2 HOME NEWS

JANUARY 13 2012 THE CATHOLIC HERALD

FFolllooww Thhee CCatholicc Heerald oonn Twwitttteer At Twitter.com/catholicherald

Downside Abbey is to change how school is run

BY ED WEST

ONE OF THE country’s top Catholic schools is to undertake a major review of the way it is governed, it has been announced.

The “major restructuring of governance” at Downside School in Somerset follows the conviction of a former teacher.

The change was announced after Fr Richard White was jailed for five years for gross indecency and indecent assault against a pupil in the late 1980s. Two other Downside monks, also former teachers, received police cautions during an ongoing 18-month investigation.

Downside Abbey said that “significant changes” would be announced soon.

In a letter sent to former pupils Fr Aidan Bellenger, the Abbot of Downside, said the offences which White was convicted of occurred more than 20 years ago when safeguarding procedures were “clearly not adequate”.

He said the crimes were “something that is a matter of great regret to all of us now associated with Downside. The school has since fundamentally reviewed the way it approaches safeguarding issues, and continues to reform in order to provide the safest possible environment for those in its care.

“It is the school’s understanding that two former members of staff received cautions last year in relation to historical allegations. One of those involved left Downside in 1970, while the other concerns an 80-year-old former staff member on an issue unrelated to pupil welfare.” White, of Hyde, Fordingbridge, Hampshire, was sentenced at Taunton Crown Court last week. At his trial the court was told that he was warned about his behaviour after molesting one 12-yearold boy. White, known to pupils as Fr Nick, had been allowed to continue teaching even after he was caught abusing a child in 1987 and went on to assault another pupil in the junior school, the Times newspaper reported. He was placed on restricted ministry after that incident but was not arrested until last year,

Fr Bellenger said that “police and press were aware at the time of the accusations against Richard Nicholas White but the victims’ parents and the police did not proceed to prosecution”. The court heard that White lured one of the boys, who was interested in old books, to the monastery library, which was usually off-limits to students. There he abused the boy, paying him 50p per time. White, a former British Army soldier, was dismissed from his teaching post and spent the next 20 years being sent to different monastic communities across the country.

One of White’s victims told the Times that the former priest had singled him out as vulnerable when he taught him geography from 1987. Rob Hastings, a 35-year-old IT consultant, said: “I had an interest in old books and maps and he used to take me to the library in the abbey. That’s where the abuse happened, and it went on for 18 months.”

The ordeal ended after other pupils became aware of the abuse, because he had extra money to spend at the tuck shop, and another priest reported it to the headmaster. White was removed from the school but Mr Hastings’s parents did not want to take action.

Avon and Somerset Constabulary said it was unaware of the allegations until it began an inquiry after the Diocese of Clifton received allegations in 2010.

Mr Hastings said: “I didn’t know how to deal with this when I was 12. I was told then that the Church knew how to handle it. I am aware of one boy abused by White before me, but the Church dealt with it by allowing him to carry on teaching in the junior school.

“I believe there are other former pupils out there who suffered similar experiences and I would encourage them to come forward to the police.

“The question that remains is, are the controls, the safety nets, the safeguarding procedures really being adhered to in places where religious orders are in complete control of schools?”

In October a report by Lord Carlile of Berriew following the abuse scandal at the Benedictinerun St Benedict’s in Ealing, west London, said that the order should not have been put in charge of the school without checks and balances.

The report is expected to serve as a model for other schools run by religious orders.

Downside School was unavailable for comment.

Robert Mercer, centre, is pictured with Mgr Keith Newton

Photo: Personal Ordinariate

Sixth ex-Anglican bishop is received into the ordinariate

BY MADELEINE TEAHAN

A FORMER Anglican bishop was received into the ordinariate on Saturday, making him the sixth ex-Anglican bishop to come into full communion with the Catholic Church.

Robert Mercer, former Bishop of Matabeleland, Zimbabwe, was received into the Catholic Church, through the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham during a Mass at St Agatha’s in Portsmouth.

