George & Pia* | Dawprabamfau

George & Pia

St Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham, 14 July 1984.jpg

in their own words ...
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Pia & George met at Cambridge, at the start of Pia's first and George's third year at Trinity College. (Coincidentally, the Trinity Boat Club is known as the "1st & 3rd", but neither of them had anything to do with rowing!).

They were married at St Chad's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Birmingham on 14th July 1984 ("High Noon on Bastille Day") by Maurice Couve de Murville, Archbishop of Birmingham, whose previous job had been Chaplain at Cambridge University when Pia & George met. The ceremony was concelebrated by Canon Francis Balment (parish priest in Exeter when Pia was young), Dom Christopher Jenkins OSB (Maurice's successor as Cambridge chaplain) and Fr Francis Selman (Assistant Chaplain).

Pia arrived at the cathedral - and the couple travelled to the reception afterwards - in George's sister Frances' vintage London taxi, with cousin Clifford Mills driving.

In 2015, Pia was appointed to be one of 22 international expert advisers ay the Fourteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops of the Catholic Church, also known as the Synod on the Family, considering "the vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in the contemporary world."

George & Paula were able to join Pia for the concluding Papal Mass in St Peter's Basilica.