Win a free trip to Rome in this exciting competition

All you have to do is:-

* Terminate the gay Soho Masses

* Instal the Ordinariate in one of London's most beautiful churches with links back to the Blessed John Henry, Cardinal Newman

and complete the following sentence in not more than twenty words:

"In future I shall uphold the teachings of Holy Mother Church and respond swiftly to abuses because..........................................................................................................................................

Well done Archbishop Nichols...now may we please have more Latin Masses in your Diocese?

The good Lord speaks out on behalf of the Vaughan!

The good and noble Lord Lexden has asked a question in the House and the answer confirms that the Cardinal Vaughan Parents' campaign to have autonomy over the selection of Foundation Governors has been outstandingly successful.

I know there will be rejoicing in the streets of West London tonight but I also know, having met a few of these good parents, that there will be no crowing, no punching the air with one's fists, well, maybe just once or twice.

Lord Lexden

You see, they are loyal to Holy Mother Church and it grieves them that they have been brought to this point; it should never have happened

Here is the report from Hansard:

Asked by Lord Lexden -

"To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect their proposed amendment to the School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2007 will be enacted".
[HL14404] 10 Jan 2012 : Column WA74


The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Hill of Oareford):

"We intend to make the amendment to the School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2007 in January 2012 and anticipate it will come into force in February 2012"
(This is the change in the regulations that will require trustees of VA schools to appoint at least two parents of pupils on the school roll as Foundation Governors, unless it proves impossible to do so.)

So that means, just to emphasize the point....by next month it will be enshrined in law!

That is worth a dozen Gaudetes and quite a few huzzahs!

Photo: Ex Lord Lexden's website

Now is the time for Archbishop Nichols to end this disgrace

The battle between the Vaughan parents (who wish to retain an element of  input into the School's governance) and Westminster Diocese (who wish to impose autocratic rule without the benefit of Parent Governor counsel) now moves into its second year. Surely those in authority at Westminster must see that the honourable way for them to act is for them to do the right thing and allow the Vaughan Parents to have a say in the running of this excellent school (as is the norm at most decent schools).

The Cardinal Vaughan Action Group has circulated a press release on behalf of Professor Luke Gormally (no connection with the Vaughan's previous Headteacher) together with correspondence from Professor Gormally and Lord Lexden to Archbishop Nichols.

You may read the release and letters here:-

PRESS RELEASE.....................

An internationally-renowned Catholic academic has issued a strong rebuke to the Archbishop of Westminster over his treatment of the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, where parents are involved in a bitter dispute with the Diocese of Westminster, trustees of the school.

Professor Luke Gormally’s comments come in a long and frank letter to Archbishop Vincent Nichols about the Vaughan School, one of the best performing comprehensives in the country.

The Professor, a distinguished bio-ethicist and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, takes the Archbishop to task for refusing to allow parents of pupils in the school to be foundation governors, for deliberately reducing parents to an ineffective minority on the governing body and for imposing his own Director of Education, Paul Barber, as a school governor.

He says that if the Diocese wanted to encourage Catholic schools to provide a sound Catholic education, it would be “fostering the Vaughan model in other parts of the Diocese”. Instead, he says, it has “dismantled the kind of governance under which the Vaughan has flourished”.

The letter comes as pressure mounts on Archbishop Nichols to bring an end to the protracted row between parents at the Vaughan and the Diocese over the composition of the school’s governing body before a new Head is appointed in the autumn. The row is the subject of a legal case brought by the elected parent governors against the Diocese. It was also raised in the House of Lords in June by the Conservative peer, Lord Lexden. In response to Lord Lexden’s comments, the Government has said it will change the law so that in future there will be no doubt about the Diocese’s obligation to appoint parents with children in the school as foundation governors. But parents point out that this will not happen in time for the appointment of a new Head.

Professor Gormally goes on to say that the way the Archbishop is exercising his authority at the Vaughan is not supported by Church law, and that it flies in the face of the Pope’s own “communio” ecclesiology.

He argues that diocesan–imposed policies are encouraging the admission of children whose parents have little serious interest in their Catholic formation, but merely want to cash in on the school’s academic excellence.  And he says that loyalty to a bishop does not mean accepting a totalitarian uniformity in all things touching Catholic life.

Professor Gormally ends his letter by asking the Archbishop to consider whether using his authority to enforce diocesan education policy at the Vaughan is “truly an authentic exercise of episcopal authority, or whether it is not rather a ‘quenching of the spirit’ both in the lives of a precious group of Catholic parents serious about transmitting the faith and in the life of the Cardinal Vaughan School itself”.

