MATTHEW

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.

The Sunday Gospels for 2020 – Year A The Kingdom of God is a central theme, which Matthew prefers to call the Kingdom of Heaven – and he refers to it as such more than 60 times. His gospel is written like a handbook for the early Church, providing models for teaching, preaching, community worship and dealing with disputes with outsiders. These are carefully woven into the story of Jesus and his mission.

As Matthew is writing for a Jewish readership, his structuring of Jesus’ teachings into five discourses is modelled on the five books of Moses, the Torah. The whole narrative of Jesus’ life unfolds over 27 chapters. He presents Jesus as a New Moses giving a New Law. For example, he ascends the mountain in the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7) to deliver this Law. His discourses go on to include mission (chapter 10), the parables (chapter 13), teachings on the Church (chapter 18) and teachings on the future (chapters 24-25). Matthew tells us early on, through the angel Gabriel, that the Messiah to be born will be called ‘Immanuel, which means “God with us”’ (1:23). And, right at the end of his gospel, Matthew completes it with a statement of the Lord’s divinity when Jesus tells his disciples: ‘I am with you always’ (28:20).

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The evangelist talks about upheavals six times. Jerusalem is in turmoil when Jesus enters it, with the whole city asking: ‘Who is this?’ (21:10). At the upheaval of the Cross, the curtain of the Temple is torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split (27:51) as Jesus breathed his last breath, tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised (27:52). When the centurions and those who were with them guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said: ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’ (27:54). On Easter morning Matthew speaks again of an earthquake (28:2) and how the angel of the Lord came and rolled back the stone of the tomb. The guards were so frightened, they shook and became like dead men (28:4).

There are other events which are only recorded in Matthew’s gospel, for example, Jesus’ giving of ‘the keys’ to Peter (16:18) and the description of the Magi, although the evangelist does not specify their number, three being a later assumption on account of the three gifts offered to the Infant Lord.

The Year A Sunday gospel readings begin on Sunday 1 December and continue throughout the liturgical year.

Oremus

December 2019

FROM THE CHAIRMAN

From the Chairman Dear Friends After an absence of several months it is with much pleasure that I resume writing the Chairman’s letter. I would like to begin on a personal note and that is, of course, a note of immense gratitude. Gratitude firstly to our Heavenly Father for his guidance and help through my time of illness, but gratitude also to all those who have supported me with their prayers and good wishes. I have been deeply touched by the number of cards, letters and personal messages, and by the many Masses that have been, and are still being offered for my intentions. Having rarely had a day’s illness in my life, apart from the odd broken bone, to be completely incapacitated and to feel so lifeless for such a prolonged time came as a shock and a learning experience. The power of prayer, whilst we cannot understand it completely, is powerful indeed, and it was the thought of those prayers that sustained me in the darker days, especially when I was undergoing treatment.

So, to all of those who have been remembering me in whatever way, I say a very big thank you.

I am now, hopefully, on the road to recovery and I hope to be back to work by Christmas. In the meantime, we have the beautiful season of Advent, the season often overlooked or squeezed out due to other commitments, but a season rich in scripture and tradition which leads us to the stable at Bethlehem. I hope that we will all draw from the spiritual riches of Advent this year.

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

Finally, I would like to thank Fr John Scott for standing in for me during my absence.

With all good wishes and every blessing.

December 2019

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A DONATION TO THE SACRISTY

A New Green Vestment for Sundays Richard Hawker, Head Sacristan Of this pattern there are several well-known examples: the hanging behind the two figures in Holbein’s painting The Ambassadors, and also the vestments of St Charles Borromeo which may be seen in the Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome. These versions of this pattern are, as is the Italian style, considerably larger than Bodley’s redrawing of it. A most suitable vestment, therefore, for use here at the Cathedral, with its lining in a rose red acting as a good contrast to the green and gold of the Davenport fabric.

The new vestment

A lovely touch was to have a label sewn into the lining of the front of the chasuble, just below the neck opening, bidding the wearer to pray for the repose of Sharon’s soul.

Several sets of vestments in the Cathedral’s collection have similar labels. This label was embroidered by Fine Cell Work, ‘a charity and social enterprise which enables prisoners to build fulfilling and crime-free lives’ and one with which Sharon herself was involved.

It’s funny how past lives come back to haunt you. Mine, at Watts & Co., ended recently last March, but not before the Jennings family came to me, wanting to present a new set of vestments to the Cathedral for use at the Solemn Mass on Sundays in Ordinary Time. They wished to give it in memory of the late Sharon Jennings, well-known to Oremus readers as a great supporter of and contributor to the magazine.

As it happened, I had the very fabric to make a green and gold Roman-cut set (the Cathedral’s historic choice of vestment). The pattern was a redrawing of a stencil by G F Bodley, one of the founders of Watts & Co. It was used most notably in All Saints’ church, Jesus Lane in Cambridge. The damask was named ‘Davenport’, after the company’s first creative director. Bodley had based it on a Venetian damask pattern, from around the 15th/16th century; we know it is Venetian, as it features several symbols connected to the Doge of Venice: the ring, the ducal crown and the pear.

The label inside invites prayers for Sharon’s soul; may she rest in peace.

Anastasia (left) and Benedict (right) Jennings, with Kevin Greenan and Canon Christopher, at the blessing of the vestment before Sunday Mass 6

The kind donation of this set marks something of a new beginning in the sacristy: there is much here, particularly day-to-day vestments and plate (church silverware), which needs either repair or replacing.

Finding the money for these things has not always been easy, however, and there has been a certain amount of ‘make do and mend’; but this does not represent a long-term solution. If you are interested in giving to the sacristy, or having something renewed, in memory of a loved one, or in thanksgiving for some special event, Fr Andrew Gallagher, as Prefect of the Sacristy, will be very happy to hear from you. Please do be in contact, either via Clergy House Reception, or by email to: andrewgallagher@rcdow.org.uk

Oremus

December 2019

A EXHIBITION AND AUCTION

Journeys in Hope John Woodhouse

An art exhibition will be held at the London Jesuit centre, 114 Mount Street W1K 3AH, from Monday 6 to Thursday 30 January, 2020 and will end with a charity art auction in aid of three charities, the Westminster Lourdes Pilgrimage, Aid to the Church in Need and Safe Passage. The Welcome Reception will be from 6pm on 6 January and the Art Auction at 6 for 6.30 pm, both at Farm Street Church Hall. Artists have already donated works on migration, especially covering Syrian and Marian themes. Sealed bids will be accepted throughout the exhibition, but do come along to the auction itself.

Have you ever thought what it must be like to leave everything in the face of persecution, and to take a small child and your family across a dangerous sea? To be chronically ill and never seem to get any relief? To be a child alone in a hostile world trying to reach your family?

We aim to help these people. We can offer hope!

For more information contact John Woodhouse johnwoodhousecat@gmail.com or on 07908 888586 by text

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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 Alan Lloyd in memoriam Barry Lock Clare and John Lusby Pamela McGrath Linda McHugh Peter McNelly in memoriam Christiana Thérèse Macarthy-Woods James Maple Dionne Marchetti Paul Marsden 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 Julia Sutherland 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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BOOK NOTICE

The Saint’s Oxford Home Newman at Littlemore, Fr Bernard Basset SJ; Gracewing, Leominster 2019; pb vii + 95, £7.99; ISBN 978-0-85244-942-4 By a happy anomaly of Church of England parochial organisation, the University church of St Mary the Virgin in the city centre of Oxford had, as part of its parish, the village of Littlemore some three miles south east. It is to be doubted that its inhabitants had received great pastoral care over the years, since it possessed no church or chapel of its own. However, in March 1828, the Rev Mr Newman became the vicar of the parish.

Although Littlemore could not become his final home, it became the crossroads where he discovered the way forward into all truth.

Reporting at Easter 1840, he summed up his situation: ‘Considering that I have little or nothing to do at Oxford, parochially, and a great deal to do at Littlemore, I naturally feel a desire to reside at Littlemore rather than at Oxford’. For 18 years, in fact, Newman walked between the centre of Oxford and the village, preparing sermons and visiting parishioners as he went: ‘I looked and, then, I saw him passing along in his characteristic way, walking fast, without any dignity of gait but earnest, like one who had a purpose; yet so humble and selfforgetting in every portion of his external appearance, that you would not have thought him, at first sight, a man remarkable for anything’ (William Lockhart).

It was to take Newman seven years to obtain permission and finance and to overcome the objections of neighbouring parishes before he could set to building a church in Littlemore, but this gave him time to lay firm spiritual foundations in the congregation which he was building. From his journal, three themes are constant: ‘he is working daily on his sermons .. he records the books he is reading, so St Ignatius of Antioch or St Polycarp turn up suddenly, among the Littlemore parishioners .. thirdly, Littlemore features regularly and his problems are great’. Less than a year after becoming vicar of St Mary’s, however, he had hired a room at Littlemore and started a Sunday evening catechetical lecture.

Later in life, Newman established the principle that, for a mission, the clergy house should be built before the church, lest the construction of the latter exhaust the people’s energy and resources for providing the former. At Littlemore, however, as fund-raising for the church went on, so did the work of elementary schooling for the local children. He writes: ‘I am catechizing the children on Sundays and prepare them for it through the week .. I have rummaged out an old violin and strung it and on Mondays and Thursdays have begun to lead them with it, a party of between 20 and 30, great and little, in the school-room’.

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Littlemore church, as it now stands, is greater than in Newman’s day, with the tower and chancel being later additions. Its original simplicity, however, betokened in its builder no lack of awareness of how awesome even the plainest church must be, since it is the place of meeting with Almighty God. Significantly, Newman’s sermon at its consecration deals first with the three windows above the altar, as these point to God the Holy Trinity. By mid-1840, it was not only the church and school that were in Newman’s mind; to his brother-in-law he writes: ‘We have bought nine acres and want to build a monastic house’. Yet external events were to intervene, for controversy over his writings in 1841 were to cause him to seek a more immediate solution and place of withdrawal at Littlemore, a former stables which could be adapted as a residence.

It soon became known; the Bishop of Oxford wrote to Newman that: ‘it is asserted as a matter of notoriety that a so-called Anglo-Catholic monastery is in process of erection .. and that the cells of dormitories, the chapel, the refectory, the cloisters, all may be seen advancing to perfection under the eyes of a parish priest of the Diocese of Oxford.’

