The traditional Mass...

...and Dinner to mark the Feast Day of St Mary's University is on Dec 9th, as the Univ. is under the patronage of  Mary in her Immaculate Conception. Having spent much of the past two years researching and writing the history, I think I will find it  be rather moving to be attending this Mass and celebrations. The Univ was founded as St Mary's College in 1850 - next year, 2020, marks its 170th anniversary...

Today's young students, gathering in the chapel,  doing the readings and singing in the choir, hearing about the College's  story, celebrating over a formal meal, are in a great tradition...especially those who are training to be teachers, as the College was founded precisely for that.  In the unimaginably different world of Victoria's reign, the College pioneered teacher-training for men (there were already colleges for women) and was turning out teachers who ran popular schools and brought education to some of the poorest children in the land... decades before state education began.Without the schools run and funded by the Church, the poor would have had no schools at all. The Church still runs some of the best and most popular schools in Britain.  The National Secular Society has never run any schools  - or indeed hospitals, care homes, clinics, holiday schemes, youth clubs, or anything else - for anyone. Remember that, when they demand a ban on the Church's schools.