Advent I

This Sunday is the first Sunday of  Advent. The regular 1.00 p.m. Mass at St. Patrick's will be a low Mass.

Please remember that next Sunday is the feast of the Immaculate Conception and we are having a missa solemnis.

Superb quote and another reminder

The former prime minister, Gordon Brown who lost his newborn daughter, Jennifer, at just 11 days old in 2002, said Britain should "do better at assisted living" before trying to legislate on ways to die. 

It is not too late to contact your MP to request they oppose this nefarious bill.

I was pleased to see the following service at the parish church of the Dean of Bradford.

Pro-Life Vigil at St. Walburga’s Church, Kirkgate, Shipley - Wednesday 27th November 8pm –10pm - Assisted suicide legislation is being brought before Parliament on Friday 29th November. You are invited to join in an evening of Adoration, Rosary and private prayer, interceding for the protection of all human life from conception until natural death. Assisted suicide undermines the sanctity and dignity of human life. Please unite in prayer and compassionate action to oppose this legislation.

(Extract from the parish newsletter.)

I hope to get to this event and am very grateful to Canon Walker for this initiative.

Pentecost XXIV - last after Pentecost

Sunday's 1.00 p.m. Mass at St. Patrick's will be missa cantata. Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent.

It was very heartening to see the number of interested people who want to learn to chant under the eye of our own cantatrice, Madeleine, who will be leaving the country later next year.

The first lesson is to take place after Mass on Sunday 15th December which is Gaudete Sunday. Please ask at Mass if you want to join in. Many thanks to Madeleine, who is a big fan of the ICKSP Sisters in Preston.

One of our seminarians, James Baxter, is due for diaconal ordination next year in Italy with the same Institute in Griciliagno. 

Apologies for the reminder, if you have already contacted your MP about the Assisted Suicide Bill. This Bill receives its second reading next Friday (29th. November). 

Some big names in the Cabinet, including the Health Secretary, have already expressed their reservations about this bill. 

I don't think that this is necessarily a done deal given that it is a free vote. I am, however, alarmed enough to try and encourage people to do something whilst they still can. People were asleep in 1967. Some of my own children have needed to be reminded about this. I'm obliged to keep banging the drum. 

Please follow this link Ask your MP to stop assisted suicide being rushed into law

I followed the link myself and was asked if I really wished to pursue it. I wonder why? Please persevere. 

I can still recall reading Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson's Lord of the World.

Confessions at call on Sunday.

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Epiphany VI

On Sunday the calendar uses up the sixth Sunday after the Epiphany. Next week is the (twenty-fourth and) last Sunday of Pentecost. Translations of the Mass propers will be available at the back of church as usual. Mass at St. Patrick's will be at the usual time of 1.00 p.m. 

Confessions at call.

Thank you to those who have expressed an interest in learning the chant. There will be a short meeting after Mass where Madeleine will explain how this will work and when the lessons will take place. Many thanks to her for this - I am very grateful for this wonderful opportunity.

Please may I remind you to contact your local MP to request that he or she reject the proposal to legalise suicide, regardless of how stringent the regulations might initially appear. How long will it be before we have living wills for those afflicted with dementia or even depression,  as has already happened in Holland? 

In German the word for suicide is Selbstmord (self murder) but ever increasingly I am coming across the totally valid word Suizid which I had never encountered in that language in over forty years of learning and teaching German.

Polish has samobójstwo ( also: self murder) - I wonder if engineers of this language have tried to use some other expression which is less explicit. I hope one of our many Polish attendees at Mass will be able to tell me. 

Last time I was in Krakow I was impressed with the number of  people on the streets regularly promoting the pro-life message and stressing the humanity of the unborn child.

Mass on Christmas Day, which is a Wednesday, this year will again  be at 1.00 p.m. Thanks to Fr Driver for being available again for this Mass. 

Many thanks also to Fr Driver for funding a set of rose vestments in memory of his parents which will be used at St. Patrick's on Gaudete and Laetere Sundays. I recently also received some other vestments in memory of David Adolph, who died in May, which will be used at St. Patrick's. 

Totally by chance Fr. Driver will be the celebrant on Gaudete Sunday this year, the week after our High Mass for the feast of the Immaculate Conception. 

I shall ask Father Driver to offer the Mass on Christmas Day for David.

Letter from Bishop Marcus Stock regarding Government proposals to legalise assisted suicide

PASTORAL LETTER ON ASSISTED SUICIDE SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, 2ND AND 3RD NOVEMBER 2024

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

On Friday 29th November, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill 2024-25 will be given its Second Reading in the House of Commons. The Bill, tabled by Kim Leadbeater MP, will as its long title states, “allow adults who are terminally ill, subject to safeguards and protections, to request and be provided with assistance to end their own life; and for connected purposes.” Many of us have experienced the distress of seeing our loved ones endure some degree of pain or suffering when they have been mentally infirm, severely ill or dying. Our natural desire is to try and help alleviate that pain or suffering as quickly as possible. No one wishes those they care for to be in any kind of anguish, particularly when that person is nearing their death. What the Bill before parliament will create is not the relief of that pain or suffering, but the legal right of someone who is terminally ill to intentionally commit suicide and to be assisted by others to do so. The justification for this is that a person’s life has been judged by themselves, or been judged by others, to be not worth living. The better and more compassionate way to assist anyone facing the end of their life is to advocate excellent palliative care for all, so that our loved ones can be assured that their life will end with dignity and their pain be managed. 

