St Mary’s Catholic Church, Chorley
FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME –5th FEBRUARY 2012
On leaving the synagogue, Jesus went with James and John straight to the house of Simon and Andrew. Now Simon's mother-in-law had gone to bed with fever, and they told Him about her straightaway. He went to her, took her by the hand and raised her up. And the fever left her and she began to wait on them.
That evening, after sunset, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils. The whole town came crowding round the door, and He cured many who were suffering from diseases of one kind or another; He also cast out many devils, but He would not allow them to speak, because they knew who He was.
In the morning, long before dawn, He got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there. Simon and his companions set out in search of Him, and when they found Him they said, “Everybody is looking for you.” He answered, “Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came.” And He went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out devils.
MASSES, MASS INTENTIONS AND SERVICES
The Rosary will be recited after Mass on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Sun 5 Feb FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (M. bk. p.134) Sat 7.00 pm Mass – John & Elizabeth Prescott et al
8.00 am Mass - Dolores Gaughtry (LD)
11.00 am Mass – Valerie Walmsley (LD)
- Welcome Mass for Confirmandi
Mon 6 Feb St Paul Miki, and his Companions
8.40 am Morning Prayer
9.00 am Mass – Mary Leach et al (Foundation Mass)
Tue 7 Feb
9.30 amMorning Prayer & Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 12.00 noonMass – Laurence Kedward (A)
Wed 8 Feb St Jerome Emiliani, St Josephine Bakhita
8.40 amMorning Prayer
9.00 amMass – Josie & Nancy Langton & Paddy White
Thurs 9 Feb
12.00 noonMass – Thanksgiving for prayers
Fri 10 Feb St Scholastica Day of Abstinence from meat
9.30 amMorning Prayer & Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
11.30 am Divine Mercy Novena
12.00 noonRequiem Mass – Mary Carter
Sat 11 Feb Our Lady of Lourdes (World Day of Prayer for the Sick11.00–11.45 am Confessions
12.00 noonMass – Wilf Smith (LD)
Sun 12 Feb SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (M. bk. p.137) Sat 7.00 pmMass – Sarah Ratcliffe (A)
8.00 amMass - Frank Fulton (A)
11.00 amMass – Lloyd Messado (A)
2.00 pmMsza Swieta po polsku
Please pray for the sick and the housebound: Emily Atkins, Gerard Baker, Emma Beatty, Rosie Bolton, Kathleen Bretherton, Brigid Cain, Leo Clyne, Maureen Cheston, Michael Collins, Clare Cronin, Hugh and Yvonne Finlayson, Winnie Grant, Barbara Green, Joan Jones, Mary Jones, Rita Kane, Ronald King, Anna Koss, Doreen Lang, Julie Lowe, Debbie MacFarlane, Catherine McCarrick, Mary McDade, Frances McHale, Irene McKeown, Veronica Mobbs, William Morris, Paul Mulhearn, Fr Harry Pass, Kathleen Reynolds, Margaret Rice, Mary Rigby, Bernard Smith, Kath Taylor, Michael Taylor, Molly Taylor, Duncan Thomson, Clare Whittle, Chloe Wilcock, and our parishioners in the nursing homes of The Adelphi, Cuerden Grange, Euxton Hall, The Gables, Gillibrand Hall, Grove House, Highgrove, Little Sisters Preston, Marley Court, Rivington Park, and Westwood, St Catherine’s Hospice and Derian House Chorley & District General Hospital.
RECENTLY DECEASED: Joseph (Joe) Kenyon aged 88 of Lawrence Road who died on 29th January and whose Requiem Mass was celebrated here last Friday, also Mary Carter aged 90 of Devonshire Road who died on Thursday 2nd February. Requiem Mass will be celebrated here on Friday 11th February. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord…..
ANNIVERSARIES: Laurence Kedward, Sarah Ratcliffe, Frank Fulton, Lloyd Messado, Archbishop Derek Worlock. .
READERS: 4th/5th Feb: 7.00 pm Sister Cecilia, 8.00 am Monica Wilcock, 11.00 am Confirmandi. 11th/12th Feb: 7.00 pm Rachael Clark, 8.00 am John Gunn, 11.00 am John Griffin.
COLLECTION: last week amounted to £985 (including £461 Gift Aid). Thank you for your continued support. This weekend, Education Sunday, there will be a retiring collection for donations towards the School Levy. Each year the parish has to pay a levy of about £3000 (calculated per Mass-goer) to the diocese, and this goes to fund the 10% which we have to pay towards building repairs and new builds. The monthly collection for the Restoration Fund will be taken next weekend 11th/12th February.
OUR SACRAMENTAL AND SCHOOL SYSTEM HAS CREATED 5 MILLION LAPSED CATHOLICS The Catholic Voice of Lancaster: diocesan newspaper editorial – February 2012 re: Education Sunday
“Bishop Campbell’s New Year Pastoral Letter asks the Catholics of the Diocese of Lancaster to be realistic and hopeful about the financial, pastoral and manpower challenges facing us over the coming year and beyond.
In response to the Bishop’s request for written reflections on the questions he raises, here are a few initial thoughts and suggestion from the Catholic Voice of Lancaster. His Lordship Our Bishop sets the challenges facing us within the wider context of the profound spiritual and sociological changes our society has been undergoing since the Second World War:
‘We are living through a time of great transition for the Church in which Christianity changes from a religion adhered to by the majority out of social convention to once again being a way of discipleship deliberately chosen by some, but not all; chosen by the faithful out of conviction.’
This transition from adherence to Christianity from social convention to conviction is the key to answering the Bishop’s two questions about Catholic schools and how to best engage with the Year of Faith. Bishop Campbell’s question about Catholic schools and parishes takes us to the heart the problems associated with this shift from social convention to conviction:
‘Is it right or sustainable to expect our Mass-going population of 21,000 to support our schools and colleges in which often the majority of pupils, and sometimes teachers, are not practising Catholics? Is it time for us to admit that we can no longer maintain schools that are Catholic in name only?’
