Wednesday, February 29, 2012

A new approach...

...seems to have been signalled about something in London which has been all wrong for too long. Special Masses have been celebrated for people with same-sex-attraction tendencies. And it has been by no means clear that these Masses have been supportive of the teachings of the Church in this area.

But things look set to change. A statement from Archbishop's House says: "At the present time consideration is being given to the circumstances in which these Masses are celebrated to ensure that their purpose is respected and that they are not occasions for confusion or opposition concerning the positive teaching of the Church on the meaning of human sexuality or the moral imperatives that flow from that teaching,which we uphold and towards which we all strive.”

This is good news and what happens next needs our prayers.

From Power to Prison to Peace...

... the subject of a recent talk at the Catholic Writers' Guild. Speaker was Jonathan Aitken. It was spot-on - downbeat,thoughtful, honest, delivered with humour and insight.Nothing trite, nothing smug or insincere. The gifts that took him soaring up in public life are still hugely apparent.

Years and years ago, there was a big meeting organised in London by Lord Longford, on the theme "The crisis in our country - what can we do about it?" It was a typically well-intentioned Lord Longfordian sort of excercise - various people, all really unconnected, brought together in a spirit of general goodwill with the idea that together we might...well...do something about the economic, social, and spiritual decline of the nation. This was the late 1970s.I had been invited with some other representatives of youth and community organisations. A number of people, including the excellent Mary Whitehouse, spoke rather well about the spiritual state of things and the need to support marriage, family, and community values. Then a young v. good-looking chap came to the rostrum. He was a Member of Parliament and his contribution was to be on economic matters. "Today many people have spoken, very movingly, about God" he said "I am here to talk about Mammon..." That was Jonathan Aitken. And now here he is in 2012 speaking about God.

I was at that meeting back in the 70s, and at the Guild meeting the other day I was asked to give the tote of thanks and was able to bring the two events together...

If you get the chance to hear Jonathan Aitken speak, seize it. I think he is doing good work.

MInster-in-Thanet...

...and a happy day with the Sisters there. This was a longed-planned trip with a friend who had missed the pilgrimage organised by the Association of Catholic Women last year: we promised ourselves a day trip and finally made it this week.

We arrived for Mass at 9am - it was said by a young priest making his first visit to the Abbey since his ordination, and so as Mass ended we all lined up to recieve his blessing and kiss his hands - a moving and unforgettable scene. We joined the Sisters for the various Offices through the day - they file into the chapel two by two, with quiet dignity, including the newest novice in a white veil,and a postulant not yet robed, and there is such a peaceful and "grounded" feel to it all. In the afternoon, we walked by the sea - this is where St Augustine landed, and a Cross not far from the shore marks it all. Thus the Faith was planted here...will it now drift away after over 1,500 years? Prayers...New Evangelisation...courage...

There were young children visiting the Abbey - a school group, I think - and they trooped into the chapel for the midday Office. In the garden there were snowdrops all along lawns, and the first tentative buds of daffodils in clumps by the path.

Vespers, with candles glowing in the sanctuary, and the rhythm of the voices chanting the psalms turn and turn about...then the drive back to London and the train home via London Bridge...

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Evensong....

...with the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Anglican-style Evensong, chanted in the church of the Holy Ghost, Balham, in full communion with the Catholic Church. We chanted the psalms, had the Scripture readings,chanted the canticle, said the Creed, prayed for the Pope, prayed for our country...

"It's a new initiative - I'll be glad if we get ten people" said Deacon James Bradley, who organised it. We got twice that number, a devotional atmosphere, and for me at any rate a quiet sense of history being made.

Certainly C.of E.-style psalms and "Endew thy ministers with righteousness" and so on would be unfamiliar territory to the young families with small children who make up the bulk of Balham's congregations for the packed morning Masses. But to have Evensong in this way is a blessing for the parish, a good initiative for the Ordinariate and a sign of what can be done...numbers will quietly grow, and I for one will certainly be attending again. 5pm, every Sunday in Lent.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Conspiracies, Blessed John Paul, Fatima....

