Fr Tony writes.....

The Bishops of England and Wales have asked for a collection to be taken in every parish to help with the expenses involved in the visit of Pope Benedict in September. The visit is a “State Visit”, which means that most of the costs will be met by the Government, but as there will be a number of public events which would not be part of a normal state visit, the Church still has to find several million pounds as well. The Bishops are approaching a number of charitable trusts as well as some wealthy individuals to provide the bulk of what is needed, but there will still remain a large amount to be found from the parishes of England and Wales.
There will be a second collection on Trinity Sunday, May 30th after each Mass. I can only ask you to be as generous as you can to this collection. It could be one way of showing our love and support for the Holy Father as we prepare to welcome what will be only the 2nd Papal Visit to Britain in history.

As I write this letter the Holy Father has arrived in Portugal for a four-day visit which will take him to the Shrine of Our Lady at Fatima on May 13th, which is the anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady in 1917. The Pope is due to arrive in Britain on Thursday September 16th, landing in Edinburgh where he will meet the Queen at Holyrood House. He has a number of engagements in London including an ecumenical service at Westminster Abbey. I understand that each parish will receive a number of tickets for the two large public events. The first will be an event in London, probably in Hyde Park, on Saturday September 18th at 5pm. The second, the climax of the visit, will be the Mass in Coventry for the Beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman on Sunday September 19th, the last day of the visit. Following what happened at the last papal visit in 1982, we will probably have a ballot for those who would like to go to either of these two events.
Meanwhile I would ask you to pray each day for the success of the Holy Father’s visit. I am sure that we need to pray that the visit will go well, and that it will be a time of grace for the Church and for the country.

You may remember that some time ago now I wrote about a suggestion from a parishioner that we might have an “open forum” from time to time where we could discuss topics of interest related to our Catholic Faith. Since then I have letters from several people putting forward questions they would like discussed, and some ideas about how it might be organised.
I thought you might like to see the range of topics suggested. There will be a meeting of the Adult Formation group early in June to start planning for a series of sessions. I think we would invite a competent “expert” in the particular subject to give a presentation, and then open up to discussion. Clearly we are meeting as Catholics, keen to know more about, and understand better where the Church stands on a variety of questions, and why.
Here are the questions raised so far and in no particular order:
The Church and Science. A response to Dawkins. “Creationism”
Ethical questions concerning Bio-ethics and sexuality
Medical ethics. “Mercy killing ”, Euthanasia etc
War and pacifism
The theological question concerning the State of Israel.
Does Israel have a “God-given” right to the land given to Abraham?
History: The Great Schism. Eastern Orthodox tradition
If there are other issues you would like to see added to the list please let me know. If you would like to be involved in the planning please get in touch.