Oremus September 2018

September 2018 | Edition Number 239 | FREE

Westminster Cathedral Magazine

Christ, when thou shalt call me hence, Be thy Mother my defence, Be thy Cross my victory.

THE SUB-ADMINISTRATOR

Fr Daniel Humphreys introduces himself Having been ordained in the Cathedral on the Feast of St John Southworth in 2015, I am very happy to be returning as SubAdministrator. Family, friends and parishioners have asked what the position entails. I am not able to give much of an answer (although Fr Martin and a couple of his predecessors have given me some very helpful guidance). One or two have asked: ’Does it mean that you will be sitting at a desk, or even under a desk, all day’?

‘I certainly hope not’ is my clear response. From the little I have seen over the past few years, I observe that Chaplains need to be well-organised,but also approachable and keen to interact with visitors and regular worshippers alike. In fact, this could be said to be a job description for the parochial priest in general.

My potted biography: Born in Nottingham, university in London, 12 years of Anglican ministry in York and London.

Received into the Church in 2012, then two years at Allen

Hall prior to ordination. My journey into the Church was long, with many twists and turns, but a sense of the providence of God, of ‘Kindly Light’ leading me home.

My interests include music – singing and playing piano and organ (albeit in a rusty way, unworthy of the rich tradition and high standard in the Cathedral) and sports – although mostly in the guise of a spectator, having hung up my squash racket for good once I turned 40. I suffer with a small devotion to Arsenal Football Club, and have found no remedy to this affliction. Perhaps my new role will provide the antidote. I love history, the theatre, a little bit of politics, and conversation in general.

Since ordination I have been one of the assistant priests at Our Lady of Victories, Kensington. As you may know, the former church (destroyed in September 1940) served as the pro-cathedral before the Cathedral itself was built. There is, therefore, some continuity in the move and if I am even half as happy and fulfilled as I have been in Kensington, then it will be a goodly heritage.

Fr Rajiv Michael, who also joins the College of Chaplains in September, will introduce himself in the October Oremus.

CONTENTS

Inside Oremus

Oremus Cathedral Clergy House 42 Francis Street London SW1P 1QW T 020 7798 9055 E oremus@westminstercathedral.org.uk W www.westminstercathedral.org.uk

Oremus, the magazine of Westminster Cathedral, reflects the life of the Cathedral and the lives of those who make it a place of faith in central London. If you think that you would like to contribute an article or an item of news, please contact one of the editorial team.

Patron The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster Chairman Canon Christopher Tuckwell Editor Fr John Scott Oremus Team Tony Banks – Distribution Zoe Goodway – Marketing Manel Silva – Subscriptions Berenice Roetheli – Proofreading Eucharia Sule – Office Assistant

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Cathedral Life: Past & Present Our new Sub-Administrator, Fr Daniel Humphreys

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John Bradburne – News of the Cause

4

Cathedral History in Pictures: Benediction at the 1908 Eucharistic Congress

by Dr Gordon Albion

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Cathedral History: The Canadian War Memorial

by Patrick Rogers

16 & 17

A Gift to the Sacristy – the Bellingham Cope

by Fr John Scott

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Improving Cathedral Finances

by Linda McHugh

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Design and Art Direction Julian Game

Features

Registered Charity Number 233699 ISSN 1366-7203 Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily represent the views of the Editor or the Oremus Team. Neither are they the official views of Westminster Cathedral. The Editor reserves the right to edit all contributions.

Publication of advertisements does not imply any form of recommendation or endorsement.

Unless otherwise stated, photographs are published under a creative commons or similar licence. Every effort is made to credit all images. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission.

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Four Thoughts on Prayer

by Fr Chris Clohessy

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Encountering the Other: Ethiopia

by Professor Andrew Sanders 10 & 11 Cardinal Cormac – An Anniversary Appreciation

by Christopher Howse 12 & 13 It’s Holy up North – Pilgrimage Report

by Louise Sage

Sponsored by:

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A Triptych of the Baptist: Part III

by Terry Egan

14 & 15

Book Notice – The Holy Hour, edited by Fr Denis McBride CSsR

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Cardinal Manning: A Balanced View – Part IV (concluded)

by Fr Nicholas Schofield 20 & 21

Thomas Exchange Global Ltd

Development at the Cardinal Hume Centre by Robert Arnott 24

Regulars 5

From the Chairman Monthly Album

18 & 19

Cathedral Diary

22 & 23

Friends of the Cathedral

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Detail of the Madonna of Pity from Lutín (circa 1400); Olomouc, Archidiocesan Museum. The Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is kept on Saturday 15 September.

Crossword and Poem of the Month

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In Retrospect

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© Avemundi

St Vincent de Paul Primary School: In My View 22 & 23

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Printed by Premier Print Group 020 7987 0604

September 2018

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COMPANIONS/A CAUSE BOOSTED

Join the Companions of Oremus ... and help us to continue to publish our magazine free of charge The Companions of Oremus was established in 2016 to recognise those who give generously to support the production of Oremus.

Companions’ names are published in the magazine each month (see page 7) and, from time to time, Mass will be offered for their intentions.

All members will be invited to at least one social event during the year.

If you would like to join the Companions of Oremus please write to Oremus c/o Clergy House, 42 Francis Street, London SW1P 1QW or email oremuscomps@rcdow.org.uk – members are asked to give a minimum of £100 annually. Just mention in your email or letter how you would like your name to be listed and let us know if you can Gift Aid your donation, providing your name and address, including postcode.

Thank you for your support.

From Westminster to Zimbabwe: The Road to Sanctity The Cause for Beatification of John Bradburne, former Cathedral Sacristan, has been given a boost with the news that a postulator has been appointed: Enrico Graziano Giovanni Solinas. He recently came to the UK for an initial visit to meet both members of the John Bradburne Memorial Society and a small number of people who actually knew John. This visit seemed to go very well and everyone will be updated as matters develop.

Celia Brigstocke has run JBMS for over 25 years. Sadly, she has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and will not be able to carry on her work for the charity. Her daughter, Kate Macpherson, is taking on the role on her role to enable Celia’s legacy to continue.

She notes that: ‘John Bradburne has been marked for sanctity. After an 4

extraordinary life, he dedicated 10 years to looking after a community of people suffering from leprosy at Mutemwa in Zimbabwe, until his murder in 1979.

To go forward with the beatification process, fundraising is essential. The charity has a postulator from Perugia leading the cause, but there still remains a huge amount of research, checks and interviews to be conducted. This will help present the best case for him to be made a saint at the Congregation of Causes for Saints. He could become the first saint for Zimbabwe and the first in England for over 400 years’.

John in his last years

The John Bradburne Memorial Society's (JBMS) main role is to support the leper colony in Zimbabwe. To support this cause and read further information, see the JBMS website: www.johnbradburne.com.

Oremus

September 2018

FROM THE CHAIRMAN

The Administrator writes By the time you receive this copy of Oremus I imagine that most of you who have been away this summer will have returned. In this edition there is an article by Professor Andrew Sanders on our recent pilgrimage to Ethiopia.

Two years ago Philip Dean of Pax Travel invited me to lead a small group of pilgrims to Ethiopia, but due to the political situation there at that time the tour never materialised. We tried again this year, and the conditions were much more favourable.

Indeed, whilst we were there the Presidents of Ethiopia and Eritrea met and signed a definitive peace treaty. I had very little idea about Ethiopia, thinking it would be predominantly desert and scrub land and although this was true in some parts, the majority of the country was green and fertile with an abundance of plants, birds and wild life.

I also discovered that Ethiopia was the second country in the world to declare itself a Christian nation, back in the 4th century and it remains so, the vast majority of the population being members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, an independent mission church which once came under the authority of Alexandria but is now quite independent. The Catholic community is tiny, but there are congregations in most of the towns and much is being done in education and social care. We were very impressed by the work of the missionary orders, especially the Salesians, and it was good to meet local clergy, some of whom had visited our Cathedral.

Westminster Cathedral Cathedral Clergy House 42 Francis Street London SW1P 1QW Telephone 020 7798 9055 Service times 020 7798 9097 Email chreception@rcdow.org.uk www.westminstercathedral.org.uk Cathedral Chaplains Canon Christopher Tuckwell, Administrator Fr Daniel Humphreys, Sub-Administrator Fr Julio Albornoz Fr Andrew Bowden Fr Michael Donaghy Fr Andrew Gallagher, Precentor Fr Rajiv Michael Fr Michael Quaicoe Fr John Scott, Registrar Sub-Administrator’s Intern Oliver Delargy Also in residence Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Victories Music Department Martin Baker, Master of Music Peter Stevens Obl. OSB, Assistant Master of Music Jonathan Allsopp, Organ Scholar Cathedral Manager Peter McNulty Estates Manager Neil Fairbairn Chapel of Ease Sacred Heart Church Horseferry Road SW1P 2EF

Although I found the journey and the travel quite exhausting, the pilgrimage was very enjoyable and we all learned a good deal about the faith and culture of this part of the world. If anyone reading this gets the opportunity to visit Ethiopia I would urge them to go.

With every blessing

September 2018

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THE INTERNATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS OF 1908

The Forbidden Procession Dr Gordon Albion The Prime Minister, Mr Asquith, and the Home Secretary, Mr Herbert Gladstone, both yielded to anti-Papist pressure, and from their holiday hideouts in Scotland sent telegrams urging the abandonment of the Blessed Sacrament Procession on the ground of illegality. There was ample evidence of cowardliness on the part of the Liberal Prime Minister, first because his approach, not made until three days before, came not direct to the Archbishop but through a Catholic member of the Government, the aged Marquis of Ripon, then Lord Privy Seal; and secondly, because the Prime Minister requested that his intervention should be treated as confidential and not made public.

In a detailed reply the Archbishop claimed every right to hold the Procession, but agreed to countermand the carrying of the Blessed Sacrament if the Prime Minister insisted, at the same time asserting that: ‘I shall give to the matter the fullest publicity in order that my own action may be amply vindicated’. And that is in fact what happened.

A Procession without the Blessed Sacrament was held, with Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops walking, not in Mass vestments, but in their Court dress. The crowds lining the route and milling around the Cathedral numbered not the 75,000 expected but nearer twice that number. The General Communion (which had been arranged in all churches that morning) curbed any natural outburst of resentment except for spontaneous and and tumultuous cheering throughout the march. Then came the singing of the O Salutaris and Tantum ergo and the vast crowd was stilled as the Cardinal Legate appeared on the Cathedral balcony and raised the Sacred Host in blessing.

Then, as an eye-witness reported it in one of the papers: ‘The silent, awe-struck reverence changed 6

with one accord and with electric suddenness into a mighty startling shout of adoration, different in tone and character from the other cheers.

