As it was then

as it should always be now. The opening of the original London Oratory located at 24 and 25 King William St, the Strand, London described in an article about Father Faber.

In London, friends, including the future Duke of Norfolk, had already been looking for suitable premises for setting up an Oratory. They found a place with an improbable history (a gin shop among other things) in King William Street, off the Strand. Again much physical sweat and toil was involved, and the potential for serious illness in the unhealthy conditions very real ('The heat of the house and chapel is of the nature of Calcutta Black Hole.'). Yet again, though, the necessary work was achieved; Faber delivered. This achievement is the greater bearing in mind that up to 1849 no Catholic body had been allowed to open a church in London. Even the Jesuit Farm Street Church was not yet on the map. The Catholic services, and the devotion to Our Lady were a surprise to all, nonetheleast Catholics themselves. Previously there had been only one statue (as opposed to pictures) to the Blessed Virgin in a public place anywhere in London, at St. Mary's, Chelsea. Putting flowers before a Lady altar, and burning lamps or votive candles before her image was unheard of (elsewhere there were occasional brave examples of reviving public Marian devotion with a statue and procession, such as the Dominican foundress Mother Margaret Hallahan in Coventry 1845). Some of the Catholics' surprise quickly turned to disapproval, even hatred, particularly among the London clergy. There were accusations of these devotions mimicking the Italian peasantry, belonging to 'backward' countries."

On 31 May of 1849, Cardinal Wiseman assisted pontifically and preached at the high Mass, Father (later Cardinal) Newman delivered at Vespers the sermon on the "Prospects of the Catholic Missioner", now published in his "Discourses to Mixed Congregations". A fine work, even by Newman's extremely high standards.

"It is true, my brethren, this is a strange time, a strange place, for beginning our work. A strange place for Saints and Angels to pitch their tabernacles in, this metropolis; strange—I will not say for thee, my Mother Mary, to be found in; for no part of the Catholic inheritance is foreign to thee, and thou art everywhere, where the Church is found, Porta manes et Stella maris, the constant object of her devotion, and the universal advocate of her children,—not strange to thee, but strange enough to him, my own Saint and Master, Philip Neri. Yes, dear Father, it is strange for thee, to pass from the bright, calm cities of the South to this scene of godless toil and self-trusting adventure; strange for thee to be seen hurrying to and fro across our crowded streets, in thy grave, black cassock, and thy white collar, instead of moving at thy own pace amid the open ways or vacant spaces of the great City, in which, according to God's guidance of thee in thy youth, thou didst for life and death fix thy habitation. Yes, it is all very strange to the world; but no new thing to her, the Bride of the Lamb, whose very being and primary gifts are stranger in the eyes of unbelief, than any details, as to place of abode and method of proceeding, in which they are manifested. It is no new thing in her, who came in the beginning as a wanderer upon earth, whose condition is a perpetual warfare, and whose empire is an incessant conquest."