Churches around Britain held Blessed Sacrament processions on Sunday for the transferred feast of Corpus Christi.
In London, a procession was led by Archbishop Mennini, the apostolic nuncio. It started at Our Lady of the Assumption, Warwick Street and ended at St James’s, Spanish Place.
This is the third consecutive year that the procession has taken place. Last year, Cardinal Vincent Nichols was present.
An international procession took place from St Patrick’s, Soho, to a nearby Anglican churchyard, where Benediction was given. Volunteers handed out leaflets to passers-by explaining the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist and the tradition of holding processions.
Bishop Ralph Heskett of Hallam led the procession from St Marie’s Cathedral, Sheffield, while Bishop-Elect Paul Mason, Auxiliary Bishop of Southwark, led a procession from St John the Baptist, Westerham.
A procession also took place at Neath Abbey in South Wales, led by Bishop Tom Burns of Menevia.
In Oxford, a Pontifical High Mass for Corpus Christi, celebrated by Bishop Robert Byrne, was followed by a procession through the streets. The procession stopped at Blackfriars, where Fr Robert Ombres OP preached, and finished at the Catholic Chaplaincy.
In Ramsgate, a procession attracted more than 350 people. Fr Marcus Holden, the parish priest of Ramsgate and Minster, said the turnout was “amazing”. He tweeted: “A great witness and act of loving devotion. Deo Gratias!”
Catholicism survey ‘highlights challenge to evangelisation’
Bishop Mark O’Toole of Plymouth has said evangelisation in Britain faces a “challenge” after a report showed a lacklustre rate of conversions.
The report from St Mary’s University, Twickenham, “Contemporary Catholicism in England and Wales”, based on data from the British Social Attitudes survey, showed that among major denominations the Church has the lowest proportion of converts, at 7.7 per cent.
Bishop O’Toole, chairman of the department for evangelisation and catechesis of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said the findings “demonstrate the challenge to Christian evangelisation in this country. While the Catholic population has remained relatively steady over the past 30 years since the surveys started, this headline figure disguises the change in make-up of the Catholic population and also the way Catholics practise their faith.
“The striking thing is the clear sense of the growth of ‘no religion’ as a proportion of the population,” said the report’s author Stephen Bullivant, senior lecturer at St Mary’s University.
Cardinal Bo thanks Western Church
Burma’s first cardinal has thanked Western Christians for helping to bring democracy to his country.
Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon said the Catholic Church was “at the forefront” of supporting the people of Burma, during a dictatorship that lasted half a century.
“Today, we are free,” he said at a Mass in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool, last week.
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