THE
P RTAL
August 2016
Joanna Bogle DSG tells us all about a
visit by Bishop Peter Elliott to The Most
Precious Blood, London Bridge
It is
Auntie Jo a n
A Bishop from
“Downunder!”
Page 4
not every day that you get a visit from a Bishop – especially
a Bishop from the other side of the world. So the parish at
Precious Blood Church at The Borough, London Bridge, put on a
good welcome when Bishop Peter Elliott, from Melbourne, Australia,
came to celebrate Mass with us.
na
wri tes
Bishop Peter is an old family friend of the Bogles Australia is currently debating the imp osition of legal
so it was a particular pleasure to greet him. We first same-sex unions on a par with marriage, as we have in
met long, loooong ago in Melbourne, when I was on Britain…
a lecture trip, organised by a young Australian called
Jamie Bogle, and...well...you can work out the rest.
But there are good things happening in the Church
is Australia – numbers of those coming forward for
ordination to the priesthood are good, and there are
some fine Catholic schools. Bishop Peter, who worked
in Rome for some years at the Pontifical Council for the
Family, was later responsible for creating a Religious
Education syllabus for Catholic schools in Melbourne.
He is now, among his other responsibilities, Director
of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family
(www.jp2institute.org). The Catholic Church is the
largest Christian denomination in Australia, and has
been strengthened in recent decades with the arrival of
large numbers of Vietnamese people and others from
South East Asia who have brought a new dimension of
It was very good to catch up on news, and we life and vigour to many parishes.
reminisced about things, especially a memorable visit
to our current flat when we were just moving in, and
The Ordinariate in Australia faces some of the issues
he had to share his room with an assortment of items faced here, including the question of church buildings:
including a lot of packing cases, and a refrigerator that people come to love a church where they have been
couldn’t yet be fitted into the kitchen...
worshipping for many years and which has important
family associations, and even if they wish to come into
Precious Blood parish has a children’s choir, and full communion with the Catholic Church there are deep
they – and the adult choir – sang beautifully. It was a attachments and loyalties associated with a building
splendid Mass, and then afterwards the parish room filled with links and memories...not easy to leave.
was crowded out with people enjoying coffee and cake
and the children running about, and Bishop Peter
All this made for a good discussion as lunch ended,
meeting everyone.
and it was well into the afternoon when the Bishop
took his leave and gave us his final blessing. With July
Then a long table in the pub next door, and a good starting the holiday season arrives, and parish life takes
lunch: and we heard about the Church in Australia, on a different feel: the weekly Evensong, Ordinariate
and the Ordinariate of the Southern Cross, and how use Mass and supper will take a break, to restart in
things are going generally. The problems facing all September, as will LOGS, which incidentally plans to
Christians in Western nations are the same - increasing mark its Birthday on September 5th with a modest
imposition, by various public authorities, of ideological celebration. It was good to round off the first half of
ideas especially on marriage, children, and family life. the year with a Bishop dropping in!