Please Pray for a Catholic Family in Distress

The Rosary is a powerful intercessory prayer

As I said earlier, our Bishops have told us to fast today for Cafod, on this day, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary commemorating the victory for Christendom secured at the famous Battle of Lepanto.

I know a Catholic family who would appreciate your prayers and the Rosary is, as today commemorates, a powerful method of intercessory prayer.

I recently assisted an African Catholic man move his family's belongings from their home at Shoreham Beach into storage. He and his family attend St Peter's Catholic Church in Shoreham. 

His wife is heavily pregnant with their second child.  Even though the man earns relatively well, as a chauffeur in London for some really rather famous people, he is bed bound in hospital following serious surgery to remove a gall stone which was, it turned out, endangering his very life, because of its proximity to his liver. He is now convalescing but is unable to look for new accommodation while his wife is heavily pregnant and looks after their other child.

His wife and child are in temporary accommodation in Worthing.  The accommodation is clean, but it is in no way suitable for a family soon to be 4, in one room, especially given that she is very soon to give birth to the new baby.  Obviously, what with being temporary accommodation, the owners of the place are fleecing the Council for £176 a week to house the family in one room. Outragous! It is so obvious these 'Bed and Breakfasts' that are used as temporary accommodation are just cashing in and taking advantage of those who have fallen on hard times, often through no fault of their own! They get beds, no breakfast and even have to clean the room themselves!

I fear that the family are victims of a strand of racism which is still to be found in the Worthing, Shoreham, Littlehampton region of Britain.  The father had already signed an agreement with a local Shoreham lettings agent for renting a new property, since the landlord wished to sell the property where they had been living for years in peace. The only problem was that on the very night before they were to move to the new property, the rental agreement for which he had secured, the landlord of the place to where they were moving suddenly backed out for no apparent reason. The father was totally distressed, as was the mother, and they were forced to go to London to stay with family and friends, their lives suddenly up in the air.

I agreed with the father to look for a property to rent in the region and so I did on rightmove.co.uk. He went and looked at a property in Lancing and over the phone had agreed some terms with the lettings agent and then suddenly, once more, the landlord backed out and the rug was pulled from underneath the family. I hear that this happens when people buy houses - as house buyers and sellers agreements are prone to suddenly "fall through", but I haven't heard of it in the renting arena. Now, he lays in a hospital bed incapacitated, even though his wife is about to give birth to their second child. He is also in a lot of pain following the operation.

I cannot personally look for accommodation for the family because the father is still in hospital and obviously he needs to be up and about to look at the property and deal with agents. I must say though, that I do have a bad taste in my mouth concerning their two experiences of suddenly being rejected by landlords for no apparent reason. Could it be that African families are not welcome in this part of the South East? I, for one, wouldn't rule it out.  Along this part of the South Coast, it is amazing how many union jacks you see popping up over the roofs of houses - I know the national flag shouldn't mean, "This is a house of small-minded racists" but invariably it seems to. Just look, for instance, at Buckingham Palace...

So say a prayer for this Catholic family, since prayer can move mountains, while often we are unable, even through circumstance, to lift a finger.