A new Oratory will open in Bournemouth in September.
The new community, which will be inaugurated at the Sacred Heart church, will be the sixth Oratory to be established in England.
Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth, who invited the Oratorians to Bournemouth, said they would form part of a “major evangelisation drive”.
The centre will be an Oratory “in Formation” and will be made up of Fr Dominic Jacob, co-founder of the Oxford Oratory, Fr Peter Edwards and Fr David Hutton.
The first Oratory was established by Blessed John Henry Newman in Birmingham in 1848. The London Oratory followed a year later. In the early 1990s an Oratory was established in Oxford. In 2013 two Oratories “in Formation” were set up, one at St Chad’s in Manchester and the other in St Wilfrid’s, York.
Bishop Egan said priorities for the centre in Bournemouth would include serving the needy – a food bank is already open in the parish – and offering sacramental support, with the church open throughout the day for Eucharistic Adoration, Mass, Confessions and other prayers and liturgies.
In this week’s Catholic Herald, Bishop Egan writes: “The diocese has areas of real deprivation and poverty. There are immigrants and foreign nationals from Eastern Europe and overseas, as well as university and college students living far away from home. This is a pastoral situation that is urgent.”
He added: “I am delighted by this new project beginning at Sacred Heart parish.”
Campaigners hail Cameron’s stance on testing for Down’s
Campaigners have applauded David Cameron’s statement that new screening techniques must be introduced in “the right way” to confront the “ethical issues” around testing the unborn for Down’s syndrome. A new screening technique has been proposed which would involve less risk of miscarriage – saving perhaps 25 unborn lives a year – but would also mean many more cases of Down’s syndrome would be diagnosed. Campaigners say it could lead to an extra 92 abortions a year, given how many unborn children with Down’s syndrome are already aborted. Currently, nine in 10 mothers who are told they are expecting a baby with Down’s syndrome choose an abortion. Down’s syndrome accounts for most of the abortions for disability – 3,100 in 2014, compared with 2,300 in 2013. Campaigners argue the new technique should be delayed pending a full review. They say the Government needs to ensure any reforms are compatible with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. A spokeswoman for the Don’t Screen Us Out campaign called the prime minister’s remarks “a great victory”.
Cardinal welcomes new mayor
Cardinal Vincent Nichols has welcomed Sadiq Khan as the new mayor of London. “I assure him of my prayers for his time in this important office in which he will face the great challenges of London, in its richness, diversity and energy,” the cardinal said. He said he hoped the city’s first Muslim mayor would seek to cultivate a “healthy coexistence” of different peoples rather than impose “exclusion” and “uniformity”.
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