Faith Movement

A couple of evenings this week have been spent at the annual Summer Session of the Faith Movement, in the lovely surroundings of Woldingham School. Biggest-ever such event, crowds and crowds of cheerful young people, groups chatting in the lovely grounds, sense of energy and activity, sound of young voices praying together. I arrived in time to hear a sparkling talk from Sister Roseanne Reddy of the Sisters of the Gospel of Life - powerful, inspiring, amusing, challenging. This is a new religious order, based in Glasgow and emerging from Cardinal Winning's Pro Life Initiative, and doing good work with women and babies in a spirit of great goodwill and generosity. Sister Roseanne always arrives with a crowd of enthusiastic young Scots who have given their own distinctive stamp to the whole Faith Movement - yesterday evening saw a splendid ceilidh, a vast improvement on the traditional disco. Here, the dancing was lively and continued non-stop until late: a really delightful sight with people quickly getting a grasp of the dance and twirling partners and forming circles and jiggling round the room in terrific style to traditional Scottish music. It was a joy to watch.

Sister Roseanne and Sister Andrea look great in their religious habits, though I sometimes spare a thought for the vision allegedly first discussed at one of the early gatherings of interested young women: tartan veils!

For Jamie and me, it was a time to meet old friends - the talk and laughter greeted us as we approached the (beautiful, ??? vaguely Jacoebean-style) school building with its wide steps leading down to the lawn. In the evening cool children ran about and their giggles and shrieks made a background to the adult chatter - a nice feature of the Faith Movement is the arrival at this summer gathering of young couples who met through the movement and now return with their families for this agreeable get-together. An even more noticeable feature is the large numbers of priests who arrive here - men whose vocation has been directly or indirectly formed with and through the Faith movement, now active in parishes across Britain. And among the young people taking part, an even larger number this year seemed to be training for the priesthood, or just off to the seminary this Autumn.

We stayed until much too late - Jamie had joined in the dancing and both of us were also hugely enjoying the company of young relatives among the attendees. As we left, people were wishing me well for the Sponsored Cycle Ride. One young cycling enthusasist assured me that I ought to be able to do 20 miles in about two and a half hours. Hmmmm.

`Families

Bulletin arrives from the National Association of Catholic Families. A good read, as always: news of a retreat planned by NACF Youth for October, local groups running Family Days with guest speakers and opportunities for families to get together, a team going to World Youth Day...a report on the annual pilgrimage to Walsingham which was held on one of the wettest weekends of the year, a stream overflowing into the river where the families were camping, tents blown down, a Force 8 gale...and the Psalm at Mass on the final morning was "So let the good man pray to you in time of need. The floods of water may reach high but him they shall not reach. You are my hiding place, O Lord"...!

Today...

...was busy. Tackled letters, emails, etc. Blackberrying in warm sunshine, friend's tiny girls eagerly taking part, only occasional squeaks because of stinging nettles (why are they always growing near the best fruit? Is there a scientific explanation, or is it just the perversity of things, Original Sin, consequence of the Fall etc etc?). Back for mugs of tea and delicious warm cake, which had been baking as we worked. Cycled home to desk: work/letters/arrangements re possible speaking engagements while in America/admin. re ecumenical Schools Bible Project/plans for next book/ research for Autumn TV work. Made jam. If you want the recipe, you must get my "Book of Feasts and Seasons", info here.

The blackberries are ripe!

...gloriously ripe! After all this rain, today's sunshine has just burst upon them so they are just rejoicing in their juiciness...time to pick them and make jam, to fill shelves, to eat on buttered toast, to serve on pancakes, and to enjoy like anything all winter. Phoned Margaret E, local friend with delightful bunch of children. Small daughter has been pleading to go blackberrying. Spent evening washing jam jars. We always need quantities of home-made jam to sell at the Towards Advent Festival at Westminster Cathedral Hall. (Sat Nov 3rd. Got the date? Put it in your diaries now). I spent part of today folding leaflets reading for mailing out to parishes

This week

The FAITH Movement, to which I owe a great deal, has its annual Summer Session this week. I hope to be able to look in at some stage, though only as a visitor. I attended Summer Sessions back in the 1970s - the whole thing has grown hugely since then - and remember the excellent talks, the long enjoyable afternoons spent with friends, evening prayer in the chapel (my first introduction to the Daily Office) and singing the "Salve Regina"...

A feature of the week was always a concert, with some really good things, including glorious music from Nicholas Walker, who went on become a concert pianist, and even then was winning all sorts of distinguished musical prizes. His playing was always a highlight, something to which we all looked forward, and it's only now I realise how extremely priviledged we were to be enjoying it as a part of our week.

There were also always some brilliant comedy sketches - one of the best was a spoof on TV's Blue Peter, showing how to make a clerical collar out of a plastic washing-up liquid bottle...and there was usually a grand finale involving a scratch orchestra, in which people who could really play various instruments were joined by people whistling through combs or beating out percussion on various household implements - there were practices during the week and the final rendition of "Old Macdonald had a farm" or similar was always tremendous...

But the thing I most gained from the Faith formation has lasted and lasted: a deep understanding that the Church's teachings are intellectually coherent, that there was nothing that couldn't be discussed, taught, explained, studied, with endless possibilities for learning more, nothing off-limits. Father Roger Nesbitt told us that a Christian should love God with his whole heart, soul, and mind, and without diminishing the other two, the Faith movement sought to show how important it was to love God with our minds. And that being a Catholic wasn't an add-on to life, something that only occasionally mattered, a sort of sentimental trimming: rather, it held the key to explaining why things existed, why we were here, what was the point of life, and of other people's lives.

St Petersburg

You simply must link to this fascinating blog from St Petersberg, from a young relative who is there on an academic conference.

And here I am on my bike!!

This morning people at the local parish of St Joseph's were extremely generous in responding to Father Peter's call for sponsors for my cycle ride to Brighton - all funds go to help local young people take part in World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, next year. We have over 30 going from the local deanery.

Masses in this parish are well-attended. I usually go to the 11.30, and it was illuminating to go to the 9.30 as well - packed with young families, and with a violinist among the musicians.

I collected good sums of money as I stood outside after Mass in pleasant sunshine. Also had some good chats about cycling - we have quite a number of enthusasists in the parish, and one chap told me about having cycled to Scotland...which makes my trip to Brighton look rather small fry.

"Pastor Iuventus", the columnist in the Catholic Herald, mentions my sponsored ride in this week's edition.

I'm still welcoming donations, and am hugely grateful to all readers of this Blog who have supported me. World Youth Day is something of real value: the 2008 event will take place exactly 90 years after the end of the First World War when an earlier generation of young people was slaughtered at the start of a century which was to see further suffering: to have an event bringing another generation together to pray together seems symbolic, hopeful, and good.

Here I am with Mac!

...and she's been showing me all sorts of wonderful things to do with a Blog. Which is why I've changed mine to green, which was my favourite colour when I was a child.

We've also had coffee and cake, and I've saved more cake for later. The cake is coffee and walnut!!

Mac came to take some pictures of me on my bicycle, ready for the Great Ride. The pix will appear shortly, but meanwhile here is a picture of a bicycle:

...which I did all on my own (OK, OK Mac...almost on my own).

Now can we have some more coffee and cake?

GETTING ON WITH THINGS...

Tomorrow Mac (Mulier Fortis) will be coming over to take some pictures of me on my bike, preparing for my Sponsored Cycle Ride - and we'll post them on this blog and elsewhere...this will be extremely satisfactory to Fr Tim (Hermeneutic ConTimuity) and others who have been in despair because my Blog is so technically under-developed ("But, Joanna, it's all so easy..."look, there's no need to be afraid of it..."etc...etc...etc...). I have promised her supper and we'll talk and munch chocolates...Jamie is away (sailing in the English Channel - don't know if the poor chap is getting our weather or France's...)

While the Bogles have been holidaying, the dear Holy Father has been, too - on various websites there are some sweet pictures of him on country walks and meeting children who run up to give him bunches of flowers and get hugged and blessed...and he gave a a v. interesting talk to local clergy when he met them at gathering at a local church...What he says about Vatican 11 is really illuminating and inspiring.

Spent most of the day on the computer, features for various publications for Sept and Oct. You can read me in the current Crisis magazine, and also in the Catholic Times and I've got a feature about the Pope in New Directions magazine which is run by an Anglican team linked to Forward in Faith.

Cycled out to arrange printing of 5,000 handbills for this November's Towards Advent Festival at Westminster Cathedral. It's on Nov 3rd - mark the date now. Speakers include convert from Islam Aghi Clovis, also Fr Richard Whinder talking about the life of Bishop Richard Challoner, and author Christopher Martin with an illustrated talk on "Our Heritage of English Catholic Churches". There's music from the choir of More House School, and tours of some of the Cathedral treasures, not normally on display to the public...

DOMESTIC....

Apart from some forays out into the rain for shopping, the bank, and the library, I have spent the past couple of days at home catching up on work... and coping with minor domestic irritations such as the drain being blocked (excellent local plumber, who rather endearingly is called Mr Plumb, came today and sorted the matter out...

Catching up with mail...useful material from a group, Familes First with, alas, news of further Govt intimidation of ordinary families. The group is urging people to respond to the Review of a section of the 2004 Children Act - take a look at the link. New leaflet, too, for young people from Family and Youth Concern on saving sex for marriage - you can order copies from the Family Education Trust 020 8 894 2525...

