<em>Working together with the Herald to strengthen Catholic mission</em>.
The Napa Institute, which seeks to further the mission of the Church in the US, came to London in April and co-hosted a lunch with the Catholic Herald. The organisers had intended a pilgrimage to the Holy Land but events in Israel precluded a visit just now. Instead they came on a visit to experience “Catholic England” instead.
Indeed, the itinerary of the visit, accompanied by the Dominican friar Fr Lawrence Lew, was as spiritually invigorating as was possible outside Jerusalem.
The American visitors, led by the chairman of the board and co-founder of the Institute, Tim Busch, and executive director Mark Rohlena, visited the Tower of London and the cell in which St Thomas More was imprisoned; Tyburn Convent, to have tea with the sisters and view the relics of the Catholics martyred at Tyburn, just down the road; Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane for eucharistic devotion; Westminster Cathedral; and Oxford.
On Tuesday, April 16, the Napa Institute experienced an inspiring talk by Lord Alton of Liverpool covering “life issues” in the Houses of Parliament, with a reception afterwards organised by Anton’ de Piro, which was attended by many leading Catholic MPs and peers including Sir Edward Leigh, former president of the English Catholic Union, and Sir Bill Cash. Other highlights included lunch at the Old Queen Street Cafe – haunt of lobby journalists and cabinet ministers – and dinner at Langan’s in Piccadilly.
On Wednesday, April 17, the Institute enjoyed lunch with the Catholic Herald in St James’s where editor William Cash and the Herald’s leader writer, Melanie McDonagh, addressed the group. In his remarks, Mr Cash talked about his hope that the Napa Institute and the Herald could work together as strategic allies in the US and UK in their shared mission to renew Catholic identity and shape the Catholic conversation in the public square and to influence the future of the Church.
“Never has there been a more important time for lay leaders to step forward and lead by example,” he said. “Both the <em>Herald</em> and Napa Institute are at the forefront of Catholic Thought Leadership today and it is good to see the Napa Institute extending its influence to London.”
Tim Busch observed that the <em>Herald</em>’s editorial voice and position was not dissimilar to the America’s <em>National Catholic Register </em>and that the paper was very much in sympathy with the ethos and aims of the Napa Institute. William Cash paid tribute to the work of the Institute, and to another aspect of Tim Busch, his expertise as a Napa winemaker, who also chose the wines for lunch (Puligny Montrachet 2020 and an appropriately chosen <em>Chateauneuf-du-Pape</em> 2021). His excellently named Trinitas Cellars aime “to craft wine that’s so compellingly delicious that the joy it brings creates a window in time where worries are melted away, virtues are celebrated and life is savoured”. This was indeed exactly the nature of the lunch.
Melanie McDonagh reminded guests that making the Stations of the Cross was the next best thing to a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and indeed had been designed as a mini pilgrimage in the footsteps of Christ. And after lunch, Fr Lawrence led the intrepid visitors to Farm Street church to do just that.
<strong><strong>This article originally appeared in the May 2024 issue of the <em>Catholic Herald</em>. To subscribe to our award-winning, thought-provoking magazine and have independent and high-calibre counter-cultural Catholic journalism delivered to your door anywhere in the world click</strong> <mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/subscribe/?swcfpc=1">h</a></mark><a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/subscribe/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">ere</mark></a>.</strong>
