Westminster: Faith Matters lecture series examining priesthood

Aidan Nichols will deliver the first of the 'Faith Matters' lectures series for Lent 2010 at Westminster Cathedral Hall at 7pm this evening. The theme of his lecture is 'The Priest: Yesterday, today and tomorrow.'

The lecture marks the start of the lecture series that runs in the Diocese of Westminster every Lent and Advent. The series will be held in Westminster Cathedral Hall, every Tuesday from 23 February- 16 March.

In this Year for Priests the focus of the lectures in Lent 2010 will be priesthood. The series is designed to encourage all people to discover where priesthood comes from, what priests do and the challenges facing priesthood today. Aimed at lay people it will also ask people to consider what they can do to support priests and why they should be concerned about priesthood.

In his lecture, after a brief account of the origins of the ministerial priesthood in the intentions of Christ, Fr Aidan Nichols will describe how priesthood took its classical Western form in the period following the Council of Trent (1545-63). He will then look at the difficulties it encountered in the period following the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). Finally he will end with some prescriptions for its future.

 
The further lectures will be given by

* Dr Clare Watkins on 'The Priest and the Universal Baptismal Call on 2 March 2010
* Fr Andrzej Forys MS on 'The Call to Priesthood in a Global City' on 9 March 2010
* Archbishop Vincent Nichols on 'The Priest as Witness' on 16 March 2010

You will be able to view the lectures and take part in the online discussion forums for the lectures by going to www.rcdow.org.uk/faithmatters