Pope's beatification of Cardinal Newman 'to take place at disused Longbridge plant'

The Telegraph ^ | 6/11/2010 | Martin Beckford

[markomalley]

Sources told The Tablet, the Roman Catholic magazine, that the site of the former MG Rover factory is now the “preferred venue” for Benedict XVI’s beatification of Cardinal Newman.

It is claimed that as many as 100,000 pilgrims could attend an open-air Mass at the site in the south of Birmingham, to see the pontiff take England’s most famous convert to Rome one step closer to sainthood.

Much of the vast Longbridge site remains vacant, after MG Rover went bust in 2005, although the new MG6 is being built there by the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation and a further 468 acres are being redeveloped to include homes, a college and shops.

For many the name is synonymous with the decline of British manufacturing, from the strikes led by Derek “Red Robbo” Robinson in the 1970s when the plant was run by British Leyland to the loss of 6,000 jobs when the Phoenix Consortium took MG Rover into administration.

[markomalley]

What is up with that? Yes, they say they will save money that way but geez...

[freedumb2003]

Is that the Newman The Newman Club was named after? My mom was a member...

[NYer]

But Longbridge is just a few minutes’ walk away from the Catholic cemetery on Rednal Hill where Cardinal Newman was buried in 1890, and beatification ceremonies are meant to take places at locations linked to their subject’s life or death.

[irishjuggler]

Yes.

[the invisib1e hand]

no comprende.