We have reached #Chartres Cathedral!

We have arrived!!

I've been carrying the Union Flag, which we have with our chapter along with the banner of Our Lady of Walsingham and a specially designed flag which includes the Sacred and Immaculatr Hearts.

The last day is relatively short, about 15 miles. We get to the Cathedral in time for Mass starting at 3.30. Being fairly near the front we have arrived long before many others.

The standard bearers are waiting on one side; we will be ushered into the choir, apparently, with our banners. At the moment I'm sitting on the pavment outside; the great bell of the Cathedral has begun to ring for Mass.


More pics: private Masses at Gas camp.


My view of the road.


Fr Bede Rowe with the Juventutem chapter.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Solemn Mass halfway to #Chartres

One of the wonderful


traditions of the Chartres pilgrimage is the Mass on Sunday in the



woods.

It is Pentecost and we





have a Solemn Mass (yesterday it was Missa Cantata). There are ranks of priests in choir; others are hearing confessions, it seems behind every tree! They walk in cotta and purple stole, and hear many confessions as they go along, the chapters leaving space for them and if necessary coming to a halt when the penitent kneels for the absolution.

At the Mass, one particularly touching sight is the lowering of half a dozen banners by boy scouts at the Consecration. When they processed it, they made the same reverence to the Cruxifix before going to their spot to the right of the altar.

The singing is pretty good - very high and slow, in the French manner. There is a schola of clerics and a mixed lay choir. Their singing is amplified by gigantic loudspeakers.

The organisation of the pilgrimage, the setting up and taking down of the camps, marshalling the traffic and distributing water at the stops, is hugely impressive. I have walked all the way so far but my blisters are going to force me to take the afternoon off; with luck I'll be able to walk again tomorrow. Right now I can't manage much more than a shuffle!

I am taking better pictures with my real camera and they will be online in due course.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

#Chartres Stop for Mass & lunch

The vast crowd of pilgrims has stopped for an open air Mass. The altar is in an open-sided tent.



This is also our lunch stop. On the last leg I was carrying the banner of Our Lady of Walsingham.

#Chartres Pilgrims set off from Notre Dame de Paris

We were up while the larks were safely tucked up in their nests to get to Notre Dame Cathedral for 6am.

We are now there, being marhsalled





by region and chapter. The British are part of the 'Estragers' group, which is grouped with the French from Normandy. There are a number of Germans with us.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Chartres Pilgrimage: we're off

We have had Mass in the Crypt of Westminster Cathedral, and, with a blessing from
Fr Martin Edwards, we are now off on the coach to catch our ferry.

Fr Gerard Byrne said Mass for us. We also have Fr Redmond and Fr Rowe with us.






The Crypt at Westminster Cathedral is the final resting place of Cardinal Griffin and Cardinal Godfrey. Fr Edwards reminded us that in the dark days of the 1980s the Traditional Mass was said there.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Linacre Centre gets a new name & Director

The move of the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics,

http://www.linacre.org/

the important Catholic bio-ethics institute which is supported by all three bishops' conferences of the British Isles, from London to Oxford is an exciting development, and I was delighted to join it's Board of Governors this year. It is developing rapidly as this press release makes clear.

----------------------------

The Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics is delighted to announce the appointment of Professor David Jones, currently Professor of Bioethics at St Mary's University College, Twickenham, as its new Director. This appointment is the second step in an exciting development plan for the Centre, the first step of which was the permanent relocation of the Centre to Oxford, and developing close co-operation in academic research with Blackfriars Hall, a Permanent Private Hall of Oxford University. The next step in the plan will be an ambitious fundraising campaign to secure permanent suitable accommodation for the Centre, and an increased body of research staff. As a consequence of this move the Centre is changing its name to The Anscombe Bioethics Centre. **

Dr Helen Watt will hold the post of Senior Research Fellow when she steps down as Director. She said "We are delighted to have attracted someone of the calibre of David Jones to the Centre: his appointment will raise the Centre's international recognition to a new level. I look forward to working with David to ensure the Centre builds on its excellent reputation both academically and as a source of practical advice."

Professor Jones, who will take up his post in July, said, "I feel honoured to have been appointed as Director of the Linacre Centre, soon to be the Anscombe Bioethics Centre. It is an exciting time to take up this role: The move of the Centre to Oxford and our developing relationship with Blackfriars is a great challenge and an opportunity. Catholic bioethics must learn from the greatest thinkers of our age and must make its own voice heard at the highest level of academic debate. I aim to work with colleagues in engaging openly and eagerly with the key ethical issues of our day."


**There is already a Linacre College in Oxford which would lead to confusion, so the Centre will shortly be changing its name to the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, after Professor Elizabeth Anscombe, a Catholic philosopher whose intellectual and personal interests included an interest in bioethics. The Centre now has office space provided by Blackfriars Permanent Private Hall at Oxford, but hopes to raise funds for a building of its own to accommodate both the Centre's staff and its library, which is currently in storage.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Latin Mass Society Training Conference at Downside Abbey

The Latin Mass Society has recently announced its next Conference for training priests to say the usus aniquior of the Roman Rite, the Traditional Mass, to be held at Downside Abbey.

View Larger Map

Downside Abbey is in Stratton on the Fosse, Somerset; the dates of the conference are are Tuesday 10 to Friday 13 August. The inclusive fee is £115; we have it on good (episcopal!) authority that parish priests can claim this from parish funds as a parish expense. In any case this is enormously subsidised by the Latin Mass Society and represents very good value for money.

Priests interested in attending should contact the LMS office on 020 7404 7284 or e mail: info@latin-mass-society.org.

Yesterday I was in Downside with our Treasurer, Paul Waddington, who is the principle organiser of these events and took a few photos. We were shown around by Fr Boniface, and although I know the Abbey Church well I was fascinated to see the magnificent sacristy, shown in the pictures below.

As as Ushaw there are many richly decorated side chapels intended for private Masses, including the shrine to St Oliver Plunket, and Abbey Church itself is one of the very finest Catholic ecclesiastical buildings in Britain.



The Conference will also have the use of the 'Old Chapel', used by the monks before the Abbey Church was built, and the Crypt.

Among the tutors at the Conference will be Fr Armand de Malleray FSSP, who has been very dedicated to the cause of training priests at successive conferences, and Fr Bede Rowe, who is Parish Priest of nearby Warminster and now the LMS' Chaplain for the South West.

Colin Mawby, the well known composer and former Directors of Music at Westminster Cathedral, will be available to teach priests the chant, as he was in the conference the LMS held at London Colney - as shwon in the picture below.


Finally, here is a statue of the Virgin and Child in the Crypt.