Bridges, not walls - Baroness Cox at Newman House

We were honoured to welcome Baroness Caroline Cox today at Newman House as our Sunday Lunch speaker, who spoke to us about 'Reconciliation through Realism' with Islam. Lady Cox, a member of the House of Lords, was described by Fr. Peter as a heroine of our time, and few who heard her speak today could disagree with that.
She initially spoke about the work of the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (www.hart-uk.org), of which she is the Chief Executive, describing in terms of her own experiences the dangers and daily problems and tragedies faced by Christians in certain countries in Africa, and of how so many of our fellow Christians are persecuted simply for their refusal to convert to Islam. Lady Cox has travelled to many countries, often crossing borders illegally, and has witnessed first-hand the suffering of so many people. Her testimony is both shocking and moving, and the situations she described are a far cry from the comfort of student life in London.
Following this, Lady Cox introduced the subject of the risk posed by militant Islam to the world, touching on such issues as the enforced culturalisation of regions such as southern Sudan, the incompatibility of Sharia law with the ideals of human rights and liberties, and the tactics employed by Islamists in their attempts to create a 'new cultural hegemony' using education, politics and legislation.
Many questions followed, during which a range of issues were discussed, including the 'guilt trips' felt by the Western world with regard to Christianity and the misuse of Western foreign policy decisions by militant Islam, deliberately misconstruing them as anti-Islamic Christian offensives.
The talk was without doubt an eye-opener for all those who heard it, and Lady Cox kindly donated some of her books on this subject to the Newman House library - for those who missed the talk, or who would like to know more. She also encourages anyone who is interested to get in touch with her -her email address is ccox@ertnet.demon.co.uk
Many thanks indeed on behalf of everyone at the Chaplaincy to Lady Cox, and also to Denis Criado for organising the talk.

Day of Adoration

Once a month we have an extended period of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament in the NH Chapel: either a Day of Adoration, or an all-night vigil. Today has been one of those days of prayer. A goodly number of students turn up in the course of the day to spend time in prayer in the intimacy of Christ's Presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

Prayer can be tough. Our minds all invariably wander all over the place, and we get frustrated with ourselves. Or we don't have a great numinous experience and we wonder what it's all about and what the point is. But in fact the main point is just to be there, with the Lord. We don't have to do much - he is the one doing all the work! The hardest thing about prayer is making time - and it's also the most important. As the wise Dom John Chapman once observed: "The less you pray, the harder it gets" or Metropolitan Anthony Bloom's reminder that it's not God who is absent from us - it's us who are absent from God.

So Days of Adoration are opportunities to make time and set it aside for God - hoping for nothing, expecting nothing, just rejoicing in his presence and content to be with him.

We are so fortunate at Newman House to have a Chapel attached, where the Blessed Sacrament is always reserved, Christ among us, the hope of Glory. Cardinal Newman, writing to a friend, made an intensely beautiful observation:

'I am writing next room to the Chapel. It is such an incomprehensible blessing to have Christ's bodily presence in one's house, within one's walls, as swallows up all other privileges and destroys, or should destroy, every pain. To know that He is close by—to be able again and again through the day to go in to Him; and be sure, my dearest W., when I am thus in His Presence you are not forgotten. It is the place for intercession surely, where the Blessed Sacrament is. Thus Abraham, our father, pleaded before his hidden Lord and God in the valley'.

Outstanding Speakers this week!

UCL Cathsoc tonight (Monday 29 January) welcomes the Provost of the Birmingham Oratory, Fr Paul Chevasse, as its guest speaker. Fr Chevasse is also the postulator for the cause for canonisation of Cardinal Newman. The talk will outline the process and developments so far of Cardinal Newman's cause. The talk, entitled Cardinal Newman: The Journey to Canonisation, will take place at 7.30pm at Newman House.

On Sunday 4 February we have the honour of welcoming Baroness Cox of Queensbury as the guset speaker at the Sunday Bar lunch after Mass. Her talk is on the very topical subject of Christian-Islamic Dialogue in the 21st century, and is entitled Bridges not Walls - Reconciliation through Realism.