My new "Yearbook of Feasts and Seasons" will be published in October - much emailing back and forth with publisher, Gracewing, to plan the celebratory party. It will be at St Etheldreda's, Ely Place, where the first edition of the book was launched 21 years ago...

Wed July 25th St James Day

During our holiday, we spent time with family, and small niece E. and I enjoyed writing a detective story together, set at a village flower show. We also took part in the village Fair, where E. triumphed in the under-9s running race and was presented with a medal - moment of glory. It was a proper Fair, with Morris dancers with sticks and bells, and little girls from the village school doing country dancing (We were all invited to join in the final dance, and I kicked off my shoes and did so with glee), and candy floss, and displays of thatching, and lots of home-made jams and cakes on sale, and "guess the weight of the pig".

Our village was fortunate. Many other country events were cancelled because of the weather, including the big Dunster fair - diagonal stickers saying CANCELLED stuck over the posters along the lanes. The ground was just too soggy and waterlogged for horses and dogs and tents and crowds and crowds of people.

The rains had made the countryside look glorious. It was great to be out of London. Mass in the local town: a crowded church with the first of the season's holidaymakers. Talkative family meals. A glorious concert, part of the big Minehead and Exmoor Music Festival - Mozart and Richard Strauss in a lovely Medieval church (brother-in-law among the musicians).

Wednesday July 25th St James' Day

A good holiday break...though the rain, which was no worry to us with family visits and all sorts of activities to enjoy, was busily ruining the homes of people in other parts of England...

Home yesterday. It's still raining. Elsewhere, Europe is enduring a heatwave that is claiming lives in Greece and Italy. What a weird summer.

Sat July 14th

OFF AND AWAY

I won't be blogging for a few days: we are off to a family gathering at the seaside, four generations, spread over three seaside houses...picnics...swimming...

We start by meeting up for a wedding this afternoon, for which my hat and beribboned parcels are waiting as I write. I'll look a bit odd in my best hat and black eye, but there you are...

Friday 13th July 07

ON THE ROOFTOPS...

An excellent party on the rooftop over looking Westminster Cathedral! There are a series of roof gardens there, none of which I have ever known existed. We were on the one on top of Clergy House, which you enter from Francis Street, but in a most satisfactory way this whole glorious solid red-brick edifice - Clergy House, Archbishop's House, Cathedral, Hall, Choir School - all interconnect with lots of roof-levels and, inside, interesting curving staircases and large important-looking corridors with portraits of Cardinals.

The party was given by the team that runs Oremus, the Cathedral's monthly magazine, for which I now plan to write...I had wonderful talks with Mgr Mark Langham, the Cathedral Administrator, and with Dominican Father Tim Gardiner (who when not working as chaplain at a hospital, and a big inner-city school, and more, writes rather good cookery columns for the Catholic press), and with Fr Peter Newby of St Mary Moorfields who is of course chaplain to The Keys, the Catholic Writers' Guild...and when I left there were still people sitting in the agreeably warm night and talking and London lay beneath us with the maze of streets around Westminster and the Big Wheel over towards the river and the humpy odd domes and unknown extra roof levels of the Cathedral.

I had left my bike padlocked to the Cathedral itself (those iron loop-things by the main doors - are they specifically designed for bikes? v. useful anyway) and cycled off warily to Waterloo. I say "warily" because earlier in the day I had a nasty bash - fell off the bike just as I was leaving the house, here in New Malden, and had to be mopped up by kind people who run the (I'm not inventing this!) tattoo parlour just round the corner...I was OK and hurried off to the committee meeting of the Assn of Catholic Women where everyone was v. nice, rushed off to a chemist to get soothing witch-hazel (worked well - much recommended).

My right eye feels a bit uncomfortable and will probably blacken. Standard greeting at the party was to ask who had biffed me...

St Charles Borromeo....

...is the name of a church in Ogle Street,London W1, not far from the BBC at Portland Place. I went there to talk to Soul Food, a very good group which meets there every Thursday. It's a big group - they often get 80-90 people, young, and interested in the Catholic Faith. The church is unusually beautiful, and is tucked away in a corner of this quiet street - hard to find and horribly easy to lose. I arrived in time for evening Mass, and then there was gap while people set things up for the Soul Food gathering, so I went away to get a snack...and only with difficulty found the church again, running down the street with lots of urgent prayers ascending, and slipped inside just as a cheerful young man was saying "And now I welcome our speaker, Joanna Bogle", and looking around for me to appear!

Topic was "celebrating feasts and seasons of the Church's calendar", part of a series on "Catholic Answers". There was a delightful warm and friendly spirit. In the front row sat a beaming young couple, holding hands....later we chatted and it turned out that they had heard me talk some years earlier at an evening for engaged couples... and have now been married for some while and are expecting their second child...so we had a very cheery chat, and it was all great fun and hugely enjoyable.

Earlier, I was at Premier Radio to record a series of early-morning talks. They'll be broadcast at about 6.28 am or some such time, so if you want to listen in, you'll have to be an early riser...

CYCLE RIDE

To the kind correspondent who asks if I accept American cheques for my Sponsored Cycle Ride....yes, I certainly do. Make the cheque out to me, Joanna Bogle, and I can bank it and send on the money to the fund-raisers here. For English cheques, make out cheques directly to St Pius X Church. Cheques should be sent to: Mrs J. Bogle, c/o 34 Barnard Gardens, New Malden, Surrey KT3 6QG England. All funds raised are going to fund young people to attend World Youth Day 2008. I am so grateful to all the people who are sponsoring me. It's 50 miles, so 20p a mile could bring in £10.... I'll keep you posted on progress. Took my bike in for an overhaul today. The cycle ride is Aug 5th/6th/7th. I arrive at St Joseph's Church, Brighton, at 12 noon on Aug 7th - come and join the locals who will be greeting me!

Wed July 11th 07

TYBURN.....

To Tyburn convent for a celebratory opening and blessing of the new "Disabled Access" - I crossed Hyde Park to see much happening in the Bayswater Road: the scaffolding and wrapping that has swamped the front of the Convent for months now had been removed, and a great crowd was gathering on the pavement. In due course Bishop George Stack, in golden mitre and cope, plus other clergy, processed along, and with plenty of holy water and some prayers, he blessed the new great ramp - or rather, series of ramps - that gives access to the chapel, and then some sort of ribbon was cut by the Government Minister for the Disabled (I couldn't quite see that part, big crowds) and then we all trooped in, led by a lady in a wheelchair and Father Benedict Groeschel with a stick, and the new ramps worked beautifully.

In a packed chapel, there was a glorious Benediction, much hearty singing of the Tantum Ergo, and things finished with a speech by the Rev Mother and a wonderful rendition of "Climb Ever'y Mountain" by guest Lesley Garrett who is v. famous and one hears all the time on Classic FM.. It was all simply terrific, and then there was a lovely tea!

Readers of this blog may recall - as I do - when a new law first decreed that unless there was Access for Disabled People, the convent would have to close its crypt chapel as it would be illegal. There was consternation, because the crypt, with its collection of relics of our Tyrburn Martyrs, is unique. The cost of a massive new lift, ramps etc was prohibitive and the thing seemed impossible. But not with nuns. They prayed. The money came in. And today we heard an even odder twist to the saga: many years ago, before World War 11, officialdom announced that all the houses on that stretch of Bayswater Road must be moved 25 yards back, as the road was to be widened. Well, you can't move a house - it's daft. What to do? The War sorted that out by bombing the convent, and when it was rebuilt they obeyed the regulations and built it 25 yards back. Then, behold, in the 21st century along comes a new regulation - Disabled Access, ramps, lifts....and the 25-yard gap proved just exactly right for this, so the space has been used to comply with this new law!

Tuesday July 10th

STILL NEED HELP...

I am still badly in need of more sponsors for my Cycle ride: I'm raising money to help young people get to World Youth Day 2008, and I'm cycling from St Joseph's in New Malden, to St Joseph's Church in Brighton....it's 50 miles, so why not sponsor me at 20p a mile and send me £10? Just send a COMMENT to this Blog, WITH AN EMAIL ADDRESS TO WHICH I CAN RESPOND and I will add you to the sponsorship list.

The ride will start on Sunday Aug 5th. On Monday Aug 6th I'll arrive at the Shrine at West Grinstead in Sussex where people from New Malden will have gathered to greet me (combining it with the a Parish Summer Picnic!)and the following day I cycle on to Brighton, arriving at St Joseph's there at 12 noon.

The ride is partly also to celebrate cycling, and show people that it's a great way to enjoy the countryside, without clogging up the roads with cars!

The local young people who are planning to go to World Youth Day are a nice bunch. You hear all about young people who don't know what they are doing with their lives, have no values etc - well, let's support those who have found a better way.

Tuesday July 10th 07

MARRIAGE AND MORE....

Good headlines this morning as Iain Duncan Smith's excellent report on the urgent need to restore the status of marriage is widely highlighted. Phone call from the Jeremy Vine Show, BBC Radio 2 - can I get in to the studio in time for a 12 noon discussion? I hurry up to BBC, Great Portland St. They have found a person to oppose me, a former member of the Scottish Parliament whose solution to the breakdown of family life and community cohesion is to "raise more taxes and fund youth workers...marriage is only a bit of paper and what about people who don't want to get married...." etc...etc...all the old tripe we've had for the past decade and more. I enjoy demolishing this. It's now time to rediscover reality: human beings are designed to raise children in a male/female lifebond bond and this is the basis of a society and community. Children do not belong to Government-sponsored youth workers. They have a right to belong to families. Marriage today has been robbed of its status, and casual reltionships are fostered at the expense of justice, and of human values. At present, not only has marriage little if any practical status in law, but divorce practices are grossly unjust, especially towards men: a woman can take her children away from their dad, and make them live with her new boyfriend. It's time for a re-think: give back marriage its due place, allow children to belong to families, each with a common name and sense of identity and loyalty. This is the only human and just way forward from the social chaos and high crime rate of modern Britain.

