"His calling is a declaration of Love. Your response is commitment, friendship and love manifested in the gift of your own life" Pope John Paul II Valencia, November 1982

Update your bookmarks

Tue, 1 Mar 2011 16:45:58 +0000

People keep asking me why I haven’t posted on the Blog for a while. The answer is that I am not able to be at my desk in the Vocations Office as much as I would like and while iWeb is a great tool for producing websites, as a Blog it has the disadvantage of tying you down to a particular computer.
So, in case you haven’t noticed, I have resurrected the old Blogger account and have started posting there. I am very grateful to one of our seminarians who spruced it up and gave it a fresh new feel.

So do update your bookmark:
Southwark Vocations Blog

Channel Four Report

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:30:40 +0100

Southwark’s New Archbishop

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:58:13 +0100

Today I was at Southwark Cathedral for the installation of Archbishop Peter Smith as our new Archbishop. There was a tremendous joy to the occasion because Archbishop Peter was originally a priest of this diocese who for very many years worked at the diocesan seminary as both a faculty member and as rector. He is, therefore, very well-known and very much liked in the diocese and there was a real sense that he was being welcomed home.
In his sermon the Archbishop acknowledged the difficulties before the Church but also encouraged us to face them with a great spirit of hope and trust in the Lord:

"We are living at a moment in a our history when our society is marked by deep struggles about its identity, values and purpose," he said. "It is a society in which religion and religious faith are increasingly under attack. "The Church is not a threat to the legitimate independence and proper role of a secular society. The ambition of the Church is to see every person flourish and achieve his or her full potential irrespective of race religion colour or creed." He also said that the light of Christ had been dimmed by the terrible wrong of priests who had abused innocent children. "The humiliation and shame of this wicked and scandalous behaviour has touched every member of Christ's body the Church – the innocent as well as the guilty. As St Paul said to the Romans: 'If one part of the body is hurt all parts are hurt with it.'"
The Installation Mass was served by the seminarians of the diocese, including those who had come back from Rome for the occasion. Two of them accompanied him into the Church as he took possession of his Cathedral. It was somehow fitting that this should have been the case: that he should have been greeted and served by the men whom one day, please God, he will call to priesthood.

You Never Know...

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:41:44 +0100

The Catholic Church is the Body of Christ. It is also a vast supernatural family and you never know when you’re going to meet one of your distant cousins!
On Monday I was celebrating the 6.45am ‘early morning Mass’. I noticed two Dominican sisters had come along with Sr Crucis FMDM - a Franciscan of the Divine Motherhood. We don’t get that many Dominicans in the parish so it was a bit unusual. As I was unvesting in the sacristy afterwards they came to the door and one of them told me we had met before. As things turned out the were Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia, sometimes known popularly as “Nashville Dominicans”, and we had met twenty years ago, when I was in the United States to give a talk to some religious sisters. I was ordained the year before (1989) and had given Sr Thomas More my ordination card. Over the years she had kept it, remembered me, and now by coincidence had turned up in my parish. She came with Sr Mary Michael and later that day had permission to visit the cell of St Thomas More in the Tower of London. It was great to be able to invite them over for breakfast and catch up on the last twenty years!

Spirit in the City

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:11:52 +0100

Last week I went into central London with some of the youngsters of the parish and from the Quo Vadis group to attend a couple of the events associated with “Spirit in the City”. The West End can be a pretty soulless place. Towards Soho you have the Red Light district with bars, clubs and ‘parlours’ catering for any number of proclivities. Leicester Square is known for its cinemas and is associated with those who seek the buzz of fame and celebrity. The whole area is marked by drugs and excessive alcohol consumption. And, of course, there are those who enjoy the power they exercise in catering to man’s basest desires. Sex, power, fame, self-induced highs - the desire for all these things itself reveals another desire: that to be fulfilled we need something more than ourselves. It is not good for man to be alone! In the end, of course, we long for God, but how easy it is to fall for the great lie that says these earthly things can provide us with the satisfaction we crave. I never like going to that part of London, not because it is so disfigured by sin, but because I am saddened by the emptiness of so many I meet there who have bought into the great lie.
Spirit in the City is an annual event, organised by the four Catholic Churches in that part of London and it aims to bring the Gospel to the streets in a way that is both contemporary and traditional. On Thursday there was a Marian procession from Soho Square to Leicester Square. On Friday a Blessed Sacrament procession to Leicester Square began in the Corpus Christi Church, Maiden Lane. On Saturday the whole of the Leicester Square gardens were taken over with and afternoon festival that went on into the evening. It included Fr Stan Fortuna and various Christian music groups. There were tents where individuals could meet and talk with priests or religious. One tent was dedicated to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and another was set aside for Eucharistic adoration.
The young people who went with me spent most of their time among the crowds of tourists and visitors, explaining what was going on and inviting the passers-by to “come and see”. Of course, some of the people they met brushed them aside, others stopped to listen and ask questions. Sometimes they raised their concerns and occasionally the event triggered something within them - like the young man who started crying and saying God could never forgive him and who was directed to the Confessions tent, the great throne of forgiveness.
All this reinforced a deep conviction: that for many people who have a bitter experience of the real absence of God, there remains within them a longing for his Real Presence.

Getting Away from it All...