Speaking about why he joined the ordinariate, he said that the Anglican Communion had always hoped to one day have a rapprochement with the Catholic Church, but “the Anglican Communion was now taking steps so that it could not reach unity with Rome and something had to be done about it”. He listed “outright support for abortion, prevarication concerning same-sex marriage, if not outright support for it, and worse of all a very loose adherence to basic biblical Christian teaching” as obstacles to unity.

He said that through the ordinariate “it was possible to maintain one’s cultural Anglicanism”.

“This is an answer to prayer and this is absolutely the right thing to do and is part of God’s great mercy,” he said.

Chief celebrant at the Mass Mgr Keith Newton, head of the ordinariate, said: “It is a great privilege to receive Robert into the fullness of

Catholic life. He is a man of unimpeachable moral stature who, through his ministry in Africa and with the Community of the Resurrection, brings many valuable treasures of Anglican life into the Catholic Church.”

Mr Mercer has been a member of the Community of the Resurrection, based in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, for 49 years. He served as Anglican Bishop of Matabeleland, between 1977 and 1989 before being appointed bishop to the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, a breakaway group that is part of the Traditional Anglican Communion, in 1989.

He retired in 2005 and became the episcopal visitor to the Traditional Anglican Communion in Britain. He joins the ordinariate as a lay person but hopes to be ordained as a deacon and then a priest. With speculation that the ordinariate will continue to grow, concern about funding the project has intensified with the announcement a 10 per cent levy charge for each group.

Mgr John Broadhurst, who is in charge of finance for the ordinariate, said that the levy on each group’s donations would help to fund the central administration of the Personal Ordinariate. Writing in the ordinariate magazine The Portal, he said that many groups had yet to come forward with the contribution they had pledged to make, and the need for more funds was “now extremely urgent”.

He said: “The Catholic hierarchy gave us a generous gift when we were established but that has nearly all gone. Some of our priests are being paid by their local Catholic diocese but others are totally dependent on us. We have not yet made any pension provision which has to be a major moral and financial responsibility this year.”

Financing the ordinariate is uniquely demanding given that, contrary to other Catholic clergy, some of the ordinariate’s priests have wives and large families and since leaving the Anglican church many are now without a pension or regular financial security.

There are also concerns that the ordinariate does not have a principal church more than a year after its creation.

In an interview with Portal magazine, Mgr Newton said: “We do need a centre in London, a principal church that represents the ordinariate with good liturgy and good pastoral practice. We are looking at one option, but there are not many spare churches in London. To find a church that is underused is difficult... I would like to see us have buildings of our own. Sharing can be difficult. I hope we shall have our own. Maybe an underused church where there is a Catholic congregation – but it would be the ordinariate church.”

Ask your Parish Priest, sel l e r or newsagent t o r eserve a copy of The Catholic Herald for you every week. I f you have any d i ff i culty a r r anging t h i s , t e l ephone 01706 670261 and we will be p l eased to help.

For the best Catholic news,

v i ews and f eatures - Place a regular order with your Church or newsagent.

Bishop praises dignity of Stephen Lawrence family Business school to move into Ushaw College

BY ED WEST

A BISHOP in south London has spoken about the impact that the murder of Stephen Lawrence has had on British society.

Auxiliary Bishop Patrick Lynch of Southwark, president of the Catholic Association for Racial Justice, issued a statement following the convictions of Gary Dobson and David Norris for the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

Bishop Lynch said: “The death of Stephen Lawrence was a tragic event and our thoughts and prayers at this time are for his parents and family who have suffered greatly for the last 18 years.

“They have conducted themselves with great dignity over those years and worked tirelessly in the face of huge obstacles and prejudice to ensure that justice was done,” the bishop said.

“It is a great pity that it has taken so long and that in itself has contributed to the frustration and anger felt by many.

