Sunday, October 30, 2011

An absolutely superb evening...

...on Thursday, when Baroness Cox gave the Craigmyle Memorial Lecture at the House of Lords. This lecture is sponsored annually by the Catholic Union, of which Lord Craigmyle was President for many years.

Baroness Cox focused on the plight of Christians suffering for their faith in various parts of the world. She highlighted in particular Southern Sudan, from which she has only recently returned. Slavery is still a reality in Sudan: people, including children, are kidnapped and sold as slaves. The humanitarian relief organisation with which Caroline Cox is involved has been able to rescue some children, and their stories were heart-breaking...

The lecture, which was illustrated with pictures taken by Caroline on her recent visits to various countries, gave a good overview of the whole question of religious freedom in the world today. THis included, of course, a discussion bout things in Britain. It is nonsense to suggest that Christians here are in any way persecuted. But recent court cases have been worrying, and there is a lack of depth and breadth to the discussion about the role of Christianity in our heritage which is frightening.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Goodwill...

..at Assisi. At a time of much uncertainty and fear on the international scene, I found this a rather moving report...

Saints and Celebrations...

...and an English village in the enchanting beauty of a golden October day. I was invited to speak at a village church in Hampshire to mark the patronal feast of All Saints. Teams of enthusiasts had created floral arrangements around the church to honour various saints, each with a little dish of appropriate food - thus a Cattern Pie for St Catherine, and Scottish shortbread for St Andrew, and bara brith for St David, and more...My task was to explain about the calendar and the origins of celebrating saints days, and to set the whole thing in context. It was a charming and friendly event and I was made very welcome - a happy day.

Friday, October 28, 2011

London's history...

...and a team of us wove our way from St Patrick's, Soho Square, via St Giles-in-the-Fields and Bloomsbury Baptist Church to SS Anselm and Cecilia in Kingsway (links with Bishop Richard Challoner and the Gordon Riots) to St Etheldreda's Ely Place and thence to St Sepulchre-without-Newgate. I had been asked to lead a History Walk for members of SPES, the St Patrick's Evangelisation School, and we were joined by a number of other enthusiasts...we explored the history that tells the story of the Christian faith in this land from Roman times onwards, we prayed in each church we visited, we experienced kind hospitality and we pondered the passing of the centuries...

The SPES team is a terrific group, lively and enthusiastic and prayerful. St Patrick's is a joy - the church, so gloriously restored, is a place of great beauty and a midday Mass there is peace and refreshment in hectic London.

Exploring history involves the big sweep of things - Saxons and Normans, St Giles founded by Queen Matilda as part of a hospice for lepers, the events of the Reformation,. the Free Church traditions and the Baptists, Victorian England and the Catholic Revival...but it's also the everyday and the ordinary, the local men who died in the Great War of 1914-18 and are commemorated on a heartbreaking Memorial which begs that they never be forgotten, the parish notices in KIngsway which show Church life still bustling on, the people dropping into St Etheldreda's quietly to pray as we gazed at its stained glass and statues...

Cardinal George Pell...

...gave an excellent and thought-provoking lecture on climate change at Westminster Cathedral Hall on Wednesday. Read more here. Afterwards, he answered questions with great patience and goodwill: it was a model of how a Bishop shpoul;d speak and act.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

You may feel...

...that you've read enough of Auntie's thoughts on World Youth Day, but just in case you feel you haven't, try this feature...

And you might be interested in this feature about nuns...

Been reading...

...a lot of von Balthasar over the past few days. Also de Lubac. You can see how both influenced the thinking of Ratzinger the theologian - and how this has enriched us all.

Over the past months I've come to realise how my understanding of the Second Vatican Council has changed. For years I was told that this Council was simply dreadful, should never have happened, was nothing but a disaster, carried no real authority, should be dismissed as history. I don't mean that I neccesarily believed that, or that the people who said these things were the best and wisest people I knew - on the contrary, they were often belligerent and ill-informed: but as a Catholic journalist I lived with the fact that this was a consistent noise that framed the whole debate about Vatican II and helped to dictate its terms. It made it difficult to see the subject in perspective or to work up much enthusiasm for studying the Council's documents. Now I have done so, and also studied much of the material that influenced those who spoke there and who worked there - and it is all much richer and more beautiful and important than I had been led to believe.

