As Liverpool approaches the celebration of the award of European Capital of Culture in 2008 it is important to recognize the Catholic contribution to that award and celebration, and to show how it is a contribution that began many years ago during the life and ministry of Father Nugent in the nineteenth century. The year 2005 is the centenary of Father Nugent's death, and so this is an appropriate time to commemorate a man whom Pope John Paul II, when visiting Liverpool, was to call 'your own pioneer of charity'.
Father Nugent founded many Institutions for the poor and needy in his native town of Liverpool and was instrumental in the scheme to take orphaned children to the New World to find a new home. He spearheaded the campaign to 'Save the Child' from the temptations and dangers of the streets, and he provided shelter to the marginalized and despised. He worked ecumenically with his colleagues from other churches in a town that was largely Protestant, and made education and the reform of the young his special concern for over fifty years. Much of what he pioneered still bears fruit today, and his work and name are perpetuated by the Nugent Care Society he founded in 1881 - originally the Liverpool Catholic Children's Protection Society.
This book is a timely remiinder of Father James Nugent's work and his significance for us today, both for the Church and for society as a whole, setting his life in the context of his era which contained the seeds of so much that has borne fruit in our time. It is an encouragement to priests, and potential priests, in the mission of the Church today.
What inspired Father Nugent inspires many today, what concerned him, concerns many today, and his breadth of vision of care guides many today, not least in Nugent Care, the society names for him and faithful to him still. Most Reverend Patrick Kelly, Archbishop of Liverpool.