Lady Cox is an outstanding figure in British public life and is well versed, through personal experience, with her subject. She was created a Life Peer in 1982 and has been a deputy speaker of the House of Lords since 1985. She was founder Chancellor of Bournemouth University 1991-2001 and is a Vice President of the Royal College of Nursing. She is heavily involved with international humanitarian work and is the founder and Chief Executive of the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART). She also serves as a non-executive director of the Andrei Sakhorov Foundation; the Siberian Medical University; and has been a trustee of MERLIN -Medical Emergency Relief International.

Her awards include: the Commander Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland; the Wilberforce Award for humanitarian work and the Inetrnational Mother Teresa Award. She holds an honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons, and honorary doctorates from universities in the UK, USA, Russia and Armenia.

Baroness Cox's work in the field of humanitarian aid has taken her on many missions to conflict zones, including the Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabakh; many visits to Africa including Sudan and Nigeria; to the Karen, Karenni and Chin peoples in the jungles of Burma and to communities suffering from conflict in Indonesia and more recently to North Korea.

She has authored a number of books, her latest publications including Cox's Book of Modern Saints and Martyrs which "gives an inspiring account of living saints, enlightening the dark side of stories of martyrdom, and celebrating the ways in which men and women experience a transformation of their lives through their great sacrifices for those less fortunate" and This Immoral Trade: Slavery in the 21st Century, co-authored with Dr John Marks.

We are indeed privileged to have 2 such outsanding contributors this week, and are very grateful to them for giving of their time to be with us.

Fr Peter: Christmas a memory

I made a resolution last year that the NH blog would be updated regularly, if not frequently. Of course, Christmas and December are dead times for University chaplaincy. Most students are off home and there is very little for a chaplain to do. In the past I have volunteered for cruise chaplaincies with the Apostleship of the Sea, but in the past few years I have taken the opportunity to visit my parents and brothers in South Africa - Christmas at home is a rare privilege!

My parents retired to a small seaside resort in the Western Cape, called Still Bay (more generally Stilbaai, its Afrikaans name). It's located in a beautiful spot, off the beaten track. During the year its population is just 4000, but over Christmas and the new year it swells to 40 000. Many people from the far north of South Africa have holiday homes there. They are mainly Afrikaans people, and so largely members of the Dutch Reformed Church. The handful of English speaking Christians go to an ecumenical service in one of the DRC buildings, which they borrow for their worship. There has been no Catholic Church presence in the town.

Last year my parents, who are Anglicans, kindly drove me to Mossel Bay, the nearest big town, for Mass on Christmas Day. It is over 100km away, so we set off at around 6am to be there for the 8am Mass. We attended Mass at St Blaize's Church. The lovely parish priest, Fr John Atkinson, has responsibility for several other churches in neighbouring towns. This year I phoned him up and offered my services while I was there. To my delight I discovered that there was now a regular Mass in Stilbaai, which he himself celebrated every fortnight. The local Catholics took turns to host the Mass in their homes and advertised the venues each month in the local paper. So I checked up when I got there, and joined with Fr John to concelebrate Mass on 18 December. The local folks did not know of my existence so they had already planned for their Christmas Mass to be on 28 December - now they had a priest at their disposal, so plans were hastily redrawn! Thus it was that I gathered with around 25 local people and holidaymakers for Mass on Christmas Day in the welcoming home of a couple of faithful Christians. It certainly was one of the memorable Christmasses I have spent. My thanks to all of them for their welcome and their inspiring fidelity. It is a lovely little community and I wish them much success and many blessings.

The area is part of the Diocese of Oudtshoorn - an enormous diocese of more tha 113 000 square kilometres! It has a farely small Catholic population (28 000 or so) served by just 22 priests, about a third of whom are religious. What a mammoth task! Please pray for them all. This is a good reminder of how fortunate we are in having the provision of Mass so readily available at times and places and in styles that suit us. Visiting such mission territory reminded me of just how lucky we are here in London!

