Pope Francis has called a meeting of bishops from around the world to discuss the present state of family life in relation to Catholic teaching and pastoral practice. He has initiated a worldwide consultation, seeking to discover what Catholics actually think and do in relation to important issues. Each diocese will seek to elicit the information, and forward it to Rome for the end of January.

The archdiocese of Luxembourg is currently preparing its response to the Holy Father’s request, and hopes to have a consultation in place by the end of November. As soon as details of this are released, they will be published here (as elsewhere). In the meantime, you can find the survey, along with supporting documentation, on the website of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales: Family Life Consultation. The questionnaire is quite detailed, and some parts complex — so advance preparation is recommended.

A consultation exercise on this scale is unprecedented in the Church, and it will be interesting to follow its course. Topics covered in the survey include: living together before marriage; divorced and re-married Catholics; same-sex unions; contraception and adoption.

I received the following link from my Redemptorist colleagues, concerning the devastating typhoon last week in the Philippines. Our Redemptorist church in Tacloban, one of the worst-affected regions, is currently home to over 2,000 people whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed. The need is desperate.  At the end of the BBC news clip, you can see the picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help over the door of the church — a real family connection for us… See the video

Our parish council has decided to give the proceeds of our collection this weekend to this cause — and we will match the amount raised from our parish account. We will send the amount raised directly to Fr Aidan McMahon CSsR (from the Dublin Province of the Redemptorists) who is the bursar of the community in Tacloban. And of course, we keep the whole awful situation in our prayers. See photos which dramatically illustrate the emergency…

And a BBC report on the devastated city of Tacloban: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24953433

Fr Ed

Congratulations to all who were so generous in the shoe-box appeal. We collected over 100 boxes

 which are now on their way, with the rest of the consignment, to Romania and Moldova. You can see the scale of the project on the Shoe box results’ flyer and imagine the joy the boxes will bring to so many children and young people!

This coming Friday, 1 November, is All Saints Day, where we celebrate the memory of all those who have gone before us in faith and who now share God’s glory. Mass Times are: Thursday 19:00 Vigil Mass; Friday 11:15

Saturday 2 November is All Souls Day where we remember in prayer all those we have loved and lost. Mass will be celebrated in St Alphonse (EN, FR & SP) at 10:00. If you would like to write down the names of your deceased loved ones, these may be placed in a basket at the back of church before Mass, and will be brought up in the Offertory Procession to the altar.

There will be no 07:30 Mass on Saturday. The 19:00 Mass will be the usual Vigil Mass of Sunday.

Tonight (Saturday) the clocks go back one hour, giving an extra hour in bed. If you forget to make the adjustment, you’ll be turning up at 10:15 for the 11:15 Mass!