Newman replies that there is: ‘hardly a dining room or parlour, the cloisters are my shed, connecting the cottages’ and calls it his ‘parsonagehouse’. He does say that he Newman's church at Littlemore: 'a very early has moved to example of simple Gothic Revival' Littlemore, the better to serve the greater part of his parish’s population, but does not mention that as part of giving himself ‘a life of greater regularity’ he has taken up reciting the Roman Breviary, a practice which was ever after to be a cornerstone of his spirituality and at this time a revelation for him of the depth of truth to be found in the Catholic faith.

In the next few years, Newman attracted to the ‘parsonage-house’ a number of men who came for longer or shorter periods to share its atmosphere of prayer and study.

Many, but not all of them, were feeling the deeper call into the spirituality of the Catholic Church. William Lockhart reports: ‘We rose at midnight to recite the Nocturnal office of the Roman breviary. I remember direct invocation of the saints was omitted and, instead, we asked God that the saint of the day might pray for us. I think we passed an hour in private prayer, and for the first time I learned what meditation meant. We fasted every day till 12 and in Lent and Advent until five. There was some mitigation on Sundays Oremus

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NO SECRETS HERE And that, as far as the saint is concerned with Littlemore, is really the end of the story. Let him bid farewell in a last letter from the College on 21 February 1846: ‘Another comfort amid the pain of quitting this place is the pleasant memory which attaches to it. In spite of my having been in such doubt and suspense, it has been the happiest time of my life, because so quiet. Perhaps I shall never have such quiet again’. .....

Newman's College as it now is

and the greater festivals. We went to Communion in the village church and to services every day’.

In September 1843 Newman resigned his benefice of St Mary’s and retired into the private, but still shared, life of his Littlemore College, studying, praying and writing. The end came in 1845, with four of his companions making the decision to be received into the Church. Alone for a few days, John Henry reports on his intention: ‘I am this night expecting Fr Dominic, the Passionist .. and he, please God, will admit me tomorrow or Friday into what I believe to be the one true Fold of Christ. Two more of our party, Bowles and Stanton, are to be received with me. Christie, if you know him by name .. is to go, as today, to a Priest in London. These coincident movements were through sympathy more than anything else’.

This book was first put together by Fr Basset in 1983. In retirement he lived at the College, and so brought a particular interest to writing it. In a final chapter the Sisters of the Society of the Work, who now live at the College, bring the story up to date. After Newman’s reception into the Church in October 1845, a friend, Charles Marriott, took over the lease of the property for a couple of years before leaving Littlemore and handing the College over to the diocese of Oxford for the benefit of the poor; and so it became an almshouse for just over a century. Placed on the market in 1951, it was bought, not least for reasons of filial piety, by the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory, although it took them nearly a decade to start on its restoration. As the College’s occupants move out or died over the years, so it became possible to recreate it more and more as a spiritual centre, the role which it now fulfils thanks to the presence and ministry of the Sisters.

A visit is warmly recommended, as is this book. It is not a long read, but an accessible account of a vital part of Newman’s journey, what has been famously called ‘the parting of friends’.

It’s All in the Name Vatican News Pope Francis has issued a Motu proprio, entitled L’Esperienza storica, which changes the name of the Vatican archives. Rather than being known as the Vatican Secret Archives, they shall in the future be known as the Vatican Apostolic Archives. The change of name takes effect immediately and comes after a period of consultation with various priests and bishops, especially those who themselves work in the archives.

Leibniz referred to the archives as the ‘Central Archive of Europe’. The archives were then opened to visiting scholars in 1881.

© Vatican Apostolic Archive

Pope Francis explained his reasons for changing the name of the archive by pointing out the meaning of the word ‘secret’, secretum in Latin, which is still the official language of the Catholic Church. Secret was usually translated to mean ‘private’. ‘As long as there was still an awareness of the close link between the Latin language and the languages The Motu proprio notes that the that derive from it,’ said the Holy Father, Vatican’s archives were founded at ‘there was no need to explain or even the beginning of the 17th century. The justify this title of Archivum Secretum’.

Church collected and stored important As languages developed however, the documents and writings from both word ‘secret’ began to take on more religious and secular spheres of life. negative connotations, being used In the early years the archives were Page from a 16th century Bulgarian – Greek for knowledge or information which not open for scholars to visit; rather, dictionary held in the Archive needed to be withheld from the general copies of documents produced by public, for fear of scandal. ‘This is entirely the opposite of Vatican workers were sent around the world to scholars what the Vatican Secret Archive has always been and intends who requested them. For this reason, the Pope says, the to be’, wrote the Pope, explaining the change. philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von December 2019

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NATHALIE BROOKE RIP

Shedding Light on the Crypt Connection This obituary may be said to complete the story of the Benckendorff connection with this country and with the Russian Ambassador’s grave in the Cathedral crypt.

Nathalie Brooke, who has died aged 96, was a last link to the world of Imperial Russia, from which she had been spirited away as an infant to escape the Communist purge of the former nobility. She dedicated much of the remainder of her long life to the interests and values important to her family. Amongst these were: music, her mother having been a celebrated harpist; art, which led her to become a founder of the Venice in Peril Fund; politics, notably the Conservative think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies; and friendship.

© Bert Verhoeff / Anefo

Everything that she undertook was entered into with a vitality and vigour that remained formidable into old age.

‘In Russia, we don’t do the menopause,’ she informed a less fortunate friend. Her other defining characteristic was a disconcerting, often tart directness of speech. Maurice Baring, the man of letters, said of her grandmother, Countess Benckendorff, who had been his most important friend, that she was ‘brutally frank without being brutal’. Those words applied well to Nathalie Brooke, too.

She was born Natalia Constantinova Benckendorff, in what was then Petrograd, on 8 September 1923.

The Benckendorffs, who were Baltic Germans, were ennobled in the 16th century and rose to favour under Tsar Paul I, son of Catherine the Great.

Nathalie’s grandfather, Count Alexander Benckendorff [he who is buried in the crypt of the Cathedral – Ed.] Nathalie’s mother, Maria Korchinska was Tsarist Russia’s (back row, third from left), at the last ambassador to 1974 International Harp Week in Britain. He owed the Queekhoven, Holland appointment in part to having been a favourite dancing partner of King Edward VII’s sister-in-law, Minnie, later Empress of Russia and mother of Tsar Nicholas II (a relation of Benckendorff’s looked after the Tsar at Yekaterinburg – and shared his fate). Such friendships enabled Benckendorff to help forge the Triple Entente between Russia, Britain and France before the First World War, a conflict which he and the German ambassador in London – his own cousin, Prince Lichnowsky – strove fruitlessly to avert.

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During the war, his son Constantine, Nathalie’s father, served with the Russian navy. In 1914 he was entrusted with carrying secretly to the British the German codes salvaged from the wrecked cruiser Magdeburg. The mission, which let the Admiralty decipher German signals until 1917, brought him the DSO. Count Alexander died in London in 1917 and his widow remained in England. Constantine remained in Russia, however, despite the family being dispossessed of its property in the aftermath of the Revolution. Having endured imprisonment in the Lubyanka, he used his talent for the flute to become an orchestral musician; in 1922 he married Maria Korchinska, first harpist at the Bolshoi Theatre and professor of harp at the Moscow Conservatoire. She played at Lenin’s funeral in 1924, but the couple learnt that their cards had been marked by the regime. They left for Britain in September to give some concerts and chose not to return.

Unlike some exiles, the Benckendorffs did not sink into a stupor to await the restoration of the Ancien Régime. Nathalie soon acquired a brother, Alexander, and Maria Korchinska was taken up by composers such as Arnold Bax and Benjamin Britten. She played at the première of several of the latter’s works, the harp interlude in A Ceremony of Carols being one of her favourite pieces. Nathalie grew up between London and Suffolk and, after typing school in Ipswich, joined the ATS. At the end of the war, as a Russian speaker, she was posted to Vienna, serving as liaison officer with the Allied Commission, the city being in its ‘Third Man’ period. There, too, she met her husband, Humphrey Brooke, later to become Deputy Director of the Tate Gallery and then Secretary of the Royal Academy.

In 1966, following the great floods at Florence and Venice, she was one of the trio of founding fundraisers of what became Venice in Peril [this is being typed up as news arrives of a second day of disastrous flooding in Venice – Ed.] Nathalie Brooke afterwards led tours in Eastern Europe and to Russia as glasnost began to thaw the Iron Curtain.

In April 1989, accompanied by the Telegraph’s Moscow correspondent, Trevor Fishlock, she made an emotional journey to Sosnofka, the Benckendorffs’ former estate at Tambov, 300 miles south-east of the Russian capital. There she was moved to find tearful locals who recalled the family as enlightened landlords, and her mother as a star musician.

Nathalie’s own passion for music remained undiminished by age; settled in a nursing home in her last years, she organised for pupils of her mother to come to play for the other residents. Such was the affection she inspired that none ever quite dared to do otherwise.

Nathalie Brooke, born 8 September 1923, died 16 September 2019 This is excerpted, with kind permission, from the full obituary printed in the Daily Telegraph of 20 October 2019.

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December 2019

REVIVAL IN ISLINGTON

Our Lady, formerly in Upper Street A campaign to restore the ancient shrine of Our Lady of the Oak, in Islington, North London, has been launched, with both local Catholic and Anglican churches supporting the project. The ancient shrine is now commemorated at Walsingham, but for more than 400 years it was a significant pilgrimage site in London. Historians believe that it was one of the first seven shrines founded in England, founded in 1130 A.D. and located to the west of the present St Mary’s church in Upper Street.

In 1538, during the Reformation, an official letter records that the statue of Our Lady from the shrine was burned, together with those from the Marian shrines in Worcester, Walsingham, Islington, Ipswich and Doncaster in England and that of Pen Rhys in Wales. The bonfire took place in Chelsea, on what had been the riverside estate of St Thomas More. After More was martyred in 1535, Thomas Cromwell, chief minister of Henry VIII, confiscated More's house and land, and ordered a bonfire to be lit there on which many hundreds of religious

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objects looted from churches and monasteries were destroyed.

The fire is said to have burned for three weeks, with the smoke seen for miles.