Browsing the Web for news...

...about Blessed John Paul (feast day last Sat), I came across this item of interest.

Through falling Autumn leaves...

...to a meeting of the Board of Aid to the Church in Need at Brompton Oratory. Hugely successful conference on religious freedom - publicity re Ann Widdecombe's excellent speech still reverberating. Discussion on all sorts of current projects: this is now a major Catholic charity in Britain and we are blessed with an excellent team headed by Neville Kyrke-Smith, working with energy and competence. It funds projects around the world where Christians are impoverished or persecuted, unites people in prayer, acts as a source of reliable news and information. Sales of Christmas cards and gifts already brisk. Planning ahead: a pilgrimage to Walsingham on Sat April 28th next year, coach departing from London.

ACN will be among the many Catholic groups at the Towards Advent Festival on Sat Nov 19th at Westminster Cathedral Hall.There's a feature about this Festival in the ADOREMUS BULLETIN, published in the USA: you can read it here along with a number of other interesting features on liturgy, prayer, and related subjects...

Monday, October 24, 2011

And then...

...I went to the BardFair. The what? A wonderful event run by The Bard School. Yes, bards. Poets, writers, singers of songs. With mulled wine and a warm welcome, a generous table of food and lots of delightful young people...and it all happens regularly at a well-known London church, St Mary of the Angels in Bayswater. I had vaguely heard of it, but being part of it, after arriving breathless after a busy day (and transport hassles - Tube lines closed for repairs), was wonderful.

Who are the Bards? Some students,a young Dominican, a couple of teachers, a musician or two, and people with all sorts of different jobs and professions who write and create and entertain...there was some poetry, some music, lots of good talk, displays of work. I bought some delicious scented soap made with rose leaves, and there was some lovely artwork, and lots of good creative things, and all this with candlelight and in a very happy atmosphere, preceded by a beautiful sung Mass.

The young Domimican read a charming and funny poem with kindness and wisdom in it. A young publisher read a poem inspired by a meeting with Richard Dawkins. There was a feeling of freedom, and a real sense of fun. Ihope to have more contact with the Bard School...

An important conference ...

...organised by Aid to the Church in Need, on the subject of religious freedom. Among the speakers was the excellent Ann Widdecombe,and you can listen to her speech here.

For some years, as a Catholic journalist, I was writing about the position of Christians in the USSR,the Baltic states and in Eastern Europe, noting their struggles in the confusing network of laws that restricted religious freedom in all sorts of ways. This was the late 1970s and early 80s, with wrangling about children having the right to attend religious education classes, and people struggling to get jobs or degrees once it became known that they were regular churchgoers or had written religious poetry or contributed to magazines featuring essays on religious themes...and it felt somehow safe, writing about it all in London, secure in the knowledge that one was British and away from all that sort of thing...

...And now, in a most uncomfortable way, I'm reading about Christians in Britain getting into trouble at work because they have written in support of Christian marriage, and Christian sexual morality.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Blessed John Paul II....

...more about that book here...

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

All very exciting...

...lots of people, wine, snacks, cake, speeches. A book launch is a bit like a christening-party, with everyone wishing the new arrival well. So the new book on Blessed John Paul has got off to a happy start...

It is hardback, with the most beautiful illustrations by Kati Teague.There's drama, with images of the Occupation in WW11, and the assasination attempt in 1981, and there is tenderness, with some lovely scenes of BlJP with children. There's lots of information about his mission and work - his devotion to the Rosary, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (nice pic of the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger busy at work on it), World Youth Day, and more...

The launch party was at St Paul's bookshop next to Westminster Cathedral, and was a lot of fun, with chatter and laughter. Afterwards, a family supper: I had spent the day with a dear niece - it's half-term this week - exploring Westminster and Parliament and then decorating the celebration cakes together at the bookshop.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Auntie and a bookshop...

...and a happy evening...Read on...

Monday, October 17, 2011

BIG DAY...

