Welcome to the Sacred Heart Church

Mass Times

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Weekdays

at 6:00 p.m.

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Saturday Evening

at 6:00 p.m.

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Sunday Morning

at 10:00 a.m. 

and

11:30 a.m.

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Holydays of Obligation

10:00 a.m.

and

7:00 p.m.

All other Services are announced in our weekly newsletter and on our website.

Born in Lodroman village on 14th May 1899, Rumania, from his fathers Petru and Agafia, Aftenie began his primary studies in his native village and high school courses at Blaj.

In 1917 he was drafted by the Army and was in Galicia and Italy at the front. After the end of the war in 1918, he studied Law at the Faculty in Bucharest, but then decided in 1919 to enroll at the Academy of Theology of Blaj, and was later sent to Rome at the Greek College of the Saint Athanasius.

He took a Doctorate in Philosophy and Theology in 1925 and then returned to Romania. On 1st January 1926 Aftenie was ordained Priest by Metropolitan Vasile Suciu. Soon afterward, Aftenie was named professor at the  Blaj  Theological Academy till 1934.

Aftenie was appointed Bishop by Pope Pius XII on 12th April 1940 and on 5th June 1940 he was consecrated  titular Bishop of Ulpiana and Auxiliary Bishop in the Blaj Cathedral, and returned to Bucharest as Vicar Bishop at St. Basil's Church in Bucharest. After the death of Archbishop Nicolescu on 15th June 1941, he became Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Făgăraş and Alba Lulia.

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In 1948, the new Communist Regime outlawed his Church, and the authorities' efforts to compromise him failed. Aftenie was arrested on 28th October 1948 on the Piața Romană  just after leaving the St. Basil's Church, and taken, together with the other five Greek-Catholic Bishops, to Dragoslavele and then in February 1949 to Căldăruşani Monastery, which had been refashioned into a prison.

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On 10th May 1949 he was taken to the Interior Ministry, held in isolation and tortured on the orders of General Alexandru Nicolschi, a Securitate member. Mutilated, crippled, mentally broken but steadfast in faith he was thrown into Văcăreşti prison, where he died on 10th May 1950.

It is also reported that he was shot by a Securitate officer. Because he was very tall and did not fit in the wooden box (used instead of the coffin) in which he was seated, his legs were cut and fitted.

Initially, authorities ordered the body to be burned, but Aftenie was buried in the Bellu Cemetery following a service held by a Roman Catholic Priest from the Bucharest Bărăția and he conducted the rites in secret several days after Aftenie was buried by night under the eyes of the Securitate Secret Police.

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Another Priest brought a cross permitted by the Communist authorities to his grave with his initials and the year of his death.

On 2nd June 2019, Pope Francis himself would Beatify Aftenie and six other Greek-Catholic Martyr Bishops killed by the Communist regime in Romania in the mid-20th Century at Blaj's Liberty Field.

Catholic Bishop's Conference of England and Wales

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Statement on the National Lockdown

Saints of the Week

Monday 10th May: 

Blessed Vasile Aftenie

Thursday 13th May:

The Ascension of The Lord

Tuesday 11th May:

Blessed John of Rochester

Friday 14th May:

Saint Matthias, Apostle

​Wednesday 12th May:

Saint Ethelhard of Canterbury

Saturday 15th May: 

Saint Isidore the Farmer

Mass Intentions

GUIDELINES FOR THE RE-OPENING

OF SACRED HEART CHURCH FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP

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Book your Mass Intention

Please tell us the date you would like the Eucharist offered  for your Intentions.

sacredheart.sunningdale@yahoo.co.uk

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15-05-2021

6:00 p.m. Peter Knight RIP 

 Study Group 

Wednesday 7:30 p.m.

16-05-2021

Sunday

10:00 a.m. Ken Easlea RIP

11:30 a.m.  Matej Magda RIP

Weekly Lectio Divina

Prayer Request

E-mail us with your Prayer Request of the week

sacredheart.sunningdale@yahoo.co.uk​

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This Week's Quotation