LETTER FROM PROFESSOR GORMALLY TO ARCHBISHOP VINCENT NICHOLS

18 June 2011

Dear Archbishop Nichols,

The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School

It is months since I wrote to you about the policy and actions of the Westminster Diocesan Education Service [WDES] in regard to the Vaughan School. You kindly replied, enclosing three documents, which you hoped I would be “good enough” to read. It has taken me some time to get round to giving them the attentive reading which I presumed they deserved. At the time your reply arrived I was preparing for a visit to the USA and since returning I have been fairly stretched editing a book-length manuscript for which I had a publisher’s deadline.

A careful reading of the documents Your Grace sent does not seem to provide the beginning of an answer to my earlier criticisms of WDES policy and actions in regard to the Vaughan School. To recall the essential points of criticism:

• Catholic parents who are serious about encouraging their children’s growth in the knowledge of the truths of the Faith and in its practice have few Catholic schools to which they can send their children with confidence. The Vaughan School has proved to be exemplary in meeting their need. I contrasted my own local Catholic comprehensive school in which the present head of RE is a non-Catholic, and her immediate predecessor was an atheist. It is that kind of school that requires the close attention of Mr Paul Barber if the WDES is to be regarded as serious about providing an authentic Catholic education for the children of the diocese and not just accumulating accolades from OFSTED.
• The exclusion of parents of current pupils from Governing Body positions which such parents have held in the past, and the deliberate reduction of parent Governors to an ineffective minority on the Governing Body, bids fair to destroy what was hitherto a key element in the success of the School: its close collaboration with parents which inspired great confidence in them and consequently in their children. The Vaughan Parents’ Action Group is not an unrepresentative body – it has very substantial support among parents. The recently reported refusal of the current Chairman of the Governing Body to meet them, allegedly on the orders of Bishop Stack, merely reinforces the message that parents are to be marginalised.

In response to these criticisms Your Grace sent me three documents:

1. Your own letter to parents of 8 December 2010.
2. Bishop Stack’s covering letter along with answers to ‘Some frequently asked questions’.
3. Bishop Hopes’ talk on ‘Catholic Ethos’ given to CVMS staff.

I’ll comment first on Bishop Hopes’ talk, evidently composed in consultation with the WDES, both because it is the most substantial document and because it seeks to make a principled case for the kind of exercise of episcopal authority experienced by the Vaughan School by reference both to Canon Law and to a ‘communio’ ecclesiology. What support for that case can be found in those sources?

If one looks at the sequence of canons on Catholic education (793 and following) what is striking is that the roles they expect civil society and ecclesiastical authority to play are subordinate to the fundamental requirement stated in the first canon, 793, §1:

Parents, and those who take their place, have both the obligation and the right to educate their children. Catholic parents have also the duty and the right to choose those means and institutes which, in their local circumstances, can best promote the Catholic education of their children.

Catholic parents who take that duty seriously are now excluded by Diocesan policy from exercising the right to at least seek admission to the Vaughan for their children. The combination of confined catchment area and minimalist criteria of Catholicity has the effect of facilitating admission to the School of children of parents with no serious interest in the Catholic formation of their children and merely a desire to take advantage of the academic excellence of the School. That is no way to value the importance for the life of the Church of parents who take seriously their responsibility to educate their children in the Faith. Does Canon Law validate the exercise of episcopal authority to impose WDES policy? It is certainly the case that Can.803, §1 states that “A Catholic school is to be understood to be one which is under the control of the competent ecclesiastical authority …” and Can.803, §3 states that “No school, even if it is in fact Catholic, may bear the title ‘Catholic school’ except by the consent of the competent ecclesiastical authority”. But what is the point of this control? The answer seems pretty clear from Canons 804-806: it is to ensure the authenticity of the teaching of the Faith and the reliability of the teachers entrusted with that task. The exercise of episcopal authority in this area, therefore, has as its validating purpose that of securing the right of Catholic parents to have access to an authentic Catholic education for their children. How can it be legitimate to exercise that authority by blocking access to a school which is relatively rare in providing such an education? Surely the attention of authority would be more appropriately directed to those schools which are conspicuously failing qua Catholic schools.