An inaugural meeting of Our Lady of the Oak, Islington took place on the Feast of Our Lady Queen of Heaven on 22 August. Poet Sarah de Nordwall ran a workshop on ’the secret garden of the heart’, and participants prayed the Rosary around the site of the original shrine. One of the campaign’s organisers writes that: ‘The call to restore Islington’s holy site is both a practical one and a spiritual one. Medieval people would have walked up the hill to St Mary’s and found solace and healing there at the shrine of the Oak. The challenge is to restore Islington to be a place of healing. We live in a chaotic world and this would be a beacon of sanity amidst the chaos ... The people of Islington clearly love shrines and we already have shrines for victims of knife crime. We would like to see the ancient shrine to Our Lady reinstated here’.

For more information email: ourladyoftheoakN1@gmail.com

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HOW TO BUILD A MONASTERY

The Laying of the Foundation Stone

A Steep Learning Curve (Part 3) Bishop Mark JabalĂŠ OSB

The building of the new monastery in Tambogrande, Peru continues: Now we enter the world of high finance. If we were going to get going this fast, I was going to have to buy materials pretty soon. I forgot to say; in Peru, the contractor doesn't tender for materials, he merely tenders for labour. The employer provides the materials; hence the need for a real expert - like me! I obtained a solemn promise from Cherre, the builder, that he would guide me. Never once was he actually able to come and help me in my buying of steel, cement, wood, plaster, nails, and all the other materials needed for construction. I therefore now have a fund of very useful knowledge on building materials in Peru.

Quantities was also something he was rather vague on.

His first order of steel, which was supposed to be for about half or two-thirds of the building, lasted us right to the end, and I was even able to exchange some for cement. With prices likely to increase, it was imperative that we bulk buy at the beginning; for that I had to have money from the fund which was safely invested in England. This is where the high finance came in. If we just transferred it to our bank here in Peru in dollars we would get the official rate of exchange of 13.90 Intis to the dollar. But if I actually had the dollars I could exchange them, officially of course at the bank, for 17.10 Intis to the dollar, and increasing. The reason was 12

that the new government had frozen the dollars actually in bank accounts, so that there should be no mass withdrawing of dollars as the Peruvian currency devalued; but dollars coming into the country continued to keep parity value.

Hence, the necessity to have actual dollars.

I therefore rang the Abbot with some mad scheme about someone coming out here with $40,000 in a money belt.

That did not seem so mad, if I was going to save $7500 to have someone actually fly out here and back for ÂŁ500.

Fortunately, however, this perilous task was avoided by the government who declared that cheques in American dollars would be honoured in dollars, just the very day l was talking to the Belmont Bursar about a projected trip. I was able to make an arrangement with an American priest who had an account in the States for dollars to be transferred to his account, and for him to issue me with dollar cheques here as and when I needed them. And that was what happened; and a big thank-you to Fr Robert Gloisten in Piura who could not have been more helpful.

If you think that was the end of my money troubles, you are wrong. Just about that time, all the banks in Peru ran out of hard cash. So they started to print their own cheques, which officially had the value of cash. I should explain that I Oremus

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HOW TO BUILD A MONASTERY just couldn’t pay a cheque to my builder, because he hadn’t a bank account, and couldn’t have cashed it; and anyway 90% of transactions are done in cash, and not by cheque.

That was when I became aware of how ridiculously easy it was for banks to actually print their own money. But that didn’t satisfy my builder or his workmen, because these cheques were distrusted by all, and often not accepted … a difficult and trying time for all. But it did get a little more difficult; the government announced that these cheques would no longer be legal tender from a certain date, which meant that no one could accept them; but the bank still didn't have the promised ready cash, and still continued to print utterly useless cheques. After a few nightmarish weeks it all seemed to solve itself, and cash became available. But I had to carry around with me, when I went to the bank, some $1000 in notes worth around 40 pence each; an experience I would rather confine to the past for ever, since that was once a week or a fortnight. I never got mugged, but that was my kind guardian angel.

So, began a round of twice daily visits to the site; and weekly visits to Piura to collect money and to buy materials.

And that was when I discovered through painful experience that Cherre had one defect held by the majority of Peruvians, a lack of anticipation. My normal day for going to Piura was a Tuesday; so, on a Monday I would ask him what he would be needing in the way of materials. He would either give me a list or say that he needed nothing; and every time we would go through the rigmarole of my asking him: ‘Are you sure there is nothing else? You know how long the suppliers take to deliver things here, so what things might you need next week or the week after?’, and he would reply with a tolerant smile on his face: ‘No, Father, nothing else at all; we have all we need’. Almost invariably, on the Wednesday, the conversation would go like this: ‘Padre, we need cement or plaster, or aggregate, or whatever’, and I would say: ‘For when?’, and Cherre would reply: ‘Today’. This drove me mad the first half dozen times, but I simply had to get used

to it because of the frequency. Nor was it at all sure that if you ordered well in advance something would be delivered anywhere near the time when it was supposed to be; but then we have this problem in England, so that’s nothing new.

And so, little by little, week by week, the ground was levelled, trenches went down for the foundations, concrete and iron columns started to give the unspoilt countryside that ‘civilised’ look. And then I really began to dream of what I wanted the place to look like when it was completed.

Nigel Dees (my architect friend who had designed the building) had given me outline drawings, which proved excellent, because they tied down the builder to an actual shape of building. But I had never realised how many decisions remain to be made after the outline plan. Day by day I discovered: height of doors, shapes of windows, width and shape of columns, and so many other little details that whenever I was on site I was always walking around with a tape measure and my plan. Yet, one of the most glaring mistakes escaped me altogether; and I didn’t discover it until nothing could be done. The building is a large quadrangle, or rather two quadrangles, at present undivided, but which may well have a separating wall if the Superior wishes it; and round this quadrangle runs a cloister with columns and arches. Well, would you believe it, I never bothered to measure the distance between these columns when they were filling them and putting in the ironwork. Since Cherre was actually putting posts where the excavations were to go I rather foolishly assumed he was using his tape-measure.

I was wrong. It was actually not until we started doing the arches between the columns that we discovered that the distance between the columns were all different; and could vary by as much as 80 cm (that's about a yard!). So now we have a very rustic cloister, with the angles of the arches going in all different directions. I thought at first that it was a major disaster; but actually, it seems to add a little character to the place - and you can say that each individual arch has been thought out especially. Also, it never did for me to go away for a few days at a time. On one of these occasions, I came back to see all the kitchen windows finished and done, each one at a different height! Again, the Sisters at Tambogrande tell me it looks rustic.

Work actually started in mid-September, and for a while seemed to go at a tremendous speed. Four steel bars joined and attached together on site to form a column were produced by the dozen, embedded in concrete, to support the concrete structure; and soon the landscape looked like some futuristic missile launching site. Then came the walls, made of concrete and aggregate bricks, made on site. The steel was then encased in wood and concrete poured in to support the roof, a honeycomb structure of hollow blocks and steel. And by Christmas we had the roof on about a third of the building, which is not bad for three months’ work. It was then that I started to relax and tell myself that we would really finish the building by the proposed date. Wrong!

Work in progress, with canine supervision December 2019

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The final episode, to be printed next month, brings a happy ending, and then an unexpected new beginning; Bishop Mark is Bishop Emeritus of Menevia and frequently assists at Confirmations in the Cathedral.

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© National Gallery

THE NATIONAL GALLERY APPEALS

The Infant Moses Needs You! The National Gallery is asking for the public’s help to raise the last £2 million it needs to buy a painting of outstanding importance for the national heritage – The Finding of Moses

by Orazio Gentileschi (early 1630s) – and to enable the work to stay on free public display in Trafalgar Square and continue to inspire future generations. The painting has a remarkable place in British history as just one of a handful of works painted during Orazio Gentileschi’s 12-year residence in London at the court of King Charles I. It was commissioned to celebrate the birth of the future Charles II and intended to hang in the Queen’s House at Greenwich.

There is currently only one Orazio Gentileschi work in a UK public collection, and The Finding of Moses plays an important role in the National Gallery, being intrinsically linked to our recently acquired painting by Orazio’s daughter Artemisia (her Self-Portrait as St Catherine of Alexandria).

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The Finding of Moses has been on generous long-term loan to the National Gallery from a private collection for almost 20 years – so long, in fact, that many people assume it already forms part of the national collection.

It has been the subject of talks, exhibitions, publications and educational activities, and is a focal point of the Italian Baroque gallery, where it is displayed alongside masterpieces by artists such as Caravaggio and Guido Reni.

The beauty and refinement of the work are characteristic of the artist's late style, but it is the painting’s monumental scale (measuring 257 x 301cm), extraordinary ambition and historical importance that sets The Finding of Moses apart.

The painting has been an acquisition priority since 1995, when we first attempted to buy it, and we have until the end of the year to purchase it; if not, it may well be lost to the nation. The full cost of is £22 million; however, Oremus

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THE NATIONAL GALLERY APPEALS the net cost to the National Gallery is £19,471,340 by a private treaty sale arranged through Sotheby’s and Pyms Gallery. As a charity, the National Gallery depends upon public generosity to help it achieve great things and so is working hard to raise the money required. We are enormously grateful for exceptional grants of £2.5 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and £1 million from Art Fund which have already been secured. Stephen Deuchar, Director of Art Fund, said: ‘The Finding of Moses is one of the National Gallery’s most precious long-term loans and its prospective sale provides an important opportunity. My trustees have committed £1m, one of our largest grants to date, towards the acquisition and we hope that other funders and members of the public will feel as strongly about playing a part – big or small – in saving this masterpiece for everyone to enjoy in the national collection’. Another £8.5 million is coming from The American Friends of the National Gallery, with £5 million from The National Gallery Trust and a further £500,000 of gifts left in wills to the National Gallery is also being used towards the acquisition.

This leaves £2 million the Gallery needs to raise from individuals, trusts, and our public to ensure that The Finding of Moses remains on free display for future generations to enjoy. Launching the #SaveOrazio Appeal by hosting a storytelling session in front of the picture with a group of children from the Soho Family Centre, National Gallery Director, Dr Gabriele Finaldi, said: ‘If the Gallery succeeds in buying the painting, it will be here for everyone to enjoy for generations to come. The Finding of Moses will have found its definitive audience among the nation’s pictures’.

artists, his life and career spanned a period marked by significant artistic movements and innovations: from the late Mannerism of his early paintings to the revolutionary style of Caravaggio, adopted by Orazio for a short time in Rome, and the courtly ’international’ style, whose elegance and refinement characterise his mature works. Orazio enjoyed an international career working across Italy – in Rome, Ancona, Fabriano, Genoa, and Turin – as well as in Paris and London.