Our Blessed Lady

Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, celebrating God's marvellous love for us when he prepared a worthy dwelling place in whom his Son could become incarnate. Many people have asked whether we will be having the usual Holy Day Masses - well, no, because the Immaculate Conception is not a Holy Day of Obligation in England. Each Bishop's Conference has to select one Feast of our Lady as a HDO - in the USA it is the Immaculate Conception, in South Africa it is Mary Mother of God (1 January) and in England it is the Assumption (15 August). We will have a sung Mass tonight. Just because it's not a Day of Obligation does not make it less important. So we shall sweetly sing the praises of Mary as we offer the sacrifice of her Son.

The special title of our Lady for Universities and students is our Lady, Sedes Sapientiae, or "Seat of Wisdom". Jesus is the Word of God, the Eternal Wisdom, and it is through Mary that the Word, the Wisdom of God, is made flesh. Jesus seated on the lap of Mary, Mary the seat of Wisdom.

Pope John Paul II received a gift of a mosaic icon of our Lady, Sedes Sapientiae, from Slovenian artist Ivan Rupnik. The Holy Father gave this mosaic to the universities of the world during the Great Jubilee Year 2000. The image has been travelling around the world ever since, and was with us here at Newman House for the Feast of the Imacculate Conception in 2004. A group of about 20 students then accompanied the icon to Rome, where it was presented to Pope John Paul at what in the event was his last major public appearance, the Academic Mass in St Peter's Basilica on 14 December 2004. We were part of a united choir of students which sang the Mass. It was a spine-tingling moment when the choir burst into Tu es Petrus - You are Peter: and indeed there with us was Peter, Vicar of Christ.

Our happy band in the Piazza of St Peter's Basilica, before the Academic Mass.

Inspired by the pilgrim icon, a group of residents then began work on a mosaic based on the original. Led by Ian Mannion and Russell Hearn months of work ensued. It is not an exact copy, nor is it professional, but it is our very own! It is still awaiting framing (everything takes a long time at Newman House!!!!!) but it will be hung in our Chapel in due course. The mosaic was blessed by Cardinal Arinze when he visited Newman House following the Academic Mass.

We hope, in the new year, to start regular devotions to our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, to inspire us as students as we pursue knowledge in seeking truth as we follow the Wisdom of God, Jesus Christ.

Sedes sapientiae, Ora pro nobis

Photos of our lads in training

Jerome Santamaria - Corpus Christi College, Melbourne

David Wingfield - Venerable English College , Rome

Daniel Jeffries - Dominicans, Cambridge

Ian Mannion - Ampleforth Abbey

Robert Colquhoun - Allen Hall, Chelsea

Here I am Lord, send me

There are currently five young men in formation for the priesthood or religious life who have had a connection with Newman House in the past few years. Each of them were a significant presence while they were with us. It's the way of things here that each year we have a completely new set of residents and community members, so those from even one year ago are easily forgotten! Alan Paton wrote a little poem about his (and my) old school, Maritzburg College, which had these lines:

Old walls that echoed to our cries,
our tears, our voices,
our laughter,
and echo now
to those who follow after.

There may be new voices now, but these lads certainly made our walls echo while they were here! We are immensely proud of each of them!


So here are our five:


Jerome Santamaria
Resident at Newman House 2004/2005

Jerome must have been the tallest resident of Newman House ever! He had some pretty neat dance moves, and a dry, sardonic humour which could at times be unnerving, and a natty line in hats! He certainly was a presence in the House. A lawyer by training and profession (he was in London for further studies) Jerome discerned his vocation and made his response while he was at Newman House.



Jerome is now studying for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College, Carlton, for the Archdiocese of Melbourne.


Robert Colquhoun
Member of King's College Cathsoc until 2004; Received into Full Communion with the Catholic Church at Newman House, 2004


Robert is the odd man out here, because he was not resident at NH. He nevertheless has a connection with us because it was here he was received into full communion with the Church. Robert had been an active member of the KCL Cathsoc, and under the guidance of Fr Tim Calvert OP, the then chaplain, he joined the Catholic Church. After a spell in the city, Robert joined the World Youth Alliance and was then sent for a "pre-seminary" year to the Royal English College, Valladolid.



Robert is now studying for the priesthood at Allen Hall, Chelsea, for the Archdiocese of Westminster.


