A traditional Catholic Sunday...

...with Mass (pastoral letter from the Archp, 1st Sunday of Lent). In the parish bookshop, the Pope's new book, Jesus of Nazareth, vol 11 was on sale. I couldn't resist and bought a copy. Afternoon with Mother, too cold and wet for her to enjoy a walk.The days can seem long and quiet when you are 90, but there is always family news to discuss, and we talked about Easter and the great-grandchildren, and in due course we'll be going out to buy chocolate eggs...on to collect my bike and then home to make a snack supper, and on to the parish hall where we had an informal get-together to watch a film about Pope John Paul. V. powerful and moving - we'd all been chatting comfortably over tea and cakes beforehand but as the film began silence descended and soon we were all utterly gripped. What an extraordinary gift to the Church was this man, and what an era we all lived through together.

...and I've been reading...

...this blog about the Ordinariate.

Not sure if...

...it's very good, but you can hear Auntie talking about her planned new book here on Vatican Radio...

A Traditional Catholic History Walk...

...a strong tradition now having been formed and a real sense of it emerged as we gathered in London, at Tower Hill. The brochures had stated that we would meet at the site of St Thomas More's execution, which is in the Memorial Garden near the Tower but we hadn't know that the Garden gates are locked as evening falls...so the first talk, and our opening prayers, took place just outside the gate. This turned out to be the best place of all, as the impressive entrance carries the names of the thousands and thousands of men of the Merchant Navy who lost their lives at sea, bringing food and supplies to our beleagured island during two World Wars...I had in any case intended to incorporate this into the opening talk, but standing by the entrance gate gave the whole evening a most moving and unforgettable start. The names continue all round the walls of the monument within the gates...

We went to the Tower, visited Traitors' Gate, plunged further back to the Roman and Saxon times, heard the history,learned how the Thames has shaped our city and our country's story down century after century...

Our Walk finished outside St Margaret Patten's church, where we prayed for our country and its future.

More info on all these Catholic Histyory Walks here. Next one is on April 14th, starts 6.30pm on the steps of Westminster Cathedral and has a Royal theme to connect with the R. Wedding...

This interview...

...with the leader of an Ordinariate group is worth watching. He explains things very well. And this one is good too.

Up early...

...to hurry to London for a talk on Premier Radio about Ash Wednesday, Lent, and the meaning of it all. The young team presenting the programme - all informal chat and rock-Gospel music - were terrific, we got on really well, and there was great interest in the whole subject. Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians are becoming increasingly interested in the Christian seasons, and no longer neccessarily discuss such topics as if coming from across a great divide. I saw the whole topic through new eyes, and while I was the one providing information ("Why 40 days, where do the ashes come from, what is the significance of it all, why are ashes linked to penitence?" and more...) it was they who somehow helped to bring its true meaning out...

Walked back towards Westminster Cathedral and dropped in - there was the most glorious singing coming from a side-chapel, and there, behold, were the children of the Westminster Cathedral Choir School, with teachers and parents, at a most beautiful traditional Ash Wednesday Mass. The boys looked very smart in their crimson uniforms, and there was an atmosphere of reverence. They sang beautifully for the distriubution of ashes, and for Communion, and all the parts of the Mass - the Pater Noster was especially fine - and there was dignity and a prayerful sense throughout, the voices joining in the responses and a quiet rustle of formal greetings at the Sign of Peace. I came away rather uplifted.

The new translation of the Mass is due to arrive in parishes soon. It's good, and will make a great difference to the depth of our faith: the trite phrasing we have known for too long gives way to a richer and more dignified tone throughout, to say nothing of greater accuracy. Because of the poor language that we have had to endure in recent decades, I was worried that the whole project of a vernacular liturgy might one day be banned again as it was for so many years. But as with so much that came from that Vatican Council from the 60s, we're getting the real fruits at last.

An excellent day...

...at the Kairos Centre in Roehampton, where Aid to the Church in Need was holding a conference for all its local diocesan representatives. Mass in the beautiful chapel: there is a magnificent stained glass above the altar, showing Mary Magdalene at the foot of the Cross. Talks and discussions on aspects of ACN's work - a new edition of its report Persecuted and Forgotten is due out soon. And a highlight: guest speaker Rev Keith Newton of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Informative, upbeat, vigourous, and he answered questioon after question without flagging and with interest and enthusiasm.

A cheerful talkative supper - with pancakes as it was Shrove Tuesday. The kind team working in the kitchen wrapped some up for me with lemon wedges, to take home for Jamie.

