Cardinal announces 'restoration' pageant for Mary's Year •

Cor onation
at Wembley
THE Wembley Stadium will see yet another great Catholic Pageant on Rosary Sunday, October 3, when Cardinal Griffin crowns the statue of Our Lady of Willesden. This statue replaces the original black statue which was burned by Cromwell at Chelsea.
Cardinal Griffin states in his Trinity Sunday pastoral letter that he has received permission for the coronation from Rome, and that after a pageant portraying the mysteries of the Rosary, the statue will be crowned in the stadium and
taken to the shrine of Our Lady of Willesden in north-west London, where it will be enthroned in the evening.
Jewelled crowns will replace the adornments confiscated by the reformers.
The jewels
Gold, topaz, amethysts, sapphires, diamonds and rubies have been received by Fr. Arendzen, parish priest of Our Lady Willesden.
The design of the crown may be settled this week. It will depend on the quality and quantity of the available jewels.
"I am confident," says the Cardinal. "that the faithful will wish to associate themselves with this act of devotion to the Mother of God. It will serve also as an act of reparation for what took place in the 16th century.
His Eminence recalls that those who go on pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Willesden during Mary's Year may gain a plenary indulgence, and says that he is happy to learn that ever-increasing numbers of the faithful are visiting this shrine.
"I pray that it may acquire in our hearts the same place of honour as it held in the hearts of our ancestors centuries ago.
"The first records of a parish at Willesden date back to the end of the seventh century, and a church dedicated to Our Lady of Willesden was built there about the year 1170.
`Holy shrine'
"But it was not until the time of the Black Death, which devastated Europe in the 14th century, that the shrine became famous as a place of pilgrimage. Of all the churches in Middlesex dedicated to Our Lady it was that at Willesden which became renowned as the 'holy shrine.'
"The black statue of the Madonna was frequently carried in public processions, and many miraculous cures were claimed as a result of her intercession, "Grateful pilgrims made gifts to the shrine and the statue itself was adorned with jewels. As pilgrimages became more popular, so the number Continued on page 7