A highlight...

...of last week was a celebration to mark the 30th anniversary of David (Lord) Alton's election to Parliament. It was a very enjoyable gathering at Westminster Cathedral Hall. David and Lizzie and their children were greeted by huge numbers of friends and there was a terrific atmosphere of good cheer and lively talk. Among those who gathered were people who had worked, or are working, with David on a range of issues - Catholic writers and journalists, Evangelical Christians working with various groups, pro-life campaigners, politicians, clergy...there were speeches, and snacks, and the cutting of a celebration cake. An evening that was a reminder of some of the good things about Britain.

This week: I'm travelling to a church near Chester to speak to a local gathering, doing a radio programme by telephone in the USA, and some admin. for the Tamezin Young Journalist Award.Next week is Holy Week - I'll be blogging during the earlier part of the week but then break off, and will be back after Easter...

To those sending hate-mail to this blog...

...please don't bother. The filthy language, the threats, and the anonymous sneers all get deleted as soon as they are opened. The sentiments aren't original, nor are the obscenities with which they are expressed.

Isle of Wight...

...sunlight and rain dappling the Solent, the fabulous beauty of green fields and white blossom, the time-to-talk friendliness in shops, St Cecilia's Abbey, Mass, the sisters gliding into the chapel, young novices in white veils, a beaming Extern Sister greeting us with enthusiasm.

A kind friend welcoming us for the weekend, delicious meals, a log fire, good company, lots of talk and laughter. The pleasure of working on a joint book project, now nearing completion. Joy, joy...

An important message...

..."I call everyone to an effective awareness of the adverse conditions to which many women have been – and continue to be – subjected, paying particular attention to ways in which the behaviour and attitudes of men, who at times show a lack of sensitivity and responsibility, may be to blame. This forms no part of God’s plan. In the Scripture reading, we heard that the entire people cried out together: “all that the Lord has spoken, we will do!” Sacred Scripture tells us that the divine Creator, looking upon all he had made, saw that something was missing: everything would have been fine if man had not been alone! How could one man by himself constitute the image and likeness of God who is one and three, God who is communion? “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him” (Gen 2:18). God went to work again, fashioning for the man the helper he still lacked, and endowing this helper in a privileged way by incorporating the order of love, which had seemed under-represented in creation."

That needed saying, especially in the context of Africa, where many have been silent on the subject, and where many women suffer. Guess who was the speaker? Read more here.

And readers of this blog...

...might enjoy Auntie's contribution on this website, and the other features there too..

You might find...

this material, produced in Africa, useful in the AIDS debate...

Meanwhile, today it is announced that advertisments for abortion will be run on British TV during the time-slot generally reserved for children and family viewing,up till 9pm. The line is that there is a need to promote abortion because the number of teenage pregnancies is still rising. This is because...er...giving out contraceptives doesn't work.

Remember when...

...in an argument people would sometimes say "I disagree entirely with what you say, but would defend to the death your right to say it".?

Not any more. Message from Andrea Minichiello Williams at CCFON:

Free Speech Clause falls.

The vote to keep free speech was lost by 328 votes to 174 last night in the House of Commons with the vote being whipped rather than a free vote. The clause was initially proposed by Lord Waddington, as part of last year’s Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, in an attempt to permit legitimate discussion of sexual practice. This is a vital freedom for Christians who are called to love every individual no matter what their sexual orientation but must be free to speak out on biblical sexual ethics.


The Sexual Orientation Hatred Offence was originally proposed because homosexual lobby groups convinced the Government that there was a need to give homosexuals this particular protection. We are opposed to incitement to hatred against anyone, but existing legislation provides sufficient protection for every member of society. In 2008, Lord Waddington successfully tabled a free speech amendment to allow ‘discussion or criticism’ of sexual practices. The free speech clause deals with the chilling effect that arises when restrictions are placed on freedom to express biblical views on sexual practice. Although the Government has indicated that written Guidance will be provided to Prosecutors and Police Officers on this matter, this leaves Joe Public in a vulnerable position with no certainty about what he is free to say. This is why free speech protection needs to be stated clearly on the face of the law. Without it those wishing to express legitimate and biblical views about sexual practice could face frightening police investigation for an offence that may carry up to seven years in prison. Unless the Church wakes up and stands against this law it will find itself silenced on this matter as so many Christian Legal Centre cases demonstrate with ordinary folk dismissed and bullied for voicing their beliefs in work and every aspect of life. http://www.christianlegalcentre.com

The Government and the Liberal Democrats, particularly, opposed the free speech clause and deemed it either ‘useless or dangerous’. However, David Taylor, MP, (Labour) argued for free speech specifying that the real issue must be the protection of human liberties according to the Human Rights Act.