In fifty years' time people will look back with horror on the social engineering and cruelty imposed on two generations, resulting in so many children growing up without a stable family to love and support them. Trapped in a gang culture which is the only immediately available alternative, young people's involvement in vicious crimes is hardly unpredictable. Restoring marriage to its rightful place - legally, and in the tax system, and in the message children recieve in school, and in the pronouncments of official organisations, and in policies adopted by official bodies, is a workable and practical plan and this is the way to go.

Readers of this blog could help a bit by writing to David Cameron at the House of Commons to tell him this...

Sunday July 8th

Mass at Brompton Oratory, where we were meeting Australian colleagues who, like Jamie, had been meeting this week at a conference sponsored by the Linacre Centre. Enthusastic sermon at the Oratory greeting the Holy Father's Motu Proprio allowing full use of the Tridentine Rite Mass. Of course it's a V. Good Thing, long overdue, will heal rifts, improve liturgy all round etc etc. Presumably every Catholic blogger will be writing about it so I won't for a while, except to note from my experience as a Catholic journalist that this good and paternal decision from the H. Father won't suit some of the Lefebrists and others who've strayed: some, who already cross over to indult Masses anyway, will come back but others will hang on crossly out there.

Over lunch, it was as good as a tutorial listening to a philosopher, a lawyer and a political thinker discussing bioethics. The Church and the Catholic perspective make such discussions sparkle and fizz - all were still talking as it neared 6pm and the Australian contingent had to start heading for the airport...topics covered by that stage had included IVF and spare embryos, care of the dying, giving water and food to unconscious people (YES, urgently - death by thirst is horrible, horrible), an exploration of the philosophy of Edith Stein, Pope John Paul's Theology of the Body, various encyclicals ranging from Casto Connubi to Familiaris and Consortio and Veritatis Splendor and Deus Caritas Est , and more....much more...

Sunday July 8th


MEDIA AND LONDON TRAFFIC

If you saw a woman frantically running down The Strand on Saturday night through the crowds, panting and anxious...that was me, heading the the BBC World Service, my taxi having got stuck in the London traffic. I abandoned the car in Trafalgar Square and hared off to the BBC World Service at Bush House - to no avail as the programme had ended and I had missed my slot for an interview. I was meant to go on to do another programme at Radio 5 Live which is based at White City (which is sort of near Shepherds Bush/Hammersmith-ish). But there could be no question of trying to move in the log-jam that is London on a summer evening, so I stayed put and they found a place for me in a studio and I did the programme from there.

It was about test-tube babies, IVF, and the ethics of all of that. Messy subject. I was glad I had done some preliminary reading - and was actually unexpectedly helped by a comment by the then Cardinal Ratzinger in a rather chatty book God and the World, in which he points out that these things start as something with good intentions, helping childless couples and so on, but they cross an important threshhold, replacing the act of love with a technological act and this has important consequences and change our relationship with each other and with nature.

I am not sure how many people listen to Radio 5, but this particular programme went well and the juxtaposition of the subject with the "Live Earth" "Save the Planet" worldwide pop concert events somehow worked because one could point to a need for a sense of valuing our human ecology, the problems created by inability to keep moral debates in pace with technological developments...

Home late.

GREEK LEGENDS...

I spent the afternoon at a famous London girls' school, where a small niece was taking part in the end-of-term play. It was superb - a musical, witty, and very clever operetta weaving together lots of Greek legends in a gently ironic style. They were all there, Midas and his gold, Narcissus with his self-love and the echo, the Labyrinth with string to lead us back safely after struggles with the Minotaur.The singing was terrific, and the music teacher, Miss Una Murphy, well deserved the massive applause and bouquet with which she was presented at the end. There was a splendid tea in the interval, with proper scones with jam and cream. There were wonderful home-made costumes and children being willow trees and flowers and animals and a Greek Chorus.

We hear so much about the collapse of educational standards, and a glance at a typical weekend's diet of TV watching, plus a perusal of the rubbish masquerading as readable magazines in the average supermarket, often makes one gloomy. But I have to say that recent visits to schools have proved to me that some are fulfilling today something of the role that abbeys filled in the Dark Ages - keeping alive the books, learning, legends, and ideas passsed on from the past!

My bike needs mending. It squeaks horribly. It carried me in a somewhat limping fashion to Waterloo, where it rests and I will collect it on Sunday and take it to a proper repair shop for an overhaul.

Many thanks to all who have offered sponsorship for my fund-raising cycle ride to help young people get to World Youth Day! I still welcome more...

NOSTALGIA......

....in London today, as I got stuck with the crowd outside Buckingham Palace at the Changing of the Guard. The Mall has been sectioned off - you can't cross it, there are great barriers - because of the Tour de France cycle race taking place this weekend. Rows of chairs facing giant TV screens in the parks, and a general air of great preparations. All this plus lots of police because of bomb scares (anniversary of July Incident coming up) and it meant that the Guard Changing, which always creates mild traffic chaos, brought things to a complete standstill.I got stuck at what is normally a routine crossing-place to Green Park. But I didn't mind, as seeing the soldiers marching about filled me with sudden nostalgia...the Queens' Birthday Parade in Berlin in the 1980s...parades at Catterick with new recruits and Jamie anxious and rehearsing the words of command over and over again the evening before... actually, in the Britain of 2007 with all its daft ideologies, and a horrible war in Iraq, it feels somehow odd that there can still be this ceremonial parade in such traditional style. I wobbled off on my bike feeling rather thoughtful.

COMPUTERS AND THINGS

In the post comes an excellent booklet Children and the Media, produced by Mediawatch-UK It has common sense advice and some illuminating information about how much TV children watch, and how to win back some family life if things have turned in to hours of zombie-like inertia in front of a flickering screen. It is scary how naive some people are about the Internet: they seem to think that if a child is sitting alone in an upstairs room, contacting complete strangers and chatting to them for hours or surfing through all sorts of weird, pornographic or violent sites...well, it doesn't matter very much. It does matter. This new booklet is readable and useful, and at £2.50p a good investment.

WORLD YOUTH DAY GETS NEARER!!

...and so does my sponsored cycle ride, which will help to raise funds for the venture....At the weekend I spoke to the (large, cheerful, delightful) group of young Catholics from nearby parishes who are planning to attend World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008. They are led by Fr Dominic Allain of St Pius X Church, Norbiton. He and I have links going back some way - in the 1990s when he was a student in Rome he wrote a weekly "Seven days in Rome" diary for the Catholic Times and I wrote a diary from London: it's rather nice that he's now parish priest nearby...the meeting was in the splendid new parish centre at St Joseph's, New Malden , and began with a beautiful Benediction and time of adoration and prayer in the church....St Joseph's is a parish with lots of families and the Sunday evening Mass is always packed with dozens and dozens of young people. My talk on "Celebrating Catholic feasts and seasons" seemed to go down all right - oh, if you want to know about it, you can read the book.

Wed July 4th 2007

ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE

To Ufton Court, a fine Elizabethan manor house in the Thames Valley. It boasts three priest-holes, and a rich recusant history. The current owners are a lovely family with a deep appreciation of the house's heritage of faith and it is used by schools as a centre for studying history: children come and stay, explore the house and are taught about its message and significance, wear Tudor costumes and make pomanders, and think about what it might have been like to be a hunted priest, etc. There is a tiny oratory, and also an attic chapel. Well worth a visit - check the website for details.

Today's gathering was in the Tithe Barn, and was a hard-working but satisfying day: an ecumenical charity which I help to run, Christian Projects, has an annual Schools Bible Project encouraging young people to study the New Testament, and a team of judges met to read all the essays. The Tithe Barn has magnificent old beams and is used for all sorts of banquets and celebratory events - our day had a quality of drama about it as a thunderstorm broke over our heads as we sat reading essays, sustained by trays of delicious sandwiches and fruitcake.

The country lanes are so gloriously green and lush this year, the meadows so enchantingly rain-washed, the lavender so generous and scented, the apples so abundant. Houses and churches and village pubs look so welcoming when windows glow with light as evening falls. I know that the rain has caused havoc too and the floods are horrible, but after a rain-soaked June, parts of our English countryside are just so lovely that the heart sings...

SPEECHES AND SCHOOLS

Invited back by my old school, St Philomena's, to give a talk on journalism. Took along a couple of members of the team from Tamezin magazine, and we had a very enjoyable morning. The girls wear a much nicer uniform than in my day, and wear it very correctly - kilted skirts and matching brown jerseys...in my day the really in-crowd used their (plain, brown, made of shiny serge) skirts over and over at the waist to turn them into hideous mini-skirts, but the 21st-century girls all look very demure in mid-calf kilts and all were extremely courteous and friendly.