What case can be made for the current exercise of episcopal authority in relation to the Vaughan in terms of a ‘communio’ ecclesiology, for which communion with the diocesan bishop is an essential requirement of communion in the Church – a consideration which you invoke in your letter to parents, as if it required submission to the WDES policy? Well, communion with the diocesan bishop does not mean submission to a totalitarian uniformity in all things touching Catholic life. Episcopal authority is most properly exercised to ensure the authentic teaching of the Catholic faith and the authentic celebration of the sacraments, in particular the Eucharist; so it is needed, for example and most importantly, to suppress any sacrilegious celebrations of the Eucharist. The following observations of one of the outstanding theologians of a ‘communio’ ecclesiology seem to me very apposite in relation to the Vaughan situation:

Like the pope, the bishop and the bishops’ conference ought to impose in their sphere only as much human law as is truly needed above and beyond the sacred law rooted in the sacramental principle. They, too, must beware of reduction to uniformity in their work as pastors. They, too, must hold to the rules prescribed by St Paul: ‘Do not extinguish the Spirit … test everything, retain what is good’ (I Th 5:19, 21). They, too, must not pursue uniformity in their pastoral planning but must leave room for the doubtless often troublesome multiplicity of God’s gifts – always, of course, under the criterion of unity of faith. No more human forms ought to be added to this criterion than are required for peaceable living and harmonious co-existence. [Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Called to Communion. Understanding the Church Today (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1996), pp.100-101.]

God’s gift of the Vaughan School as it flourished in close collaboration with parents and parent Governors may not fit the prevailing ideology of the WDES; no plausible case has yet been made in terms of a ‘communio’ ecclesiology for the exercise of episcopal authority to impose dismantling of the kind of governance under which the Vaughan flourished. If the WDES had its sights set on encouraging Catholic schools to provide a sound Catholic education it would be fostering the Vaughan model in other parts of the diocese.

Your Grace’s assurances in your letter to parents of your confidence that the present Governing Body of the School is committed to maintaining its Catholic character and academic, musical and sporting excellence are bound to ring somewhat hollow for many of those parents. The transformation that has been wrought in the Governing Body has had the effect of marginalising what has been a central factor in the School’s past success: the collaboration of parents. Moreover, the selection of Foundation Governors has resulted in the election of a Chairman of Governors who already chairs the Governing Body of a school which manifestly fails to attract as a Catholic school. It also appears significant that, at one point, the new Governing Body declined to consider, among others, applicants from the present staff of the School for appointment as Headmaster. This looks like further evidence of the desire to destroy the ethos of the School, since those applicants would possess a valuable inwardness with its ethos and traditions.

I shall omit consideration of Bishop Stack’s letter and its attachment: they don’t begin to address in adequate terms the fundamental questions raised in this letter, which concern the proper exercise of the pastoral authority of a bishop. I beg Your Grace to consider whether the invocation of your authority to enforce what the WDES has done and is doing at the Vaughan truly is an authentic exercise of episcopal authority or whether it is not rather a ‘quenching of the Spirit’ both in the lives of a precious group of Catholic parents serious about transmitting the faith (God knows, such parents do not exist in vast numbers in the diocese) and in the life of the Cardinal Vaughan School.

With the renewed promise of my prayers for your ministry and with all good wishes,

Yours respectfully and sincerely,

Luke Gormally.

LETTER FROM LORD LEXDEN TO ARCHBISHOP VINCENT NICHOLS

(Transcribed)

 

4th August 2011


Your Grace

I am one of a very large number of people - Protestants as well as Catholics - who are deeply distressed by the crisis that has brought the Westminster Diocese into heart-rending conflict with so many parents and pupils at The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School. I am an Anglican and therefore have no family connections with the school, but I have long admired it for its remarkable achievements.

After reflecting carefully on the issues at the centre of this terrible crisis , I felt that I had to give my support to the Vaughan Parents' Action Group. I am now one of the Group's patrons.

In June, I spoke in the House of Lords about the need for action to safeguard the legitimate interests of parents with children at the school. Shortly afterwards, the Government made clear that it intended to amend the law.

The change will require those responsible for those appointing parents as Foundation Governors to choose them from among parents who have children at the school. Only if that is impossible for some reason will other parents be eligible for consideration.

The Diocese now has a great opportunity to heal the wounds inflicted during the protracted dispute. It could do this by anticipating what is to come and nominating two current parents as Foundation Governors immediately.

Even more effective in the healing process would be a declaration by the Diocese that, during the forthcoming selection procedures to find a new Head, its nominees will work to find a concensus that unites the Governing Body as a whole, ending this sad period of division and bitterness unworthy of a  Christian institution.

I hope you will be able to respond positively to these proposals which I intend to raise in Parliament in due course. In view of the widespread public interest in making rapid progress in the governance of this outstanding school, I  intend to release this letter to the press on 8 August. I am also sending a copy to the Secretary of State for Education.

(signed)

Alistair Lexden

What more can be said other than it is long overdue for Westminster to issue an apology and to agree to the parents' requests gracefully.

Failure to comply will only result in more scandal for the Church, disaffected Catholics throughout the country and a resounding defeat for the Archbishop. No one wants that; but they do want their legitimate rights.

You have ten seconds to choose between Heaven and Hell!

The clock is ticking and you HAVE to make a choice.....the right choice gets you to Heaven, the wrong one sends you to the other place.