History in the making...

...read here...

And beyond today, there is tomorrow...

...and I discovered that young people who are going to Madrid for World Youth Day are also looking ahead to the one after that, possibly in Mexico...

Our parish has a big group going to Madrid, and the other day there was a very enjoyable fund-raising lunch to help them...

This will be a Lent like no other Lent...

...for the men who are taking their flocks into the new Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Anglicans and Catholics alike should pray that much that is great and good will flow from this initiative. It all culminates at Easter, and in the days that follow. It all needs lots of prayer.

Need info? Read here for regular updates. And here is some of the latest news.

Just to enjoy...

...a bit of London and pageantry, go to this link from the excellent Joan Lewis of EWTN and see the new Nuncio going by carriage to present his credentials to HM the Queen.

A survey from officialdom...

...comes for my elderly mother to complete. It invites her to describe herself as "heterosexual/straight, bisexual, lesbian..." or a couple of other options. My mother would prefer to describe herself as a "normal married woman". She has never used the expression "heterosexual" nor has she described herself as "straight" and it doesn't seem quite right to make her describe herself in terms that she would never use and indeed might regard as offensive.We leave the papers aside for a while. We talk about Britain a bit. "I pray a lot for this country" she says suddenly "I pray a lot."

Lots of young engaged couples...

...sitting in rows at a Marriage Preparation course in a Catholic parish. The atmosphere is very attractive - friendly, open, interested - and it is a privilege to take part in these sessions. As the talk develops, the mood moves from interest to real involvement - there is great seriousness as we speak of the sacrament of marriage, of Cana, of Bridegroom and Bride, of the link between marriage and the Eucharist. Prayer, passing on the Faith to children, loyalty, building up a family, and looking ahead to life and beyond - and preparing for marriage by thinking about these things...all this gets discussed. The day ends with the priest praying one of the beautiful prayers from the Nuptial Mass which speaks of a couple seeing their children's children, and after a happy old age having "fullness of life with the saints, in the kingdom of Heaven".

As I leave I pick up the parish newsletter. There's a rather good Lenten pastoral letter reminding us all about penance and prayer, about fasting and going to confession. Abstention from meat on Lenten Fridays is especially mentioned.

Home on the Tube, trundling through the suburbs, icy rain lashing at the windows, with a book about John Paul II - I'm reading a lot of his material at the moment after realising that in fact I hadn't actually studied much while he was alive and writing...He's going to be beatified on the feast of Divine Mercy. I didn't really connect with this devotion when this feast was first instituted. I remember thinking: "Well, of course God is merciful. Why do we need a special feast to state that?". But listen to what JPII said:

"It is this love which must inspire humanity today, if it is to face the crisis of the meaning of life, the challenges of the most diverse needs and, especially, the duty to defend the dignity of every human person. Thus the message of divine mercy is also implicitly a message about the value of every human being. Each person is precious in God's eyes; Christ gave his life for each one; to everyone the Father gives his Spirit and offers intimacy.

"This consoling message is addressed above all to those who, afflicted by a particularly harsh trial or crushed by the weight of the sins they committed, have lost all confidence in life and are tempted to give in to despair. To them the gentle face of Christ is offered; those rays from his heart touch them and shine upon them, warm them, show them the way and fill them with hope."

Who was John Henry Newman?

Come and hear about him.

An illustrated talk by Newman scholar Dr Andrew Nash

WEDNESDAY March 16th, 7.30pm in the church hall at St Winefride’s Church, South Wimbledon, London SW19

ALL WELCOME! Coffee and Victorian Marmalade Cake. Suggested donation £3.00. Funds raised will go towards the work of the Maryvale Institute, the Catholic educational centre established at Maryvale, Old Oscott House, once the home of John Henry Newman.

And more on John Paul II...

...about whom you're going to hear a lkot in the next days and weeks. AS mentioned below (see earlier blog post) I've been reading up about him. Rather than the standard media commentaries, try this one...

...and for Auntie's take on the Royal nuptials...

...click here.

Been reading...

...works by Edith Stein, and realised that I also wanted to read more by and about the great John Paul II. Like a great many of us, I had more or less taken him for granted - "Yes, wonderful man...hugely important..." but hadn't actually hoisted in the hugeness of what was achieved during his Papacy. I knew about the friendship with the Jewish people, opened up by Nostra Aetate and just this week reaffirmed with vigour by our present Holy Father.. But I had not realised the breakthrough that was achieved with the Orthodox Church, specifically by JPII's willingness to express sorrow and repentance for past wrongs caused by Catholics. What has also become very clear is the great intellectual closeness and rapport between JPII and BXVI, the philosopher and the theologian. Over the past three years I've been deep in books by Ratzinger/BXVI, and you note the influence at so many levels...

