Save the Cardinal campaign - update

Cardinal Manning

It is nearly a week since the Save the Cardinal pub petition reached over a thousand names. A letter accompanied by 96 pages of signatures, appealing for the old name to be retained, was sent to the headquarters of Sam Smith brewers last Friday.

We haven't received a response yet, but in the meantime more signatures have been arriving on-line and on paper, each day. Several more newspapers, TV and radio stations have also picked up the story.

BBC Radio Kent will be broadcasting a programme on Friday, with an interview with Dr Gemma Simmonds from Heythrop College, London University speaking on the life of Cardinal Manning, who grew up in Kent. Dr Simmonds describes how he defended the rights of poor workers and helped to negotiate a settlement of the Dockers Strike of 1889. When Cardinal Manning died in 1892, more than 100,000 people lined the roads from the Brompton Oratory to Kensal Green Cemetery, to pay their last respects.

"It was the largest funeral in Victorian London" she said. "It would be such a shame to lose this name with its associations with the area. Cardinal Manning was responsible for acquiring the land on which Westminster Cathedral is now built. It was a very poor area then. An old prison had stood here," Sr Gemma said.

"I've nothing against the name Windsor Castle, but it has nothing to do with this area, while Cardinal Manning made such a difference here," she concluded.

Radio Kent later plan to speak with Ann Widdecombe and Carmelite Prior Provincial Fr Wilfrid McGreal about the campaign.

To listen to the programme or hear it again on iplayer visit: www.bbc.co.uk/news/england/kent/

For more information or to sign the petition go to: www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=18178