There is more info here

Today...

...the funeral of Katie Jaffa, a journalist who worked for magazines and newspapers in Fleet Street in the 1940s and 50s and was a popular and active member of the Catholic Writers' Guild right into her 90s. A beautiful Mass with a packed church singing the Kyrie and Sanctus and beautiful hymns including "The day thou gavest, Lord..." Katie was fiction editor of a leading women's magazine in the days when such magazines tackled travel and history and topical debates, along with lots of practical stuff plus fiction from new and talented authors. Can you imagine any women's magazine today publishing real, readable, page-turning fiction with genuine plots and twists? No, nor can I. To cast a cursory glance over the trivial, sordid, smutty, semi-pornographic drivel offered to girls in today's teenage and "celebrity" magazines, is to recognise what has been lost.

Some of the vile....

...media attacks on the Pope put the newspapers concerned in rather horrid company. I've just come across some rather similar stuff in a book I've been reading. Sample:

"Go bury the delusive hope
About His Holiness the Pope...
...Old, muddle-headed, doddering, ill,
His knowledge is precisely nil..."
and so on for several more lines of nasty rubbish.

It was published in a Nazi magazine in the 1930s.Quoted in Michael Burleigh's Sacred Causes (Harper/Collins, 2007).

Here's a link...

...with some important information relevant to recent discussions. Read it and pass it on.

Mothering Sunday...

...and I went to an earlier Mass than usual so that I could get to Mother's by lunchtime. This is the Mass normally attended by young families - absolutely packed,rose-coloured vestments for Laetare. From my (standing) vantage point at the back I noted the large number of babies, toddlers,and teens, wondered idly where the middling children were...and then in they came, led by their catechists and clutching flowers to give to their mums...after Mass, more flowers, this time for sale, funds going to the parish's Lenten projects. I bought a pretty potted plant for Mother. The parish newsletter has a headline " Why The Pope is right" with some useful information and a rousing call to be proud of him.

In golden sunshine,on to Mother's, my brother bringing a delicious lunch. Family news, Mother enjoying chatting about her grandchildren, currently in various parts of the world ranging from Hungary, Tuscany and New Zealand to Guildford and North London. Talk of Easter and of summer plans...

Beauty and peace...

...in a London all splashed with sunshine, and with triumphant daffodils in great swathes in parks and gardens... First, to St James' Church, Spanish Place, where the Association of Catholic Women was having a Day of Recollection led by a Friar from the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. Kneeling beneath those soaring arches I am always fleetingly reminded of Vera Brittain's touching memory of doing so during the First World War when she was grieving for her fiance Roland Leighton,killed on the Western Front...

Later, to Kensington for a meeting. The churchyard of St Mary Abbott's on that corner of the High Street is a mass of glorious spring flowers and the heady scent of them wafts out as you walk by. I couldn't just hurry on, but had to wander in for a moment. It was enchanting: the scent, the freshness. They have planted a Glastonbury Thorn there - it was done to mark, in this new Millenium, a bond with our long, long Christian history.

Finally....

..."I would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome with advertising slogans. If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem. The solution can only come through a twofold commitment: firstly, the humanization of sexuality, in other words a spiritual and human renewal bringing a new way of behaving towards one another; and secondly, true friendship, above all with those who are suffering, a readiness — even through personal sacrifice — to be present with those who suffer. And these are the factors that help and bring visible progress".

Sounds like the kind of comment that feminists and eco-campaigners might like to support. The sort of person who gives a human and thoughtful insight that's also practical and somehow speaks across boundaries.

It's the Pope.

To a school to give a talk on...