Here are your options......get it right and you are made for (eternal life).......

Option 1.

Do you agree that Westminster Diocese was wrong to ban a Catholic lay organisation (Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice) from holding a guest speaker event on Westminster Diocesan premises?         

Option 2.

Do you agree that Westminster Diocese was wrong to allow an organisation for homosexuals (Quest) to hold a meeting on Westminster Diocesan premises?

Which option will you say "yes" to............................

I think I know.........see you all in Heaven!

H/T to Counter Cultural Father The Sensible Bond and to Catholic and Loving it

Vaughan goes on the attack with online petition

Lose its Catholic identity?
Not in my name!

There must be a certain air of satisfaction in the Vaughan Parents camp, not smug satisfaction but a modicum of relief and joy that the House of Lords has stepped in on their side (and against Archbishop Nichols and his team).

Maybe, even, a scent of blood, victory in the distance and a good Catholic School saved from mediocrity inflicted by the left. But that part is still in the distance and more help is needed, not just from Londoners but from those in Wigan, Kirkcaldy, Cork and even Milan and Chicago (got the point? wherever you are please help this good school stay true to its Catholic ethos).

   WHAT CAN YOU DO? - JUST SIGN THE PETITION (PLEASE)

Here it is - http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-cardinal-vaughan-memorial-school.html

Government blows a hole in Archbishop's plan for the Vaughan

Essex Peer
Lord Lexden

The House of Lords, thanks to a fairly new peer, Lord Lexden (Alistair Cooke as was) has come out in support of the Cardinal Vaughan Parents' Action Group and stated that it is the right of parents to appoint Foundation Governors, not the Diocese of Westminster.

Here is the full story from the Save the Vaughan website:

"We are delighted to announce that the Government has intervened to help us in our campaign to appoint current parents in the school as Foundation Governors.

 

We believe that the Catholic Diocese of Westminster has, in effect, gerrymandered the Governing Body by refusing to appoint parents of children in the school as Foundation Governors and filling it with placemen instead. We have always maintained this is against the law. One judge in the Court of Appeal strongly upheld our view, but the other two said the Diocese's interpretation that "parent foundation governors" in the regulations did not have to be Cardinal Vaughan parents, was lawful. Following this split decision, we asked for the government to intervene.   

 

Our request was backed in the House of Lords (June 14) by Lord Lexden, - a patron of the Cardinal Vaughan Parents' Action Group. He said clarification of the law was needed to protect parents' choice and rights. In his speech during the second reading of the Education Bill, Lord Lexden said this:

vigilance is needed in protecting choice and rights which parents have long enjoyed. I have recently drawn one specific cause of concern to the attention of my noble friend the Minister in my role as a patron of a campaign organised by parents of the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School in London. Parents with children at the school are being denied their proper role on its governing body by the Roman Catholic diocesan authorities. This is a case which has implications for all 4,000 voluntary-aided schools in England. The law needs to be clarified. I hope that, either in Committee or through some other means, the Government will be able to set out their view.

Now the education minister, Lord Hill, in a letter to Lord Lexden, says he intends to amend the school governance regulations The effect of this amendment will be to remove all doubt that the requirement on appointing bodies to include 'parents' as Foundation Governors means parents of children currently in the school, except where none is available to serve. A consultation period on the implementation of the amendment will begin at the start of the Autumn term.

The Diocese has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep Vaughan parents off the Governing Body and so shut them out from crucial decisions on the future of this outstanding school. The Archbishop and his advisers have shamelessly exploited an apparent loophole in the law. We don't understand why the Diocese has been at such pains to exclude us, but we believe that it has in mind changes to Cardinal Vaughan which no parent there would want.

We welcome Lord Hill's intervention as a breakthrough for parents’ rights. We would like to thank our patrons for their invaluable support and encouragement.

But our work is not over.

This development represents a very important step for our campaign. But the law will not come into effect straight away. 

For this reason we ask you now to appeal respectfully to Archbishop Nichols to appoint two current parent foundation governors immediately - before the appointment of a new Head in the Autumn. It is essential that everyone has confidence that the Governing Body is correctly constituted before it undertakes this most important task. Archbishop Nichols has the power to do this. He is clearly, in our view, morally obliged to do it. Please help us to make sure that he does it.

The Archbishop can be contacted by email at archbishop@rcdow.org.uk or by post at Archbishop’s House, Ambrosden Avenue, London SW1P 1QJ.

We would be interested to see copies of your letter and any replies you receive.

We will be posting more important news, in the next few days".

If the Archbishop wishes to salvage something out of this wreck he should quit now and back down gracefully; he would engender a deal of respect as a result.

