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Showing posts from November, 2020

Retirement of Bishop Patrick Lynch

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Pope Francis has accepted the request of Bishop Patrick Lynch (auxiliary in Southwark) to retire slightly early on health grounds. Bishop Lynch has had special responsibility for the deaneries of the SE London area, including the parish of Blackfen where I served for many years and Lewisham where I now live in semi-retirement. I wish him well. If you are tempted to ask me details such as dates, here is the page on the ever-helpful Catholic Hierarchy website for Bishop Lynch . The following is a statement from Archbishop John Wilson: Archdiocese of Southwark The Retirement of Bishop Patrick Lynch SS.CC We are grateful to the Holy Father for granting this request and for the support of Archbishop Gugerotti, the Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain. We thank the Religious Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary for the gift of Bishop Pat to the Archdiocese of Southwark, first as a priest and then as a Bishop. As he now steps back from the formal office of Auxiliary Bishop,

Happy Thanksgiving

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  A very Happy Thanksgiving to all readers in the United States of America. I hope that you have a lovely turkey, pumpkin pie and all the rest. May God bless your families and may God bless America.

Saint Catherine, a patron much needed today

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One of the pictures that I most treasure is the central panel of the St John Altarpiece by Hans Memling. It was commissioned for the altar of the Old St John’s Hospital in Bruges and completed in 1479. The work is still there, though no longer adorning an altar. The Sint-Janshospitaal is a place that I have visited many times over the years on my regular trips to that beautiful city. On the left of the picture, the infant Jesus places a wedding ring on the finger of St Catherine who has, on the floor beside her, the famous wheel, broken, at her knees, together with the sword with which she was beheaded. The legend of St Catherine tells that before her baptism, Our Lady asked the infant Jesus to receive St Catherine among his servants. After her baptism, Our Lady presented her request again, and this time Our Lord placed a wedding ring on her finger. This mystical marriage shaped her life and her death. As a high-ranking intellectual, so the legend continues, St Catherine was chall

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