...the launch of my book on Blessed John Paul the Great. Party at a bookshop, speeches, cake, celebrations...

DON'T FORGET...

...the TOWARDS ADVENT FEstival on Sat Nov 19th, Westminster Cathedral Hall. Music from the Gallery Choir of Westminster Cathedral Choir School. Stalls and displays featuring a wide range of Catholic groups and organisations and charities: books, DVDs, craft goods, and more... A talk from Mgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. A special celebrtion of the life of Blessed John Paul with film and drama...

Everyone is welcome. Doors open 10am...

Sunday, October 16, 2011

The Scola Cantorum...

...of the Cardinal Vaughan School sang at today's 10.30am Mass at Westminster Cathedral: magnificent.

I was there to meet a young friend - working as an au pair with some relatives - as I had promised to show her around London. We had a happy day, beginning with a trip up the Cathedral Tower - spectacular views across London and out beyond to the misty suburbs and the North Downs. She was also awed by the Cathedral itself, where the 12 noon Mass, with wafts of incense and a vast congregation, was taking place. As we stood there, the priest was silently incensing the altar, and then the server incensed the concelebrants, and then all of us, and I suddenly saw it as a young outsider would, in all its beauty and solemnity, and realised all over again the glory of the Eucharist..."Pray, brethren..."

We went on to explore Westminster: the bells of the Abbey were pealing out, bright sunshine made the Thames glitter and golden leaves were fluttering down in St James' Park. We lunched at the Albert pub in Victoria Street, a favourite haunt, and then caught a bus to the City. There were protesters with banners denouncing captalism so various areas had been cordoned off, but we looked in at some Wren churches and finished with tea near St Paul's.

But London in Autumn beauty brings sadness, a sense of nostalgia. The Palace of Westminster, the Union Jack flapping against the flagpole on the Victoria Tower, Big Ben calling out the hour with its huge deep rolling note...I remembered days working in Parliament and writing on all sorts of issues, in the days when defending male/female marriage, and opposing gross forms of "sex ed" for children, and working to affirm the sanctity of human life all seemed more possible and achievable...

Saturday, October 15, 2011

And today...

...an excellent talk from Mgr Andrew Burnham at the Assn for Latin Liturgy meeting at St Mary Magdalene's, Brighton...

The sun sparkled on the sea, and the blue was a brilliant blue...but Brighton has a shabby, slightly sad feel at present, and it was good to get away from the shops and the sea-front and head for St MM's, which is a most beautiful church, and meet many friends there. The hall was rather over-full for the meeting and consequently much too hot, but the talk was enormously interesting and gave insights as to what the Ordinariate will bring to the life of the Church in Britain.

Autumn....

...a time for reflection, and I was somewhere special just the other day...read here...

Thursday, October 13, 2011

An Archbishop speaks...

...and merits our full support. Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow notes that "a mandate to govern does not include a mandate to reconstruct society on ideological grounds, nor to undermine the very institution which, from the beginning, has been universally acknowledged as of the natural order and the bedrock of society, namely marriage and the family. In terms of law, its support and defence have been on a par with the defence of life itself. We weaken it at our peril."

The Archbishop's statement on marriage can be read in full here.

Thinking about the future of the West...

...this is worth reading....

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

...and so to Maryvale...

...where the Autumn term is now in full swing. I cannot adequately convey how hugely I enjoy my studies there.

On Sunday, with the weekend's lectures over, I lunched v. agreeably with the editor of the Ordinariate Portal and his family - based not far from Maryvale - and we finished the day by joining the October Devotions at the parish of Holy Cross and St Francis, Walmley. A mellow October day, and people quietly coming into church for the Rosary and Benediction. A peaceful reflective sense as we all prayed the Rosary together, and then a beautiful Benediction, heads bowed, the Blessed Sacrament raised over us....Why don't more parishes do this, and give everyone an opportunity to make October's Sundays really special?

Back at Maryvale, the kind Brigettine sisters let me in, and I settled in my room with some books from the library. It felt rather strange, as I was all alone in the main part of this great old house, with the creaking sense of the past centuries all around me. When it's all busy and all the rooms are occupied by students, and there is a sense of life and activity, it feels quite different. Now, as darkness fell, I was the only person in all those layers and layers of rooms and history, the hidden chapel from the days of persecution, Newman's room, the stairs that slope and slant, the rooms that have echoed to the voices of the children when the house was an orphanage, to the voices of students from around Britain in the years of study...

