BY Martin Dunlop | October 21 2011 | 
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Holy gift for Cardinal Newman High
Publication Date: 2011-10-21
— Bishop Joseph Devine presents Motherwell secondary school with first class relic of patron
Bishop Joseph Devine of Motherwell presented the community of Cardinal Newman High School, Bellshill, with a first class relic of its recently Beatified school patron, as staff and pupils celebrated their annual week of events marking his feast day.
The feast of Blessed John Henry Newman was celebrated on Sunday October 9, and the event was marked with five days of celebration at the Bellshill school last week, the highlight being the Patronal feast Mass celebrated by Bishop Devine on Tuesday October 11.
The bishop was joined at the Mass by Fr James Morris, Fr Michael Brown and also Deacon Mario Vannini, who was very recently ordained as a permanent deacon for Motherwell Diocese and is also a hospitality teacher at Cardinal Newman High School.
Relic presentation
Following the Mass, Bishop Devine presented Isabelle Boyd, Cardinal Newman headteacher, and pupils Amy Lennox and Robert Meechan with a reliquary containing a lock of Blessed John Henry Newman’s hair, which will now take pride of place in the school oratory, which has been refurbished as part of this year’s Newman Week celebrations.
“The bishop blessed the relic and we are delighted to have it here in the school,” Ms Boyd told the SCO after the Mass. “The relic will be on display in the oratory and we will use it as part of our induction to new pupils when they join the school.”
It is thought that the lock of hair was presented to Bishop Devine’s predecessor, Bishop Francis Thomson in the 1980s, and the current Motherwell bishop decided that the most suitable new home for the first class relic of Blessed John Henry Newman, who was Beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in Birmingham last year, would be the Bellshill secondary school.
Newman week events
The night before the Patronal feast day Mass, the Newman Week events began in Belshill with the celebration of the school’s S1 Family Mass, when S1 pupils are welcomed into the school community.
“We had a fabulous family Mass on the Monday evening,” Ms Boyd said. In addition to Mass celebrations, the school hosted a talent contest and a very competitive teachers versus pupils football match before the Newman Week events closed with the school’s Newman Day events last Friday.
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