The proportion of people hoping to be received into the Catholic Church has significantly increased in the Diocese of Westminster this year.
The diocese has reported an 11 per cent increase in applications compared with last year, bucking a year-on-year trend of decline, according to a report in The Tablet.
Last week at Westminster Cathedral, 269 catechumens and 353 candidates took a step towards becoming Catholics when they attended the Rite of Election. Catechumens are individuals who have not yet been baptised into any Christian denomination.
During the event, those present publicly expressed their desire to enter fully into the life of the Church before Cardinal Vincent Nichols declared them eligible to begin preparations for the Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion. Both catechumens and candidates will be received into the Church on Holy Saturday, which falls on March 26 this year.
In his homily Cardinal Nichols told the story of a “young man, aged about 17”. “Early one evening,” he said, “he was walking past a church and felt a strong urge, a call, to go inside. As he sat there, he saw a priest going into the confessional. Then, surprising himself somewhat, he went into the confessional and made his Confession.
“During that conversation he experienced a great sense of being called and chosen to respond to God with his entire life. And he did so. That young man is now Pope Francis.”
Cardinal Nichols concluded: “We are here because we have been chosen, chosen by Jesus to receive this gift of faith.”
Christian king is honoured 1,400 years after his death
A Mass was celebrated this week at the Shrine of St Augustine in Ramsgate, to mark the 1,400th anniversary of the death of King Ethelbert of Kent, the first Christian English king.
Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana, Kazakhstan, general secretary of the Kazakh bishops’ conference, celebrated the Mass in the Extraordinary Form on Tuesday.
St Augustine of England was welcomed and helped on his mission to bring Christianity to the English by King Ethelbert, who was the first English king to convert to Christianity in 597.
His wife, Queen Bertha, had had to practise her Christianity privately, though with her husband’s full support, before St Augustine’s arrival in the country. Within a year King Ethelbert had converted to Christianity and started establishing religious houses. He died on February 24, AD616. King St Ethelbert and Queen St Bertha are pictured in the windows of the baptistery of St Augustine’s.
Everyone who attended the Mass was invited to enter the shrine through the Door of Mercy and gain a plenary indulgence for the Year of Mercy.
Bishop launches Confession drive
The Bishop of Shrewsbury has issued more than 5,000 brochures about Confession throughout his diocese. Bishop Mark Davies launched the initiative to encourage Catholics to return to Confession during Lent. The brochures explain the meaning and practice of Confession.
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