While working for Queen Marie de Medici in Paris, Orazio met George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628), who was there to arrange the marriage of Charles I and Henrietta Maria in 1625. Buckingham invited Orazio to London and the painter left Paris in 1626 to assume a position at the court of the newly-crowned Charles I. As well as his easel paintings, Orazio’s output in London included ceiling canvases for the Great Hall at the Queen’s House – Henrietta Maria’s ’House of Delight’ close to the Thames at Greenwich (now at Marlborough House, London) – and the ceiling of the ’saloon’ at York House, Buckingham’s mansion on the Strand (removed to Buckingham House after 1703, but since destroyed). In 1638 Orazio’s daughter Artemisia came to London, perhaps to assist her ailing father on the ceiling painting of the Queen's House. The following year Orazio died following an illness, aged 76, and was granted the honour of burial in the Queen’s Chapel at Somerset House.

The Appeal runs until the end of the year.

About the painting: In this vast canvas Orazio Gentileschi paints the biblical story of the Finding of Moses (Exodus 2: 2-10), a subject popular in art during the Baroque period. The work depicts the moment when, after offering to find someone to help nurse the baby, Moses’ older sister Miriam comes forward with her own – and Moses’ – mother. The Finding of Moses was a royal commission, executed in London for Queen Henrietta Maria in the early 1630s, a few years after the artist’s arrival at the court of Charles I. It was almost certainly made to mark the birth of Prince Charles, the future Charles II, in 1630 and once hung in the Great Hall of the Queen’s House at Greenwich. The paintings that Orazio produced at the court of Charles I are characterised by their rich colouring, skilful rendering of sumptuous fabrics, and a courtly elegance. They are highly staged and their richly decorative effects, soft lighting and vibrant colours recall the large-scale history paintings of Titian and Veronese. Of all Orazio’s royal commissions, this is the most ambitious and displays unprecedented refinement and beauty.

About the Artist: While today Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639) may not be as widely known as his daughter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654 or later), he was one of the leading figures of the Italian Baroque. Born in Pisa, into a family of December 2019

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CATHEDRAL HISTORY

The English College, Douay in the 18th century

St John Southworth: The Story of his Body Patrick Rogers John Southworth, whom we may anachronistically call the parish priest of Westminster, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn (now Marble Arch) on 28 June 1654.

His only offence was to be a Catholic priest, which he freely admitted. His body now lies in St George’s Chapel in the cathedral, close to where he lived and worked. Bit in between there lies a journey, shrouded in secrecy, which covered some 400 miles and took 275 years.

John Southworth was arrested in his bed on 19 June, sentenced on 26 June and executed two days later. Among thousands of spectators was the Venetian Secretary to England. He records that, after the rope had been put around Southworth’s neck and the cart drawn away, ‘in a fashion worse than barbarous, when he was only half-dead, the executioner cut out his heart and entrails and threw them into the fire kindled for this purpose, the body being quartered, one for each of the quarters of the city’ But the Venetian’s last supposition was to be proved wrong.

Someone with inside knowledge was Richard Symonds, a royalist and antiquarian. He confided in his notebook that the Spanish Ambassador had bought the body from the executioner for 40 shillings (about £2,000 today). This would

St John’s lead coffin, with Fr Stout’s plan of its location when buried in 1793 16

have been made easier by the fact that there were up to 12 other prisoners executed at Tyburn that day – including five coiners who suffered the same treatment for treason as John Southworth. A faded piece of paper identifying a relic relates what happened next. It refers to ‘Mr James Clark, surgeon, who embalmed the body’. Both the Royal College of Physicians and Cambridge University record a James Clarke (or Clerke) who was awarded his medical doctorate in 1656-57.

On 5 June 1565, George Leyburn, President of the English College of Douay (Douai, near Lille), reported that Southworth’s body had been sent there by two English Catholics of the highest rank. Leyburn had known Southworth well for many years in London. Bishop Richard Challoner later confirmed the arrival. He was at Douay for 25 years from 1705. He was thus able to study the records and perhaps speak to those alive in 1655. He writes that: ‘Mr Southworth’s body was sent over to the English College of Douay by one of the illustrious family of the Howards of Norfolk, and deposited in the church near St Augustine’s altar’.

Almost certainly it was Philip Howard, third son and later Cardinal Protector of England, who organised the body’s embalming and despatch to Douay. To the dismay of his family, he had become a Dominican friar. Letters from him of September 1654 and October 1655 to the MasterGeneral of his Order show that he was in England ‘on urgent business’. His father was dead, his eldest brother Thomas (later 5th Duke of Norfolk) was mentally ill in Padua and Henry, the second son (later 6th Duke), was occupied with family affairs and possibly also abroad. Three of Philip’s younger brothers had arrived to study at Douay in 1653, and in 1656 one of them, Francis (then 16) was given up for dead Oremus

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CATHEDRAL HISTORY by his doctors, but made a miraculous recovery after prayers were offered to John Southworth and flowers and a pillow from his head brought to the youth.

Such was the devotion of the people of Douai at Southworth’s shrine and the benefits reported to have been received that Leyburn was forced: ‘to mitigate the veneration and public concourse of people’ – presumably by removing the body from public view. In this he was obeying a decree of Pope Urban VIII on the veneration of martyrs. It was not until 1741 that relics of the Douay martyrs were allowed to be placed in altars; and after this, Southworth’s body, in a leaden coffin, was placed under the mensa (altar table) of St Augustine, about half-way down and probably on the north side of the church. There it remained until 1793.

England and France went to war in January of that year.

The National Guard arrived at the College, seals were set on objects and rooms, and three guards (known as ‘the three spiders’) were posted. Despite this, much valuable property was spirited away and buried by students, while the relics, including the hair-shirt of St Thomas of Canterbury, the biretta of St Charles Borromeo and the body of John Southworth, were buried by the priests. It is fortunate that two records were left. Bishop Douglass wrote: ‘Mr Southworth’s body in the Kilns exactly in the middle – 6 ft deep’. Fr Thomas Stout, who seems to have been responsible for the relics, went one better and left a plan showing their position in the malt-kilns (used for beer-making). Later that year, in August 1793, the English were expelled from the College.

Not until 1863 was there a search for the buried objects.

Some table silver was found near the refectory, but nothing else. Seventy years later, in 1923, the town council of Douai decided to build a new road to the railway station (now called Avenue Clémenceau) where the old college had been. In 1926 the site was cleared, the road built and the surrounding land sold. In July 1927 workmen began to dig a cellar, the only one planned, for a new shop at the corner of Rue Durutte and the new road. On 15 July a pick struck a leaden coffin 5'8" long, moulded into the shape of a human body with the head toward the south-east. A hole, about an inch and a half across, was in the centre. The authorities were notified, a priest (Fr Albert Purdie) summoned from England and the coffin, which was in two halves, the upper fitting tightly over the lower, was opened.

Inside lay the body of a man, swathed in brown linen bandages. These had been treated with preservatives and were very strong. Water penetrating through the hole (almost certainly caused by a metal probe used in the 1863 search) had badly damaged the chest and the stomach, but the head, which bore a slight moustache and beard, was well preserved and had been roughly severed from the trunk. The hands, ears and crown of the head were missing (presumably taken as relics). The brain and the internal organs had been removed and carefully replaced with preservative material.

No expense had been spared in embalming the body in accordance with a method described in 1629. Subsequent X-ray results confirmed that the body had been first quartered and then meticulously sewn together.

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The shrine in St George's Chapel from 1930 to 1954

The day after the discovery of the body a workman found a wooden box some eight feet away. Inside were the remains of the relics of St Thomas Becket and St Charles Borromeo. Comparison of the position of this box and the coffin with Fr Stout’s plan confirmed that the body was that of John Southworth. The complete absence of any identifying marks suggests that this simple lead coffin may have been used to carry the body from England in 1655, when anonymity was essential. Tape binding the coffin, reported in 1786, indicates that it was normally kept closed but could be opened when necessary – as when Francis Howard was close to death.

In December 1927 John Southworth came back to England, his right forearm and left clavicle remaining as memorials in Douai (now in the church of Saint-Pierre).

From Dover the body travelled to St Edmund’s College, Ware, lineal descendant of Douay College. In April 1930 it returned to London, first to Tyburn Convent and then, on 1 May, accompanied by a great procession, to St George’s Chapel here in the Cathedral. In late 1954 the body was clothed in vestments in the style of his time, a silver mask and hands added, and the martyred priest revealed to the public gaze.

There St John Southworth now lies, canonised as a saint in 1970 (his feast day is 27 June), his face curiously unlined beneath the silver mask, despite his 35 years as a Catholic priest in a hostile land. Perhaps he even crossed this spot as he ministered to the poor and plague-stricken of Westminster, walking the green fields between the Bridewell prison, now the House of Fraser store, and the ‘Five Houses’, an isolation hospital for plague victims, at a place now close to the Vauxhall Bridge Road.

St John, as he now lies in St George’s Chapel

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MONTHLY ALBUM

Scarlet, Black and White Every manner, length and shape of alb, cassock and cotta can be guaranteed when servers come together. This year, instead of the Cathedral being used for the Guild of St Stephen’s National Mass, it was a celebration for diocesan servers only. Although this somewhat reduced the numbers present, it also gave a different atmosphere to the Mass as a more domestic occasion. Obviously, not all present could fulfil their ministry, yet all joined in the renewal of promises. For the Cathedral community of servers, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe is the occasion for promises to be renewed as medals are presented to new servers as well as to those who have given significant years of service at the altar.

© Diocese of Westminster

Here’s the photographic evidence; the police really are getting younger. This image was taken after the Catholic Police Guild’s annual Requiem Mass, one of the regular November commemorations in the Cathedral. There is a certain surprise in seeing the cross and lights carried in by officers in uniform with their helmets on, but the Met is proud to take on responsibility for the liturgy, with its choir providing music for the Mass. So it was good also to see the police cadets present to support their older colleagues and to share in the work of remembrance.

© Diocese of Westminster

It’s True!

