Statement from Fr Philip Cleevely, Birmingham Oratory

Birmingahm Oratory

By agreement with the Apostolic Visitor and the Birmingham Oratory I shall be spending the coming year at the Toronto Oratory and preparing to begin doctoral studies in philosophy. I am very grateful to the Oratorian community in Toronto for receiving me, and greatly look forward to sharing fully in their life and work. I am also very thankful to the Apostolic Visitor and to my own community in Birmingham for the opportunity I have been offered to pursue further studies. I pray that in due course this will bear fruit both for the Birmingham Oratory and for the Catholic Church in England and Wales.
 
As a priest of the Birmingham Oratory in good standing I remain committed to the life and mission of the community founded and shaped by the soon to be Blessed John Henry Newman. So that the life and mission of the Birmingham Oratory may be protected and upheld, I hope and pray that adverse public speculation concerning the Apostolic Visitation, and above all personal attacks upon the Visitor himself and those who are assisting him, will now cease.
 
Fr Philip Cleevely, Cong Orat