Mass of Thanksgiving for re-opening of ecclesiastical faculties at Heythrop

Cardinal-elect Vincent Nichols

A Mass of Thanksgiving was celebrated by Archbishop Vincent Nichols in the Maria Assumpta Chapel, in Kensington Square, London, last night (20 January 2014) to mark the re-activation of the ecclesiastical faculties of theology and philosophy, together known as the Bellarmine Institute. The Institute is a specialist centre of professional study, teaching and research at Heythrop College, University of London

The 30 concelebrants included Archbishop Kevin McDonald and Bishop-elect Mark O’Toole, both of whom are governors of the College, and Bishop William Kenney, a former student of the Pontifical Athenaeum at Heythrop, then located in Oxfordshire.

In his homily, Archbishop Nichols, the Visitor of the College and Patron of the Institute, spoke of the contribution which the College’s new ecclesiastical status can make to the missionary character of the Church being emphasised by Pope Francis and its significance in the intellectual life of the University.

The chapel was packed to capacity with a congregation of 175 which included staff and all the seminarians from Allen Hall, the Jesuit scholastics, superiors and members of other religious congregations, including those studying at the College, representatives from other priestly formation centres in Britain and Ireland as well as staff, present and former students and friends of the College and the Religious of the Assumption.

At the end of the service, the Jesuit provincial, Fr Dermot Preston, read the decrees from the Congregation for Catholic Education reactivating the ecclesiastical faculties first established at Heythrop in November 1964. Fr Peter Gallagher has been appointed Dean of Philosophy, Fr Michael Kirwan, Dean of Theology and Fr Michael Holman, Rector of the Bellarmine Institute. The College has been under the patronage of the Jesuit cardinal and theologian, St Robert Bellarmine, since 1926.