In the evening, another school event - a delightful prizegiving at Bromley Civic Centre for Babington House School, Chislehurst. This is a deservedly popular and highly successful school. It was a really traditional prizegiving - we began with God Save the Queen, and ended with the Head Girls' Speech and in between some enchanting children sang, and there were awards and certificates presented...my task was to do this and also to make a speech, and then in due course two very small children staggered up with a simply enormous bouquet, and it was a very happy evening. During the course of her speech, the headmistess mentioned that the school had a new website, so I give a link to it here. It was a real privilege to share this special evening with this school, and to meet the girls and teachers and parents. I went home in a glow.

Friday June 29th
Feast of St Peter and Paul. Yesterday I went to the Vigil Mass at Westminster Cathedral. The magnificent statue of St Peter near the main doors - the one with the foot worn smooth because so many people touch it - was, in traditional style, dressed for the feast with a cope and a Papal crown. And because it was the feast of St John Southworth earlier this week - hero priest of the Great Plague and a true London saint - his relics had been brought from their usual chapel and placed for some days in the centre of the nave, surrounded by red flowers and six tall candles. So the Cathedral had a solemn and festal feel. Glorious music as usual...

And, for the lady who wrote to this Blig asking if it was me, in pink, in Victoria Street: yes, it was. Next time, do stop and chat!

Opposite the cathgedral are a couple of telephone kiosks. Needing to phone Mother to confirm I was on my way, I dropped in to one of them. A youth had just emerged, having filled the wall with the usual stacks of nasty cards offering sexual services. I whisked these out, and dropped into the next kiosk to do the same. A convenient litter-bin was ready to recieve them. Could I make a plea that we all do this every time we pass a phone booth? Oh, I know the wretched cards get put up again by the sad people who earn money via the girls...but even getting them out for a short while makes a sort of contribution to civilisation...

NEW BOOK

To the Oxford and Cambridge Club in Pall Mall for Lunch with my publisher, Tom Longford of Gracewing.. I have a new book coming out in September - but I'll keep details of that as a surprise for the moment. My book on Pope Benedict is selling quite well - have you bought a copy? Gracewing will oblige...Tom v. happy about a beautiful new book on First Communion which is coming out shortly - showed me the proofs. It really is excellent, a fine companion to the one already produced on Confirmation, by Dora Nash. which is available from Gracewing and has proved a big success.

FLOODS

But I feel mean writing cheerily. There is bad - really bad - flooding in parts of the country. There have been at least four deaths. There are stories of heroism with firemen struggling to save lives, and people people given emergency shelter after being rescued from flooded houses. Many families have had their homes wrecked and lost many precious possesions. Overcast skies promise more rain...

Thursday June 28th

CATHOLIC CULTURAL QUIZ

A splendid meeting of the Catholic Cultural Group last night (informal group, meets in London for people liiving/working in the capital, has guest speakers, wine, talk) - member Amanda Hill, who is a former Mastermind finalist, ran an excellent Quiz, and the evening was hosted by another Mastermind finalist CCG member, Chantal Thompson who produced delicious food and a welcoming atmosphere. Questions included saints associated with various places in England (non-Catholic Evangelical member triumphed here as the only person who got St Swithin at Winchester, and no one managed St Wulstan as being the saint from Worcester), writers of various hymns, burial-places of well-known people etc...talk and discussion so agreeable that things went on until a late hour and I was

TRAPPED IN HYDE PARK...

...as, having cycled gleefully across it in the rain-lashed dark feeling free and London-belongs-to-me-ish, I found that there are in fact gates at the Piccadilly end and I was locked in! I don't just mean that those big Queen Mother memorial gates are locked, I mean all the exits are locked, including obscure smaller ones that give access from the riding-track that leads up towards Knightsbrdige. Gulp. Enlisted the support of stout formally-dressed respectable gentleman who was also trapped in - we hunted for unlocked gate without success. Realised that was no go, so I asked him to help me heave the bike over the railings - this was accomplished with the aid of two chaps on the other side who responded to my bleats for assistance and turned out to be Somali refugees. Getting the bike over wasn't too hard (regular readers of this Blog will know that I previously accomplished this on my own when locked in at Brompton Oratory) and then I got ready to climb over myself, at which point the nice gentleman looked scared and pottered off. The Somalis were v. nice and helped carry me safely over and we talked and shook hands and I went off to Victoria where, by a whisker, I was able to get the very last Tube chugging out to the suburbs...

Wed Jan 27th

IN LONDON TODAY....

Cycling across Green Park, I heard a great clatter of helicopters overhead, and crowds were gathering as I got near Buckingham Palace. At the kerb, I was stopped from crossing, so joined the waiting crowd...flashing lights, motorcycle outriders...it was Mr Blair coming to make his farewell visit to the Queen, or Mr Brown arriving to kiss her hand on being sworn in as the new Prime Minsiter - I am not sure which.

For some reason, there suddenly came into my head the reported words of the Pope as he surveyed the signed photographs of Cardinal Newman presented to him by Mr Blair at the recent audience, that 'miracles were hard to come by in England' and I found myself asking for a minor miracle, please, that with the change in PM would come a change in policies, to make them more family-friendly and pro-life. Now that really would be a miracle. Dear John Henry Newman, intercede for your poor country...

I don't know if this is going to work, but, when looking for a possible You-Tube video of Mr Blair visiting the Holy Father, I came across this glorious one of the European Union summit. Do enjoy it.
http://eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=10406

THAT CYCLE RIDE

As regular readers of this Blog will know, I am planning a SPONSORED CYCLE RIDE to help raise funds to send some young people to Australia for World Youth Day. It's all now arranged, and I'm in training.

I cycle from St Joseph's, New Malden, to St Joseph's, Brighton, on a three-day ride, leaving New Malden on Sunday Aug 5th, amd arriving at Brighton on Tuesdsay Aug 7th, having stayed overnight en route with various friends. On Monday Aug 6th, feast of the Transfiguration, I will arrive at the Shrine at West Grinstead, Sussex, where members of the New Malden parish will be having a grand Parish Outing and we'll all celebrate together. Then I'll cycle on to Brighton the next day, and I'm taking my swimming costume so I'll be ready for a dip in the sea...

If you want to sponsor me, it is a 50-mile ride, and you could offer a modest sum for each mile. Just send me a COMMENT to this blog, which I won't publish, giving me your FULL NAME AND ADDRESS or EMAIL and saying how much per mile. A penny a mile would mean you'd pay 50p! Or a pound a mile would be £50....In due course I will collect the money from you. Cheques should be made out St Pius X Church. That is the next parish along from us, where the parish priest, Fr Dominic Allain, is co-ordinating local arrangements for World Youth Day. If American readers of this Blog want to send a dollar cheqwue, send me a COMMENT with an EMAIL ADDRESS TO WHICH I CAN REPLY and I will explain to you how it can be done.

I'll be writing a full blog account of my adventures on the trip, and have undertaken that, if I fail to make it all the way to Brighton, I'll go barefoot up the Tower of Westminster Cathedral and sing the Pater Noster from the open balcony there!

Sat June 23rd

WALKING THROUGH LONDON...

...starting at Tower Hill and ending at Tyburn. This was the Martyrs Walk, organised by a team from Miles Jesu and it was all well worth while. A number of people came from St Thomas More parish in Seaford, Sussex, led by their priest Father Tony Churchill, who preached and gave us Benediction at St Patrick's Soho Square. . The idea was to commemorate and honour the Catholic Englishmen who died for the Faith in the years of terrible persecution - and we started at Tower Hill with honour to Sts John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and St Thomas More, Chancellor,executed there in 1535. The site of the execution block is now commemorated with plaques listing the names of those who died there, and history has given the whole area further sense of solemnity - lying as it does near the Thames and the London Docks, this stretch is set aside as a memorial garden to the men of the Merchant Navy lost at sea in the two World Wars...hundreds of individual names on long panels lining the walls...

I was asked to give a talk there to start things off, then we divided into two groups, one led by me and the other by a fellow history-enthuasist, as we walked through the City and told the story of the various churches. My group had a route which took us to St Olave's (links with Norway) St Peter-upon-Cornhill and its neighbour St Michael (on the site of the earliest known Christian church in Britain, dating back to Roman times ie 2nd century AD) and St Laurence Jewry (right by the Guildhall - did you know there are the remains of a Colliseum beneath it? I did a BBC radio brodcast from there when excavators came across the site while digging the new Tube line to link with the Docklands Light Railway back in the 1990s).



MARTYRS

For the final part of the Walk, following St Patrick's and an earlier stop at Greyfriars for an excellent talk by Fr Nicholas Schofield we sang a Litany of the Martyrs as we made our way to Tyburn. It's very touching to hear the names of ourMartyrs read out - they are so...well...English...They could be the names on a War Memorial...

TYBURN CONVENT
which adjoins the site where so many Catholic martyrs died, gave us a warm welcome and the chapel was packed for Mass, with people having to spill over and go through into the nuns' choir stalls.

The rain had held off all day. After the Mass everything felt too inspiriing and one couldn't just to get on to the Tube for a mundane ride, ,so I thought I'd walk. As I was halfway across Hyde Park, there was a low rumble in the sky and then the Heavens opened, and rain poured down in torrents! There was a pop concert going on in one part of the park, which carried on regardless, and elsewhere people were sploshing through puddles and laughing and as they huddled under dripping trees - it was the sort of crazy summer downpour that cannot be resented and simply has to be enjoyed. I was soaked through by the time I finally got home, and it was hard to walk as my skirt was so heavy with water.

ON WOMEN....

