Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton -

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1 Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton - Clifton Diocese (a company limited by guarantee) Registered Charity No Church of the Holy Ghost, Yeovil Parish Address: 73 Higher Kingston, Yeovil, Somerset, BA21 4AR Also serving Church of St Michael, Lightgate Road, South Petherton, TA13 5AJ Chapel of Our Lady and St Augustine of Canterbury, HMS Heron Royal Naval Air Station, Yeovilton, BA22 8HT Parish Office yeovil.holyghost@cliftondiocese.com Parish Telephone: Served by the Missionaries of St Francis de Sales (Fransalians - MSFS) Parish Clergy: Father Jean-Patrice Coulon MSFS; Father Jose Maliekal MSFS Priests resident in the Parish: Father David O Regan; Father Peter Clarke (Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham) Parish Administrator: Sue Chant (Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings) Parish Safeguarding Officer: Awaiting Appointment. The Diocesan Safeguarding Office can be contacted at ROSARY: before weekday Masses at Yeovil, and before Sunday Mass at South Petherton. All welcome. CONFESSIONS: Saturday am; 4.15pm 4.45pm ANOINTING OF THE SICK: On request. Please inform one of the clergy if you are going into hospital. If possible, please seek anointing beforehand. BAPTISMS: By appointment. Adults seeking to know more about the Catholic Faith should speak to the Parish Priest, and/or come to the Journey in Faith (RCIA) sessions. SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE: Six months notice for weddings. HOLY ORDERS: Any man considering a vocation to the Priesthood or Permanent Diaconate should speak to one of the clergy.

2 MARY S MEALS SPEAKER THIS SUNDAY: Mary s Meals Volunteer speaker Ann White writes I am delighted that you will be supporting Mary s Meals this Lent. Your generosity two years ago was quite amazing, and I welcome the opportunity to thank you and update you on this big and wonderful family, that is, Mary s Meals. I look forward to visiting the parish on 2 ᵈ/3 ᵈ March, and I pray that your love and generosity during Lent, will enable many more hungry children to enjoy a hot nourishing meal each day in school, giving them the energy to learn, and the hope of a brighter future, free from poverty and hunger a hope that surely every child deserves. There will be a Second Collection next week after Ann s talk (9/10 March), with envelopes being handed out this week along with collection boxes which you can save your loose change in, to be brought back into the Church the week after Easter. The Collection Boxes during Lent correspond to the work of Almsgiving, which go together with the works of Prayer and Fasting. There will also be a collection during Lent for Aid to the Church in Need, as well as the usual collections for the Marian Hall Building Fund, the Holy Land and Holy Places on Good Friday, and Easter Flowers. FILIPINO CULTURAL NIGHT: the Filipino Community are delighted to invite you to a showcase of Filipino culture through dance, music, art and food at the Marian Hall. Date: Saturday 9 March 2019 Time: 6:00pm Tickets: 10 (Adult) 5 (Child) FILIPINO CULTURAL NIGHT Saturday 9th March 2019 Start Time 6:00pm All proceeds of this event will go towards The Marian Hall Building Fund Tickets now available

