To Manchester...

...to speak to the North West branch of the Catholic Writers Guild.  It meets at the Catholic Chaplaincy of Manchester University, where there was a lot going on, as a Catholic Medical Group was also meeting, and of course in any case the place was teeming with students... the chapel was full for Evening Mass.  Afterwards in a crowded room we struggled to get the projector etc working for the power-point I had prepared. To no avail - and in the end I did the talk without it, and no one seemed to mind. Topic: John Paul the Great. It really is fascinating to explore his extraordinary life - working in a stone quarry, having lost both parents and his only brother, studying secretly for the priesthood under the noses of the Nazi authorities with all colleges and universities closed, his country occupied by a ruthless power in a savage war...and then the grim years under Communism, the long-drawn-out battles to build the church at Nowa Huta, the young people  in solidarity with their Archbishop...then Rome, and that magnificent "Do not be Afraid!" and the great missionary journeys...World Youth Day...Veritatis Splendor...the Theology of the Body...