
Farm Street 175
5. Parish Life
From 1849 until 1966 Farm Street was not a parish as such but the Jesuit Church in central London, specializing in preaching, pastoral care, and a place of refuge for many becoming Catholic or returning to faith. The church was open to the public but not the centre of worship for a parish community, and sacraments such as marriage and baptism could not be celebrated. The reputation of Farm Street rested on the pulpit and the confessionals and the church became famous for the work of the Jesuit priests whose guidance given to those seeking advice led many to embrace the Catholic faith.
On 1 January 1966, over 100 years after the church’s opening, Farm Street became a parish church. There was a concelebrated Low Mass for the induction of the first parish priest, Fr John Brooks SJ (1920-1988) on 28 January and Cardinal John Heenan (1905-1975) was the principal celebrant. Weddings and baptisms could now take place, and a font was placed in the Calvary chapel. The proximity to high end hotels in which receptions could be held made Farm Street a fashionable place to get married.
In 1920 the Superior Fr Charles Galton SJ (1860-1936) introduced the weekly pulpit dialogues which saw two speakers expressing different viewpoints on the same subject from pulpits on opposite sides of the church. These were replaced for a time by a series of lectures in the Sodality Hall, to which every Catholic was expected to bring a non-Catholic guest. Speakers included G. K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc and Fr Bede Jarrett. In 1946 Fr Francis Devas SJ (1877-1951), introduced the Tuesday Talks, aimed particularly at non-Catholics.
Sodalities provided lay people with a way of better serving the Lord in their secular lives and members adhered to a strict set of rules. In the summer of 1950, the Sodality of the Immaculate Conception, founded in 1857 by Fr Peter Gallwey SJ (1820-1906), paid a Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome conducted by its director, Fr Handley Lillie SJ (1902-1967). According to the Farm Street Calendar, November 1950, the pilgrims paid the customary visits to the Major Basilicas, had Mass in the Catacombs, in the Gesù and in S Ignazio, enjoyed a country drive, and many other excitements.
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