An excellent talk at an informal London gathering organised by younger friends, speaker from the Institute for Higher Studies on Women in Rome which is part of the Regina Apostolorum academy. We were a mixed group, not all Catholic,lots of younger people. It was all held at the home of a lovely family, enchanting small children helping to pass round snacks etc. Theme of talk focused on the intrinsic value of each human person - v. interesting to note that it is now definitely OK to affirm differences between men and women, and when in question-time I quoted examples of material from Govt-funded Equal Opportunities Commission which I had been sent in 1970s and 80s as chairman of local schools committee and instructed to ensure schools used in propaganda sessions, there was much hilarity, "Yes, we got all that stuff at school" etc. There is a dislike of ideological femimism and its assumptions. Today's discussions centre on finding identity, coping with different strands in overcrowded life, also massive financial pressures epescially if you want to get any sort of housing in London. It was v. interesting to note differences in age-groups - eg there is no question about men sharing housework, most younger men simply do, so old jokes about men not knowing how washing-machine works, can't change baby's nappy etc simply don't apply...on the other hand the big (and creative) differences between men and women were discussed at great length and with seriousness. Also the religious and spiritual aspects of this, including quotes from John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem etc, went down well, no shuffling or "We don't do God" sort of approach, on the contrary much interest. Golly, it made one feel middle-aged.

AMBASSADOR TO THE HOLY SEE

To St Mary Moorfields in the City: Francis Campbell, British Ambassador to the Holy See, was speaking to The Keys, the Catholic Writers' Guild. Extraordinarily interesting: he outlined the history of the links between the Holy See and Britain in modern times, with particular reference to World War 11, and then spoke of his own work. A good discussion time allowed the raising of a range of questions including our Government's ruthless pushing of abortion and contraception as contrasted with the Holy See's defence of the family and human values, and indeed the whole question of how our Govt is apparently keen to crush Christian initiatives (freedom to speak, eg w. reference to the Sexual Orientation Regulations etc).

In discussing WW11, he highlighted the concern of the anti-Nazi Germans who, especially in the early days of the war, were exploring how the Allies would respond to a German overthrow of the Nazi regime and overtures for peace. Diplomats around the Vatican were part of all of this - a little-known chunk of history.

Meetings of The Keys are always good, and every time I think "This is the best yet!" - it is a chance to meet other Catholic writers, and publishers, plus their guests. Piers Paul Read was there - he's a former Chairman of the Guild - also Jeremy de Satge of The Music Makers, and Alenka Heyer, over from America with husband John - her weekly "Stateside" column in the Catholic Times is a delight.

TV EVENING...

I was busy working on my plans for a sponsored cycle ride to raise funds to get local young people to Sydney for World Youth Day when a friend, Dr William Griffiths rang. Would I like to go over and watch the TV programme about Chavangnes, the English school in France run by Ferdi McDermott and his team? Watching TV is a rare experience for me, and I have worked with Ferdi on his earlier publishing/bookshop ventures, so I cycled over happily.

The programme will be chiefly remembered for an absolutely sickening scene in which the boys were encouraged to learn how to kill a rabbit - which will probably be enough to put off some potential pupils without a further thought. Other than that, the place looked terrific fun, and the boys' evident freedom to give their opinions, and the hugely articulate way in which they did so, a sense of friendship and absence of teenage angst, combined with great liturgical reverence, (masses of Latin chant,Mass said ad orientem etc etc) gave a flavour of something worthwhile. Little was said, however, about academic work and the only class we saw was Latin. Not very impressive.

GLORIOUS PROCESSION AT THE CATHEDRAL

On Friday evening,after a satisfying day working for EWTN,and a proper Tea, with Cake and lots of talk (see below), I made my way to Westminster Cathedral where I was due to give a lecture at the Hinsley Room. First, I dropped into the Cathedral, where for things were just reaching a conclusion after the Forty Hours devotion.

I had visited the previous day, and found lots of people praying and all the traditional settings of a Quanrant Ore, but now was was unprepared for what was there: a packed cathedral, a sanctuary glittering with candles, innumerable clergy, glorious singing. Then, as Mass had just drawn to a close, a great canopy was slowly brought forward, and the Cardinal, carrying the Blessed Sacrament in a Monstrance, led , very slowly, a vast procession down the aisle....with Latin chants later giving way to traditional hymns such as "Sweet Sacrament Divine" and "O Bread of Heaven", a vast concourse of people slowly made its way out into the piazza, round down by the side of the Cathedral - with people coming to the doors of all the flats and heads popping out of windows - along Francis Street and up Ambrosden Avenue...it was a really splendid procession, and all the more wonderful for simply happening on a Friday evening, a sort of bonus really...

Afterwards it took some time to get out of the Cathedral and round to the Hinsley Room but it didn't matter as most of the people who were coming to the lecture had, like me, got involved in the procession anyway.

Talk on the history of the Church in England went well, and was very well attended. People enjoy hearing about quirky bits of information relating to the Reformation, eg that the "Jack in the Box" toy was deliberately invented to mock the Tabernacle, and also about pre-Reformation Catholicism, with things like pub signs, eg The Angel at Islington which commemorates the Annunciation etc...

CATHOLIC LIVES

On Friday the excellent international Catholic TV network EWTN took over a room at Brompton Oratory and turned it in to a TV studio, where we worked all day on CATHOLIC LIVES, a new series. I interviewed a selection of people representing different strands of life in Catholic London: Charles Cole, who runs the superb Schola Cantorum at the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School and also the Junior Choir at Brompton Oratory, Sister Chiara of Holy Ghost parish in Balham who used to run a riding school (her description of instructing Princess Anne and a horse bolting halfway through a lesson was a highlight of that interview), novelist Piers Paul Read, and Fr Timothy Finigan of Hermeneutic of Continuity fame. It was great fun but I was glad I had done plenty of preparation work, briefed everyone thoroughly, worked carefully on questions and on the theme and "feel" of each interview, etc, as holding together a good TV interview of reasonable length (each was half an hour long, in two 15-minute segments) and ensuring that it has real shape and purpose, is worth getting right and not as easy as it sounds...afterwards Fr Tim and I had tea at the Victoria and Albert Museum and you can read all about that on his blog. We talked and laughed about lots of things but a good bit of the time was spent talking about getting the technical side of my blog right, and I took lots of notes. Which was scary because he's now going to notice to if I have managed to get some things done, starting with the headlines, and I haven't, I haven't. I can't make some of the things work, and I'm worried about simply clicking on to various things in case the whole thing goes wrong and I lose my entire Blog, or something.

TOURING AND THEN HOME
After Lancashire, I went on to Shrewsbury, a place I've wanted to visit ever since reading the Brother Cadfael books. It doesn't disappoint. I was there to give a talk ("Feasts and seasons" again) at the Catholic Cathedral. There was also time to explore a bit and take in some, but only some, of the layers of history which include the great abbey (destroyed under Henry V111 of course), the links with St Winifred (a Welsh saint - we're on the borders here of course), stories of the old Medieval Guilds, the Catholic heroes of the Civil War era....

I stayed overnight and am writing all this when home again. It's so good to get out of London and realise that there's so much, much more to England than the capital city.

FERNYHALGH

It was a real priviledge being at the ancient and lovely shrine of Fernyhalgh at the weekend. This is Ladyewell, a place dedicated to Our Lady since before the Norman Conquest, a place of pilgrimage, and of staunch loyalty to the Catholic Faith even in the most difficult times. I splashed my face with water from the well, prayed, filled a bottle to take home to Mother and to Jamie... I was at Ladyewell to give a talk on "Traditional feasts and seasons" to a Family Day organised by a local priest. Numbers attending were not large, but the atmosphere was friendly and it was especially good to have young people in the group. On such a sunny day it was impossible to stay indoors, so we gathered on the lawn. I stood, most people sat on the chairs provided,the younger ones flopped on the ground, lay on their tummies, or sat cross-legged. It was a happy day. We had enjoyed a picnic lunch, and things finished with a most beautiful Corpus Christi procession, down the lane beside the golden fileds, with the bell ringing out to tell the land of Christ's presence, and a priest carrying the Blessed Sacrament in its Monstrance, and all of us saying the Rosary interspersed with Latin chant. At the church, we joined members of the local parish for Mass.


CATHOLIC LANCASHIRE?

The next morning I visited an old friend, Sister Catherine, who used to work for
Aid to the Church in Need and now lives in Preston. It was a joy to be with her and we talked and talked. Back in the 1970s, ACN in Britain was a very small and relatively unknown charity, struggling to convey to people something of the huge needs of Christians suffering under Communist regimes in Eastern Europe. We reminisced about those days...before we had our Polish Pope (how thrilling it was when he was elected!! Remember?)...international gatherings with ACN's founder Fr Werenfried van Straaten...the first tiny British office in Kent and then later the one at Chichester...

Of course we spoke of current things, of the local scene, of the Church. Here in Preston the problems of the Church are all too evident, numbers for Mass slumping, fewer and fewer First Communicants and most of them from families that are not really practising...parishes closing, mosques being built...

But I slipped into St Wilfrid's church, which I last visited for a glorious family wedding nearly thirty years ago, and found it as beautiful as I remembered, and as welcoming. There was Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, people were dropping in to pray...oh, we do need Catholic Lancashire and all that it means...

AUNTIE JOANNA ON TOUR...

