Historic bookshop to reopen

BY ANDREW M BROWN
CARDINAL HUME and the Archbishop of Birmingham are both said to be "absolutely thrilled" that Oxford's unique and historic Catholic bookshop is to reopen later this month.
The Newman Mowbray bookshop closed in July, but following expert negotiations by the university chaplain, Fr Peter Newby, and Stratford Caldecote of the Centre for Faith and
Culture, it will reopen later this month as the Newman bookshop.
The shop is on the ground floor of the grade one listed chaplaincy building, which dates from the early 1600s and was the palace of the bishop of Oxford. The bishops bought the premises for the chaplaincy in the 1890s.
Backing for the new project comes from two Catholic firms, Goodliffe Neale Ltd and GracewingRowler Wright.
Tom Longford of Gracewing said the bookshop would be a centre of excellence in the archdiocese: "We're well placed to run it successfully as a unique specialist Catholic book service for the university and the town."
It will stock academic, devotional and popular books alongside ecclesiatical hardware. Fr Newby said the Newman Bookshop would add to the work of the chaplaincy and provide "an element of continuity and of renewal" in a city where Catholicism is already a considerable force.
"I'm delighted," said Fr Newby. "There's an ever increasing interest in Catholicism in Oxford and a sense of purpose in the air. Oxford provides quite a few vocations. The bookshop will provide specialist theological titles as well as books for children and catechetical works."