A couple times when I have been in London, I’ve stayed at St Patrick’s on Soho Square. It’s a really interesting parish in a really strange place and they have really great programs. No… really. (How interesting? Fulton Sheen lived there …I used his confessional).
For example, they house the homeless, have an SOS hotline, and they promote Eucharistic devotion.
Speaking of Eucharistic devotion they also feed the hungry.
thinking about how St. Patrick’s Church was asked by the City Council to feed all of Soho’s homeless people two meals a day every day of the week during the pandemic and agreed on one condition: that they could start holding Eucharistic Adoration on the street pic.twitter.com/utznuD0FAg
— Elena (@omnialnchristo) October 6, 2020
Luminous Fr. Z kudos to my friend Fr. Sherbrooke and his team. Outstanding.
This is great!
What is SOS?
Survivors of Suicide (SOS) Advocacy
Do people NOT know what SOS means?
Really?
Thank you, tgarcia2. I had never seen this “SOS” acronym before.
I’ve only heard SOS in reference to army food! My father’s language. Not mine!
I had no idea what SOS meant in this context either.
I’ve only heard of it in reference to a distress call.
Perhaps it’s because I’ve never been to SOHO square or London.
The only meanings I ever heard were the distress signal of course, and (like mysticalrose’s dad) the colorful Army name for chipped beef on toast: ‘”something” on a shingle’.
That this church is able to hold Eucharistic adoration on a public street is really neat and a blessing, especially in a large and largely post-Christian city like London.
Good parrish priests, like good supply sergeants, get things done!
Kneeling unashamedly on the hard pavement in adoration of Our Eucharistic Lord is a wonderful witness to one’s Catholic Faith in such a bustling, worldly city as London.
But perhaps London is not in fact as “post-Christian“ as one might imagine. Nearly 15% of all Londoners identify as Catholic (compared to the roughly 8.5% total Catholic population for England and Wales). In my experience the celebration of Mass is also well-attended, especially in the many beautiful London Churches where the Traditional Latin Mass can be found.
Every second Saturday in October an amazing Rosary Crusade procession takes place, with the pilgrims singing and praying the full 15 mysteries of the Rosary as they walk along the crowded streets between Westminster Cathedral and the magnificent Brompton Oratory. A High Mass is celebrated there dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima for the feast of the Holy Rosary. Thousands of Catholics take part in it. I have often done so myself when visiting family members who live in or near London.
Sadly, in this year of the Wuhan virus I doubt whether it will be permitted to take place.