“It is also a reminder to all of us that we must do our best to repair and heal the damage done to our communities and society and continue to work together – as faith communities as local councils, as police authorities, as community leaders and schools – to forge stronger partnerships so that our streets and neighbourhoods will be safer, our community relations will be stronger and racism and racial injustice will be eliminated,” Bishop Lynch said.

The murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 led to two police investigations and eventually to a public inquiry in 1999, in which Sir William Macpherson criticised police methods and concluded that the Metropolitan Police was “institutionally racist”.

The inquiry led to the abolition of “double jeopardy”, the ancient protection whereby the accused could not be tried twice for the same offence. Following new DNA evidence two members of the five-man gang were accused of murder and found guilty.

In the 18 years since their sons’ death Neville and Doreen Lawrence have campaigned for justice and against racism.

Stephen Lawrence was comforted as he lay dying by Catholic couple Conor and Louise Taafee who had been to a prayer meeting at Ss John Fisher and Thomas More church nearby. Mrs Taaffe whispered “you are loved” to the adolescent as he died.

At the scene were also an off-duty policeman and his wife who were returning from another prayer meeting.

BY ED WEST

USHAW COLLEGE has formed an agreement with a local business school in a deal expected to help to secure its future.

Durham Business School, part of the Durham University, will temporarily relocate to the Catholic college while the school’s current Durham home is rebuilt.

It signals the latest step in an increasingly close relationship between the university and the trustees of Ushaw College, who wish to secure an educational future for the former seminary, which closed last year due to a shortage of vocations.

A licence agreement has been signed and the school will move to the college in April, where it is expected to remain for another two years.

Ushaw College was opened in 1808 after the former English College in Douai had to leave France following the Revolution. Due to falling vocations in 2002 the Church recommended that it merge with St Mary’s College, Oscott, a plan which Ushaw trustees rejected. But in 2010 they announced that it would close, and that the site may be sold.

The Centre for Catholic Studies (CCS), Durham University, also hopes to develop plans to open up the collections at Ushaw for full scholarly use and public benefit. The CCS is working closely with the project group established by the Ushaw trustees in June to secure a viable future for Ushaw College. The project group is chaired by Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury, an alumnus of Durham University.

Bishop Davies said: “This announcement by Durham University is very much to be welcomed and there are solid grounds to be confident that this temporary relocation of staff and students will prove to be successful.

“It is securely based on the ever stronger working relationship between Durham University and Ushaw College as the future of the whole Ushaw Estate is addressed.”

On the recommendation of the project group, the trustees of Ushaw and the university have jointly commissioned a leading firm of advisers, Malcolm Reading Consultants, to oversee a feasibility study for the site working with the CCS and other key stakeholders.

Malcolm Reading Consultants has previous experience of providing advice and project oversight for major historic buildings. Its previous projects include St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Supreme Court in central London, Stowe House Preservation Trust and Stowe School in Buckinghamshire.

NEWSBULLETIN Irish bishops welcome plan for minimum alcohol prices THE IRISH BISHOPS’ Drugs and Alcohol Initiative has welcomed a proposal to introduce a minimum cost for alcohol.

Bishop Éamonn Walsh, vice-chairman of the initiative, said: “Alcohol is used by multiple retailers as a ‘loss leader’ which means that alcohol is both available relatively cheaply and is placed in prominent areas within supermarkets.

The reluctance of government not to increase the cost of alcohol in recent budgets has also contributed to the relative cheap cost of alcohol over the last decade in the state.”

He said that a partnership between government, retailers, the industry and consumers was needed to “radically improve – once and for all – the Irish relationship with alcohol”.

Bishop urges prayers after murder BISHOP Terence Brain of Salford has called for prayers after the killing of an Indian student on Boxing Day.

The bishop, speaking last week as locals held a vigil for 23-year-old Anuj Bidve, asked for people to pray for his family and for the circumstances that led to such a “random and motiveless” murder.

