Feb and March

On Monday January 28^th I had the special joy of attending the Ordination to the Diaconate of Rev Tom Dubois and Rev Shaju Varkey in St John’s Seminary Wonersh. The two new deacons are no strangers to Devizes sine the have been here many times. Some of our younger parishioners may remember Deacon Tom when he spent a year in Trowbridge, since he was a frequent visitor to St Augustine’s.

The Ordination Liturgy was very beautiful and the singing was lead by the college Schola. The Ordaining Bishop was our own: Bishop Declan. It was interesting to note that since Bishop Declan was not in his Diocese when ever he carried the crozier he turned the head of the crozier towards him.

Going to Wonersh was also the occasion to occasion to renew my links with Cardinal Bourne. I have always had a special liking for Cardinal Bourne. The secondary School I went to had six houses and I was in Bourne House. All I remember from school is that Cardinal Bourne was the Archbishop of Westminster at the time of foundation of Gunnersbury Catholic School for Boys and that his father was English and his Mother Irish.

It was only after leaving school and learning a little more history that I came to know more about Cardinal Bourne. Allow me to let the Cardinal introduce himself:

At first my parents lived in Islington They moved, about 1855, to to Larkhall Rise, Clapham. A4y only brother, Henry Joseph, was born there on November 5, 1856, and baptised by Father Coffin, C SS R, on November 7 My mother nearly died in giving him birth, and he was always a very delicate boy, with very difficult digestion.

I was born on March 23, 1861 My parents had no other children. So far as I know, there was no danger about my birth, though considerable apprehension had been felt regarding it, and the Redemptorist Fathers attributed to the intercession of St. Alphonsus (their large relic of whom was kindly left by them in our house during those anxious days) my mother’s safety and my own. I was baptised the next day, March 24th, at St. Mary’s, Clap ham, by the Very Rev. Robert Coffin, C.SS.R., and received “Alphonsus” as my second name. [‘Francis’ was given me on account of a relative of my father.

I know nothing of this relative. In my early days I used to regard St. Francis of Assisi as my patron, probably through becoming acquainted with the Capuchin Fathers at Peckham and Greenhithe. But when I was 17 or i8, and my vocation to the Priesthood was becoming quite clear, I happened to read the Life of St. Francis of Sales and came more and more deliberately to choose him as my guide and protector, so that long before my ordination to the Priesthood, the thought of him was constantly in my mind and I read with eagerness his life and works. But I claim also the friendship and protection of all the other Saints who bear this name.]

The Young Francis went first to Ushaw, then to St Edmunds College Ware. Having completed schooling, started his studies for the priesthood. Francis wondered if he had a vocation as a Dominican. After a little time of testing in Woodchester, he returned to the Seminary in Hammersmith then on to St Sulpice, Paris, finishing his studies at Louvain. On June 11^th 1884 Francis was ordained to the Sacred Priesthood by Bishop Coffin (the priest who Baptised him) in the same Church of his Baptism.

After different appointments the Young Father Francis was appointed as rector of the seminary which he latter moved to Wonersh. In 1897 at the age of thirty six Francis Bourne became the fifth Bishop of Southwark and in 1903 following the Death of Cardinal Vaughan he became the forth Archbishop and Metropolitan of Westminster. In the next edition I will tell you more about this special Cardinal and his link with Devizes.

As we enter Lent may the words of St Gregory the Great be our prayer.

“So let this consecrated time bring forth its fruit abundantly”.

Every Blessing