The only change in our Pastoral Area is that Fr. Louis McDermott OMI is leaving Millbrook/Lordswood and returning to his Order, to their Inchicore parish in Dublin.    He leaves us in early September taking, alas, his own inimitable style with him.   His successor will be Fr. Des Connolly who is one of the Montfort Fathers based at Ashurst, though he himself has latterly been Parish Priest of Ringwood/Fordingbridge.   He is the inspiration behind the ‘Poitiers Project’ which we support with food donations, etc., and will be known to many as not so long ago he was Chaplain at St. George’s College.

On the East side of the city, Fr. Bill Wilson is moving from Woolston/Netley to Westbourne (Bournemouth) and Fr. Claro Conde is coming instead from Sandown/Shanklin/Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.   Fr. Anthony Gatt of Portswood will be their new Coordinating Pastor.

And that’s it.  You’ll just have to petition the Bishop again next year …

Our parish children are at present being prepared for their First Reconciliation, which takes place in the church on St. Patrick’s Day – not in the Confessional, though we do show them that, so they understand how it ‘works’. And we teach them the word ‘Reconciliation’, so introducing them to the language of six-syllable words.

Having said all that, the Latin title of the sacrament is not Sacramentum reconciliationis. It is Sacramentum penitentiae, literally ‘Sacrament of Penance’ or of ‘Penitence’. Penitence is our sorrow for sin, penance is the atoning for that sin in some way, as when the priest ‘gives one a penance’. A different emphasis again, to be honest not as complete a notion as ‘reconciliation’

There are other emphases, too. One is the communal nature of sin. It is quite wrong to think: ‘My sin is a private matter between me and God’. All sin, however ‘privately’ committed, impacts on the world at large; it weakens the threads of love and trust. If you came to the talk on “Celebrating Lent the Orthodox Way” on March 2, you heard how the Orthodox, on the day before Lent, hold the “Service of Forgiveness”, where everybody present asks forgiveness of everybody else, albeit without listing details.

That is the main point of our celebrating a Parish Service of Reconciliation in Lent (March 23, 8pm). By coming together we recognise the weakening of the social bond which sin causes, and the strengthening brought about by forgiveness.

In our primary school, given the large numbers, the children write their sins on cards, which they even decorate and illustrate. The priests read the cards and give Absolution, and the cards are fed into a shredder before the children’s eyes, to show them that the sin is ‘gone’.

In France there is now a ‘confess by mobile phone service’ – of which the French church does not approve – by which at 0.34 euros per minute one can speak of one’s sin to God. Mon Dieu! So God has a mobile phone after all – no wonder he is always ringing during Mass.

Next we will have text-message Confession: i bad sind comm. 1 3 6 9 and presumably Penance & Absolution: 2 OF, 2HM, 2GB, u OK. Have nice day. Gd.

Choosing the Common Good argues that the construction of a just and civil society can be achieved as the desire for love and truth is innate in all women and men. While there has been a fracturing in trust in institutions and in each other, the Bishops argue that it is up to all in civil society to lead the re-building of this essential trust. Central to that task is the understanding that we are not self-contained individuals but inter-dependent, where human flourishing lies in the quality of our relationships and the practice of virtue.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols, president of the Bishops’ Conference, said: “We encourage everyone to read this document and participate in the wide-ranging and necessary debate about the values and vision by which we seek to construct a just and civil society. Ultimately Choosing the Common Good is about human flourishing. It does not offer a direction on how to vote, but forms a back-cloth to the more particular issues which may well dominate the election itself and offers an invitation to the political parties on how best to respond in all of our joint efforts to build a better society.”

It is also promoted as a reflection on essential strands of Catholic social and moral teaching ahead of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI which takes place in September.

Read it on the website of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, at the link below:-

www.catholicchurch.org.uk/catholic_church/media_centre/press_releases/press_releases_2010/choosing_the_common_good

His place will be taken by Monsignor Vincent Harvey, who is one of the Vicars General of the Diocese – that is, one of the Bishop’s deputies for the administration of the Diocese – and has been Parish Priest of the Holy Ghost parish in Basingstoke, where one of his recent prominent concerns has been overseeing the building of the large new parish complex of St. Bede (church, centre, presbytery) to replace a number of scattered Mass centres. He has been on a Scripture study sabbatical in the Holy Land during the autumn (read and see more at his sabbatical blog), hence this slightly unusual time of year for a clergy move.