Bishop Brain told the Universe newspaper: “A young man’s life was stolen when we were all rejoicing at the gift from God of the birth of the Christ child. We offer our prayers and condolences to the Bidve family, and pray that the Lord who comes to us at Christmas welcomes him into eternal life.”

He that the killing was “a dreadful tragedy in that it was apparently so random and motiveless; how empty must be the life of the person who stole Anuj’s life? That too is a dreadful tragedy and we must pray about the causes of such emptiness.”

Spuc to oppose gay marriage THE SOCIETY for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has launched a campaign against same-sex marriage ahead of a Government consultation.

John Smeaton, Spuc’s director, said: “We can’t build a true culture of life if we don’t defend the truths which connect sexuality to human life. Homosexual unions... are radically disconnected from those truths.”

ʻPriests bless civil unionsʼ AN ORGANISER of “gayfriendly” Masses in Soho has claimed that same-sex unions are being blessed in Catholic churches in Britain.

Martin Pendergast said in a video posted online: “A lot of us who are in civil unions have had services of blessings in Catholic churches afterwards, and here at these Masses... if we are asked by people, we pray for people who have entered civil partnerships.”

Ordinariate to mark first birthday MGR KEITH NEWTON, head of the ordinariate, will preside at a Solemn Evensong at St James’s, Spanish Place, central London, on Sunday January 15, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the ordinariate’s creation.

Tangney Tours

II S

II S

A S S

RO ME

ME DJUG O RJE

I A G O

S A NT

I MA

FAT

K RA K O W

HO LY LA ND

HI E UX

I S

LLO URDE S

A S S

2012 Brochure Our new brochure is now with us,

RO ME

Please contact us for your

FREE copy. Returning for 2012 - Flights direct to Lourdes with the full service

ME DJUG O RJE

included and no extras!

Lourdes 2012 Lourdes 2012 Join us for the Feast of our Lady which takes place on the 11th of February

Book now for February in Lourdes by Air, from £475 per person, 8 - 12 February Flights departing from London, 4 nights full board accommodation at the NEW hotel Mediterranee

I A G O

Also available is February in Lourdes by train, from £399 per person, 8 - 12 February

S A NT

First flights for Easter begin on 6th of April We are also taking bookings for groups for 2012 including free places! Contact us now for details.

I MA

Lourdes by Air - 2012

9 to 13 April - Easter 4 nights from: £476pp

FAT

Spring Bank - 1 to 8 June: £640pp 6 to 8 June, 2 night special: £299pp

K RA K O W

Holy Land 2012 Holy Land 2012

Pilgrimage from Manchester

13th - 20th February Led by Fr Michael McCoy

Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Nablus, Jericho Sea of Galilee and more!

If the above dates are unsuitable, please contact us as you may be able to join one of our other groups, or why not lead a group yourself?

Join Fr Stephen Webb, the 7th to 14th of June,

departing from London and Manchester.

HO LY LA ND

H

Price: £1,199 half board per person. Join Fr Stephen Myers, the 3rd to 10th

September, departing from London. Price: £1,199 half board per person. UX

UX

I E UX

The Official Catenian

1

Pilgrimage 2012 19th - 29th March 11 Days - full board Contactusforafreebrochure

2012 Marcch boaoaoaoardrdrdrd ebrbrbrbrochochocochureu

Join us on: www.facebook.com/tangneytours

I S

LLO URDE S

5126

Established 1974

www.tangney-tours.com e-mail: info@tangney-tours.com FREE BROCHURE LINE: 0800 917 3572 THE CATHOLIC HERALD JANUARY 13 2012

BBeeccoommee aa ffaann ooff TThhee CCaatthhoolliicc HHeerraalldd At Facebook.com

3

HOME NEWS

Archbishop criticises ‘lax’ report on assisted suicide BY MADELEINE TEAHAN

THE ARCHBISHOP of Southwark has criticised a think-tank report recommending the legalisation of physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill and said that “legalising assisted suicide is not the answer” to care for the dying.