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:01:18 +0100

Bank Holidays are always wonderfully quiet days in the parish and provide us with a good opportunity to do something different. We have a lot of young people involved in the life of our parish in various ways and sometimes a Bank Holiday can be a chance to thank them for their work and commitment. For the last Bank Holiday in May we went to Stonor Park, where Edmund Campion hid and printed his famous “Ten Reasons” before his capture and eventual execution.
We were able to have lunch at a nearby pub before visiting the pre-reformation Chapel and the house and gardens. At the end of our visit we met with Baroness Camoys who explained to us something of the history of Stonor which has always remained in Catholic hands.

Support our Work

Sun, 30 May 2010 17:55:47 +0100

Southwark is blessed with many good priests but we need to do a lot more to promote vocations. Unfortunately our budget is limited. Can you help us?

Look at the green square to the right of this article. If you click on the word “Donate” you will be taken to a charity giving site where you can make a donation directly to Southwark Vocations.

Don’t forget: £50 will pay for one person to go to Invocation 2010.

Anything you can spare will greatly help our work.

Thank You!

Invocation 2010

Sun, 30 May 2010 17:32:38 +0100

The first weekend in July this year is an important one for all of us involved in vocations work. It sees the first ever national Vocations Discernment weekend which will be hosted at St Mary’s College, Oscott.

It is not a recruitment weekend! There won’t be recruitment personnel from dioceses and religious orders desperately attempting to get you to try on one of their habits!

A discernment weekend means a weekend that offers you time and space to reflect on the idea of vocation and to pray about what the Lord is asking of you. You don’t have to have decided anything to come along. All we expect of participants is that they be open to discovering God’s will for their lives.

People who know me know that I am totally opposed to the idea that anyone can tell you what your vocation is. They can’t - and if anyone tries to you should run a mile! Only the Lord can reveal your vocation to you and he can only do that if you open your heart to him in prayer. You can then bring your sense of call and the worries you may have to vocations personnel whose job it is simply to confirm the signs if they are already there. They can also give you advice about what your next steps might be - for example the importance of spiritual direction or developing a plan of life or regula vitae. They can also sometimes help clarify questions you may have about the different vocations or about the different sorts of religious life. But they can NEVER tell you what your vocation is. It is important to remember that.

So Invocation is for anyone aged between 16 & 35 who is open to saying ‘Yes’ if they believe the Lord is calling them. There will be some great speakers, including Abbot Christopher Jamison and Sr Gabriel Davison. Archbishop Vincent Nichols will celebrate the closing Mass. Their input, as well as that of other speakers and those who lead workshops, will help create a wonderful atmosphere. The presence of young men and women happy to respond generously to the Lord’s call will also be a great encouragement to you. Indeed - your presence will encourage others as well.

Throughout the weekend there will be Eucharistic Adoration in the Chapel - day and night - and you will also benefit from many other spiritual graces such as the prayers of enclosed convents throughout the land (I was really pleased to receive an email recently from St Claire’s on the Isle of Wight telling me that they are praying for the success of the weekend).

For those with an eye to more secular things... there will also be a giant screen for the football!

Please do book before places run out. You can download a booking form or book online at: www.invocation.org.uk

Pentecost Vigil

Sun, 30 May 2010 17:20:37 +0100

Pentecost is the patronal feast day of our parish and we like to celebrate it in style. This year we decided to repeat something we hadn’t done for a number of years and to give it something of a new twist. In the past we have held a Pentecost Vigil which attracted people from local parishes. Perhaps not unnaturally some local parish priests were a bit upset because those who came to us did not necessarily go to Mass in their parishes the following day.
This year we decided to resurrect the Vigil but to have it as a vigil of prayer and adoration without a Mass. We also decided to by-pass parish newsletters and target young people directly through email and Facebook. I was very pleased to see over a hundred young people turn up, some travelling quite some distance to be with us - and that despite the fact that no underground trains were stopping locally.
The vigil was organised by our new Coordinator for Youth Evangelisation and Formation and we benefitted from the help of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. The format was simple: Eucharistic Adoration, Confessions, the Readings of the Vigil, a Sermon, Testimonies and Music. Afterwards we celebrated a party for those who could stay.
One of the outcomes is that we have decided to start a weekly Eucharistic prayer group for young people.

Getting Close to the Holy Father

Sun, 30 May 2010 17:05:32 +0100

There seems to be some confusion about tickets for Papal events when the Holy Father comes to England. I heard of one diocesan bishop who told his youth officer to prepare to send four thousand young people to London only to be told their diocesan allocation was about 250!
In Southwark every parish has been asked to send one young person to be present outside Westminster Cathedral during the Papal Mass there on the Saturday morning. At the end of the Mass the Pope will come out to greet them. What is a bit odd is that the same young person will then go to Hyde Park for the vigil in the evening. I don’t know why it can’t be another young person, thereby doubling the numbers who will see the Pope. The other strange thing is that presumably many of those who have travelled to London for the morning event will want to get home - they may not stay for the vigil. It would be such a shame if there were empty places with so many people desperately upset at having been told to stay at home and watch the visit on television.
Fortunately I don’t have to worry about organising events but I do have a special interest nonetheless. We are currently producing a video that will focus on vocations discernment and it would be really important to get the opportunity to film the Holy Father talking in English. A couple of weeks ago we went to Rome and did some really great interviews. Access there, of course, wasn’t an issue. We simply got press accreditation and with out passes had no barriers between us and the Pope. Let’s hope things will be as simple in September.