Bishop Campbell’s question about parishes is equally challenging: ‘Faced with fewer priests and smaller congregations where should our parishes and schools of the future be located? What will they look like? Where should we consolidate and merge others?’
The stark fact is that of the Diocese’s 100,000 Catholics, around 80,000 are lapsed from the practice of the faith. [in Liverpool archdiocese, 446,000 out of 500,000 FM] To be honest, the word ‘lapsed’ is inaccurate for many because it suggests that these 80,000 once practised the faith though regular participation in the Mass.
The truth is that the majority of Catholics come from families who for generations have never practised the faith and only have their children baptised, confirmed and make their First Holy Communion out of social convention. A useful model to understand this is the ‘cycle of deprivation’ that describes how generations of unemployment lead families into intense poverty and an inability to work entrenched and enabled by the welfare state.
In a similar way, the existence of 5 million lapsed Catholics in England and Wales, with only 880,000 practising, reflects the dynamics of a ‘cycle of faith deprivation’ in which there is a generational impoverishment about the faith and a disinclination to practice entrenched and enabled by our parish sacramental system and Catholic schools. Simply put, we have created a sacramental and educational system that has created a startling 5 million Catholics who have never practised the faith, never had a living relationship
with Jesus Christ.
The real problem is that this huge group of nominal Catholics have the social convention of presenting their children for the sacraments but with no intention of raising them in the faith because they themselves have no experience of practising the Faith. Furthermore, baptismal certificates are highly sought after by many as passports Catholic schools system. The reality in Lancaster Diocesan schools is: you don’t need any baptism because you get in anyway if you want to!
Canon Law states that children should only receive the sacrament of baptism if there is ‘a well-founded hope that the child will be brought up in the Catholic religion’ (Can. 868).
Maybe when non-practising families present their children for baptism the Diocese’s clergy think there is a well-founded hope that the children will be brought up in the Catholic religion because they have made contact with the parish and will attend Catholic schools in the future. The fact that there are now 80,000 non-practising Catholics in the diocese suggests that this hope in the majority of cases was not well founded.
The truth of the matter is, as Bishop O’Donoghue put it so well in Fit for Mission? Schools, tens of thousands of children leave the Catholic school system just as lapsed as they were when they entered our schools.
Two of the questions we need to ask of the Diocese’s clergy and school Heads and Heads of RE is how many children, and their families, experience conversion to the Faith and engaged with parish life? How many children from practising families lose their faith while attending their schools?
The Catholic Voice of Lancaster has learnt that it is not uncommon for children from practising families to be bullied by other children because they are a such a tiny minority in schools in which the majority of children, and teachers, are either non-practising or non Catholic.
Furthermore, it is common experience that young people are so scarce in the parishes that those who do attend can feel out of place and alien, surrounded as they are by mainly grandparents. Bishop Campbell is right to ask the question is it just and honest that 21,000 practicing Catholics support and maintain schools that are Catholic in name only. If these schools are not powerhouses of the Faith, building up those children who have faith, and encouraging conversion in the rest, what is the point of them? If young people are not an essential part of parish life, what will be the future of the parish?
It’s time that the Catholic project of mass education rediscovered its vitality be insisting on a vibrant Catholic ethos in our schools, based on the Four Pillars of the Faith – Creed, Liturgy, Moral Life and prayer, while the connection with the local parishes becomes ever more strengthened, not gradually growing apart.
If this doesn’t soon show signs of taking hold in our schools maybe it’s time that the Catholic project of mass education comes to an end.” End of article
This hard-hitting Editorial column speaks truth about the situation we are in. Too often we are fed platitudes about how fine everything is. Discussion about our Catholic schools, RE courses and our sacramental system, needs to move beyond expressions of hurt and outrage or a breezy dismissal of these fundamental questions, and actually begin to be an honest and frank exchange about the fact that’s staring us all in the face – that things are not well in our parishes and schools. If things do not improve, then the survival of many of them will soon be at stake. Their very existence will be in jeopardy within another decade.
In fact we may be witnessing in the UK - less than 1 million practising Catholics in 60 million population – what Pope Benedict warned us about last week – the Faith is being snuffed out due to a lack of sustenance:
“As we know, in vast areas of the world the Faith is in danger of being snuffed out like a flame that no longer has any sustenance. We are at a profound crisis of faith, at a loss of a religious sense that constitutes the greatest challenge for the Church of today.’
ST ANNE’S GUILD: Bingo at 7.45 pm on Tuesday 7th February 2012
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION GROUP: the next meeting is on Monday 13th February 2012 at 7.30 pm in the Church meeting room.
BAPTISM PREPARATION COURSE: 13th and 20th February.
READERS ROTA : commencing 12th February are available for collection form the Sacristy.
FAITH DISCUSSION GROUP: Fr Robert Barron of the Archdiocese of Chicago, DVD on “Catholicism” , Tuesday evenings from 21st February at 7.30 pm in the Parish Centre. .
CHORLEY HOSPITAL: Please contact St Joseph’s, Harper’s Lane (262713) if any member of your family is admitted into the Hospital and needs the priest to visit. In emergency the ward staff will call in the duty priest chaplain via the switchboard.
Fr Francis Marsden 01257 262537 / 480237
Parish Secretary: Mr. Michael Cross
E-mail address: francis.marsden@talk21.com
Parish website: www.stmarys-chorley.org
Parish Centre: 270122 or 07814 559435 (acting manager – Heather Roscoe)
LIVERPOOL ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESAN TRUSTEES INC. Registered Charity No. 232709
