Our Parish

The parish of St Oscar Romero, Blackburn was created at the end of 2018 when the three former parishes of St Peter in Chains, St John Vianney and Our Lady and St John the Baptist (known as Pleasington Priory), ceased to exist as individual separate parishes and the three churches became incorporated into the new parish.

Mass times are as follows:

St Peter’s

Sunday 9am
Monday 10am

Tuesday  10am
Friday 10am in St Peter’s School during term time; in church when the school is unavailable.

Saturday Vigil Mass 6pm

Pleasington Priory

Sunday 10.30am
Wednesday 10am in St Paul’s School during term time; at The Priory when the school is unavailable.

St John Vianney – closed until further notice.

 

Pleasington Priory

The oldest of the parish’s places of worship , Pleasington Priory was opened in 1819 and so has a … [Read More...]

St John Vianney

St Peter in Chains

The history of St Peter’s parish goes back to 1875 when Fr Woods took on the task of opening a new … [Read More...]

Fr Shaun Braiden

Our Parish Patron – St Oscar Romero

‘Sentire cum Ecclesia  (Feel with the Church)’  – Motto of St Oscar Romero

This sculpture is by the British artist, Rory Young.

Oscar Romero (1917-1980) was made Archbishop of San Salvador in 1977.  This was a time of great political conflict within San Salvador, with electoral fraud, cover-ups and state-sanctioned violence rife. Romero began to speak out against the injustice inflicted on the poor and oppressed, and quickly became a target himself.  He built up an enormous following, broadcasting weekly radio programmes where, in addition to his sermon, he listed politically motivated deaths, tortures and disappearances.  He demanded justice and set up legal aid projects to support the victims of the violence. Aged 62, Oscar Romero was shot by a sniper as he celebrated mass.  He was declared a martyr and canonised in 2018.

Archbishop Oscar Romero was canonized in Rome on 14th October 2018 and so is one of the most recently created saints.

His martyrdom

On 23rd March 1980 in his homily Oscar Romero ordered the army to stop killing people. ‘In the name of God , and in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I beg you, I implore you, I order you, in the Name of God , stop the repression!’ The next day, he was shot while celebrating mass.

Listen to BBC World Service Podcast about Saint Oscar Romero. Listen

Our Parish Priest

Fr Shaun Braiden is our Parish Priest. He arrived in the summer of 2018 and has had the task of steering through the merger.