We have previously reported how the Diocese of Lancaster in England was able to save one of its most important churches, the Shrine of St Walburge in Preston, by bringing the Institute of Christ the King in to run it. By various accounts, the Institute has been able to bring the church, which was closed in 2007, very much back to life. Fr. Z recently noted this item, in which someone describes a visit to St Walburge’s thus: “Quite a lot of people were crying, overcome with the emotion of the occasion.” His Eminence Bishop Michael Campbell has now determined to save another of his historic churches, St Ignatius, also in Preston, by installing in it the Catholic Syro-Malabar comunity, as described in the press briefing below. (click to enlarge) The church was originally a Jesuit foundation, as one might guess from the name; the Catholic poet Francis Thompson, author of “The Hound of Heaven”, was baptized there in 1859, and Fr Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., served for a time as the church’s curate in the 1880s.
