Enterprise of Bishop Wheeler

READING Gerard Noel's Charterhouse Chronicle (May 16) reminded me of the actual arrival of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement. I was a Chaplain at the Cathedral at the time, when Cardinal William Godfrey decided to make good the absence of Franciscans in the Diocese of Westminster since the time of Cardinal Manning, by inviting the then General of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, Fr Angelus, to send some of his brothers to England.
This was largely due to the influence of the then Administrator, Monsignor Gordon Wheeler, now Bishop Emeritus of Leeds, who saw the need for the revival of the Central Library, and meeting that need by providing the Atonement Friars with an opportunity to bring their work for Ecumenism to these shores.
It woud be an omission not to recognise the vision and enterprise both of Bishop Gordon Wheeler and the late Cardinal Godfrey.
Fr Adrian Arrowsmith Ruislip