Pope Leo XIII blesses the Guild

Fr Fletcher assisted in establishing the Pontifical Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham at Kings Lynn in 1897. He also organised pilgrimages to Marian shrines abroad including Boulogne and Hal and, in 1900 for the Holy Year to Rome, where he asked for the Pope’s blessing on the Guild, which Pope Leo happily gave, deciding that he would be the Guild’s President. Fr Fletcher died in 1928.