Daniel Jeffries
Resident at Newman House 2002-2004


What can we say about Daniel? A person with a great sense of fun and deeply committed to his faith, he also had a fashion sense that made the rest of us gasp, heehee. There are lots of witty sayings from Daniel that continue to echo around the walls of NH - like the time he described the image of our Lady veiled for Holy Week: "She looks like our Lady of Afghanistan now!" Daniel arrived at NH with a clear sense of his vocation, which is now being actualised. He was President of KCL Cathsoc, and after NH moved to More House. He spent a year as a Dominican Volunteer in the Philippines before joining the noviciate of the Dominicans.


Daniel is now in formation with the Order of Preachers in Cambridge


David Wingfield
Resident at Newman House 2004/2005


David was received into the Catholic Church shortly before coming to NH. Very early on he was given the nickname "The Brigadier", which he relished! This reflected his very English sense of style and his general demeanour. Yes, David is a thoroughly English gentleman. After leaving NH David taught for a year, before being selected for training for the priesthood. A few posts below are some photos of David in Rome.


David is now studying for the priesthood at the Venerable English College, Rome, for the Archdiocese of Westminster


Ian Mannion
Resident at Newman House 2003-2006; Received into Full Communion with the Catholic Church at Newman House in 2004


Ian arrived at NH as an Anglican and left as a Benedictine postulant! Another renowned wit who had a great sense of fun alongside his deep commitment to his faith, Ian was an invaluable member of the community because he seemed to be at the heart of so much of what went on here. He certainly kept the Senior Chaplain on his toes! My famous early remark to Ian was: "I have three things planned for you: first, we are going to make you a Catholic, next we will get you ordained and then we will find you a job with the CDF!" This is because Ian is immensely intelligent with a razor sharp ability to analyse. His training is in biochemsitry, but he also has a great interest in languages (let's see, he speaks Italian, French, Danish, Icelandic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin ... did I miss any?) and is a very fine musician.


Ian is now a postulant at Ampleforth Abbey, Yorkshire


Please pray for our alumni in formation. And pray that there will be many who come after them.

Ann Widdecombe speaks to UCL Cathsoc

Tory MP Ann Widdecombe visited Newman House on Thursday 23 November to address the UCL Cathsoc on "Faith and Politics". A large number of students gathered for the talk, which was a real tour de force by the veteran politician and famous convert to Catholicism. Miss Widdecombe spoke for about 20 minutes and then took questions from the floor. In all the meeting lasted about an hour and a half. Her engagement with us was very well received, being both humorous and serious.

See how far Newman House residents go......

While we were entertaining Cardinal Arinze in London, our former resident David Wingfield (2004/5) was mixing with even MORE prominent people! David is now a seminarian at the Venerable English College, Rome, and sent us the following pictures of a momentous day - when the Archbishop of Canterbury visited the Holy Father. Students from the VEC joined the Office of Midday Prayer in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel in the Apostolic Palace.






Spiffing, Brigadier!

Some Photos of the Academic Mass - Westminster Cathedral 19 November 2006

The Cardinal was very gracious in giving time to meeting people at the reception after the Mass. In the background, Fr Peter Wilson (Senior Chaplain); Sr Mary Kenifick (Chaplain at London Met); Stefan Grabowski (President of QM Cathsoc); Claire Hack (President of UCL Cathsoc); Sr Catherine Cruz (Chaplain at Westminster Uni) smiling behind Claire!
Seated for the Liturgy of the Word. The vimpa bearer (server) is Joe Matlak, past-President of KCL Cathsoc.
The Home Secretary, Mr John Reid, was at the Mass. Here he and the Cardinal exchange greetings
The student crowds throng the hall for the reception after the Mass
Bishop Alan Hopes and the priests are clearly enjoying the homily!
And a very good homily it was too! Go to our website (www.universitycatholic.net) for a copy. There's a link to it on the "Bulletin" page. Unfortunately, none of the really delightful stories and asides are in the text. That's really sad because many of them were hugely funny!
Chaplains and other priests concelebrating the Mass with His Eminence
Offering the Sacrifice.

"Ecce Sacerdos Magnus"