Well there we are, then, it’s Brexit. Putting my (voting) card on the table, yes, I did vote for Remain, in common with the majority in Cardiff, though not Wales. I stayed up to hear Sunderland and Newcastle, which seemed to point the way to the eventual victory for the Leave campaign.

The Catholic Church did not have an “official view” on the matter, though several people last week asked what I was voting. The issues are many and varied, and I think a lot of people ended up confused or fed up. It’s interesting that a lot of the original thinking behind what was to become the EU had its roots in Catholic social teaching.

A few months ago I treated myself to the DNA test that you can get from ancestry.co.uk. Samples from your DNA are run past thousands of samples from people from all over the world. I already knew that by immediate 5-10 generations back, I am mostly Welsh and Irish with a dash of Lithuanian. But, of course, the Celts came from central Europe, and so the results came back that I was up to 60% Irish and only a maximum of 17% British, and the rest – you guessed it – European, at least 23% and perhaps a lot more. I’m a lot more European than I thought! It’s that Celtic blood coming through.

So now here in the UK we have to find a new path through our world, and changes are surely coming our way. But, as Christians we should be used to change. The great season of Lent is an annual reminder of something that is in fact always true. In the words of Blessed John Henry Newman:

“To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”

Fr Matthew

On Friday evening Archbishop George Stack confirmed a large group of young people. Many congratulations to them! We were joined by about ten from St Philip Evans, but from our 3 Churches there were the following:

It’s now coming up to one year since Archbishop Stack asked the clergy of the “Northern Arc” (Our Lady of Lourdes/St Teilo’s clockwise via our 3 Churches to St Philip Evans) to work together more closely. What have we achieved together in recent months?

Our shared arrangements for infant Baptism preparation are working well, with a common application form now in use and preparation groups running on a regular basis, with the leadership and venue rotating between the different parishes.

On June 17th, young people from St Philip Evans parish will join members of our 3 Churches for Confirmation at St Brigid’s; they were also offered the opportunity to take part in the 3 Churches retreat day. St Teilo’s and Our Lady of Lourdes had made separate arrangements earlier in the year, but perhaps next year we will all share a single retreat.

The three parish priests will be meeting in June to consider how we can best offer preparation to adults who wish to become Catholics. This will probably lead to a meeting with the relevant catechists and a joint “launch” of the opportunity to become a Catholic at Easter 2017, with appropriate preparation groups running at complementary times across the Northern Arc.

St Philip Evans hosted the “24 Hours for the Lord” adoration in Lent, where parishioners of all the Arc churches made it possible to sustain an unbroken rota of prayer; each priest took a turn hearing confessions.

The clergy continue to cross parish boundaries, with Canon William Isaac due to celebrate the St Peter & St Paul Mass at Christ the King Primary School, Rev Gareth Leyshon having supplied some weekday Masses at St Teilo’s, and regular preaching from Gareth and Deacon Steve Melhuish at the 9 am Masses in St Paul’s and Christ the King Church.

Growing together takes time, but it is better to do a few things well as the opportunity arises, than to have a top- down plan imposed on our communities. Your clergy are open to suggestions on what else we might do better

together… ideas welcome!

Rev Gareth Leyshon (incl a bit from Fr Matthew!)