There was emotion in its sound and prayer. It was a spontaneous greeting to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. It was a splendid, if unconventional, act of faith’. It was a case of ‘all’s well that ends well’.

The Prime Minister and the Government came in for severe criticism for their feeble last-minute yielding to the bigotry and the threat of violence to the Catholic minority, while the dignified bearing of the Archbishop and the exemplary behaviour of the Catholic crowds won praise on all sides.

from the Westminster Cathedral Chronicle, October 1958 Oremus

September 2018

A TRIPTYCH OF THE BAPTIST/COMPANIONS

The Right Hand Wing

Companions of Oremus

In Prison Not even the sky can he see amid these bricks, nor any great rend that so much as a dove, look! could swoop fluttering through it.

Herod comes to hear him out – how he should repent his brother’s ex-wife.

He watches moisture accumulate on the walls, sees Jesus in it – how in front of multitudes his fame increases, for which John prepared the way.

Mrs Mary Barsh Mrs Else Benson Dr Stuart Blackie Mr Denis Board Anne Veronica Bond Richard Bremer Francis George Clark Daniel Crowley Ms Georgina Enang Alfredo Fernandez Connie Gibbes Zoe & Nick Goodway Mrs Valerie Hamblen Bernadette Hau Mrs Henry Hely-Hutchinson Mrs Cliona Howell Sharon Jennings in memoriam Alice M Jones & Jacob F Jones Poppy K Mary Thérèse Kelly Florence M G Koroma Raymund Livesey Barry Lock Alan Lloyd in memoriam Clare and John Lusby James Maple Dionne Marchetti Mary Maxwell Pamela McGrath Linda McHugh Peter McNelly in memoriam Mrs C Mitchell-Gotell Abundia Toledo Munar Chris Stewart Munro Mrs Brigid Murphy Kate Nealon Raymond O’Sullivan Emel Rochat Berenice Roetheli Patrick Rogers RIP John Scanlan Mr Luke Simpson Sonja Soper Tessa and Ben Strickland Eileen Terry Robin Michael Tinsley Mr Alex Walker Christiana Thérèse Macarthy-Woods Jacqueline Worth Patricia M Wright and of our anonymous Companions

We are very grateful for the support of the following:

Salomé John earns the hatred of Herod’s unlawful wife; oh! how she’d love it, to see his self-righteous head brought to her on a platter!

He won’t hear of it, Herod – ’her husband's brother’ – but she has a plan: she strokes the soft cheek of Salomé, her daughter, watches it pink up; runs a finger down her neck to where palpitates the swell of Salomé's breast...

Terpsichore Salomé’s dancing at Herod's great birthday feast; she divests herself of a succession of veils... each falls softly to her feet – as languid as she – as it wafts to where her toes shimmy it away...

And then those toes, look! they’re as naked as she is beneath the seventh...

Ah! but it’s only the third – the fourth now – she’s sloughed: and she wants something as well...

The Head How silent they are, these lips that had been so loud; how still they are now no reproach? Eh? No ’Repent’?

Oh, and how cold the cheeks are, that had been so red; no anger to keep them warm there on a salver!

What do they see now, these eyes that were so piercing, and are just dumb, dull?

Ah! they look beyond themselves to where another rides into Jerusalem…

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If you would like to become a Companion of Oremus, see page 4

New in Cathedral Gift Shop

Terry Egan

We are pleased to announce an exquisite addition to the range of gifts available in Westminster Cathedral Gift Shop.

Cross pens are renowned worldwide for their design and quality and we now have for sale a luxury ball-point pen which comes with the Cathedral logo and in its own box.

This will make an excellent gift for a loved one on that special occasion.

Retail Price: £35.00

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ON PRAYER

Four Thoughts Fr Chris Clohessy noise as possible, and readying myself for my special daily appointment with God. Faithfulness to prayer is faithfulness to those choices, to that time that I have committed to him each day. The prayer itself is God’s work, and he alone is the judge of our prayer. I may think I have prayed ‘badly’ or prayed ‘well’, but there is no such thing as praying badly or well. The only time I fail in prayer is when, for some reason, I cancel or omit my daily prayer time, or when I go into that time without some small amount of recollection and desire and intention to pray. To talk of praying badly is, in some measure, an insult to the Holy Spirit, because he moves in our prayer and everything he touches is perfection.

Firstly, our every prayer, no matter how we pray, when we pray, and for however long we pray, is never our gift to God, but always first and foremost God’s gift to us. Not our time for him, but his time for us. Not our being present to him, but him being present to us. Not our giving to him, but his giving to us. This principle is so obvious, but so easily forgotten, that I believe that every time we pray – no matter the how or the when of our prayer – every session of prayer should begin with a reverent affirmation: ‘This time of prayer is not my gift to you, but your gift to me. And I thank you with all my heart.’

Secondly, prayer is a work of the Holy Spirit. We do not pray because we are holier or more moral or better than anyone else, but because he gifts it, inspires it, permits it.

And therefore, our prayer does not consist chiefly in the words we say or the thoughts we think, but in our freely offering to God a certain amount of time every day. So to be a person of prayer is to commit a certain amount of time each day, every single day, to God. What happens in that time is not our business, but his. I can choose the length of time, the time of day when I will pray and the places in which I will pray. I can prepare myself for that time each day by quieting myself, switching off as much external 8

A final thought: St Paul tells us to pray unceasingly; it does not mean that we have to think constantly about God and nothing else or speak constantly to God and to no one else. To pray uneasingly means that everything we think and do and say can always be thought and done and said before God. The main question is not what we think and do and say, but that these can be done in God’s presence. God listens to our prayers, but he listens much more intensely, much more deeply to our lives and what they say to him.

Maybe sometimes our words tell him one thing but our lives tell him another.

Fr Chris is well-known to us as a Summer Supply priest and teaches Arabic Studies in Rome.

© Foyer Unitas

Oremus – ‘let us pray’ – is the title of this Westminster Cathedral magazine. It is a reminder that the life we live, you and I, is not ordinary life, but Baptised life. That is what St Paul means when he writes: ‘My real life is the faith I have in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 2: 20). And the things that gives shape, depth and clarity to Baptised life, more than anything else, is our prayer – both in public, when we attend Holy Mass or prayer in a group, as well as in private, when we go into some quiet place, close the door, and remain there in silence and solitude with the Blessed Trinity. So, here are four thoughts that are true for every prayer we pray:

And thirdly, I could pray for 23 hours a day, and in the 24th hour fall into serious sin. How is that possible?

Because prayer will never be enough! Together with prayer, we have to choose deliberately to live by the virtues that Jesus has taught us in the Gospel. That means that part of living Baptised life is learning what they are by reading the scriptures, and then asking God to give us opportunities each day to practice living them. Honesty, integrity, compassion, justice and the virtues like them do not come to us magically in prayer. We learn them in the daily round of life!

Fr Chris at work Oremus

September 2018

© Justin Clements

CHANGED BY LENT

A church interior, with curtains before the Holy of Holies, drums and wall decoration including St George (top left)

Pilgrims in a Land of Ancient Christianity Professor Andrew Sanders Ethiopia is an ancient Christian country. It converted to the faith in the fourth century and remains a profoundly devout Christian country. The faithful identify themselves by wearing conspicuous floriated crosses in designs which are distinctive to particular cities with strong Christian identities. Ethiopians proudly claim that they owe their distinctive religious customs to King Menelik, son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba and they are singularly proud to be the guardians of what is believed to be the Jewish Ark of the Covenant, brought to their country by Menelik and preserved in the city of Axum.

This rare object, which is only ever seen by one living man (a monk), has never been seen by foreign scholars and is housed in a modest building next to one of the worst-displayed, grubbiest and ill-lit museums I have ever encountered. It is as far from the fabled grandeur of Solomon’s Temple as can be imagined. We pilgrims saw the exterior of the building containing the Ark from a respectful distance during a thunderstorm.

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It was the rainy season during our trip, so afternoon and evening thunderstorms were plentiful. The sprawling city of Axum was splendid enough despite the rain. It is the cradle of Ethiopian Christianity. Its main celebrity, apart from the Ark of the Covenant, lies in the great stelae, hammer-headed obelisks which survive from the time when Axum was the centre of a mighty empire. One great stele remained both erect and intact. Another, long broken into three pieces, was taken away to Mussolini’s Rome where it was repaired and re-erected in the Circo Massimo in 1937, being only returned to Ethiopia in 2008. The last Emperor, Haile Selassie, built a large modernist, circular, concrete church nearby in the 1960s and he proudly showed our own Queen round it during a state visit. It is impressive enough as a building, but cannot be compared in interest to the most extraordinary religious structures in Ethiopia: the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela.

Lalibela is yet another of the former local capitals of Christian Ethiopia. It is now named after the sainted Oremus

September 2018

ENCOUNTERING THE OTHER: ETHIOPIA

A broken stela at Axum, with Haile Selassie’s circular church in the distance

All of the wonderful churches here and in the surrounding area are working places of worship, many attended by monks. The priests and monks worship in an area given over to music, chanting, singing and a swaying dance, with the dancers supported by croziershaped supports. The only instruments permitted are drums (shaped, it is claimed, in celebration of the Old and New Testaments) and tiny bells. Every church has a thickly curtained ‘Holy of Holies’, an area entered only by priests.

In it is preserved a tabot – an image of the Ark of the Covenant. In the Holy of Holies, Mass is celebrated in what are often superbly decorated spaces, covered in vividly painted religious scenes. In areas where the churches are not stone-built or rock-hewn, the bright colours of these murals are quite extraordinary, as are some of the stories they recount, not all of them derived from religious sources we might recognise. St George is always very prominent, as are the archangels, but none of us knew the story of a gigantically fat, man-eating usurer saved from the fires of Hell by the intervention of Our Lady. Or the legend of Our Lady having her wounded foot healed by a woman called Salome who accompanied her on the Flight into Egypt.

As Catholic pilgrims we were not able to worship in these historic buildings, which belong to a branch of the Coptic Church. Where they were available to us, we were able to worship at altars in Catholic churches and chapels, many of them of recent construction. Otherwise we made September 2018

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do with semi-public spaces in hotels with a dining table as our altar and with local wine in the chalice. We had the privilege of worshipping in the chapels of two Catholic religious communities, one a home for homeless boys in Addis Ababa, the other a scrupulously clean complex at Adigrat, where nuns have developed an estate that includes a nursery, a school, workshops, a clinic, and, in the near future, a hospital. All of the equipment had been provided

by Italian charities. The nuns, one of whom was a proud Geordie by birth, entertained us after Mass with excellent coffee, testimony to the Italian origins of the mission.

