by Neil Sayer, Archdiocesan Archivist

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Catholic students off to study at one of Liverpool’s universities this month might like to reach out to the Catholic Chaplaincy based at St Philip Neri Church on Catharine Street. 

It offers opportunities for personal and spiritual development alongside the academic achievements they’ll all be hoping for. And it has a venerable history, dating back to the establishment of the University of Liverpool’s Catholic Society (CathSoc) in 1913.

The university was still young, and the site of the Metropolitan Cathedral was still a workhouse, when CathSoc held its first meeting in the Students’ Union building on 25 June 1913. The Jesuit Father Charles Plater came from Stonyhurst College to deliver what was described as “a stirring address to an enthusiastic audience” of about 30 people. The meeting determined that the aims of the society should be both theoretical and practical, discussing the teachings of the Catholic Church and encouraging members to undertake charitable and social work. In the following year, that practical assistance included raising funds for the aid of local Belgian refugees in the first months of the Great War. Its members were key figures in the establishment of other societies throughout the archdiocese, and by the time it celebrated its 21st birthday in 1934, Archbishop Downey noted that “We regard the Society as of prime importance because its members eventually are to become men and women of light and leading, with the power and responsibility of influencing others.”

At that time, CathSoc relied on willing priests from local parishes to provide pastoral care and offer a monthly Mass at various rooms in the university or archdiocesan offices, looking forward “to the great day of a resident chaplain, a privilege enjoyed by some of the other universities.” This great day finally came in 1941, when the Graduate Section of CathSoc bought premises at Bedford Street North and the Liverpool University Catholic Chaplaincy was established with the appointment of Father Joseph Ryland-Whitaker SJ as the first full-time chaplain. 

The rapid expansion of the university in the 1960s coincided with the building of the new Cathedral designed by Frederick Gibberd. It also saw the demolition of the Chaplaincy on Bedford Street North. Although not part of the original architect’s brief, a new Catholic Chaplaincy was also designed by Gibberd and was officially opened on 24 April 1965, two years before the Cathedral was completed. In 1971, Rev Vincent Malone was appointed chaplain, and in 1976 he calculated the numbers of students and staff to be 13,000. “Of this grand total”, he said, “some 2,500 may be estimated to be Catholics.” Fr Malone made pastoral visits to the university’s halls of residence and offered a weekly Mass there, as well as the daily weekday celebration of Mass in the chaplaincy. A “cheap lunch” also attracted many students into “a fairly regular company which is warm and open.” Volunteers were always welcome for the washing up: “Unglamorous, but very necessary.” Fr Malone’s flair for pastoral care can be seen in the friendships he forged and maintained up to his death in 2020, attending and officiating at many weddings and christenings as his students graduated and moved elsewhere. 

The chaplaincy was then offering a St Vincent de Paul Society to visit “old and lonely people in the city”, as well as groups to help out in local schools and youth clubs. It seems there was a lively social scene too: not only was there a “Charlie Brown Group” offering chat and reflections on life, and a football team composed of “Enthusiastic amateurs who usually manage to win a few friendlies for the chaplaincy on Sunday afternoons”, but ceilidhs and discos were regularly held in the chaplaincy, and visits to tourist spots like Haworth and weekend retreats in Wales were always popular and well-attended.

The chaplaincy moved to St Philip Neri in 2002 and now serves the Liverpool John Moores University and Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts as well as the University of Liverpool. It still offers trips and retreats and has a busy schedule of visiting speakers and social events. Faith development and moral support are at the heart of its mission “to create an oasis of faith, and a home away from home, for students at the universities - whether Catholic or just interested in our faith and community.” We trust that today’s students, like those in 1934, “are still eager to seek wisdom and love truth even as in the early days.”