Westminster Record November 2017 by RCWestminster

Westminster Record

November 2017 | 20p

Anti-Slavery Day Award for Manager of Caritas Bakhita House

Annual Report & Accounts 2016

Catholic Woman of the Year

Page 2

Pages 11 & 14

Page 21

Lift up the lowly The theme of this year’s pilgrimage to Walsingham, which took place on 7th October, was ‘Lift up the Lowly’. Over 800 of the faithful from across the diocese joined the one-day pilgrimage. The theme was chosen to help us focus our reflection on the first World Day of the Poor, taking place on 19th November, which was announced by Pope Francis in 2016. (See page 19 for an abridged version of his message.) The pilgrimage began with a long journey from London, with parish and deanery groups arriving in coaches. Pilgrims were welcomed to Walsingham with cloudy skies and refreshing cups of tea. Before Mass pilgrims were had time to walk around the Shrine and visit the Slipper Chapel. Priests were also on hand to hear confession. This time of pause and reflection gave us more time to ponder closely on the theme of lifting up the lowly. Mass began at noon, celebrated by Cardinal Vincent, Bishop John Wilson, and priests from across the diocese who had come with their parishes. Before Mass began Mgr John Armitage, Rector of the Shrine, assured the pilgrims that it wasn’t going to rain, and it was safe to sit outside. Fortunately, he was right and the rain held off throughout Mass.

After Mass was lunch, and pilgrims were invited to use the new Pilgrim Hall and eat their lunch undercover. The Pilgrim Hall is part of the continuing development of the Shrine, and provides welcome shelter from the English weather! After lunch we gathered to begin our procession down the Holy Mile toward the site of the grounds of the oncemagnificent Walsingham Abbey. The statue of Our Lady of Walsingham led the procession, and Fr Chris Vipers, Director of the Pilgrimage, began the Rosary as we left the Shrine. The route proceeds along the old railway track, with fields on either side. Before we reached the Abbey the procession wound its way past the many shops dedicated to religious paraphernalia and some residences. The Cardinal noted that we had gathered an audience of onlookers in upstairs windows. During the procession it had begun to drizzle, but nonetheless the faithful took to their knees for Benediction, given by Bishop John. A beautiful liturgy with the back drop of the ruins of the Abbey. After Benediction, it was back to the coaches which thankfully had come to meet us to take us back to London, filled with the love of Mary, Our Mother. Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us

He brings down the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly.

Editorial

Westminster Record – Contact us

Westminster Record | November 2017

Praying for the Holy Souls

Editor Mgr Mark Langham Archbishop’s House, Ambrosden Avenue SW1P 1QJ Managing Editor Marie Saba 020 7798 9031 Inhouse writers Martha Behan 020 7798 9030, Sharon Pinto 020 7798 9178 Photos Mazur/Catholicnews.org.uk Design Julian Game To order copies contact Andrea Black 0161 908 5327 or email andrea.black@thecatholicuniverse.com Print management and distribution by The Universe Media Group Ltd.

December/January publication dates Editorial deadline: 24th November 2017 Listings email: communications@rcdow.org.uk News and stories call 020 7798 9030 Email: communications@rcdow.org.uk Advertising deadline: 1st December 2017 To advertise contact Carol Malpass 0161 908 5301 or email carol.malpass@thecatholicuniverse.com Produced by the Communications Office of the Diocese of Westminster. News and articles published in the Westminster Record do not necessarily represent the views of the Diocese of Westminster, unless specifically stated otherwise. Appearance of advertisements does not imply editorial endorsement.

As is fitting in this month of Holy Souls, the Westminster Record continues our remembrance of Cardinal Cormac, as we keep him in our prayers. November will be a special time to visit the Cardinal’s grave in the Cathedral, near St Patrick’s chapel, to pray for the repose of his soul (and maybe say a prayer for the other Cardinals buried in the Cathedral also!).

Limited

Have peace of mind with a family run Catholic Funeral Directors

Mass has been celebrated in our Chapel of Rest located in Arlesey www.benedictfuneral.co.uk Serving Hitchin, Letchworth, Baldock & Stevenage

Call 01462 337684 Page 2

month, as members of the judiciary and legal profession gathered at Westminster Cathedral for the Red Mass, the annual service for the opening of the legal year. There has been an opening, or re-opening, of another sort, at the refurbished SPEC, and we report as well on the Cardinal’s visit to St Joseph’s, Hendon, celebrating 40 years of their tremendous work. And we celebrate with Fr Tim Dean, marking 25 years of priesthood. Fr Tim is not what you might call a ‘spring chicken’, having entered seminary in later years, but his gentle, generous, and humorous ministry puts a spring in many a step. Ad multos annos!

Anti-Slavery Day Award for Manager of Caritas Bakhita House

Benedict Funeral Directors •A very personal service • 24 hour call out • Order of service printing • In-house Florist • Pre-paid funeral plans available

The demanding work of a diocese continues, whatever the season. Behind the headlines, special Masses, meetings, initiatives, and celebrations must be a solid administrative and financial basis. This is the detail which many of us find complex and uninteresting, but which supports and enables so much that we do as parishes and as a diocese. It is important that this work be visible, and that you should see how your contributions are being used. We therefore include the annual review and accounts; however intently or otherwise you peruse them, remember the enormous generosity and diligence of those who have prepared them. We owe them a great debt of gratitude. Publishing our accounts keeps us on the right side of the law, and the law (or rather the Law) was much in evidence last

Karen Anstiss, Manager of Caritas Bakhita House, the refuge for women rescued from human trafficking and modern slavery, has been recognised for her outstanding contribution to the fight against modern slavery in the voluntary sector by the Marsh Christian Trust in partnership with the Human Trafficking Foundation at the AntiSlavery Day Awards.

Karen has been the manager of Bakhita House, part of Caritas Westminster, since its opening in June 2015. Under her leadership, the service has become an example of best practice in the support of survivors of slavery. In the citation for the award, the Marsh Trust noted: ‘Karen leads a holistic and genuine approach to rehabilitation for the women and encourages partnerships across the antitrafficking sector to ensure that guests receive the support they need to rebuild their lives. Karen is professional with clear boundaries but is flexible and responds to the needs of her guests and she generously shares her vast experience and knowledge with the antitrafficking sector.’ Commenting on this accolade, Cardinal Vincent, who heads the Santa Marta Group, an alliance of bishops, police chiefs and civil authorities working together to combat human trafficking and slavery, said: ‘That Karen has won this is a great achievement. The citation for Karen on the Marsh Trust

website is itself an accurate and fine tribute to her work and that of Bakhita House.’ Caritas Bakhita House provides personalised accommodation, rehabilitation and support to women who have been trafficked. The women can be housed at short notice, outside of the constraints of the National Referral Mechanism, and can be fully supported until they are ready to move on. The service is run by a team of professionals and supported by a large number of volunteers including women Religious. The Anti-Slavery Day Awards, which highlight the achievements of those who fight the existence and consequences of modern slavery in the UK and internationally, were presented in the State Rooms of Speaker’s House on 18th October 2017.

Westminster Record | November 2017

Bishops issue statement CSAN highlights burden of loneliness on the 50th anniversary of Abortion Act me - a very subjective view of the good - rather than taking into account a wider set of fundamental values. This is a very inadequate understanding of free choice, which requires an education in important truths about what is truly good and the possibility of other options. In this case, these must include the good of the unborn child, care and support for pregnant mothers, and the responsibility of the father. This statement presents a number of different challenges for the future: a new understanding of the intrinsic value and worth of every human life in the womb, a better protection of unborn children diagnosed with a disability, a great need for education in moral responsibility about human sexuality and the meaning of sexual expression within marriage. Many professionals face the challenge that respect for conscientious objection against abortion has been eroded. Personal conscience is inviolable and nobody should be forced to act against his or her properly informed conscience on these matters. We encourage greater debate about this right and these challenges in our society. Finally we thank many people, of religious faith and none, who have sought to protect unborn life and the life of the mother over the last fifty years; mothers who have continued their pregnancies in difficult circumstances, politicians who have sought to reform the legislation to better protect unborn life, those people whose prayers have been offered for greater respect to be shown to the wonder of the life in the womb, for mothers and those whose lives are cut short by abortion. Together let us better cherish life. This is an abridged version of the Bishops’ statement. To read the full statement, visit www.rcdow.org.uk/news

Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 UK Abortion Act, the Catholic Bishops of England, Wales and Scotland, issued a joint statement on abortion. This statement is addressed not only to Catholics of our countries, but more broadly to all people who seek to uphold the dignity of human life and protect the unborn child. Over the last fifty years, the bishops of our countries, along with many other people, have spoken consistently in favour of the intrinsic value of human life and both the good of the child in the womb and the good of the mother. This anniversary provides an opportunity to lament the loss of life due to abortion and seek a change of minds and hearts about the good of the child in the womb and the care of mothers who are pregnant. Fifty years ago, few envisaged the possibility of that there would be almost 200,000 abortions in Great Britain in 2015. Every abortion is a tragedy and few consider that abortion is the desirable or best solution to a pregnancy, which may be challenging on account of many different factors. The complex set of conditions in which a woman finds herself pregnant and may consider having an abortion may limit the exercise of freedom and diminish moral culpability. When abortion is the choice made by a woman, the unfailing mercy of God and the promise of forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation are always available. There is always a way home to a deeper relationship with God and the Church, as recent Popes have emphasised, which can heal and bring peace. Today the language of ‘choice’ dominates discourse about marriage, gender, family and abortion. This needs further exploration. Choice has come to mean doing whatever I feel to be right for

communion and new life. That, we believe, is the destiny for every person: allowing themselves to be embraced by God. That is the true hope by which we live.’ The Cardinal also expressed approval at the ‘serious consideration to changing aspects of the Universal Credit system of social security payments that have been leaving people with an intense sense of being abandoned’. Speaking on the anniversary of the demolition of the ‘jungle’ camp in Calais, he said: ‘Way beyond Calais, right across Europe, I think of the unaccompanied children and young people – tens of thousands – who remain alone and vulnerable. Can we not work hard to accommodate more unaccompanied child refugees and work with our European partners to protect them from the many forms of desperate exploitation that lie in wait to enslave them?’ ‘Loneliness takes many forms,’ he concluded as he thanked CSAN and who work to alleviate it ‘in the name of Christ and the compassion that flows from his heart’.

At this year’s annual parliamentary reception on 25th October, CSAN, the Catholic Social Action Network, chose to focus the spotlight on loneliness in all its forms. Addressing the gathering, Cardinal Vincent spoke of the paradox of loneliness in an age of ‘so many amazing means of communication, means of staying in touch’. He expressed his surprise that loneliness was a greater concern among 18-34 year olds than for the over 55s, wondering whether ‘perhaps they have been mastered’ by social media and ‘are captive to their limitation’.

