Refugee Response: Diocese of Salford

I am writing to share with you the plans of the Diocese of Salford in response to the ‘refugee crisis’ and the call for action from Pope Francis. Bishop John Arnold has asked Caritas Diocese of Salford to take up this work.

To coordinate our response, we will work closely with the Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales and others at both national and local level. This response will need to be diocesan-wide and I will be inviting every parish and school to get behind the initiative we have named as Refugee Response.

Our response is planned in three phases:

Phase 1  

We are setting up a webpage for information with donation opportunity – how to help; channelling donations to front line work with refugees; listing the sort of practical items we might need to collect and identifying the hubs in the Diocese from where these items can be delivered to; building a register of people and organisations with transferable skills who we can call upon for assistance.

Phase 2

We will work with parishes and schools, the charities that specialise in work with refugees and asylum seekers, linking Refugee Response to the voluntary and statutory sectors, local authorities and government. In particular there is a national and international Catholic network that we are part of through Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN) and Cafod in London linking to our European Caritas family through Caritas Europe. We will also direct people to website information, petitions, and advocacy & campaign groups.

Phase 3

We will build a register of people, homes and properties that can be places of welcome offering a room, a house or a building that can be used to house refugees and be places of welcome, hospitality or sanctuary. We will also plan for the longer term as we already have thousands of refugees, asylum seekers and people with no recourse to public funds or entitlements in our midst and we will be welcoming more including refugees fleeing the trauma of war in Syria. There are long-term needs to be planned and resourced working in partnership with the Catholic community and all people of good will.  Most importantly, we will also be encouraging prayer for social justice in this forthcoming Year of Mercy.

If you would like to find out more about the Refugee Response in Salford Diocese please visit our website at http://www.caritassalford.org.uk/refugee-response
or email refugee@caritassalford.org.uk

Mark Wiggin, CEO Caritas Diocese of Salford

Burlata Dear Parishioners,

Today is Home Mission Sunday for which the English Bishops have written a pastoral letter, an extract from which reads: “a day when we invite every member of the Catholic community to pray for, participate in and support the work of evangelisation in England and Wales.

Pope Francis shows us that the true heart of faith is hugely attractive. He shows us how to let our faith be seen. He does this by making clear the great mercy of God, the mercy that he has received and that he shows to all.

The mercy of God is God’s love in action, reaching out to every person… When Pope Francis was asked to describe himself he said, simply, “I am a sinner.”

The letter concludes: Finally, we your bishops want to thank each and every one of you for the witness that you already give. Your presence at Mass today is a good example. By coming to Mass you not only give due worship to God but also publicly proclaim your faith to everyone who knows of your commitment and routine. We thank you for your daily efforts in family living, the patterns of family life that you work hard to sustain. The family is the first and best school of faith, of prayer and of virtuous living. Thank you all indeed!

Together let us seek to live out the words of Pope Francis: “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew… I wish to encourage the Christian faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelisation marked by this joy.’”

Here we shall begin another RCIA programme which might best be described as an introduction to Catholicism that caters for any wishing to learn more about our faith, or maybe missed making their First Communion, or who wish simply to join the Church. Anyone curious to learn what makes a Catholic tick is also welcome!

We meet on Thursday evenings in the Presbytery large meeting room for one hour between 8 and 9pm. If you have a friend who may be interested but is perhaps shy of coming alone, then do please consider inviting and accompanying them and assure them that there is no obligation to return if they feel that it isn’t for them. There will be an introductory meet and greet session next Thursday, 1^st October, at 8pm with a little something to wet the lips and steady any nerves.

Fr John

Dear Parishioners,

On Tuesday the top years of St Mary’s Sabden and St Michael and St John’s will join the pupils of Thorneyholme (St Hubert’s) school for a joint celebration of Mass to mark the opening of the new academic year. Then at the beginning of the coming spring and summer terms there will be a similar celebration in Sabden and Clitheroe. This first Mass will be in honour of Our Blessed Lady, invoking her prayers for the three schools in our parish of Our Lady of the Valley. Later in the week our schools will publish Faith Friends, the first of a joint termly newsletter. Faith Friends will be available to parishioners next Sunday. To my mind the really exciting and encouraging feature of these ventures is that they are an initiative of the schools themselves, and bode well for the ongoing consolidation and cooperation of our three Catholic Communities in this northernmost reach of Salford Diocese.

The RCIA programme will resume on Thursday 24^th of this month, the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham. As in past years it will meet most weeks, beginning at 8pm, after the Thursday 7.30pm evening Mass and will last for one hour only. The programme is geared to help those who feel drawn to joining the Catholic Church or who simply wish to dip their toe in the water. Catholics wishing to learn more about our faith will also benefit from the course. Please contact me for further information.