...the Tamezin Young Writers' Award, see more info here.

And while in Suffolk, a chance to meet up with a friend who is an academic at Cambridge, and the joy of a long newsy talk. She's a linguist, and it was helpful to talk lots of things over with her re New Testament Greek, ref. my theology studies...

Evening at home, fending off further media requests. Busy instead with plans for next book (just finished, got it off to the typesetter), for projects with Assn of Catholic Women, for family things re. Mothering Sunday and Easter and summer and the seaside...

...and tomorrow (Sat) I am off for a quiet Day of Recollection, which I shall hugely value.

And...

...yesterday's lecture by Philip Booth at Westminster Cathedral Hall as part of the FAITH MATTERS series, was really excellent. He was looking at the Church and the free-market economy. Lively, engaging, mind-widening, informative. It is to be published in Standpoint magazine.

The good attendance - the hall was full - was an encouraging reminder that London is still a city where people enjoy spending an evening listening to a lecture on an important topic with a serious basis. A good atmosphere, lively questions, and an opportunity to raise a number of linked issues. One which came up was Catholic schools and the threat posed by encroaching attempts to fold them totally into State control and removed their last vestiges of effective bonds with the Church...while the present Govt has clearly got sinister designs in this area, the Tories aren't much better. Their line seems to be that as Catholic schools are so popular and successful, we must make them available to everyone, and the way to do that is to ban Catholics from having a priority in attending them. So let's ensure that every Catholic school has a large proportion of non-Catholic children attending...

This will have several effects. One will be the absurdity of practising Catholics, blocked from sending their child to the local Catholic school under the quota system, deciding to pretend to be non-Catholics in order to get the child in!

Another effect will, of course, be that once there is a substantial minority of non-Catholic children at the school, it will be deemed unjust to have Catholic prayers, celebration of the Church's feasts and seasons, pictures of Christ and the Pope etc. And then when the school becomes just like all the other schools there will be official puzzlement as to why this has occurred....

re that TV discussion: I think...

...that we'll leave it at that, now. I am touched by the kind messages that have been sent here. Thanks. If you want to send any further comments, why not send them direct to Jon Snow, who has a blog on the subject?

If you want to send...

...further emails telling me how dreadful I was on TV, feel free to do so, but please don't assume that I'm not already extremely unhappy about it. Obviously many people will want to make me feel even worse, but there really isn't any need to do that.

I am publishing most of the angriest messages I get, except the ones that use swear-words etc. The ones that tell me they are ashamed of me etc etc will all go in, along with the ones saying how terribly funny it all was, and how much they delighted in the dreadful mess I made of things.

Now here are the facts...

...and if I wasn't allowed to say them on TV, I can put them here instead.

The Pope has noted, correctly, that giving out condoms is certainly not saving any lives in Africa and is contributing to the problem of AIDS. Think it through properly. What spreads the disease is sexual contact with people who are infected. Distribution of condoms has led to an overall widespread increase in casual sexual contacts, as people have been told that casual sex can now be made "safe". The information that, in a controlled experiment, a condom works as a method of prevention, has to be presented against the actual overall increase in the opportunities for infection to occur. In other words, it's not just "method" that matters but the actual reality. Most sexual encounters with infected people do not occur in the circumstances that the condom-distributors have planned.

Remember, only one sexual encounter with an infected person is required to receive this deadly disease. So promotion of any policy that promotes increased sexual encounters is going to increase the overall chances of further AIDS cases day by day.

The Church offers a 100 per cent measure that will protect you from AIDS - no sexual contact with an infected person. And this works. In the Philippines, where the first cases of AIDS were reported, the Church's policies were implemented - and it has a miniscule rate of AIDS. In Thailand, condoms were promoted instead, and the death toll from AIDS is high and still rising - and the tragedy of child prostitution has grown to massive proportions.

On the TV programme we were told that 22 million people had died from AIDS in Africa. The condom policies aren't working. Why not try the alternative which works?

Jon Snow...

...roundly denounced me for being much too cross and passionate about the people dying of AIDS, in the discussion on tonight's Channel 4 News, and said I wasn't behaving in a Christian way.