Story also featured by Damian Thompson.

Vaughan parents treated to show of Westminster's management style?

The letter below speaks for itself. It refers to last Wednesday evening when the Vaughan Parents Action Group met again for a peaceful candlelit vigil at Cardinal Vaughan School.
Again, prayers were said and hymns sung and then Monsignor Curry put in an appearance:-

Damian Thompson and EF Pastor also have this covered.


THE LETTER FROM CVAG........

The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols
Archbishop’s House Ambrosden Avenue London SW1P 1QJ
archbishop@rcdow.org.uk
8 April 2011

Your Grace

We write to express our grave concern at the turn of events during last Wednesday night’s meeting of the Cardinal Vaughan Governing Body on 6th April 2011, witnessed by a large number of parents and pupils who had gathered in the School car park at the culmination of the Candlelit Vigil of prayer and hymn singing, held outside the School gates.
At the end of the Vigil, parents and pupils processed into the car park, and were gathered under the window of the library where the meeting was taking place. We have received a number of witness statements which describe what took place, but the salient facts are these:
• Mr Eynaud, the Acting Headmaster, was seen sitting at the desk in the Head’s office, directly below the library.
• Parents were singing ‘Faith of Our Fathers’; it was observed that someone closed the library windows, presumably to shut out the sound.
• Mgr Curry (identified by parishioners of Our Lady of Victories and Our Lady of Grace, although he was not wearing clerical attire) entered the Head’s office and approached Mr Eynaud; clearly very angry, he was gesticulating with his index finger very close to Mr Eynaud, even appearing to prod him in the chest.
• Mr Stubbings, the Deputy Headmaster, and Mr O’Donnell entered the room; at one point both Mgr Curry and Mr O’Donnell both appeared to be shouting at Mr Eynaud, while Mr Stubbings was trying to interpose himself between them.
• It appeared that no one in the room was aware of the large number of adults and children who were watching this scene with a sense of mounting shock and dismay. The hymn singing had ceased and a section of the group was demanding the removal of the Director of Education from the Board of Governors; at this, Mr Eynaud emerged into the car park. He asked that the gathering should disperse and appeared pale and very shaken. He spoke to parents and his words implied that he had been given the impression, by Mgr Curry’s words or behaviour, that his career was now ‘finished’.
• As the group was beginning to disperse, Mgr Curry, followed by Mr O’Donnell, moved towards the door opposite, leading into a corridor. At this, a number of parents began to shout comments such as, ‘Why won’t you come and talk to us?’ They both left the room, leaving Mr Eynaud and Mr Stubbings behind. As the shouting continued, one of the organisers announced that proceedings were at an end and asked everyone to leave. The car park was cleared within two minutes.
We believe that what occurred represents an irretrievable breakdown in the relationship that must exist between a Head and a member of the Governing Body. The Head had no responsibility for the presence of the parent group in the car park; no official notification had been given by the Governing Body that parents were barred from the School grounds (although a request that the Chairman of Governors should meet with parents in the School Hall before the Governors’ meeting had been refused). In any case, there can be no excuse for the bullying and intimidation to which Mr Eynaud was subjected.
Mgr Curry’s continued participation on the appointments panel for the new Head is obviously now out of the question. We believe that his membership of the Governing Body is also now untenable and we request that you replace him as your representative immediately. We also request that Mr Eynaud be given an immediate written apology.
Your Grace, a very large number of Cardinal Vaughan parents have written to you over recent months, asking a great number of questions; none has received a reply from you. On this occasion, we believe that a direct response from you is necessary.
We continue to hold your intentions in our prayers, and would ask you to pray for us as well.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs Anna Brown
Chairman of the Vaughan Parents’ Action Group
Patrons: Professor the Lord Alton, Professor Philip Booth, Professor David Crystal, Professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Patti Fordyce, Professor Luke Gormally, Michael Gormally, Lord Grantley, Paul Johnson, Edward Leigh MP, Lord Lexden, Colin Mawby, Charles Moore, Professor Judith Mossman, Cristina Odone, Professor Thomas Pink, Piers Paul Read, Dr John Martin Robinson, Anthony Speaight QC, Dr Ralph Townsend, Professor Mark Watson-Gandy, Ann Widdecombe

Still time for Archbishop Nichols to concede gracefully?

As the Cardinal Vaughan fight to retain the Catholic ethos and nature of the school rumbles on, even more big guns have signed up in support.
H/T Damian Thompson.



Lord Alton, joining the fight for the Vaughan

 The latest additions to the impressive list of patrons are Lord Alton of Liverpool, an ex teacher and a noted anti abortion campaigner and Dr Ralph Townsend, Headmaster of Winchester College and a leading Catholic.