Archbishop Peter Smith said: “I have been impressed and heartened by the wide range of thoughtful, critical responses to the report, particularly from those with disabilities, and medical and legal experts of all faiths and none.

“They are right to point out that to legalise is to normalise, and that our society cannot change such a fundamental law, which is there to protect the vulnerable, without grave long-term consequences. We must do more to care well for those who are dying, and support more and better hospice and palliative care. Legalising assisted suicide is not the answer.”

The Commission on Assisted Dying, which authored the report, has been controversial since its inception because a majority of its commissioners are proponents of “assisted dying” and its financial supporters are also advocates.

Its chairman is Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the former Lord Chancellor, who sought to relax Britain’s law on assisted suicide in July 2009.

Archbishop Smith said: “Many people have understandably quest ioned the credibility of the Falconer commission. Its set-up was promoted by Dignity in Dying (formerly the Voluntary

Euthanasia Society), i t was bankrolled by one of that organisation’s patrons, and three quarters of its members, including Lord Falconer himself, are on the public record as supporting the legalisation of assisted suicide.

“It will have come as little surprise to many that they have recommended a regime for legalised assisted suicide that is even laxer than the one proposed by Lord Joffe six years ago – which was roundly defeated in Parliament,” Archbishop Smith said.

His comments come after Baroness Hollins who is a Catholic peer, psychiatrist and president-elect of the BMA, also criticised the report. Writing in the Daily Telegraph last week, Baroness Hollins said:

“Seriously ill people need help to live, not help with suicide. They need compassionate care and effective pain relief – let’s campaign for those.”

The former president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists said that many psychiatrists would not be comfortable “with the idea of assessing patients for suitability to receive lethal drugs. We assess mental capacity for the protection and treatment of our patients, not to clear the way for them to commit suicide.

“We also know that reliable capacity assessment can only be made over time and involves getting to know patients and what lies at the root of their problems,” she said.

Baroness Hollins challenged the report’s conclusion that a doctor ’s involvement with processing assisted suicides would be an effective safeguard against coercion of a vulnerable patient.

She said: “Lord Falconer and his associates seem to believe that assessing mental capacity can be left safely in the hands of the patient’s GP and specialist. Indeed, they write that ‘the most important safeguard in any assisted dying regime would lie in the relationship between the patient and their doctor’.

“But with today’s busy, multipartner urban practices, how many GPs – not to mention hospital consultants – know their patients well enough to make such complex assessments?

“The unwillingness of most doctors to participate in any assisted dying cases may result in these patients being assessed by a handful of doctors who know little of them beyond their case notes and who are predisposed to see a request for assisted dying as a rational response to terminal illness.”

She concluded: “The issue is not about legalising a right to die: death will come to us all, whether we like it or not. It is about legalising the assisting of people to end their lives. Yet most of those in the professions that are expected to be the assisters have serious reservations. This is not professional conservatism. As Dr Curtice put it: ‘This is a serious business, because ultimately someone’s life is on the line’.”

Sheila Hollins is the mother of Abigail Witchalls who was attacked in April 2005 while pregnant and left paralysed. Her unborn baby survived and she has since given birth to another child and shown significant signs of recovery.

Responding to Lord Falconer’s report the Ministry of Justice said: “The Government believes that any change to the law in this emotive and contentious area is an issue of individual conscience and a matter for Parliament to decide rather than Government policy.”

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, described the report as “a self-styled commission funded by pro-death activists” and said it “amounts to a renewed attack on the legal status of disabled and elderly people”. George Pitcher: Page 12

Catholics and Anglicans agree to share church

BY ED WEST

A CATHOLIC congregation in Cornwall is to share a church with Anglicans.

Catholics and Anglicans in Padstow packed St Petroc’s church last month for a “new beginnings” service to celebrate the arrangement.

The church had been used by Catholics during the summer months when they could not fit in the nearby Church of St Saviour and St Petroc.

