Visit to St Andrews

St Andrews was beautiful, as ever, though rather cold and windy. The Canmore Catholic Society is in very good shape with an enthusiastic committee who are organising a Barbecue for the Pope's birthday today.

Last night, I was treated to dinner at "The Dolls House" and then joined the students for Mass at the chaplaincy (above) before giving my talk on "True and False Ecumenism" which was followed by some intelligent and challenging questions. Afterwards, Fr Halloran, the parish priest and university chaplain (who celebrates his Golden Jubilee this year) led Compline before we repaired to the Lord Russell Hotel for more discussion over a drink. In a striking example of "fusion" cooking, the hotel was offering Haggis Nachos as the "Chef's Dish of the Day" but nobody was too enthusiastic about that.

The Catholic Chaplaincy at St Andrews has been a prolific source of vocations over the years and I was glad to see that this tradition is continuing. Fr Langridge, the Vocations Director of Southwark was at the university last month to give a talk and I know that he will have been giving much encouragement.

National Express trains managed to get us down from Leuchars to Kings Cross in the predicted 5 hours 40 minutes so that I am home in good time for Rosary and Benediction. (In response to those who have kindly asked: I will be posting the text of the talk on the internet.)

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