A German Pope walking where more than a million suffered at the hands of the Nazis; a truly historic moment. Pope Benedict began his speech with these words: "In a place like this, words fail; in the end there can only be a dread silence, a silence which is itself a heartfelt cry to God: Why Lord, did you remain silent?" He ended by praying the 23rd psalm. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me."

"LIGHT UNDER A BUSHELL”
Vision without Foresight

On May 26th, a conference was held at the Chaplaincy centre of Lancaster University. It was jointly organised by the diocesan Faith & Justice Commission (please can we have a more exciting title?), Catholic Caring Services, and Cafod North West. They have done this kind of thing before. This time round, the conference was both a huge success and a publicity failure all at the same time.
The title for the day was “How to be a Welcoming Community” and asked a deceptively simple question, “How can we (the Church) open doors for others and set them free?” For some, it might not have sounded theological enough, but the 120 or so who came along thought otherwise. “Please can we have some more” was the tone of comments emailed to The Voice. Beginning with real life situations the conference made the Gospel call clear, attractive, and well within the reach of all Catholics, indeed irresistible.

There were eight workshops, in range covering the entire mission of the Church as most people will actually discover it, not in a book, but on their doorsteps, in their hearts, and by their firesides.
1.What does a gospel community look like?
2. Responding to Broken Families & Broken Hearts.
3. Our Communities and the Third Age(retirement years).
4. The Welcome of Jesus
5. Race and Prejudice:
6. Working with other faith communities
7. Addiction.
8. Homosexuality and the Church

Keynote speaker, Fr Donal O’Leary thought big and spoke big. Rather than bemoan the decline in church attendance, he aimed to break down barriers and helped his listeners discover the excitement and possibilities of being the Church, in the heart of their own experience.

Most of those attending appeared to have their own favourite “Take-Away” from the day, but the witness of young recovering Drug Addicts from the Cenacolo centre at Dodding Green, near Kendal and Fr Mark Beattie’s work with the “L’Arche” community in particular, left people stunned with the true possibilities of allowing Jesus to “open the door.”
Now two questions scream for answers.
1. How come the official diocese does not appear to give these initiatives the same serious backing it gives to our schools and our finances?
2. How could the organisers of this truly excellent day simply walk away afterwards as if nothing much had happened?

Without any loss of face on anyone’s part, please can we get it together? “On a lamp stand so that it can shine for everyone in the house.” The House of the diocese, no less.

CONFIRMING THE BRETHREN