‘This experience and burden of loneliness has a particular dimension, and challenge, for all who believe in God and for us who seek to be disciples of Jesus Christ,’ he added. ‘We believe that God, who brings us into existence, is always present to us, and we to God.’ ‘Our Christian faith is intensely realistic,’ he said, embracing ‘human brokenness’ and transforming it. ‘So we see the reality of radical loneliness, and its emptiness, enter the very soul of Jesus as he faces death on the cross. And we know, and rejoice in, the transforming power of the Holy Spirit which filled that emptiness with glorious

Catholics and Methodists celebrate 50 years of dialogue The Methodist Roman Catholic International Commission met for its 11th session of dialogue in Rome in October. The highlight of the week was the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the work of the Commission on Thursday 19th. After Mass at the altar of the tomb of St Peter and a visit to his tomb in the scavi, members of the Commission were received by Pope Francis, along with the Steering Committee of the World Methodist Council, in audience in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. Bishop John Sherrington, Catholic Co-Chair said, ‘At the tomb of St Peter, it was deeply moving to pray together as Methodists and Catholics the “Our Father” and recognise our common roots. The audience with the Holy Father was a wonderful meeting during which Pope Francis affirmed the work of the dialogue, appreciated the fruits it has

produced and encouraged our work for the future to continue to grow in holiness and unity. We presented him with a Spanish translation of our last document “The Call to Holiness” with which he was delighted. Many members spoke later of the Holy Father’s profound humility and the respect with which he greeted them.’ The day of celebration continued with a seminar at the Centro pro Unione at which Mrs Gillian Kingston and Dr Clare Watkins presented stimulating papers on the fruits of the joint work and challenges for the future. A reflective discussion followed with responses from Dr David Chapman and Bishop John. The day ended with Vespers at Caravita and a reception hosted by the British Ambassador to the Holy See, HE Sally Axworthy, MBE. During the week the Commission discussed papers

on the theme of ‘God in Christ Reconciling’ including focus on the scriptures and reconciliation, Church experiences of reconciliation, the healing of memories and the mission to be ambassadors of reconciliation working for justice, peace and integrity with creation. Bishop John commented, ‘The international experience of the Commission members has been enriched by new members from Africa and India as well as Canada and Australia. This enables the Commission to be more aware of the ways in which culture impacts on the Christian life in diverse situations.’ He expressed his gratitude to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the World Methodist Council for their sponsorship of the ongoing work of dialogue. Next year the Commission continues its discussions in Hong Kong. Page 3

Westminster Record | November 2017

Businesses invited to join the fight against modern slavery Since its launch last month, the Evening Standard and Independent special investigation into modern slavery, Slaves On Our Streets, backed by Cardinal Vincent, Prime Minister Theresa May, Archbishop Justin Welby and other leaders, has had overwhelmingly positive from readers, authorities and businesses alike. The next focus for the investigation will be the corporate sector. The Evening Standard and Independent will be shining a light on work being done by businesses across the UK and further afield. While many firms are leaders in

combatting modern slavery, there is more to be done. Under the Modern Slavery Act 2015, businesses with a total turnover of £36m must provide a transparency statement. These businesses, as well as others who do not have a statutory duty, are now being invited to sign up to a pledge to demonstrate their commitment to combating the evil of modern slavery. The statement reads: 'We are committed to combating modern slavery and human trafficking. We will address the risk of slavery in our business and supply chain and take all possible steps to eradicate it. We will undertake to

Red Mass opens legal year

work positively with governments and authorities to combat this evil and we will always encourage our employees and customers to speak out where slavery concerns exist.' Businesses wishing to sign up to the pledge are invited to email StopSlavery@standard.co.uk All participating businesses will be printed in the paper as a supporter of the statement above. To find out about the latest developments in the special investigation, please visit www.standard.co.uk/news/ modern-slavery

Bishops meet with EU Parliament On 2nd October, to mark the start of the legal year, members of the judiciary and legal profession attended the annual Red Mass at Westminster Cathedral, celebrated this year by Bishop Paul MacAleenan. As is customary, during the homily Bishop Paul reminded the congregation of their duty to listen to the Holy Spirit, and to exercise mercy and justice. He alluded to the many times The bishops are pictured with Mairead McGuinness MEP and first Vice President of the European Parliament

Bishop Nicholas Hudson led a delegation from the department of international affairs of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, made up of Bishop Tom Burns, Bishop Paul McAleenan and Bishop William Kenney to Brussels to meet with representatives of European Union institutions. The aim of the trip was to listen and convey issues of concern at a key time in negotiations for the UK’s exit. As well as meeting with officials and representatives of the various institutions, the delegation heard about the extensive advocacy work undertaken by the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (Comece) on behalf of the Bishops' Conferences of the EU. Page 4

The issues raised by the bishops centred on the importance of upholding human rights in all trade deals, prisoner transfer rights, Northern Ireland and border issues with the Republic of Ireland, rights of EU nationals in the UK and UK citizens in European countries. The delegation also met with the Apostolic Nuncio to the EU, Archbishop Alain Lebeaupin, Comece Vice President Bishop Jean Kockerels and general secretary of the Conference of European Churches Fr Heikki Huttunen. Bishop Nicholas, bishop with responsibility for European issues, said: ‘This has been a fascinating and informative visit. I must thank Brother Olivier Poquillon and his team at

Comece for their generous reception and also the important role they play. The UK is still part of the EU and during the transitional period before the UK leaves there are vital issues to resolve. ‘We will also continue to have a relationship with the EU and its institutions in the future so these face-to-face meetings are invaluable. Essentially we must always promote the human and insist that the human is put at the centre of the European project and the policies adopted by its institutions, affecting all European citizens. It is important to remember that we will remain part of Europe even when the UK leaves the European Union.’

when Christ called on people to obey the law, and to follow decisions made justly. We can only make just decisions with the help of the Holy Spirit, he added. The arrangements for the Mass are made each year by the Thomas More Society, whose membership comprises mainly Roman Catholic members of the Judicary and the Bar, as well as solicitors.

Bishop Paul calls on government to help unaccompanied child refugees On the first anniversary of the demolition of the ‘jungle’ camp in Calais, Bishop Paul McAleenan, the lead Bishop for migration and asylum, has called on the UK government to continue resettling unaccompanied child refugees. Bishop Paul stated: ‘Pope Francis has called on us all to support young people who have been driven from their homes and separated from their families. It is a testament

to our society that some unaccompanied child refugees have found sanctuary here, but there is still much more work to be done. ‘Throughout Europe tens of thousands remain alone and vulnerable; we share a duty to ensure their safety and dignity. I encourage the government to continue accommodating more unaccompanied child refugees and work with our European partners to protect these young people from exploitation.’ Follow us on Twitter at: twitter.com/RCWestminster

Westminster Record | November 2017

centre. The Cardinal admired the work done by the students and joined in with some colouring. One of the students showed him a picture of her brother meeting a young Bishop Nichols! During the tour Cardinal Vincent also watched a performance of the choir’s song about tea, which he enjoyed so much he asked for an encore. The tour finished with tea and scones in the canteen with parents and carers. He also met 98-year-old Ron, who has been volunteering at St Joseph’s every day since he retired! Visiting St Josephs is like being welcomed into a home. The students were all keen to share their joy and experience with the Cardinal, who was thrilled by their warm welcome.

Bishop Paul McAleenan celebrated Mass in St Boniface, the German church, for the official induction of the new parish priest, Fr Andreas Blum. Fr Andreas joins the diocese from Germany and has taken over from Fr Christian Dieckmann.

On 19th September, Cardinal Vincent visited Caritas St Joseph’s. This year Caritas St Joseph’s turns 40 and they have been marking it in a variety of ways. Bishop Paul MacAleenan celebrated Mass at the centre in the summer, bringing together past and present students as well as the many volunteers that help at the centre. The Cardinal began his visit by meeting the students who worked in reception. Medford, a student, welcomed him and talked to him about how St Joseph’s has helped him. The Cardinal then visited a dance class and was impressed by the rhythm and serenity of the class, although he did not joint in! Gail Williams, the centre manager then showed the Cardinal some of the incredible arts and crafts made at the

On 24th September, Cardinal Vincent celebrated the annual International Mass at Westminster Cathedral. The Mass, organised by the ethnic chaplains, celebrated the diversity of the diocese. Follow us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/diocese.westminster

On 21st October Westminster Cathedral hosted the Archconfraternity of St Stephen for thier annual altar servers’ Mass for all of the dioceses in England and Wales. The Mass was celebrated by their patron, Cardinal Vincent. During the liturgy, the servers are given a chance to renew their promises. Page 5

Westminster Record | November 2017

Shadow Home Secretary Inspires Our Lady’s Students During Black History Month

St Agnes School Celebrate 125th Anniversary

The Ealing Mini Mile: Getting that Ealing Feeling St Augustine’s Priory was proud to sponsor the Ealing Mini Mile held on Saturday 23rd September in Lammas Park, Ealing, an event which enjoyed ideal weather, a great atmosphere and a record 1,600 children competing in the five age-specific races.

by Fr John Buckley The Mass to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the school on 13th September 2017 was truly memorable. So much thought and preparation had gone into it over many months. The occasion was not dampened by the due to the funeral of Cardinal Cormac Present at the celebration were pupils, parents, staff, governors and some invited guests, including the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Brian Salinger. Reflecting on 125 years of history and tradition featured strongly in the celebration. The historical records are somewhat sparse. What is known is that the school originated in Childs Hill in 1892, then moved to Gillingham Road on the site of the parish church of St Agnes in 1939. There were pressures to expand all the time because of the growing numbers wanting access to the school. Eventually after much effort the new school site on Thorverton Road reached fruition in 1992. The school continues to grow and in September 2016 the premises were once again enlarged, with the addition of two new classrooms, offering two forms of entry, serving the needs of the parish community and beyond. Page 6

The Headteacher, Susan O’Reilly, lauded the work of staff and parents. The Governors received special praise for their commitment to the school with particular mention being given to Councillor Jack Cohen, a Governor for over 30 years and to Gill Abbott, Present Chairperson, a Governor for 16 years. With the prospective expansion it looks as if Catholic Education will be alive and well for the people of the parish and beyond for years to come. The anniversary celebration placed great emphasis on achievement, but it also looked towards the future, seeing the children as symbols of hope who through their education will become enabled as leaders and contributors to society. The school is proud of its achievements living out its own mantra ‘the Family of St Agnes loves, learns and grows together as followers of Jesus’. St Agnes epitomises that reality of success in what it sets out to do. The anniversary highlighted its tradition, history and spirit. The whole school community prayed that its life will grow and flourish in the years ahead. With God’s blessing and help all things are possible.

Over 60 St Augustine’s Priory pupils entered with our Junior Running Club members training with the Senior School Running Club in preparation for the Mini Mile. Heather Gosling, Director of Sport at St Augustine’s Priory, commented, ‘These are brilliant results and demonstrate the emphasis we place on the overall fitness of the girls. We are so proud of the girls’ achievements’. Louise Hales, PE teacher at St Augustine’s Priory, who gave out prizes on the day said, ‘Days like these are why we do what we do’.

Our Lady’s welcomed the first black female to become MP and to hold a seat in the House of Commons, Diana Abbott. The student council, sixth form and the Year 9 cohort listened to Diane’s incredible speech before having an intimate Q&A session. She spoke of her relentless determination to succeed in politics, her struggles against discrimination and her fight for diversity in our society. These included being the only black female at her secondary school and at Newnham College, Cambridge University, where she studied for her History degree. Diane spoke about her love of Hackney and how over the years she is delighted to have witnessed so many developments in social justice, whether it be sexism, racism or discrimination, but she stresses that always more needs to be done and we need to ensure that the progress made is held onto and sustained. She spoke about her education initiative, ‘London Schools and the Black Child’,

which aims to raise educational achievement levels amongst black children. It was especially poignant as Taiwo Oyebola, a past Our Lady’s student won one of these awards last year for her incredible achievement in her A Levels. Her mantra for success in life is to always strive to get the best qualifications you can, and to have sheer determination to get where you want. Always believe in yourself, if you have not seen anyone who looks like you be in the position you want to be in, don’t let that stop you, make that your driving force. Lastly, you should always treat other woman with courtesy and respect during your career, whatever they are and whatever their position. Woman everywhere need to support and encourage other women to succeed. Diane talked about her love of writing and shared her favourite quote: ‘Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave’ –And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou.

Following Mass, Cardinal Vincent proceeded to bless the new prayer garden designed by the pupils as part of a Design and Technology (DT) project. This was the students’ way of expressing 120 years of faith journey that the school has made, with the help of their teachers who guided them to research the project. The essential idea of designing a prayer garden was the need for a quiet place to rest, pray and reflect on thoughts and actions that might make a difference to the world we share as stewards of our environment. Cardinal Vincent interacted with all the guests including the current and former

Headeachers, a memorable moment for each of them.