But first, a beautiful First Holy Communion celebration at Brompton Oratory - we were invited because the younger son of close friends was among the young Communicants. Lovely music(Oratory Junior Choir), and it was moving to go up up to the Communion rail past the rows of white-clad children...afterwards, a vast crowd spilled into the Oratory Garden, where tables were laden with food and wine provided by the parents, and there was much talking and meeting of old friends, while the children were photographed and videoed and the girls smirked in their dresses and veils and wreaths of flowers and, with the boys, ran about and shouted and made a noise...the E. family are very delightful and we have had so many happy celebrations with them, beginning with the baptism of their oldest - who is my godson. It was his birthday the next day, so I gave him his present (a torch which doesn't need batteries, successful present, recommended - I bought it at the National Trust shop at the Blewcoat School just off Victoria Street).

On to Euston to catch the train to Preston. On the way I read Denis and Valerie Riches' joint autobiography Built on Love, (Family Publications, King St Jericho, Oxford) which I warmly recommend. It tells the story of how they met and married, and their travels, life with their children and so on, and then goes on to describe the great work they have done in campaigning in defence of marriage and family values, through Family and Youth Concern and, latterly, Family Publications.Among the various adventures were a number of events and meetings in which I shared, and it all brought back many memories...

And so to the home of the A. family in a beautiful part of Lancashire. Mugs of tea in the large pleasant kitchen, and sitting talking to L., catching up on lots of news...last time Jamie and I were here, the children were young and now the older ones are teenagers, eldest daughter in the middle of "A" levels etc etc...where do the years go?

Friday June 8th

A HOT DAY...
...and off to the cool of St James, Spanish Place, where we hold the committee meetings of the Association of Catholic Women. We always start by going to the lunchtime Mass - which incidentally is invariably very well attended,it seems there are lots of people who make weekday Mass a part of their lives in London - and it's also a handy church for confession as this is available every weekday from 12 noon to about 1pm. We hold our ACW committee meetings in the large parish room which is in the semi-basement of this massive Victorian pile, and the meetings are always talkative (well, obviously...but truly, truly it isn't just me that talks...)and teeming with ideas.

We've just reached the climax of our 2008 Religious Education Project for primary schools, and will be announcing the winners. The children who have produced the best work get copies of the new mini-Catechism, plus certificates and other prizes, and a trophy which the school keeps for a year. And every child who takes part gets a holy picture, and some of the best work is displayed on the ACW website. We do get some evidence of really good work done in Catholic primnary schools. But frankly, some of the work that gets sent in is very, very poor. It is a fact that Catholic primary schools are crippled by the poor Religious Education syllabus they are obliged to follow and the silly books they are made to use. In spite of this, some schools do manage to teach the Faith and do very well. Others sink into the mire of soggy rubbish and cliches that passes for Catholic instruction in the minds of catechetical "experts".

The winning schools this year have produced really excellent work and I will be revealing their names in due course and you can see the work on the ACW website.

CHERIE BLAIR....

According to a report in the Evening Standard, Cherie Blair is to attend the Civil Union (ie a same-sex marriage, or "gay wedding") of a friend, and play an active role by "giving away" this friend - ie sort of like the father of a bride does in a real marriage - as part of the ceremony.

If this is true, this is serious. No Catholic can in good conscience take part in such a ceremony, and a Catholic in public life has the extra responsibility of giving scandal by celebrating the "gay lifestyle", ie active homosexual lifestyle, in this way. Any sort of legal ceremony between two people of the same sex which masquerades as a marriage is a mockery of the great reality of matrimony which is the unique lifelong bond between a man and a woman which establishes a new family. The Church teaches this plainly, it was spelled out in some detail in a special document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith because of the importance of this matter, and the Holy father has made it the subject of specific teachings in recent weeks.

Thursday June 7th

LONDON ON A JUNE EVENING

Yesterday I worked all day with Patti F. on a project of the Association of Catholic Women - we have a committee meeting tomorrow, so more on this then. Patti's flat is near the Oratory Primary School, and the children were walking two-by-two to nearby St Luke's Gardens for playtime. The scene looked postively villagey. The little girls wear traditional candy-striped cotton dresses and look summery and bright, and the school has a lovely image of Our Lady over its main door overlooking the London street.

Today I was back in London again for a meeting of the Tamezin magazine team to discuss next year's Young Journalist project. Bess Twiston Davies is on the team, and we have a young trainee journalist with us for a few weeks...a really good discussion today and we've come up with some excellent ideas, and will now be working on the brochure, which will go out to schools in September... I cycled on to Mass at Westminster Cathedral for Mass (do visit their website, it has a taste of some of the gloprious music you get there) and picked up a copy of the Catholic Herald (always a good read) and also the diocesan paper, the Westminster Record. This latter was of interest because it has a lovely pic of the winners of the 2007 Tamezin Young Journalist Awards....Tamezin isn't a Catholic venture, but it does have its origins in a girls' club which has Catholic links, hence the interest of the diocesan paper, and it was good to see the cheery faces looking out from the page.

Cycled on to Waterloo. Parliament Square is increasingly acquiring the appearance of a semi-permanent urban campsite, with the tents and belongings of the anti-war protesters pitched on the green below Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, and their occupants settled on chairs in viigil or standing about engaging in discussions. As their banners and placards get smudged and battered by the rain, and their loud-hailers often distort the shouts and cries they call out, it's not immediately clear - except to regular passers-by, who have had time to study it - why they are there, and it all looks rather messy.

Here at home, preparations for the weekend: we are invited to a First Holy Communion (younger son of some family friends) at Brompton Oratory on Saturday, and then I take the train to Preston, as I'm due to speak at a Family Day at Fernyhalgh. The day will include a picnic, and a Corpus Christi procession and Benediction. I'm looking forward to it, though sorry to be missing our own local procession, in the grounds of the local Marymount School on Sunday afternoon. Incidentally, at Westminster Cathedral there will be one on Saturday evening, it was announced at Mass this evening...it will follow the 5.30pm Mass and would be worth attending, as it will be an act of witness in central London...

Thursday June 7th

CORPUS CHRISTI will be celebrated in style at Arundel Cathedral today with an evening Mass and procession, with the traditional glorious Carpet of Flowers on the Cathedral floor, Bishop presiding, lots of candles, Knights of Malta in robes, all the trimmings...yes, that's right. This evening, Thursday.

So we can have the feast on its proper day, then? Well, I hope so - and please, Bishops, next year and the year after that, and all the years to come, can we PLEASE HAVE OUR FEAST DAYS BACK so that we can enjoy and honour them, as people will be enjoying today at Arundel?

Tuesday

CYCLING ROUND LONDON...

...in bright sunshine today, I saw there were flags in the Mall and much activity with military bands in Horseguards: it's fun to get glimpses of pageantry as you whizz about on an ordinary day. After spending part of the afternoon working on details of the MIles Jesu Walk on June 23rd (see below) there was time for a cup of coffee with a young relative F. who works for the pro-life movement. She's great fun and we had a happy chatty time. Got talking,however, at one point about the various new laws that seem to be restricting freedom of speech especially on religious/moral ideas and values. It's worrying how often this crops up in conversations among Catholics - and all Christians - these days. Talk turned to other things: her latest novel, out soon, family news. We parted at Victoria Station and I decided to cycle on down to Waterloos. As I paused for the traffic lights at Westminster Bridge, by Big Ben, I thought: it's just silly. This is Britain - of course we are free, and our freedom of speech is a part of our heritage, something passed on to us. Of course it will be all right.

Tuesday

TOWER HILL

...by the site of the execution block where, long ago, St John Fisher and St Thomas MOre met their deaths, is the starting-point on Saturday June 23rd for the MARTYRS WALK organised by the Miles Jesu/Continuity Movement. We'll be walking through London, stopping at Greyfriars (site of former Franciscan monastery) for a talk and a lunch-break and at St Patrick's, Soho Square, for Benediction, and things will finish at Tyburn, site of the heroic martyrdom of many of our greatest English saints including St Edmund Campion. The aim is to pray, evangelise, and witness to the Faith. This morning some of the organising team met at Tower Hill to check details. JOIN US THERE ON JUNE 23rd!! Just turn up! Nearest tube: Tower Hill, then walk to the Memorial Gardens (the tube station virtually opens out on to them) and at the far end you'll see the place where we're gathering.

If you can't come, you could help with a donation: Continuity Movement, 20 Fairview Rd London SW16 5PY.

The first part of the walk will take us past some of the famous London City churches like All-Hallows-by-the-Tower, St Olave's, St Lawrence Jewry and St Peter's Cornhill - I've been researching their history...

The LONDON FAITH FORUM....

...at which I spoke recently is running its next series of meetings. This is a friendly and lively group, and I do recommend it for any young Catholic living or working in London. Next meeting is Father Tim Finigan - so if you read his blog this is your chance to hear him in person (and he's a v. good speaker). June 18th, 7.30pm, St Vincent's Centre, Carlisle Place, London SW1 - nearest station VICTORIA. Topic: The Sexual Orientation Regulations: proving Humanae Vitae right. You can find out more about the London Faith Forum and the Faith MOvement generall from this link.

