I WENT TO LIVERPOOL WHERE ANOTHER KIND OF MARVEL WAS WAITING FOR ME

Posted on November 19, 2024 by franksantucci

The Founder wanted the Oblates in Britain to establish themselves in an independent mission in an urban setting. At first it seemed this setting would be in Manchester  but the success of the Oblate mission there in 1849 induced the Apostolic Vicar of the Lancashire District Bishop George Brown to think of offering the mission of Holy Cross chapel in Liverpool to the Oblates. …. On 18 January 1850 the mission was officially placed in the care of the Oblates.

This part of the city was a vast dockland slum, housing many thousands of Irish immigrants who had fled Ireland after the devastating potato famines of 1845 and 1847. Many had used Liverpool as a staging area to go to other lands, but thousands stayed in the area in the most squalid conditions. It was made up of dingy tenements, joined together in airless courts and polluted by open sewers and piles of rubbish. By the end of 1847 over 300,000 impoverished and fever-ridden immigrants from the Irish famine had settled in the Liverpool area. These immigrants formed the vast majority of the parishioners of the parish. It was estimated that the parish contained about 11,000 Catholics, though this number kept increasing with the arrival of every ship from Ireland. (https://www.omiworld.org/lemma/liverpool-holy-cross-parish-1850-2001/)

A year later Eugene visited Liverpool:

After having accomplished my mission at Manchester, which was to bless the first stone of the church to be raised by our Fathers in the district which has been assigned to them, a ceremony which was performed with as much solemnity as at Marseilles, I went to Liverpool where another kind of marvel was waiting for me. Our Fathers, as you know, are in charge of the district of Holy Cross inhabited by a great number of poor Irish to whom they provide the aid of religion. It would be too long to describe to you all that is done in this miserable shed which serves as a chapel and which fills up six times on Sundays.

Letter to Fr Henri Tempier, 10 July 1850, EO III n 42

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One Response to I WENT TO LIVERPOOL WHERE ANOTHER KIND OF MARVEL WAS WAITING FOR ME

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate Associate says:
    November 19, 2024 at 13:03

    I want to recommend the following of the links provided in some of our daily reflections, if only to broaden the shared experiences of these first Oblate Communities, like the one of the Holy Cross parish in Liverpool. Eugene experienced what he called a “marvel” and which would bring tears to our hearts upon witnessing what we might express as a living hell. Perhaps for Eugene the marvel was the sheer numbers of those fleeing from certain starvation and death into a small area of London but who filled a “miserable shed which served as a chapel and fills up six times on Sundays.” To witness the poverty would have been heartbreaking – but to see it through the eyes of Jesus the Christ might lead to using Eugene’s description as a marvel.

    I remember my reaction as I prepared to take the Oblate Studies Program and we were invited to study up on the devastation and sorrow of the French Revolution. Then during the opening of our first course our professor (Fr. Frank Santucci, OMI) welcomed us to an adventure. My immediate reaction was to react by saying “you’ve got to be kidding me.” But now I am preparing to journeying with a friend through Zoom with a friend who lives more than 4 hours away from us and who is interested in going deeper with a thought of becoming an Oblate Associate. We began with the “Eugene 101” but now begin our Provincial formation process in January 2025, where I plan on welcoming him the adventure of a lifetime…

    This may be the beginning of an adventure that can last us a life-time and that most certainly qualifies for the idea of a marvel and which may offer great wonder to our lives.

    Reply

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