Our pilgrimage had begun in Addis Ababa where, apart from the St John Bosco home, we had time to visit the Selassie (Trinity) Cathedral where the last Emperor and his wife are buried in fine granite tombs. The Emperor had adopted the name ‘Selassie’ at the time of his coronation.

It was strange to see the Holy Trinity represented on the chancel arch as three identical white-bearded old men, but this distinctive image was to be repeated in every church that we saw on our trip. We also saw the National Museum which contains somewhat dusty historic artefacts associated with the Emperors as well as replicas of the remains of perhaps the most famous ancient Abyssinian: Lucy, the 3-5 million year-old Australopithecus afarensis.

‘Lucy’ may be regarded as an ancestor of the human race by Western anthropologists, but to Ethiopians she is merely Dinquinesh, ‘thou art wonderful’. The very idea of evolution is alien to the Coptic Church, which is still firmly wedded to the idea of the six days of creation. Outside the museum were two extraordinary modern sculptures, both evidence of Ethiopia’s fraught modern history. One showed the last Emperor in his prime encouraging the education of boys in what had been a predominantly illiterate nation.

Another was a bust of the Russian poet Pushkin, who was descended from an Ethiopian courtier of Peter the Great.

The bust had been presented by the Soviet government in the period after Haile Selassie’s dethronement when a Communist regime had installed itself in Addis Ababa.

Our visit to Ethiopia was extraordinary in many ways: prayerful, of course, but eye-opening in the sense that it consistently gave us pilgrims an awareness of the ‘other.’

It was not only Lucy who could be described as ‘thou art wonderful.’

© Justin Clements

© Justin Clements

King Lalibela, who after a period of exile in Jerusalem in Crusader times, when he witnessed the fall of the city to Saladin, returned to his own kingdom determined to build a New Jerusalem there. Perhaps to conceal the churches from invading Moslems or simply to stress the permanence of his creations he carved them into the living rock. They are therefore as old as the rocks into and from which they have been excavated. They are believed to have been originally inspired by the intervention of archangels, but they are now properly enough a World Heritage site.

The most celebrated of these churches is the cruciform Bet Giyorgis, the church of St George (a saint who is phenomenally popular in Ethiopia). The church is said to have been commissioned by the saint himself, distressed that King Lalibela had overlooked making a proper shrine.

The saint even rode his horse over the site leaving hoof prints in the entrance tunnel!

A local, with some other locals

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CHANGED AN ANNIVERSARY

BY LENTAPPRECIATION

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor at Westminster

© Diocese of Westminster

ancient foundation, which had been vital to the very survival of Catholicism in England and Wales during the centuries when it was penalised by law. But in those years, 197177, the great challenge was to meet the expectations of the Second Vatican Council without allowing the whole structure and balance of the college to be upset.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, whose first anniversary of death falls on Saturday 1 September

Christopher Howse People often say that Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, who died on 1 September 2017, was so sure-footed in the institutional Church because of his Romanitas, his instinctive understanding of how the Vatican functioned.

I’m not sure that they are right. I think Cardinal Cormac, who was Archbishop of Westminster from 2000 to 2009, was at home wherever he found himself for three reasons – because he liked people, because he looked outward and not at himself, and because his whole life was informed by a straightforward faith.

When he came to Westminster at the age of 67 he had already succeeded in two responsible positions that required a good understanding of human nature. He had spent 22 years as a diocesan bishop, in Arundel and Brighton, and might have been looking forward to a peaceful retirement while he was still young enough to enjoy an occasional game of golf. Perhaps more difficult in a way had been the six years before that, as Rector of the Venerable English College in Rome. The English College is a wonderful and 12

Cormac Murphy-O’Connor always appeared to enjoy being wherever he was. He certainly loved Rome, and was glad to be back in the city where he had trained for the priesthood 20 years earlier, in the same English College. This double period of life in Rome did prove useful later, when, from 2001, he served in various positions in the Curia. But as Archbishop of Westminster, it was necessary for him to fit in with the complicated structures of British life. His predecessor, Cardinal Basil Hume, had consolidated the position of lay Catholics as accepted members of society.

Before his time there was, among a notable sector, a vestigial distrust of Catholics as marginalised group who had not so long ago been prohibited from public office. There still, for example, remained a prohibition on a Catholic marrying the monarch or the heir to the throne. That did not affect many people, but it had a symbolic function in distancing Catholics from the mainstream.

The Queen had smiled upon Cardinal Hume and called him ‘my Cardinal’. His successor, Cardinal MurphyO’Connor, was even invited to preach at a service attended by the Queen, and read a passage of Scripture at the funeral of the Queen Mother. But it was as an ordinary middle-class Englishman that the Cardinal found a way to mix easily with the British establishment. It seemed surprising that he spoke with an Irish accent, for he had been brought up in Reading, Berkshire, and went to school there, and at Bath, Somerset. The Irish intonation must have been preserved by regular visits to members of his family in Cork, Ireland.

His doubly Irish surname had been constructed by his grandfather, who was a Cork wine-merchant. His Christian name, unusual to anyone not accustomed to Irish culture, meant that everyone knew who was being referred to when someone said ‘Cormac’. In that respect alone he resembled Boris (Johnson). But, as the fifth son of a family doctor, his upbringing was that of a member of the professional classes.

He played and followed rugby football and, at 6 foot 4 inches, with an open, ruddy face he looked an upstanding specimen of the rural middle class.

It has been said that he was not an intellectual. But this did not mean that he was not fiercely intelligent. He had no difficulty learning Italian when sent to Rome for his studies when simultaneously he had to improve his Latin to understand philosophy lectures, at the time still delivered in that language. But he did not not ponder theoretically.

Oremus

September 2018

AN ANNIVERSARY APPRECIATION His outgoing personality apparently expressed an inner humility with which he confronted the low point of his public career. Shortly after his promotion to Westminster a case came up dating from 1985, when he had allowed a priest, already accused of sexual abuse, to continue in his priestly ministry at Gatwick airport. It was thought that, there, he would be no danger to minors. That had turned out not to be the case. In his decision, he had been acting on advice from professionals, Archbishop Murphy-O’Connor reminded his critics, at a time when the behaviour of child abusers was not as well understood as at present. That was perfectly true, but the case overshadowed his public profile.

He suffered a lot. ‘I had lost my reputation,’ he told Brendan Walsh, the author of his memoirs. ‘I realised there was nothing I could do about that. I just thought, well, I’ll have to press on and do what I can to put things right, to leave things better than I found them. What else can we do?’ From this insight came about an admirable initiative entrusted to a small committee under Lord Nolan, to look into clerical abuse and to put into place mechanisms designed to prevent such cases happening again.

When Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor retired, aged 76, in 2009, it was the first time an Archbishop of Westminster had not died in office. He was naturally aware of the difficulty there might be in having two Cardinals living in Westminster.

But he found a flawless solution by going to live in a west

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London parish, where he could help with the sacramental ministry, without even appearing to be a backseat driver to Cardinal Vincent Nichols. He told me (as he must have told many people) that he had an idea that it might be a good thing to take a seat in the House of Lords. Although the House of Lords is the upper chamber of the British Parliament, a number of its members sit on the so-called Cross Benches, and do not belong to a political party. But the idea was not to be. Rome confirmed that it would not meet the demands of Canon Law that separate priests and bishops from legislative positions. The Cardinal let the idea drop quietly.

He still enjoyed occasional visits to Rome, and he seemed in good health until his final illness. Towards the end of August, Massgoers were told that he was very ill in hospital. ‘I now commend myself to the loving mercy of God, I ask them all to pray for me as I remember and pray for them,’ he said in a message. ‘Please tell them that I am at peace and have no fear of what is to come.’ Nobody could doubt the truth of those last words.

Christopher Howse is an Assistant Editor of the Daily Telegraph and a Cathedral parishioner. This piece first appeared in Most (The Bridge), the journal of the Croatian Chaplaincy.

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A STAYCATION PILGRIMAGE

On the Trail of Northern Saints – Part I Louise Sage On Monday 9 July the Guild of St John Southworth, with members of the Friends of the Venerable English College in Rome and other friends, 25 of us in all, accompanied by our Chaplain, Fr Andrew Bowden, set out from Kings Cross. From York Station we quickly found the Premier Inn, unpacked our suitcases and arrived on the doorstep of the Bar Convent, opposite to begin our first visit.

We were warmly welcomed by Sr Ann Stafford, who gave us a short history of the Venerable Mary Ward (15851645), Foundress of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the forerunner of the Congregation of Jesus. A pioneer of education for women, she fought lifelong for the right of nuns to pursue a variety of ministries outside convent walls.

She actually walked over the Alps to Rome during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) to try and persuade the Pope of the validity of her vision of ministry against the Council of Trent’s (1545-1564) insistence that religious women be strictly enclosed. Her broad-brimmed hat and shoes worn during that walk are one of the exhibits in the Museum; indeed, an indomitable woman.

The Bar Convent, the oldest surviving convent in England, was founded by Frances Bedingfield in 1686.

At this time of persecution for Catholics it was a secret community, known as the ‘Ladies at the Bar’, under which title they set up boarding and day schools for Catholic girls. The community ran the school for 299 years before handing it over to the diocese in 1985; and in 1987 the Bar Convent Museum was opened, whilst a community of the Congregation of Jesus still lives and works at the convent. Fr Andrew celebrated Mass in the beautiful 18th century Hidden Chapel, with its high dome, eight doors, priest’s hiding hole and a reliquary containing the hand of St Margaret Clitherow. Sr Ann then took a few of us to the community’s cemetery to visit the grave of Sr Amadeus Bulger (1934-2016). Sr Amadeus served as Pastoral Tutor at the Venerabile English College for nine years and subsequently served as one of the Vicars for Religious in Westminster diocese; many Cathedral parishioners will remember her. Fr Andrew led us in prayers for the dead.

On Tuesday morning we boarded a coach for the Benedictine Monastery at Ampleforth. However, a few miles before arrival, we came across a massive ruin which turned out to be Byland Abbey, a Cistercian monastery from the mid 12th century. Even though ruinous, there was enough of it remaining to show what a majestic 14

The hanging crucifix at Wass, transferred from the former abbey at Stanbrook, Worcestershire

building it had been, leaving us marvelling as to how it had been constructed without benefit of modern tools and equipment. The Abbey was based on sheep farming and sale of wool, with around 100 choir monks and 200-300 lay monks to carry out all the heavy-duty work. It was closed closed in 1538 as part of the Suppression of the Monasteries.