Setting Off on Mission Earlier in the year Mini Vinnies came to the Cathedral and showed that the work of St Vincent de Paul Societies is not restricted to adults, and now Diocesan Schools came to show that the responsibility of mission in the Church is shared by their pupils also. October, of course, was designated as an Extraordinary Month of Mission and Fr Anthony Chantry of the Mill Hill Missionaries, who is the director of Missio (and also helps out with weekday early morning Masses), presided at the Mass. In the picture is Fr Andrew, fulfilling his particular mission as Precentor to ensure that all goes smoothly on such occasions.

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MONTHLY ALBUM

© Royal College of Organists

The Organists Entertain There seemed to be an air of unreality about the possibility of nine organs and percussion playing together in the Cathedral.

Surely the Grand Organ is powerful enough on its own? And might not the volume of sound just cause one of the domes to collapse? However, the late Jean Guillou was a dreamer of dreams that brooked no obstacle and so La Révolte des Orgues came to the Cathedral to be appreciated by a good crowd, as can be seen.

The concert over, satisfaction for the audience mingled with, we suspect, a certain relief for the organisers and a sadness that Guillou’s death has prevented the composition of further works of extravagant imagination.

Pilgrims not quite Chaucerian Fortunately the image does not reveal the notice reading ‘Magistrates’ Court’ above the heads of members of the Filipino Club’s recent pilgrimage to Canterbury, as they awaited the arrival of the coach for the journey back to London. We found Canterbury cathedral to be largely cocooned externally in scaffolding as urgent repairs to the stonework continue, whilst overhead in the nave the vault was invisible through the netting erected to catch debris that might fall whilst reroofing is carried out. It was much safer in the Eastern crypt, where we were able to celebrate Mass at the site of St Thomas Becket’s first shrine before his relics were removed to the much grander, but now wholly removed shrine of which only a much-worn and knelt-on step remains. Fortunately, S Thomas’s, the Catholic church in Canterbury, does possess relics returned to this country from Continental Europe and so we were able to make our devotions there also.

The Senior Service is All Smiles Remembrance Sunday always sees the Services represented at the Solemn Requiem Mass.

We could have printed images of solemn-faced men and women taken during the liturgy or of the Last Post being sounded at the Silence but, at least before Mass, cheerfulness breaks through, as the sailors present were not slow to demonstrate.

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YOUTH MINISTRY

© Mazur/catholicnews.org

Youth at the Summit

Prayer and reflection

On Friday 18 October, Westminster Youth Ministry led ‘The Summit’ at the Cathedral, a Eucharist-centred event for all the young people of the diocese. We designed the evening to help them encounter Jesus, present among us in the Eucharist, with opportunity to pray, celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation and meet other young people in their common home, the Cathedral, with our diocesan bishop, the Cardinal. Just under 500 young people attended.

In the second part of the evening.

Bishop Paul McAleenan carried the Blessed Sacrament in procession among the young people, to show them the closeness of the Lord who offers himself to all. After this short journey, the monstrance was placed on the altar for a time of prayer, accompanied by reflective music. Bishop Paul then gave Benediction and, after reposition, gave some words of reflection about the evening we had shared. After the thanks and farewells, we all left with the hope of seeing each other again soon and being able to continue this wonderful experience of helping our young people to grow in faith.

© Mazur/catholicnews.org

The evening lasted about two hours and consisted of two parts: the first more reflective, with speech and worship music, and the second part spiritual, with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. We had a group of musicians and a fantastic choir, whilst throughout the evening there was opportunity to go to confession with four of our diocesan priests.

Cardinal Vincent was the first of our speakers and he focused on the recently canonised St John Henry Newman, reminding us that we all have some definite purpose and that even saints have moments of doubt. Then Brenden Thompson of Catholic Voices was given the floor, touching on various topics, from his personal testimony of coming to faith, to helpful tips on how we can all become closer to God. His speech was really inspiring, with much to reflect as he created the opportunity to think about our personal relationship with God and our own vocation.

Everyone has to have their picture taken; Brenden and family with Cardinal Vincent

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December 2019

THE FRIENDS OF WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL

A Death recalls Chesterton Christina White November is a month for the dead, and so it has proved. I was saddened to hear last month of the death of William Oddie: writer, editor and lifelong devotee of G K Chesterton.

I had the privilege of working for William and he was one of life’s true gentlemen; a man of wit, and wisdom and deep intelligence.

He introduced me to Chesterton and I leave you with one of my favourite passages. God bless you, William; may you rest in peace and rise in glory.

‘I then tried to explain the rather delicate logical shade, that I not only liked brown paper, but liked the quality of brownness in paper, just as I liked the quality of brownness in October woods, or in beer, or in the peatstreams of the North. Brown paper represents the primal twilight of the first toil of creation, and with a brightcoloured chalk or two you can pick out points of fire in it, sparks of gold, and blood-red, and sea-green, like the first fierce stars that sprang out of divine darkness. All this I said to the old woman; and I put the brown paper in my pocket along with the chalks, and possibly other things. I suppose everyone must have reflected how December 2019

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G K Chesterton

The year has gone so quickly that it seems inconceivable that we should now be entering Advent. Thank you to everyone who has helped this year. The Volunteers, Friends and Supporters of the Cathedral make all the difference.

May you all have a blessed, holy and happy Christmas.

Forthcoming Events Sunday 1 December: The Cathedral Christmas Fair, supported by the Friends. Doors open at 9.30am and the Fair closes at 2.30pm. The raffle will be drawn at 2.00pm. Tickets £1 (children free of charge)

© G G Bain Collection, Library of Congress

He came to the Cathedral some years ago and gave a talk on Chesterton for the Friends. He was Chestertonian in every way; fond of large hats and with a presence and personality that emulated his hero. A faithful Catholic with a loving family, I recall him disappearing off at lunchtime to buy presents for his children, thoughtful things like cosy wraps and throws. He had a fondness for English apples – proper crunchy Cox’s Orange Pippins - and I always think of William in autumn when the orchards are full. He was a wit, naughty with it, calling out those who thought themselves eminent, and he had a full armament of AngloSaxon cusses for the worst offenders.

He adored children and they loved him back; recognising him as a good’un.

primeval and how poetical are the things that one carries in one's pocket; the pocket-knife, for instance, the type of all human tools, the infant of the sword. Once I planned to write a book of poems entirely about the things in my pockets. But I found it would be too long; and the age of the great epics is past.’

Monday December 9: The Big Give Donors’ Supper with the Cathedral Chaplains. Donors who give individually £1,000 or more to our Big Give Appeal are invited to supper with the Chaplains. Please contact the Office on 0207 798 9059 for details of how to donate.

2020 G K Chesterton in 1915

As Oremus goes to press, we will be all hands on deck for the Christmas Fair on Sunday 1 December. Thank you to everyone who has handed in donations, but it is not too late to bring gifts and other items for sale to Clergy House. We will continue to take donations up to and including 29 November, whilst cakes etc. and other perishables may be brought to the Hall on the day. A week later we have the Big Give Donors’ Supper for all those who commit to give £1,000 individually to the Big Give Appeal. Details of the Appeal which launches on Tuesday 3 December and closes on Tuesday 10 December will be in the Cathedral Newsletter or you can ring the Office and ask for more information. We have secured champion funding this year, so it is really important that we reach the online target of £12,000. The monies raised will help to finish off the Tower Project.

Monday 24 February: Oxford Professor Diane Purkiss talks on Civil War, Politics and Religion.

Venue: Cathedral Hall; doors open at 6.30pm and the talk will begin at 7pm. Tickets £10 Friday 6 March: A Walk through Historic Clerkenwell with Anthony Weaver, including Mass at St Etheldreda’s, a pub lunch and visits to the museums of the Charterhouse and the Hospital of St John. Meet at St Peter’s Italian church at 10am. Please note that this is a full-day walking tour. Tickets £30

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

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CATHEDRAL HISTORY: A PICTORIAL RECORD

When Southwark Lay in Ruins: The Con Paul Tobin For the second time in three months in 1949, Westminster Cathedral became the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Southwark for a specific event, due to St George’s Cathedral having been badly damaged by bombing in 1941.

The first occasion was the funeral of Archbishop Peter Amigo (Bishop of Southwark 1904-1949) in October of that year (cf. October 2019 issue of Oremus). Unlike nowadays, episcopal appointments were made in a much shorter time span and it was no surprise that Mgr Cowderoy, who was Chancellor of Southwark Diocese, was nominated as the successor to Archbishop Amigo. Indeed, it was Mgr Cowderoy who had celebrated Mass in the room of the dying archbishop and thus was able to pray for him both in the Memento of the living and of the dead in the same Mass!

Cardinal Bernard Griffin (Archbishop of Westminster 1943-1956) had by this time started to suffer periods of illness that would keep him absent from his duties for lengthy periods up the time of his death at the age of 57. However, he was sufficiently well not only to be present, but also able to consecrate the Bishop-Elect, alongside Bishop George Andrew Beck, then Auxiliary Bishop of Brentwood and later Archbishop of Liverpool (1964-1976), and Bishop Neil Farren of Derry, who both acted as Co-Consecrators. The consecration of a bishop was always held on a Sunday or the feast day of an apostle or evangelist; and 21 December was the feast of St Thomas the Apostle in the pre-1970 calendar. Although the liturgical colour of the day was red, the Elect wore white vestments, as was the custom in those days. The ceremony was far more elaborate than is the case in the current rite of Ordination of Bishops. To start with, the Elect celebrated the first part of the Mass silently at a separate temporary altar (this can be seen in image 3), whilst Cardinal Griffin presided at the throne.

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Mgr Cowderoy is interrogated by Cardinal Griffin and the Co-Consecrators

After the presentation of the Elect and the reading of the Apostolic mandate, there followed two lengthy examinations, concerning firstly his faith in the Holy Trinity and secondly the different objects and rules which: ‘pertain to this government and are to be observed in the words of the apostle “ Impose hands hastily on no man”’ (image 1 above shows the Examination, with the two Co-

Consecrators reading the questions simultaneously with the Cardinal).

The Mass then continued until the end of the Gradual chant, when the rite of Consecration continued with the singing of the Litany of the Saints.