120 years of St Vincent’s On Wednesday 5th July, Cardinal Vincent celebrated Mass at St Vincent’s Catholic Primary School, Mill Hill in commemoration of 120 years of Catholic education started by the Daughters of Charity with their vision of an inclusive education for all. Mass was held in open air with over 400 people in attendance which included the past and present pupils and parents who were welcomed by the staff and governors. Mass was concelebrated by Fr Michael McCullagh (Parish Priest), Fr Nobert Fernandes (ex-student), Fr Robert Pachuta, Fr Ray Armstrong, and Fr Eamon Rafferty.

Westminster Record | November 2017

St Paul’s unites in Liturgy for Catholic Education Mayor’s award for St Gregory’s On Wednesday 19 October, St Catholic Science College th

Paul’s Catholic College in Sunbury hosted a special Liturgy for the staff from schools across the Upper Thames Deanery. The objective was to recognise and celebrate the unique and irreplaceable contribution that each member of staff makes to the mission of Catholic Education in the local area of Spelthorne and Richmond boroughs. The Liturgy was prepared and led by the Chaplain of St Paul’s, Mrs Becky Walker, assisted by the Chaplaincy Team and members of the School Choir. During the Liturgy, staff were invited to reflect on the gospel account of the calling of the disciples, as well as Blessed John Henry Newman’s poem ‘Some Definite Service’. Each participant was reminded that

their role within the school community was unique and valued, and that they each played a definite and irreplaceable role in the mission of Catholic Education. Following the Liturgy, St Paul’s Together (PTA) served tea and cakes, and participants

had the opportunity to socialise and meet with colleagues from other schools. It is hoped to repeat this very successful event in the future, in order to further develop the excellent co-operation between schools and parishes in the Upper Thames Deanery.

50 years of faith at JFK School

On 27th September JFK School in Hemel Hempstead, marked the beginning of their Golden Jubilee year with a whole-school Mass, joined by members of the Governing Body and the headteachers of local Catholic primary schools. The Mass was celebrated by Fr. Brendan Seery, a student of JFK between 2001 and 2008. In his homily Fr. Brendan reflected on the significant changes in the world during the past fifty years but suggested that the core values of our school were still strongly rooted in its faith

life. Music was provided by the Music Liturgy Group and the Mass was supported by a team of students as readers and Eucharistic Ministers. In a short address to conclude the Mass, Paul Neves, Headteacher, relayed some of the early memories of the school received from one of the teachers who was on the staff of four teachers when the school opened its doors to 100 students in 1967. These memories showed that many aspects of the school have not changed a great deal over the fifty years. In particular, we are told that the first

St Gregory’s has been recognised in the Schools for Success Awards because last year, its GCSE results placed in the top 10% of schools in the country. Headteacher Andrew Prindiville said, ‘We are absolutely delighted to receive another award from the Mayor’s office which is, I believe, testament to the dedication of our teachers,

hard work of our students and support of our parents.’ The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: ‘Congratulations to St Gregory’s Catholic Science College for its outstanding achievement and for the hard work of its pupils and teaching staff. London has some of the best schools in the country and Schools for Success shows the huge difference good quality teaching can make to pupils.’

headteacher, Mr Singleton, introduced systems that were aimed at reflecting the values of equality, respect and community development.’ Fifty years later those themes are just as important to JFK today. The Governors are organising reunion events for former staff and students to revisit JFK during this academic year and a Facebook page (search @jfk50) has a large number of followers sharing fond memories and photographs of the last 50 years.

Page 7

Westminster Record | November 2017

Remembering Cardinal Cormac On Wednesday 4th October, Cardinal Vincent, along with Archbishop Adams, the Apostolic Nuncio, and bishops and priests of the diocese, celebrated a memorial Mass for Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor at the Cathedral. The Mass was attended by HRH the Princess Royal, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, members of the diplomatic core, and many of the faithful of the diocese. It was an occasion of thanksgiving for the gift of Cardinal Cormac. As Cardinal Vincent explained in his homily, Cardinal Cormac ‘was truly a great gift of God. We miss him. This evening we thank God for him and we pray for him.’

Cardinal Cormac ‘knew that all he had, by way of natural abilities and acquired experience, competence and wisdom, was a gift of God. He knew it was to be used for the common good, a good which excludes nobody, the good the Church is always called to serve.’ Cardinal Cormac took his new role as Cardinal seriously, putting himself ‘heart and soul’ into making the most of these opportunities: ‘He raised his voice on many issues of the day: the war in Iraq; respect for human life, in its beginnings and all its weaknesses; the plight of undocumented workers in this country, in the campaign “Strangers into Citizens”.’

Speaking of Cardinal Cormac’s many achievements, Cardinal Vincent said: ‘With humility and determination, he took decisive initiatives for the protection of children and vulnerable people within the Catholic Church, tracing a pathway which has stood the test of recent years.’ Cardinal Cormac also served the Papacy and universal Church in many ways. ‘He used his great gift for friendship to press forward in the search for the unity of Christians for which he worked all his life.’ Cardinal Vincent spoke of the, ‘two great loves’ that filled Cardinal Cormac’s heart: ‘a love of life, expressed especially

through family and friends, and love of his Catholic faith, expressed in his enduring love for the Church. These two loves, intertwined and inseparable, gave him a strong foundation for his life’s work,

with all its difficulties, failures and considerable achievements.’ At the end of Mass Cardinal Vincent proceeded to Cardinal Cormac’s tomb for a moment of silent prayer.

for promoting and developing the Church in England and Wales, he was always willing to listen to those with alternative views and those who might bring new insights or initiatives. He believed that discussion and the sharing of experience and expertise brought wisdom to the eventual decisions. A further unexpected shock came for me in November 2005 when I was appointed an auxiliary bishop for the diocese. In all the uncertainty of those bewildering times I must say that the Cardinal was always there to encourage and help in whatever way he could as I

attempted to adjust to a very different way of living my priesthood. He made the transition a great deal easier than it might otherwise have been. I certainly learned a great deal from him and he left me with the best of examples of unfailing kindness and welcome to others which I still try to imitate. In all the sadness of learning of his final illness I was so pleased for the calm and acceptance that he manifested in his last days. May he rest in peace, rewarded for his goodness as a priest, bishop and pastor of souls.

A model of unfailing kindness by Bishop John Arnold

Who would have guessed that, at a brief and cordial meeting with Fr Murphy-O’Connor in 1976, in Rome, I would have later spent eight years working closely with him in the Diocese of Westminster? At our first meeting I was finishing legal studies and hoping to try my vocation to religious life. I was warmly welcomed as a guest but chances of our having much association in the future would have then seemed unlikely. We were on rather different journeys within the Church. My own journey took me from religious life to ordination as a priest in the Diocese of Westminster and then to a parish in North London. Fr Murphy-O’Connor, who would have expected to return to a parish in his Diocese of Portsmouth, instead returned to Arundel and Brighton to become bishop of the diocese and then, in 2000, he was translated to Westminster to be Archbishop and then Cardinal. It was no doubt a difficult transition for him to have made. Cardinal Hume had been muchloved and his short but aggressive final illness had left many people feeling orphaned and disorientated. His manner had been very warm and easy going. It is never easy to step into the shoes of someone who had been so well respected and in the role of Cardinal Archbishop for so long. But Cardinal Cormac took up the Page 8

reins generously and with determination. The call from Archbishop’s House on 5th April 2001 was unexpected but the meeting the following day was to be lifechanging. The Cardinal’s appointment was simple and direct. I was to become one of the Vicars General to assist in the administration of the diocese. The next eight years were, in many ways, filled with new experiences and challenges. Throughout that time I must say that I always felt the encouragement and the trust of the Cardinal, together with his readiness to give advice or direction when I felt the need for guidance. It was through his thoughts and vision that we promoted pastoral initiatives throughout the diocese, while developing a sense that the offices and staff at the centre of the diocese were there to be ‘central services’ to the parishes and their communities. One of Cardinal Cormac’s many strengths was his ability to identify people to whom he could delegate tasks. The role of Cardinal Archbishop brings an impossible diversity of responsibilities which would swamp and overwhelm the most able person and there needs to be trustful collaboration. Cardinal Cormac chose well and always collaborated effectively with those to whom he had entrusted particular projects. A notable example of this was his request

to Lord Nolan to undertake an independent and objective study of safeguarding in the Church. The whole scandal of clergy abuse had shocked us all, priests and lay people, and it needed a legal mind to offer a forensic and practical framework for safeguarding. It was duly followed by the review of the Cumberlege Commission five years later which brought further adaptations and adjustments to procedures, setting a standard that others have sought to follow. I think it is true to say that, while Cardinal Cormac had a clear sense of his own priorities

Westminster Record | November 2017

Recalling Cardinal Cormac’s Rugby Days by Brendan Gallagher

the English College in Rome. As a stalwart of the Vatican Lions XV, however, he organised a hasty pub-crawl of the Eternal City in the hope of a miracle, i.e., an Italian bar with a radio capable of picking up the BBC Radio coverage. ‘No joy anywhere until, with the second half well under way, we finally struck lucky, ordered our drinks and started listening intently,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t good news. England had led 6-3 at half-time and the Ireland pack had been struggling since debutant James Murphy-O’Connor, “the goalkicking lock from Bective Rangers” according to the commentator, had been stretchered off at the end of the first half. No replacements in those days, remember. He had been nobbled apparently. My heart sank. England eventually won 14-3. Jim never played for Ireland again.’ Cormac represented the Vatican Lions on and off for six years and was a wellestablished member of the Portsmouth team before finally conceding, aged 28, that he could not combine ‘work’ and play. At 6ft 3in you could be mistaken for assuming that, like most of the MurphyO’Connor clan, his natural habitat was in the pack, but he always preferred ‘messing about in the backs’. ‘I liked to think of myself as a prototype Will Greenwood – smooth, languid stride, eating up the ground effortlessly, flicking out perfectly timed passes, natural try-scorer’ – he once told me deadpan. ‘What am I saying, I was absolutely nothing like Will Greenwood. I was just an honest trier ‘My rugby playing days were wonderful and I kept going for a while after I was ordained. At Portsmouth I managed a very quick beer in the clubhouse before rushing back to take Confession or a Saturday evening Mass. On more than one occasion I would have blood trickling from a cut or a graze when I was taking confession and there were some Sunday mornings when genuflecting and kneeling was a challenge.

Rugy – at least outwardly – with its cursing, searing and a scarcely concealed intent to inflict legalised GBH on your opponent, at first glance seems incompatible with men of the cloth and God. And that’s before you take into account the copious drinking, carousing and occasionally risqué songs. Yet that has always been far from the case as I was reminded recently with the death of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. For many years Murphy-O’Connor was the head of the Catholic church in England and Wales and was reportedly one of Pope Francis’ most trusted advisors but on the occasions we met and spoke – he was our local bishop long before the ‘selectors’ plucked him from relative obscurity – he much preferred to talk rugby. And he really knew his stuff, spending the best part of half an hour one day – pre 2003 World Cup – making an impassioned case for moving Martin Johnson to No. 8 where he flet the Leicester man could influence England games and inflict even more damage on the opposition. Johnson, Lawrence Dallaglio, Fran Cotton, Keith Wood and Abdelatif Benazzi were his favourite players – no shrinking violets there – along with Mike Gibson. Educated at Prior Park College, Murphy-O’Connor was from an Anglo-Irish rugby family and steeped in the game. His father George and uncle James both captained Munster, while all Cormac’s brothers and nephews were fine players. By all accounts he was a very decent willowy centre himself. One of his brothers, Jim, was capped by Ireland at No. 8 and is famously credited as the man who introduced the round the corner place kicking style, landing a monster kick from half-way against England in 1954 before departing injured in what proved to be his only Test appearance being forced to retire soon after. Cormac – he much preferred first names to any titles – couldn’t be present at Twickenham that day, as he was training to be a priest at

Cardinal Cormac is presented with a St Mary’s University rugby shirt during a celebration for his 60th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood.

