Fr Damien Walne (1940 – 2015)

Please pray for Fr Damien Walne, who passed away today. He was a great stalwart of the CA Pilgrimage and was the Diocesan Director for Northampton Diocese for many years. He died today after a short illness. May he rest in peace and rise in glory. His full obituary is below.

Fr Damien was born 19 May 1940 at Rostrevor, Co. Down, Northern Ireland. At the end of the Second World War moved to England – first of all to Norfolk where the Walne family farmed. Damien’s dad being the “black sheep” left farming to enter the Royal Navy in which he fought during the war captaining several vessels.

His dad retired early to be with his family when Damien’s brothers: Victor and Martin were born. The family then moved to Cambridge where Damien’s dad secured a teaching post. They became members of St. Lawrence’s parish where all three brothers served as altar boys for several years.

Attended St. Andrew’s RC Primary School before moving across the road (old site of the Perse School) after the 11+. Victor becoming Head Boy the year the school moved to its present site on Hills Road. Meanwhile his elder brother frittered away his time on sport, representing his school at cricket and hockey.

On leaving school Damien went into the bank, working for Barclays. Three years later he left to join ABC Cinemas…eventually booking the first of the Road Shows (i.e. Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments) around the Eastern Counties from Norwich.

A move then came to Cambridge where he was asked to look after and see to visiting artists who came to the Regal Cinema there for “One Night” stands still popular today in cinemas and theatres across the land.

Damien missed meeting the Beatles, preferring to watch the Varsity Match at Twickenham – the only time the group, which shortly became very famous, ever appeared in Cambridge.

Sensing the call to the priesthood for some time, but not believing that was what God wanted of him, Damien eventually took the step. Damien studied for the priesthood at Oscott College where at the age of 30 years he was ordained a priest.

His first appointment was at St. Augustine’s, High Wycombe (where the CA has held many AGM’s), His second appointment was at Our Lady’s Corby with Canon Galvin. His first appointment as parish priest was at Christ the King in Bedford until 1991. He then moved to Great Billing and Earls Barton, where he stayed until 2015.

Fr Damien was Diocesan Director for Northampton for many years, and worked closely with a number of pilgrims to make sure they had a week to remember. I particularly remember him letting me help promote the Northampton Pilgrimage to Lourdes when I lived in Aylesbury. He was always a perfect gentleman and would often ask after Terri and Joseph. We will miss him very much.

He was also a ghost writer for many autobiographies and a writer of poetry. He never talked about this side, but simply Google his name or visit a book store on-line, and you will see. 

In a recent interview, he said: “I feel nothing but gratitude for an interesting and varied life – for wonderful parents and grandparents, brothers, friends and the support of countless people in the parishes I have served, and most of all for the gift of the Priesthood.”

May he Rest in Peace and rise in glory!

Matt Betts

Thanks to the Parish of Great Billing who have an excellent biography of Fr Damien.

Nurses

The CA Hospitalité would like to ask all members who live in any of the CA Dioceses to contact their local hospital chaplains and see if they would be interested in putting up a poster about our Pilgrimage, and particularly an appeal for more nurses. We have posters below that can be used for this purpose:

• East Anglia

• Northampton

• Portsmouth

Bishop Peter's Homily

Bishop Peter Doyle has kindly allowed us to reproduce his homily from Lourdes 2012:

Homily at the Mass of the Anointing of the Sick during the Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes

St. Bernadette was already sick with asthma and malnutrition and hunger when Our Lady first appeared to her. What did Bernadette see? A lady dressed in white and surrounded by light - Mary reflecting the risen glory of her Son, Christ the light of the world.

When Jesus takes Peter and James and John up the mountain, they catch a glimpse of that same light when Christ is transfigured - the vision of that future hope and glory which will flow from the suffering and death of Jesus.

The Transfiguration is the fourth of the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary which we are praying with Bernadette today. In those mysteries we see that the light of Christ shines in the Church through our witness to the Gospel and in the celebration of the Sacraments as we reflect on the Baptism of the Lord, the Proclamation if the Good News, the Marriage Feast at Cana, and the Institution of the Eucharist. For the Sacraments are the celebration of the Paschal Mystery, that is, Christ's victory over sin and death through his suffering and dying and rising.

Like Peter up the mountain, we can just want to hold on to the glory bits. He wanted to capture that amazing experience by building three tents for Jesus and Moses and Elijah. In the same way we can want to hold on to this experience of Lourdes. But Jesus came down the mountain to embrace all human experience in his suffering and death.

That is what Jesus does in his Church today as we celebrate the Sacrament of the Sick. While the focus is on the anointing of the sick among us, the Sacrament engages us all. It is a sacrament you who are helpers and nurses and doctors have been preparing for and living out all week in your care and touch and tender compassion - yours has been and is the ministry of Christ and his Church.

You have been strengthening our sick brothers and sisters with words and actions of faith and by praying with them. You have been commending them to the suffering and transfigured Christ. You encourage them in their great contribution to the well-being of the Church as they unite themselves willingly with Christ's passion an death.