Sunday

RADIO FIVE LIVE

Late last night - after I'd written this Blog - the BBC phoned again, and this time it was for a radio discussion, once more on the subject of the Church, Holy Communion, and abortion. So at a quarter to midnight, there was a debate on Radio 5 about this, with an unusually ignorant Labour MP, whose name escapes me, saying of course he was a Catholic, and who thought that "Vatican 11" had said that everything was basically different now "and this is really important, there have only ever been two Councils in the history of the Church and this was one of them"...oh dear....and that the Church "should change its teaching on contraception" and that the problem was people like me. So there we are. I held my own, and explained as patiently as I could - which probably wasn't patiently enough - that he was not well informed ( er...in its 2,000 years of history the Church has had a good many Councils of which the Second Vatican Council was the most recent and reafformed the teachings of the others) but he claimed he had "read Vatican 11 that very afternoon" and knew all about it. To him "conscience" didn't mean a tool for examining what is right and wrong, in the light of objective moral truths and informed by Christ and the Church, but merely acting by your own feelings and making your own decisions. No wonder we so lack moral strength and goodness in public life if this is the commonly-held view.

There is something surreal about standing in the house late at night, broadcasting into a telephone in a deep debate, with bath and cocoa waiting, as it were...afterwards a nice Irish lady telephoned the BBC to express support and the Beeb arranged for me to phone her back and we chatted. I said I found these debates rather scary and she said that "Well, the fact is, God makes the waves of our lives and we just ride in on the crest of them" which is a grand way of looking at it.

Saturday

FAMILY...

was the theme of a packed and extremely interesting meeting organised by Family and Youth Concern in London today. Speakers included Professor Brenda Almond, author of The Fragmenting Family (Oxford University Press, £12.99p) who shattered some popular myths, including the idea that cohabitation is at least as good as marriage, that genetic relationships don't matter, and that what adults do in their personal lives cannot seriously harm their children. She spoke in a quiet, almost hesitant, academic way and was thoughtful and powerfully convincing - no ranting or moralising. Her essential message was that legal and social structures have been erected that are fracturing the family unit and tipping the balance in favour of the state - a scenario that is having devastating consequences. There was a bookstall at the meeting with a range of extremely interesting books and other materials: Patricia Morgan's book on marriage and cohabitation challenging the fashionable cliches is particularly interesting, as is her report on the realities of "gay" adoption

LONDON SUMMER....

The warm weather has begun. Cycled back from the meeting - which was in Piccadily - via Green Park and The Mall, busy with tourists. Out in the suburbs, the big stacks of litter have begun to fill the sides of main roads, including lots of bottles which shatter into broken shards to pierce cycle-tyres. I average eight to ten punctures each summer, and it's quicker (though more expensive) to fit a new inner-tube than to spend ages struggling to get the tyre off, repair the split (which is easy) and then replace tube and tyre (which is not).

The gooseberries are ripening in the garden, and soon I'll be picking them to make jam: I make lots of it (most satisfying) and sell it in jars with gingham tops and printed labels (done on computer, with bits of poetry or other agreeable quotes) to sell at the "Towards Advent" Festival at Westminster Cathedral Hall in the Autumn (Nov 3rd, mark your diaries)....

On summer evenings it's lovely to sit out with a gin-and-tonic, and talk and eat, bring out the lantern as it gets dark and brewing coffee... It's quiet at the back and we usually can't hear too many of the Saturday-night shrieks and curses from the main road nearby unless there are more than usually large gangs of drunks...though each of the past few summers has brought its share of fights and police sirens - once police asked us all if they could search our front gardens for a murder weapon (stabbing incident) and once Jamie was attacked and badly bashed on his way home from work (thugs wanted his mobile phone but picked the wrong chap, and didn't get it - he gave chase instead, called the police and eventually one got caught).

Outside my window here where I work, the tall rose-bush is blooming and beyond it is a small but agreeable lush patch of grass. Next door, the little girl, who is extremely bright and friendly, waves and grins as she comes out to play. They are an Indian family and her mother sometimes sends her over to us with a taster of spicy snacks when they're having a family party: I return the compliment with home-made biscuits or cakes. Joe, who lives opposite, is surveying his pride-and-joy garden: he has lavender bushes from which he always allows me to pick generously. Summer in suburbia.

VIEW PAPA BENEDETTO

I have discovered a German website that has lots of videos of the Holy Father, including scenes of his recent visit to Brazil. Well worth watching.

And there is also this website which has a lovely snippet showing the Pope with First Communion children (click on to the video marked "Pope Benedict loves the children").

His new book Jesus of Nazareth is absolutely fantastic: opens up whole areas of thought about Christ that I had never explored before. I got my copy from the CTS Bookshop in Westminster Cathedral Piazza, but lots of bookshops have it on display in their windows.

YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT UP

I thought this was a spoof at first. A lady Anglican-bishopess in America has written to an African Anglican bishop telling him not to come for an ordination to America because this would "violate the ancient customs of the church" and would "display to the world division and disunity that are not mind of the mind of Christ".

Er...creating priestesses didn't do that?

NEVER MIND,HERE'S SOME MORE...

A group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests Movement in Canada has announced it has "ordained" three ladies as priests. Performing the ceremony was a lady called Patricia Fresen, who says she was made a Catholic bishop in 2005.

Thursday

BBC NEWS 24...
....telephoned just as I was finishing work on a feature for an American magazine and congratulating myself on having a quiet day to get on with such things.

Apparently Cardinal Keith O'Brien had said some strong things against abortion at a special event in Scotland to mark the 40th anniversary of the tragic 1967 Abortion Act. Would I take part in a TV discussion about this? Yes, definitely - especially when I discovered that they were also having some one from the bogus "Catholics for a Free Choice" organisation.

I expect I did not do as well as I could and should have done in the discussion but the chap from CFFC certainly got all muddled up. He went on about needing more contraception if we genuinely wanted to stop abortions (more??? They teach children about it every school, fund vast advertising and promotional campaigns with taxpayers' money, have contraceptives on sale at every motorway service station and High Street chemist's shop and supermarket, distribute them in youth clubs, promote them at every health centre and doctors' surgery...and the abortion rate has gone steadily UP, especially among teenagers who are now using contraceptivces on a vast scale) and he also said that a politician's job was simply to say what the majority of his electors wanted - which is surely a most ghastly idea that could only suit some one bereft of any moral conscience. Suppose a majority of people wanted to introduce public lynchings of alleged criminals without due trial?

Anyway, I don't know if one can watch the thing on the Internet, so if any readers of this blog are interested, perhaps they would do so and tell me their opinion.

One Anonymous correspondent always writes in, incidentally, whenever I report some media activity or speaking engagement, and tells me I am ghastly and should not bother to do such things - so I know he will favour me with a comment this time too....but I'd value hearing from others too....

Wednesday

VOICES

...is the name of a quarterly magazine produced by Women for Faith and Family in the USA. You can read the current issue o-line if you click on their website, and please do, as I have a feature in it....and there is also a very good piece about World Youth Day written by a young British WYD fan who is known to me.

Today, in heavy rain, I cycled out to drop a couple of copies of the magazine (which had just arrived by post from the USA) to the neighbouring parish where the priest is organising the World Youth Day local group. Home to dry out and get on with some work, but when I was ready to set out again for London, my blue waterproof was still soaked and clammy and dripping. Rain still relentless outside. Rummaged among Jamie's Army things...found a magnificent camoulflage-jacket, gloriously waterproof. Much too large, so had to turn back the sleeves. Removed badges of rank, and cycled off in it. Extremely comfortable. I remember that the Army improved all its wet-weather equipment after the Falkalnds War, when the soldiers found their boots and other gear weren't too efficient. A new style of boot was introduced, and also a new helmet. They came with instructions on how to wear them, and the helmet - I think Jamie still has his - had a large sticker inside which read "WARNING:DO NOT MAKE TEA IN THIS HELMET.

Long pleasant chatty supper with friend, catching up on news and views. Headlines and pix in the evening papers showing the Holy Father meeting the tragic couple who are searching for their lost little girl...

I LIKE RAIN

Yesterday evening, in gentle rain, to Bayswater for a supper-party. Some of the people there were involved with KIds Net which is a Catholic prorgramme for children involving a monthly pack of materials covering doctrine, ideas for activities celebrating the feasts of the season, information on saints and Christian traditions...lots of nice things. I liked it.

All the forecasters say we are in for a hot summer, so I am frankly enjoying this rain. Cycled past Buckingham Palace, Royal Standard hanging damply against flagpole. Swished through puddles gleefully. And Hyde Park rather glorious at night, trees uniting overhead to make a dark avenue and cyclists exchanging the briefest of greetings-in-silent-solidarity as we pass each other in silence along the designated paths.

WHIT MONDAY:WET MONDAY

On Saturday evening I cycled to Brompton Oratory for the evening Mass, at which I was due to hand out leaflets about the Martyrs' Walk planned for June 23rd, organised by Miles Jesu. I arrived early, so dried off a bit in the Hotel Rembrandt opposite. Then into that big solid reassuring church. I used to be a regular at this Mass, as a godson used to sing with the London Oratory Schola...years whizz by and he's now grown up (Hi! if you're reading this!)... the memories are very cheery ones. This Saturday evening, it being Half term, the Mass was without music, but the rhythmic back-and-forth responses, and mixed crowd, and the warm rumble of voices saying the Creed and the Our Father, gave a sense of welcome. The Canon of the Mass in the Oratory is always said "facing God", which feels just right. Being there, on a rainy evening, in the London I love, I had one of those moments of being so glad to have all this...

