SACRED HEART CHURCH WIMBLEDON

PPC presentation at Masses 17-18 July 2010

ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE PAPAL VISIT

The Pastoral Council has been considering what the parish might do to encourage participation during the papal visit. Up to now it has been difficult to plan in the absence of firm information and there are still matters of timing for which we are still awaiting.

There are two public events for which parishioners can apply for places through the parish. Nobody will be admitted to these without a Pilgrim Pack which includes a pass.

• There is a Papal Vigil Procession in Hyde Park on Saturday 18 September for which we have 199 passes. (Download information sheet and application form: MS Word format | PDF format)
• And on Sunday 19 September there is the Beatification of Cardinal Newman at Cofton Park, Birmingham for which the parish has 63 passes. (Download information sheet and application form: MS Word format | PDF format)

You will be invited to apply for places for one of these two events by completing forms. As soon as they are ready, copies will be placed at the back of the church and can also be downloaded from the parish website [update 21 July: these are now available - see above]. In the event of oversubscription for either of these events there will be a draw for places. In view of the timing it is only possible to apply for one or other of them.

When the forms are available, hopefully in the next week or so, you should read the details carefully to understand the financial contributions you will be asked to make for the pilgrim packs and more particularly the length of time involved in these events. For instance, travel to Birmingham will be by coach through the night so that everyone is in place by 8.30 in the morning. Both events will include a lot of standing and waiting around.

In addition to these events James Potter our Youth Minister will be leading the Deanery youth contingent to St Mary’s University at Strawberry Hill with two students from the Ursuline High School and Wimbledon College where the Pope will meet 3,000 young people.

Most parishioners will not be able to attend these events, so what can we do locally?

Well, we live on the doorstep of the Papal Nuncio’s residence in Parkside, Wimbledon Common where the Pope will be staying. He will, we assume, be coming and going several times in the course of his visit. When we have details of these times we would encourage families to line the road along Parkside to wave to and welcome the Pope. We hope to have flags which children will be able to wave and keep as a memento.

There is no doubt that joining up with others to watch events such as the Beatification adds to the meaning of the occasion – witness the crowds of people who joined in city centres to watch the world football cup final.

What the Pastoral Council have decided to do, as far as is practicable with timings, is to project the television coverage of these and other events in the Pope’s visit in this hall; so that as a parish community we can share in the joy of the occasions.

At this stage we cannot be specific as we do not yet know the TV coverage. It may also not be practical on all occasions because of the weekend programme of Masses etc. although we will amend Mass timings if necessary; alternatively we might record events and play them later. Further details will be announced in September.

As you will know one of the key events will be the beatification of Cardinal Newman and as a follow-up to the visit we will be arranging some talks about Cardinal Newman in October. Once again the details will be announced later.

The Bishops conference has published a number of booklets and reflections which could be used by small groups within the parish; copies of these are available from the official website for the Pope’s visit.

I hope this has provided you with an outline of what we have planned. There are still many details of which we have yet to be informed and we will keep you informed through Mass announcements and the parish website during August when there will be no newsletters.

We hope that however you intend to participate in the papal visit you will pray that the visit with its theme of ‘Heart speaks unto heart’ will find a deep accord amongst all faiths and those with no faith within our country.

Thank you for listening.