THE MARTYRS OF ENGLAND AND WALES

With the advent of Elizabeth I to the throne in 1558 the plight of the ordinary man-in-the-street, Catholic, worsened. The new religion was imposed on the land by a series of Acts of Parliament and the Old Faith made well nigh impossible by a system of heavy fines. In 1570 the very existence of a Catholic Priest on English soil was by Law declared to be high treason and punishable by death

The sculpture of The Martyrs at Dorchester by Dame Elisabeth Frink was erected in 1986 at the cross roads of Icen Way and South Walks, Dorchester. The three figures and the stainless steel plaque commemorate those who kept the Faith alive despite harsh laws and the pursuivants such as Richard Topcliffe who zealously roamed the country seeking out priests and suborning those who would be prepared to betray them.

Locally, Blessed John Cornelius was taken prisoner at Chideock with three laymen and put to death in Dorchester in 1594. Also commemorated are the names of many other men and women, priests and laity executed at this spot including that of Saint Alexander Briant, executed at Tyburn in 1581.

The Names of the Martyrs, and the years in which they were executed, died or sentenced are inscribed on the plaque at South Walks Dorchester.

Alexander Briant and John Cornelius were Jesuits.

Of these, Fr Pilcher, Fr Cornelius, Fr Green, William Pike, Thomas Bosgrave, John Carey, Patrick Salmon and - Morecock were hanged, drawn and quartered here; Fr Warmington was banished and John Jessop and Helen Tremain died in Dorchester gaol. The others commemorated on this plaque were executed at Tyburn or Salisbury.

Alexander Briant was executed at Tyburn on 1 December 1581 alongside fellow Jesuit Edmund Campion. Eustace White followed them to Tyburn just over 10 years later on 10 December 1591. All three were canonised by Paul VI in 1970.

At the foot of the plaque is a poem by Saint Robert Southwell executed at Tyburn in 1595.

Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live;

Not where I love, but where I am, I die;

The life I wish, must future glory give,

The deaths I feele in present daungers lye

Omnes Sancti Martyres, orate pro nobis!

THE CHURCH OF ST JOSEPH

		St Joseph’s Entrance
		Click the buttons to cycle through pictures of our Church

Address and Map to St Joseph’s Church
	1 Stavordale Road, Weymouth DT4 0AB

OUR HISTORIC CHURCHES

By 1979, as a result of the unremitting zeal of Priests and Parishioners, there were no less than 7 Catholic Churches in Weymouth and Portland. However within these last 33 years, Churches have had to be closed one by one. Shortage of priests has been one reason but another is that with better transport and with parishioners being more mobile, there is not the same need to have a Church in every locality. Our many churches carry with them a rich history and this can be accessed via the 'History' button on the left hand side of this page.

The latest Church to close – 8th September 2012 – is St Augustine’s. This had originally opened for worship on 22nd October 1835 and was the first Catholic Church to be established in this area since the Reformation.

St Joseph’s Church, dedicated on 19th March 1934, is now the Parish Church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea. Over the past months, it has been refurbished and extended to accommodate worshippers from the original parishes. There is a completely new parish hall. To see the various features of the refurbished Church, please click on the small arrows to the right and left of the picture above.

Photographs of St Augustine’s Church and a short description can be found by clicking this link.

Similar pages will be prepared for the Church of Our Lady and St Andrew, Portland and the other Churches in the area as information emerges.

PRAYER FOR OUR NATION

Almighty God and Father, we come before You as Your children to implore Your divine assistance and intercession at this time, when our nation is moving further and further away from You and Your teachings. Its various governments are pursuing a secular agenda, enacting laws that are contrary to Your divine law and to Your law of nature, laws that would further marginalise Your Church and Your people.

Father, strengthen our faith and our willingness to be seen and counted as Your witnesses at this time. Help us to do all that we can to oppose existing and proposed legislation offensive to Your Holy Name

We ask this through Your beloved Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ

Prayer courtesy of Rev Fr Stephen Geddes, Parish Priest

Our Parishes are part of the Plymouth Diocesan Trust – a Registered Charity No 213227
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Writing to a Peer in the House of Lords

There are currently 778 peers in the House of Lords. They do not have constituencies like MPs do, and you can write to any peer or several peers. Choose as you wish. (Some people choose a peer whose surname has the same initial letter as their own).

If you have MS Excel on your machine, the list of Peers and their political affiliations is given in this link. This also includes an application for randomising a choice of up to six Lords should you so wish to use it.

If you do not have access to MS Excel or are unfamiliar with its use, you can download this pdf list of all the members and make the choices yourself. Click here to do so

Advice on how to write to a peer is given in this link. Note that there are different types of peer and each has a different mode of address.

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Problems with using Internet Explorer 10 (IE10)? — Switch to ‘Compatibility View’

The most recent version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser, Internet Explorer 10, comes bundled with Windows 8. IE10 is also being automatically updated on some Windows 7 machines.

It can happen that this automatic download onto the Windows 7 machine may be incomplete. In such cases, some Web sites may not yet work correctly in Internet Explorer 10, including the Secure Remote Access service.

But you can still use these Web sites in Internet Explorer 10 by turning on Compatibility View.The easiest way to do this is as follows:

Press the ‘Alt’ key on your keyboard. (It is usually found to the left of the space bar). This reveals the IE toolbar at the top of the screen, with File, Edit, View, Favorites, Tools, Help

Click Tools. This reveals a drop down list; from this find and click the option Compatibility View Settings. This opens a small window. There are three checkboxes at the bottom of this window.

Click the checkbox for the option Display all web-sites in compatibility view is checked. Ensure that it is properly checked (ticked)

Close the window. Press function key F5 to refresh the screen. This should solve the problem

Other solutions can be found on the ‘Microsoft answers’ page Set Desktop IE10 to Always Use Compatibility View

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