Dear Parishioners,

The Bishops of England and Wales have written a joint letter encouraging Catholics to play an active part in the coming General Election. While voting for any particular political party is a matter of conscience, the bishops encourage us to use our vote at this pivotal time. They begin with a quotation from Pope Francis’ letter Evengelii Gaudium: “An authentic faith … always involves a deep desire to change the world, to transmit values, to leave this earth somehow better than we found it. We love this magnificent planet on which God has put us, and we love the human family which dwells here, with all its tragedies and struggles, its hopes and aspirations, its strengths and weaknesses. The earth is our common home and all of us are brothers and sisters.” These words of Pope Francis, the Bishops write, encourage us to approach this General Election with a positive determination to consider carefully all that is at stake. An important duty of every UK citizen with the right to vote is to take part in the General Election. Please make sure that you are registered. Please do vote.

The letter can be found at catholicnews.org.uk/election17 and I shall refer to it in my homily at the weekend.

Among a number of issues highlighted by the Bishops is the sanctity of human life, reminding us that in 2015, Parliament voted overwhelmingly to protect society’s most vulnerable people, by preventing the legalisation of assisted dying. Much of the success of the campaign that preceded this vote was led by the campaigning group, “Right to Life,” an organisation which this parish supports.

In this connection, Arnold Marsden writes: “Fifty years ago this year the abortion act was passed, and since then eight million unborn babies have been destroyed. The unborn child is unable to defend itself, and relies on us for its very life; and the parable of the good Samaritan warns against walking by on the other side. A week on Monday, the Bank Holiday of 29^th May, we host our annual sponsored walk, to raise funds for “Right to Life” to help it fight the constant battle on behalf of these children. Archbishop Kelly our own Bishop John along with several priests will join us along with many other walkers from the northwest. If you are unable to walk and collect sponsorship, you may sponsor our own Fr John or Fr Kevin or any other walker. This is a once a year effort to support this cash-strapped campaigning group in its efforts to defend life from the womb to the grave.”

Finally, a reminder that the new Mass schedule begins on 10^th June.

Fr John

Dear Parishioners,

Today we celebrate Vocations Sunday. The Bishop wrote recently to priests: “We have a very encouraging eight applicants for the selection conference this year, which is certainly an answer to prayer. If we have a good number of successful candidates, the Vocations Sunday second collection will be of all the greater importance this year and in coming years. Please do all you can to spread this good news and call on people’s generosity in helping to prepare our future priests.”

Two of ‘our’ past students, who you will well remember, are to be ordained this year: Mark Paver will be ordained to the priesthood on 22^nd July in Salford Cathedral and Callum Brown to the diaconate at Oscott College with priesthood following next year.

Finally, you will be pleased to learn that Ratna Babu Pairdha, the seminarian we sponsored in India, was ordained to the priesthood on 27^th of March. I offer my and his gratitude to all who contributed.

Fr John

Prayer for Vocations

Loving Father,

touch and transform us by the joy of your love.

Make us missionary disciples, empowered to carry the love of Christ to our neighbour.

May young people be inspired by our example to take up the path of Christian discipleship and dedicate their lives to the service of the Gospel.

Raise up new vocations by the power of your Holy Spirit to the priesthood and the consecrated life:

send us men and women, inspired to be living signs of your mercy.

Grant us all an openness of heart,

that we might readily respond to your call,

and proclaim with joy the Good News to the whole world. 

Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Dear Parishioners,

As announced at last weekend’s Masses, on 10^th May at the Parish Forum we shall discuss how best we may respond to the Bishop’s request that we rearrange the weekend schedule of Masses so that one priest is able to celebrate the current two Masses in Clitheroe and one each in Dunsop and Sabden.

My hope is that during this meeting a consensus will develop that will enable us to make a firm decision.

Two questions have been asked of me. Could we experiment with Mass at different times and then choose the most appropriate? Will we have a ballot? The answer to both is: No.

Experimentation with times of Mass would only cause confusion, so we must work to agree a final and binding decision.

There will be no ballot because I’m looking for a consensus. For this to emerge there should be a frank exchange of views coupled with a generous willingness to give and take a little on all sides. If necessary a show of hands, only by those attending the meeting, may be required to move the discussion along.

A few parishioners have mentioned that since Clitheroe is the largest community, has two Masses and that the Masses on Sunday morning will remain at the times agreed with Sabden over seven years ago, then Clitheroe should be willing to offer some form of concession.

So, a reminder of the options which are under review.

5pm Saturday evening Mass in Dunsop necessitating the Clitheroe evening Mass moving forward to 6.30pm or possibly transferring to Sunday evening, at a time to be agreed.

Or a 4.30pm Saturday evening Mass in Dunsop followed by the usual 6pm Mass in Clitheroe.

To be honest, having two Saturday evening Masses would not offer a real choice to the parish as a whole and I’m not too sure that the Bishop would be happy with this suggestion.

Nothing is decided, so let’s talk about these and any other possible options not yet suggested.

Above all I ask you to pray that as a community we arrive at a reasonably satisfactory consensus.

Fr John

Dear Parishioners,

Easter Week and the planned changes around the diocese begin to be implemented, not least in our own parish.

On Wednesday night, the Dunsop Bridge Catholic Community met in St Hubert’s Church in response to the Bishop’s request that we arrange our weekend schedule of Masses so that one priest is able to celebrate the current two Masses in Clitheroe and one each in Dunsop and Sabden.
Our current schedule is a 6pm Saturday evening Mass (more correctly, the First Mass of Sunday) in Clitheroe, 9.30am in Clitheroe, 10am in Dunsop and 11am in Sabden. This schedule cannot be managed by one priest.

After discussion, it was agreed that the Sunday morning Masses in Clitheroe and Sabden remain as they are and that the Dunsop celebration move to a new time.
Every option was discussed including an early morning Sunday Mass and evening Masses on either Saturday or Sunday and eventually settled on a Saturday evening Mass at 5pm.
However, a 5pm Saturday evening Mass followed by Clitheroe’s 6pm Mass cannot be managed by one priest.
The meeting concluded with a request that I ask St Michael and John’s parishioners whether they would agree to their Saturday evening Mass reverting to the old time of 6.30pm?

So, the choice is:

5pm in Dunsop, followed by 6.30pm in Clitheroe, Sunday masses remaining the same.
or, 4.30pm in Dunsop followed by the usual 6pm in Clitheroe. Sunday Masses remain the same

But there is another possibility: a Sunday evening Mass in Clitheroe in place of the Saturday evening Mass, as follows:

5pm Saturday evening Mass in Dunsop

9.30am Sunday morning Mass in Clitheroe

11am Sunday morning Mass in Sabden

4pm Sunday evening Mass in Clitheroe.

What do you think?  Opinions please

Fr John