3 A FUTURE FULL OF HOPE - The Year of Prayer: EIGHTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR An unfortunate trait of the human condition is our capacity to quickly make judgements about others. Seeing the faults of others seems to be much easier than seeing the faults within ourselves. My desire for status can lead me to diminish others, to want to correct them or highlight another person s flaws. Jesus doesn t deny that people have failings, but he invites me to look to my own blind spots first. This week, each of us is being invited to acknowledge our own weakness first and then see others with greater compassion and love. DOWNSIDE DAY OF RECOLLECTION: Thursday 14 March 10.00am-2.30pm. The day begins with coffee, followed by a talk at 10.30, then silent prayer and an opportunity for confession. Mass is at midday. Bring a picnic lunch. Final talk at This Day of Recollection will be held at the Visitor Centre at Downside Abbey, led by Father Peter Clarke, a retired priest of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Do come; everyone is welcome. For more information contact Margaret Goldschmidt on The next such Day of Recollection will be on Thursday 4 July. CLIFTON DIOCESE AND DOWNSIDE ABBEY PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY LAND FOR YOUNG CATHOLIC ADULTS 24 JULY TO 2 AUGUST 2019: Father Matt Anscombe and Dom Anselm Brumwell will be accompanying a group of young Catholics aged from 18 to 35 ish to the Holy Land, and the main group have already booked their flights to Tel Aviv. This is an incredible opportunity to experience the land so intimately associated with Christ's life, death and Resurrection, and the group will visit many important Holy and historic sites. The Itinerary has been specially developed with a young group in mind, so in addition to experiencing something of local culture, there will be opportunities for swimming in the Sea of Galilee, floating in the Dead Sea, camel riding and sleeping in tents in the desert, and rafting on the Jordan River! For further information, and to book, please contact the organiser rinabird@outlook.com. CHRISTIAN AID LENT LUNCH AT SOUTH PETHERTON: St. Michael s Church South Petherton will be holding a Lent Lunch to raise money for Christian Aid on Wednesday 13th March at The Methodist Hall, South Petherton, TA13 5DB at 12.30pm. Please do try to come and give your support for this very worthy cause. If you require further information contact Pat Baggesen on

4 LENTEN DEVOTIONS: There will be Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament starting the week after Ash Wednesday with extra Masses, as there were during Advent. The timings will be as follows: Wednesday: Mass at 6:30am followed by Adoration until 10am. Thursday: Mass at 6:30pm followed by Adoration until 10pm. Friday: Mass at 10am followed by Adoration until Benediction at 11.15am. Then Adoration at 3pm with the Divine Mercy Chaplet until Latin Mass at 6pm. There will be lists made available for people to sign up for an hour, with at least two people required for each hour. It is hoped that there will be Forty Hours of Adoration towards the end of Lent, with visiting priests available for going to Confession. There will be Stations of the Cross at Holy Ghost on Fridays at 7pm starting this Friday 1 ᵗ March, and at St Michaels s on Wednesday afternoons at 2.30pm. As usual, there will be a variety of meditations for each week. Parishioners are encouraged to make use of the Lectio Divina Group. This meets at the Presbytery each Thursday after the 6.30pm Mass. Lectio Divina is a traditional method of slowly reading a short piece of Scripture (usually from the Sunday readings for the following Sunday) and allowing it to take root within our hearts. We remember in our prayers: The Parish of St Patrick, Corsham. The Holy Father s Prayer Intentions for March: Recognition of the Right of Christian Communities: That Christian communities, especially those who are persecuted, feel that they are close to Christ and have their rights respected. For the safety of Asia Bibi, and for all Christians persecuted for their faith. Last Sunday s Offering: amounted to Many thanks for your generosity. Polish Mass: Every Sunday at 4.30pm. The Traditional Latin Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite: Every Friday at 6pm (except August). Mass in the Syro-Malabar Rite: Second Sunday at 2.30pm. Mass at RNAS Yeovilton: Every First Thursday at 12.15pm (except August). In March, it will be on the Second Thursday on 14th March. Ecumenical Prayer Group: First Monday of the month at the Parish Centre at 7.30pm. Lectio Divina: Every Thursday at 7.00pm in the Presbytery. If you have any items for the Bulletin please send to Sue Chant by Tuesday evening at yeovil.holyghost@cliftondiocese.com.

