Cardinal Vincent Nichols has said that faith has the power to overcome all darkness in the aftermath of the Brussels attacks.
In his homily at the Easter Vigil in Westminster Cathedral, he said: “The darkness is real, this week shown most emphatically on the streets of Brussels. The light is strong, overcoming all darkness, as our ceremony has portrayed, in light which flooded the darkened Cathedral.”
He continued: “It is the light of the risen Christ who, still bearing the wounds of his suffering, comes to us in glory. And this light, passed in faith from hand to hand, has the power to overcome all darkness, all sin.”
The cardinal also celebrated the Solemn Liturgy of the Passion on Good Friday at the Cathedral, noting that this year it fell on the same day as the feast of the Annunciation.
He said: “Today is March 25, usually the feast of the Annunciation, of the conception of Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. There was an ancient tradition according to which Jesus dies on the Cross on the same day as his conception, his Incarnation. These mysteries, his Incarnation, the Cross, the Resurrection, are inseparably connected.”
Before the Solemn Liturgy of the Passion, the cardinal took part in a Walk of Witness procession along Victoria Street, from Methodist Central Hall and Westminster Abbey to Westminster Cathedral.
‘Uncompromising’ former Anglican priest is mourned
A colourful ex-Anglican priest who joined the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in 2011 has died aged 78.
Fr David Skeoch surprised many when he crossed the Tiber because of his well-known opposition to the liturgical changes following the Second Vatican Council.
He was ordained as a Catholic priest by Bishop Alan Hopes on June 15, 2011. He assisted the ordinariate at St Mary’s Catholic Church in Ipswich.
The Daily Telegraph said he was “a man of intelligent, considered, but uncompromising views” who “was loved and feared in almost equal measure”. He was born in Murton, County Durham, in 1937 in a mining village and later won a scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford. After his ordination, he served as assistant to the Bishop of London.
In 1983 he was appointed vicar of St Gabriel’s, Pimlico, where he remained until his retirement in 2007. He dedicated himself to the local primary school, introducing a weekly liturgy. It is said that he rebuked children affected by the incense by saying: “Stop this Protestant coughing!”
Cardinal washes Pensioners’ feet
Cardinal Vincent Nichols washed the feet of Chelsea Pensioners at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at Westminster Cathedral on Holy Thursday.
In his homily, Cardinal Nichols said: “The washing of the feet and the giving of the Eucharist are inseparable, if each is to be fully understood.”
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