Bishop Philip writes…
A Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you today! Prayers and blessings to all those of our readers who hail from ‘the Old Country’ or have Irish ancestry. Years ago, when I was at school, we all wore shamrocks today and sang gustily the great hymn “Hail glorious St. Patrick, dear saint of our isle.” Thinking back on it, a lot of the teachers and pupils in my primary school were of Irish origin. Indeed, my family name ‘Egan’ came on my Dad’s side from my Great-Granddad who was from County Mayo. He moved to Manchester as a young man and it was there that my Granddad and eventually my Dad were born. May St. Patrick continue to pray for us now in our own times and may his example prosper the evangelisation and conversion of these lands.
Meanwhile, welcome to this edition of e-News for Tuesday 17th March 2026. We continue in e-News this week (see Magazine section) with the second of the five spiritual conferences that Fr. Tom Kleinschmidt recently gave on St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati as models for our children. Note too the diocesan pilgrimage we are organising in the summer to Turin and to Assisi. Turin has St. John Bosco, St. Dominic Savio and the Salesian saints as well as St. Pier Giorgio. and in this eight hundredth anniversary year of St. Francis, we’re delighted to visit him too as well as St. Carlo. For now, as we enter the fourth week of Lent, may the Lord guide you and bless you with His love.
With all good wishes and an assurance of my prayers,
In Corde Iesu
+Philip
Bishop of Portsmouth
[Image: Word on Fire]