Following discussions in December 2009 a working party was set up to explore the possibility of sharing a church with Catholic priest Fr Keith Mitchell and Canon Chris Malkinson of the Church of England.

In November a formal agreement came into being, with the signing of an “Affirmation of Sharing Agreement” by Bishop Roman Christopher Budd of Plymouth and the Rt Rev Tim Thornton, the Anglican Bishop of Truro.

Although Catholic parish churches are not permitted by canon law to be shared with other faiths, chapels and Mass centres are allowed to be shared. Fr Mitchell will remain rector at the nearest Catholic church in Bodmin while the Padstow church is sold off. The final Mass was celebrated at St Saviour and St Petroc on All Saints Day and early in November the Blessed Sacrament was reserved for the first time in a newly installed tabernacle in St Petroc’s.

At the “new beginnings” service just before Christmas, Bishop Budd thanked the Anglican congregation for its hospitality and, referring to centuries of division between the churches following the reign of Henry VIII, emphasised the need for everyone involved to “heal and manage”.

Bishop Budd said: “We must give witness to our faith in Jesus Christ together, not just in words, but in the way we live. Our witness has to be through action, through love flowing out to others...

“Earlier in the service, we renewed our baptism together – joy flowing from the grace of Christ. From our baptism we take our mandate to overcome the things that might keep us separate. We go forward to a common place, despite any divisions. But above all remember, we are given our faith in Jesus Christ to give it away.”

Fr Mitchell said that the decision to share came about because the parish church was not large enough to contain the congregation in the summer, when tourism trebles the number of faithful.

He said: “Our own church seemed to be costing a lot of money and it was only being used for an hour and a half each week, and it seems really silly that we don’t really use it most of the time.”

Fr Mitchell said the move also sent a message that Christians could unite. “It says something that we can do things together,” she said. “We have Saturday night and they have Sunday morning. We’ve brought some things from our church so we have the tabernacle, and our Stations of the Cross. During Lent we’ll do Stations of the Cross together.”

The current church was built in 1469 and was Catholic for its first 100 years. Tradition states that St Petroc founded a monastery in Bodmin in the sixth century and he is also associated with Padstow. Henry VIII had the priory suppressed, and the land given to Thomas Sternhold, who translated the Psalms into English.

The two communities have now agreed that each side has to give six months’ notice about any change.

Providing an ‘outstanding’ education for pupils since 1930

outstandingeducation

11+ and 13+ Scholarships Closing date for entries: Friday 3 February 2012

01865 762802 enquiries@ryestantony.co.uk www.ryestantony.co.uk

Charity number 309685

European and US bishops tell faithful in Gaza: ‘You are not alone’

BISHOPS from Europe and North America celebrated Mass with Catholics in Gaza on Sunday, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Afterwards parishioners shared their experiences of living in Gaza, where the economic blockade and security situation make work and freedom of movement difficult.

Auxiliary Bishop William Kenney of Birmingham told parishioners: “What I want to say to you is: ‘you are not forgotten’.”

Bishop Michel Dubost of Evry, Paris, said: “Today everyone in my diocese is praying for you as they know we are making this visit. Last week, I asked prisoners in the largest prison in Europe [in Evry] to pray for you.”

Archbishop Antonio Franco, Apostolic Nuncio to Israel and Cyprus, said in his homily that the Church was united with Catholics in Gaza during their struggle. “You are not alone,” he said.

About 2,500 Christians live in Gaza, of whom 300 or so are Catholic. Religious Sisters there run a home for the elderly, a centre for the disabled and a nursery and also help to run schools.

Bishop says that migrants enrich British Church BY STAFF REPORTER

THE CATHOLIC Church in England and Wales has greatly benefited from the faith and witness of migrants not only in our present day but down through the years, a bishop has said.