The Elect is seen prostrate to the left of centre on the steps (image 2 below), as was the custom. Towards the third set of invocations, as with the ordination of priests, (Te rogamus audi nos / Lord we ask you, hear our prayer) the Consecrator stood up and turned to the Elect and sang three invocations. Mitred and holding the crozier, he prayed that God would: ‘ Bless / Bless and sanctify / Bless, sanctify and consecrate this Elect here present’, whilst making the sign of the Cross over him at each invocation.

Immediately after the Litany had finished, the Consecrator and his CoConsecrators laid an open book of the Gospels on the neck and shoulders of the Elect, with a chaplain kneeling behind him supporting it until later, when it would be presented to the former.

The Consecrator and Assistant Bishops then laid hands on the Elect in silence (until 1947 the laying on of hands was accompanied with the

The Bishop-Elect lies prostrate on the steps of the high altar whilst the Litany of the Saints is sung Oremus

December 2019

CATHEDRAL HISTORY: A PICTORIAL RECORD

nsecration of Mgr Cyril Cowderoy as Bishop words: Accipe Spiritum Sanctum / Receive the Holy Spirit). After that date the form of Consecration was deemed to be part of the conclusion of the Preface that was sung immediately after the laying on of hands. The Elect then had his head bound with a cloth and another cloth was placed on his neck in preparation for the anointing of the head, which commenced after the first verse of the hymn Veni Creator / Come, Holy Spirit , which was intoned by the Consecrator. A prayer then followed, after which the anointing of the hands took place whilst the choir sang Psalm 132 Ecce quam bonum / How good and pleasing it is. Thus anointed, the new Bishop received the crozier and ring before being presented with the Book of the Gospels. Finally, he exchanged the kiss of peace with the three consecrating bishops before returning to his altar to continue his own Mass up to the Offertory.

The Consecrator then sat at a faldstool in front of the altar, with the newly-consecrated Bishop kneeling before him, and offered to him two lighted candles, two loaves of bread and two small barrels of wine. Then the newly-consecrated stood at the Epistle side of the altar with a missal in front of him, so that he could say all the prayers sotto voce with the Consecrator. The two Co-Consecrators stood on either side but did not join in the prayers and were vested in copes throughout the ceremony. Only the Consecrator and the newly-consecrated Bishop received Holy Communion at this Mass.

After the Blessing, the Consecrator once again sat on the faldstool for what many would have regarded as the climax to the long ceremony, namely the imposition of the gloves, mitre and enthronement of the new Bishop. In image 3 (above), Bishop Cowderoy is seen being invested with the mitre immediately before being enthroned on the faldstool, hence Cardinal Griffin standing to one side of it as the Bishop, accompanied by his December 2019

Oremus

Bishop Cowderoy is invested with the mitre; to the extreme right can be seen the temporary altar at which he has said the first part of Mass privately

assistant Bishops in image 4 (below), makes his way down the nave of the Cathedral, blessing the congregation as the choir sings the Te Deum, the hymn of thanksgiving, whilst he does so. On his return to the faldstool, the prayers of enthronement having been sung, the new Bishop gave his first Solemn Pontifical Blessing from the centre of the altar. Immediately afterwards, the Consecrator stood at the Gospel (left) side of the altar facing the opposite side where the newly Consecrated

approached him, and genuflecting three times sang in a higher voice each time: Ad Multos Annos / May you live for many years, and then received the kiss of peace from the Consecrator and assistant Bishops. The ceremony concluded with recitation of the Last Gospel and the prelates divesting and wearing choir dress for the procession back from the sanctuary.

Sources: RC Archdiocese of Southwark Archives Photos: Associated Press, 85 Fleet Street EC4

Cardinal Griffin stands at the high altar whilst Bishop Cowderoy, with Assistant Bishops, sets off from the sanctuary to impart his blessing during the singing of the Te Deum

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DIARY

2019

St Ambrose of Milan (feast day 7 December) was called to be Bishop of that see whilst still not yet baptised. Although he came from a Christian family, he served the Roman Empire as an effective governor of the Western provinces, until an episcopal vacancy led to a popular call for his election, his baptism and ordination to priesthood and episcopate all taking place within one week. Noted for his influence upon the future saint, Augustine of Hippo, Ambrose is also noted for his resistance to secular authority, notably of the Emperor Theodosius, in defence of the faith. He has been venerated in Milan as the city’s patron ever since his death.

Saturday 7 December

The Month of

December Holy Father’s Prayer Intention: Evangelisation That every country determine to take the necessary measures to make the future of the very young, especially those who suffer, a priority.

Sunday 1 December

Ps Week 1 1st SUNDAY OF ADVENT 9.30am-2.30pm Cathedral Christmas Fair (Cathedral Hall) 10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Mass XVII Palestrina – Canite tuba in Sion Palestrina – Rorate caeli desuper Organ: Dupré – Le monde dans l’attente du Sauveur (Symphonie-Passion) 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction (Bishop McAleenan) Bevan – Magnificat octavi toni Victoria – Alma Redemptoris a 5 Organ: Demessieux – Rorate caeli 4.30pm Deaf Service Mass (Cathedral Hall) 4.45pm Organ Recital: Callum Alger (Westminster Cathedral)

Monday 2 December Advent feria

St Francis Xavier, Priest 5.30pm Chapter Mass (Mgr Canon McGinn)

Wednesday 4 December

St John Damascene, Priest & Doctor 11am Catholic Children’s Society Advent Service 2pm Catholic Children’s Society Advent Service

Thursday 5 December

Advent feria 12.30, 1.05 and 5.30pm Masses in Cathedral Hall 6.30pm The Messiah (G F Handel) sung

by The Sixteen (ticketed) St Nicholas, Bishop

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Sunday 8 December

Ps Week 2 2nd SUNDAY OF ADVENT 9.30am Family Mass 9.30am – 1.30pm SVP Book Sale in Cathedral Hall 10.30am Solemn Mass (Men’s Voices) Palestrina – Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater Palestrina – Tu convertens Organ: J S Bach – Fantasia in G minor (BWV 542) 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Suriano – Magnificat octavi toni Gibbons – This is the record of John Organ: J S Bach – Fugue in G minor (BWV 542) 4.45pm Organ Recital: James McVinnie (London)

Monday 9 December

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, Patron of the Diocese 2.15pm Woldingham School Carol Service 5pm Solemn Second Vespers 5.30pm Solemn Mass Byrd – Mass for Four Voices Victoria – Alma Redemptoris Mater a 5 Victoria – Tu quae genuisti Organ: de Grigny – Ave maris stella

Tuesday 10 December

Tuesday 3 December

Friday 6 December

St Ambrose, Bishop & Doctor 6pm Victoria Choir sings at Mass

Friday abstinence

Advent feria 7.30pm Barnardo’s Christmas Concert (ticketed)

Wednesday 11 December

Advent feria (St Damasus I, Pope) 2pm SVP Primary School Christmas Play

Thursday 12 December

Our Lady of Guadalupe 2pm Seniors’ Party in Cathedral Hall

Friday 13 December Friday abstinence St Lucy, Virgin and Martyr 2pm Westminster Cathedral Choir School Carol Service Saturday 14 December

St John of the Cross, Priest & Doctor 4pm Extraordinary Form Mass (Lady Chapel)

© Aidan Hart

DECEMBER

Sunday 15 December Ps Week 3 3rd SUNDAY OF ADVENT (Gaudete Sunday) 10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Haydn – Missa brevis Sancti Ioannis de Deo Sweelinck – Gaude et laetare Esquivel – Vox clamantis in deserto Organ: Bruhns – Praeludium in G 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Palestrina – Magnificat primi toni Esquivel – Veni, Domine Organ: J S Bach – Wachet auf (BWV 654) 4.30pm onwards Filipino Club’s Simbang Gabi in Cathedral Hall 4.45pm Organ Recital: Dan Mathieson (Worcester College, Oxford) Monday 16 December Advent feria

Tuesday 17 December

Advent feria 5.30pm Mass attended by Diocesan Staff Mass (Cardinal Nichols)

Wednesday 18 December Advent feria and

Thursday 19 December

Advent feria Morning Masses in the Lady Chapel Lunchtime and Evening Masses in Cathedral Hall 10.30am – 4pm Confessions 5pm Cathedral closes 7.30pm Christmas Celebration

Friday 20 December Friday abstinence Advent feria (St Peter Canisius, Priest & Doctor) Saturday 21 December

Advent feria 10.30am Golden Jubilee of Ordination Mass (Cardinal Nichols)

Sunday 22 December Ps Week 4 4th SUNDAY OF ADVENT 10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Palestrina – Missa brevis Bruckner – Ave Maria Organ: Alain – Litanies 3.30pm Parish Carol Service Organ: J S Bach – In dulci jubilo (BWV 729) 4.45pm Organ Recital: Christopher Allsop (The King’s School, Worcester) Oremus

December 2019

DIARY AND NOTICES Monday 23 December

Advent feria (St John of Kanty, Priest)

Tuesday 24 December (Christmas Eve)

Advent feria 10am Morning Prayer 10.30am, 12.30pm Mass 10.30am – 3pm Confessions 3pm Organ: Messiaen – La Nativité du Seigneur (James Orford) 4pm Pontifical Solemn First Vespers of Christmas (Cardinal Nichols) Buxtehude – Magnificat in D Victoria – O magnum mysterium Organ: Messiaen – Dieu parmi nous (La Nativité du Seigneur) 6pm Vigil Mass of Christmas 7.30pm Cathedral closes; reopens at 10pm 11.15pm Vigil and Solemn Pontifical Mass During the Night (Cardinal Nichols) Mozart – Krönungsmesse Schütz – Hodie Christus natus est Organ: Widor – Toccata (Symphonie V)

Monday 30 December

6th DAY IN THE OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS 8am-6pm Cathedral open 10am Morning Prayer 10.30am, 12.30, 5pm Mass 11am-12.30pm Confessions 10pm Cathedral reopens 11.15pm Mass for the New Year

Tuesday 31 December

7th DAY IN THE OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS 8am-6pm Cathedral open 10am Morning Prayer 10.30am, 12.30, 5pm Mass 11am-12.30pm Confessions Wednesday 1 January has the Bank Holiday timetable, as above; normal timetable resumes on Thursday 2 January; and choral services resume on Sunday 5 January (the Epiphany of the Lord).

