Past News

This summer’s pilgrimages have been plagued by bad weather: the persistent rains clinging to the Pyrenean foothills at Lourdes, the electric storm breaking over the all night vigil in Madrid at World Youth Day, and the tail-end of Hurricane Katia which struck British shores just as 23 intrepid young people set off on the Big [...]

Fanning the Spirit into a Flame
 On Saturday 24 March, eight thousand young Catholics gathered at Wembley Arena for the Flame Congress, an amazing national event organized by CYMfed. The idea was to build upon the wonderful success of the Pope’s Vigil with young people at Hyde Park in September 2010 and to link the day [...]

This past summer a group of 90 young people from across the diocese participated in the diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes. Despite the lousy weather, the pilgrimage was a wonderful opportunity to be together and make new friends, experience our faith in a new and refreshing way and there can be no doubt that the young [...]

At Castlerigg this Pentecost we are welcoming anyone who is preparing for or who has just received the sacrament of Confirmation. Already we have a few parish groups booked in for the weekend retreat. The weekend will be an opportunity to work with our young team of volunteers and others around the Diocese to help the [...]

Damian Horton came on the family weekend retreat and Castlerigg and has written up this report:
In this hectic world we now live in, let’s be thankful that there is a place where you can escape, at least for 48 hours, and contemplate on the real things in life. There are not many places where as [...]

1 April Black Combe
Today it was Palm Sunday. Gathering a record crowd of 16 young people, we headed for Swinside Fell and Black Combe, via a very inviting tea shop in Broughton-in-Furness. I am not sure how much walking actually happened on this occasion, but certainly everyone enjoyed seeing each other, and it must have [...]

What an amazing few days: ‘Glastonbury with God’, one newspaper columnist dubbed it! Lancaster Diocese took eighty young people down to London to the Youth Event in the piazza of Westminster Cathedral where two of our group were privileged enough to stand alongside Pope Benedict (Tomas Walsh from Cleveleys and Shaun Morgan from Preston). After [...]