We know that the Ushaw Trustees held a meeting on Friday, January 21st; did they discuss the online petition, or any business proposal to 'save' the College. We do not know. At the moment of writing, nothing has entered the public domain.
We know that there will be meeting of a steering committee led by Bishop Davies of Shrewsbury sometime in February in Manchester; and taking part among others will be Durham County Council, Durham University and English Heritage. We do not know anything else.
We do know that the majority of the College Servants have now left their jobs, and only a small skeleton staff is left behind. Compensation, redundancy; why now? We do not know.
The future of Ushaw College is of huge importance to all Catholics in this country, never mind just in the North, as can be seen from the online petition. The secrecy surrounding this situation is actually very counter-productive.
It really isn't surprising that we know nothing as it would appear that our bishops feel that we are not bright enough to take in details which, they feel, have little effect on us. After all it is only our financial input that allows anything to happen.
ReplyDeleteI recall an old priest friend who used to say that ordination not only made an man a priest but also an accountant, a plumber, an electrician etc, etc. Perhaps ordination to the episcopate gives them all of these gifts - but in greater depth!