Anniversaries: Sat: Elizabeth Rodgers, Mary Ellen Abel, Catherine McDonagh; Sun: Peter Bezemer, James C Levett,

Alfred Fearnley Johnson, Margaret Gallagher; Mon: George Anthony Smith, John Patterson Graham, Mary Ann Prissick,

Walter Cooke, George Ormiston, Jack Leisk; Tues: Frank Porter, Michael Dent; Wed: Father Alphonsus Wannym,

Alfred Mark Ford, Arthur Homan; Thurs: Thomas McAllister, Frank Graham, Vera Willoughby; Sat: Margaret Rawson,

Thomas O’Shaughnessy; Sun: Elizabeth Portz, Sarah Wardell.

Counters this weekend: Barbara Marshall and David Cook; and next: Christine and Mike Eyre

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _From Father Pat_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Goings-on”: We have the Christening today at 12 of OliviaJaneLarney, daughter of Rob and Sarah (née Birkinshaw from South Street). “I’m going mad!God, whereareyou?” As part of the Diocesan CelebratingFamily Project, there will be a meeting at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Hall in Hessle this Tuesday from 7 – 9 pm for anyone interested in the area of mental health and how we deal with it in our families and parishes. Next Saturday at noon we have the Wedding ofIan&Clare(Aitcheson). We wish them all the best for their life together. I’m hosting a RaceNight(Pie and Pea Supper) for the YoungPerson’sCancerUnit at Castle Hill Hospital on Friday May 18^th at The Scout Hut, Sherriff Highway in Hedon. Tickets are £5 from me or Val Conway on 898174. ConcertatStCharles’s Church this Friday at 7.30 pm starring internationally renowned singer from Ireland, David Parkes. Tickets are £10. FrStoreyMemorialLecture given by Julian Filochowski entitled: “Oscar Romero – Witness to Vatican II” on Sat, May 5^th at 11 am (Lindsey Suite, Staff House, Hull University). Tea/coffee at 10.30am. The Parish CWL will be having a Cake Stall that weekend, May 5/6. We welcome the Middlesbrough Branch of the CWL here this weekend for their AGM. Fr Brian Nicholson said Mass for them at 11.30 this morning (Sat). BishopJohnCrowley’snewaddress is: Our Lady of Lourdes, 1 Kirkwick Ave, Harpenden, Herts, AL5 2QH.Ruairi’sJazz Band’sQuiz will be on Sun, May 6^th 6 – 9.15 pm in The Civic Hall, Cottingham. The tickets include a light supper. (He is our Saturday evening Mass Server!). There is aBigBandNightattheMarist’s the same night. Tickets are £3 and it begins around 7.30pm. Tickets from Kevin on 07968 446037.

Lourdes Pilgrimage, June 1^st – 8^th: Only five weeks or less away! There will be a meeting in The Storey Centre at St Mary’s College this Wednesday from 6 – 7 pm. It’s important that all the people going attend, along with a parent/guardian. We’ll be sorting out rooming, passports etc. And on Wednesday May 9^th. we’ll have a Training Session after school and this is obligatory. We’ve been told that if we don’t do the training (in lifting, pushing wheelchairs etc) we won’t be allowed to help the sick. It’s all part of the infamous ‘Health and Safety’ rules that choke us these days! It seems that last year a pilgrim from another diocese fell, sued the diocese for a huge amount and won! Hence the insurance company demands training for all who’ll be helping with the sick. We’ll be putting a box in the porch for anyone who’d like petitions taking to Lourdes (remember, put no money in the envelope!). They will be placed on the altar at the Opening Ceremony and then taken to the Grotto where candles will be lit for all your intentions.

