Page 4, 10th August 1973

10th August 1973

Page 4

Page 4, 10th August 1973 — Maintaining a sense of continuity and balance in the West Riding
Close

Report an error

Noticed an error on this page?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it.

Tags


Share


Related articles

Plan For New Northern Diocese

Page 2 from 17th March 1978

Tandem Ride Benefits Leeds Diocese

Page 8 from 11th August 1995

Priests Vote Against Split

Page 1 from 21st April 1978

Leeds To Greet Its Bishop

Page 1 from 24th June 1966

Our Top-heavy Church Has Too Many Dioceses

Page 10 from 8th July 2005

Maintaining a sense of continuity and balance in the West Riding

By Michael Duggan
Bishop Wheeler of Leeds has for seven years ruled one of the most densely populated dioceses in Britain, embracing in its sweep from York to Sheffield all the wool, steel and coal towns of the West Riding.
As might be expected of a region with such a voracious appetite for labour, the Catholic population of 266,000 is highly cosmopolitan. Famine drove Irishmen to the area in their thousands, and since the Second World War waves of Polish, Hungarian and West Indian immigration have helped to keep the mill wheels turning.
In his comfortable, stone mansion which was once a mushroom farm, five miles from Leeds city centre, Bishop Wheeler showed great confidence in the people of the North as he defined his aims.
He said: "What we're trying to do is enter into a movement of free and balanced renewal, to make Vatican 11 present in a balanced way in the whole life of the diocese.
"It's essential to retain continuity with the past but to look forward. Some have lost their balance — but not the Northern people."
Even if Bishop Wheeler himself prefers Latin and the use of "thee" and "thou" in the liturgy, the two years he spent at Vatican H have helped make him open to new forms of life in the Church, new spiritual dimensions.
It was to lubricate the machinery of change that in 1967 the Bishop opened the Pastoral and Ecumenical Centre at Wood Hall, near Wetherby, which has since proved to be a source of
fresh ideas for the whole diocese, and a meeting place for members of different churches.
But Bishop Wheeler sounded a note of caution on ecumenical progress: "Further doctrinal and moral understanding must precede growth spiritually," he said. "It's no use being vague in spiritual matters. You see people in Jerusalem rapt in prayer, but they do not have the Christian revelation."
A native of Yorkshire, William Gordon Wheeler was horn at Saddieworth in 1910. He read history and theology at Oxford, trained for the Anglican ministry and finally became chaplain to Lancing College, Sussex.
In 1936, he was received into the Catholic Church at Downside, to be ordained by Cardinal Hinsley four years later. After three appointments in Westminster Diocese he became coadjutor of Middlesbrough Diocese, in 1964 and two years afterwards was made Bishop of Leeds.
Adapting to these changes of occupation has not been easy because, as Bishop Wheeler pointed out: "After 25 years in Westminster I knew all the priests. I got to know all the priests in Middlesbrough. Then I had to get to know 400 priests in Leeds."
He quickly realised that the southern part of the West Riding was a sociological entity and asked the Holy See for an auxiliary bishop in Sheffield until a new diocese could be created.
Bishop Wheeler also introduced two married deacons, who distribute communion and give catechetical instruction. and he established a network of parish
councils and area pastoral councils,
There are 10 Anglican bishops for the ground covered by the Catholic Diocese of Leeds, which is one reason why Bishop Wheeler wants to see smaller dioceses — his parishes are at present visited once every three years.
But despite the difference in numbers, Bishop Wheeler did not agree that Catholic bishops were less open than their Anglican counterparts. "Anglican bishops tend to be much more administrators," he commented, "We're out and about every day. It's not so easy to catch us. The problem is time — finding time to be available."
He thought there was no serious lack of priests in the diocese. "We haven't felt a shortage in a grave manner — II are coming this year. Students in seminaries are of a more mature age than formerly — but we've never had a tradition of junior seminaries."
Bishop Wheeler wears round his neck a golden cross which has been handed down from bishop to bishop since the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in 1850. The same cross can be seen in the portrait of Bishop Briggs of Beverley which hangs on a nail of the Bishop's house. I asked Bishop Wheeler if he had enjoyed] his time as a bishop. His serious expression softened into a smile. "1 don't think anyone enjoys being a bishop," he commented, "but one enjoys being a priest.
"My view of the episcopate is that of sharing the high priesthood of Christ with other priests. That is an everlasting Joy."




blog comments powered by Disqus