...read more on this by Auntie here...

Go on...

...listen to this sermon. This in the Church in America speaking with courage and faith and offering hope.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Ashes and crowds...

...at St Patrick's Soho Square. I was there to give a lecture at the St Patrick's Evangelisation School and stayed on to recieve ashes at the midday Mass. Large numbers of people came streaming steadily into the church - by the time Mass was under way the place was full, and it was rather haunting to see everyone filing up the aisle silently and to hear Fr Alexander's voice to each one as he distributed the blessed ashes on foreheads. A server stood alongside him, having to replenish the dish of ashes as they got used up. And immediately after that Mass was over, people were pouring in again and Fr A. began to celebrate the next one. More crowds.

I ate a frugal Lenten lunch (mashed potato and baked peppers, since you ask) with the SPES students and various members of the parish team - and then spent the afternoon at home working on my current book project. Have just had a how's-it-going? chivvy from the publisher but am not so far panicking as I think we'll be on schedule...

Found these pix of Ash Wednesday scenes from around the world...

I feel very proud and glad...

...to be associated with EWTN. Read this and you'll see why.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

I've just read...

... a truly frightening report about the American Air Force. I honestly thought it was a spoof at first. The chap in charge of the US Air Force has announced that any endorsement of a religious faith is banned: so a course on leadership that quoted some verses from the Bible has been stopped, any announcements about any religious activities must be made by a chaplain and not by any commander, and even ordinary conversations that appear to offer any sort of religious support are forbidden.

The only link that I - or most other British people - have with the American air force is this one. Now what are they going to do to remove the religious symbols there? Would the current Chief of Staff of the US Air Force like to begin work on the project, explaining to us all why he is doing so and how he is going to tell the families involved?

Our good team...

...of workers for Aid to the Church in Need gathered in London for the annual conference and training day. These are the men and women who go from church to church to raise funds for the people who are being persecuted for their faith in various countries. There were presentations on a range of topic including a report from field worker John Pontifex, focusing on the Middle East. Mass, lunch, sessions tackling the practicalities of fund-raising.

As the day drew to a close we gathered in the beautiful chapel - we were at a conference centre run by nuns in Roehampton - for a Holy Hour and Benediction. This was led by an Eastern-rite Deacon. As we entered, he was pacing the chapel with the thurible: instead of merely incensing the altar and the sanctuary, he was filling the whole church with incense, and his measured, prayerful pace and the swish of the thurible and the scent and sound of it drew us in, and conveyed a message that the whole place was holy and sacred. This is an idea that we in the Western rite can take up instead of stopping short at the sanctuary steps.

Benediction was beautiful - we sang the O Salutaris and Tantum ergo with joy and were led in an Eastern-rite prayer, and the Divine Praises...

Shrove Tuesday - pancakes at suppertime, with lemon and sugar. Lent starts tomorrow. A friend and I have covenanted together to maintain our Lenten resolutions and be accountable to each other. We have invited Blessed John Paul to be our patron for this season.

So here goes...

Auntie on Britain and the YEAR OF FAITH...

Read here...

Sunday, February 19, 2012

For much of my adult life...

...I was told that the Second Vatican Council was "all a dreadful mistake" "didn't achieve anything worthwhile" etc etc, and I suspect too many - especially young - people are still being told that. But it's just not true. This weekend, attending at Maryvale a series of lectures on the Church, I realised again the huge importance of Lumen Gentium and its profound perspective on the reality of the Church. Instead of presenting the Church as a sort of super-society, a structure with rules, this offers much more profound understanding of the Church, all richly connected with Christ.