Now is surely the time for the Archbishop to withdraw and face up to the fact that, even if Westminster Diocese wins the legal battle, the moral battle will have been won by the Vaughan Parents and Teachers. Fight the battles that you can win is a good maxim, never more appropriate than at this time.

Archbishop Nichols would not be diminished by a withdrawal; Catholics throughout England and Wales, would, I believe, give him credit for taking it on the chin.

Here is a full biographical list of those who are sticking up for the Catholic faith on the side of Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School - at present, one of the best in the UK.....

 The Patrons of the Vaughan Parents' Action Group are:

LORD ALTON 

He qualified as a teacher in 1972, working in socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods, teaching immigrant children and later children with special needs.  While still a student, aged 21, he was elected to Liverpool City Council and became its Housing Chairman and Deputy Leader.

Elected in 1979 to the House of Commons for a Liverpool constituency, as a Liberal, becoming the youngest member and achieving a record political swing.

He was his Party’s spokesman on Home Affairs, Northern Ireland, Overseas Development and the Environment, and served as Chief Whip, Chairman of the Party’s Policy Committee and President of the National League of Young Liberals.

In 1997 he stood down from the House of Commons, and from party politics, and was nominated by the Prime Minister, Sir John Major, to the House of Lords, where he sits as an Independent Life Peer, speaking regularly on human rights and religious liberty issues. 

Honours

Among the international awards he has received are the Michael Bell Memorial Award for Initiatives for Life, the Korean Mystery of Life Award, and the Advocates International Award for human rights work.  In 2005 he was created a Knight Commander of the Military Order of Constantine and St. George in recognition of his work for inter-faith and ecumenical dialogue. In 2008 Pope Benedict XVI created him a Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory in recognition of his work for human rights and religious liberty.

PROFESSOR DAVID CRYSTAL

Professor David Crystal is one of the world's leading experts on language and linguistics. Formerly Professor of Linguistics at Reading University, he is now Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor, and President of the National Literacy Association. He was educated at St Mary's College, Crosby and University College, London. He has written more than 40 books including The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, The St John Gospel and Begat: The King James Bible and the English Language, and numerous articles on the language of liturgy.

PROFESSOR FELIPE FERNANDEZ-ARMESTO

Professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto joined the history department of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana in 2009. This is one of the leading Catholic universities in the USA and is one of the oldest, having been founded by the Congregation of the Holy Cross in 1844. Professor Fernandez-Armesto teaches at its London Centre. Previously he occupied chairs at Tufts University and London University (Queen Mary's College) and before that was an Oxford don. He has had visiting appointments at many universities and research institutes in Europe and the Americas, and has honorary doctorates from La Trobe University and the Universidad de los Andes. His latest book 1492: The Year Our World Began has just been issued in paperback.

PATTI FORDYCE

Mrs Fordyce is a former Chairman of the Governing Body of Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School. She is an author of a chapter on St Margaret Ward in English Catholic Heroines and is a former Wimbledon doubles finalist.

PROFESSOR LUKE GORMALLY

Professor Luke Gormally is the former Director and Senior Research Fellow of the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics, described by Bishop Anthony Fisher O.P. as "not just the premier Christian bioethics institute in Britain but one of the finest in the world, Christian or secular". It was recently renamed the Anscombe Bioethics Centre after the famous philosopher and Catholic convert, Professor Elizabeth Anscombe (Professor Gormally's late mother-in-law). From 2001-06 Professor Gormally was also Research Professor at Ave Maria School of Law, Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and a Knight of the Order of St Gregory the Great.

MICHAEL GORMALLY

Mr Gormally is the highly respected former Headmaster of Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School. The Secretary of State for Education, the Right Honourable Michael Gove MP, recently described Mr Gormally as being one "of the most conspicuously inspiring leaders in the field" of Catholic education.

LORD GRANTLEY

Lord Grantley brings a wealth of campaigning experience to the VPAG. He is a former councillor for the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, and was a member of the House of Lords from 1995-99. He is a Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and a Director of the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth. Born in 1956 and educated at Ampleforth and Oxford, Lord Grantley spent most of his professional life as a banker, retiring in 2005. He was a patron of Save Sloane Square, which in 2007 won an historic victory to prevent the Council from turning the square into a crossroads. Lord Grantley comes to us not as a parent or indeed with any involvement in the School, but as a supporter of Catholic causes who believes that the VPAG’s campaign is crucial to the future of Catholic education in England and Wales.

PAUL JOHNSON

Born in Staffordshire in 1928, Paul Johnson was editor of the New Statesman in the 1960s and has written around 50 books including A History of Christianity (Weidenfeld and Nicholson 1976), A History of the Jews (Weidenfeld and Nicholson 1987), Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Restoration (St Martin's Press 1982), The Papacy (Weidenfeld and Nicholson 1997). Mr Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush in 2006. Three of his ten grandchildren have been or are pupils at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School.