A crowd of young parents...

...packed out a room at St Joseph's, Epsom, this evening for a talk on the sacrament of Penance. Yes, I mean a big crowd - they get about 700 people at the main Family Mass on Sunday mornings, and here were a large number of them, coming for the latest in a series of evening sessions on preparing the children to recieve the sacraments. I was amazed. We keep hearing about how the Church is supposed to be dying, numbers dwindling, etc, but it just isn't.

It was a priviledge to be there as part of a team with Dr Pia Matthews talking about the Sacrament of Penance, and how it works, and what it's all about...there was a great atmosphere, everyone attentive, a good blend of humour and seriousness, an air of realism, faith, and much goodwill. These are families who see their children and the Faith as being of central importance in their lives...

Earlier in the day, I was at a press conference about the H. Father's new book on Jesus of Nazareth...

And in between, a happy family time, helping to collect a small relative from school and walking along with him swinging a schoolbag and chattering agreeably.

If you want...

...to get Auntie's take on The King's Speech, you'd better click here...

HOPE...

...in the Heart of Soho is the message of the team based at St Patrick's, Soho Square. Click on here and here for info on lots of good things, including a trip to Paray-le-Monial, street evangeliusation, talks on TOB, and more...

A Polish priest...

...visited the office of Aid to the Church in Need in Sutton Yesterday (see previous post), and we had a good chat over mugs of tea. For years and years, faithful ACN supporters in Britain were supporting the Church in Poland, helping to fund the building of the great church at Nowa Huta, praying for Poles struggling against a vicious bureaucratic obstructive Communist state machine, assisting the arrival in Poland of books and literature banned by the State. And now, here was a cheerful priest, busy with plans to take a large crowd of young Poles to World Youth Day in Madrid, showing me snaps of various youth events in Poland, swapping news and information about the state of the Church in Poland and in Britain and elsewhere.

The young faces grinned out from the photographs - groups just like the gatherings of the FAITH Movement in Britain each summer, or, indeed, like the young people in our parish the other day, in their WYD teeshirts, rushing about organising a big parish lunch to raise funds for the Madrid project. But the difference is that to be a practising Catholic in Poland isn't a minority thing - it's much more normal.

I asked: have numbers at Mass gone down since the fall of Communism - is a new generation viewing the Church in a quite different way? Yes, there's a different attitude - it's no longer a case of showing support for the Church in opposition to a Communist regime. But today's generation has grown up with that - they see the Church in a different way but still in a way that inspires them, holds out a message that they like. Many will travel abroad, and all have an attitude that looks wider, likes the idea of something worldwide - the big challenge is to show them that when they do go to different countries, the Church may not seem to large and lively there, and they must make an effort to seek it out.

Earlier, I'd been talking to a - former Anglican - ordinand about evangelisation, and how to bring the Gospel to modern British cities. The shouting, drunken young girls staggering out of pubs late on a Saturday night? The solid Islamic areas? The young single women with their babies on a bleak Council estate? The young men, dedicated to the local football team with the pssionate fervour of a great religious cause?

Tonight, a gathering of an informal Catholic group in London which meets from time to time for talks from guest speakers, wine and snacks, socialising. Tonight, we're watching the Papal Visit DVD, (recommended).

The vast crowd, mostly young, silent at prayer in Hyde Park last year holds a message that is relevant to what I've written above.

Through the rainy London suburbs...

...to Holy Cross church in Carshalton, for the funeral of Miss Margaret Hignett, who taught me French at St Philomena's School, and who was later among the team of wonderful volunteers at the Sutton office of Aid to the Church in Need. It was the ACN office team who informed me of her death, and I was able to join them at the funeral.

The prayers of the funeral Mass are glorious, especially the final prayer in which we called on the angels and saints to accompany her as she went to meet God...

Holy Cross church stands next to the railway in Carshalton, a simple suburban church, bright with six candles on the altar, a fine great crucifix in the sanctuary, and a sense of being well-loved and at the heart of a busy parish. And as it happens, a church with family links for me - my parents were married here back in the vanished Britain of 1949...