Dear precious sick pilgrims, you are, above all, witnesses to our mortal life being redeemed through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Now we celebrate with you the Sacrament of the Sick to strengthen you in carrying the cross of suffering, and to raise you up in times of anxiety, weakness and temptation. In this sacrament the grace of the Holy Spirit is given to you as we look back to Christ's death and resurrection, the source of sacramental power, and look ahead to the future kingdom of light and life pledged in the sacraments.

I have seen examples of compassionate touch and healing grace abound this week, making holy the ministry to the sick. May we be renewed in that ministry as we return home. Now that ministry is brought to a high point in the anointing of the sick. May Christ's light penetrate the darkness of your sickness, and may the Lord save you and raise you up. Amen.

(c) Bishop Peter Doyle

Praying the Rosary

This year the Pastoral Theme for Lourdes is With Bernadette, Praying the Rosary.

The Catholic Association Pilgrimage offers some thoughts on the theme in the Pilgrimage booklet and our website, but as this will not be till later in the year, the CA web team would like to share some early ideas.

The rosary is a popular devotion, and in addition to meditating on the mysteries, it is normal to say the rosary for a particular intention. How often do you pray the rosary? Why not try it this month?

If you are already confused, have a look at these pages of our website, which will provide some guidance:
http://www.catholicassociation.co.uk/spirituality/sayrosary.shtml and http://www.catholicassociation.co.uk/spirituality/rosaryabout.shtml

Given this year's theme, we are inviting our fellow pilgrims to pray the rosary for their bishops and priests. Our clergy need all the support that they can get as the tide of secularism increases, and many of them found the prayers during the Year for Priests (2009/2010) very helpful.

There is even a handy site where one can sign up and get reminders to pray for one's bishop:

http://rosaryforthebishop.org/

Let us know how your devotion has gone, or if you have any further thoughts, please let us know below…

CA web team

Northampton Diocese

Two members of Northampton Diocese have recently written for the Diocesan newspaper about their experiences of Lourdes with the diocese and the CA.

In the article, Paul Deveraux and Tracey Hemelge talk about their experiences of bringing family to Lourdes this year.

To read the full article, please view here.

Volunteer helpers - 2011 Pilgrimage

Our next Pilgrimage takes place from 19 – 26 August 2011, Each year, the Catholic Association Hospitalité of Our Lady of Lourdes is responsible for coordinating the welcome and care of pilgrims, especially our assisted pilgrims, who come to Lourdes.

If you are planning to travel independently, please view our form and further details by clicking on the link below.

• Apply to be a Volunteer Helper
• Further information our Pilgrimage

CA Lourdes Pilgrimage 2010

A number of our groups and dioceses have produced a page about their pilgrimages to Lourdes with the Catholic Association this year. These can be viewed below:

• British Province of the Carmelites
• Northampton Diocese
• Southwark Archdiocese
• Stonyhurst College
  

Ann Garner

by Chris Buller

It is with great sadness that I have to tell you that Ann Garner passed away on 1 May in Bedford South Wing hospital after developing oesophageal cancer having been in hospital for a few weeks. Ann was adopted as a young child and, when her adoptive parents passed away, was left with no family. But through Lourdes she became a part of the Buller family and came to both my sister and my weddings.

I first met Ann on the train in Boulogne when I was on night duty and saw a frightened and nervous lady and quickly got the old regulars to talk to her and allay her fears about what lay ahead. As so often is the case for the first day or two in Lourdes she claimed to dislike the place and wanted to go home, out of fear of the unknown I suspect, but by the end of week she had been converted into Lourdes addict and was already planning her return for the next year. She came for many years until her numerous afflictions started to get the better of her, culminating in contracting MRSA and C-Diff on her regular visits to her hospital.

Ann lived on the 8th floor of a residential tower block in Bedford and whilst it may sound an unsuitable location it was next to the main bus station and so it was easy for her wide circle of friends to reach her. Ann was a regular on the Community Service Unit (otherwise affectionately known by the schoolchildren as ‘granny bashing’ for those children who did not join the CCF or do the Duke of Edinburgh awards). She made a great many friends through the local school initiative and was very influential with many of the children and I know she helped counsel a number of children away from a drugs problem, and made friends for life with those children, but also with their parents, a number of whom attended her funeral.

Those of you who remember Ann will recall that she was a very poor sleeper in Lourdes and that she, along with her fellow Bedford pilgrims Gina and Stephanie, would be found on the roof of the Accueil smoking and chatting away, all night if they could get away with it! All three of them proved to be popular company for the night staff teams who enjoyed having a puff during the night.

In the last few years in Lourdes, Ann became a prayer member of the Hospitalité and I know she was overjoyed to be asked and always attended the Hospitalité service when in Lourdes. I will miss calling her ‘ratbag’ (a nickname only the male ward members were allowed to use), her generous and caring nature, her great sense of humour and her ability to cope with all the pranks and jokes that the ward team used to play on her.

May she Rest in Peace. (2008)