Not about Covid!

» Video presentations still loom large in the community's life. On 24 May the community watched the recording of a meeting of the religious superiors of England and Wales, chaired by Fr David Smolira SJ, on the imminent changes to safegarding for religious, including the creation of the Religious Life Safeguarding Service. On 29 May members of several EBC houses joined a Zoom presenation by the Downside community explaining the processes and context of their decision to move.

» The real now rivals virtual reality. Fr Dominic White OP of Blackfriars, Cambridge, stayed a few days during the week to consult the Dominicans' archives on David Jones, one of the Ditchling artists. His coming was ba;anced by a departure; Fr Terence Richardson of Ampleforth, who had been staying with the community for some time, bade us farewell on 27 May as he headed off to a new appointment with the Ampleforth missionary brethren resident in Zimbabwe. His calm, observant and helfpul presence will be missed at Douai.

» The abbot attended a committee meeting of the Douai Foundation during the week, its business largely taken up with planning the Gala at the London Savoy in October.