A Brighton rock needs help

AN appeal has been launched to restore the first Catholic church to be built in the south of England after the Reformation.
St John the Baptist Church, Brighton, which was inspired by Maria Fitzherbert, former wife of the Prince Regent, later King George IV, was opened in 1835.
Only the fourth parish to be consecrated after the 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act, it succeeded the Catholic mission which arrived in the town 20 years earlier. Newman preached his first sermon as a cardinal there in 1879.
Bishop Cormac MurphyO'Connor of Arundel and Brighton launched the appeal at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton last week. Parish priest Fr William Barry said that around £125,000 of the £400,000 required to restore the Grade II listed building had so far been raised.
"The church is of great interest to the Catholic population of the whole country and especially to the people of the south of England," he said.