Friday Jan 11th

That Women's Circle
Time for some light relief. And where better to find that than in one of the unintentionally amusing Catholic feminist lobby-groups which still float about, and talk with the sort of pre-arranged jargon that you also find in Government-funded workplace seminars aimed at policing people into the right social attiutudes.

"Women, Word, Spirit" used to be called the Catholic Women's Network. In its latest newsletter it has a "ten years ago" column which notes a particular effort of mine. The story has partly become legend, so I'll just tell it factually and briefly: back in 1997, reading the Network's newsletter I was struck at how easy it was to follow their jargon, so I started to compose a contribution of my own. This purported to come from a women's circle in Australia, and described how they met for a "desert experience" around the swimming-pool, with avocado salads and wine, and shared their misery at how the Church oppressed them, for example by refusing to accept a relationship one was having with a married man, etc etc. They created their own Eucharist with one another ("You are Christ!)" and affirmed each other's innate self....etc...etc...oh you know the sort of thing. I only wrote it for fun, but thought the CWN might just believe it, as its nonsense so accurately reflected their own. So after enjoying it with my (Australian-born) husband, I posted it to friends near Perth and asked them if they'd kindly oblige by mailing it back to the newsletter editor in England.

It thus arrived with its proper postmark, and the dear ladies published it without suspecting a thing...until I saw it in the newsletter and telephoned the Daily Telegraph which splashed the story of the prank, and the wider media took it up from there....

You see, what the dear ladies hadn't grasped was the gross nonsense of it all...because they take this sort of rubbish for granted as truth. A desert experience in luxury with lavish food and wine around a swimming pool? A supposedly Christian group wallowing in selfishness? Blaspheming the Eucharist? Encouraging each other in adultery? All just fine, apparently.

And they still can't quite cope....in the current issue they wonder why I used my "considerable energies" on this spoof.....dear ladies, I didn't. It was the work of half-an-hour, and fun. And, believe me, I am using most of my still considerable energies in a great many other projects.....some of which, if you knew about them, would probably annoy you dreadfully......