This is the day that God has made:
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
May the feast of Easter
touch the lives of those who are troubled
with peace and joy.
May it be a source of happiness for you
and kindle hope in your hearts.
May it strengthen your love for one another.
And may the risen Lord bless you all:
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
St Joseph’s Players Present
The Ghost Train
by Arnold Ridley
Tuesday 21st April - Saturday 25th April
Curtain Up 7.30 pm
Tickets are available from Bang Bang or on the door priced at £6.00
Tickets purchased for the October Performances of this play are valid
for the April production dates.
St Richard’s & Sacred Heart, Atherton
Maundy Thursday
Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7.30 pm
St Richard’s, Atherton
Good Friday
Celebration of the Lord’s Passion at 3.00 pm
St Richard’s, Atherton
Holy Saturday
The Easter Vigil at 8.00 pm
St Richard’s, Atherton
St Ambrose Barlow, St Gabriel’s
& Holy Family
Maundy Thursday
Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7.30 pm
St Ambrose Barlow, Astley
“Watching� at the Altar of Repose until 11.00 pm
Good Friday
Celebration of the Lord’s Passion at 3.00 pm
Holy Family, Boothstown
Holy Saturday
The Easter Vigil at 7.30 pm
St Gabriel’s, Higher Folds
Please note: there will be no 6.00 pm Mass
St Joseph’s, Our Lady of the Rosary,
Sacred Heart & Twelve Apostles
Maundy Thursday
Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7.30 pm
Sacred Heart, Leigh
Good Friday
Celebration of the Lord’s Passion at 3.00 pm
St Joseph’s, Leigh
Holy Saturday
The Easter Vigil at 7.30 pm
Twelve Apostles
The Most Reverend Patrick Kelly, Archbishop of Liverpool, will celebrate the Silver Jubilee of his ordination as a Bishop with a Mass of Thanksgiving at 5.30 pm today in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool. It will be exactly twenty-five years since the Archbishop was ordained as Bishop of Salford by Bishop Thomas Holland in St John’s Cathedral, Salford. On 21 May 1996 it was announced that he was to become Archbishop of Liverpool and he was installed in the Metropolitan Cathedral on 3 July that year.
The Lord Lieutenant of Liverpool, Dame Lorna Muirhead, will read the First Reading at the Mass (Jeremiah 20:10-13) and the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Councillor Steve Rotheram, will lead the Prayer of the Faithful. The Gospel (John 10:31-42) will be read by Deacon Dominic Curran who is to be ordained to the priesthood later this year. Among those present will be members of the Archbishop’s family who will take up the gifts at the Offertory Procession, and priests and people from Liverpool and from his former Diocese of Salford. The Archbishop’s ‘home’ Diocese of Lancaster will be represented, as will be St Mary’s College, Oscott, Birmingham, where he served as a lecturer and Rector with those studying for the priesthood.
The Choir of the Metropolitan Cathedral will be taking part in the music of the Mass under their Director, Timothy Noon. The music will include Gregorian Chant and a Mass setting by Louis Vierne. The motets ‘The Spirit of the Lord’ and ‘Ave Verum’ by Edward Elgar will be sung. The hymns include: ‘Praise to the holiest in the height’, ‘Ride on, ride on in majesty’, ‘O taste and see’, ‘Pange lingua gloriosi’, ‘O praise ye the Lord’, and ‘Hail Redeemer, King Divine’ a hymn written specially for the Metropolitan Cathedral.
Archbishop Nichols will succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, who has been Archbishop of Westminster since March 2000, becoming the 11th Archbishop of Westminster since the Restoration of the Hierarchy in 1850, when the diocesan structure was re-established.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor said: “I would like to welcome Archbishop Vincent back to the diocese, 17 years after he was ordained as an auxiliary Bishop in Westminster Cathedral by Cardinal Basil Hume. He has many friends and colleagues among the Bishops, priests, religious and lay people of the Diocese.“
“It will be a profound joy for me to celebrate Holy Week, Easter, and especially the Chrism Mass with the priests of the Diocese next week, content in the knowledge the Diocese is soon to be in the care of a hugely experienced and compassionate pastor.�
“Archbishop Vincent and I have shared much over many years and have been privileged to be members of a most united and harmonious Bishops’ Conference: sharing with all the Bishops in a steadfast loyalty to the Holy Father and a deeply held desire to promote the common good.�
“I have been blessed greatly in my ministry here and now above all I pray for God’s blessings on Vincent Nichols, the next Archbishop of Westminster.�
As Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor remains an active member of the College of Cardinals and retains the right to vote in a conclave until he reached the age of 80. He also remains eligible to be a member of Congregations, Councils and Commissions in the Roman Curia until he is 80.
In common with other Episcopal Sees throughout the world where the incumbent has usually been nominated by the Pope to join the College of Cardinals, it would not be expected that the Archbishop of Westminster be appointed as a Cardinal until after Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor has become 80.
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has today appointed the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, who has been Archbishop of Birmingham since March 2000, as the next Archbishop of Westminster. Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor as Archbishop of Westminster. The Cardinal will now become the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Westminster until Archbishop Nichols is installed at Westminster Cathedral on Thursday 21 May 2009.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols said: “As the Cardinal so graciously says, it is for me something of a return. I spent 16 very happy years here in Westminster, eight of them as General Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference and eight of them as an Auxiliary Bishop to Cardinal Hume in North London. I learnt a great deal from him, not least about the demands of the office of the Archbishop of Westminster and I am daunted by the task that lies ahead.�
“It’s sad departing from the Diocese of Birmingham which I have learnt to appreciate, cherish and love. I will miss the priests and the people of Birmingham very much indeed.�
“I would like to thank Cardinal Cormac, who has been an outstanding Archbishop of Westminster. He knows what it’s like to live through really hard times and he has come through them with great dignity and strength. He has been an outstanding public leader of the Catholic community in this country today and I know I speak for many when I express our steadfast admiration and thanks to him for all that he has done.�
“I feel a real need to acknowledge my openness to and dependence on God above all else. But in this I am not unique. Everyone who seeks to follow the ways of God learns to depend on the truth, love and compassion of God more than on their own strength. I know that as I prepare to take on this new office in the Church many people will pray to the Lord that I will be strengthened for this task – and that is what I definitely need.�
“We often hear of the challenges facing our country in finding cohesion in the face of great diversity. Our churches are places where people are from a wide variety of different racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. They come together, work together and contribute together to the wider good of our society. The Church in this country has a great deal to offer and I hope to do my best to contribute to that project in this new role.