ENGLAND/WALES, Fr. David Musgrave. This story has several independent threads which inexplicably get drawn together. But before we proceed a few moments are needed to see the bigger picture. Contradictory to the outsider’s view the United Kingdom or Great Britain as it is sometimes called is not England but, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and many islands off the coast. In other words a number of different areas and regions each with its own distinctive culture, style and in the case of Wales even its own official language of Welsh, of Celtic origins pre-dating Roman occupation.
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Now on with the story. To help the parishioners of St John Fisher, Kearsley of Bolton, England come into the spirit of the Year of Faith it was decided to replace the usual masthead of the parish pew-sheet with the logo of the Year of Faith. The usual masthead design is the iconic Christian stylized fish indicating the parish and our Schoenstatt Pastoral Centre on the same site as mutually co-existing and cooperating.
A letter written to Rome…
In sourcing the official Year of Faith logo it was decided to go legal and request permission from the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization at the Vatican to use it, instead of the easier google method of just lifting…
Several days elapsed and then in a most friendly letter written in English permission was kindly given to the parish to be used on all occasions other than for commercial use.
Meanwhile on reflection it was also though to be an idea to periodically replace the version of the Logo with English with text of other languages to draw attention of the world-wide nature of the Church and somewhat to reflect other home-languages spoken in the parish: German, Italian, Polish and so on.
A query sent to Cardiff and Menevia …
So why not start with our very nearby neighbour of Wales or Cymru to give it it’s other name.
The Archdiocese of Cardiff and Diocese of Menevia are sourced being the two diocese of the region – only the version in English is found. A query is sent to the responsible authority, and suddenly there is an acknowledge deficit and an immediate flurry of activity to do something about it.
In the international gallery of all the logos
Meanwhile quite by chance in thanking the Council for permission granted, I had as an off thought asked permission for a version with Welsh text to be given; this was immediately granted with the request for the final version to be sent to them for the Council’s international gallery of all the logos.
Within the day the Welsh language of the Year of Faith logo was official design and sent to the Pontifical Council for their approval either in a single language or dual language version.
See here the gallery of logos in different languages
And the Schoenstatt connection? In the request sent to Rome it clearly states that at the initiative of myself of the SCHOENSTATT CENTRE in Bolton, England.
Me thinks we may be allowed an extension of our Shrine’s sphere of influence and responsibility and speak now of the Shrine of England and Wales…sorry Cymru!