Theologian claims there is ‘ominous divide’ in the church: As controversy over the silencing by the Vatican of Irish Redemptorist priests Fr Tony Flannery and Fr Gerard Moloney grows, an Augustinian priest has written about ‘an ominous divide’ in the Catholic Church. Theologian Fr Gabriel Daly has said “one party is now in control and is presenting its views as ‘the teaching of the church’.” He continued: “Its more voluble members dismiss those who differ from it as ‘a la carte Catholics’ – a witless enough phrase in a legitimately diverse church.” Fr Flannery, a founder of the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland, has had his monthly column with “Reality”, the Redemptorists’ monthly magazine, discontinued at Vatican direction, while Fr Moloney, the magazine’s editor, can no longer write on certain issues. Both priests hold liberal views on contraception, celibacy and women priests. Writing in the current issue of Doctrine & Life magazine, Fr Daly said the secular press unwittingly encouraged such “bad theology” by identifying the Vatican’s Curia and even the bishops, with the Catholic church “thus failing to recognise the role of the people of God and legitimate differences in the church” He recalled how at the end of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, “power once again devolved to the body which was most in need of reform, namely the Vatican Curia, which has slowly but inexorably been re-establishing its former authority. The control it exercises is systemic, structural and fiendishly difficult to reform.” Aided “by secrecy and the unchallenged exercise of power, the Curia has established effective control over the whole church”. Fr Daly observed that “there is little or no concern for those faithful Catholics who are quietly appalled by what is happening. They are seen as simply wrong.” Most churches and religious had “a fundamentalist wing that sees itself as the sole possessor of authentic truth that has to be proclaimed and defended firmly against challenge. It would appear that there has to be an enemy that one can condemn to be assured of one’s own orthodoxy.” Much fundamentalism “simply proclaims, as distinct from arguing a case. It counters opposition with a sort of contempt and regards it as self-evidently misguided: indeed it sees argument as unnecessary, since the matter concerned is already decided. It simply condemns, as the most efficient course of action, writings or publicly expressed views of which it disapproves,” he said. Many priests have publicly asserted their support for the two priests on the Association of Catholic Priests website. One wrote recently: ‘First they came for Tony and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Flannery. Then they came for “Reality“and I didn’t speak out because I don’t read it. Then they came for Moloney and I didn’t speak out because he is well able to speak for himself. The they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.’ (Fr Flannery has been told by the Vatican to go to a monastery for six weeks ‘to pray and reflect’.)

The Irish Independent; Sat 14 April 2012: ’An unfortunate young mother claimed a ghost was responsible for causing endless trouble and throwing all-night parties in her home. Leanne Fennell (20) told irate neighbours a mischievous poltergeist had played loud music and even threw empty beer cans into the garden. Hull City Council would not accept her explanation and evicted her.’ [You try to get away and it follows you!]

Open your eyes and hearts: We hear in today’s Gospel the two disciples announcing to the others about how they recognised Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Think of all the times we break bread, not just at Mass, but at weddings, family meals, catch-ups with old friends and so on. Jesus spent much of his earthly life at table, eating and drinking, usually with those who were considered ‘socially unacceptable’. Remember that the breaking of bread together is a powerful symbol. Each time we sit down at an important occasion or family meal we should remember that we are performing Eucharist. When we go about our daily work, when we help those in need of our love, our care, our listening ear, our action, we are doing Eucharist. “God of the Resurrection, God of the living. Un-tomb all that needs to live in me. Take me to people, events and situations. And stretch me into much greater openness. For it is only then that I will be transformed. For it is only then that I will know how it is, to be in the moment of rising from the dead.” (Sr Joyce Rupp)

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Please pray for the sick: Gerry Doherty (now very ill in Ward 29, Castle Hill), Tom Marton, Mike Avery, Les Ulyatt, Vera Appleyard, Marion Mooney,Austin Waldron, Kathleen and Arthur Burgan, Mike Shakesby, Margot Lane, Dorothy Green, Win Murphy, Mike Keeitch, Jean Campbell, Michael Barnes, Rita Orvis, Sheila Johnson, Tony Tordoff, Nick Norton, Peter Fowlston, Moira Thomson, Tony & Shirley Woods-McConville, Nora & Peter Orvis, Joan & Peter Watts, Agnes Pidd, Peter Dyas, Margaret Price.

Arthur Burgan is now in Room 39 of Cassandra House, Dunswell Road.

St Vincent’s SVP present a QUIZ this Tuesday, April 24th at St Vincent’s Club, Queens Road, 7pm for a 7-30pm start. The cost is £3to include fish and chips. Teams of 4 to 6 members are welcome; if you are alone, still come; we can fix you up with a team. Tickets sold after each Mass at St Vincent’s, or by Mike Garvey (807022), or pay at the door.

Coffee Morning in aid of EMMAUS Hull at the Guildhall, Hull on Tuesday April 24^th ; 10 am to 1 pm; hosted by the Lady Mayoress. Tickets are £5 on the door. There will be a presentation on EMMAUS.

Items for next weekend to me by Thursday, please john@mcnicholas.karoo.co.uk 876812