On to the ACN office in Sutton. Always a busy place, and currently lots happening, with a new book, Persecuted and Forgotten,(about the plight of Christians iun various parts of the world) shortly to be published, and the annual conference for diocesan representatives due to be held next week.

I found this...

useful and rather moving statement from Bishop Peter Elliott, in Australia: he was addressing a group of Anglican and discussing the Ordinariate:

"As the historic events leading to the ordinariates unfold, we have around us the prayerful company of the heroes of faith, men and women great in Christian mind and heart. This is where the patrimonies, Anglican and Catholic, merge, a sharing of heritage that is one of the most delightful fruits of unity in Faith. I find that the names of our heroes and heroines are helpful.

The pre-Reformation heritage includes the Venerable Bede, St Columba, St Cuthbert, St Ninian, Duns Scotus, the much loved Dame Julian of Norwich, and, in a wider Europe, the minds of St Albert the Great and St Thomas Aquinas. In the Reformation era, we celebrate St John Fisher, St Thomas More., St Teresa of Avila, St Robert Bellarmine, then in more recent centuries, Rosmini and Scheeben, St Therese of Lisieux, Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs Von Balthasar, St Edith Stein, John Paul II, and our Pope, Benedict XVI.

The Anglican intellectual and spiritual patrimony runs parallel to this stream. The names are familiar: Richard Hooker, Lancelot Andrews, Joseph Butler, John and Charles Wesley, John Keble, Bl. John Henry Newman, Edward Bouverie Pusey, Charles Gore, William Temple, Evelyn Underhill, Dorothy Sayers, Charles Williams, Dom Gregory Dix, Michael Ramsey, John Macquarrie, Kenneth Kirk, C.S. Lewis, Austin Farrer, Eric Mascall – and after such a list I ask pardon for leaving out other great souls."

You can read more of his address here

When in Rome...

...recently, I picked up the atmosphere of anticipation that is already - and it's only February - building up for the Beatification of the great John Paul in May. Today I came across this feature which describes something of it.

Thank the Lord...

....for our Archbishop of Southwark, Archbishop Peter Smith, speaking out clearly defending marriage as the union of a man and a woman and explaining that "No authority has the power to modify the fundamental nature of marriage". There can be no question whatever of the Church allowing any form of "same-sex marriage": this is not something that is negotiable, it's not going to change, it is not ours to change.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly affirmed the importance of the family as central to the stability of society - and he wants a responsible, large and generous society in which we all care for one another and help one another. Plans to belittle marriage by promoting "same-sex unions" will completely undermine any efforts he thinks he is making towards that stable and generous society - it will cut the very guts out of the essence of the thing.

The West is dying because fewer and fewer children are being born. Already we here in Britain have lost over seven million people because they were killed as babies under our abortion law: this has been devastating for us. We have become used to a degree of social chaos that is steadily getting worse. Strong families based on a man and a woman united for life, caring for their children and for their elderly relatives, is the only structure which works: clumsy alternatives centred on an ever-more-intrusive and ever-increasing State are both inefficient and frightening. And they are expensive: so it will be increasingly tempting to complain about elderly people living too well or too long...

Want to learn more about John Henry Newman?

There's another talk coming up: March 16th, 7.30pm at St Winefride's, South Wimbledon, London SW19. (V. easy to reach by Tube - South Wimbledon on the Northern Line). Anyone and everyone welcome. Coffee and cake - the tradition at these Newman events is to serve marmalade cake, because among his correspondence historians found a charming letter thanking a kind friend for the gift of some marmalade to the Oratory Fathers, so it seems appropriate. Donation £3.00 - funds raised will go to the work of the Maryvale Institute.

Today at Mass...

... a family in the queue as we walked forward for H. Communion, small children making rather a noise and pushing about.Older brother, aged perhaps 6, in front of them, arms crossed devoutly, ready to recieve a blessing, turned round and said "SSsssshhh! We're in church!" and they were instantly quiet.

Today and yesterday...

...various meetings talking about the new Ordinariate All such discussions are bittersweet. What will happen to the church buildings which the Ordinariate is now obliged to leave behind? Most will not have congregations large enough to support them in the longer term, as the majority of committed parishioners will be joining the Ordinariate. At first, the church building will remain open and the parish will be given a new minister. But in due course it could be given a lady priest and/or be merged into another parish with different beliefs. And the days of closure loom: the building turned into a carpet warehouse or a mosque.

