Bishop Peter Elliott...

newly-appointed Bishop in Melbourne, Australia, is visiting Britain. Our friendship with him goes back nearly thirty years...it was an absolute delight to see him. We joined him at St Patrick's, Soho Square, (see pic) for a wonderful talkative dinner on Wednesday, hosted by the splendid Fr Alexander Sherbrook. Bishop Peter had just come from Rome, where he was attending a sort of "staff course" for Bishops. In Australia, one of his main projects is the John Paul 11 Institute for Marriage and Family - I wish we had something like this in Britain.

St Patrick's is of course a wonderful place - a church packed with history, prayer, good activities, young people, and a great sense of mission. A soup-run takes food, faith and hope around Soho, young people attend a School of Evangelisation, it is home to a big Chinese community which meets for Mass, ditto Brazilians and various others, it is involved with the Cenacolo project helping people move on from drugs-and-alcohol addictions...oh, and lots more. And it's desperately in need of funds. This is one of London's great institutions - linked with Archbishop Fulton Sheen (he worked here when in London and wrote extensively about his experiences here), with various show-business people who worshipped here or were married here or came here for hope and help...It was fairly badly bashed in WW11 and then repaired, but now time and wear-and-tear have taken a terrible tool of ceilings, walls, fabric, wiring, you name it...and it needs a great deal of money to get the work done. There's an appeal, and a lot of goodwill - and you could join in, if you simply log on to the website I've given...