‘Towards the end of one season we entered the Havant Sevens for fun, complete nohopers really. Somehow we got through the pool stages and then blow me if we didn’t win our quarter-final. Extraordinary. It was getting very tricky though in terms of Confession. The clock was ticking. Then we won the semi-final. Very awkward indeed. We lost in the final and I sprinted back to church without even collecting my runners up medal or tankard. There was a queue as long as your arm of irate parishioners waiting for Confession. ‘When I was in Rome the Lions were a pretty good side with a couple of New Zealanders and Aussies. We used to play against local sides and occasional visitors and touring sides. Italy were an emerging rugby nation then and

their national team once asked us for a full scale practice fixture ahead of one of their big FIRA games against France. We hung on rather well to restrict Italy to a 15-3 win. My only “cap”.’ Cormac never recalled being compromised or embarrassed by the clash of his faith and the sport he loved despite the rough and tumble of the game. ‘So much of rugby is underpinned by humour. I remember once having a drink with one particularly tough opponent, who took no prisoners, after a Portsmouth game and being mildly surprised to discover he as a C of E vicar. We got on famously. I love that about rugby. Friendship and fun. ‘Rugby is also the biggest pricker of egos. It keeps you grounded and humble. No matter how good and talented

you are, you are going to get hit hard and no matter how brilliant a player you may be that ridiculously shaped ball is going to occasionally make a monkey out of you. ‘I tried every sport as a young man and the only one that gave me butterflies before a match was rugby. You know that the next 80 minutes is going to hurt and you are going to get tested. That’s why there is a tremendous release when it’s over and you are inclined to share that mutual relief with your opponent over a drink.’ This is an excerpt of an article which originally appeared in The Rugby Paper on 17th September 2017. The Rugby Paper is published every Sunday. Brendan Gallagher writes for The Rugby Paper. Reprinted with kind permission of The Rugby Paper. Page 9

Westminster Record | November 2017

AYWL: Renewing Sense of Mission by Danny Curtin

I first met Cardinal Cormac through my involvement with the launch Mass for At Your Word, Lord (AYWL) at Wembley Arena in 2002. I was joining a wonderful team who had already done so much to put the Cardinal’s vision into action. It took no time at all to get on board with that vision. The Cardinal wanted a programme of renewal across the diocese that would both celebrate people’s faith and help nurture individual and parish development, flowing from gathering together around the word of God. Cardinal Cormac gave AYWL his full attention. It was his programme. He ensured it was at the heart of the diocese. He was genuine about his wish to celebrate and renew people’s faith, and to bring new energy to our parishes. That’s why it worked so well. Priests and people came on board, even those with initial misgivings, because of the Cardinal’s own commitment and vision. I have two stand-out memories of my time working with the Cardinal. The first was only a week into my role. I was in his library in Archbishop’s House and I was surrounded by 10,000 tickets for Wembley arena, covering every surface you could see. My colleague Lindsey and I had taken on the task of completing the seating plan for the thousands of people attending the launch Mass. It had endless complications and took far longer than anticipated.

Many people came through the library door that day offering support, and of course the Cardinal was one of them. It may have been the first encouraging word I heard from him, but there would be many more to come over the next three years. He had utter trust we’d do it… although he may not have realised we’d still be there at 1am, ordering pizza, stuffing envelopes to fulfil the ticket orders. The second memory was from several months later, when we were making one of our videos. Cardinal Cormac understood the importance of this way of communicating (this was before the days of smart phones and social media, when we had to produce VHS tapes and DVDs to send to every parish). His warm, fatherly manner was a natural match with the camera. I remember feeding a lapel microphone through his striking red cassock, ready for him to be filmed, thinking to myself, how is that I am here, doing this with a Cardinal of the Church? And that’s my overwhelming feeling. I was privileged. I was 23 when I produced the event at Wembley Arena, when I was surrounded by pizza and thousands of Wembley tickets in the Cardinal’s private library, and when I was directing him for the film. I was trusted with immense responsibility to play my part in putting his vision into practice.

At the launch Mass of At Your Word Lord Page 10

Cardinal Cormac understood this. He had been a chaplain to the Young Christian Workers when he was a curate in Portsmouth. Like all good YCW chaplains, he knew what it meant to walk beside young people in giving them real responsibility for their faith and for their role in the world. I experienced that trust, and accompaniment first hand. But so did all the 20,000 people meeting in faith sharing groups across the diocese. These groups were the heart of the programme, and it was our diocesan bishop, saying to the people of God in Westminster, take hold of your own faith, celebrate it, grow together and live it in the world. Those 20,000 people were Cardinal Cormac’s vision in action. What an achievement. I saw this accompaniment, too, in his work with the young adult programme for AYWL. Perhaps this was when we saw him at his most comfortable: surrounded by young people in the Cathedral, sharing his faith and hearing them share theirs. He enjoyed walking with them throughout those few years, and I am sure his journeying with them produced huge benefits. My final memory is drawn from a photograph I took of Cardinal Cormac. It was on our second AYWL trip to Lourdes, when, true to the Cardinal’s vision, the diocesan pilgrimage reflected all that AYWL was aiming to achieve. We were involved in organising the

Cardinal Cormac on the AWYL trip to Lourdes

liturgy and, of course, creating opportunities during the pilgrimage for people to share faith in small groups. It was almost like seeing the diocese in miniature. Taking a photo of him walking in the torch light procession, surrounded by people of all ages, with different needs and experiences, Cardinal Cormac was literally accompanying his people in their journey of faith. The photo says it all. It is no surprise then that this was one of the photos used when his death was announced. How happy he looked. The fruit of Cardinal Cormac’s vision is plain to see. There are still many faith sharing groups in the diocese and people have built on that experience with a renewed sense of mission and purpose in their communities. I am still stopped on the tube and asked if I am Danny (or sometimes Joe!) from AYWL. These people remember the Cardinal’s commitment to offer them renewal, and still it is bearing fruit. I will be forever grateful to him for many reasons, not least his support for me as I left the diocese. I had become President of the YCW by this stage and was moving on to help renew this organisation that the Cardinal knew well. Like AYWL,

it is based around small groups coming together to share faith and to move to action. The Cardinal personally ensured that he found funders for the renewal of the YCW. In many ways I was building on the vision that he had shared with me, and he then invested in my vision. Without him, the YCW probably wouldn’t be as strong in our country today. Thank you, Cardinal Cormac. I was privileged to see the Cardinal several times in the year before he died. Each time he made me feel special. There’s no other word for it. But he did that to everyone. On the final time I saw him, he said I must come for ‘a simple supper’ soon. Sadly he was in hospital within weeks and he never returned home. I may not have enjoyed that pasta, but I have no doubt he’s now enjoying a much more abundant feast than a simple supper. And I’m sure he’s praying that I, and all of us in the diocese he loved so much will one day join him at the feast. I hope there’s a piano nearby so we can hear him play again. Danny Curtin now works with charities and churches as a facilitator and coach. He is also CEO of Million Minutes, a Catholic charity supporting young people www.millionminutes.org. Follow us on Twitter at: twitter.com/RCWestminster

Westminster Record | November 2017

2016 Annual Report & Accounts

Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy.’ With these words, Pope Francis opened the Bull of Indiction which announced the Year of Mercy. This Extra-ordinary Jubilee Year began on 8th December, 2015, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and closed on 20th November, 2016, the Solemnity of Christ the King. Jesus radiates the truth about God whom we call our Father. He proclaims that this Father loves us and entrusts to

us as our mission: the service of his people, his creation. Our mission is to serve each person we encounter, of whatever race, religious affiliation or state of life, and to help them to live in a manner that is consonant with their innate dignity, as children of the one Father. In this task we must be aware that the well-being of every person goes beyond the individual. We exist and flourish only in relationships, despite the individualism of our culture. Enhancing and promoting good relationships among people and communities of all backgrounds, thereby building a strong society, is so much part of our mission, too. At the heart of this mission is the proclamation of Jesus as Lord, for through his presence and grace our service of others is to be effective and lifegiving. The Church, then, is the work of Christ. He is with us always in our search for the

truth, in our attempts to live by that truth and to live always joyfully in the hope that he gives us. He is present in our love and service for others, especially for those most in need, who are closest to his heart. In 2016, we fully launched Proclaim Westminster to encourage our parishes to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel to others in a truly missionary spirit. As they deepen their own faith, parishioners are inspired to reach out to their communities in service of their neighbours, especially those who suffer from any kind of physical or spiritual poverty. These acts of love and solidarity have taken on a special meaning in 2017 as we join with many others to care for those in our midst who have suffered from a succession of terrorist attacks and catastrophic tragedies here in London.

Pope Francis shows us the way: ‘At times we are called to gaze even more attentively on mercy so that we may become a more effective sign of the Father’s action in our lives.’ It is by gazing on Jesus, who radiates depth, beauty, and all that is best in the human person, that our witness can grow stronger and become more effective. This Annual Report shows us some of the particular ways in which so many in the diocese seek to respond, in faith and with generosity, to the needs they see around them. I am most grateful to them all. I extend my gratitude, too, to those who have compiled this report and the Annual Accounts.

His Eminence Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster

Diocese of Westminster in numbers

Page 11

Westminster Record | November 2017

2016 Annual Report & Accounts

Westminster Record | November 2017

2016 Annual Report & Accounts

a passion for the human person, for the well-being and dignity of every human person, that they can know and realise something of their inherent greatness.

Jesus Christ is the revelation, the showing forth, of all that is best in the human person. He is the fulfilment of who we are. He is the truth of our humanity. Page 12

Page 13

Westminster Record | November 2017

2016 Annual Report & Accounts

Westminster Record | November 2017

2016 Annual Report & Accounts

a passion for the human person, for the well-being and dignity of every human person, that they can know and realise something of their inherent greatness.

Jesus Christ is the revelation, the showing forth, of all that is best in the human person. He is the fulfilment of who we are. He is the truth of our humanity. Page 12

Page 13

Westminster Record | November 2017

2016 Annual Report & Accounts

Growing in Faith

Consolidated income and expenditure

Parish income and expenditure

Curia income and expenditure

This is an extract from the Annual Report and Accounts. For the complete document, visit www.rcdow.org.uk Page 14

Westminster Record | November 2017

Engaging in the life of the Church

Proclaim Umbrella by Deacon Adrian Cullen, Evangelisation Coordinator Umbrellas will become the thing of fashion as the weather turns rainier. It is not as if umbrellas are new, or an unfamiliar site throughout the year, but from being an occasional necessity, they become a frequent accessory. For proclaimers of the Gospel, who share the Good News throughout the year as well as at particular events or on special occasions, an umbrella is perhaps a useful image to keep in mind when undertaking the range of practical tasks that make proclaiming Jesus Christ a reality. At the heart of evangelisation, sharing the ‘Good News’, is the first proclamation, the kerygma, which Pope Francis highlights in Evangelii Gaudium, ‘Joy of the Gospel’: ‘the first proclamation must ring out over and over: ’Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.’ He also points out that as people grow in faith, there needs to be an ‘integration of every dimension of the person within a communal journey of hearing and response’. In other words, our knowing Jesus Christ affects us as a complete person, mind, body and soul; and on hearing the Good News, we are to respond through all these dimensions, and as part of that fellowship which is the Church, whether it is our family, the parish, the school or other community. Our response then, is a constant learning about the love that God has for us, and

using our whole self to love God and our neighbour ever more deeply. This integrated approach can be compared to an umbrella, a ‘Proclaim Umbrella’, which has many sides but is always one whole. To proclaim, in words and actions, may involve speaking about Jesus to an interested group one day, while the next day is spent deepening one’s own faith perhaps through a bible study group. It may be that in the morning you are helping an elderly person with their personal care; and in the evening saying night-time prayers with your children as you tuck them into bed. And on Sunday, as part of a living faith community, our parish, we come to worship God at Mass, to which we bring all those Proclaim aspects to the Father through Jesus Christ. And from the Mass, enriched by the Eucharist and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, we go out once again as missionary disciples to the world that needs to hear us proclaim the Good News. In November, when we particularly pray for those who have gone before us in life, there will be those who are bereaved waiting for someone, you and me, to reach out, to offer consolation, to share friendship, and a new hope through a renewed faith. It may be that you could set up a bereavement group in your parish. The Art of Dying Well website www.artofdyingwell.org provides a range of resources to help in reaching out to those who have been bereaved.

