Talk 2 : St. Joseph the Worker
Order of Malta Lourdes Pilgrimage
1 May 2022
Some of you are aware that my last parish was Hatfield. The Salisburys were always very gracious: he as Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire, where I was chaplain; she as a parishioner. It troubled me that many of the international students had never even heard of Hatfield House and had certainly never visited the place. I determined to rectify that, but felt some students might have been discouraged by the entry fee. So, I asked Lady Salisbury was there any chance of a discount? ‘Absolutely not,’ she replied. ‘You must all come for free, and I will show you round myself.’ She kept her word.
The Salisburys were not always so tolerant of Catholics. A century earlier they were distinctly unimpressed when a member of the family, Algernon Cecil, became a papist. To compound the crime, the new convert grew a beard. Hugh Cecil challenged his cousin:
‘Algernon, why have you grown that absurd beard.’
Algernon defended himself: ‘Our Lord had a beard.’
Hugh was having none of it: ‘But Our Lord was not a gentleman.’
We have to face facts.