Dame Cicely Saunders, considered one of the pioneers of palliative care, stated, “You don’t have to kill the patient in order to kill the pain”. She noted that most requests for assisted suicide recede once patients are given access to appropriate, whole-person care. There have been strong and emotive arguments put for and against such legislative changes in the past. This Bill may appear to promote personal autonomy but cannot negate the fact that an act of assisted suicide is never autonomous in nature; it will always have an impact upon others, an individual’s family, their friends, and indeed the healthcare professionals who will be expected actively and deliberately to assist them in ending their life. 

The Catholic Church affirms the intrinsic value and dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. Our faith teaches us that life is a sacred gift from God; that we are stewards, not owners, of our lives. This faith calls us to protect and care for the most vulnerable amongst us. It is important to understand too, that our Catholic faith does not demand that life be prolonged at all costs. Death is part of our God-given life. The Catholic Church’s tradition affirms that a person does not have to accept treatment for a terminal illness when they judge that this will not be in their best interests. What is perhaps less widely known is that the Church also accepts that some medications which may have the likely effect of hastening death can be administered with the consent of a person or, if they are incapable of expressing a view, their next of kin, when this is done with the primary intention of alleviating their pain or suffering. This does not constitute ‘assisted suicide’ or euthanasia and needs no change to existing legislation.  We now know too, given the developments of such legal provisions in other countries, just how arbitrary and unreliable the eligibility ‘safeguards’ are in similar legislation where assisted suicide has been introduced. Its provision seems inevitably to have been extended beyond the limits given as the basis for its justification, to those with disabilities, those with mental illnesses, and in some jurisdictions even to children. In this Sunday’s Gospel passage, we hear how Our Lord Jesus Christ united into a single precept the commandments ‘To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength’ and to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’. We demonstrate our love for God by cherishing the gift of life He has given to us. We demonstrate love for our neighbour by honouring and protecting the gift of life He has given to others. I ask that the clergy, religious and lay faithful of our diocese unite in prayer and compassionate action to oppose the passage of this Bill and the legalisation of assisted suicide. This we should do out of a ‘concern for the good of every person in society, the protection of this good in law, and the spiritual and pastoral care of the sick and dying’. I urge you to consider writing to your MP to express your opposition or concerns about the Bill now before parliament (please see below the online resources which can help you to do this). May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Mother of Unfailing Help intercede for us and be the comforter of all those who suffer and all those afflicted in any way. 

+ Marcus,   Bishop of Leeds 

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales website has been updated with a range of resources to help to be informed regarding the assisted suicide legislation that is currently working its way through Parliament: https://www.cbcew.org.uk/opposing-assisted suicide/ and https://www.dioceseofleeds.org.uk/catholics-oppose-assisted-suicide/ The charity Right to Life UK has a simple online mechanism to help you contact your MP. It takes little more than a few minutes to input your postcode, make sure the suggested text suits your viewpoint and submit your message to ask your MP to stop assisted suicide being rushed into law. Go to the Right to Life UK website: https://righttolife.org.uk/ASthreat

Remembrance Sunday

Mass this Sunday at St. Patrick's will be our traditional Mass of requiem for the War Dead. It is a Low Mass. We are planning to have a short ceremony before Mass in front of the presbytery where the men who fell in the First World War from that parish are remembered in stone. Some of those men were members of my own family and share the surnames of my father's ancestors.

Confessions available before Mass.

If you would like to learn to sing the chant for the Mass - from scratch please let me know after Mass. We have had a wonderful offer of tuition in the chant for the next few months. My daughter and I have signed up already.

Soon, a bill which seeks to allow people to legally terminate their own lives (i.e. kill themselves) receives its second reading before Parliament. If you have not already contacted your MP, to request voting this down, please consider doing so. It is a very slippery slope.

I might as well write to the neighbour's cat about this, as to my MP. But I am making a point!

The fourth remaining Sunday after the Epiphany

Because Easter was so early this year the Church now uses up Sundays which weren't used before Septuagesima after the Epiphany. `The Epistles, Gospels, Secret and Post-Communion prayers are used from these post Epiphany Masses whereas the introits, offertory and Communion prayers are from the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost. As usual there will be a leaflet with the translation available at the back of church. Mass on Sunday at St. Patrick's will be a Low Mass at 1.00 p.m.

There was a very pleasing attendance this evening for the feast of All Saints. Mass tomorrow for All Souls is at the earlier time of 5.30 p.m. The Mass will be the second Mass of All Souls, as it will be Father Driver's second Mass.

Fidelium defunctorum:

Some of you may remember Fr. Danny Harrison who offered Mass regularly for us in the past including singing the Easter Vigil on several occasions. He had been trained to sing as a boy at the cathedral by Gerry Lyons and recalled to Gerry the clouts and clips round the ear he sometimes got off Gerry. It didn't affect his ability to read the chant and deliver it well. Fr. Dan died earlier this month and was buried this week at Killingbeck where he had said and sung so many Masses for us. He was a gentle and kind man. Please remember him in your prayers. 

Others may remember Fr. Michael Gallagher O Praem. formerly of Corpus Christi Bascillica in Miles Platting near Manchester. Father died last month at a great age. For many years he had been a resident at the Little Sisters of the Poor's home in Manchester.  Fr. Gallagher was one of the best preachers I ever heard. Many years ago he travelled to Holy Family church, Chequerfield to be the celebrant at a wonderful solemn Mass sung by the Rudgate Singers. Fr. Gallagher was also an excellent singer. May he rest in peace.

Recitation of the Pater Noster and the Credo in church on the feast of All Souls gains a plenary indulgence for the Holy Souls.