Well, I don't know about Christian, but I certainly lost my cool. Here are 22 million people across Africa dying of a deadly disease, and the Church points out that current policies are making things worse - and when we attempt a debate about it on British TV we get a complete block on any attempt at examining the Church's viewpoint.

Home to a battery of denunciations from people writing in to my blog saying how dreadful I was, how ashamed of me they are, how terribly I behaved. I expect they are mostly experienced broadcasters who regularly defend the Church, and the gravely ill, and know how to stay calm when doing so. It's v. nice of them to write so I've posted their comments (see below - but I daresay there'll be lots more...

Just come across...

...an excellent new blog by a young Catholic writer. Click here to read it...

A delightful evening visit...

...to the team running Youth 2000, the young Catholic evangelistic group - they've just moved to a new HQ at Balham, and I met them there to do an interview for a Catholic paper. The team was sitting, rather self-consciously, in a formal sort of waiting-to-be-interviewed way, but we all soon relaxed and I was rather touched by their obvious sincerity and by their huge enthusiasm for the Faith. In a London with exudes an air of gloom and confusion at present - I'm not referring to the economic worries, but to the indefinable but horribly definite feeling of social disconnection,of faithlessness, of violence and distrust which somehow pervades Britain's life at present - meeting this group was a real tonic. They seemed so ...well...normal. And cheerful, and looking forward to things. I found myself thinking dramatically as I pottered back home on my bike - was it a bit like this when Christians met in a decaying pagan Rome, and found joy and faith together? Anyway Y2000's next events include various Retreats at different places across Britain, plus a fund-raising ball in London and then the big annual Festival at Walsingham in August... Find out more by clicking on to that link.

Silence...

...in church is the special gift our parish is trying to achieve for Lent. And it is rather beautiful. This Sunday, we all found small cards in the pews, with suggested prayers for personal use before and after Mass. A mood can catch on quite quickly, and everything benefits from the increased sense of peace...

It's a busy suburban parish - lots of families, lots of friendships. But, as is being pointed out in the newsletter, there are lots of (warmly encouraged) opportunities for chat, in the social centre, in the parish bookshop, or simply out in the sunshine where the priests greet people and groups linger after Sunday Masses.


Recently this topic has come up in discussions with priests in two other - very different - parishes. One noted that, when the children come in a group from their school, they are very well-behaved and reverent "hands together, heads bowed when they pray, rather touching to see" but that the same children seem to assume that a Sunday Mass is different. The parents seem lacking in confidence in getting the children to have any sense of awe or reverence - into solemn moments comes shouting or running about, with little or no apparent parental concern or disapproval. Another priest described how, as a Confirmation group gathered to attend a retreat, it was announced that all ipods and similar equipment would be collected and kept for the weekend in labelled folders:"It was amazing how some of them were quite distraught. One said that he wouldn't be able to get to sleep without the thing plugged into his ears...but in the end, of course, they all had a wonderful experience at the retreat and when they got their ipods back as they went home, they realised they weren't as essential as they had thought..."

For all secondary schools in Britain...

...there are some excellent prizes available and some very satisfying activity involved if you click on here and find out about the 2009 Schools Bible Project. This is an ecumenical venture, and the winners get a trip to London, prizes presented in a ceremony in the House of Lords...

On Thursdays...

... all day, in the local church, there is Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Silent people kneeling there in prayer, some lighting candles, others leafing through a prayer-book or fingering a rosary. And then, late into the evening, the priest kneeling at the foot of the altar steps and beginning the beautiful Benediction hymn...

...and then, appallingly, the ghastly buzzing of a mobile phone. Mine. I dashed out clutching the thing, sprinted into the road,dealt with it, crept back into church feeling Awful.

CTS, ACN, Writers' Guild, a parish talk...

...it's been a busy time. The first of those initials refers to the Catholic Truth Society at which we had a most exciting and useful meeting this week, the "we" being a couple of us from the Association of Catholic Women, following up the plans for the Schools Religious Education Project...if you are a teacher in a Catholic Primary School, or a parish priest who would like to see his school involved, do go to that CTS link and find out more....

