London: Mass for Migrants

Preparations are already underway for the annual Mass for Migrants in London, which will take place at 10.30am in Westminster Cathedral on Bank Holiday Monday, 5 May in honour of Saint Joseph the Worker.

The Mass will begin with a procession of representatives from London's diverse communities, occupations and civic organisations. Amongt those taking part in the Mass will be the Nigerian community, who are providing a choir, and the Vietnamese community, whose young people will be performing a liturgical dance.

Principal celebrant at the Mass for Migrants will be Rt Rev Thomas McMahon, Bishop of Brentwood. The preacher will be Bishop Patrick Lynch, SS CC.

The Catholic Church in England and Wales has greatly benefited from ‘the faith and witness’ of migrant communities not only in our present day, but down through the years, said Bishop Lynch.

In a statement released to coincide with the World Day for Migrants and Refugees celebrated on Sunday January 15, Bishop Patrick said that parishes have been greatly enriched by “the strong sense of community and commitment to family life within many of our migrant communities, by their love for the Scriptures, by their devotion to Our Lady and especially by their joyful participation in the celebration of the Eucharist.”

The Bishop gave thanks for the faith, commitment, witness and devotional life of migrant communities: “So we pray in thanksgiving for all the migrant communities who down through they years have enriched the Church here in England and Wales by their faith and their faithfulness, by their commitment and their witness and by their devotion and devotions.”

In recent years, Catholic Churches in England and Wales, particularly in urban areas, have seen a growing number of parishioners from Africa and Asia, from Eastern and Western Europe, from the islands of the Caribbean and more recently from South America.