We then travelled the short distance to Ampleforth Abbey, on a sprawling 2,200 acre estate comprising the Abbey Church and monastery, Alban Roe House, a Visitor Centre, Reception, Abbey Shop and Tea Room, Apple Orchard and Nature Trail, as well as Ampleforth College with its grounds and Sports Centre. The Abbey Church was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and the impressive oak choirstalls were beautifully handcrafted by Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson. The Cathedral has a prie-dieu of his, complete with mouse, in the Chapel of Ss Gregory and Augustine before the tomb of Cardinal Basil Hume, a former Abbot of Ampleforth - do check it out.

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A STAYCATION PILGRIMAGE We were shown the beautiful Reyntiens windows; the small chapels in the crypt include one dedicated to St Alban Roe, the only member of the community to be canonized (1970), who was martyred at Tyburn in 1642 for the crime of being a priest. We were also intrigued to be shown an altar slab in one of the side chapels which had been ‘lost’ for many years and found in a butcher’s shop before being recognized as the mensa of an altar and returned to the Abbey.

We joined the community and the Abbot for the Conventual Mass just before lunch. It was a pleasure to have Fr Ambrose (Edward) Henley act as Cantor at this Mass: many parishioners will remember him at Clergy House as Sub-Administrator’s Intern from 2007-2008.

Following Mass we had a light lunch in the Tea Rooms, invaded the shop, walked around the grounds, and were then ready for the next stage of our journey: Stanbrook Abbey.

This Benedictine community at Wass traces its roots back to 17th century Flanders, where it was founded by nine young English women in exile. Following the French Revolution, a small band of survivors returned to England, settling in 1838 at Callow End, Worcester. The nuns moved to the site of their present monastery on a 65 acre estate in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park in 2008. The

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building has been designed to meet the environmental challenges of the 21st century, with solar panels, a woodchip boiler, reed-bed sewerage system and rainwater harvesting etc.

Dame Philippa Edwards, the Librarian/Guest Mistress showed us the Abbey Church and Blessed Sacrament Chapel and answered all our questions. The Church is filled with light, with an entire wall open to spectacular views.

Ultra-modern the Abbey may be, but the sense of prayer in that place was as tangible as a wall. I particularly liked the icon crucifix dominating the apse made by Dame Werburg Welch in the 1930s. This hung originally in the Chapter House in Worcester and, following restoration, was placed in the apse where it looks quite at home. The translation into English of the words at the base of the cross is: Holy God, Holy Strong One, Holy Immortal One. The nuns also run nine self-catering Scandinavian Pine Lodges in the National Park, which are available for visitors in all seasons. Of additional interest is that Cardinal Vincent Nichols concelebrated the Mass of Dedication on 6 September 2015 with Bishops Terence Drainey and Arthur Roche and gave the homily.

We left for our return journey feeling refreshed and renewed, ready for the following day’s activities.

15

CANADIANS REMEMBERED

The Canadian Air Force Memorial Patrick Rogers These decisions were, of course, take in the light of the liturgical changes introduced after the Second Vatican Council, when there was encouragement that the celebrant should face the congregation to celebrate Mass. However, a permanent new altar in the centre of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel would have radically altered the appearance of the chapel and obscured the fine marble floor (the movable altars introduced at this time were on aluminium frames which could be removed when necessary).

The Memorial, seen from outside Confessional number one

The memorial fixed to the wall of the South Transept beside confessional number one is unusual and has an unusual history behind it. The first Canadian memorial, completed in 1947 and dedicated in October 1948, consisted of an altar in honour of St Anne (Our Lady’s mother and Canada’s patron saint) in the baptistery. The altar (funded by £1,000 raised for the purpose) was set against the west wall below the windows and was clad with ornamental marble with a central cross on the frontal. It commemorated the Canadian servicemen who fell in the 1939 – 45 War. In 1967, Winifride de l’Hôpital, biographer and eldest daughter of the Cathedral architect (J F Bentley), died.

Both she and an unmarried sister, Miss H M Bentley (who also died about this time), left bequests for the further decoration of the Cathedral. It was decided to use the money to complete the marble revetment of the Baptistry and work started in 1969. With Canadian approval, it was also decided to remove the Baptistry altar and transfer this dedication to a new marble altar facing the congregation in the centre of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.

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When the scheme for the new memorial altar was abandoned, the next plan was for a plaque in the south transept. The man chosen to design it was David (Birdie) Partridge, a naturalised Canadian born in Ohio in 1919.

After serving in the Canadian Air Force (1942 – 45) as a flying instructor, Partridge took up as a painter and printmaker. In 1958 he produced his first three-dimensional sculpture comprising different-sized nails; he developed and perfected this technique during his 10 years in London from 1962. He was deeply influenced by early studies of geology and palaeontology and by hours of flying over Northern Ontario during the war, and this is reflected in his works now to be seen in galleries in Canada, Australia and the United States – his Vertebrate Configuration is in the Tate Gallery.

The current Canadian War Memorial in the south transept of the Cathedral was installed in 1972. It takes the form of a Chi-Rho (the first letters of Christ’s name in Greek) in thousands of shining [now dulled down – Ed.] nails of many different lengths. The central ‘X’ may also be viewed as commemorating the runways of a wartime airfield and the triple circle as the roundels or ‘bulls-eye’ markings on Canadian aircraft. The nails themselves may be taken to symbolise the members of the Royal Canadian Air Force who never returned from the war. The inscription below the memorial is by Edward Wright. And St Anne, Patron Saint of Canada? With her husband, St Joachim, they appear in mosaic on either side – in niches at the near end of the south aisle.

The late Patrick Rogers, who died in 2017, was the Cathedral Historian. His papers are now held at the cathedral, whilst the Oremus archive contains a great number of published pieces which remain an authoritative source for knowledge of the building. This article was first published in Edition number 22 of December 1998.

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CANADIANS REMEMBERED/BOOK NOTICE

The Memorial Inscription, at eye-height

Twelve Holy Hours Denis Blackledge SJ Published to coincide with the National Eucharistic Congress, this compilation provides practical pastoral support for parishes, schools and retreat houses, but is equally useful for individual devotion. With a brilliant four-page Preface – in itself a rich source of Blessed Sacrament prayer – a dozen Holy Hours are presented for different times and occasions. A service of anointing of the sick is included, as are services for Advent, Lent and Holy Week. Children get a holy half-hour! And three are specially written to be led by lay people.

This will be a boon to priests, deacons, laity, and for anyone who wants to deepen her or his personal relationship with Jesus through this gift of time spent with the Lord in his Eucharistic Presence.

THE HOLY HOUR: Twelve complete services, compiled by Fr Denis McBride CSsR Redemptorist Publications, pbk, 154 pages, 2018, A5 edition: £6.95

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17

MONTHLY ALBUM

©Vatican Cricket Team;

Fit for the Queen

As a group of brightly attired priests began to appear in the Cathedral one evening, quizzical looks appeared on faces and sartorial whispers were heard. Of course, it was the members of the Vatican Cricket Team, who were in this country to play a series of matches with opponents both religious and secular. Composed both of clergy and seminarians, the team attracted good news coverage and we were pleased to welcome them to concelebrate the Solemn Mass (although not in yellow vestments). Here the team is seen at its meeting with the Queen.

Deacons at 50 This year sees the 50th Anniversary of the decision, made after the 2nd Vatican Council, to reinstate the Order of Deacons in the Church as a permanent order, as well as a transitional one on the the route to priesthood. Permanent Deacons are permitted to be married, as are a number of those now serving in this diocese. In June Cardinal Vincent ordained three new Permanent Deacons and the image shows him with the newly-ordained deacons, a good number of their brother deacons and (in albs at the front) those now in training for the Permanent Diaconate.

Not a New Chapel on the Roof Work on restoring the brickwork of the Inner Courtyard which is surrounded by Archbishop’s House, Clergy House and the Choir School has continued over the summer.

The termtime noise of boys’ voices from the playground has been replaced by drilling, whilst the roof walk, once used by Cardinal Hume for saying the Rosary, has been taken over by piles of bricks and the contractors’ shed.

The heat of the summer and dust of the work have made life somewhat unbearable, so we look forward to a quieter and cooler time before the scaffolding goes up next year to remove yet more blackened and decayed Brickwork.

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September 2018

MONTHLY ALBUM

Leaving School for School As the academic year proceeds in the Choir School, senior choristers’ voices begin to break, the sure sign of their forthcoming departure to other schools. This is not all bad news, as they start to appear at Latin Vespers singing with the men and, perhaps, acting as cantor at Tuesday Vespers.

At the final Sunday Solemn Vespers when the full choir sang in July, all the leavers were on duty, each taking turn to precent an antiphon. In turn, the Chaplains presented them with a gift and, as Fr Martin, deputising for Canon Christopher, put it: ‘the hope that we shall see you again here, perhaps as cantors or lay clerks, or maybe as priests’.

More than a Fair Result The most fashionable eateries all have a common table as well as individual ones, and so it was at the Cathedral Summer Fair, as pictured here. Although the weather has been so scorching, it nonetheless brought out a high level of support. The final sum raised was £4,860 and our thanks go both to all who supported as well as those who organised and manned stalls.

Give Peace a Chance!

Pax Christi is an international movement, which describes itself as promoting ‘a culture of peace and non-violence’. Each year, on 6 and 9 August, members take their place by the Cathedral doors as an act of witness, inviting passers-by and worshippers to reflect more deeply on the demands of the gospel in the light of Christ’s fundamental act of reconciliation in his Passion and Crucifixion.

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THE SECOND ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER

Taking a View of Cardinal Manning, Part IV (concluded) Fr Nicholas Schofield The Poor Man's Cardinal If Manning was ecclesiologically an Ultramontane, he was a political and social progressive. He did not see this as a contradiction; once the revealed truths of God were safeguarded within the Church, there was a duty for Christians to act as leaven in the world, to build up God's Kingdom and bring the light of Christ to those living in darkness. Moreover, he saw the individual as a 'soul-body', being concerned not only with their eternal salvation but their physical and material well-being. Thus, in 1884 he served on a Royal Commission that investigated the condition of working-class housing. Although dismissive of movements for Church Reunion, he acknowledged the good to be found in other denominations; he was, for example, on friendly terms with William Booth and commended the practical Christianity of the Salvation Army. He actively promoted teetotalism and founded the Total Abstinence League of the Cross, which organised large rallies and promoted a special 'Truce' around St Patrick's Day. Indeed, the structure of the League took its inspiration from the Salvation Army. Despite his Englishness, he had a great concern for the people of Ireland, who formed a large part of his flock, and argued for greater religious equality and an end to the land laws. He influenced Gladstone in supporting the disestablishment of the Irish Church and by the end of his life was increasingly favourable to Home Rule.