5 Father Jean-Patrice writes: The article below is offered to give some balance to how this court case has been reported in the general media in our country. Parishioners are encouraged to seek alternative sources, both in the Catholic and secular press which have expressed grave doubt about the outcome of this trial. THE CASE AGAINST CARDINAL PELL: WHAT ARE THEY SAYING? Is the guilty verdict against Cardinal Pell justice being served or a wounded nation in search of a scapegoat? February 27, 2019, CWR Staff, Catholic World Report Today the Vatican Press Office stated that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will be conducting an investigation into sexual abuse allegations against Cardinal George Pell, allegations of which Pell was found guilty by an Australian jury in December That verdict, which found Pell guilty of five counts of sexually abusing minors in 1996, was only made public this week, after prosecutors dropped additional allegations against Pell dating back to the 1970s. This statement was issued by the interim director of the Holy See Press Office, Alessandro Gisotti: After the guilty verdict in the first instance concerning Cardinal Pell, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will now handle the case following the procedure and within the time established by canonical norm. The results of that investigation will determine what disciplinary actions, if any, the Vatican will take against Pell, the former archbishop of Melbourne and of Sydney who, until three days ago, was prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy. On Tuesday the Vatican confirmed that precautionary measures have been imposed on Cardinal Pell he is prohibited from exercising public ministry and from having any voluntary contact whatsoever with minors during the course of his sentencing by the Australian court and the expected appeal process. Pell, who has maintained his innocence, was taken into police custody today to await sentencing on March 13. Some observers have drawn contrasts between how the Vatican is handling the Pell case and how it handled the case of the former archbishop Theodore McCarrick. Once the accusations against McCarrick were made public, his removal from the College of Cardinals, his banishment to a life of prayer and penance, and his eventual removal from the clerical state, took place in a number of months. John Allen, writing at Crux, explains the difference between the McCarrick and Pell cases: It s actually fairly simple: Early on, senior officials were convinced of McCarrick s guilt. With Pell, they still aren t. He states: Over the last couple of days, Crux has spoken with some of the Catholic Church s leading reformers on clerical sexual abuse, inside the Vatican and out. To be clear, these are not people automatically inclined to give accused clergy the benefit of

6 the doubt, and several are figures who actually dislike some of Pell s political and theological stances as well as what s often see as his fairly bruising personality. Nonetheless, they ve expressed skepticism that Pell is actually guilty of the crimes with which he was charged and convicted. The irony is that the people in the Vatican most inclined to welcome Pell s conviction aren t really reformers on sexual abuse, but those lukewarm about house-cleaning on the financial front who resented Pell s challenge to the status quo during his brief tenure as the Vatican s financial czar. Allen details the problematic elements of the prosecution s case, also outlined by George Weigel at National Review under the headline Why the case against Cardinal George Pell doesn t stand up. Weigel writes: Before the trial, one of the complainants died, having told his mother that he had never been assaulted. During the trial, there was no corroboration of the surviving complainant s charges. Other choirboys (now, of course, grown), as well as the choir director and his assistant, the adult members of the choir, the master of ceremonies, and the sacristan all testified, and from their testimony we learn the following: that no one recalled any choirboys bolting from the procession after Mass; that none of those in the immediate vicinity of the alleged abuse noticed anything; that indeed nothing could have happened in a secured space without someone noticing; and that there was neither gossip nor rumour about any such dramatic and vile incident afterward. Notwithstanding this evidence of Cardinal Pell s innocence (an innocence affirmed by ten of the twelve members of the first trial jury), the second trial jury returned a verdict of 12 0 for conviction. Observers at the trial told me that the trial judge seemed surprised on hearing the verdict. The verdict and the finding of the first, hung jury suggest that, in the media circus surrounding Pell, a fair jury trial was virtually impossible. That point was recently conceded by the attorney general of the State of Victoria, who suggested that the law might be amended to permit bench trials by a judge alone in such cases an option not afforded George Pell. In an essay for First Things, titled The Pell Affair: Australia Is Now on Trial, Weigel further argues: No one doubts that the Catholic Church in Australia was terribly negligent in dealing with clerical sexual abuse for decades. No one who actually knows the history of Catholic reform in Australia can doubt that the man who turned that pattern of denial and cover-up around was George Pell who also had the honesty and courage to apply the stringent standards he imposed on others accused of abuse to himself. If Pell is made the scapegoat for the very failures he worked hard to correct, the gravest question must be raised about Australian public opinion s