It was still raining as I cycled home, and still raining again on Sunday morning when I set out for the morning Masses. I didn't make the early ones, but got there for the 10 am - this has a lovely children's choir and is attended by lots of young families. They sang "Jesu, joy of man's desiring" at Communion and it was so beautiful...Then the famous main Mass at 11, followed by a quick one at 12.30. The high Mass is done in splendid style with glorious music - if they change it to a Tridentine one when permission for this comes from Rome, few people will actually notice. There's a sense of continuity here, a sort of Oratory hallmark. For London Catholics, this is a great meeting-point. Giving out leaflets was a chatty business. There were lots of people I hadn't seen for a while, and lots I'd seen just recently, and lots who just wanted to talk....it was all v. agreeable, but complicated because I was also trying to keep the door open as people poured out, and hand out leaflets without missing anyone.

It was still raining as I made my way home again....

AND STILL RAINING

....when I woke this morning, and still again when I met Mother by pre-arrangement in Carshalton Village for what we had planned as a leisurely walk in May sunshine. Instead, we fled to the very agreeable Greyhound hotel and enjoyed mugs of hot coffee, then went back to her flat for Scrabble (she won, with a clear lead of over 30 points)and in the early evening I cycled back, through rain of course, home. The suburban streets were absolutely deserted.

Saturday

Jamie off to France on a pilgrimage. He is among a large group walking from Paris to Chartres, and hurried off after rummaging among his Army kit etc for the neccessary equipment, sleeping-bag, etc.

Yesterday I had a slightly frustrating day, travelling to give a journalism workshop (Tamezin magazine) in a school in great heat, hurrying to various meetings in London, feeling hot and bothered...but then spent yesterday evening at Mother's, where we began by watching a DVD sent from New Zealand - awesome scenery, vast blue seas, people in boats with billowing sails scooping along under clear skies, fabulous Maori carvings, beach barbeques...we were transported away from London suburbia and loved it! We followed this with a DVD given me the other day when we visited my nephew and his wife and baby - scenes from baby H's first year, great fun. I had forgotten how noisy and dramatic a baptism is - lots of splashing of water over a font, and the baby yelling.

Today I'm off to give a talk at Holy Ghost parish in Balham, to young engaged couples. . Incidentally, I have just discovered that HG has a rather good parish blog.

Friday

Yesterday (Thursday) a most enjoyable evening at a book launch for a new work on education published by Communion and Liberation. I knew very little about this group, except that it's Italian-based and is one of the new movements in the Church...well, it's impressive. The hall was packed, and everyone (er...except Auntie Joanna and a few other cronies) was young. Atmosphere light and friendly, and some first-rate talks, notably by Professor John Millbank and Professor Peter Hodson. Read more about all this here.

The theme was education, and we got some wholly fresh insights - light years away from the current Govt-backed obsession with exams and social manipulation - there was a zest and freedom of spirit here which was just a delight.

Many of the young people present were Italian, and one could tell this because the girls, in particular, looked so ..oh, I don't know, just sort of more chic than their British equivalents. Over drinks and (very good) canapes, it emerged that there is a whole C-L network of groups across London, mostly I think founded by Italian young ex-pats. I would like to get to know more about this very delightful group.

Cycled home across Westminster Bridge (the C-L event was in Great George St, just off Parliament Square) feeling rather good about life.

READ ME....

Interested in my views on fashion, on silence and noise, and more....??? Read me on this website MercatorNet If you enjoy Auntie Joanna's blog, you will definitely enjoy Mercator.

Wed May 23rd

OOOPS....

Woke to a sudden realisation that I had forgotten a niece's birthday. Felt awful. Rushed to shops and bought gift, wrapped it quickly as it looked v. inviting and I wanted to try some of it myself, rushed to Post Office.

PLANS...

...for the Sponsored Cycle Ride are going ahead!! Spoke yesterday to Fr Peter, our super parish priest - he was enthusiastic and helpful. Funds can be collected through the parish office. Spoke to the excellent young priest who is organising the deanery's gathering of young people who hope to go to World Youth Day. He was thrilled too. Lots of plans now going ahead...am planning to spread the trip over 3 days and have contacted friends who live on the route (New Malden to Brighton) who might put me up overnight on the way...

In due course I'll be posting more details of all this, including arrangements for anyone wishing to sponsor me via this blog.

HOT

If today's heat is a sample of what is to come through the summer then a sponsored cycle ride will be quite a trial. I'm glad I'm spreading it over 3 days...and that on arrival at Brighton there's the sea...

Monday May 21st 2007

A GOOD READ....

In the post comes a copy of New Directions, magazine produced by traditional Anglicans. It's a v. good read. The current edition isn't available on-line, but some archive editions are. There is a lot of very amusing stuff, especially when quoting silly jargon and the absurdity of Church bureaucracy. I took it with me as I cycled off on various errands this morning, and was very glad when pouring rain drove me to a coffee-shop and a good excuse to sit and read for ten minutes...oh, I could perhaps add coyly that the reason I was sent a copy is that I have a feature - on the subject of marriage and horrible new Sexual Orientation Regulations and how they may crush religious freedom to speak on this issue - in the current edition (and if you want to see what I look like, it has my pic too). You can get a copy by sending £3 to New Directions at 2a The Cloisters, Gordon Square London WC1H 0AG

RAIN

I actually love rain and find it daft that weather forecasters always seem to treat the arrival of this absolutely neccessary item - water - as a source of gloom and apprehension. For goodness' sake, where would we be without it? Some of the most terrible places on earth are those bereft of water, where people and animals die of hunger. To live in a well-watered land is a great blessing...


WORLD YOUTH DAY

I have been toying with the idea of doing a sponsored cycle ride in aid of World Youth Day. A neighbouring parish, where the priest has been a fellow-writer in the Catholic press, is acting as the focal point for young people in our diocese who want to attend, and I'd love to help...It is going to cost a good deal for young people to attend, but judging from the experiences of those who went in 2005, it will be a great experience. The prospect of cycling around a (rural) bit of England with people sponsoring me at so much a mile is pleasing. Do you think it would be worth my trying to organise this?

Saturday May 19th

PAPA B. TEACHES

Spent part of today dealing with letters etc and couldn't resist some internet browsing. If you haven't read the Holy Father's speech to Brazil's bishops then you really should, as it's applicable to a much wider audience than just chaps in mitres in Brazil.

PARTY

And in the evening, a most enjoyable drinks party given by (noted liturgist and author!), Dr Alcuin Reid. I arrived well before Jamie as I travelled by bike and the HUGE roaring football crowds were no worry to me...roads were cleared by police to accomodate them and cars were banned but a bicycle was allowed everywhere...Excellent food, drink, and conversation, a good party. Afterwards, I put by bike on the Tube to get it home. Football crowds were rowdy but genial on the whole, and the mood cheery. Horrible, gross, sexual expletives, however, are now just a normal part of standard football songs and rants. It was not always so.

Saturday May 19th

UTTERLY LOVELY BABY

Spent yesterday in Cambridge with young relations E. and F. and their enchanting baby, Hugh. This was a trip with my mother so that she could enjoy an afternoon with her great-grandson, and it was lovely to see them together. He had been unwell (very very messily!) before we arrived and there had been a lot of frantic cleaning-up, but...well...that's family life, and soon we were all happily together and he was snuggling the small fluffy dog from his great-granny, and then sleeping while we nattered over a pub lunch. Later more cuddles and fun with him. He found the sight of me frankly hilarious and simply laughed - I too find the notion of being a great-aunt deliciously absurd. A happy day.

Saturday May 19th 2007

World Youth Day....

I got very interested in World Youth Day as a young relative went to the 2005 event and talked non-stop about it on coming home, subsequently giving a lively report to a Catholic women's group describing it all...and the 2008 event is to be in Australia, we have a number of friends who are involved, and it looks set to be a big success.

So I was concerned when some one sent me a link to a website with quotes from the Australian pop star who is to sing the 2008 WYD song. He's Guy Sebastian and the song is on the theme of the Holy Spirit and spreading the Gospel across the world:"Recieve the power". But it seems that, back in 2006, in response to some comments - he was offended by some one using a vulgar expression to insult homosexuals - he was asked to expand on his views and he said he didn't oppose gay marriage as he wasn't "anti-anything",thinks we shouldn't be "fundamentalist" etc. His remarks are decidedly confused. But the website that was sent to me quotes some of what he says - slightly out of context - and suggests that it's quite wrong that his song should have been chosen for the Sydney event.I think this is going to be made into something of a campaign, and would like to know a bit more. There's good background material on this Catholic News Agency website, which gives some flavour of his muddled thinking, in a quoite from him posted in the comments section. So far I'm unconvinced that this means he's a dedicated gay-rights campaigner, but perhaps it would be useful if he could be urged to clarify his understanding of the Church's teaching...

The website that was sent to me seems to be run by a crusader of whom I am slightly wary as it seems that his main concern is in denouncing the whole of World Youth Day and advertising "a new DVD set - only $19.99" which offers to expose the whole thing as an appalling corruption and which shows - oh, horrors! - pop singers at the 2002 event on a stage waving their arms about. On the DVD the presenter offers offers to show secenes of "rioutous charismatic sessions" and in italics "much more". He says that on attending a World Youth Day he searched in vain for "something, anything that Popes Pius 1X, Leo X111, Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius X1 or Pius X11 would recognize as Catholic" and found nothing at all. So he evidently missed the million young people at night adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at Cologne 2005, the Pope's sermon focussing on the importance of Sunday Mass and prayer, the long lines of people going to confession...