Bishop Patrick greets the readers of the September/October e-News
Dear reader,
The visit of the relics of St Bernadette to our diocese: 6-7 October
Excitement is certainly beginning to build up across our diocese as we look forward to the visit of the relics of St Bernadette. It is indeed a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity for us to pray before the relics of St Bernadette, to thank God for her faith and determination to carry out what Our Lady, ‘the beautiful woman’ had asked of her, even though she was young, just 14, and uneducated, from the poorest of backgrounds. As St Paul reminds us, “God has chosen the weak of the world to shame the proud” (I Corinthians 1:27). Bernadette is now a saint and she continues to draw many millions of people to Lourdes as a place of prayer and healing. Many people, however, have not had the opportunity to visit Lourdes, so with the visit of the relics of St Bernadette to our diocese, something of the prayerful and healing experience of Lourdes comes to us. You will see elsewhere in this E-news the detailed outline of the 24 hours that the relics of this saint are present in our diocese for veneration. Please do encourage people, perhaps from your among your family and friends to join you for this most special occasion, especially if they have lapsed from the practice of their faith.
Do note that the Cathedral will be open all through the night of the 6th October so that as many people as possible, particularly those who work shifts or irregular hours, may have the opportunity to come and pray before the relics. Most of the visit events will be streamed so that those who are ill, housebound or otherwise unable to go to St Bernadette’s Church, Scunthorpe, or the Cathedral in Nottingham may join in. May the visit of the relics bring us individually, and collectively as a diocese, many graces.
At the Bishops’ Conference Meeting held by Zoom on Tuesday 20 September we began our first discussion in preparation for the Jubilee Year 2025. The most recent Year of Jubilee was in 2015. It was called by Pope Francis as an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. The last ordinary Year of Jubilee was in 2000, following the usual tradition of a 25 year gap between each such Jubilee Year. It usually begins just before Christmas the previous year and ends on the Feast of the Epiphany the following year. The Pope inaugurates the Jubilee or Holy Year with the rite of the opening of the Holy Door in St Peter’s Basilica. Then the Holy Doors of the other Papal Basilicas are opened, St John Lateran, St Paul outside the Walls and St Mary Major. Then the Cathedral and certain other churches within each diocese may also be designated as ‘Jubilee Churches’ for that year.
Jubilee motto: ‘Pilgrims of Hope’
Our next Year of Jubilee will take place in 2025, and the motto will be, ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. It will begin just before Christmas 2024 and end on the Feast of the Epiphany 2026. Pope Francis writes, “the forthcoming Jubilee can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire; that is why I have chosen as the motto of the Jubilee, ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. This will indeed be the case if we are capable of recovering a sense of universal fraternity and refuse to turn a blind eye to the tragedy of rampant poverty that prevents millions of men, women, young people and children from living in a manner worthy of our human dignity…May the voices of the poor be heard throughout this time of preparation for the Jubilee.” 2025 is also the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea (325), which gave expression to the Christological faith that all Christians continue to profess, and so various ecumenical initiatives are also being planned. Responsibility for the organisation for the Jubilee Year 2025 has been given to the Dicastery for Evangelisation and the emphasis is very much on two years of preparatory catechesis.
Catechetical Preparation in 2023: discovering the teaching of Vatican II
Mindful of the synodal process going on, Pope Francis has asked that 2023, the first year of catechetical preparation, should be dedicated to discovering the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, particularly that presented in the four principal documents, The Dogmatic Constitutions, Lumen Gentium (the Church), Dei Verbum (Divine Revelation), Sacrosanctum Concilium (Sacred Liturgy) and Gaudium et Spes (The Church in the Modern World). User-friendly resources from the Dicastery, which use non-technical language and which can be used in catechesis and formation, will be made available. The Holy Father will celebrate Mass on 11 October 2022 to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Opening of Vatican II, and you may wish to keep this in prayer that day.
Catechetical Preparation in 2024: ‘Prayer’
2024,the second year of catechetical preparation for the Year of Jubilee, will be dedicated to Prayer. Resources from the Dicastery will be made available which will include, the ‘Prayer of Jesus’ the Psalms, The parables, Holy Spirit, Our Lady, the Bible, Prayer of Silence and commentaries on ‘The Lord’s Prayer’.
Jubilee Year 2025: Calendar of Events
For the Year of Jubilee 2025 a calendar of events is being planned which will include a Jubilee of Families, Jubilee of Youth, Jubilee of Priests, Jubilee of Deacons, Jubilee of the Sick, and many more. While there is the expectation that huge numbers of people, from many parts of the world, will travel on pilgrimage to Rome, local dioceses are also encouraged to devise their own programmes of events and pilgrimages which emphasise the key themes and build upon what’s already happening within the diocese. We are not to see the preparatory work for the Jubilee as burdensome and as ‘yet another thing to be done’, but rather as the making available of resources which can be used to help support the good work already going on locally, as determined by each diocese. The spiritual dimension of the Jubilee, which calls for ongoing conversion, should run through everything we do.
Discussion within the diocese & generation of local ideas
Earlier this week I discussed the Jubilee Year with both the Council of Priests and the Bishop’s Council, and some helpful local ideas are beginning to emerge. These will be collated and sent out for discussion at the October Deanery Conferences. I would welcome feedback from each Deanery and also some initial discussion in the parishes about how best to prepare for the Jubilee over the next two years.
With prayer and good wishes,
+Patrick, Bishop Patrick McKinney
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