The Lampedusa Cross
On St Andrew’s Feast Day, Friday 30th November, the Chaplaincy Team travelled to Clifton Cathedral to be Commissioned as new members of the Team. We took part in the procession of school banners, all went up to receive our new badges and to give our cheque for fundraising for Mission Together (Missio charity). The school had raised over £200 for this charity this term.
We were also honoured to receive the Lampedusa Cross.
We took the cross back to school where it was received with reverence and adorned in our entrance hall so all could see it. On Sunday we took it to our parish, Sacred Heart, Tisbury to share with the wider community. On Monday it was carried to Wardour Chapel for our Advent Mass. From Wardour the cross went to St Mary’s and then St George’s in Warminster, onto St Louis’ and all the Wiltshire schools.
At Holy Mass on Sunday at Sacred Heart, Tisbury and again on Monday at our Advent Mass, Martha told the congregation a little about it:
When hundreds of refugees drowned off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa, a carpenter in sorrow and sadness, gathered driftwood from the beaches much of which was from the wrecked boats. He turned the wood into crosses and offered them to the survivors as a symbol of hope.
The cross we have here has been made by St Edward’s Catholic School near Salisbury and is travelling to every Catholic school in our diocese.
On his visit to the island of Lampedusa, where so many refugees lost their lives in search for safety, Pope Francis said, “The Lord needs our hearts to show his merciful love towards the least, the outcast, the abandoned, the marginalised.”
Chaplaincy Team members and Mrs South carry the cross to the altar at the Sacred Heart, Tisbury
Children come closer after Holy Mass
The Cross begins its journey back to school after our Advent Mass at Wardour Chapel.