DECREE CONCERNING THE MERGER OF THE PARISHES of OUR LADY OF LOURDES and St VINCENT DE PAUL (Harrow Road) & OUR LADY OF SORROWS (Paddington)
Following consultation with the Council of Priests in accordance with Canon 515 §2, and conscious of the views expressed by the priests of the local Deanery and the lay faithful of the above named parishes, I, Vincent Cardinal Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, have determined that the spiritual welfare and pastoral needs of the faithful of the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Vincent De Paul (Harrow Road) and of the faithful of the parish of Our Lady of Sorrows (Paddington) will be better served by merging these two parishes into one new parish.
Therefore, I hereby decree that the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Vincent De Paul and the parish of Our Lady of Sorrows are united to form a new parish. The ecclesiastical goods and patrimonial rights of the former parish of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Vincent De Paul and of the former parish of Lady of Sorrows, together with their respective obligations, in accordance with Canons 121-122, are ceded to the newly erected parish.
The name of the new parish shall be ‘Paddington North with the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Vincent De Paul and the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows’. The territorial boundaries of the new parish shall be the combined boundaries of the former parish of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Vincent De Paul and the former parish of Our Lady of Sorrows.
As both the Churches of the former parish of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Vincent De Paul and of the former parish of Our Lady of Sorrows will remain open and will serve as Churches of the new parish, separate sacramental registers will continue to be kept.
In accordance with Canon 524, I appoint Reverend Michael Jarmulowicz as the parish priest of the new parish of ‘Paddington North with the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Vincent De Paul and the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows’.
This Decree shall be effective from 1 January 2025 and shall be communicated to the parishioners of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Vincent De Paul and of Our Lady of Sorrows’ at the earliest opportunity. The decree shall be published on the diocesan website.
Given this 28th day of November 2024.
Cardinal Vincent Gerard Nichols
Archbishop of Westminster