With the Ordinariate, things look good and it teems with potential. Numbers are substantially larger than most onlookers and commentators - including the friendliest - had imagined, and the whole project more deeply and widely based. And a second wave of entrants is likely within a couple of years.

There is a genuine "Anglican patrimony" that these men and their congregations are bringing: customs, networks, traditions, hymns, music, ideas, ways of talking,ways of celebrating, ways of doing things. It's likely that in this way a number of things which were once sort of "normal C. of E." will be sustained and allowed to grow, which would otherwise have vanished. Which is good, but also rather poignant: the C. of E. itself will limp on, but changing more and more into something quite different.

The crucial need in our country is for evangelisation: to teach about Christ, to help people to know and love God. All the Ordinariate people that Auntie has met thus far have this as their priority., and have an energy and zeal about them.

Came across...

...this piece of quietly good news when looking up some things on the Internet today.

Pray for...

...the people of Christchurch, New Zealand. Like so many British people, I have close family in NZ (all safe).

New Zealand is a great country. You are going to hear of courage and heroism over these next days. Pray for those working to rescue the trapped, for the injured, for the homeless...

...and while on the subject...

...of John Paul II, why can't people in Britain (and elsewhere in Europe?) obtain copies of the brilliant film, starring Jon Voight, that tells the story of his life?

I have the DVD, a kind gift from an American friend, but it is not generally available in Britain, due to some - surely hopelessly out of date? - export/copyright restrictions. In the age of the Internet, this seems daft.

What can we do about this? You aren't even allowed to buy a copy by post from America, even for individual use. It's weird. Surely these restrictions belong to the 1950s?

Every time...

...I work on an essay for my Maryvale course (see column alongside), I use a Bible that looks just like any ordinary paperback Bible.

But it's special. It's signed by soon-to-be-Blessed John Paul II.

Some twenty years ago, after organising the XVIth International Congress for the Family, in Britain, my husband went with other Congress organisers to Rome and were granted an audience with the Holy Father. J. had prepared some gifts for him - a Congress teeshirt, an information pack giving details of the event - and also presented him with a Bible which he had already inscribed to "Mr and Mrs J. Bogle" and which he asked the H. Father to sign. Now, you're not really meant to do that - protocol forbids, etc etc - but this was JPII and he took the book like the father that he was, and smiled, and signed it, and now it stands on the shelf beside me as I write, and I use it for my studying, and for my prayers, and I value it more than I can really put into words. And I have a picture of J. with JPII to confirm this story, and JPII also gave him a rosary, which I use, and will use for the rest of my life.

This week, I've been reading up about JPII, especially the book by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz describing his forty years of working alongside him. More and more details are neginning to emerge about JPII's life, especially the amount of time he spent in prayer, his physical courage, his commonsense, and his wisdom. This was an extraordinary man: we all knew it at the time, but as he finds his place in history, it is becoming even more apparent.

Various adventures...

...that are fun to mention on my Blog:

En route to Rome, I had time to spare at Gatwick, so dropped in to the chapel. A Ch. of F. Communion service was just beginning. I stayed, and a couple of other people dropped in, too. It was peaceful and prayerful, and it was good to be able to join in the Our Father, and to know that prayers were quietly going up, in that busy airport, in the middle of all the rush...

In Rome, I looked in at Vatican Radio, got chatting, ended up being interviewed. They were interested in the book about Mother Riccarda, and then asked me about Caroline Chisholm. Vatican Radio has a rather grand headquarters not far from St Peter's, all smart and modern and w. the latest equipment.

It was odd that Caroline Chisholm should re-enter my life , as she had done so just a few days earlier too...BBC Radio Northampton contacted me on January 26th, Australia Day, to do a feature about her! (If you don't know why Northampton, and why Australia Day, you'll have to read my book about her to find out, won't you?)

Here at home, a rush of meetings, and hospital appts (physiotherapy on my wrist...BTW many thanks to those who have made kind enquiries, things are healing well, all should be back to normal in a few weeks), and work.

Entries are beginning to arrive for the Religious Education Project run by the Association of Catholic Women - it's for children at Catholic primary schools and involves studying some of Scriptural events in the Mysteries of the Rosary (Joyful and Luminous Mysteries). It's very touching to see the children's work. The latest Catholic Times carries a review of the booklet produced following last year's Project in which children wrote about St Peter, the Papacy, and the visit of the present Holy Father to Britain. If you want a little lift, get a copy of the booklet: 70p from ACW - why not send a cheque for a bit more, as a donation to ACW's work, and get a couple of copies, and pass one to a friend? - 22 Surbiton Hill Park, Surbiton KT5 2EE...