Letters will go out this week to parents of children in our schools who are eligible to make their First Holy Communion in June next year. We shall follow more or less the same programmes as last year, which proved to extremely successful and which probably benefited the parents more than the children.
Parents of children who do not attend any of our schools and who wish their children to make their first Holy Communion should contact me as soon as is possible and certainly before the end of this month.

There was a good attendance at this year’s cemetery Mass on Bank Holiday Monday and though the heavens didn’t quite smile on us, the rain stayed away!

Finally important dates for your diaries this month:

Wednesday, 16^th, Parish Centre at 7.30pm, Parish Forum

Sunday, 20^th, at 1pm Parish sponsored walk for HCPT

Sunday, 27^th Parish Hall at 2pm Mass of Healing.

                                                                               Fr John

Dear Parishioners,

Being a keen angler I know of the Ribble Valley’s beauty and its reputation for its fishing! My name is Callum Brown and I’ll be part of your Parish community for the next five months. I’m training to be a priest for Salford Diocese, studying at St Mary’s Seminary, Oscott, the same seminary at which Fr Frankie trained. I hail from the Rossendale Valley, am 26 and in the 5th year of a 7 year course.

The seeds of a possible vocation first began to show themselves during my second year of university where I experienced in a very gentle and gradual way, a sense of dissatisfaction with the direction my life was heading. I had a vibrant social life and was very much involved in the life of the Catholic Chaplaincy. Yet I felt a strong desire to do more for Christ and deepen my faith and commitment to His Church. For the next eighteen months the conviction grew, which I describe as a persistent nagging, almost like toothache, that perhaps my vocation was not to the teaching profession but the priesthood. I took the plunge and contacted Salford’s Vocations Director during my third year of University.

Following a period of discernment and a long application process, Bishop Brain sent me to Valladolid seminary in Spain. Valladolid is a challenging place where each year twenty men live under the same roof for 9 months searching to make sense of what God is asking of them; getting to know themselves and God better. It was a blessed time for me, the experience of living in a passionately Catholic part of Spain and having some breathing space to reflect deeply on the prospect of vocation was a gift.

Academic training then followed at Oscott College, a six year course to equip students with the skills and knowledge required for parish ministry. Towards the end we are appointed to live and work in a parish to get a real taste of the life for which we are training.

So it with great joy that I come to Our Lady of the Valley parish and the opportunity to spend what will hopefully be a grace filled time with you and I ask your prayers and patience as I continue on this journey of discernment and learning towards Priesthood.

Callum        

PILGRIMAGE TO LOURDES – 31st July to 6th August 2015

We have returned with the ‘joy of mission’!
We all experienced so much on an individual, Parish and Diocesan level. It would appear that there aren’t enough words to do justice and to share our reflections.
So here are just a few words we collectively recorded in an attempt to give insight into Lourdes…………….

 Single words……..

“joy” – “time” – “laughter” – “tears” – “God” – “love” – “wonderful” -“mass” -“special” -“moving” – “spirituality” – “friendship” – “experience” – “reconciliation” – “healing” – “deep” – “beautiful” – “emotional” – “music” – “service” – “opportunity” – “expressions” – “singing” – “young” – “welcoming” – “meaningful” – “involvement” – “journey” – “memorable” – “opportunity” – “joyful” – “holiness”.

A few more words……..

“Truly inspirational” – “first visit” – “above expectations” “Our Lady” – “packed schedule” – “joining in” – “worthwhile experience” – St Bernadette” – “Christian Community” – “wonderful Bishop” – “reflective experience” – “torchlight procession” – “Ave Maria” – “uplifting and enhancing” – “strengthening of faith” – “making new friends” – “Bishop John’s presence” – “God Bless all” – “encouraged to participate” – “grace and adoration” – “kindness and love”.

And so much more……..

“looking after the sick” – “with our Parish groups” – “closer to God, Jesus and our Mother Mary” – “our amazing clergy as human beings” – “great grace and peace” – “would recommend it to anyone” – “getting to know people” – “blessed by my visit and long to return” – “continue much harder at home” – “excellent volunteers, especially the young people” – “sincerity, humility and humanity” – “a place to experience for yourself” – “Rosary Basilica, really beautiful” – “people’s devotion to Our Lady” – “Our Blessed Lady has pulled her cape around me” – “treasure of late night silence at the Grotto” – “faith is very much alive” – “diocese activities and time for your own personal preferences”

The choir sang beautifully; the young ‘army’ of volunteers, dressed in their blue T-shirts, looked after the sick pilgrims in their wheelchairs with such care, love and devotion. It was humbling to witness; we all felt very proud of them.

Food for thought: One young girl’s experience changed the world for many.

You just have to go to know……..!!

Many thanks to all who made the Pilgrimage to Lourdes such a special, uplifting and spiritual experience. See you all next year!!
Stay with us Lord on our journey

From Our Lady of the Valley Parish Pilgrims