I hadn't fully grasped the significance of 19th century history - when Garibaldi's army helped to ensure a swift ending to the First Vatican Council, there was much that was left undone - and many years, and two world wars, later, the Second Vatican Council took on the task with a renewed understanding of its urgency. We are only now, fifty years on again, able to see that - like all great Councils of the Church - the full significance of what it discovered and taught has an immense importance over and beyond what its actual participants imagined.

Maryvale is a wonderful place at which to study. You are woken in the morning by the sound of the Brigettine sisters singing their morning office in the chapel. Mass follows - academics, students, sisters, everyone, together filling the chapel, priests concelebrating, an atmosphere of great devotion. Then we say the morning Office together, after which comes breakfast and then lectures begin. The old house, large and rambling, always seems to yield up new secrets - this time I found that I could get to the lecture room speedily through a tiny slip of a corridor I hadn't even known existed, connecting one section of the house with another, near what was once Bl. John Henry Newman's room. Outside, rain lashed down but we were snug and at meals crowds of students chattered and nattered in the pleasant refectory over plates of pasta and sausages. The only grim thing is the coffee, but I always bring my own(and share it with anyone and everyone who happens to be at my table)so that problem is solved.

The library is full of good things, the grounds, rain-washed but agreeable summoned me for some fresh air under rustling trees. On Sunday morning we listened to the Gospel about the paralysed man being lifted down through the roof: an image of how it's the faith and support of others, and not neccesarily our own, that can bring us to Christ. A rich sense of being part of the universal Church, the timelessness of the Eucharist, of the Church, of God, a strong unity with the Holy Father in Rome. The Church: Lumen Gentium.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Oh, our poor country...

...read this and start praying...

Never has this document seemed more relevant...

And do...

...read this...

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Busy morning - led a workshop....

...for students sponsored by this magazine for girls. It feels odd playing the role of Veteran Journalist Offering Wisdom. And the world of mass communications is changing so rapidly that it is hard to know is there is anything of value that one can offer...

On to Westminster Cathedral. Led History Tour. I always enjoy doing these. My favourite mosaic is the one of St Augustine being sent to evangelise England - he is there in Rome's Trajan market in the 6th century, with the Saxon slaves in their leggings. The story is that he and his monks set off at the behest of Pope St Gregory,to evangelise the land from which these poor slaves came, but on arrival in Gaul they heard such frightful stories about Britain - its cold weather, brutal people, stewed tea, Marmite sandwiches, whatever - that they hurried back to Rome and had to be told sternly to get on and do as they were told. So they dutifully set out again and...well....here we are, in Westminster Cathedral, and the evangelisation continues...

Evening meeting helping to plan the TOGETHER IN FAITH VIGIL organised for May 17th with Aid to the Church in Need. Book the date in your diary now!

Piers Paul Read's...

...latest book is just out and is a must-read. Get out of your comfort-zone and get a copy and get reading...

Remember...

...the headlines in 2010 about the Vatican being sued because of the sexual abuse perpetrated by a priest in Milwaukee? The case has now been withdrawn. But you won't hear about it from the media pack - read it here.

The Milwaukee priest was involved in abuse of children at a school for the deaf from the 1950s until 1974. Campaigning lawyers tried to make out that the Pope was responsible. It was all used in an attempt to destroy the 2010 Papal visit to Britain. Didn't work.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Weekday Mass...

...in this local parish with a good-sized congregation. Its a beautiful Mass, we chant the Kyrie, Agnus Dei etc properly, there's a sense of reverence and unity. Whenever I go it's the same - even today's raw weather failed to deter people...

Tomorrow: a Catholic History Walk around Westminster Cathedral. Come and celebrate the heritage of this London landmark. Starts 2.30pm - meet us on the Cathedral steps, or just inside.

Been re-reading A Freedom Within, the prison memoirs of Stefan Cardinal Wyszinski. When I first read this book, back in the early 1980s, it was with faintly smug sense of oooh-how-terrible-to-live-in-Eastern-Europe. Now, in the changed and changing circumstances of modern Britain, my reaction is rather different. Arbitrary official decrees that make it impossible for the Church to function normally, bureaucratic restrictions on Christian work for the sick and the poor, jargon-ridden language in Government circles that seeps into a loss of everyday freedoms...it doesn't seem so remote or far-away now...