Wednesday 25 December

THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD 8, 9am Mass 10am Solemn Lauds (Cardinal Nichols) 10.30am Solemn Pontifical Mass of the Day (Cardinal Nichols) Victoria – Missa O magnum mysterium Sweelinck – Hodie Christus natus est Poulenc – Quem vidistis, pastores?

Organ: Gigout – Grand choeur dialogué 12noon Mass (with Carols) 3.30pm Solemn Pontifical Second Vespers and Benediction (Cardinal Nichols) Suriano – Magnificat primi toni Clemens non Papa – Pastores loquebantur Organ: Vierne – Final (Symphonie I) No confessions and no evening Masses 4.30pm The Cathedral closes

Thursday 26 December

ST STEPHEN, the First Martyr and Friday 27 December No Friday abstinence ST JOHN, Apostle & Evangelist and

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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Saturday 28 December

THE HOLY INNOCENTS, Martyrs 8am-6pm Cathedral open 10am Morning Prayer 10.30am, 12.30pm, 5pm Mass 11am-12.30pm Confessions

Sunday 29 December

THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH 10.30am Solemn Mass 3.30pm Solemn English Vespers and Latin Benediction December 2019

Oremus

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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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IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Two Perspectives region – all of them damaged and desecrated by Daesh militants. The charity has also green-lighted plans to reconstruct the Najem Al-Mashrik Hall and Theatre in Bashiqa, a town occupied by both Christians and Yazidis, a project which will enable the venue once again to play host to wedding ceremonies and other celebrations. The local priest, Fr Daniel Behnam, comments that: ‘This project will help ensure the survival of Christian families and provide them with important services. In particular, it will help young people, providing a space for pastoral, cultural and youth activities’.

The Archbishop said: ‘For us, the Great Al-Tahira Church is a symbol. It was built in 1932, and it was the villagers of Baghdeda who constructed it. For this reason, we want this symbol to remain as a Christian symbol to encourage the people, especially the locals of Baghdeda, to stay here. This is our country, and this is a witness that we can give for Christ’. ACN has also approved 13 other projects to rebuild church properties across the

A shrine has opened in London displaying sacred liturgical items desecrated by extremists in Iraq.

The 10 objects - including chalices, crucifixes and a statue - many of them bent and broken - were formally blessed at a ceremony on Sunday, 3 November, at Farm Street Church, where the shrine has been erected.

The items were rescued from churches torched and desecrated during the Daesh (ISIS) occupation of Iraq's Nineveh Plains - an invasion which

© Jako Klamer

A long-awaited decision to restore an iconic church in Iraq desecrated

by Daesh (ISIS) - one of 14 repair projects agreed by Aid to the Church in Need - has been hailed as a turning point in the struggle to keep Christianity alive in one of its most ancient heartlands. Syriac Catholic Archbishop Petros Mouche of Mosul has thanked the charity for committing to repair the Great Al-Tahira Church (Church of the Immaculate Conception), Qaraqosh (Baghdeda), the largest Christian town in the Nineveh Plains.

This latest tranche of aid builds on the 'Return to the Roots' programme which seeks to enable Christians to return to Nineveh following the defeat of the Islamists. Central to the initiative is the repair of homes damaged by Daesh - of which 37 percent were restored by ACN. The backing of church building projects for the region was approved at a meeting of the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee, chaired

by Middle East projects director Fr Andrzej Halemba. Christians in Iraq, who numbered 1.5 million before 2003, have declined by 90 percent within a generation, yet hope remains and grows as, of the 120,000 Christians who fled the Nineveh Plains following the Daesh invasion in 2014, more than 45,000 have since returned.

The Great Al-Tahira Church, damaged by fire

26

forced the expulsion of Christian families who had been living there for thousands of years.

Fr Dominic Robinson blesses the rescued artefacts

An appeal to stand in solidarity with persecuted Christians was made

by Farm Street’s parish priest, Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, who presided at the opening of the temporary shrine. As Chaplain to Aid to the Church in Need, which helped to co-ordinate the initiative as part of its work of repairing homes, churches and other structures for Christians returning to Nineveh following the military defeat of Daesh, he commented that: ‘I hope very much that the visit of these desecrated sacred items contributes to our sense of communion with our brothers and sisters who are struggling to practice their faith and will also show us the power of hope through the Cross’.

The temporary exhibition has been made possible by Iraq's Chaldean Archdiocese of Erbil, which gave permission for the loan of the items.

As part of the shrine blessing, talks on the present reconstruction initiatives were given by John Ravi and John Pontifex, since ACN is continuing to prioritise help for Christians in Iraq and Syria.

Oremus

December 2019

CROSSWORD AND POEM

Entropy Patrick Coldstream

Lazarus decays. The energy that holds his being out of chaos wasting fast.

Creation’s thin defining lines mist.

Wind wipes his imprint from now random sand.

His once-exploring Spirit dissolves. No crash, no whimper, only the sag of rigging, tilt of a leaky boat, until the tug on the sleeve, the shout “Come, brother Lazarus, come back” wrench entropy’s career into reverse.

Alan Frost October 2019

Clues Across 1 Style of the floor of the Cathedral’s Chapel of St Paul, and of mediaeval original in Westminster Abbey (7) 6 ‘Apologia Pro Vita ---, [St.] Newman’s defence of his coming to Catholic beliefs (3) 8 See 24 Across 9 & 10 Across: Gift on the fourth day of Christmas [carol] (7,5) 10 See 9 Across 11 ------ Earhart, first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic (and a Saint, patroness of farmers) (6) 13 L ondon Borough, well known for its markets and as a canal network hub (6) 15 Offering to a saint or to Our Lady, often in fulfilment of a vow (2-4) 17 A Patron saint of Cornwall, founded a church in Padstow going back 1500 years (6) 20 & 21 Across: One of the Caribbean’s oldest cities, named after founder of the Order of Preachers (5,7) 21 See 20 Across 23 River on which Rome stands, flows near St. Peter’s (5) 24 & 8 Across: Prayer to Our Lady, set to music by Schubert and numerous composers (3,5) 25 D esiderius -------, great Dutch scholar of the Renaissance, friend of St Thomas More (7)

The Entry to the tomb of St Lazarus in Bethany (undated); the saint’s feast day is 17 December

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

December 2019

Oremus

ANSWERS Across: 1 Cosmati 6 Sua 8 Maria 9 Calling 10 Birds 11 Amelia 13 Camden 15 Ex-Voto 17 Petroc 20 Santo 21 Domingo 23 Tiber 24 Ave 25 Erasmus Down: 1 Conclave 2 Stille 3 Albi 4 Image 5 Cribbage 6 Sacred 7 Acts 12 Introibo 14 Nicholas 16 Venite 18 Ransom 19 Adore 20 Sera 22 Myra

© Willem van de Poll, in the Dutch National Archives

Clues Down 1 Assembly meeting of cardinals to elect a pope (8) 2 ‘----- Nacht’, ‘Silent Night’ in the original German title (6) 3 Town near Toulouse, giving its name to 13th c. Cathar heresy countered by 20 Across (4) 4 ‘This is the ----- of our Queen’, Marian hymn (5) 5 Card game played with a pegging-board (8) 6 St Margaret Mary Alacoque received first divine revelation of the ------ Heart on 27 December 1673 (6) 7 Short reference to NT Book written by St Luke (4) 12 ‘-------- ad altare Dei’, beginning of the traditional Latin Mass (8) 14 S aint on whom the figure of Father Christmas is based, feast Day 6 December. (8) 16 ‘------, ------ in Bethlehem’, Adeste Fideles carol (6) 18 F east of Our Lady of ------ shared (largely superseded) by that of Our Lady of Walsingham (6) 19 ‘O come let us ----- Him’, O Come All Ye Faithful carol (5) 20 ‘Que ----, ----‘, Italian saying and popular song about what will be (4) 22 City where 14 Down was Bishop and where he died (4)

27

FIFTY AND ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

In retrospect: from the Cathedral Chronicle Tribute to an Apostle – Mgr Vernon Johnson Canon Gordon Albion From his earliest youth he had but one desire – he wished to be a priest. After his Anglican ordination in 1910 Vernon spent three years as a curate at St Martin’s, Brighton. It was then a slum parish and he loved his work among the poor, but for himself he sought the stricter discipline of a religious order. He spent four months at Caldey, but the Anglican Benedictines there were in process of going over to Rome, so Vernon joined the Society of Divine Compassion, whose Franciscan spirituality and austerity appealed to him …

With the end of the Great War, Vernon set out on a new apostolate, organising missions all over England. But it was particularly in London’s West End that he won name and fame. In 1924, while he was preaching a retreat to Anglican nuns, the Reverend Mother came to him one evening and said, ‘Read this’. This was the Autobiography of St Thérèse. Vernon looked at it with disgust. ‘It’s French and it’s R.C’, he said. ‘I’m not interested.’ ‘You shouldn’t say that’, the nun replied. ‘The Roman Catholics are going to canonise her next year’. Humbly, Vernon took the book to his room and began to read. He told me that his reaction to the first chapter was: ‘What an appalling little pious prig!’ But he read on to the end, from 8 at night until 3 in the morning. He took the book home and told his sister about it. She now suggested he should go and see where the nun had lived. A chance meeting with a stranger in Lisieux led to an interview with Mother Agnes, St Thérèse’s sister. Her advice was given in three words: ‘Il faut abjurer’: ‘You must retract’. It wasn’t to be as clear-cut as that. Vernon and two clerical friends of like mind put themselves the question: ‘What will “They” do with us, if we submit?’ They argued it out on Brighton Pier, of all places.

He was persuaded to write an explanation of what he was about to do and why. The result was One Lord, One Faith, a remarkable effort of which the publisher, Dr Frank Sheed, said to me recently: ‘No book of ours sold at such a rate’ … After his Catholic ordination in 1933, Cardinal Bourne sent for him: ‘You’re a freak’, he said.

‘You’ll be no good as P.P. or curate. You’ll never be left alone. I’m sending you to Edmonton, but directly under me. Any question of what you’re to do must be referred to me.’ In 1935 he took his first pilgrimage to Lisieux. Later he led a pilgrimage of priests and students. They decided 28

to form an association of priests of St Theresa; and to expound the Saint’s teaching, a quarterly magazine was published under the title Sicut Parvuli, suggested

by Bishop McNulty. For 30 years Fr Vernon has been its editor, including the issue of October that appeared a week before his death.