All these aspects of our mission make up ‘Proclaim Umbrella’: Prayer and worship, Marriage & Family Life and Community, Faith Formation & Catechesis, Caritas and Ministry, Evangelisation and Reaching Out. Each ‘side’ of the ‘Proclaim Umbrella’ has its place and supports the others, and together, filled with the Holy Spirit we can reach out to the world,whatever the weather!

World Day of the Poor Resources by CSAN Pope Francis has instituted a World Day for the Poor, to be celebrated on the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time one week before the Feast of Christ the King. This year the Day falls on 19th November 2017. In his message for this first World Day for the Poor Pope Francis asks all of us to unite in love, in acts of service to one another and in genuine encounter. Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN) has prepared resources to assist parishes in celebrating the World Day for the Poor within the Sunday Liturgy and to encourage an encounter with people living in poverty. These resources are now available on the website www.csan.org.uk See page 19 for an abridged version of Pope Francis’ message.

Gail Williams, Caritas St Joseph's Centre Manager was in Rome recently for a conference exploring ways of helping people with intellecutal disabilities engage fully in the life of the Church. The event, entitled 'Catechesis and Persons with Disabilities: A Necessary Engagement in the Daily Pastoral Life of the Church', focused on the spiritual and religious needs of people with disabilities. Over the course of the threeday gathering 450 experts from around the world shared their insights.

Mgr Geno Sylva from the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization told Vatican Radio: ‘this international conference is the fruit that was sown during the Jubilee (of Mercy) with all the other discussions that took place afterwards. The aim and the goal is for us as a Church and for this Pontifical Council to really learn what are the best practices that are already taking place throughout the world in catechizing people with special needs.’

The annual Two Cathedrals Blessed Sacrament Procession, led by Bishop Paul Mason, took place on 30th September. Beginning in St George’s Cathedral, it made its way across the Thames to Westminster Cathedral.

Page 15

Westminster Record | November 2017

Inside the hospice: St Joseph’s, Heaven ... and Purgatory by Fr Peter Michael Scott

Bishop tells Church in South Sudan they ‘are not forgotten’ Bishop William Kenney, Auxiliary Bishop in Birmingham, has called on all Catholics to pray for their brothers and sisters in the South Sudan as they undergo the trauma of war and famine. During a visit organised by CAFOD, Bishop Kenney said that it was, ‘not easy to be a Catholic here. I have told the Bishops of South Sudan and the people that they are not forgotten by the people of England and Wales and we will pray for them as they are praying for us.’ He went on to detail the particular sufferings

Page 16

of the people. ‘Our sisters and brothers in South Sudan have been traumatised by war - that implies killings, destruction of crops and property and rape.’ He also praised the work of CAFOD throughout the region, and said that, despite their own struggles, the South Sudanese Church is looking beyond itself. ‘CAFOD is doing all it can in these areas. The Catholic population here also helps the Church at large. On World Mission Sunday, a collection was taken here in South Sudan for the missionary work of the Church in the whole world.’ South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on 9th July 2011, ending Africa's longest-running civil war. However, gaining independence did not end conflict as the 2013-2015 civil war went on to displace 2.2 million people. It is still the newest country in the world and is Africa's first new country since Eritrea split from Ethiopia in 1993.

I admire the honesty of the saints: ‘I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, He can work through anyone,’ as written by St Francis of Assisi. Or: ‘sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine,’ as advised by St Thomas Aquinas. I am also grateful for their encouragement: ‘Don’t drag yourself any longer to his feet. Follow that first impulse that draws you into his arms. That is where your place is.’ (St Therese of Lisueux) No saint is the same, and as St Augustine stated ‘there is no Saint without a past, no sinner without a future’. Saints are as different as chalk and cheese and I am certain we can all find one who is a tiny bit like ourselves. Heaven and the hospice share one major attribute in common: they are both made up of ‘look alikes’ of you and me. When a patient arrives in the hospice, they quickly find among the staff or volunteers a friend, someone who shares their interests, humour, background or age. I do not think they expect this, but it nearly always happens. Heaven is, I am sure, the same: amongst the saints there will be one or two with the same humour, background and age as us. If we have not discovered them yet, then it is important that, while we have the time, we find them and pray to them. Letting go of living, to enter into eternity can be a difficult step. Many patients speak about how they will miss family and friends. I always say that when they came into the hospice they did not expect to make new acquaintances, and they do, and that heaven, in the company of the saints will be the same. However, just remember, we might have to spend a little bit of time in purgatory, but as one Westminster auxiliary bishop (now at peace) described: it is like being asked to help at a Mother Teresa refuge where we are the destitute but with food

and shelter and where we get ready to face God’s love and in doing so, own up to our own faults. As St Augustine states ‘there is no saint without a past’. Take heart, like heaven and like a hospice, purgatory is a community of souls, made up of friends like you and me. Please pray for the patients, staff and volunteers of St Joseph’s Hospice.

Living Wage Week In 2016 the diocese became a living wage employer. The living wage is an initiative that calculates how much people need to earn to live, and works with organisations to help them pay their employees a fair wage. Dignity of work is one of the fundamentals of Catholic Social Teaching, and is a principle that underpins the work of the Living Wage Foundation. Although not a catholic organisation the society it works towards as one where the dignity of work is respected and everyone is recognised as having something to contribute. This year’s Living Wage Week is from 6th-11th November. Across our website and social media all week we will be talking more about the importance of paying the living wage.

THEY’VE BEEN HERE FOR US

Please support the annual parish collection, or make your gift directly to the Diocese of Westminster.

Vaughan House, 46 Francis Street, London SW1P 1QN Registered Charity No. 233699

You can make a donation online at www.rcdow.org.uk/donations

Westminster Record | November 2017

Called at seven, ordained at fifty It is a busy time in the Vocations world, as with some of our seminarians we go out to parishes and schools to see what we can do to help men discern the Lord’s call to priesthood. These events are usually focused on the seminarians giving their testimony of why they think God is calling them to the priesthood. Many years ago Pope Paul VI told us that people tend not to listen to teachers but will be excited by someone who witnesses to their faith. Our younger seminarians do that, but sometimes the testimony of an older priest can also ring bells. Recently, Fr Tim Dean celebrated his silver jubilee as a priest. He preached a wonderful homily, which we share here. When I spoke to him, he told me: ‘I do believe that the reality of vocation needs to be promoted to the young and not so young equally. My other point is that, in the case of slowcoaches like me and the less-than-generous of heart, the Holy Spirit is amazingly patient.’ ‘You did not choose me, no, I chose you’ is at the very heart of the whole business! Ad multos annos Fr Tim! Canon Stuart Wilson The only people who know what a vocation to the priesthood is are people who have received one. It is a calling from God. Any one of the many priests at this Mass today could tell a version of the same story in their lives. For years, maybe their whole lives, they have been men of faith, unswayed by doubt or uncertainty regarding the truth and uniqueness of the Gospel, their acceptance of the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the centrality of the Church to the entire history of the human race – men who became aware, at some point in their lives, that they were destined to become Catholic priests. Even though in many cases, they may not have been at all sure how this was to be accomplished. I knew I would be a priest at the age of seven. I grew up with good Catholic teachers in Exeter where our very kind French-Canadian sisters imparted the faith to any small child who was paying attention. And I do remember paying attention. Particularly to Sr Sebastian and Sr Jeanne, God rest their souls. No subject was of greater interest to me than the life, death, resurrection and triumph of Jesus Christ. Clearly nothing, nothing at all in human affairs, could possibly be more important than the redemption of the world, which Jesus by his life and love for humanity, had accomplished. So in this, I was very, very blessed. Many kids just wanted these lessons to end so they could get on with making raffia tablemats or playing rounders.

Unfortunately, the priesthood became such a fixture in the back of my mind, so early, that I proceeded to put the whole matter to one side and lived all my later school years as if nothing had happened. But something had happened. I knew I was a marked man, with a destiny I could not shirk. Although shirk it I did, as you are about to discover. When the school years ended I presented myself to the Bishop of Plymouth, who sent me to Oscott College the seminary of Birmingham diocese. It was to be a six-year course and I lasted for two. My formators, as they are nowadays called, then advised me to step away from life in the seminary but maybe return when I was noticeably better prepared for the life to which it was leading. Back home in Devon (it was the week that President Kennedy was shot and died in Dallas) my father said: ‘Well, you’d better get a job then’ and put me on a train to London as countless parents have done before and since. I drifted into the advertising business and found that I enjoyed writing fairly inconsequential words, and getting paid for it: anything from the odd jingle (some of them very odd indeed) to travel brochures and commercials for soap powder. They were the years, long gone now, when Daz, Persil and other cleansing agents fought it out for supremacy on national television. Something you never see today.

As regards the priesthood, I had set it to one side, but with every vague intention of returning to the matter some time in the future. Looking back, the folly of my attitude is breath-taking. But only for me, because only I remember the details, thank God! As I turned 30, the opportunity came up to take a job in Hong Kong, so off I went, intending to stay in the Far East for a couple of years before returning to England, to look again at the priesthood. The arrogance of it! In truth, I was not giving the matter much thought and I stayed in scintillating Hong Kong for the next twelve years. Eventually, this epic complacency came to an end and back in England I was encouraged by Fr Michael Hollings to look again at the priesthood: ‘Why not?’ he said. I was accepted by Cardinal Hume and allowed to pick up my studies for the priesthood in Rome. By 1988, just past my midforties, I was enrolled in the Beda College, renowned over many generations for accepting and training late vocations. (I prefer the Italian phrase for this, which I believe is vocationi maturi). I was ordained in 1992 for the Diocese of Westminster, to this day, a matter of the greatest joy and thanksgiving and, to be honest, a recollected sigh of relief. You cannot duck a vocation. Well, you can, but you really shouldn’t. Because only you know that this calling from God exists. And you know in the depths of your being that it is Follow us on Twitter at: twitter.com/RCWestminster

the will of God. And a committed Christian cannot refuse to do the will of God. To do so is a denial of everything we believe. It is a disinclination to return our capacity to love for love divine. Every day we pray in the Our Father ‘thy will be done’. And we must mean that and express its meaning in all our decisions and ways of living. My experience shows that the Holy Spirit will find ways to coax the wanderer back to his true path and does so with extraordinary tenderness and delicacy. Even if the candidate is hardly the sort of person that most people would consider even appropriate, a backslider like me or even a peculiar vagabond, may in fact be God’s choice. And secretly, he makes it known to them. When people hear that I was ordained at 50, they have often said to me: ‘It’s so good that you came to the priesthood later, with plenty of life experience, you bring that knowledge to your dealings with people in the parish!’ Well alright, that may be true, but only up to a point. Looking back, I have the greatest regard nowadays for those men who enter the seminary when they are really quite young and embrace the life in prospect with generosity and singleminded commitment. Often there is very little or no encouragement from their friends and family, yet they have set out on a course that God has prepared for them with absolute trust. We need such young people to train for the priesthood.