Monday, February 13, 2012

"Forty Days for LIfe"....

...is an excellent initiative, and today I had the priviledge of taking the founders of this movement on a history tour of London...we began at Westminster Cathedral,went on to the Abbey, took in all sorts of bits of history like the Grey Coat Hospital and St Matthew's...lunched at the Albert pub, later went on to the Tower...

A most useful meeting at Holy Trinity Brompton - good, ecumenical friendly discussions, shared prayer, an atmosphere of warmth and welcome.

Good things happen when Christians get together to defend human life and human dignity. HTB has a bookshop with some good material on supporting marriage and family life, and I also found myself gripped by a new edition of C.S.Lewis' Mere Christianity, which I remember reading long ago and which stirred and helped me hugely...

Sunday, February 12, 2012

"I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year..."

This is one of those all-time quotes. A previously unknown piece of prose was quoted by King George VI in his broadcast to the nation on the outbreak of World War II in 1939. The words became identified with the King and with the noble cause to which he was rallying the nation - giving voice to the sense of moral purpose which would would sustain them in the months ahead..

"...Go out into the dark, and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way."

But today, if you quoted those words as an inspiration at the beginning of a borough council meeting in Britain it would be illegal. A judge ruled this week that prayers before council meetings contravene the law. He claims that this is based on a law passed in 1972. In 1974 I was elected to the council of the London Borough of Sutton. We began every Council meeting with prayers, and opened the year with a Civic Service in a local church, walking there in procession headed by the Mayor with his mace. I don't think there had ever been meetings of the Council, or of any of its predecessors (Borough of Beddington and Wallington, Urban District of Carshalton, etc) that had not begun with prayers.

This latest court ruling is nonsense and must be overturned.

Britain in the 21st century is looking-glass land. Can we get back to reality, please?

On the situation in America...

...do read this.

And this...

Supporting the Holy Father...

...and, specifically, his plan for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Read here for an update. Last night another fund-raiser, this time in Croydon where the vicar and a good number of parishioners from St Michael's Church are Ordinariate-bound. The church is a magnificent great red-brick mountain of Victoriana in the otherwise quite ghastly tower-block-and-concrete ugliness of Croydon. I don't know what will happen to the building in the long term: the area is very Islamic now.

We had a wonderful evening, and it was lateish as I went to catch the tram home. Croydon draws in people from all the neighbouring suburbs for Saturday nights. Girls were tottering out of the clubs on the six-inch high platform shoes that are currently a fashion obligation, along with very tiny shorts, tights, and lots of bling. They find it hard to walk - the shoes are like the pattens worn long ago by people who had to work near muddy rivers, but they don't work well on smooth sloping pavements and amid busy traffic. The girls shriek and cling on to one another, cursing and swearing with sexual expletives - their vocabulary is rather limited - trying to sort out arrangements about buses or taxi-rides home while staying upright and talking on mobile phones.

The trams leave from Reeves Corner - a confusing area at present because it was all destroyed in the summer's riots and is still being rebuilt. There is a Baptist chapel nearby with the date, 1861, nobly carved into its stone frontage - I wonder what its founders would have made of modern Croydon? There's still a whole biggish section of the Reeves shop which is thriving. A tram was waiting nearby and it was warm inside and I settled with book, the funds raised from the Ordinariate evening safely tucked somewhere way down inside my backback.

There is talk of London hosting World Youth Day - looking ahead to beyond 2013. Let's do it. We need it.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Farm Street...