Throughout the last quarter-century of his life at Oxford, Spanish Place and Sudbury Hill, this single-minded man was intent on one thing: the preaching and teaching of St Thérèse’s Little Way of Spiritual Childhood – not from any romantic gratitude for his conversion, but because he knew it was right. from the December 1969 Westminster Cathedral News Sheet Several enquiries have been made as to whether Boxing Day, December 26, which falls on a Friday, is to be kept as a day of abstinence. Readers of the CHRONICLE will know the answer. In our September issue all the recent regulations concerning Fasting and Abstinence were set out on page 166 very clearly and simply. In fact, we flatter ourselves that no clearer or simpler statement is to be found in any other magazine in this country. Under No. 8 it was stated that when December 26 falls on a Friday, as it does this year, the abstinence is dispensed (that is to say, throughout England) [It continues to be the case that, in England and Wales, there is no Friday abstinence during the Octave of Christmas. Ed.] +++ The November issue was sold out with surprising rapidity, and we regret that it has been found impossible to meet the further demands. This is a happy augury for the new year and the future of the magazine. We trust that our readers will make known to others their appreciation of the CHRONICLE. +++ Volunteers are wanted to assist in cleaning the Holy Souls’ Chapel. The scrubbing is already arranged for, and all that remains to be done is sweeping, bees-waxing, polishing and dusting twice a week. Further particulars can be obtained from the Rev P Williams at the Clergy House. from the December 1919 Westminster Cathedral Chronicle Oremus

December 2019

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Identifying the Dead In November various commemorations around the Cathedral encourage us to look more carefully at the names listed on plaques and in memorial books preserved here. Oremus has been supplied with information concerning two brothers whose names are to be found on the walls of St George’s Chapel: Thomas Sydney Ough Dealy was born in Hong Kong, the youngest son of Thomas Kirkman Dealy, who was for 34 years in the Hong Kong Civil Service, and later Headmaster of the Queen's College, Hong Kong, and Mary Dealy, of Grenoble, France, later of North Adelaide, South Australia.

He was educated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire before moving to Adelaide.

Now co-educational, but still adhering to its Jesuit tradition and background, the college occupies a Grade I listed building inherited from the Shireburn family, who once owned the original mansion on the site. The family emblem is emblazoned in stone with its motto above the fireplace in the Top Refectory. At the far end of the same room, once the dining room of the Shireburns, the motto can be seen again, carved into the minstrel's gallery: Quant Je Puis.

Hugo Sherburn armig. me fieri fecit. Anno Domini 1523.

Et sicut fuit, sic fiat. The college itself was founded in 1593

by Fr Robert Persons SJ at St Omer, at a time when penal laws prohibited Catholic education in England. After moving to Bruges in 1762 and Liège in 1773, the college moved to Stonyhurst in 1794. Its alumni include three Saints, twelve Blessed, seven archbishops, seven Victoria Cross winners, a Peruvian president, a Bolivian president, a New Zealand prime minister, a signatory of the American Declaration of Independence and several writers, sportsmen, and politicians.

Thomas Dealy was a student at Roseworthy Agricultural College, South Australia (1st Class Diploma), aged 19 when he enlisted in 48th Infantry Battalion-3rd Reinforcement in Adelaide on 15 April 1916. He had served for three and a half years in the English Officer Training Corps. He was soon promoted to Acting Sergeant, and attended an NCO School at Duntroon and had qualified for a Commission there [RMC], but, when told that he must wait a while for that to be awarded, asked to be sent with the earliest contingent to Europe.

He left Adelaide on HMAT A48 Seang Bee on 10 February 1917. After arrival in the UK at Devonport on 2 May, he was promoted to Lance Corporal and then transferred to the Australian Flying Corps in July and sent off for pilot training. He was injured in a training accident in October, shortly after being trained to fly the DH 5, and was sent to hospital for a short period. Having then qualified as a pilot, he was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant and posted to the Australian Flying Corps on 29 September. Taken on Strength with 30th Training Squadron on 17 December, Dealy was promoted to Lieutenant (Regimental number 3502) on 29 December that year.

December 2019

Oremus

Sadly, he was killed in an aircraft accident at Ayr, Scotland on 7 March 1918 while flying Sopwith Camel B7418, after the aeroplane span into the ground from 8,000 feet. He is buried in Grave 3 at Stonyhurst College, where both he and his brother had been educated. The school’s motto, Quant Je Puis (As Much as I Can) forms part of the inscription on the war grave of his only and elder brother, Lance Corporal Frank Henry Ough Dealy, (Service number 2802, 43rd Battalion Australian Infantry, A.I.F), who was killed in action on August 26th 1918.

The brothers are honoured on the memorial plaques of the Catholic Soldiers' Association in the Chapel of St George and the English Martyrs. The images show the four plaques on St George’s left, with the names of the Dealy brothers near the bottom of the plaque immediately next to the image of the saint.

Part of the south wall of St George’s Chapel, with the memorial plaques

The brothers’ names recorded; may they rest in peace.

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ST VINCENT DE PAUL PRIMARY SCHOOL

Inspection Success Nathaniel Scott Cree, Headteacher

Staff, governors, parents and pupils of St Vincent de Paul had reason to be celebrating recently following the publication of its Diocesan Inspection Report. The report followed a one-day Inspection conducted on Wednesday 9 October in the school by a team of three, who focused upon and made overall judgements in two key areas: classroom religious education and the Catholic life of the school.

During the inspection, RE lessons were observed in every class in the school, pupil books and assessment data were scrutinised, and interviews were held with pupils, parents and members of the leadership team and governing body. Overall, the school was judged ‘good’ for classroom RE and ‘outstanding’ for its Catholic life.

Summary of key findings on Classroom Religious Education: • The content of classroom religious education meets all the requirements of the Religious Education Curriculum Directory. Pupils enjoy a well-resourced, systematic and creative programme of study which builds on prior learning.

• Pupils achieve well in religious education. Their progress is in line with that of other core subjects.

Pupils’ behaviour is excellent, and they demonstrate very positive attitudes to their learning; both aspects contribute significantly to their achievement. They make good use of the ‘I can’ statements for selfassessment.

• Teaching across all key stages is good with some that is outstanding. Teachers know their pupils very well and create a highly positive learning climate for them. Pupils enjoy engaging and creative lessons which are well resourced to enhance their learning experiences.

rayer and worship are woven into the daily life of •P all at the school. Pupils enjoy the unique privilege of being able to celebrate liturgies and acts of worship both in Westminster Cathedral and in school.

• S trong partnerships with parents, the Cathedral, the local Catholic community and the diocese contribute significantly to the Catholic life of the school. Parents are overwhelmingly positive in their praise of the school.

•P upils have a deep commitment to the Common Good and serving others. They fully appreciate their responsibilities in supporting those in need. They enjoy sharing their gifts and talents for the benefit of others.

Contained within the detailed section of the report on Catholic life, the inspectors acknowledged the regular contributions made by our pupils to this publication: Pupils in Years 5 and 6 write monthly articles for the Cathedral’s ‘Oremus’ magazine. These articles are extremely well written and thought provoking.

We are delighted that the inspection team recognised the positive work that is done by the school and how accurately the final report reflected so positively all that we believe to be true about our wonderful school. As ever, we are grateful for the special partnership which we have with the Cathedral and the support we receive from our parents, governors and wider community. The report can be read in full by visiting both the school website (www. svpcatholicprimary.org) and the Diocese of Westminster Education Service website (https://education.rcdow.org.uk/).

Summary of key findings on the Catholic life of the school: • The school’s values and mission statement Love one another as I have loved you permeate life at St Vincent de Paul. They are lived out in a very real way by the whole school community.

• Religious education is at the heart of this warm, welcoming, forward-thinking school. It fully meets the 10% of curriculum time as required by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

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SVP children with (back row) Nat Scott Cree (Headteacher), James Kenny (Lead for RE) and Fr Julio Albornoz (School Chaplain) Oremus

December 2019

TEAMS WORK

Building the Domestic Church On 16 November over 250 members of the Teams of Our Lady from across the country gathered in the Cathedral to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of the Movement in Great Britain. The principal celebrant was Bishop Peter Doyle (responsible in the Bishops’ Conference for Marriage and Family Life) and concelebrants included Bishop Richard Moth of Arundel and Brighton, Westminster Auxiliary Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Bishop of the Forces Paul Mason, Fr Chris Vipers (Westminster’s Director of the Agency for Evangelisation) and clergy members of Teams.

The day was captured in a single phrase by Piotr and Dzidzia Chodzko-Zajko, who wrote after the event: ‘We are still on a high,’ a simple yet profound expression of the overall joy and happiness associated with the day. The other key fruit was the number of young couples and their children who continue to make up the rich tapestry of Teams.

An icon of the Holy Family was a focus on the Cathedral sanctuary for the Mass

are marriage and family life alive and well, but that this particular model of mutual accompaniment helps to affirm and reveal their beauty. Each of the Teams, in their individual ways, is a reflection of the light that shone in the icon of the Holy Family displayed on the sanctuary.

It is an international lay movement in the Church, designed to enrich ‘married spirituality’, helping to make good Christian marriages even better by building on the graces received in sacramental marriage. Across the world, Teams provides a proven method of increasing and improving prayer life, which helps couples grow closer both to God and to each other. Founded in France in 1947

by Fr Henri Caffarel, it was the fruit of a simple request from three married couples in 1939 to find ways to support and develop holiness within the sacrament of matrimony.

From a small beginning, Teams has grown internationally, with 13,575 teams worldwide, comprising 68,615 couples and 10,194 priests and religious. Each team is made up of four to six couples and a priest/spiritual director. The spiritual strength of Teams derives from the fusion of two types of priesthood: the priestly ministry and the priesthood of the faithful. Together they create ‘the small church’, a beautiful image of the domestic church in its fullness. The concrete relationship between the priest and the people of God helps to reinforce the understanding of the Church as a community in which members enrich and assist each other on the road to salvation.

In Great Britain there are 111 Teams, of which 38 are in the diocese of Westminster. In the last five years the movement has experienced a 20% growth in the number of new Teams worldwide, a direct response to a desire

by Christian married couples to discover the best way to live out their vocation within the Church. The gathering in the Cathedral was a visible affirmation that not only December 2019

Oremus

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