His most famous intervention, however, came in the London Dock Strike of 1889 - as a result of which he became a popular hero. Working conditions in the docks were undeniably tough, with low pay, dangerous conditions and casual working hours. When Ben Tillett demanded a rise in the basic wage and a minimum daily period of four hours’ employment, these were rejected and he called the strike that came to involve as many as 130,000 men; the London docks effectively ceased to function. Manning endorsed trade unionism and believed that every citizen had a right to work. He supported the National Agricultural Labourers' Union, founded by Joseph Arch (a Primitive Methodist), arguing for a nine-and-a-half hour working day and a minimum wage of 16 shillings a week. Manning spoke at public meetings in 1872 and 1874 alongside Protestant and even atheist speakers. In an 1874 lecture on 'The Dignity and Rights of Labour', Manning famously anticipated many of the arguments that would later be found in Pope Leo XIII's ground breaking encyclical, Rerum Novarum (1891). 'The strength and skill that are in a man,' he argued, 'are as much his own 20

Cardinal Manning maintains a watchful eye on all that happens in the Common Room of Clergy House

as his life-blood; and that skill and strength which he has as his personal property no man may control.' As a result, Manning claimed for labour the rights of capital: 'labour has a right, not only to its own freedom, but it has a right to protect itself.'

The Cardinal followed events closely and met with the dock directors and strike leaders several times. He was part of the Mansion House Committee, formed by the Lord Mayor to seek reconciliation, and, on one occasion, went to Ben Tillett's house and, finding him out, waited for him all afternoon. He amused himself by reading the latest Sherlock Holmes story in the Strand magazine. The directors initially agreed to raise wages at the start of the next year, but the dock workers obviously wanted the pay rise sooner and objected to the suggestion that no demands for extra money for overtime be made. Manning held a four-hour meeting with the strikers and made what has been called 'the last great speech of his life'. He proposed Oremus

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THE SECOND ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER 4 November (the feast of his great patron, St Charles Borromeo) as the date from which the terms should apply.

Eventually, the meeting accepted the date and permitted the Cardinal to negotiate a settlement. Manning was hailed as the people's hero and at the May Day procession of 1890 his portrait appeared alongside that of Karl Marx on some of the banners! Perhaps not surprisingly, there were critical voices within the Catholic community. The future Cardinal Vaughan represented the 'old' Catholics and landed families, who looked to the Church as 'the best safeguard of property' and the status quo. He later wrote that Manning's interventions were the result of a weakening mind and lack of judgement, as was sometimes found in old age.

What is surprising is just how wide and global his concerns were. Manning is impressive in what we might today call his 'outreach': he condemned the persecution of the Jews in Russia, he supported the world's first antivivisectionist organisation and attended the meetings of the Metaphysical Society, discussing with Protestants, deists and atheists such subjects as the ultimate grounds of belief and the immortality of the soul. In a speech at a prize-giving at the London Hospital, he spoke in favour of the theory of evolution. Many Catholic bishops of the time were concerned with the narrow interests of their Church and the complex implications of a newly-restored hierarchy. Manning was not one of these.

Legacy Manning's was an austere though charismatic personality. Looking back to his first audience with the Cardinal, Francis MacNutt, an American Papal Chamberlain, wrote that: 'while his photographs, liberally displayed in shop windows, had made his features familiar to me, I was none the less impressed by the ascetic cast of his countenance, a something no camera ever caught, and by his beautifully modulated voice. It seemed to me that I had never heard our language so faultlessly spoken. The shabbiness of his dress was conspicuous. The several Cardinals I had known in Rome were sufficiently gorgeous, and I took this for granted. Here, I beheld the most illustrious of them all, with the red silk of his sleeves actually frayed, and a biretta, faded into a dull pink tone, set carelessly on his head.' GK Chesterton famously described him as 'a ghost clad in flames'. Despite appearances, he was a man of great culture and wit, and his door was open to all classes of society.

His strong principles make it easy to understand why he clashed with certain contemporaries, perhaps most famously his fellow convert cardinal, Blessed John Henry Newman. They were temperamentally opposites - Manning found Newman's seeming evasiveness and prickliness trying - and, as we have seen, disagreed over some of the crucial issues of the day, such as education and infallibility.

Manning's trusty butler at Archbishop's House was called William Newman, which led to a malicious rumour that: 'he had been chosen for this name of his because Manning liked to order about a person called Newman - but this was pure legend.' Indeed, the apparent rift between the two September 2018

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men saddened Manning. He confessed to the Duchess of Buccleuch that Newman was 'difficult' and that others had found him to be so, but he kept him in his prayers. When it was proposed that Rome should be petitioned to give Newman a red hat, Manning's reaction - after a pregnant pause - was 'Fiat Voluntas Tua' (Thy Will be Done!).

Manning was equally generous when it came to preaching the eulogy at Newman's funeral.

Newman is often seen as the great thinker and saint, while Manning is the strong leader and man of action. But we should not downplay his intellectual achievements.

Out of all the Archbishops of Westminster, Manning was probably the most gifted and original theologian. Although his writings were not systematic, some of the themes that regularly appeared in them were cutting-edge for the times - such as his stress on the action of the Holy Spirit and his vision of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ. These were not common themes in 19th century theology and would be taken up and developed in the 20th century.

His concern for Catholic Social Teaching was picked up not only in Rerum Novarum but in a whole series of papal documents, right up to Benedict XVI's Caritas in veritate (2009) and Francis' Evangelii Gaudium (2013) (and to a certain extent Laudato Si, 2015).

Manning's achievements are extraordinary but under-appreciated. As we already noted, his reputation unexpectedly plummeted in the years following his death.

Even the story of his personal papers is something of a drama. Kept for many years at Bayswater by the Oblates of St Charles, by the time their future as a community was being questioned it was clear that the archive was in a poor state - that much had been damaged during the vicissitudes of war and that some had been taken by his unscrupulous biographers. Thanks to the AbbĂŠ Chapeau, a French scholar who dedicated his life to studying this English cardinal, the papers that remained were taken to Angers to be sorted and saved for posterity. Such was the confusion of the times that one wonders what might have happened had he not stepped in. Over the years, some of the papers were deposited at the Bodleian and Pitts Emory University. In July 2014 the remaining ones were entrusted to the care of the Westminster Diocesan Archives.

It is unfortunate that some of the initiatives closest to his heart did not survive very long - St Thomas' Seminary in Hammersmith was closed by Vaughan within a year of his death; the Catholic University College in Kensington failed within his lifetime; the League of the Cross declined; more recently, his beloved Oblates of St Charles were suppressed in the 1960s. As a result, Manning's legacy is perhaps less tangible than that of Wiseman and Vaughan and, certainly, Newman. As David Newsome reflected: 'the passage of time will always favour the thinker rather than the doer of great deeds. Actions, however admirable, retain only an historical interest, while words endure.' Yet, the reputation of this eminent Victorian, this convert of Farm Street, this faithful Shepherd, this prophetic theologian and social reformer is too often forgotten. Surely he is worthy of reexamination 125 years after his death.

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Ss Cosmas and Damian were brothers, born in Arabia. Their Christian claim to fame lies in the skill which they both developed as physicians. That alone was sufficient to win them widespread acclaim, but what distinguishes them was they served the sick in total charity without requesting any fee for their ministrations. Thus they are known as ‘The Unmercenaries’. As notable citizens of Egaea in Cilicia, they were obvious targets for the persecution of Christians that broke out under the Roman Emperor Diocletian in the late 3rd century and were executed in 283, reportedly with their three other brothers. Their names, and therefore the place of medicine, are assured in the Roman Liturgy, since their names are included among those of the saints named in the Roman Canon, Eucharistic Prayer I. Ss Cosmas and Damian by Jean Bourdichon (1457 – 1521)

The Month of

September Holy Father’s Prayer Intention: Universal: Young People in Africa That young people in Africa may have access to education and work in their own countries.

Saturday 1 September

Ps Week 1 Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday Anniversary of the death of Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, 10th Archbishop of Westminster 12.30pm Anniversary Requiem Mass (Cardinal Nichols)

Tuesday 4 September St Cuthbert, Bishop

Wednesday 5 September

Feria 5.30pm Mass attended by Cathedral Volunteers Feria Choral Services resume Feria

Friday abstinence

Saturday 8 September

THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 2.30pm Malta Day Mass 4.30pm Extraordinary Form Mass

Ps Week 2 22nd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Collect: God of might, giver of every good gift, pour into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, you may nurture in us what is good and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured.

Through Christ our Lord.

10.30am Solemn Mass 4.30pm Solemn Vespers (English) and Benediction 4.30pm Deaf Service Mass (Cathedral Hall)

Feria

Wednesday 12 September

Most Holy Name of Mary

Thursday 13 September

St John Chrysostom, Bishop & Doctor All day NHS Blood Transfusion Service in Cathedral Hall

Friday 14 September

Friday abstinence THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS Veneration of the Relics of the True Cross after all Masses

Saturday 15 September Our Lady of Sorrows

Sunday 16 September

Monday 3 September

ST GREGORY THE GREAT, Pope & Doctor The Birth of the Virgin Mary

by Albrecht Dürer

Sunday 9 September

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Monday 10 September Feria

Sunday 2 September

St Gregory is dictating plainsong in an Antiphonary from St Gall

Organ: Franck – Chorale no 1 in E major 4.45pm Organ Recital: Hans-Bernhard Russ, Augustinerkirche, Würzburg

Tuesday 11 September

Thursday 6 September Friday 7 September

© B ibliothèque nationale de France

DIARY

Ps Week 3 23rd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Collect: O God, by whom we are redeemed and receive adoption, look graciously upon your beloved sons and daughters, that those who believe in Christ may receive true freedom and an everlasting inheritance. Through Christ our Lord.

9am Family Mass 10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Palestrina – Missa Papae Marcelli Howells – Salve Regina Organ: Widor – Finale (Symphonie VII) 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Bevan – Magnificat octavi toni Dupré – O salutaris hostia

Ps Week 4 24th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Collect: Look upon us, O God, creator and ruler of all things, and, that that we may feel the working of your mercy, grant that we may serve you with all our heart.

Through Christ our Lord.