...is London's famous Jesuit church and it is magnificent. A beautiful Mass there this evening to mark the centenary of the National Catholic Library (founded 1912) and to see the presentation of the Bene Merenti medal to a longtime volunteer staff member. Celebrant at the Mass was Bishop John Sherrington. The church gleams and glitters - it's in superb condition and, on this bitterly cold evening, was gloriously warm. There are several Masses there every Sunday including the sung Latin one which is noted for its fine music.

Back in 1992, I was in the Catholic Library - then based in Westminster, just behind the Cathedral - on the day the Church of England Synod debated the ordination of women. The librarian asked the two people - one was me - working in the reference room if we minded if she listened to the debate on the radio. We rather wanted to hear it too. We listened. I was underwhelmed by the arguments put for priestesses. I thought the people explaining how Scripture and Tradition pointed to the continuity of the Church's teaching in this matter had the better of the debate. I had to leave the library before the discussion ended. As I walked down Victoria Street I saw people coming out of the Synod, and two gleeful ladies told me they had won. I was sad.

But things have moved on and now, twenty years later, we are watching with awe the opening chapters of the next part of the history of Christianity in these islands - the unity for which so many have prayed, the fruit of ecumenical efforts over the years. We have the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Deo GRatias.

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

A meeting of the...

...CATHOLIC VOICES Academy, on "Morality and the Markets". A useful and stimulating discussion.

Earlier, I spent the day packing up prizes and certificates for a school project run by Southwark Vocations Children were invited to interview a priest or a Sister and then write it up. There were some excellent essays, many showing the real affection and admiration that children have for their parish priest. There were also, as always,some splendid howlers and some glorious spelling. Every child taking part gets a small religious medal and a wristband. Some of the young winners are getting this book as a prize, which is pleasing.

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee,...

...and the state of Britain.

Try reading this, and add your comment.

Monday, February 06, 2012

"If we do not act now, the consequences will be grave..."

....thus the Archbishop of New York, speaking about the Obama/religious freedom issue. Read more here.

What is happening in the USA is frightening and disgraceful. No less fearsome are the plans of our Government here in Britain to force same-sex "marriage" on the nation, with the clear possibility that churches that refuse to offer such ceremonies could be subjected to legal action.

This is a time for courage and the American bishops are showing the way.

Students...

..at University College London are being told they can't hold a pro-life meeting. And the plans for banning them from doing so are utterly unjust as well as ludicrous. There's a good analysis of the situation here.

The point that we need to make repeatedly is that no one has any right to abortion: I don't just mean morally, which is obviously the case - I mean, even under the present law. Abortion is available effectively on-demand in Britain, but the law doesn't state that it is a right: there are various (ineffective, but nevertheless existing) restrictions on it. The law doesn't say that you have a "right to choose" to kill a baby. So students are in no way trampling on anyone's "rights" when they affirm how evil abortion is, and call for an end to it. We should assume that one day abortion will be banned in Britain: a civilised country protects its unborn babies and that is what our country should do.

Saturday, February 04, 2012

An evening of poetry...

...yes, you read that correctly. Organised by Oliver House School in South London, and it was absolutely delightful. A packed hall,great enthusiasm, delightful children reciting some wonderful verse,a roar of applause greeting Roald Dahl's magnificent tirade on the subject of TV. I had the unenviable task of being one of the judges, and the delightful task of presenting the prizes and the Trophy to the final overall winner. Everyone entered into the spirit of the evening with great goodwill - it was honestly one of the happiest of gatherings I've ever attended in the London suburbs. There was a joyful and solid timelessness about it - thus might our ancestors, down through the centuries, have rallied to enjoy themselves on a February evening of bitter cold. With wine and snacks, and friendship and laughter, this was just such good fun. And the children had learned their poetry well, and declaimed it with clarity and enthusiasm. The school was founded just over half a dozen years ago and no wonder it is thriving.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

Sadly, the Study Day organised by the Association of Catholic Women for Feb 7th has had to be CANCELLED. We hope to reschedule it for the summer term. Those who had booked places have been notified.