Portsmouth Diocese e-News Issue 462
Pictured above is the beautiful Pugin Chapel with its splendid new altar at St Mary’s College, Oscott, the Seminary of the Archdiocese of Birmingham from where I am sending you this week’s e-News. I am here visiting our two seminarians in formation here, Deacon Diego Hoyos and Owen Dugan. I am also attending the annual meeting of Bishops and Staff. Today, Tuesday 15th October, is the College Feastday, so please say a prayer for all the staff and students here.
The sanctity of human life is a hot topic at the moment, and in e-News this week, I ask you to remember to keep the annual diocesan Day of Prayer and Reparation for Life next Wednesday. Cardinal Vincent Nichols, President of the Bishops’ Conference and Archbishop of Westminster, has issued a pastoral letter explaining Why we must oppose Assisted Suicide. There’s also an event in Reading later this month, when Dr Dominic Whitehouse, a palliative care consultant, will explain why changing the law on Assisted Suicide would be harmful to patients, doctors and society.
This week, along with the usual round up of what’s coming up in the liturgical calendar, news and events around the Diocese, I announce the designated Shrine Churches for the Jubilee Year and I invite you to join me next Tuesday evening at Sacred Heart Bordon for the launch of the devotion to Our Lady of the Holy Souls (Our Lady of Montligeon).
Meanwhile, have a blessed week ahead, and please pray for me.
In Corde Iesu
+ Philip
Bishop of Portsmouth
Day of Prayer and Reparation for Life
From the Bishop
Next Wednesday, 23rd October, is our annual diocesan Day of Prayer and Reparation for Life. It’s now almost sixty years since the 1967 Abortion Act – one of the most liberal in the world – came into effect in the UK. Since then, ten million babies have been aborted, one in five pregnancies. As a people of life, our efforts as Catholics to defend the unborn child, to care for pregnant mothers and to reverse or blunt this Act have had mixed results and this month, unjustly, new legislation will no longer allow us even to pray outside hospitals and clinics. This is why we keep every 23rd October, the day the 1967 Abortion Act was passed, as a diocesan Day of Prayer and Reparation for Life. On that day, I ask our priests to offer a Mass for the Progress of Peoples, but wearing the purple vestments of penitence. Moreover, as a people of life, we cannot idly stand by before evil, injustice, suffering and violence in our world, including the abuse of the Earth and its resources. We must act. Pope Francis, in his brilliant Encyclical Letter Laudato Si, begs people to live an authentically human ecology, a more balanced, simple life-style, a life that respects the environment, helps end poverty and espouses justice. As Catholics, we should live an integrally ‘green’ and natural way of life. Finally, we cannot stand idly by now as another death-wish is arising in our society for assisted suicide and euthanasia. This is another new line in the sand that our legislators seem poised to cross and which we need to resist for the sake of the vulnerable and the elderly. Here is a prayer we can say:
Lord Jesus, you are the source and lover of life. Reawaken in us and in every citizen respect for every human life. Help us to see in each child the marvellous work of our Creator. Open our hearts to welcome every child as a unique and wonderful gift. Guide the work of doctors, nurses and midwives. May the life of a mother and her baby in the womb be equally cherished and respected. Help those who make our laws to uphold the uniqueness and sacredness of every human life, from the first moment of conception to natural death. Give us wisdom and generosity to build a society that cares for all. Together with Mary, your Mother, in whose womb you took on our human nature, help us to choose life in every decision we take.
You can continue to read this issue in full here.
