New Archbishop

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Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Mark O’Toole as Archbishop-elect of Cardiff and Bishop-elect of Menevia. He has been Bishop of Plymouth since 2013. Previously, he was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Westminster in 1990 and served as private secretary to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor between 2002 – 2008, before his appointment as rector of Allen Hall seminary in 2008. Archbishop-elect O’Toole will become the eighth Archbishop of Cardiff in succession to Most Rev George Stack, who has been Archbishop of Cardiff since 2011. The installation will take place in the Cathedral on 20 June 2022, the feast of the Welsh martyrs Saints Julius and Aaron. We look forward to his arrival among us and remember him and Cardiff and Menevia dioceses in our prayers.

Fr Matthew

Divine Mercy

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“Lord have mercy – Christ have mercy – Lord have mercy”
“Lamb of God you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us”

These are just two of the many references to God’s mercy in the liturgy. In response to the mythical experiences of St Faustina in the early 20th century, Pope St John Paul II named this Sunday as Divine Mercy Sunday.

We pray not so much for God to be more merciful – that is God’s nature – but rather for a greater openness to that mercy in our lives and the lives of all peoples in our troubled world.

Fr Matthew

Happy Easter!

Easter

Happy Easter! Against the background of pandemic and Ukraine among other things we may find it hard to greet one another with these words. But we must dig down into the roots of our faith that we celebrate on this Feast of the Resurrection. Deep down below the painful and the appalling, to reach the Good News planted in the depths of our human experience by the Jesus who burst out of the tomb on this day. May he shine his Easter light in all our lives so brightly that it shines out through our faces, our hearts, and our lives into our world. So… yes… Happy Easter!

Fr Matthew