Madam,

The article ‘Vatican delivers final blow to parishioners’ hopes’ highlights once more the regrettable situation which the Catholic parish of Aberystwyth finds itself in.

Some four years after the sudden closure of St Winefride’s Church, the ill-thought-out plans by the Diocese of Menevia to bring back in to use a derelict building away from the town centre at a huge cost, will place a massive financial burden on the parish for many years to come when all that is needed is for a lesser amount to be spent on refurbishing St Winefride’s Church.

The Bishop and trustees of the diocese, based in Swansea, display little or no local knowledge or understanding of Aberystwyth, and have constantly tried to portray St Winefride’s as a building of insignificance with little, or no, historical, cultural or aesthetic attributes.

They downplay the significant fact that St Winefride’s is of importance as the first Roman Catholic Church to be built (in 1874) in mid Wales since the reformation and the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century.

Do they know that the church is of significance as a centre of Welsh Catholicism?

The Welsh translation of the Order of the Mass and the first collection of Welsh Catholic hymns originated here. The Welsh literary giant, J Saunders Lewis, attended the church between 1938 and 1952 and taught at St Mary’s College, now home to the Welsh Books Council, which had been established as a seminary and training college for Roman Catholic Priests, with particular emphasis on the Welsh language.

The interior of the church is also of significance, the High Altar being a fine example of the Gothic Revival, a popular style in late Victorian church architecture.

In comparison, the now derelict Welsh Martyrs, Penparcau, opened in October 1970, offers little. I do not make such a statement lightly. I was the first to be baptised in the church following its opening and served as an altar boy at the church for many years.

The church has witnessed other family events – baptisms and a wedding. However, despite these emotional ties the stark reality is that it is a typically poorly built, late 1960s construction which does not merit expenditure of £360,000 to bring it back into use.

It would be far better to spend just some of that money refurbishing the historic St Winefride’s so that, once more, Aberystwyth can have a Catholic Church in a town centre location of which it can be proud.

Yours etc

David Gorman, Maesheli, Penparcau, Aberystwyth.