The Church always needs candidates for the priesthood both young and not-so-young. There must be men all over the world, all over this country, who are hearing the call in the depths of their being, but have yet to understand or translate their vocation into action. We don’t know who they are but God has chosen them from all eternity and he expects us to pray for them. Our society today seems to be in a state of confusion, like sheep without a shepherd. So our need for the Lord Jesus Christ, Our Holy Redeemer has never been greater. I give thanks today for the graces I have received, particularly those I never realized I needed. I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for calling me forward, forgiving my sins and giving me some work to do in his vineyard for the past 25 years. I give thanks to the Holy Spirit for enabling me to respond, eventually, to the word he spoke to me when I was seven. And I give thanks to our Father in heaven for the faith he instilled in me from my earliest days. Because faith, like a vocation, is a gift of God. Although those in receipt of such a gift have done nothing to deserve it, God is intensely interested to see what it is we are going to do with it. Homily given by Fr Tim Dean on the occasion of his Silver Jubilee

Page 17

Westminster Record | November 2017

Pope Francis’s Message for World Day of the Poor We may think of the poor simply as the beneficiaries of our occasional volunteer work, or of impromptu acts of generosity that appease our conscience. However good and useful such acts may be, they ought to lead to a true encounter with the poor and a sharing that becomes a way of life. This way of life gives rise to joy and peace of soul, because we touch with our own hands the flesh of Christ. If we truly wish to encounter Christ, we have to touch his body in the suffering bodies of the poor, as a response to the sacramental communion bestowed in the Eucharist. The Body of Christ, broken in the sacred liturgy, can be seen, through charity and sharing, in the faces and persons of the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters. We are called, then, to draw near to the poor, to encounter them, to meet their gaze, to embrace them and to let them feel the warmth of love that breaks through their solitude. Their outstretched hand is also an invitation to step out of our certainties and comforts, and to acknowledge the value of poverty in itself. Let us never forget that, for Christ’s disciples, poverty is above all a call to follow Jesus in his own poverty. It means walking behind him and beside him, a journey that leads to the beatitude of the Kingdom of heaven (cf. Mt 5:3; Lk 6:20). Poverty means having a humble heart that accepts our creaturely limitations and sinfulness and thus enables us to overcome the temptation to feel omnipotent and immortal. Poverty is an interior attitude that avoids looking upon money, career and luxury as our goal in life and the condition for our happiness. Poverty instead creates the conditions for freely shouldering our personal and social responsibilities, despite our limitations, with trust in God’s closeness and the support of his grace. Poverty, understood in this way, is the yardstick that allows us to judge how best to use material goods and to build relationships that are neither selfish nor possessive. Let us take as our example St Francis and his witness of

authentic poverty. Precisely because he kept his gaze fixed on Christ, Francis was able to see and serve him in the poor. If we want to help change history and promote real development, we need to hear the cry of the poor and commit ourselves to ending their marginalization. We know how hard it is for our contemporary world to see poverty clearly for what it is. Yet in myriad ways poverty challenges us daily, in faces marked by suffering, marginalization, oppression, violence, torture and imprisonment, war, deprivation of freedom and dignity, ignorance and illiteracy, medical emergencies and shortage of work, trafficking and slavery, exile, extreme poverty and forced migration. Poverty has the face of women, men and children exploited by base interests, crushed by the machinations of power and money. What a bitter and endless list we would have to compile were we to add the poverty born of social injustice, moral degeneration, the greed of a chosen few, and generalized indifference! Tragically, in our own time, even as ostentatious wealth accumulates in the hands of the privileged few, often in connection with illegal activities and the appalling exploitation of human dignity, there is a scandalous growth of poverty in broad sectors of society throughout our world. Faced with this scenario, we cannot remain passive, much less resigned. There is a poverty that stifles the spirit of initiative of so many young people by keeping them from finding work. There is a poverty that dulls the sense of personal responsibility and leaves others to do the work while we go looking for favours. There is a poverty that poisons the wells of participation and allows little room for professionalism. To all these forms of poverty we must respond with a new vision of life and society. Blessed are the open hands that embrace the poor and help them: they are hands that bring hope. Blessed are the hands that reach beyond every barrier of culture, religion and nationality, and pour the balm of

consolation over the wounds of humanity. Blessed are the open hands that ask nothing in exchange: they are hands that call down God’s blessing upon their brothers and sisters. At the heart of all the many concrete initiatives carried out on this day should always be prayer. Let us not forget that the Our Father is the prayer of the poor. Our asking for bread expresses our entrustment to God for our basic needs in life. Everything that Jesus taught us in this prayer expresses and brings together the cry of all who suffer from life’s uncertainties and the lack of what they need. The Our Father is a prayer said in the plural: the bread for which we ask is ‘ours’, and that entails sharing, participation and joint responsibility. In this prayer, all of us recognize our need to overcome every form of selfishness, in order to enter into the joy of mutual acceptance. This new World Day, therefore, should become a powerful appeal to our consciences as believers,

allowing us to grow in the conviction that sharing with the poor enables us to understand the deepest truth of the Gospel. The poor are not a problem: they are a resource from which to draw as we strive to accept and practise in our lives the essence of the Gospel. This is an abridged version of the Pope’s message. The first World Day for the Poor is celebrated on 19th November.

Whenever we set out to love as Jesus loved, we have to take the Lord as our example; especially when it comes to loving the poor. The Son of God’s way of loving is wellknown. It stands on two pillars: God loved us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:10.19), and he loved us by giving completely of himself, even to laying down his life (cf. 1 Jn 3:16). Such love cannot go unanswered. Even though offered unconditionally, asking nothing in return, it so sets hearts on fire that all who experience it are led to love back, despite their limitations and sins. Yet this can only happen if we welcome God’s grace, his merciful charity, as fully as possible into our hearts, so that our will and even our emotions are drawn to love both God and neighbour. The earliest community realized that being a disciple of Jesus meant demonstrating fraternity and solidarity, in obedience to the Master’s proclamation that the poor are blessed and heirs to the Kingdom of heaven (cf. Mt 5:3). The evangelist Luke, who more than any other speaks of mercy, does not exaggerate when he describes the practice of sharing in the early community. His words are addressed to believers in every generation, and thus also to us, in order to sustain our own witness and to encourage our care for those most in need. The same message is conveyed with similar conviction by the Apostle James: ‘Listen, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonoured the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you, and drag you into court? ... What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled”, without giving them the things needed for the body; what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has not works, is dead’ (2:5-6.14-17).

Page 19

Westminster Record | November 2017

Director’s Spotlight

Phil Ross, Youth Ministry Director It’s been a busy period for the youth service as it often is around time of year. We help with school induction days, parishes fire up their youth groups for the new academic year and SPEC welcome their new cohort of Volunteer Missionaries. There is lots of movement and energy and there are never enough hours in the day! In early October Cardinal Vincent opened the brand new residential complex at SPEC and it was wonderful to welcome lots of friends to the event from far and wide. Fr Vladimir Felzmann, the founder of SPEC from back in the day, along with his leader from that time Sandra Satchel joined us for the evening and that made it very special. We were also blessed that three ladies from The Grail Community also were in

Chaplain’s Corner

Events are starting to pick up in the youth service as another academic year unfolds. Schools often take the opportunity to send groups to SPEC, our retreat centre, to start off the year in a good frame of mind, placing what our young people do in terms of their studies in the context of their relationship with Christ and his love for them. When we understand that we Page 20

attendance; remembering that Waxwell House was their home for over 60 years. Lots of local residents and several priests of the diocese also came along and everyone had a lovely time. As I look forward to retirement in a couple of months it’s quite sad that I’m ticking off lots of ‘last ones’ just now. I attended the Volunteer Fair at Newman House in October to start the recruitment drive for new SPEC Volunteer Missionaries for the academic year commencing September 2018. It’s the last time I’ll be leading that work and I’ll miss my time with Sr Carolyn and Fr Stephen Wang. Of course I’m also helping this year’s Volunteer Missionaries settle into their new surroundings at SPEC at the moment and I guess it’s the last time I’ll do that too; it’s terrific to see the new group gradually becoming an amazing retreat team. This month we have our next Summit evening for the teenagers of the diocese and yes, it’ll be my last one, quickly followed by the Youth Mass in December (everyone welcome) and, guess what, it’ll be my last one! In many ways it’s a really sad time, but then I go back to college in February to start my next adventure so I have something exciting to look forward to.

The SPEC retreat centre was official opened with a Mass by Cardinal Vincent, on 3rd September. Although the centre has already hosted some residential retreat groups, the official opening was a chance to invite people in and show them the culmination of months of work and years of planning. This centre will allow Confirmation groups and youth groups from the diocese and beyond to come to Pinner and have a fully immersive retreat. The site itself, formerly the Grail, served as the headquarters of the Grail Society, a Christian group of single Roman Catholic lay women, from 1947 to 2011, at

find the meaning of our lives in Jesus, we can discover more and more what he is calling us to do in our individual lives. A further opportunity to discover what that call might look like was our ECHO retreat for young adults, working in partnership with our friends from Dumb Ox Ministries in the United States. Using Pope St John Paul II’s theology of the body as a basis, young adults from across the diocese and beyond were able to explore how the events and circumstances of their lives could be understood through the lens of one’s relationship with Christ. It was an enriching and moving weekend of prayer, reflection and fun! A large part of the work of Westminster Youth Ministry is supporting youth provision and parishes, working with youth

workers and young people to help our young people take on their full and proper place in the life of their parish communities. An opportunity to celebrate that work is the annual diocesan youth Mass, to be held this year on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 8th December, at 7pm at St Aloysius Church, Somers Town, near Euston station. We hope that parishes will send at least some representatives of the young people of their parishes to join us for this celebration, where we’ll also be able to see the fruit of the work of our music ministry scholars, who have been learning how they can contribute to the liturgical and music life of their parishes under the guidance of Edwin Fawcett. All are welcome!

which point the society moved to Winchester. Some sister who had lived there made the journey from their new convent to be part of the ceremony. Also at the Mass was many priests who have been involved with the development of SPEC and the Youth Service as a whole, and the Mayor of Harrow, Cllr Margaret Davine. After Mass the Cardinal bless the site.

Westminster Record | November 2017

Catholic Woman of the Year recognition for Sr Mary Kennefick by Fr Stephen Wang

unconnected with the Church We are absolutely delighted through her informal that our colleague Sr Mary networking, and tirelessly Kenefick, who has lived and supporting Catholic students worked in our diocese for so many years, has been chosen as and their committees so that they can be a confident and one of the four recipients of loving presence among their Catholic Woman of the Year peers. She loves young people; 2017 award. Sr Mary is an she loves the Church; and gives outstanding and utterly dedicated religious sister in the her all to help them to know Christ and to grow in friendship congregation of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God. with each other. Parish Sister at St Patrick’s, Over her many years of a been has she life Soho Square, with special religious responsibility for the poor, the teacher, a headmistress, a sick and the housebound: She is governor at various schools, a part of the parish team at St chaplain at Heathrow Airport, Patrick’s, working closely with a chaplain to the British Army Fr Alexander Sherbrooke. She in Germany, an Olympic visits the poor, the sick and the Games volunteer, a valued elderly, bringing them Holy spiritual director, and much Communion and spiritual else besides. Her present ministries support. She has a heart for the poor, and a very practical love involve three main areas, and that manifests itself in the time these encapsulate some of the and dedication she gives to this pastoral concerns that have ministry. She walks in the motivated her throughout her footsteps of the Foundress of life. She is presently: Catholic University Chaplain her Congregation, who walked the same streets, and died in a at Brunel University and UCL: now-demolished house in Soho She has pastoral care for the Square. students and staff at these two Promoter of the Cause for universities. She brings warmth, Beatification of Venerable joy, professionalism and a deep Magdalen Taylor (Foundress of faith to her relationships, the Poor Servants of the Mother reaching out to those

of God), and Editor of Pray and Promote, the journal that promotes her cause: Sr Mary has a passion for the cause of Mother Magdalen, who is one of the very few English religious foundresses (an Anglican convert in the nineteenth century who gave her life to the poor of central London and set up a congregation for this purpose, an English Mother Teresa before her time). Sr Mary sees Mother Magdalen as a prophetic witness to Christ’s love for the poor and to the Church’s preferential option for the poor. She sees her as one of

the great English saints (when we have so few since the Reformation) who should be celebrated and better known. She believes that Mother Magdalen’s beatification could be a great source of renewal for the Church in this country. Sr Mary has done as much as anyone to advance her cause, and to bring her to the stage of her heroic virtue being recognized recently. There is much more that I could write about Sr Mary as a friend, a colleague, an example of faithful religious life. But these three areas of ministry

hold the key: a love for young people, a love for the poor, a love for religious life and for the holiness that her Foundress embodies. We are so pleased to see Sr Mary as one of our Catholic Women of the Year. I know it is a wonderful boost for her, but much more than that I think it is a great celebration of the things that she loves and that she stands for. It helps us in the diocese, and the Church in this country, to celebrate the young, the poor, the importance of religious life, and the example of our saints.

