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This was us in 2010!
Westminster 2012
Thank you Message to Westminster Priests
There was standing room only at Westminster Cathedral today for the annual Chrism Mass, celebrated by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, The Most Rev Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, Auxiliary Bishops and about 350 priests and deacons of the Diocese of Westminster.
People from parishes across the diocese began arriving hours before the midday service began. Among them was a group of lively singers from St Patrick's School of Evangelisation in Soho Square who performed on the Cathedral steps.
The Association of Catholic Women, and members of several other parish groups, brought placards with Thank You messages to express their appreciation for the hard work of Westminster's dedicated priests over the past year. This is the seventh year the ACM has held their 'demonstration'.
One supporter said: "It is so rare that all our priests are gathered together - we think it's too good an opportunity to miss, to let them know how much we appreciate them."
Independent Catholic News
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Please support the vigil if you can.
Abortion Act 44th anniversary
Bishop Hines is joining a vigil at Marie Stopes Abortion facility, Brewer Street, Maidstone, Kent on Friday 20th April.
He will celebrate the 12.30 Mass at St Francis's Church, West Street, Maidstone. Then he will lead a prayerful, peaceful procession to th Marie Stopes abortuary. It will end with a return procession at 2.30 pm.
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Members of ACW attended the prayer vigil outside the BPAS clinic in Bedford Square.
Mrs Robinson wrote the first report
A Friday Night in London
What an ambition! To pray outside the British Pregnancy Advisory Service clinic in London for forty days consecutively. That was what the Forty Days for Life movement achieved and the culmination took place last Friday, March 30th. The ‘forty days’ takes us back to the tempting of Christ in the wilderness and to this time of Lent.
It was a privilege to be there for that last evening. It was growing dark, but it seemed to me that perhaps as many as five hundred people of all ages had come. It was beautiful to hear Bishop Alan Hopes' calm and gentle tones leading us in the rosary, the Stations of the Cross and other prayers. Different voices took over from Bishop Alan from time to time and we answered, raising our hearts and minds to God and asking Our Lady’s prayers. I think we were all moved. We were praying against the screaming of furious voices, girls’ voices mostly it seemed, backed up by whistles and drums and heaven knows what else. They must have felt threatened by the idea that killing babies in the womb is like killing any other human being at any age. They obviously thought that they would stop us from praying for the babies and the mothers that the fate of so many of those who enter that solid building in that beautiful London Square would be averted. We continued praying calmly and with as much concentration as we could muster.
The police kept the protesters away, but not very far away. No doubt many of those young people saw the evening as a jolly protest against upholders of morality. There is real sadness, however, in meeting such hostile ignorance.
The Forty Days for Life movement achieved a beautiful time of prayer. We thank God for their work
In great sadness...
...to Bedford Square, where a prayer-vigil was being held outside an abortion centre. We prayed, led by Bishop Alan Hopes, and young people took turns to read aloud Scriptural meditations for the Stations of the Cross. The idea was to express sorrow and repentance that none of us have been able to stem the tide of the killing of the unborn that is happening in our country, and to pledge ourselves to renewal and hope. But it was not possible to hear much as a large group of angry protesters with loud hailers and drums and various instruments had gathered to drown us out. It was one of the saddest things I have ever seen: the protesters included a number of young women, angry and shouting, a picture of sadness and self-loathing such as I have never viewed before.
It used to be that even people who viewed abortion as a legitimate choice would emphasise that it was a sad thing, that no one really wanted it, that it could and should be avoided if at all possible. That was how people spoke in the 70s and 80s when I was first involved in debates on the subject. It is the saddest things on earth to see young women shouting things like "Get your Eucharist out of my uterus" and jeering when people pray.
I went to this vigil because it had been announced that some people wanted to prevent it happening: in the Britain I inherited, the right to pray in this way was cherished, so I felt I should be there. I met a great many friends and at one level it was, or should have been, a time of solidarity and and hope. The pro-life movement is strong and there were lots of young people praying earnestly, along with priests and Franciscan friars, and older people - like me - who have taken part in various such events for decades.
But my overwhelming feeling about the evening is one of profound sadness: the image that stays with me is of the young women on the opposite side of the barriers erected by the police, shouting angrily and sort of gleefully their support for the destruction of the next generation, affirming their right to eliminate their own offspring. Thus is a nation ending itself. Whatever comes next will be different. It all feels bleak.
Joanna Bogle
Saturday, 31 March 2012
I felt proud of Bishop Hopes, the auxiliary bishop of Westminster
Bishop Alan Hopes, the auxiliary bishop of Westminster, led a huge peaceful prayer vigil in central London last night outside the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) clinic, one of Britain's largest abortion-providing groups.
I felt proud of Bishop Hopes as he gently raised his voice in prayer above a drum-banging, whistle-blowing, smaller group of abortion advocates who
- that Catholics in Britain can be proud of Bishop Alan Hopes who calmly arrived at the vigil and led the prayers when the noisy group of protestors were in full cry
- that we have something to learn from The Guardian newspaper - which, maybe more than we do, recognizes the power of episcopal leadership when bishops are prepared to make a compassionate stand for the right to life of unborn children
- that when pro-life groups and individuals and Christian leaders join together in peaceful projects like the prayer vigil last night (under the quiet, dignified leadership of Robert Colquhoun and 40 Days for Life) we see growing visibly amongst us a renewed spirit of complete determination to end abortion in Britain.
John Smeaton SPUC
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