...and today...

...a "washup" meeting for the Catholic Women of the Year event held in October. This overview meeting of the organising committee involves a lot of noisy chat, a mild air of self-congratulation ("It all went very well, didn't it?") jostling with ideas for next year, tiresome discussion of menus ("So are we agreed then on the salmon followed by the lemon mousse?") and some useful ideas and thoughts and plans. The 2011 Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon was chiefly notable for the excellent guest speaker - Mgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate - and we came up with some good ideas for the 2012 event.

On to Westminster Cathedral for a glorious sung Mass celebrated by Bishop John Arnold and attended by members of the Catholic Union on the occasion of its Annual General Meeting. We needed the inspiration and beauty of the Mass because the meeting, tackling a number of major issues currently confronting Christians in Britain, included much depressing news. The most depressing of all is the Government's ghastly plan to redefine marriage. Edward Leigh MP spoke to us on this subject: he is being courageous in speaking out clearly on this subject.

I joined the Catholic Union back in the 1970s and back then we knew that much was wrong - abortion had been legalised, there was a vast amount of pornography widely on display in newsagents and supermarkets, there were schemes of sex education in schools that were crude and damaging,...and there was a concern that things would get worse and that we must all stand firm to uphold human and Christian values. Well, we were right to worry and right to do what we could, and we'll go on doing what we can...