Westminster Record - September 2016 by RCWestminster

Westminster Record | September 2016

Celebrating 30 Years of YAP by Mgr Vladimir Felzman

Preparing for Fatima by Fr Richard Nesbitt In May 1917, with no end in sight to the stalemate and carnage of the First World War and with the Russian Revolution sending shockwaves across the world, Pope Benedict XV made a direct appeal to Mary to intercede for peace in the world. Just over a week later, on 13 May, she made her first appearance to the three shepherd children, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, in the remote Portuguese village of Fatima, seventy miles north of Lisbon. This was the first of six apparitions in which Our Lady gave the young children a mission and message of prayer and penance to bring peace to the world. 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the apparitions and the shrine and people of Fatima are busy preparing to welcome pilgrims from all over the world. It is hoped that these will include Pope Francis for the main feast day on 13 May. I have just returned from pilgrimage and saw at first hand the preparations. Renovation of the basilica has been completed and new hotels are under construction. A centenary rosary has just been produced and the programme of events for 2017 is now being publicised. So there is a real Page 20

sense of expectancy and of gratitude for graces received over the last 100 years. The same spiritual struggles of 1917 and desperate need for peace are as evident today, and still require us as much as ever to listen again to Mary’s message to the children and to respond to her call. I am very blessed to be the parish priest of the only parish in our diocese dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima. At the shrine, I was able to pray for the parish, and to ask for Our Lady’s inspiration about how we as a community might best celebrate the centenary year. It is an opportunity first and foremost to deepen our understanding of Mary’s message to the children and to discern how we can best put it into action. We hope that a large group of parishioners will be amongst those travelling as pilgrims to Fatima next year. I also hope that our parish could be a place of pilgrimage for those within the diocese who will not be able to travel to Fatima but who would like to learn more about Our Lady’s message. To follow our journey and to find out more, see our parish website: www.ourladyoffatima.biz

In the summer of 1985 Cardinal Basil Hume invited a goodly number of people interested in and committed to young people, both young and not so young, to a weekend at the then diocesan All Saints Pastoral Centre, London Colney. He wanted to tap into their ideas on how best to develop the diocesan youth and young adults provision. During one of the break-out sessions, Reg Dunkling, an Allen Hall Seminarian, and Fr Vlad, then Sub-Administrator at Westminster Cathedral, got into a huddle and came up with a hybrid idea. Reg loved Lourdes. Fr Vlad valued retreats. Result: a young adult’s retreat pilgrimage to Lourdes. The Cardinal welcomed Fr Vlad’s suggestion that the diocese could organise a pilgrimage to Lourdes: no malades, just Sixth Formers and older. Reg knew Lourdes very well, Fr Vlad, not at all. His

learning curve was to be very steep indeed. Gradually the pilgrimage, which became known as YAP and its pilgrims, Yappers, took shape for its debut in 1986. To generate a sense of solidarity, the group would depart from Ambrosden Avenue after Mass at the Cathedral on Sunday evening. Each day was punctuated with Mass and later a talk would be given by an inspiring speaker, a hand-out of questions to be discussed, followed by a prayerful silence for pondering these questions. Then 30 minutes of group discussions culminating with feedback in a plenary session with the Cardinal, his input, as always, recorded by Heather Crawford, his faithful amanuensis. Later in the day, there would be a third event, either Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, renewal of Baptismal

Promises, Stations of the Cross or a trip to Gavarnie. In the evenings both young people and clergy would gather together for a social, putting on their chosen specialty and concluding with evening prayer. Initially, there were those who said that taking young people to Lourdes, without their time being occupied taking care of the sick, was a recipe for disaster. Thank God they were wrong. By the end of the millennium many diocesan schools had at least one exYapper in their RE team. To celebrate its 30th Birthday, YAP is inviting all past Yappers, with any photographs of their YAPs, to Holy Apostles, Pimlico on Saturday 30 October from 2 to 5pm. To register to attend, and help with catering, please go to: http://yapreunion30.cfapps.io