Moving is always a traumatic experience and we wish them both well as they move to new surroundings. The Pastoral Area thanks Canon John for his years of service to parish and city, and offers its welcome to Monsignor Vincent.

Canon John O'Shea

Mgr Vincent Harvey

They have recently completed 41 baby quilts and 21 cushions for the children of women using the Southampton Domestic Abuse Service.

These women and children often flee their homes in just the clothes they are wearing.

Donations of bedding and towels, toiletries and kitchen equipment are always welcome and may be made via Portswood Police Station.

I said then that you – the laity – know what richness you need to find in the ministry of your priests and deacons. You expect to be able to find in us a familiarity and intimacy with God so that, in all humility and confidence, we might be able to lead you to God. When all is said and done, the only richness you hope to find in us is the richness of God.

This is a “high” understanding of the priestly vocation and one which you rightly hold. Today, I want to put before all of you, who are celebrating significant anniversaries in your married lives, a similar “high” understanding of marriage, that sacrament which defines your lives. It is important that we do so at this time when so much in our public and political life is intent on undermining this great sacrament which underpins the whole of our Christian life.

Let’s start with that reading from Colossians – and let me remind you of what Paul wrote: “As the chosen of God…you are to be clothed in heartfelt compassion, in generosity and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive each other…The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same. Over all these clothes, put on love, the perfect bond.” It’s in these qualities, generously lived out by you over many years, that we find the sanctity of marriage, its richness for human growth and its importance, both for our immediate families and for the family of the nation.

Inevitably, you will cast your minds back to the beginnings of the partnership that you enjoy today. You will remember the quickening of the heart and those first stirrings of love. You will remember the joy of sharing and that sense of contentment that comes from being together. You will remember and rejoice in that coming together in oneness and the ideals and hopes that you have had and which you have done your best to sustain over the years. Be thankful for the great gift of love with which the Lord has blessed you.

But you will also remember the realities of your shared lives and the challenges that they have made on your generosity and love, on your need for that patience and understanding of which Paul writes. You won’t have always got it right – none of us do – so you will remember too those moments when there has been need for forgiveness and mercy and understanding.

This all goes to prove that in any Christian vocation, which is a way of life, there has to be what is described as the “gradualness of the Law.” Vocation, be it to marriage or priesthood, is about a process of building and sharing lives and enthusiasms; it takes time and involves change. You did not achieve perfection on the day of your marriage. Cardinal Newman writes that “to be perfect means to have changed many times” and all of you will have learned the truth of that.

Today is an opportunity for a solemn recommitment of your lives to one another, a recommitment to that love which “costs not less than everything”. This is yourfidelity to the particularity of loving to which the Lord has called you – and it costs. “Remain in that love…and love one another as I have loved you.” St John goes on to write, though we haven’t heard those words today, that “no one can have greater love than to lay down their life for a friend.” That is precisely what you undertook when you first exchanged your marriage vows, however many years ago. At that moment, “the peace of Christ reigned in your hearts and it was for this that you were called into one body”. And, of course, “the peace of Christ” is another way of saying “the presence of Christ” is in your hearts and families.

This vision of your vocation may seem hopelessly idealistic but, striving to make this vision the reality of your married lives is to bear witness to the world of what St Paul describes as “the unfathomable riches of Christ.” In the Church, you are not simply married for yourselves; you are married for all of us and for all who live around us. You give us the opportunity to see and experience – made flesh in yourselves – the love that the Lord has for each of us and for all his people, You show us what it means to lay down life for friends. You are witnesses to the Gospel, so that when I want to talk about Christ’s love for us, then I can point to you and say “there you are; look at that.”

You are in the front line of the mission of the Church – proclaimers and witnesses of the Gospel of love. Hear again and take heart from other words of John Paul II – “What the world needs are heralds of the Gospel, who are experts in humanity, familiar with their own emotions, able to share them with others, and who are, at the same time, contemplatives who have fallen in love with God.”

If ever there was a “high” teaching on marriage this is it; it is your vocation – we rejoice in it – and our prayer today is to help you celebrate it in prayer and gratitude to the Lord who alone gives the gift.