PILGRIMS IN GOAL

Tickets have been allocated for 70 Papal Pilgrims at Wembley on the Eastern Terrace, which is normally just behind the goal mouth. So far 42 have signed on to start the pilgrimage from Arundel, and our numbers will swell to 63 by the tine we reach Wembley. That leaves just a few spare tickets if you want to make a belated application. Being term time, and worse than that exam time, many familiar friends are missing from the pilgrimage list this time. But with this newsletter is being sent a full itinerary to all on the pilgrimage address list, hoping that many more will join us for a day. The route is superb - even the stretch through West London thanks to the Grand Union Canal. (No wonder Andy Capp is always falling in the canal with all those pubs along the bank!) If the weather stays as it is, it will be a wonderful week’s walking, and we hope a great concluding event at Wembley. And if you are only watching on the tele look out for us behind the goal!

BUCKFAST

Already 70 pilgrims have signed on for the summer pilgrimage to Buckfast Abbey. So apply quickly if you are still thinking of doing so. And tell your friends to do so. Did you notice the crafty colour coding of application forms? This shows that almost all applic­ants have been given forms by past pilgrims, and that although every church in Sussex and every Catholic church in Surrey was circulated, only two of these forms have been returned. Which proves that to take on something as mad as a walking pilgrimage, you would have had to have met another person who was mad enough to have done so and survived. So you, our past pilgrims, are our main means of publicity!

There are a couple of changes on the Buckfast Pilgrimage route from that advertised on 1982 Pilgrimage Information Sheet 1. The Catholic Club at Waterlooville, The Lobster Pot, are unable to receive us, so on the night of Sunday 15th August we will be staying at the Blendworth and Horndean Church Centre, Horndean, with an overflow in the Napier Hall, Horndean. We did not succeed in finding any suitable accommodation at Lulworth, so we have been kindly offered the use of the D’Urberville Centre at Wool. In order not to miss any of the beautiful Dorset coast, we will make a loop inland from West Lulworth to Wool, returning next morning via East Lulworth to Lulworth Cove. This will enable us to celebrate Mass at East Lulworth which has the first Catholic church in England after the Reformation, but will avoid having to sleep in their hall which has no toilets or running water! At Lyme Regis the new Woodmead Hall is almost completed and due to be opened in May, so we may be able to stay next to our friends house after all!

Most of the Buckfast Centenary Pilgrimage route has now been planned. It promises to even surpass the scenery of the 1980 Buckfast route. It is a very different route from last tine, only the first and last four days remaining the same. The Isle of Purbeck is superb, and the ferry across the Southampton Water opens up more beautiful countryside. But the spectacular scenery of the South Devon Coastal Path and Dartmoor remain on the new route.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Monica McLauchlan has resumed work as a children’s nurse, but still needs to keep her neck in a collar — she’s got some neck!

Ann Pollington organised an Easter Monday walk in the Uckfield area, hoping to give people a glimpse of what she calls the fun and fellowship of the pilgrimages.

Also walking at Easter was Margaret Archer leading the Bishop Richard Challoner Pilgrimage through the countryside of Berkshire, and Father Peter Madden who lead some pilgrims and Canterbury parishioners up to the Lake District.

Patrick Reeve gave up alcoholic drink for the whole of Lent - absolutely true — Congratulations, Patrick!

Stephen Webb is enjoying his academic career at Oxford. He has been made the Catholic Chaplaincy representative for Queen’s College, and the treasurer of the Queen’s College Football Club. Do they really trust him with their beer money? Sadly he and Debbie have broken their close friendship, and both are tired of people telling them there are plenty more ducks in the pond.

Dawn Willson’s husband has been in charge at the British Embassy in Bucharest for recent months, which has meant Dawn attending lots of receptions, and a new collar for Dee. Snoopy is rather impressed that he has walked with the dog who represents British Dogdom in Romania. Snoopy is also rather proud of the fact that he has recently climbed Scafell Pike, and was for a short time the highest dog in England.

Anne de Normanville is now working at Mount Alvernia Hospital in Guildford and living in the convent there - the next stage in her admission to the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood.

Ann Harvey has just returned from Australia - the vastness is breathtaking in this wild and beautiful country, she says.

Will Parker (of Pilgrimages 2 and 3 fame) has just completed a tour of East Africa visiting Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. He says, he learned a great deal about the politics of development, the difficulties of survival in a harsh environment, but enjoyed the great beauty and hospitality of the countries he visited. Next September he will begin studying at Sheffield University for an MSc in Information Studies.

Also at Sheffield, Claire Parsons (once a Brockman) takes her finals in medicine this May, and starts her first house job as a real working doctor in August.

Debbie Davies is now nursing at St Ebba’s Hospital for the Sub-Normal in Epsom.

From Kenya Father Hans Burgman writes about the latest developments at the Pandipieri Centre. He has sponsored a fishing business to help provide employment, which begins with building a boat and making nets, catching fish in Lake Victoria, filleting it, and selling it on the streets of Kisumu. He has started a thriving Girl Guide troupe. He has financed a cataract operation enabling a number of blind people to see again. He has built up nine basic communities in various areas which are becoming self—supporting. Last summer he walked from Mombassa to Nairobi, some 300 miles in 19 days, making a pilgrimage along the old caravan route. Father Hans provided a lot of the inspiration for our pilgrimages and walked with us on the first two.

And finally, I’m on the move again too. The Bishop has kindly agreed that I need not stay at St John’s Seminary beyond my first trial year. So I’m pleased to say that I will be doing something different after June, but what that might be I do not know yet!

PROPOSED BUCKFAST ROUTE

Which leaves a fair bit of room, in which I will give you the Buckfast route as it stands at present.