From the "Catholic Who's Who & Year Book 1915" - excerpts from: "The Catholic Year" (January to November 1914: January - Post #1); and "The Roll of Honour" (UPDATED - June 19, 2015)

Oh for the foresight to have started these posts a year ago today.

Still, here we are, on the first day of 2015 aptly recording excerpts from the 1915 "Catholic Who's Who & Year Book" (Burns & Oates; Edited by Sir F. C. Burnand; 3/6 NET) – but naturally recounting aspects from 1914, as per the publication itself.

Why are we doing this? Well, simply because we're blessed with immediate access to these treasured Year Book volumes – and it is not only good to breathe a little digital-life back into such rare titles, but also, we hope, it will prove a small web-service for those interested in the Catholic history and heritage of our lands over the last century. Also, what more fitting time to start this series than during these years commemorating the centenary of World War I (an atrocity which, inevitably, features prominently in the Catholic Who's Who & Year Book volumes of that period)? Moreover, we would hope that as we episodically highlight the names of those who populated our Catholic sanctuaries and pews 100 years ago that prayers will be offered aplenty for their souls.  

So, without further ado, verbatim, we start from the first line of the first entry of the 1915 Year Book's annual diary section entitled "The Catholic Year" looking back on 1914:

Those pictures there...on the background

They represent what Liverpolitanus will hopefully reflect. This substantial initial post, therefore, can fulfil this blog's "About" section.

First things first, a description of the events they depict:

The sepia image is from newsreel footage of the 1934 Corpus Christi procession on the site of the, then unbuilt, Metropolitan Cathedral in the centre of Liverpool, England. It's the see at the heart of the Archdiocese and Ecclesiastical Province of Liverpool (founded in 1850 under H.H. Pope Pius IX's bull Universalis Ecclesiae), which covers much of north west England along the Irish Sea coastline, and the Isle of Man.

The colour image shows "Liturgical Dance". It's from Gloria TV's footage of the hosting, in January 2013, of the relics of St John Bosco inside the, then 46-year-old, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.

It may not seem so, but both images depict events, 77 years apart, on the very same spot.

However, as even an untrained eye may see, it's not just a near eight decade gap and the existence of walls and a roof that distinguishes the contrasting worlds of these images.