St Helens Catenians 1250th Meeting

On Saturday Evening 7th February, at The Mercure St Helens Hotel, Catenian Circle 21 celebrated their 1250th meeting and one hundred and eleven years in the town of St Helens.

The evening began at 6.30pm when Archbishop John Sherrington celebrated Mass together with five concelebrants and one hundred and thirty Catenians wives and guests. The Mayor of St Helens, Councillor Severiano Gomez-Aspron MBE joined our celebrations and the Catenian National President, Gerry McCormack and his wife Anna were our Principal Guests.

A short Circle Meeting followed chaired by Acting President Stephen Whitehouse in the presence of sixty-six Catenians from Scotland, Ascot, Berkshire, Manchester, Lincoln, North Wales, Lytham-St-Annes, Crewe, Wirral and St. Helens.

We acknowledged representatives of Liverpool Circle 4 and Wigan Circle 16 whose predecessors arrived in the town in 1914 when St Helens was inaugurated as the 21st Circle of the Catenian Association. Prayers were offered for Vocations, our Catenian Association, those members and family who had recently died together with those deceased members whose anniversaries occurred at this time. The meeting closed with a prayer for our Pope.

A three-course dinner with wine followed. We were joined by clergy who because of duties in their Parishes earlier in the evening were unable to join us for the Mass. The evening closed with a toast to the King, presentation of floral bouquets to the lady guests, and a gift of a St Helens Glass Vase to the National President.