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| Sacred Heart in Wimbledon |
After almost 130 years, the Jesuits are to withdraw from running
one of their landmark parishes as the order undertakes a review of all
its apostolic work in Britain.
The British Province of the Society of Jesus has announced that it will hand over Sacred Heart in Wimbledon, south west London, one of Britain's largest parishes with thousands attending Mass each week, to the Archdiocese of Southwark. In a letter to parishioners, Fr Dermot Preston S.J., the provincial, delivered the "very sad news" and said the decision had been taken because of the declining number of Jesuits.
There are currently four
serving the parish. Fr Preston pointed out in his letter that there
were now fewer than 200 British Jesuits compared with almost 1,000 in
the early 1960s. He added that the Jesuits "will need to hand over a number of our
present commitments to other ministers" in the future and that Sacred
Heart is our "strongest and most mature parish".
Link (here) to The Tablet
7 comments:
Have pity on the Fathers and Brothers who stand strong in the way of their vocation, and confirm them in the right course of virtue. Have pity also on those who are stumbling. Help them and steady them with Your strong spirit to keep from swerving to the right or to the left.
Have pity also on those who have fallen, and let these runaway sons rise from their apostasy, and recognizing the early grace of their vocation, by true repentance be reconciled to You.
Have pity on schismatics and heretics, and let them return to the unity of the Church, leaving behind them the darkness of error, bring them to embrace with us the light of Catholic teaching...
Have pity on sinners who serve the world, the flesh, and the devil, rather than You, the true and living God, and thus hurry to the gates of everlasting death.
Convert them, Lord, to the way of penance and restore to the dead the life of grace, lest otherwise they die in their sins and be forever separated from Your grace and glory. Amen.
St. Peter Canisius
Can't wait to see how the diocese will staff the parish. They're not bursting at the seams w/priests either.
Thank you, Maria, for your words. May I ask you, where do you take this nice prayer from?
that a nice thought Peter Canisius
I am grateful that my Jesuit Parish is staffed mostly by women and lay people and use the tools the 21 century has given us .
Staff?
i made a mistake my parish is LEAD by women and lay people.
It would make sense a Diocesan Parish has a staff as its priests are trained at technical schools called seminaries.
Amen Clement. Diocesan priests receive poor theological educations.
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