EDWARD LEIGH MP

Edward Leigh was born in 1950. He was educated at St. Philips School, London, the Oratory School, Berkshire, the French Lycee in London. He studied History at Durham University and was president of the Union Society. He is the younger son of Sir Neville Leigh K.C.V.O., former clerk to the Privy Council. He is married with three daughters and three sons. Mr Leigh is a barrister and a member of the Inner Temple, practising for Goldsmiths Chambers in arbitration and criminal law. Mr Leigh was a member of the Richmond Borough Council and then the greater London Council from 1974 until 1981. He was elected as a Member of Parliament for Gainsborough & Horncastle in the July 1983 General Election. In May 1997 he was elected Member of Parliament for the new Seat of Gainsborough, with a majority of 6,826. This rose to 8,071 in 2001. In 2005 his majority remained almost unchanged, at 8,003. In the most recent General Election of 2010 Edward's majority increased to 10,559. He was a member of the Social Security Select Committee and Joint Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee. Between 2001 and 2010 he was Chairman of the influential Public Accounts Committee - a role he relinquished after serving the maximum term. Mr Leigh's website can be found here http://www.edwardleigh.org.uk/

LORD LEXDEN

Lord Lexden is the title taken by Alistair Cooke, who was appointed a Conservative working peer in November 2010. He is a political historian who spent most of his career in the central organisation of the Conservative Party. A graduate of, Cambridge, he taught and researched modern British and Irish history at Queen's University, Belfast, before becoming political adviser to Airey Neave, Conservative Spokesman on Northern Ireland (1977- 1979). He was Assistant and then Deputy, Director of the Conservative Research Department from 1983 - 1987and Director of the Conservative Political Centre, the Party's educational wing from 1988-1997. He was General Secretary of the Independent Schools Council from 1997-2004 and consultant to the Conservative Research Department from 2004-2010. He has been the Conservative Party's official historian since 2009. His many other roles include President of the Northern Ireland Schools' Debating Competition. Lord Lexden's letters, usually on historical subjects, appear frequently in the national press. He has just had his 100th letter published in The Times and he holds what the Daily Telegraph believes to be the record for one person of 160 letters from one person published in that newspaper!

COLIN MAWBY

Colin Mawby is a distinguished English composer, organist and choral conductor.

He attended Westminster Cathedral Choir School, where he acted as assistant to George Malcolm at the organ from the age of 12. He subsequently studied at the Royal  College of Music and became Master of the Music at Westminster Cathedral in 1961.  In 1976 he moved to Dublin to become choral director at  Radio Telefis Eireann and was later artistic director of the  National Chamber Choir of Ireland.  He founded the  RTE Philharmonic Choir in 1985.    He retired in 2001.

Colin Mawby is a prolific composer of music for the English Catholic liturgy, including 30 Masses; among his best known compositions are an Ave Verum Corpus for choir and a setting of Psalm 23 which won fame in the recording by Charlotte Church.

He has a long association with Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School; he composed a piece for the ordination of former Headmaster Fr. Anthony Pellegrini, and the Schola has sung many of his compositions around the world, including his Exsultate Deo which features on a Schola CD recording.

CHARLES MOORE

Charles Moore is a journalist and author. He was born in 1956 and educated at Eton, and Trinity College, Cambridge where he read History. He is a convert to Catholicism. He has been editor of The Spectator (1984-90), the Sunday Telegraph (1992-95) and The Daily Telegraph (1995-2003). He resigned from the last post to spend more time writing Margaret Thatcher's authorised biography, which will be published after her death. As well as writing the biography, he currently writes weeky columns in both The Daily Telegraph and The Specator and is Consulting Editor of the Telegraph Group. He is the chairman of the think tank, Policy Exchange and of the Rectory Society. He was a member of the Council of Benenden School from 2000-20009. Publications (with A.N. Wilson and G. Stamp): The Church in Crisis, 1986; co-editor: of A Tory Seer: the selected journalism of T.E. Utley, 1989.

PROFESSOR JUDITH MOSSMAN

Judith Mossman is Professor of Classics at the University of Nottingham, and was formerly a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. She was educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Woldingham, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and was a governor of Woldingham School from 1990-93. She is the author of two books and a number of edited volumes and articles on Euripides and Plutarch, and frequently gives talks on classical subjects to schools and summer schools. From 2005-9 she was Chair of the Joint Association of Classical Teachers (JACT) Classical Civilisation Committee.

