20,000 more Catholics for Brentwood

NEW housing estates sponsored by the London County Council and two new towns will mean an increase in
the Catholic population of the Brentwood diocese during the next few years of more than 20,000 people. states Bishop Beck in his Lenten pastoral letter.
Catholics in the diocese at present number 82.260.
"The means at our disposal to meet these needs are very slender." says the Bishop, " and we are particularly concerned about the serious shortage of priests.
" Again we most earnestly urge you to pray With fervour that God will raise up many vocations to the priesthood among the boys and young men in the diocese."
On taking over the government of the diocese in succession to the late Bishop Doubleday, Mgr, Beck says: " We desire to re-affirm our purpose to work unsparingly for the cause of the Church and the wellbeing of souls in the diocese; to strive that no Catholic shall be without the possibility of attending Mass and receiving the sacraments, and to ensure that no Catholic child shall be deprived of the opportunity of a sound Catholic education in a Catholic school."