The Archdiocese of Birmingham as host for the Papal Mass and the Beatification of Cardinal Newman at Cofton Park, Birmingham, on Sunday 19 September is pleased to announce that up to 5,000 more pilgrim invitations are now being made available through the parishes. The closing date for names is Sunday 22 August.

'With Bernadette let us make the Sign of the Cross’

Father Richard Duffield is the Actor, the Postulator if you like, for the Cause for the Canonization of Cardinal Newman. Catholic Today met up with him recently and invited him to help us prepare for the Mass in which Pope Benedict will bestow on Cardinal John Henry Newman the title ‘Blessed’.

Cardinal Newman himself was musically gifted. He enjoyed playing the violin, especially in chamber music. He admired the music of Beethoven, and the Masses of Haydn, Mozart and Cherubini. Yet he also knew how singing simple hymn tunes and chants could engage the faithful deeply in prayer.

As the volcanic ash spread over most of Europe, Clare McNally, Head Teacher of St Hubert’s Primary School, gives her fascinating account of her journey back from Egypt to Oldbury in the West Midlands.

Archbishop Bernard Longley has expressed the profound sorrow and condolences of the priests, deacons, religious and lay faithful of the Archdiocese of Birmingham at the devastating loss sustained by the Polish nation in the air crash at Smolensk, Russia, on Saturday 10 April.

Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice has launched its biggest annual fundraising event with an appeal to women to step out for a celestial strut around the city.

Pope Benedict XVI will beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, 1801-1890, the best known English churchman of the 19th Century, during an open air public Mass at Coventry Airport, in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, on Sunday 19 September 2010.

Once again we are busy with the preparation and planning for the Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes in May. This year we are delighted that the pilgrimage will be led by our new Archbishop who is most supportive of our mission and invites the people of the Diocese to join him in what is considered a wonderful event in the Diocesan calendar.
Trish Brookes, Lourdes Pilgrimage Office

Powerful Chrism Rededication of Birmingham’s priests in face of the abuse scandals in the wider Catholic Church.

Archbishop Bernard Longley celebrated the Rite of Election for the first time as Archbishop of Birmingham in the Metropolitan Cathedral and Basilica of St Chad, Birmingham on the First Sunday of Lent, 21 February.

This year is the 50th Anniversary of Family Fast Day - probably one of the best known events in the Catholic calendar and certainly the one which generates the most activity and the largest collections.

InVocation 2010: A time for hearing God’s voice.

Fr Paul Moss, Vocations Director for the Archdiocese of Birmingham looks forward to a unique event.

Zak Feaunati, a parishioner at Holy Trinity, Sutton Coldfield and a retired professional rugby player (Zak played for Bath 131 times!) was chosen by Clint Eastwood to star alongside Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in the film Invictus. Morgan Freeman is Nelson Mandela, Matt Damon is Francois Pienaar and Zak plays Jonah Lomu. Invictus chronicles how President Mandela and Francois Pienaar joined forces such that the Springbok victory over the All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup in 1995 was a defining moment of national unity and reconciliation.

The Right Reverend Monsignor Canon Thomas Joseph Gavin, MA, one of the longest serving priests in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, died in Coventry’s University Hospital, during the early hours of Christmas Day 2009, after a short illness, aged 87.