Centenary Mass for Charlotte Boyd

DEVOTEES of Charlotte Pearson Boyd, who restored the Slipper Chapel in Walsingham to Catholic ownership, gathered at the shrine last week to mark the centenary of the Benedictine Oblate’s death. Bishop Michael Evans of East Anglia celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving for the convert, who died on April 3, 1906. Those present at the Mass included Brenda Walsh, chairwoman of the Charlotte Boyd Trust; Dom Alban Nunn, spiritual director of the Charlotte Boyd cause; Fr George Mary Roth; Fr Frank Ryan and members of the Charlotte Boyd Trust and the Charlotte Boyd Prayer Group in Ealing, West London. THE PALM Sunday procession, above, leaves the cloister at Cardinal Newman’s Birmingham Oratory in Edgbaston after the blessing of palms on April 9, writes Peter Jennings.
The procession included (from left to right) Fr Paul Chavasse, Provost, Postulator of the Newman Cause and Celebrant; Fr Dermot Fenlon, Deacon; Br Lewis Berry, Sub-Deacon; Fr Gregory Winterton, for mer Provost and Vice Chairman, The Friends of Cardinal Newman; Fr Philip Cleevely, and Fr Guy Nicholls, Parish Priest.
Meanwhile, in his Palm Sunday homily at St Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham, Archbishop Vincent Nichols spoke about the Roman centurion who stood at the foot of the Cross of Jesus, He said: “The centurion is a professional soldier, a tough nut, who watches Jesus die, as he has watched countless others die. Yet he shows us the true face of discipleship. As Jesus dies he cries out: ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’.
“St John, in his Gospel, tells us that this centurion pierced the side of Jesus with his lance. In this, too, we can see ourselves, one minute piercing the side of Christ with our jibes and mockery, with our betrayal and dishonesty; the next crying out in faith, ‘Yes, you are the Son of God!’”