Then "ACN" stands for Aid to the Church in Need - international Catholic aid agency, with a strong British branch with which I've been involved for some years. A visit to the busy cheerful office is always a tonic, and I whizzed there by bike to collect some books and material relevant to a new venture with which ACN is to be involved...

...and on to St Ann's parish in Banstead, for a gathering of parents discussing "Marriage and Family" and the Church's message.A lovely evening - they have a really splendid parish priest. We finished with Benediction, candlelight gleaming in the church, voices raised together in "Tantum ergo sacramentum..."

Then yesterday, a convivial evening at The Keys, the Catholic Writers' Guild, meeting at St Mary Moorfields. Speaker was Dr James le Fanu: he writes so extremely well in the Daily Telegraph and elsewhere, and as a speaker he was great fun....The Master of the Guild, journalist Melanie McDonagh, presided with great charm and skill - the Guild, established in the 1930s by staff writers on a magazine launched by G. K. Chesterton, has thrived in recent years and numbers attending were large, the talk over supper lively, the atmosphere cheery in keeping with the Guild's grand tradition. Incidentally, the Guild is getting a new website soon - I'll be posting info. about this in due course.

The Holy Father...

....has issued a letter to Bishops explaining his actions in seeking to return the Lefebvrists to the Church. It has a tone of some personal anguish. But it also sets out the system that will be used to establish the discussions neccesary for reconciliation. While listing all the reasons - good ones - for seeking to bring these people back into the Church, there is a note of hurt that his motives were misunderstood (and, although he doesn't say so, let's face it,in some cases deliberately so?)in the subsequent furore.

I have to say that one particularly unhelpful contribution was the "traditionalist" publication which gleefully announced that the Lefbvrists would be fully reconciled by the beginning of February,would specifically not have to accept Vatican II, would run their own parishes on this basis without links to the local bishop...this whizzed around the Internet. That it came from a source which, a couple of years earlier, had been roundly denouncing the Holy Father for visiting a synagogue, was enough give me grave doubts as to its truth and indeed to question its motivation. But it must have helped to spread confusion and fears.

We can assume that some of the Lefebvrists will eventually be reconciled and we must, as a commentator in the Catholic Herald put it recently, not behave like the older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son. So as soon as they say "sorry", even if, like the son in the story, they only do so from mixed motives, the response of bystanders should be generous...

Sunday...

...brought a visit to the Oxford Oratory and the joy of attending the 11 am sung Mass. This Oratory Church of St Aloysius has glorious liturgy, and is at the heart of a thriving parish, lots of families at the morning Mass, even more young people packing it out in the evening, lots of parish activities ranging from support for a mission in an impoverished part of Africa to work with the SVP here at home. Vocations to the Oratory are thriving and there simply isn't room for them all. This, plus the need to welcome the many visitors who come here - and numbers will increase as interest in John Henry Newman continues to develop - mean that the restoration and development plans have a real urgency about them ...This church is in an important sense a memorial to Newman's vision, never realised in his lifetime, of an Oratory in this University city.

The Oratory and the church and associated buildings need much work: already the sanctuary has been beautifully restored and the candlight gleams on the touches of gold adorning the array of statues. But there's much more - a baptistery and Newman memorial chapel, a cloister courtyard and more... Want to help? A massive appeal has been launched to raise funds...go to the website to learn more. PLEASE help!

A powerful piece of drama...

...Euripedes' Trojan Women performed at St Edward's School, Cheltenham ...a really superb production - you could have heard a pin drop as a grieving Hecuba pleaded for her little grandson...and then later as the flames consumed the last remains of Troy...Jamie and I were there at the invitation of my brother, who is Headmaster of this school. It is a fine set of buildings in a lovely setting on the edge of Cheltenham, named for St Edward the Confessor as this was once part of his hunting-grounds. A beautiful Georgian manor house forms the heart of the site, and this now houses, among other things, the school's lovely chapel. Adjoining are all the various classrooms, refectory, and splendid hall where the Greek drama was presented. A really excellent evening.

THE KEYS...