which proved to be an amazing experience. Shortly after starting this ministry the first air crash happened at Heathrow one lunch time. I was called upon with two other colleagues to be at the scene to comfort passengers disembarking from this trauma. On moving location to be nearer Newman House University Chaplaincy on Gower Street, I moved from Heathrow Airport Chaplaincy and took up the role of parttime Parish Sister at St Patrick’s Church, Soho Square. Nothing could be closer to my heart now, than ministering to the elderly and housebound in the parish where Venerable Mother Magdalen Taylor founded our congregation, in 1872, among the poor people of Dickensian

times, and where she died in what is now the headquarters of 21st Century Fox, 31-32 Soho Square. I am Editor of a magazine called Pray and Promote. Its aim is to promulgate devotion to Venerable Mother Magdalen Taylor and pray for her beatification and eventually that she be counted among the Saints, hopefully the Saint of Soho. I am extremely grateful for the support I have received over the years from a whole variety of people: from my religious congregation and from a whole host of friends now worldwide. Finally, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Fr Stephen Wang, Senior University Chaplain for Westminster, for nominating me for this award.

A Life of dedicated service by Sr Mary Kennefick SMG

I joined the international congregation of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God in 1960 and clearly remember the beginning and ending of the Second Vatican Council. I ministered in the field of primary education for over 30 years in a variety of Catholic schools and cultures including

a short time in a hospital school for severely disabled children in Formby. Throughout those years I contributed to other organisations outside of school life like being a Guide Guider to the Banstead Catholic Guide Company, prison visiting in Brixton, accompanying children on school activity trips to the Lake District and in Wales. On leaving the education scene, I accepted a role as chaplain to the British Forces in Germany and was based at Gütersloh Garrison. My main tasks were catechesis in the schools, sacramental preparation, and hospital and family visiting and generally supporting a whole variety of people and situations far from home.

On returning to the UK in 2005, I studied for an MA in pastoral theology at St Mary’s University, Twickenham and, on successfully completing this course, I took up an appointment with the Diocese of Westminster as Chaplain to University College London and London Metropolitan University. Seven years down the line Catholic students from Brunel University asked to have a chaplain appointed to them. I was invited to change my role from London Metropolitan to Brunel University and I still minister in these two Universities, UCL and Brunel. Another entrepreneurial adventure of mine on returning to the UK was offering to join the Heathrow Airport Chaplaincy team under the leadership of Fr Paschal Ryan,

Page 21

Westminster Record | November 2017

Saint of the Month: St Andrew

Andrew was one of the 12 Apostles and the brother of Simon Peter. He was born in Bethsaida, Galilee between AD 5 and AD 10, working as a fisherman. In Greek Orthodox tradition he is known as ‘Prōtoklētos’, ‘the first-called’, a title well suited to him as he was the first disciple of Jesus. His journey to discipleship began long before he met Jesus when John the Baptist baptised him.

By profession he and his family were fishermen, and what a transformation it was when he chose to leave his work and family behind to follow Christ and become a ‘fisher of men’. He was the disciple who brought the boy with the loaves and fishes to Jesus at the miracle of feeding the five thousand occurred. After the Resurrection, St Andrew is said to have travelled to Asia Minor and the Black Sea. In the city of Sinope, Turkey he is believed to have suffered great hardships and the house he was in was nearly burnt down. He returned twice more to Asia Minor and Greece, and travelled to Hungary, Russia and to the banks of the Oder in Poland. In Patras, Greece he was given the choice of being offered as a sacrifice to the gods or being crucified. He chose the latter and, by his own request, the cross on which he was crucified was diagonal because he did not feel worthy of dying on the same shape of cross as

Mgr Thomas Kenneth Augustine Paschal Hoey Ob OSB RIP Born in Leeds on 22 December 1915, Mgr Hoey died on the morning of 26 September 2017 while sitting peacefully in his chair at St Peter’s Residence, Vauxhall. Perhaps no one was more surprised than Augustine Hoey himself that, at the age of 78, he was ordained as a Catholic priest at Westminster Cathedral by Cardinal Basil Hume OSB. He had already led a rich and full life of ministry as an Anglican priest and a member of the Community of the Resurrection. In April 1994, Fr Augustine was received into the Catholic Church by Cardinal Hume. Ordained to the diaconate, he then proceeded to ordination as a Catholic priest in February 1995, and celebrated his first Mass at Cockfosters parish. In 1998 Fr Augustine went to live in Cathedral Clergy House and served as a Cathedral chaplain while maintaining a monastic rhythm of prayer. Yet in this long life of contemplation there was also an anxiety to be on the move. In 2001 when he felt his presence might become burdensome at the Cathedral he Page 22

asked Cardinal Cormac for permission to move to the residence run by the Little Sisters of the Poor in Vauxhall, recognising that he needed to be cared for. His deep desire to return to live at Walsingham, first visited in 1937, was fulfilled in 2014. On 12 December 2015 Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, with Fr Augustine concelebrating, at Walsingham to mark Fr Augustine’s 100th birthday. The Cardinal told him of his appointment by Pope Francis as a Chaplain to his Holiness with the title Monsignor. As his need for care increased he returned to St Peter’s Residence and the Little Sisters. When ordained as an Anglican priest, Fr Augustine made a promise to Our Lady that he would mention her in every homily he would preach. Mary, through the Rosary and visits to her shrine at Walsingham and elsewhere, became very much part of Mgr Augustine’s life of prayer and discipleship. May he rest in peace.

Jesus. He was crucified on 30 November 60AD, the day we annually celebrate as his feast day. He hung three days on the cross, fixed not by nails but by rope round his hands and feet. Even in his last agony, he continued to preach. There are many legends explaining St Andrew’s connection to Scotland. A prominent one originates with a Greek monk known as St Rule or St Regulus who was ordered in a vision to take a few relics of Andrew to the end of the earth for safekeeping. He set off on a sea journey and eventually came ashore on the coast of Fife at a settlement which is now the modern town of St Andrews. In 832 AD Andrew is said to have appeared in a vision to a Pictish king the night before a battle against the Northumbrians in what is now the village of Athelstaneford in East Lothian. On the day of the battle a saltire appeared in the sky above the battlefield and the Picts were victorious. The saltire was subsequently adopted as the national emblem and flag of the Scots. Andrew was first recognised as an official patron saint of Scotland in 1320 at the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath, an appeal to the Pope by Scottish noblemen asserting Scotland’s independence from England. The presence of relics of St Andrew made the town of St Andrews a popular medieval pilgrimage site up until the 16th century, when the relics were destroyed in the Reformation. In 1870, the Archbishop of Amalfi, Italy gifted a piece of the saint's shoulder blade to St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh where it has been stored ever since. This month of November, let’s ask for to St Andrew’s intercession to help us increase our faith whatever our circumstance.

Fr Norman Porter Brown RIP Norman Porter Brown was born on 27th January 1930. He became a Catholic in 1956. Although he lost his sight in the 60s, this did not dim his commitment to the priesthood. Fr Norman was ordained in Westminster Cathedral on 8th June 1963 by Bishop Craven. His first appointment was as a member of the teaching staff at St Edmund’s, from 1963 to 1966. In 1966 he was appointed a member of the College of Chaplains at the Cathedral, where he remained until 2001 when he retired from active ministry. Fr Norman made good use of technology to assist his ministry. The prayers and the readings of Masses were recorded by others onto cassettes for his Sony Walkman and played back using an earpiece as he celebrated Mass, flawlessly, unknown to those who were unaware of his blindness. When he retired from active ministry at the Cathedral Fr Norman went to live at St Peter’s Residence, Vauxhall. He died peacefully on 13th October, aged 87 years having lived as a priest for 54 years. Although he was known as ‘the blind priest at the Cathedral’, for many, Fr Norman is better remembered for his compassion, kindness and tolerance. May he rest in peace.

In Memoriam: November 1

Fr Horace Tennant (2000)

Mgr Canon George Tomlinson (1985) Fr Terence Brady (1989)

Fr Eric Chadwick (1993)

Fr Peter Geraerts (1980)

Cardinal John Heenan (1975) Canon Charles Carr (1985) Fr Raymond Geraerts (1995)

Fr Jeremiah Ryan (2001)

Fr George Barringer (1978) Fr James Ethrington (1981)

Fr John Spencer (1980)

Fr Gerald Freely (2013)

Fr Peter Johnson (2000)

Fr Maurice Ryan (1983) Canon Louis Marteau (2002)

Fr Ian Dommerson (1996)

Fr Samuel Steer (1996)

Fr Christopher Fullerton (1980)

Canon Edmund Hadfield (1982)

Fr Joseph Doyle (1978) Canon Joseph Geraerts (1979) Fr John Galvin (2010)

26 27 29

Fr John Formby (2015) Fr William Wood (1986) Fr Anthony John Cooke (2007) Fr Joseph Scally (1995) Fr Peter O’Reilly (2005) Fr Christopher Hamilton-Gray (2012) Fr Brain Nash (2014) Canon Arthur Welland (1978)

Fr John Bruce Elliott RIP

John Elliott was born on 16th June 1945 and baptised in infancy as an Anglican at Bath Abbey. In November 1981, John was received into the Catholic Church. His sense of vocation developed, as did his involvement with the life of his local parish in Bayswater. John was ordained by Fr Sean O’Toole RIP Cardinal Hume at St Mary of the Angels, Bayswater on 23rd Born on 15th December 1962 in July 1988. He was appointed London, he was ordained to the Assistant Priest at North priesthood by Cardinal Hume Harrow where he remained on 5th September 1998. Fr Sean until 1990 before becoming stepped back from the exercise Assistant Priest at Bayswater, of priestly ministry some years until 1994 when he was ago. He bravely endured failing appointed Parish Priest at health and continued to be Shepperton. In 1997 he went to supported by family and Perivale as Parish Priest until friends. He died peacefully on taking sabbatical leave at the 1st October. beginning of 2006. Early in May he rest in peace. 2007 Fr John began his Follow us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/diocese.westminster

ministry as Parish Priest at Radlett and Shenley where he remained until 2011. In 2012 Fr John was appointed Parish Priest at Millwall where he remained until failing health caused early retirement in April. In retirement, he kept contact with many friends and parishioners, sending them his weekly written meditations by email. Fr John died after a few days in hospital in Bristol on 30 September aged 72, having served as a priest for 29 years. A man of intelligence, culture and commitment to the faith he discovered as an adult and generously shared until his death, he will be fondly remembered and sorely missed by all who knew him. May he rest in peace. Follow us on Twitter at: twitter.com/RCWestminster

REGULAR EVENTS

Liturgical Calendar - November

Westminster Record | November 2017

If you have an event, please email: communications@rcdow.org.uk

Prayer Groups SUNDAYS

Taizé at St James, Piccadilly W1J 9LL every third Sunday 5pm. Call 020 7503 5128 for details. Tyburn Benedictines Monastic afternoon Every first Sunday 2-5pm Martyrs’ Crypt, Tyburn Convent, 8 Hyde Park Place W2 2LJ. Westminster Cathedral Young Adults meet socially after the 7pm Mass on Sundays and then at the nearby Windsor Castle pub. For further details please contact: westminsteryoungadults@gmail.com

MONDAYS

Mothers’ Prayers at St Dominic’s Priory, Haverstock Hill NW5 4LB Mondays 2.30-3.30pm in the Lourdes Chapel. All are welcome.

