THE P RTAL
March 2014
L
ittlemore is
on the outskirts of Oxford: the bus ride
from the city goes through frankly unlovely semi-industrialised
not-quite-Oxford-and-not-quite -anywhere-else. In the mid-19th
century this was an impoverished rural area. Littlemore had no
church of its own and no school. When John Henry Newman, still
at that time an Anglican clergyman, was appointed to the parish,
he worked heroically: with his mother and sisters, caring for the
victims of a cholera outbreak, and building a church - which still
stands today - and school.
Auntie Jo a n
LOGS at
Littlemore
Page 4
na
wri tes
We had long planned this outing and we had expected
it to be like many other LOGS events - cheery and
talkative and fun - and in lots of ways it was like that,
but in other ways it had a quality absolutely its own.
There was a seriousness, even solemnity, about the day
that was not sad or dreary but rather extraordinarily
and unexpectedly prayerful. We were touched by the
whole thing in ways we had not imagined possible.
Newman’s story is in many ways an uncomfortable
one: he lost friends through his decision to enter
into full communion with the Catholic Church, he
became estranged from one of his sisters, he was often
misunderstood by leading figures in the Catholic
Church here in England and in Rome, and he was
ridiculed in the press and misrepresented again and
Newman also created a retreat for himself and others again. Yet, as he wrote and explained many times, he
in an old stable-block near the church. It was here never wavered in his faith or in the joy and serenity it
that he made the great decision that was to change gave him.
the course of his life, and the history of the Church in
England. After much study and prayer, he sought full
In a very important sense, the Ordinariate is his
communion with the Catholic Church. It was in the legacy.
library of the former stable block at Littlemore that he
knelt before Father Dominic Barberi, the Passionist
Joanna Bogle DSG
priest and missionary, and asked to be received into
the Church.
Today, the library and the other buildings are in the
care of a group of religious sisters, and Littlemore is a
place of pilgrimage. And to this place came members
of LOGS, the Ladies Ordinariate Group, at the end of
February.
It was an unforgettable day. We had a tour of Littlemore
led by Sister Christine, one of the team of young Sisters,
and we ate lunch in Newman’s library and prayed in his
private chapel, using his rosary. We visited the church
he built - the foundation-stone was laid by his mother
and there is a touching memorial to her there.