In a statement released to coincide with the World Day for Migrants and Refugees, Auxiliary Bishop Patrick Lynch of Southwark said that parishes have been greatly enriched by “the strong sense of community and commitment to family life within many of our migrant communities, by their love for the Scriptures, by their devotion to Our Lady and especially by their joyful participation in the celebration of the Eucharist”.

The bishop gave thanks for the faith of migrant communities.

He said: “So we pray in thanksgiving for all the migrant communities who down through the years have enriched the Church here in England and Wales by their faith and their faithfulness, by their commitment and their witness and by their devotion and devotions.”

In recent years, Catholic churches in England and Wales, particularly in urban areas, have seen a growing number of parishioners from Africa and Asia, from eastern and western Europe, from the islands of the Caribbean and more recently from Latin

America. Bishop Lynch will concelebrate Mass with Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark at St George’s Cathedral at 3.30 pm on Sunday January 15 to mark the World Day for Migrants and Refugees.

This Mass, organised by the Scalabrini Fathers for the Filipino community, additionally celebrates the Feast of St Niño.

Over 1,000 people are expected to attend from various Filipino communities across London and the South East. The Filipino ambassador and representatives from the Filipino embassy will also be in attendance.

For the 2011 World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Pope Benedict XVI chose the theme of “One Human Family”.

During his address in St Peter’s Square he said: “The Messiah, the Son of God was a refugee. The Church itself has always known migration. Sometimes, unfortunately, Christians feel forced to leave, with suffering, their land, thus impoverishing the country in which their ancestors lived.

“On the other hand, the voluntary movement of Christians, for various reasons... are occasions to enhance the missionary dynamism of the Word of God and make the witness to faith circulate more in the mystical Body of Christ, crossing peoples and cultures, and reaching new frontiers, new environments.”

YOUR NEW YEAR GIFT -

A HOME FOR A HOMELESS FAMILY No family can flourish without a proper home, yet millions of people in mission lands have never known the security of a decent home. For shelter they have only a miserable hovel made of rags and cardboard boxes or a mud hut liable to collapse in heavy rains. Countless people have lost their homes as a result of war or natural disasters. A decent home would make an enormous difference to their lives. It would give them security, an address, a sense of belonging, besides protection from severe weather.

The sum of £700 will provide a

“I feel that my mission is only beginning: my mission to make Christ loved as I love Him,

to give my little way to souls.” St Therese home for a homeless family The sum of £700 will help with the cost of constructing a house for a poor family. (Local authorities often give matching grants). The local people contribute what they can afford, and make the bricks. The missionary buys the materials, supervises the work and blesses the house when it has been completed. With your gift THE LITTLE WAY could enable a missionary priest to bring the joy of a HOME to a homeless family.

Crossed POs and cheques should be sent and made payable to: THE LITTLE WAY ASSOCIATION, CH/01/13 119 Cedars Rd, Clapham Common, London SW4 0PR (Registered Charity No. 235703) Tel. 020-7622 0466 I enclose £ ...............to be allocated for: £........ A HOME FOR A HOMELESS FAMILY £........ FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY £........ MASS STIPENDS (please state no. ) £........ LITTLE WAY ADMIN. EXPENSES

DONATIONS FOR THE MISSIONS ARE SENT WITHOUT DEDUCTION FOR ANY EXPENSES.

Name (Rev. Mr. Mrs. Miss) (Block letters please) Address

All Little Way benefactors share in a

DAILY MASS offered for their intentions in the Missions.

.....................................................................................

PLEASE HELP

FEED THE HUNGRY Missionaries worldwide plead with us for help to relieve the pangs of starvation of countless children and adults. Your donation will be forwarded intact to a missionary who will be happy to put it speedily to use to save lives and alleviate the misery of hunger.

£25 would keep a person alive for one month; £300 for a whole year

MISSIONARIES

NEED YOUR MASS OFFERINGS A minimum stipend of £5 is recommended for each Mass By helping poor priests in this way you are aiding the work of the Church in Mission lands.