I dropped in to the chapel before I finally settled for the night. The lamp was glowing in the sanctuary. The Lord was keeping watch over the house...

The Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon 2011....

...was packed, and the speaker was Mgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. He was excellent - by turns amusing, informative, thought-provoking, and inspirational. There is a real vision here for the way things could develop for the Church in England. And our poor country badly needs this boost and this sense of a new adventure...afterwards I helped to hand out leaflets about the Friends of the Ordinariate and some people were already also giving spontaneous donations...

The Luncheon - some 300 women, all chattering away like anything, golly the noise - also included the inevitable raffle, for which Auntie had obtained some books signed by authors: I was particularly pleased that among these was Light of the World, kindly signed by the German journalist Peter Seewald, who wrote a very nice message in it for the winner...

Friday, October 07, 2011

NO, Mr Cameron....

...No. You cannot achieve anything by seeking to redefine marriage by announcing that you can couple together two people of the same sex and announce that it's all about "commitment" and that such a relationship should therefore be given full marital status. If you think you can do that, why stop at just two? Has he thought this through at all?

The Prime Minister' pathetic attempt to redefine marriage is an embarrassing reminder of how tragic it is watching a society lose its hold on truth and reason.

The Church is a voice of sanity, and will be there to pick up the pieces of people's lives as the chaos continues. Archbishop Peter Smith has explained patiently that no amount of pretence can alter the reality of things:"Marriage by its very nature is between a man and a woman and it is the essential foundation of family life. The state should uphold this common understanding of marriage rather than attempting to change its meaning."

Thursday, October 06, 2011

DON'T FORGET...

...the TOWARDS ADVENT FESTIVAL, Sat Nov 19th, Westminster Cathedral Hall. Opening (with the Gallery Choir of Westminster Cathedral Choir School) 10.30am.

Events during the day: 1.30pm - Mgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham; 3pm Celebration of the life of Bl.John Paul, with film and presentation by drama group...

All day: talls and displays from a wide range of Catholic groups and organisations. Books, DVDs, Christmas cards, all sorts of goods on sale. Refreshments served all day. Play corner for children.

And if you want to know more...

...about St George's Cathedral, Southwark (has a history linked to the Gordon Riots, was designed by Pugin, bombed to ruins in WWII, rebuilt in the 1950s, is home to a good-sized parish community...come long on WEDNESDAY Oct 19th at 2.30pm, and meet us at the Cathedral doors...we're having a History Walk and there is lots of discover...nearest Tube is Waterloo or Lambeth North.

If you've enjoyed my recent blog entries...

...then you might enjoy this one too...

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

You wouldn't have thought....

...that a lecture on philosophy would be a crowd-puller. But when I heard about a new series of lectures being run at Holy Ghost church, Balham, I thought I'd go along, and brush up on a topic that I studied in the first year of my Maryvale degree course...I turned up last night (Tuesday) to find people standing out in the entrance hall and on the steps - the room was packed out, with people sitting (and in some cases kneeling, as there wasn't even room to sit!) on the floor and pressed up against the walls...

The speaker was Re Dr Francis Selman, who lectures at Allen Hall. He has a quiet, pleasant voice and everyone was gripped. One chap, standing in mild discomfort right up against the front door and straining to hear, was making copious notes and sharing them with a friend. People asked interesting questions.We explored Aristotle and Plato and forms and reality and life and existence...

As the room emptied when the evening was over, it was quite astonishing to see just how many had been crammed in there...I can't go to next week's lecture as I will be at Walsingham, but as numbers are so great they are now looking to move into the nearby school hall.

I've been reading a lot just recently about Bl John Paul II and Poland and this evening made me think, somehow, of descriptions of the "flying university" in the Poland of the 1980s...

Sunday, October 02, 2011

Next CATHOLIC HISTORY WALK...