9.30am – 1.30pm SVP Book Sale in Cathedral Hall 10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Mozart – Missa Brevis in F major ((K 192) G Gabrieli – Iubilate Deo omnis terra Hassler – O sacrum convivium Organ: Schmidt – Prelude and Fugue in D (“Hallelujah”) 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Andreas – Magnificat primi toni Rossini – O salutaris hostia Organ: J S Bach – Concerto in C major (BWV 594) 4.45pm Organ Recital: Thomas Dahl (St Petri, Hamburg)

Monday 17 September

Feria (St Robert Bellarmine, Bishop & Doctor)

Tuesday 18 September

Feria 7, 8 & 10.30am Masses in the Lady Chapel 12.30, 1.05 & 5.30pm Masses in Cathedral Hall 7.30pm Concert: Verdi’s Requiem (Monteverdi Choir) Oremus

September 2018

DIARY AND NOTICES Wednesday 19 September

Feria (St Januarius, Bishop & Martyr) 6.30pm Farewell to Fr Martin Plunkett (Cathedral Hall) 7.30pm Grand Organ Festival Recital: Stephen Farr (London)

Organ: J S Bach – Prelude in B minor (BWV 544) 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Lassus – Magnificat octavi toni Schütz – Jauchzet dem Herren Organ: J S Bach – Fugue in B minor (BWV 544) 4.45pm Organ Recital: Performer to be confirmed

Monday 24 September

Our Lady of Walsingham

Tuesday 25 September

Feria All day NHS Blood Transfusion Service in Cathedral Hall

Wednesday 26 September Feria (Ss Cosmas & Damian)

Thursday 27 September

St Vincent de Paul, Priest

Friday 28 September

Friday abstinence Feria (St Wenceslaus, Martyr; St Lawrence Ruiz & Companions, Martyrs)

Saturday 29 September

The Martyrdom of St Januarius

by Girolamo Pesce

Thursday 20 September

Ss Andrew Kim Tae-gon, Priest, Paul Chong Ha-sang & Companions, Martyrs

Friday 21 September

Friday abstinence ST MATTHEW, Apostle & Evangelist 2.15pm Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School Foundation Day Mass 5.30pm Said Mass

Saturday 22 September

Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday 9.30am – 4.30pm Divine Mercy Day of Prayer 6pm Visiting Choir: King Edward’s School, Witley

Sunday 23 September

Ps Week 1 25th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Collect: O God, who founded all the commands of your sacred Law upon love of you and of our neighbour, grant that, by keeping your precepts, we may merit to attain eternal life. Through Christ our Lord.

10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Byrd – Mass for Four Voices Palestrina – Si ambulavero in medio Tallis – Salvator mundi September 2018

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SS MICHAEL, GABRIEL and RAPHAEL, Archangels 1.30pm Blessed Sacrament Procession to St George’s Cathedral, Southwark

Sunday 30 September Ps Week 2 26th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Collect: O God, who manifest your almighty power above all by pardoning and showing mercy, bestow, we pray, your grace abundantly upon us and make those hastening to attain your promises heirs to the treasure of heaven. Through Christ our Lord.

10.30am Solemn Mass (Full Choir) Magnus Williamson – Missa Tertia MacMillan – A New Song Organ: Reger – Hallelujah! Gott zu loben (Fugue) 3.30pm Solemn Vespers and Benediction Lassus – Magnificat primi toni Tallis – O salutaris hostia Organ: Franck – Cantabile 4.45pm Organ Recital: Performer to be confirmed Key to the Diary: Saints’ days and holy days written in BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS denote Sundays and Solemnities, CAPITAL LETTERS denote Feasts, and those not in capitals denote Memorials, whether optional or otherwise. Memorials in brackets are not celebrated liturgically.

What Happens and When

Public Services: The Cathedral opens shortly before the first Mass of the day; doors close at 7.00pm, Monday to Saturday, with occasional exceptions.

On Sunday evenings the Cathedral closes after the 7.00pm Mass. On Public and Bank Holidays the Cathedral closes at 5.30pm in the afternoon.

Monday to Friday: Masses: 7.00am; 8.00am; 10.30am (Latin, said); 12.30pm; 1.05pm and 5.30pm (Solemn, sung by the Choir). Morning Prayer (Lady Chapel): 7.40am. Evening Prayer (Latin Vespers* sung by the Lay Clerks in the Lady Chapel): 5.00pm (*except Tuesday when it is sung in English). Rosary is prayed after the 5.30pm Mass.

Saturday: Masses: 8.00am; 9.00am; 10.30am (Solemn Latin, sung by the Choir); and 12.30pm.

Morning Prayer (Lady Chapel): 10.00am. First Evening Prayer of Sunday (Lady Chapel): 5.30pm.

First Mass of Sunday: 6.00pm.

Sunday: Masses: 8.00am; 9.00am; 10.30am (Solemn, sung by the Choir); 12 noon; 5.30pm; and 7.00pm. Morning Prayer (Lady Chapel) 10.00am.

Solemn Vespers and Benediction: 3.30pm. Organ Recital (when scheduled): 4.45pm.

Holy Days of Obligation: As Monday-Friday, Vigil Mass (evening of the previous day) at 5.30pm.

Public Holidays: Masses: 10.30am, 12.30pm, 5.00pm.

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament: This takes place in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel every Monday to Friday following the 1.05pm Mass, until 4.45pm.

Confessions are heard at the following times: Saturday: 10.30am-6.30pm. Sunday: 11.00am1.00pm; and 4.30-7.00pm. Monday-Friday: 11.30am-6.00pm. Public Holidays: 11.00am1.00pm.

Sacred Heart Church, Horseferry Road SW1P 2EF: Sunday Mass 11.00am, Weekday Mass Thursday 12.30pm Funerals: Enquiries about arranging a funeral at the Cathedral or Sacred Heart Church, Horseferry Road, should be made to a priest at Cathedral Clergy House in the first instance.

Throughout the Year Mondays: 11.30am: Prayer Group in the Hinsley Room. 6.30pm: Guild of the Blessed Sacrament in the Cathedral Tuesdays: Walsingham Prayer Group in St George’s Chapel 2.30pm on first Tuesday of the month; 6.30pm: The Guild of St Anthony in the Cathedral.

Wednesdays: 12.00pm: First Wednesday Quiet Days on the first Wednesday of every month in the Hinsley Room.

Thursdays: 1.15pm: Padre Pio Prayer Group at Sacred Heart Church. 6.30pm: The Legion of Mary in Clergy House.

Fridays: 5.00pm: Charismatic Prayer Group in the Cathedral Hall – please check in advance for confirmation.

Saturdays: 10.00am: Centering Prayer Group in the Hinsley Room. 2.00pm: Justice and Peace Group in the Hinsley Room on the last of the month.

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A CONTINUING WORK GOING FORWARD

Cardinal Hume’s Memory through Practical Works Robert Arnott Cardinal Basil Hume OSB, who had been Archbishop of Westminster since 1976, died on 17 June 1999. Responding to visible homelessness and vulnerability, particularly among young people, in 1986 the Cardinal founded the Centre which he was persuaded should bear his name. In June each year, the Cardinal’s family and the Centre’s community come together to celebrate Mass. This year’s Anniversary Mass was an opportunity to reflect on the work of the Centre and its mission – a stone’s throw from Westminster Cathedral. That seemed especially timely as the Centre enters the next phase in its existence: welcoming George O’Neill as its new chief executive, and looking forward to opening the refurbished client services space in early autumn.

This article is adapted from the opening address, taking the catholicity of the Centre as its theme. The fact of the Mass being celebrated on the feast day of St John Southworth – himself a victim of persecution – carried a special resonance with some of the Centre’s work. Our community talks often about the ethos of the Centre, alongside the substance of its work: in other words, about the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ of what it does. Part of Cardinal Hume’s legacy – our adoption of core parts of his Benedictine ethos – guides the Centre’s ‘how’ and its ‘what’.

In particular, • the Centre aims to welcome visitors as though they were Christ himself, • and then give that practical expression, in the support which is offered, in the hands of its volunteers, its staff, its donors, and its clients, one-to-another.

Thinking about ethos first, the Centre is particularly proud of the quality of the welcome its clients say they experience: of the sense of belonging and community, and of the ability to offer dignity and to strengthen self-respect. These give authentic, emotional expression to Cardinal Hume’s exhortation, that ‘every human life matters’.

The Centre also tells its story through practical application. For example, in this last year, • 1,190 new clients registered with the Centre,

• 48 people obtained employment, • 34 clients per month on average attended the Job Club, • an average of 68 people visited the IT suite every month, • 162 people were taught to speak English, • 315 new immigration advice cases were opened, • 87 people secured or extended their right to remain in the UK, • 138 children and parents attended the Homework Clubs, • 107 children and families attended Family Fridays, 93 children and parents attended Saturday morning activities, 68 children attended holiday programmes, and 39 people took part in Wellbeing Wednesdays.

Each one of those numbers is a human being, to whom the Centre has given practical support, and also hope.

Many in the Centre’s community are also keenly aware of the refurbishment work currently underway, directly beneath where the anniversary Mass was celebrated, perhaps through contributing to its cost, or through involvement in a service or activity that has been relocated temporarily. This autumn, the new front door will open – directly underneath the sanctuary and tabernacle of Sacred Heart Church – where the team will be able to offer an even warmer welcome to its clients. And, because all the client-facing teams will be grouped together for the first time, there will be even better integrated support.

This seems to me an almost perfect metaphor for Catholic Social Teaching at work in the Centre: emotional warmth and practical succour being offered together, between walls quite literally holding up holy ground.

Thank you for your support and interest in the Cardinal Hume Centre, carrying out its work in our community. From what those of you who knew him tell us, my fellow trustees and I perceive that Cardinal Hume would smile on what the Centre has been doing. But I also hope that he would urge us onwards. We have a strong team, a refurbished building, and George O’Neill – Cathy Corcoran’s successor as chief executive – now in post. The Centre’s work is not yet done.

• 37 young people out of 43 in the hostel moved on positively (including increasing focus on unaccompanied asylumseeking children, who can face great challenges),

If you would like to get involved with the Centre or make a donation, or you need its help, the website is cardinalhumecentre.org.uk, and the Advice and Assessment team is on Medway Street or via 020 7227 1673.

•5 1 people or families were prevented from facing eviction proceedings or from being evicted from their homes,

Robert Arnott is Chair of Trustees for the Cardinal Hume Centre and a Cathedral parishioner.

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Oremus

September 2018

THE FRIENDS OF WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL

A Summer of Historical Perspective Christina White As I write, the heavens have opened and rain is splish-sploshing down on to the pavement outside Archbishop’s House. This biblical storm – we have thunder and lightning to boot - has signalled the end, rather dramatically, of the summer heatwave which saw the workers of Clergy House confined to the shade and the shadows, and placing extra orders for electrical fans.

