The Vatican has granted permission for Our Lady of Walsingham to be celebrated as a new Feast in the dioceses of England, starting this year on 24 September.

Cardinal Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, wrote to Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Bishops’ Conference, in response to his request last year that the Obligatory Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Walsingham be raised to the rank of Feast.

He explained that normally it wouldn’t be moved but an exception would be made.