Invitation to join the 1989 Parliamentary Pilgrimage now being organised.

Picture: Bell in foreground, Fr Peter Rollings to left
"Ego sum Gabriel" (I am Gabriel) 2.5 hundredweight, was hoisted into place after its blessing by Fr Peter Rollings of Our lady of Sudbury parish which had donated the bell.

Forwarding a letter from Rev Vassily James, whose anthropologist father (Rev Professor O E James) the Bishop knew. The letter is described as being critical of a Catholic pilgrimage to Walsingham. This, he passes on to Bishop Clark for his action, with the author's permission.

The policy on this was formulated by Bp Riddell. The seat of the old Walsingham shrine was utterly destroyed - nothing remains except for some ruins in Protestant hands. King's Lynn was where Leo XIII placed the shrine. What the Anglicans do is their affair. Some Catholics think differently and advertise their pilgrimages in the Tablet - until he contacted the Tablet. Continue to remind enquirers that the shrine is at King's Lynn, an old port through which the bulk of pilgrims from the Continent made their way to the famous old Shrine.
Apologies for the shortness of the letter as still in bed with pneumonia.

Your woes/points do not change the policy laid down long before he became a bishop. Has much correspondence relating to this topic. It remains to be seen whether the Prot. Bp sweeps away the present imitation shrine.

Forming an Executive Committee empowered to undertake such developments in the Slipper Chapel and Friday Market area as have received Shrine Council approval.
Shrine Council, chaired by the Bishop, decides Policy; Executive Committee (chaired by the Shrine Director) takes decisions which put policy into practice; Director takes care of day-to-day business.
Bishop of East Anglia is ultimately responsible for major developments - but in partnership with the Marist Congregation, to who he has committed the care and management of the Shrine.
This letter invites the addressee [none in this case] to become a member of the Executive Committee.

List of roles:
Chairman of ECEW
Member of Theological Commission
Chairman of CTS (suspended - but David [Norris?] is pressing me not to make this final)
Walsingham commitments
ARCIC - still rolling on

Enclose accounts for trip to Denmark - fares, conference fees, lodging and food

Jenny Standing, Secretary replying that the Bishop cannot attend the 1989 Parliamentary Pilgrimage.

Understands the problem. Asks Bishop Cleary to read the minutes of the Shrine Council. Bishop Clark is worried as the man hoped to take the post of Administrative Officer (Manager) has jibbed. Main concern is the bewildering indebtedness of the day-today running of the shrine. "Clive seems impervious to my directive ... he'll have to go. But I want your wise counsel."

Suggesting that an individual should go to Oscott or Innsbruck for "deepening". manuscript annotation by Bishop Grant - "I think Oscott - as a convert he still has a lot to learn about the Church in England"). Long explanation about why Bishop Clark circumvented his own processes to spend money on a strip of land which joins up Elmham House to the boundary of the Church and which came up a short notice. He and Fr Connelly paid for it out of income.
All this makes it more desirable to establish a management committee at Walsingham:
himself; Roland [Connelly]; Michael Ward (Solicitor, King's Lynn); Col. Cary-Elwes (Thurton); Philip Browning (Poringland); Mr Jameson (N. Elmham).
Turnover at Walsingham is too large for one man. Expenditure must include an annual repayment to the Diocese to offset the debt.

Writing to "Charles" [Bishop Grant?] As anticipate costs are rising. Donovan Purcell is trying to keep them down but there is a shortfall (despite moneys expected from Birmingham and Middlesborough). Looking for a guarantee of £4/5,000 to avoid embarrassment.

Councils that Hawkes needs to be very cautious than he is about the path he is treading. Your Deputy Director appointment is not an Executive appointment but one that Fr Birch has made himself. The new Director and the Marist Congregation have to be consulted. Clarifications: 1. cannot endorse proceeding to priesthood; 2. You are a Permanent Deacon with a licence for this Diocese; 3. Only wear the Franciscan habit on very restricted occasions- it is causing confusion.
This may seem hard but it is for your benefit. Feel free to discuss with Canon McBride.

Thanks for your personal donation. Fr Clive Birch is now the Administrative Assistant at Walsingham; filled with hope for the future

Donations from three Bishops totalling £40. 0. 0. Also cheque from the Poor Clares at Roswell New Mexico for $500

Has just received a reply from Cardinal Knox to his letter dated 9 October 1979.
Discouraging - appreciate the Cardinal Hume's counsel. The inability to give General Absolution at time of pilgrimage is not a disaster - but the letter shows an addiction to strict and literal interpretation of the norms.
He has instructed his clergy that in real necessity they are authorised to administer GA (the kind of necessity the Congregation does not admit!) and inform him after the fact. But this has been rarely used and with no criticisms
Bishop Clark thinks that something has "leaked".

Thanks Fisher for his letter and enclosures. Questions of cost arise especially when the Diocese has some large debts to attend to. "I am glad to know you are fit & well in spite of what one calls advancing age."

£600 Archdiocese of Birmingham; Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle £20; Bishop Clark £100

Thanking Donor. Appreciates their support for the generous donation and asks for their prayers for Walsingham Shrine and all those giving their time and talents.

Bishop is finding his schedule a bit busy and difficult to get control over for his own purposes - better to meet in in November?

Attached letter - Bishop bemused about an apparent omission in which Bishop Donze appears not to be saying Mass . Also, "ruffled" that, if he was involved in the arrangements, Cardinal Hume has not been in touch with Bishop Clark.