CRISTINA ODONE

Cristina Odone is an Italian-American Catholic author, journalist and broadcaster. Born in 1960 and educated at various schools and Oxford University, she was editor of the Catholic Herald from 1992-1996, deputy editor of The New Statesman from 1998-2004, and for six years, wrote a column for The Observer. She has written for The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph and The Spectator. She was a regular contributor to Thought for the Day from 1995-2003, and in 2005, made a Dispatches programme for Channel 4 on "Women Bishops". She broadcasts widely, including for Question Time, the Today programme, Channel 4 News, Woman's Hour and the Jeremy Vine show and she has a regular blog at The Daily Telegraph. She is a research fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies, for whom she has written a number of pamphlets, including one on faith schools, In Bad Faith (2008) and Assisted suicide: how the chattering classes got it wrong (2010). She has also written four novels.

PROFESSOR THOMAS PINK

Professor Thomas Pink is Professor of Philosophy at King's College, London. After reading history and philosophy at Cambridge, where he obtained a PhD, and working for four years in London and New York for a City merchant bank, he returned to philosophy in 1990 as a Research Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge. He then lectured at Sheffield University prior to moving to King's in 1996. He is the author of Free Will: A Very Short Introduction, and other works, and an editor of London Studies in the History of Philosophy.

PIERS PAUL READ

Piers Paul Read is a novelist and playwright, born in 1941, was educated at Ampleforth College and St John's College, Cambridge. He was Artist in Residence at the Ford Foundation in Berlin (1963-4), Harkness Fellow, Commonwealth Fund, New York (1967-8), a member of the Council of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (1971-5), a member of the Literature Panel at the Arts Council, (1975-7), and Adjunct Professor of Writing, Columbia University, New York (1980). From 1992-7 he was Chairman of the Catholic Writers' Guild. Many of his books have a powerful Catholic theme. His novels and non-fiction books have won a number of awards and several have been filmed for cinema and television. He has lived in London for many years and his two sons attended Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School. Those who know something of the history of the School may remember the events in the mid 1980s when the Diocese made appointments to the Governing Body and then tried to remove the School's sixth form. Piers Paul Read was one of the leading members of the Vaughan Parents' Action Group formed at that time to fight to keep the sixth form. The present VPAG draw much comfort and hope from the fact that Piers Paul Read and his fellow parents and friends won that fight.

DR JOHN MARTIN ROBINSON

Dr John Martin Robinson is a writer and one of Britain's foremost architectural historians. He was educated at the Benedictine school of Fort Augustus and at Oriel College, Oxford where he obtained a D.Phil. He is the biographer of Cardinal Consalvi (the Vatican's representative at the Congress of Vienna) and author of The Dukes of Norfolk: A Quincentennial History, Treasures of the English Churches and of the official guide books to Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. He is Maltravers Herald Extraordinary, one of Her Majesty's Officers of Arms, and Librarian to the Duke of Norfolk. He is Vice-Chairman of the Georgian Group and a trustee of the Lakelands Arts Trust. He serves on the architectural advisory committee of some of our most important Catholic churches.

ANTHONY SPEAIGHT QC

Anthony Speaight is a senior barrister and a Bencher of the Middle Temple. He is a commercial practitioner specialising in technology and construction law. He was educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing and Lincoln College, Oxford. He has served as a member of the Bar Council, and as Chairman of the Access to the Bar Committee and of the editorial board of Counsel, the journal of the Bar of England and Wales. He is author of The Law of Defective Premises and editor of the Architect's Legal Handbook. He is a Freeman of the City of London and has received the Robert Schuman silver medal from the FVS Foundation of Germany.

DR RALPH TOWNSEND

Dr Ralph Townsend is the Headmaster of Winchester College. A Catholic, he was educated in Australia and at Keble College, Oxford. In his early career at Oxford, where he taught in the Theology Faculty, he was Senior Scholar at Keble, Dean of Degrees at Lincoln College and Warden of St Gregory's House. He became successively Head of English at Eton, Headmaster of Sydney Grammar School and Headmaster of Oundle. He has written books on Christian spirituality and numerous articles for the Dictionnaire de Spiritualite, the reference book published under the responsibility of the Jesuits. He is an Adviser to the National College of Music in London and a Trustee of the United Church Schools Trust.

PROFESSOR MARK WATSON-GANDY

Professor Mark Watson-Gandy is a barrister specialising in insolvency and company law. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Westminster and a Visiting Lecturer at Cass Business School (City University). Dual qualified as an accountant, he is the author of "Watson-Gandy on Accountants" and other works, and is Head of Professional Standards for the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. He is a Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George, and in 2008 was made a Knight of the Order of St Gregory the Great by His Holiness Pope Benedict in recognition of "his work as a barrister and law professor for the Catholic Church".

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