Summer for the Friends focused on history. Professor Andrew Sanders was in conversation with Lady Antonia Fraser who came to Cathedral Hall at the end of June to talk about her latest book, The King and the Catholics: The Fight for Rights 1829. It was a fascinating and engaging evening, as Lady Antonia spoke at length about her career as an historian and the compulsion she felt to put pen to paper on a lesser-known period of Catholic history and reform. She was especially interesting on the legacy of the French Revolution and the sanctuary which England offered to Catholic Religious fleeing death and persecution in the ‘enlightened republic’. Nuns arriving at Shoreham Beach in 1792 were told: ‘We will make every effort to procure you that happiness and peace which you could no longer enjoy in France; take courage, therefore, you have nothing more to fear’. Wellington too proved himself to be a supporter of Catholic Emancipation, not least September 2018

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because he had witnessed at first hand the courage and loyalty of the many Catholic Irish soldiers who enlisted for the Peninsular Wars. Lady Antonia stayed on at the end of the evening to sign books and to speak to the many Friends who queued up to talk to her. Our thanks go to Andrew for a scholarly interview. It was a format that we have rarely tried in the past, but may well revisit.

In July the lovely Alison Weir returned to talk about her latest novel, Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen.

The Queen may have been haunted by the ghosts of the past and the fate that befell her predecessors, but she had the King’s loyalty who, unto death, regarded her with absolute affection.

Little is known about Jane – beyond the historical facts of her birth, life and death - but Alison certainly has shed new light on the Queen’s tragic demise and disagrees with the commonlyheld view that Jane died as a result of puerperal fever, a common postpartum infection which was still taking lives in this country into the 20th century. Alison’s input is that Jane died of an embolism – possibly triggered by a period of food poisoning which she suffered after the birth of Prince Edward. Her theory certainly fits with the descriptions of Jane’s last hours.

Alison has just finished the fourth book in the series on Anne of Cleves and we will look forward to welcoming her back to the Cathedral.

Coming up we have our quiz and curry night on 9 October and our very special Speaker’s House event on 23 October. And an early reminder that the Christmas Fair will be on Sunday 9 December in Cathedral Hall. We have already started to collect items for the Fair, so if you have had a clear-out over the summer, please do bear us in mind.

Forthcoming Events The September tour of the Houses of Parliament, now translated to October, is sold out.

Tuesday 9 October: Quiz and Curry Night. The curry quiz returns with Indian lager and Guinness on sale.

There will be a choice of menus again, so please indicate when booking which food option you require: lamb korma, vegetarian biryani or chicken Madras.

Poppadoms and dips on the tables.

Please note that for the Curry Quiz we stipulate a maximum table size of eight people. Doors open at 6.30pm. Ticket price: £18.00 Tuesday 23 October: The Speaker’s House. Full details of this very special event are available from the Friends’ Office. Please note that you must be a fully paid-up member of the Friends to join the evening reception. Ticket price £80 for a single ticket, or joint ticket £150.

Please call 020 7798 9059 Sunday 9 December: The Westminster Cathedral Christmas Fair. Please note the date.

Donations for the Fair may be brought to Clergy House Reception, clearly marked ‘Christmas Fair’.

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

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CROSSWORD AND POEM

VOICE OF THE LIVING LIGHT: Hildegard of Bingen Kathryn Southworth My skull parted like petals of a flower when the sun warms the earth, and the light descended flooding my head like the waters of birth.

My mind crackled with exploding stars, and my hoarded visions were painful as glass splinters, until I let them go so they were written

Alan Frost: July 2018

Clues Across 1 Activity characteristic of mendicant Orders (7) 6 ‘--- missa est’, instruction at the end of Mass in Latin (3) 8 Animals in Trafalgar Square designed by Landseer (5) 9 Mass text sung preceding the Consecration (7) 10 A former President of the USA (5) 11 Permission or privilege granted by the Pope, as Quattuor Abhinc Annos of 1984 (6) 13 Thomas, brilliant Catholic composer in the time of Elizabeth I, taught William Byrd (6) 15 ‘------ Cesare’, musical drama by Handel performed at this summer’s Glyndebourne (6) 17 Projecting piece of stone in a cathedral wall, decoration or support (6) 20 The insects for which Vaughan Williams composed an Overture (5) 21 Word of rejoiceful celebration as in 9 Down (7) 23 Diocese in England, led by Bishop Marcus Stock (5) 24 --- Angelico, Dominican artist of such masterpieces as The Annunciation (3) 25 ‘Parable of the -------’, lesson from Jesus (Matt 25) about master entrusting property to his servants (7)

and told how the green breath of our generous creator gives life to all we see and how the soul flows through the body like sap through a tree.

I can see time unfolded from the dawn’s first light to the last days of dust the entire creation courses through each one of us.

St Hildegard, 12th century visionary, ecologist and composer, was declared a Doctor of the Church in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. Her feast day falls on 17 September.

Clues Down 1 Given by the priest to the congregation at the end of Mass (8) 2 French composer born 200 years ago, composed the Ave Maria based on a Bach air (6) 3 Short for ‘in this month’, formal correspondence (4) 4 ‘Through a ----- darkly’, St. Paul’s reference to not seeing love properly [I Cor. 13] (5) 5 State of the USA at the southern end of The Rockies (8) 6 Country in the Holy Land (6) 7 Book of the Old Testament (4) 12 One of the Irish Provinces and a successful rugby team (8) 14 ‘Domine Jesu Rex et Redemptor Sanguinem Tuum ----- ---’, prayer over entrance to the cathedral (5,3) 16 Early Saint, martyred with 11,000 virgin followers, relics in Cologne basilica named after her (6) 18 St. Hildegard of ------, recently made Doctor of the Church, Feast Day 17 Sep (6) 19 ‘Come Holy -----, Creator, Come’, traditional hymn (5) 20 Ermanno ….-Ferrari, Italian composer of Jewels of the Madonna (4) 22 First King of 6 Down (4)

ANSWERS Across: 1 Begging 6 Ite 8 Lions 9 Sanctus 10 Obama 11 Indult 13 Tallis 15 Giulio 17 Corbel 20 Wasps 21 Hosanna 23 Leeds 24 Fra 25 Talents Down: 1 Blessing 2 Gounod 3 Inst 4 Glass 5 Colorado 6 Israel 7 Ezra 12 Leinster 14 Salva Nos 16 Ursula 18 Bingen 19 Ghost 20 Wolf 22 Saul

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Hildegard dictating to her secretary in the Rupertsberg Codex of the Liber Scivias

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

Oremus

September 2018

IN PRAISE OF BENEFACTORS

A Cope with a History Fr John Scott The cupboards in the Song School contain a large quantity of vestments that see the light of day in the Cathedral rather infrequently, either because of age or frailty, or because of weight of fabric and embroidery. A trip downstairs to find a cope suitable for the celebration of Second Vespers of the Solemnity of Ss Peter and Paul produced this example, with a plain metallic fabric gold hood and orphreys and metallic thread interwoven into the red fabric of the body of the cope. Only when it had been taken upstairs and hung up in the sacristy did its history become clear, since the decorated piece of fabric illustrated has been sewn into the lining of the cope.

The Bellingham Cope

The decorated label sewn into the lining, revealing the history. St Pius X had been Pope for two years at the time of the donation.

Who was Sir Henry Bellingham, the 4th Baronet, donor of the cope in 1905, just two years after the opening of the Cathedral? Born on the Castlebellingham Estate, Co Louth in Ireland in 1846, he was educated at Harrow School and then Oxford. In 1874 he married Lady Constance Julia Eleanor Georgiana Noel, daughter of the 2nd Earl of Gainsborough, by whom he had two sons and two daughters.

Called to the Bar in 1875, he went on to serve in the 6th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles, before entering the House of Commons as Member for Co Louth in 1880. A succession of posts connected with Louth followed – Justice of Peace, High Sheriff and Lord Lieutenant (this last until his death in 1921), whilst on the national scene he became

Commissioner of National Education for Ireland. Sir Henry was widowed in 1891, but in 1895 married a second wife, the Hon. Lelgarde Harry Florence Clifton, at the church of Our Lady, St John’s Wood. We know little more than this, save that his faith brought him the distinction of serving as Private Chamberlain to three Popes: Bl Pius IX, Leo XIII and St Pius X. Not all our vestments tell such stories, but it is good to be reminded of those who, at various times and in various ways, sought to enrich the fabric and worship of the Cathedral. The notice above the sacristy doors tells the clergy (in Latin) ‘Let us be mindful of our benefactors in the sacrifices which we offer’ and in that spirit we give thanks for Sir Henry and pray for his repose.

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FIFTY AND ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

In retrospect: from the Cathedral Chronicle The Editor was recently made aware of the omission of the name of Fr Malachy Riddle from the list of anniversaries of deceased diocesan clergy in the Westminster Year Book.

This obituary, by ‘D.C.’, appeared in the Cathedral News Sheet: The death of Fr Malachy Riddle, who was killed in Nigeria on 29 July, is a great loss to the diocese. He would have taken up his appointment in September. He volunteered to join the Save the Children Mission team and flew to Nigeria at less than four hours’ notice. He was killed with a medical student when their Land-Rover struck a mine near the Biafran lines. He was buried on Saturday 5 August in the grounds of Enugu Cathedral.

His seminary years, first at St Edmund’s and later at the Beda College, Rome, were decisive in his life. His friends saw a growing love of Christ, the intensity of which took one’s breath away. In the last two years of his training, he began to see that to love Christ you must above all else love his people, and love them deeply. This was not easy for Malachy – with his vigorous intellect, his challenging and controversial personality, his impatience for change.

But that personality, once committed to a goal, never swerved. He made a great contribution to community life at the Beda, insisting that the seminary was not to be treated as a staging-point for the future, but: ‘should be lived fully in Christian love, as if the future might never come’.

He was killed in Nigeria a bare three months after his ordination. He knew he should not stand aside from the desperate need of the sick and starving there. There were no heroics – he thought neither of being killed nor of being safe – he went because he must. Our Church has lost an utterly dedicated and able priest. His family and friends have lost a bright strong spirit they loved, whose passing makes the day seem darker and the load heavier. ........

Cardinal Heenan’s Pastoral Letter is on the Encyclical Humane Vitae: Press, radio and television have already brought you the news that the Pope has given his promised guidance on the morality of artificial contraception. He realised that his words would be a disappointment to many. He foresaw that they would create bitterness in those who had expected a different solution to this delicate problem. We have been 28

told of his anguish during recent months. His reluctance to give pain partly explains his long delay in issuing a statement. He had to speak according to his conscience even though his decision might be unpopular …

Not only members of his commission but clergy and faithful from all over the world sent their views to the Pope. He studied them all. That is another reason why his reply did not come sooner. But some are now saying that the Pope had no right to dissent from the opinion of the majority of the members of his commission. No member thought that we could resolve the problem by a majority vote. We were asked to sift evidence and present the Pope with our findings. It was always understood that the decision must be by him alone as Christ’s Vicar. The law of God cannot be decided by a majority vote. We in this country have reason to know that a majority of men and women of good will need not necessarily make right judgments on ethical questions. A solid majority in Parliament recently approved the so-called social clause in the Abortion Bill by which the perfectly healthy child in the womb of a perfectly healthy mother can be legally destroyed. No Church but ours opposed this legislation. from Westminster Cathedral News Sheet, September 1968

A Correspondent writes: For some time we have been engaged here in Poplar erecting a Wayside Cross at the corner of Canton Street and North Street. It is now ready for formal blessing by the Cardinal on 1 September, and is a really fine achievement.