7 capacity for reason and elementary fairness and about the blood lust of an aggressively secular media, determined to settle political and ecclesiastical scores with one of the country s most internationally prominent citizens, who dared to challenge progressive shibboleths on everything ranging from the interpretation of Vatican II to abortion, climate change, and the war against jihadism. A report by Catholic News Agency (CNA) which published details of the Pell verdict in December, despite the Australian court s gag order illustrates why senior Vatican officials, including those who are otherwise disinclined to favour Cardinal Pell, may well be wary of his guilty verdict: CNA reported after Pell was convicted that the evidence advanced by prosecution relied entirely on a single accuser, one of the alleged victims. The second alleged victim did not give evidence in court. The court did hear evidence that the man told his mother at least twice that he had not been a victim of sexual abuse, before he died of a drug overdose in The other former choir member, who did testify in court, reportedly told the deceased man s mother only after the man died that both had been abused by Pell. According to the prosecution, Pell and the choir members went missing from a recessional procession at the end of a Mass celebrated by the archbishop in Pell is alleged to have abused the choristers somewhere within the cathedral sacristy immediately following that Mass. The defense s legal team produced records that showed that during the period between August and December 1996, when the abuse was alleged to have taken place, Pell only celebrated the cathedral s 10:30 Sunday Mass twice. The court also heard witness testimony that Pell had been with guests immediately following Mass on one of the two Sundays. According to evidence given at the pre-trial hearings in March 2018, on both of the Sundays at which Pell said the 10:30 Mass, the choir held practices for the taping of a Christmas performance immediately following Mass, when the absence of two choristers would have been immediately noticed. Evidence was also presented which showed that the layout of the cathedral did not match the narrative of the prosecution. The court had previous heard evidence from a pastoral associate at the cathedral, Rodney Dearing, who testified that Pell required help to remove his vestments after every Mass, and it would have been nearly impossible for the archbishop to expose his genitals while fully vested, or to commit other sexual acts in the vestments. Dearing also told Victoria police that the layout of the cathedral did not align with the accusations.

8 I can t understand, knowing the layout [of the cathedral] and how things worked, how it could have occurred, Dearing told police, according to Australian media reports filed before a gag order on the trial was instituted. How then to understand the 12-0 guilty verdict, reached after the jury in the first trial against Pell had been deadlocked 10-2, with the majority in the cardinal s favour? Frank Brennan, a Jesuit priest who was present for the Pell proceedings, writes that he was devastated by the verdict : My only conclusion is that the jury must have disregarded many of the criticisms so tellingly made by [Pell s defense lawyer] Richter of the complainant s evidence and that, despite the complainant being confused about all manner of things, the jury must nevertheless have thought as the recent royal commission discussed that children who are sexually violated do not always remember details of time, place, dress and posture. Although the complainant got all sorts of facts wrong, the jury must have believed that Pell did something dreadful to him. The jurors must have judged the complainant to be honest and reliable even though many of the details he gave were improbable if not impossible. Pell has been in the public spotlight for a very long time. There are some who would convict him of all manner of things in the court of public opinion no matter what the evidence. There are others who would never convict him of anything, holding him in the highest regard. The criminal justice system is intended to withstand these preconceptions. The system is under serious strain, however, when it comes to Cardinal Pell. The events of the Victorian parliamentary inquiry, the federal royal commission, the publication of Louise Milligan s book Cardinal and Tim Minchin s song Come Home (Cardinal Pell) were followed, just two weeks before the trial commenced, by the parliamentary apology to the victims of child sexual abuse. Such things tend to shift not the legal, but the reputational, burden upon an accused person to prove innocence rather than the prosecution to prove guilt. Was the verdict unreasonable? Can it be supported having regard to the evidence? Those are questions for the appeal court. I can only hope and pray that the complainant can find some peace, able to get on with his life, whichever way the appeal goes. Should the appeal fail, I hope and pray that Cardinal Pell, heading for prison, is not the unwitting victim of a wounded nation in search of a scapegoat. A piece in today s edition of The Age has several quotes from close friends and acquaintances of Pell: Anne McFarlane said the cardinal had been staying with her family during legal proceedings this year and last year.

