In June, some of our seminarians joined thousands from around the world in Rome for the Jubilee of Seminarians. From ancient basilicas to encounters with the Pope, it was a pilgrimage they’ll never forget. First year seminarian Mark Dilworth gave us an insight into their transformative trip.

The Oscotian Society brings together generations of those who have been formed at Oscott to support today’s vocations and celebrate a shared spiritual legacy.

We’re truly delighted to share some exciting news: Oscott and Maryvale Higher Institute of Religious Sciences (HIRS) are officially joining forces, marking a new era for Catholic education in the UK and beyond.

Last Saturday, 14th December, St Mary’s College, Oscott marked a momentous occasion in its calendar: the Diaconate Ordinations of our sixth-year seminarians, coupled with their Leaving Day.

I come from Drogheda in Ireland, the youngest of a family of four. I studied chemistry in Dublin and then Edinburgh and lived in Germany and Cambridge doing research. Just before applying to seminary, I was working in Dublin at a university but decided to pursue my vocation with the Diocese of East Anglia, which I came to know well during my time in Cambridge.

My hometown is Burnley in Lancashire, but I have been fortunate to live in Manchester, Bristol, Wolverhampton and Birmingham during my career.

I am from Ezza-Ezekuna in Ishelu LGA of Ebonyi State, Nigeria. I was born and raised in a place called coal camp, and this is where some of the British miners resided in Enugu at the beginning of the 1900s. It is a huge, Catholic populated area and most of our activities happened within the context of the Catholic faith.

I come from a devout Catholic family. During my teenage years, I slowly drifted away from the Faith. At 18 I had a reversion to the Faith through the Jesus Youth movement and was actively involved since then.

I used to be a professional classical ballet dancer. I started dancing when I was 8 years old, and it soon became a dream, to jump as high as a Nureyev or a Nijinsky. I went to the Royal Ballet School in London, for my training and then to Uruguay.

My name is Owen Dugan and I come from a small town called Gosport on the south coast. I grew up in a Catholic household and was inspired in my faith from a young age by my maternal grandparents who originate from Malta.

In early March 2022, my bishop, Paul Swarbrick, raised with me the possibility that I might move to Oscott as Vice Rector. It came completely out of the blue.

The following is an edited version of the journal entries of Peter Ross, originally intended for the Saint Margaret Mary Community. Peter’s full journal entries can be read in the Oscotian Magazine.

In the summer of 2022, I had the amazing opportunity to visit India for a pastoral placement, with the support of the College and my own diocese of East Anglia. The bulk of my time was spent in the Don Bosco Boarding Home and St Mary’s and Christopher’s School in Pedavgi near Eluru, in Andhra Pradesh.

In 2022, the Sisters of Charity of St Paul the Apostle celebrated the 175th anniversary of their foundation in England.

This story began in the village of Knock, in County Mayo, in the West of Ireland on Thursday evening, 21st August 1879.

The following are the words of architect Anthony Delarue in response to interview questions. The full article is available in the Oscotian Magazine.

In Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs Dalloway’, the eponymous heroine is waiting to cross a street in Westminster when, ‘[she] feels…a particular hush, or solemnity; an indescribable pause; a suspense before Big Ben strikes. There! Out it boomed. The leaden circles dissolved in the air.’ The novel, set immediately after the First World War, records the wonder of hearing the bell after it had been silenced for two years (1916-1918).

On 8th December 2020, Pope Francis issued his Apostolic Letter ‘Patris Corde’, marking the opening of the ‘Year of Saint Joseph’.2020 seems like an age ago now, especially when we consider the events that have elapsed since! Indeed, the whole world is changing rapidly. It can sometimes seem like we are being tossed from crisis to crisis. The phrase, ‘out of the frying pan into the fire’ comes to mind. 

The English word ‘vocation’ comes from the Latin word ‘vocāre’, which means ‘to call’.

It’s quite fitting that there is a cemetery on the grounds of Oscott College in which thousands of people, bishops, priests and laypeople, are buried. Death and dying are part of the daily life of priestly ministry and there is no harm for seminarians in being reminded of the reality of their future priestly lives, as well as their life to come after death.