London, England, Jan 29, 2007 / 10:03 am
Pope Benedict XVI has done his part to encourage the Roman Catholic chaplaincy at one of Great Britain’s top universities. According to the Times of London, the Holy Father made an unprecedented personal donation of £2,000 (~$3,917 USD) to the Roman Catholic chaplaincy at the University of Cambridge, last week.
It is reported that the Pontiff, who himself was a university professor for many years, intended the donation to signal his “encouragement and support,” for the ministry program.
The Times reports that school’s Fisher House chaplaincy is staffed by two priests and a Dominican nun and is currently in the midst of a £2 million foundation appeal.
The Catholic academic community in Cambridge is dependent on the chaplaincy for its community life, and about 450 people attend Mass on Sundays.
The chaplaincy, in the center of one of England’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning reportedly has two choirs who sing in English and Latin and welcomes around eight converts into the Church each year. In recent years, there have been ten vocations to the priesthood coming out of Fisher House.
The chaplaincy receives no funds from the university and hardly any from the local dioceses.