9 Living with Cardinal Pell for so much of the past eight months, driving him to and from court and sitting in support of him on many occasions, I have come to know him on a day-to-day level his needs are very simple, he is completely humble and undemanding and he is very grateful for any kindness or help at all, she wrote. I don t even recognise the George Pell who is portrayed in the media. She said Pell offered the family support when her daughter gave birth to a baby who was very sick and while her 51-year-old sister was terminally ill. Over the years of our friendship I have been well aware of the portrayal of Cardinal Pell in the media and it is a far cry from my experience of him, she said. Others that submitted character references to the court included Sue Buckingham, the founder of religious group David s Place, which helps people who are homeless and disabled; Ellie Heiss, the former coordinator of the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry; and a former colleague at the Archdiocese of Sydney, Daniel Casey. Finally, regarding media coverage of the trail, Reuters reports: Dozens of Australian reporters and editors may face jail sentences for their coverage of Vatican Treasurer George Pell s child sex abuse trial after being issued with legal notices asking why they should not be charged with contempt of court. The maximum penalties for contempt of court in Victoria state are five years jail and a fine of more than A$96,000 ($69,000), while a company can face a fine of nearly A$500,000. Victoria s The Age newspaper on Tuesday said that the state s Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had issued 32 show cause notices to its journalists and other mastheads owned by parent Nine Entertainment Co asking them to explain why they should not be charged. VATICAN ANNOUNCES CONCRETE COMMITMENTS AND INITIATIVES TO PROTECT CHILDREN: The Vatican meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church concluded with a press briefing that saw concrete commitments and initiatives announced to protect children and to combat abuse. There are various links to speeches made by Pope Francis, Press Briefings from each of the three days of the summit, the Commitments and Initiatives agreed, a video message from Cardinal Vincent Nichols, and more at the National Catholic Church website at

10 Mass and Service Times for the Week Ahead Saturday 2nd March - First Mass of Sunday 5:00pm Intentions of the Warman Family (Mrs M Warman) Holy Ghost Sunday 3rd March - Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time 9:00am Elizabeth Holmes RIP (Foundation Mass) St Michael s 10:30am Pro Populo Holy Ghost 6:30pm Kasimierz and Maria Budzynski RIP (Mrs A Robus) Holy Ghost Monday 4th March - Memorial of Saint Casimir 10:00am John and Winifred McEvoy RIP (Foundation Mass) Holy Ghost Tuesday 5th March - Weekday in Ordinary Time 10:00am Holy Souls (November List) 30 Holy Ghost Wednesday 6th March - ASH WEDNESDAY Day of Fast and Abstinence 10:00am Pro Populo Holy Ghost 12:00pm Celebrant s Intention St Michael s 2:00pm Intentions of the Children and Staff of our School - All Welcome St Gildas School Hall 6:00pm Hannah Owen RIP (Foundation Mass) Holy Ghost Thursday 7th March - Thursday after Ash Wednesday 8:00am Special Intention (Mr Johns Thomas) Holy Ghost 10:00am Celebrant s Intention St Michael s 12:15pm Next Mass on Thursday 14ᵗ March RNAS Yeovilton Friday 8th March - Friday after Ash Wednesday 10:00am Brigid Spellman RIP (Foundation Mass) Followed by Adoration (Benediction at 11.15am) Holy Ghost 6:00pm Sarah Malone RIP Holy Ghost 7:00pm Stations of the Cross Holy Ghost Saturday 9th March - Saturday after Ash Wednesday 10:00am Maria George RIP (Wedding Anniversary) (Mr S George) Holy Ghost First Mass of Sunday 5:00pm Intentions of Mai and Billy Walsh (Mr and Mrs M Novak) Holy Ghost Sunday 10th March - First Sunday of Lent 9:00am Celebrant s Intention St Michael s 10:30am Intentions of Rosemary Hawkey and Philomena Histon (Mr and Mrs M Novak) Holy Ghost 6:30pm Pro Populo Holy Ghost