...is this week. Wed Oct 5th, meet 6.30pm on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral. No need to book - just turn up. Wear suitable shoes for walking. Walk lasts about an hour and a half, though of course you can leave at any time. We'll be looking at the City, and some of its fascinating byways...

Saturday, October 01, 2011

There is a really good report...

...on today's big Blessed Sacrament procession on this London news site...

The pics are particularly good as they show details of the event. Note the thurifer walking backwards so that he faces the Bl. Sacrament...and also note, in another pic, the splendid processional cross leading us...

It was a priviledge to have Bishop Alan Hopes with us, and all the clergy were really splendid: it was complicated because this was a long walk in which to carry, with due honour, a heavy monstrance - we crossed from Victoria through Westminster and down to the embankment, and then over the big bridge and thence via Lambeth and into Southwark...

On the way we passed, variously, the Victoria Tower gardens next to Parliament, Lambeth Palace, and the Imperial War Museum...somehow it is good to think of the Blessed Sacrament being carried, with prayer and praise, through our London like that...

History was made...

...today as, for the first time, the Blessed Sacrament was carried in procession from one London cathedral to the other, across the Thames. A huge crowd of the faithful (see below for description of what it felt like to be part of it), great singing of hymns and praying of the Rosary, an atmosphere of devotion and unity, a sense of thanksgiving, and all under the clearest of clear blue skies and brilliant sunshine...

The aim was to give thanks for the Visit of the Holy Father last year, and for the Beatification of Bl.John Henry Newman, himself a Londoner and the first person to be beatified on British soil...in the great procession, which included people from every age and race and background, we had Sisters in blue habits and veils from the new Ordinariate convent recently established in London, and sisters from Mother Teresa's order in their distinctive blue-and-white sari-habits, and Franciscan brothers in brown robes, and Knights of St Columba with their traditional ribboned collars with medals of office...we had families with children in push-chairs, and young people teaming up (I saw a couple of WYD backpacks, which brought back cheery August memories for me), and parish clergy, and seminarians from Allen Hall and from St John's Wonersh....

Before it all began, I dropped in to a shop near Westminster Cathedral to fortify myself with a cup of coffee. I was much too worried and nervous (willanyonecome?willitbeallright?) to eat anything. A young friend happened to be getting a cup of coffee too and caught sight of me - we got talking, swapped WYD memories, spoke about a book on Bl.JPII which I am currently re-reading and hugely enjoying, relaxed...suddenly everything felt that it was going to be all right. And it was, it was. Across the road, people were pouring into the Cathedral and a great piece of history was about to be made...

Deo Gratias.

A huge, unforgettable procession...

... with an enormous crowd, far far larger than I had ever imagined possible, stretching down to the river as the Blessed Sacrament, borne aloft and surrounded by acolytes and candle-bearers and billowing incense, was carried out from Westminster Cathedral...

We sang hymns, we prayed the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, we prayed in silence, we sang "O Sacrament most holy....". You can get a flavour of it all here, complete with some good pictures... We began in a well-filled Westminster Cathedral with Newman's "Praise to the Holiest in the height" with a glorious organ accompaniement, and slowly, slowly the crowd made its way out and turned down Ambrosden Avenue...by now it was abundantly clear that we had vastly underestimated the numbers attending and so not everyone had hymn-sheets, but it didn't matter, as the singing was fine and people joined in the Rosary with vigour, the voices going back and forth as we passed the Royal Horticultural Halls and Vincent Square and Marsham Street... We poured over Lambeth Bridge and I turned for a moment to look at the Houses of Parliament with the flag flapping under the clearest of blue skies. The splendid Knights of St Columba were stewarding the whole thing, and had mapped out the route and checked all the cross-roads - at each major junction we were allowed across in sections, bus passengers gawping, tourists stopping to take pictures. As we wound our way past Lambeth Palace and down towards St George's at Southwark it began to feel extremely warm - it must have been hard work for the clergy carrying the Blessed Sacrament and its big umbrella-canopy thing ( what's the official name?) and dressed in robes...at St George's every pew was filled to capacity and people still filed in at the back...and then Benediction began, with a splendid Tantum Ergo and then the roar of voices echoing "Blessed be God..."