Except for the beautifully carved, wooden, life-size figure, all the materials have been supplied locally. The Cross stands 21 feet high and is embedded in four to five tons of concrete, piled at the foot to form a rockery. The corner walls enclosing the Presbytery grounds have been cut away and the Cross railed and wired-in to a height of about eight feet. It is in all a massive structure: the Cross is made of hard pine-wood and is of such proportions that it took about ten men to put the upright piece alone into position.

It has a deep penthouse, while two beautiful wrought iron lamps are attached below. The whole is a handsome structure – one further credit to our people and their devoted Rector, Fr Thomas Doyle – and I venture to think that it is the first Wayside Cross, properly so-called, to be seen in the streets of London for many a long year past.

From Westminster Cathedral Chronicle, September 1918 Oremus

September 2018

IMPROVING THE CATHEDRAL’S FINANCES

An Encouraging Start Linda McHugh, Chair, Finance and Planning Committee In the April Oremus, I gave an overview of the Planned Giving Campaign (PGC) in Lent and promised to give further information when it became available. I am now in a position to tell you that we have made a promising start towards our target of getting the Cathedral onto a firm financial footing. You will recall that, during the three-week campaign, we shared information about the Cathedral’s financial problems and appealed to all those who attend Mass here for your help, asking you to reflect prayerfully on increasing the amount that you give to the Cathedral, committing to making a regular donation and signing up for Gift Aid if eligible to do so. Everyone, whether or not they were already a regular donor, was asked to make a pledge on a Promise Form distributed during Mass.

Gratifyingly, during the PGC and immediately afterwards, we received some generous one-off donations for which we are most grateful and we also saw an uplift in the weekly offertory collection. This has tailed off in recent weeks, but has been running at roughly £1,000 per week more than it was previously. Perhaps the most encouraging result was that we have doubled our number of standing orders. Moreover, the average amount given by standing order has also increased and is now £42 per calendar month or about £10 per week. Unfortunately, for various technical reasons, we are not yet actually receiving the money pledged under some of the new standing orders - there could be as many as 30 still ‘pending’. So, if you set up a standing order, please could you check that the money is actually going out of your account and, if you have any reason to think that it is not, please contact your bank and let us know as soon as possible.

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The uplift in standing orders has brought with it an increase in Gift Aid which should result in a minimum of further £17,000 annually. Perhaps because of the demographics of our congregation, our Gift Aid figures are still low for a parish of this size and we are looking at ways of improving that. As regards weekly giving envelopes, we saw an increase in people asking for these, although a significant number of people have not collected their envelopes and, of those who have, not everyone uses them every week. We are currently investigating other ways of facilitating the donations of those who want to engage in planned giving, but do not want to use standing orders exclusively.

So what does this all mean in financial terms for the Cathedral? We estimate that if the average weekly offertory collection does not dip below its recent average of £9,200

AND the current level of standing order giving is maintained AND we are able to recover Gift Aid on the donations of all of those who have signed Gift Aid declarations, then we will have improved our financial position by getting on for £150,000 per annum. That is a considerable achievement and we would like to thank everyone who responded generously to the campaign.

I know that, during the PGC, some people were shocked by what they heard about our financial situation and many had not realised that we do not receive a regular direct subsidy from the diocese, from the Vatican or from the Government. Those of us delivering the message during the PGC came in for some criticism for ‘scaring people’, so I am especially grateful to the many parishioners and visitors who went out of their way to offer us encouragement and make supportive comments.

But although we have made significant strides towards getting where we need to be, we are not there yet. The operational deficit of the Cathedral was £300,000 in 2016 and nearer £400,000 last year, so we are not even half-way towards our goal of breaking even. Realistically, we will not achieve that goal through donations alone and we must look at other ways of improving the Cathedral’s financial performance, principally through cost-cutting, improved operational efficiency and the development of new or enhanced revenue streams. These things will take time to put in place.

The 2018 Planned Giving Campaign may be over, but we need to continue to work together to get to a point where everyone who enjoys the privilege of worshipping here is doing whatever he or she can to support the mission of this wonderful Cathedral and its dedicated clergy.

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ST VINCENT DE PAUL SCHOOL

In My View: The Chapel of Saint George and the English Martyrs, the Chapel of Saint Andrew and the Saints of Scotland, the Chapel of Saint Patrick and the Saints of Ireland Sofia, Year 5 I think that Westminster Cathedral is very majestic building, it is really so historic, it has so many little chapels around the sides where priests used to say their daily Mass whispering the words with their own altar server. When I think about Westminster Cathedral, the first thing that comes into my mind is the shape of the cathedral, the outline, the colour, the space it takes up.

I have known this building since the very beginning of my life. I had my First Holy Communion there; it has been a very big part of my life. Sometimes, I go to my Mum and Dad’s bedroom and just stare out of the window, because from there I can see the Cathedral and I just imagine me being there or I imagine what is going on inside it. My school is right around the corner, so we have a very strong bond with each other. We are always in the shadow of the Cathedral!

My family is part Spanish, part English. I go to Spain for my holidays and will soon live there. In Spain, they have beautiful cathedrals too. Their cathedrals are very different from the ones here; they are covered with pictures and angels. I think that the cathedrals here make me feel more prayerful, because they are more peaceful and more relaxed inside. Also the smell of the Cathedral, the candles and the incense makes me feel like I want to pray. As I was born in England, a part of me will always feel English. This is probably my last year of being taught in England. I know most of its customs and traditions and I will never forget them. All of my learning in England has been great, but it will slowly be coming to an end next year. This whole period of my life has happened right next to the Cathedral.

That is why I will never forget it.

Westminster Cathedral is a national church. When someone says national or nationalism to me, I think of the English flag, especially because of the World Cup in Russia.

It is good to be proud of your country and of who you are, but you have to be careful about it. You cannot exclude anybody and you have to be careful not to become too extreme. I am very proud to be part English, part Spanish.

I appreciate and respect both countries equally. When you go inside the Cathedral, you can tell it is a national church 30

because it has representation of all the patron saints. It also has all their emblems like the shamrock, the thistle, the cross, the leek, the daffodil and the rose.

One of the grandest chapels in the cathedral is the chapel of St George and the English Martyrs. It is filled with red and gold. It is no surprise that it is one of the most important chapels because he is the patron Saint of England! When you go inside you can see the rose on the floor, which is the national emblem. The whole chapel is full of emblems. The rose, the most important one, is made from mother of pearl and lapis lazuli, which are two very rare and very expensive materials. It is quite funny that St George is the patron saint of England, because he was not English, he was a Roman! The most amazing sculpture in the chapel is of Christ the Redeemer. It was sculpted by Eric Gill, who is one of Britain’s greatest modern sculptors.

Sadly, he died in 1940. The sculpture is very simple, but it has a lot of detail. The sculpture has Christ on the cross in the middle and it has St Thomas More and St John Fisher who were both executed by King Henry VIII for their faith.

This chapel also has the body of St John Southworth the martyr who was hung, drawn and quartered, in Elizabethan times. The chapel is full of images and people of sacrifice.

On the ceiling of the chapel there are flames of fire which have the names of the martyrs inscribed in them. The chapel is full of sacrifice, but also full of caring because it has a modern mosaic called “Christ the Healer.” It is a memorial to medical professionals who gave their lives in war, and there are war memorials for the soldiers who also gave their lives in war. St John Southworth was brave enough to die for his beliefs and in his time when there was plague, he did not run away, he helped people who were sick whether they were Protestant or Catholic. The chapel is now complete and is full of modern mosaics, put in since 2001. In 1995, when Queen Elizabeth II visited the Cathedral, she had a special chair and kneeler made just for her when she went to attend evening prayer called Vespers. She is the head of the family of the nation.

This kneeler and chair are a silent symbol to us of the importance of the monarchy in our country. The chapel Oremus

September 2018

ST VINCENT DE PAUL SCHOOL slithering across all the columns to remind us that he drove all the snakes away from Ireland and to remind us that he fought evil with good. Another one of the amazing details is all the shamrocks including the one that he is holding in the modern mosaic by Trevor Caley. On the side of the altar is a casket, which has the names of over 50,000 Irish soldiers who fought in the First World War and who lost their lives. The Celtic nations of Scotland, Ireland and Wales are all together in this Cathedral as chapels and mosaics.

All of these chapels show the positive side of nationality and of being proud of your nation. I think it is good that all the nations of our country are represented in the Cathedral because it welcomes people from the whole of the United Kingdom, so that they can pray or light a candle. It is good because it shows that we live together with each other in peace and harmony.

I am the last writer for this theme from St Vincent de Paul School during this academic year of ‘In My View’.

My friends and I have written about the chapels and quiet corners of the Cathedral. I hope that the people of the world find these articles informative and interesting and I hope that those who visit the Cathedral will remember all the children who wrote the articles and pray for them. I hope you had a lovely summer. Watch out for our theme next year: ‘Saints in Mosaic’ would be a good place to visit when somebody is not very well. In June, the body of St John Southworth is brought out of the chapel into the middle of the Cathedral. This year was special because when his body was there, six new priests were ordained and they had to lie face down as a sign of self-giving whilst he lies face up as a saint who was completely self-giving.

The chapel of St Andrew and the Scottish Saints is completely different to St George’s chapel. It is very dark and gloomy, but it is still beautiful. The furniture is made from ebony and ivory, the ebony is a black wood and the ivory comes from the tusks of elephants - but we wouldn’t kill elephants for ivory today! The main colours in the chapel are black and grey, dark colours. The person who paid for this was a Scottish Lord who came from a very rich family. There is a seaside feel to the whole chapel because the ceiling is made in a fish-scale pattern in a shimmering silver colour and on the floor there are all different types of fish because Andrew was a fisherman.

When you exit or enter the chapel, you can see a beautiful mosaic of Saint David, which is made from real Welsh gold. The person who designed the mosaic was a Welshman who was called Ivor Davies. Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI blessed the mosaic. He is the first pope to have retired from being a pope.

Green is an important colour in Ireland because the rugby players wear green, the shamrock is green, the leprechauns wear green and if you don’t wear green on Saint Patrick’s Day you get pinched! Sadly, the chapel of Saint Patrick is yet to be finished, but it does have some beautiful details. One of those details are the snakes September 2018

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February 2017