...is the official name of the London branch of the Catholic Writers' Guild of England and Wales. Its committee met yesterday, and our meetings are always enjoyable as they include supper provided by our chaplain Fr Peter at St Mary Moorfields and lots of lively, amusing, and stimulating talk. The Guild has excellent regular meetings with all sorts of speakers, and membership is open to RCs who work by writing,journalism, broadcasting etc. Send a Comment to this Blog WITH AN EMAIL ADDRESS AT WHICH I CAN REACH YOU if you live within reach of London and might be interested in joining....

Note the date...

...Saturday November 14th, for the Festival of Catholic Culture at Westminster Cathedral. A meeting yesterday at the Cathedral house to plan things...excellent choir lined up, and some wonderful suggestions for speakers...lots to do now as we put it all together. It always seems a terrific task, but then bit by bit it comes together, and is always a great day. The working team brings together representatives from the Catenians and the Association of Catholic Women, among others, with an agreeable sense of mutual work and commitment. Each March sees the planning and organising, and then all the through summer the project takes shape...

There are more important things...

...to worry about than this, but...why on earth has an honorary knighthood, given in the name of our Queen, been announced for the American politician Edward Kennedy? What exactly has he done for Britain? His only known involvement in our country was to give warm support to Gerry Adams at the height of the IRA's campaign of murder and terrorism.

Last night...

...I sat up late studying Philosophy. Metaphysics. Aristotle Plato and Thomas Aquinas: Existence and Essence, and Nature and Being. A fellow-student sent round an email asking in a panicky sort of way:"What's the deadline for the Philosophy essays?" and it's April 8th - I sent him a cheery auntie-ish sort of reply but then suddenly got panicky myself and settled down to work.

It is very mentally stimulating sandwiching a Theology course with working on a serious biography plus editing another book. In between times there is housework, shopping,family commitments. Bike to menders (needs new lamp and wicker basket). Dry-cleaning (J's dinner-jacket). Birthday present for pa-in-law - Jamie saw a book he knew his father would really like, and we've been able to get it, so it goes in the post today...

Tonight...

...a talk to a Marriage Preparation course at St Mary's in Chelsea. It is always enjoyable: happy atmosphere, and the couples - even tho' it's London and they tend to be fairly sophisticated etc - somehow look awfully young as they sit there. Great seriousness as we tackle issues about God, the Church, an understanding of marriage as a sacrament...

I get...

...lots of magazines and books sent to me. Good News is the magazine of Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Britain and has some cheery features. It's edited by Kristina Cooper, whom I interviewed recently as part of the "Catholic Lives" series on EWTN...

The Vatican...

... has rejected the "apology" produced by the Lefebvrist who told lies about the WWII Holocaust.This feature in an American paper, written by Sherry Tyree - a colleague and friend in the excellent Women for Faith and Family group - is a useful read.

Pray for the Holy Father: he worked with the Jewish community to build good relations and real friendships which were warmly reciprocated: it was lovely to see the gatherings at the synagogues in Cologne and New York on his visits. "The sun is shining and the heavens are rejoicing on this day" the Rabbi in New York told him. The meetings and goodwill echoed back with his time in Rome working with John Paul II, and earlier as Archbishop of Regensburg. It is heartbreaking to see a dissident Catholic group undermining this.

It is difficult to see how the Lefebvrists can be brought back to the Church without major restructuring. Williamson is no marginal figure: until publicity forced his departure he was running their seminary.

As I approached...

...Westminster Cathedral this morning, there were people with banners and placards. A demonstration? People objecting to the Church's stance on something? (Last demo I remember at the Cathedral was young Islamicists all muddled and cross about what the H. Father had said at Regensburg...)But no. It was enthusiastic Filipinos, greeting a famous Filipino boxer who is visiting Britain - rumours had spread that he was to attend the 10.30 Mass!

Always full, the Mass was thus absolutely packed as his fans surged up the side aisle to stand as near to him as possible (he was apparently in a front pew). With no seats to spare, and people already standing at the back as they usually do on a busy Sunday, the cathedral felt postively bulging at the seams.

On to an agreeable lunch at a friend's flat nearby. This was one of those utterly enjoyable gatherings, where the conversation and the food and the friendship and the laughter was all just a delight.

I remember once a family friend saying, after a particularly happy dinner-party "I think Heaven might be a bit like this - people united and feasting together", and I think she was right...