Congratulations to Archbishop Vincent of Westminster, now Cardinal Nichols of the Holy Roman Church. In his service of the Universal Church, and of the Petrine ministry of the Holy Father as Bishop of Rome, he is already a member of the Congregation for Bishops and of the Eastern Catholic Churches. He has been assigned the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer and St Alphonsus on the Esquiline, appropriately for a British Christian neo-Gothic building designed by a Scottish architect. As Cardinal Protector of this “Titular Church”, he has title (i.e. entitlement) to represent it as its parish priest when the clergy of the diocese of Rome elect their bishop. Thus the universal Church is always manifested in the local and it is the local Roman Church (and this is no mere technicality) that selects the Bishop of Rome who, as successor of St Peter, is also archbishop of the Roman province, primate of Italy, first among the patriarchs of the other Churches, “presiding in love”, and pastor of the universal Church, serving its unity and its faithfulness to the “Orthodox and Catholic faith” (as it says in the Roman Canon of the Mass).
The Church, which is cared for by the Redemptorists (founded by St Alphonsus), is home to the fifteenth (possibly 14th) century Cretan-Byzantine Icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour (also know as the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Perpetual Help), devotion to which they have propagated throughout the Western Latin Church at the urging of Pope Pius IX. The image has been venerated on or near the same site since 1499. It is one of the few instances of an Icon at the centre of popular devotion in the contemporary Latin tradition. The Society is particularly proud that our President is now the Protector of this Icon, and that she thus serves as heavenly protector of his concern for the Eastern Catholic Churches and for the unity of East and West, Catholic and Orthodox.
The Church of St Alphonsus – from Wikipedia:
The Church of St. Alphonsus Liguori (Chiesa di Sant’Alfonso di Liguori all’Esquilino in Italian) is a church located on the Via Merulana on the Esquiline Hill of Rome, Italy. It is dedicated to St. Alphonsus Liguori, the founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, who founded and staff the church, and is one of the thirty-three Doctors of the Church.
The church is one of the rare examples of neo-Gothic architecture in Rome. It is one of the last papal churches of Rome, although the Redemptorists have possession of the church and its related complex.
It was built between 1855 and 1859, designed by the Scottish architect George Wigley. The facade is of brick and travertine and features three doors. In the central tympanum of the door there is a polychrome mosaic depicting Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The facade is further embellished by a rose window.
The interior decorations, rich with marble, date from the end of the nineteenth century, and are by the Bavarian painter and Redemptorist Max Schmalzl (1850-1930). The apse is crowned by a mosaic, put in place in 1964, depicting the Redeemer enthroned between the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. Below the mosaic hangs the original icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which was produced in Crete in the 14th century and given to the Redemptorists by Pope Pius IX in 1866.
Blessed John XXIII named St. Alphonsus a Cardinal Titular Church on 30 December 1960 as SS. Redentore e S. Alfonso in Via Merulana (Most Holy Redeemer and St. Alphonsus on Via Merulana). The following cardinals have served as Cardinal Protectors:
Joseph Elmer Ritter, (1961-1967)- José Clemente Maurer, C.Ss.R. (1967-1990)
- Anthony Joseph Bevilacqua, (1991-2012)
- Vincent Nichols, 2014-present
And who should also be at Pope Francis’ Consistory at which Cardinal Nichols was admitted to the College of Cardinals, but Pope Emeritus Benedict?