by Madeleine Grant, The Times
In her twenties, Cecilia Guilford decided to extricate herself from a “tumultuous” life in which a well-paid sales job and busy social life left her feeling empty. “I had no peace, no deep confidence, everything was on the surface,” she recalls. She left her job and began a path that took her through work as a life coach, New Age spirituality and a fascination with eastern religions.
In these circles, Christianity, the religion practised by her parents, was regarded as “oppressive to women”. Yet despite her hopes for enlightenment, she found that her mental health was deteriorating, in part because she was trying to maintain an online brand. She felt “enslaved” to her Instagram profile and took herself to an addiction recovery group where she recognised Christianity in the 12-step programme and its tenets of surrender, confession and serving others. “That means Christianity is the path to healing, which means I have literally come round full circle, to the thing I thought of as dusty, traditional, boring.”
Guilford’s story is one of many that could be told in the Catholic Church. Last year the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales recorded that baptisms of those aged seven was at a ten-year high. Guilford’s church, St Elizabeth of Portugal in Richmond-upon-Thames, southwest London, had a congregation of 200 on Palm Sunday.