TUESDAYS

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament Tuesdays 6-9pm concluding with Benediction at Newman House, 111 Gower Street WC1E 6AR. Details 020 7387 6370.

Prayers for London at the Shrine of Our Lady of Willesden Tuesdays 7.30pm. Organised by the Guild of Our Lady of Willesden, Nicoll Road NW10 9AX. Our Lady of Walsingham Prayer Group First Tuesday of the month 2.30pm to 4.15pm in the Chapel of St George and the English Martyrs in Westminster Cathedral. Details: antonia@walsingham.org.uk

Vocations Prayer Group Second Tuesday of the month 8pm at 47C Gaisford Street NW5 2EB. Taizé at St James’, Spanish Place, W1U 3UY every first Tuesday of the month at 7pm. Email: penny28hb@aol.com or just come along.

WEDNESDAYS

Wednesdays on the Wall (WOTW) Every first Wednesday of the month. 6pm at All Hallows on the Wall, 83 London Wall EC2M 5ND. A short service of prayer and reflection at 6pm, coffee at 6.45pm followed by discussion. Corpus Christi Contemplative Prayer Group for Young Adults Wednesdays from 7pm at Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane WC2E 7NB. For further details please contact corpuschristipg@yahoogroups. co.uk.

Our Lady, Untier of Knots, Prayer Group of Intercession meets every third Wednesday at St Anselm & St

Cecilia, Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Parish Mass at 6pm followed by Prayer Group until 8.45pm. Rosary, Adoration, Silent prayer and Divine Mercy Chaplet. Email: Antonia antonia4161@gmail.com.

THURSDAYS JCFL

Jesus Christ the Fullness of Life (JCFL) provides a space for Christians of different traditions to join together in prayer and friendship. For further details please visit www.jcfl.org.uk.

NFG Prayer Group meet weekly at 8pm for praise and worship followed by a social. Monthly a DVD is watched followed by a time of sharing. Held in St Mark’s Room, Christ the King Church N14 4HE. Contact Fr Christophe: christophe.brunet@chemin-neuf.org. Soul Food A Catholic charismatic prayer group for young adults meets Thursdays 7-9pm at St Charles Borromeo, Ogle Street W1W 6HS. Details at www.soulfoodgroup.org.

St John Paul II Prayer Group Every second Thursday of the month 7-8pm, Mass, Adoration and Prayer at Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane WC2E 7NB.

FRIDAYS

Divine Mercy Prayers and Mass Every first Friday 2.30-4.30pm at Our Lady, Mother of the Church, 2 Windsor Road W5 5PD.

Westminster Cathedral Charismatic Prayer Group meet every Friday 7.30pm Prayer, Praise and Teaching. First Friday is a healing Mass. For details, please call 020 8748 2632.

1 Wed 2 Thu

+ ALL SAINTS THE COMMEMORATION OF ALL THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED (ALL SOULS’ DAY)

3 Fri

Feria or St Winifride, Virgin or St Martin de Porres, Religious; Friday Abstinence St Charles Borromeo, Bishop + 31st SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Feria, Thirty-First Week of Year 1 Feria or St Willibrord, Bishop Feria + THE DEDICATION OF THE LATERAN BASILICA St Leo the Great; Friday abstinence St Martin of Tours, Bishop + 32nd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Feria, Thirty-Second Week of Year 1 Feria Feria or St Albert the Great, Bishop & Doctor St Edmund of Abingdon, Bishop Feria or St Hilda, Abbess or St Hugh of Lincoln, Bishop or St Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious Friday abstinence

4 Sat 5 Sun 6 Mon 7 Tue 8 Wed 9 Thu 10 Fri 11 Sat 12 Sun 13 Mon 14 Tue 15 Wed 16 Thu 17 Fri

18 Sat

Feria of The Dedication of the Basilicas of the Ss Peter and Paul, Apostles;

19 Sun 20 Mon 21 Tue 22 Wed 23 Thu

+ 33rd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Feria, Thirty-Third Week of Year 1 The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary St Cecilia, Virgin & Martyr Feria, or St Clement I, Pope & Martyr or St Columban, Abbot

24 Fri

St Andrew Dung-Lac, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs; Friday Abstinence Feria or St Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin & Martyr; + OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, King of the Universe Feria, Thirty-Fourth Week of Year 1 Feria Feria ST ANDREW, Apostle, Patron of Scotland

25 Sat 26 Sun 27 Mon 28 Tue 29 Wed 30 Thu

The Faith Companion is a new two monthly, national magazine for parishioners to encounter the Catholic Tradition and share their living faith. They have asked that individuals and parishes share their stories about different faith journeys and experiences. Please write to them at 17, White Horse Road, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 4UL or

email them on thefaithcompanion@gmail.com.

Queen of Peace Prayer Group at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Acton. Every Friday evening after 7pm Mass. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, a homily, recitation of the Holy Rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. All welcome

SATURDAYS

Other regular Masses

Deaf Community Mass First Sunday of the month 4.30pm at Westminster Cathedral Hall, Ambrosden Avenue SW1P 1QW. Young Adults Mass with an Ignatian twist

Every Sunday at 7pm. Church of the Immaculate Conception, 114 Mount Street W1K 3AH. Contact: yam@mountstreet.info or visit www.pathwaystogood.org Mass at Canary Wharf Held on Tuesdays at 12.30pm at 2 Churchill Place E14 5RB. Organised by Mgr Vladimir Felzmann, Chaplain to Canary Wharf Communities. Details www.cwcc.org.uk.

St Albans Abbey Fridays at 12 noon. Mass in the Lady Chapel of St Albans Abbey AL1 1BY. Members of the Westminster LGBT Catholic Community are specially welcomed at the following Sunday Mass at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, and invited to our parish hall afterwards for tea/coffee, when there is also an opportunity to learn of pastoral help available: 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month, 5.30pm. EXTRAORDINARY FORM MASSES

Sundays: Low Mass 9.30am, St James Spanish Place W1U 3QY. Low Mass 9am, The Oratory, Brompton Road SW7 2RP. Low Mass 5pm, St Bartholomew, St Albans AL1 2PE. Low Mass 5.30pm, Shrine of Our Lady of Willesden, NW10 9AX.

Mondays: Low Mass 8am The Oratory, Brompton Road SW7 2RP Mass 6.30pm Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane WC2E 7NB. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays: Low Mass, 8am The Oratory, Brompton Road SW7 2RP. Fridays:

Low Mass 8am The Oratory, Brompton Road SW7 2RP.

Taizé at Notre Dame de France 5 Leicester Place WC2H 7BX at 7.15pm. Call 020 7437 9363.

Low Mass 6pm St Etheldreda, Ely Place EC1N 6RY. First Friday only.

Pope’s Intentions for November That Christians in Asia, bearing witness to the Gospel in word and deed, may promote dialogue, peace, and mutual understanding, especially with those of other religions.

Low Mass 6.30pm Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane WC2E 7NB. Second Friday only.

Low Mass 6pm St John the Baptist Church, King Edward's Road E9 7SF. First Friday only.

Saturdays: Low Mass 12.15pm, St Wilfrid’s Chapel, The Oratory, Brompton Road SW7 2RP. Low Mass 4pm, Side Chapel, Westminster Cathedral SW1P 1QW. Second Saturday only.

Page 23

Westminster Record | November 2017

Another chapter in history of Chelsea almshouses

On 22nd September, Cardinal Vincent visited St Mary’s Chelsea parish to bless the newly-refurbished almshouses.

The almshouses in their current state were opened by Cardinal Basil Hume in October 1986, but their origins go way back as this report from the London Parks and Gardens Trust tells us: ‘In 1812 the Roman Catholic chapel was built for Catholic pensioners of the Royal Hospital. At that time the present site of St Joseph's Almshouses was occupied by Wellington Cricket Ground before the present Lord's Cricket Ground was established

Page 24

in St John’s Wood. On 27th May 1842 a Deed of Gift between Joseph and Mary Knight, the Revd William Wilde and seven others, set up a charity for the benefit of the Parish of St Mary in the Westminster Diocese. ‘The charity was to acquire some 5750 square feet of land on the south side of Cadogan Street and it was planned to include the church, cemetery, convent, two schools and almshouses. The original intention of the almshouses was to afford accommodation for sick and retired Catholic clergy from the diocese. The school was built in 1844, probably designed by the architect A W Pugin, who also designed the mortuary chapel in 1845 for the cemetery (now disused). In 1847 building began on the almshouses with the help of the parish priest, Mgr Eyre, again according to designs by Pugin. Twenty-four cottages were planned but only 18 were built, in two blocks of nine, at the north-east corner of the site next to the school. ‘By 1849 eight residents were already in occupation although the official opening was not until 1855. A plaque on the site has an inscription recording they were built “by

the generosity of Joseph and Mary Knight”. In 1851 assistance was provided by the Brook Green Aged Poor Society and in 1855, following the opening, an appeal for funds was published, whereby any person contributing half a guinea for three years was entitled to nominate a Resident. Residents had to be a member of the Roman Catholic Church living in Chelsea and receiving less than 3s/6d a month. The OS map of 1870 shows the almshouses, school buildings and burial ground on the site. In 1877/9 St Mary's Roman Catholic Church and rectory, designed by J F Bentley, were built nearby. On 24th April 1890 the Endowment Fund was established to supplement the original Deed of Gift. The Custodian Trustees of the two charities comprised the Westminster Roman Catholic Diocese but day-to-day management was delegated to three Managing Trustees, consisting of the Rector of St Mary's and two others. On 24th March 1964 the constitution was reviewed by the Charities Commission, and a definitive scheme drawn up confirming that Almspeople had to be “poor persons of good

character, members of the Roman Catholic Church living in Chelsea”. ‘In 1958 the premises were extensively renovated and reconsecrated under the auspices of Bishop David Cashman, Rector of St Mary's from 195865, who added a block on the east side at right angles to the original two structures. The almshouses were reconsecrated by Bishop David Cashman and blessed by Cardinal John Heenan, Archbishop of Westminster on 12 July 1966. Further renovations took place in 1985, and St Joseph's Almshouses were re-opened on 17 October 1986 by Cardinal Basil Hume.’ Today, St Joseph’s Almshouses comprise 10 flats, most being one bedroom with a couple of bedsits. They are arranged over two floors and around a courtyard. The present project of refurbishment started in January 2012 under the instigation of the trustees, led by Canon Stuart Wilson, using funds from the Growing in Faith fundraising initiative. Our estimate of costs/unit depending on floorspace was £25,000-30,000. The first instalment of the full grant of £ 210,000 was received that year. With the help of the parishioners’ additional kind donation work on the refurbishment continued. Earlier this year, new security lighting and CCTV

cameras were installed, along with a new audiovisual entry system, as a gate on the archway was problematic with the listed status of the building and too complicated considering the usage of elderly tenants. The current renovations to the almshouses are expected to be completed by Christmas 2017. However, future funding for the maintenance of the establishment will always depend on the generosity of parishioners and donors. Canon Stuart Wilson, who began the project when he was Parish {riest at St Mary’s in Chelsea is no longer so closely involved, but continues to be an advocate for the project: ‘Catholic almshouses are few and far between. Cadogan Street is very special in having 10 residences for “poor Catholic folk”. When we were asked to find a parish project as part of the Growing in Faith initiative, it was obvious to me that the almshouses should be that project! With my fellow Trustees we made a plan to bring the interior of the residences up to the standard expected today. The parish kindly agreed to guarantee us the money. It is a model of cooperation. It was a joy to go back recently and see the work blessed by our Cardinal. Thank you Lord; thank you Trustees; thank you Parish Finance Committee and thank you Cardinal Vincent.