Auntie has been in Rome...

...and you can read my despatches here...

Came across...

...this site for World Youth Day.Watch the DVD!

And this general background piece has some good links too...

On the news...

...at the weekend, lots of prattle about planned new legislation concerning churches and same-sex "civil unions". I felt a real chill - is this going to mean some ghastly and crippling legal cases, in which campaigners sue RC priests who refuse them a ceremony? Or will it outright compulsion - a law which attempts to force us to abandon the Faith and the teachings of the Church by holding such ceremonies? The latter seems unlikely, the former of course a real possibility. Will the Govt give fair and just legal protection to Christians so that we can teach and celebrate the Christian faith in Christian churches? It was a quiet relief to hear Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark affirming calmly and firmly that no Catholic church could hold a ceremony to mark a same-sex union: it is the very nature of marrige that it can only be a union of a man and a woman.

The Church is going to have to be very firm and very clear on this. There must be absolutely no legal loophole in which campaigners can force huge fines on the Church for doing what the Church teaches. There must be freedom for the Church to preach and teach Catholic faith and morals. No compulsion on same-sex unions, no compulsion to teach anything that is contrary to the Catholic Faith, no possibility of people trying to use civil lawsuits to cripple the Church or force church closures.

More info here.

It's official...

...a vicar announces he is joining the Ordinariate. This is Ed Tomlinson, at whose parish in Tunbridge Wells I had the priviledge of speaking recently.

This whole project ois beginning to take shape, slowly, firmly, and prophetically. It all needs to be nourished by prayer.

This is important::

the brave parents at the Cardinal Vaughan School need help. This is a fine school and the parents are rallying to its defence: read the saga on that parents' website. They have right and justice on their side, and they deserve support.

There are some fantasists out there...

...in America. A friend, looking for Mass times on a visit, came across a parish website which told women to wear different sorts of headgear according to their marital status. I'm not inventing this. Apparently the priest wants a tradition to be established for this in his church.

Uh? I thought it was a joke at first, but no.

I can't imagine why any priest would want to force this sort of nasty humiliation on anyone - or why anyone would go along with it.

Is the idea that the unmarried ladies are expected to feel worse and worse as the years slip by and no one makes an offer of matrimony? Are they gently allowed to slip into more anonymous headgear as they reach a certain age, and their hopes fade?

While on the subject, I got an email from some one who asked if I was "veiled". This baffled me, but I discovered that it's a cult phrase among groupies (yes, I'm afraid it's the USA again) who like wearing lace mantillas in church. They don't use the word "mantilla", but prefer the notion of "being veiled" and are pushing for it to become something that Catholics feel they ought to do.

I had always rather liked the tradition of black lace worn as a decorative headgear for Mass, but this new approach isn't Catholic at all. Being at Mass is the most important and glorious thing that any person can ever do, and to mix it up with obsessions about "veiling" is just nasty.

Any woman can wear a hat - of any colour or design - at Mass and give glory to God by doing so, provided she isn't being smug or vain, and it's a joy to see an array of lovely hats for a wedding or a special occasion. God loves his daughters and good clothes can be a form of artistry and beauty just as other things can. We do NOT believe that women have to "be veiled" and our theology of human dignity, beauty and form helps us to understand why. Our understanding of these things is one of the things that makes us different from Protestants and, as it happens, Islam.

We walked...

...a group of people, at a rather brisk pace, from Westminster Cathedral to the Houses of Parliament last night for Mass. Mass? Yes. For over 30 years now, Mass has been celebrated regularly in Parliament for the MPs, peers, and staff and we were priviledged to be able to attend as the guest of a kind Member of the House of Lords. It was an unforgettable evening: the Mass was one of the most beautiful I have ever attended. Canon Pat Brown, who is parish priest of Pimlico, is the RC chaplain and he has a fine singing voice. We sang the Sanctus and Agnus Dei etc, and Ubi Caritas at Communion, and some fine hymns. An MP did the first Reading. It was rather moving to see busy politicians taking time out to attend a weekday evening Mass. The chapel of St Mary Undercroft is beautiful. My thoughts went back to the afternoon, now more than three decades ago, when Cardinal Basil Hume said the first Mass there. I was working in Parliament at the time for a team of MPs, and it was thrilling to be invited to be at the Mass, which was a very simple and calm but utterly memorable event...the start of a new chapter in history.

At last night's Mass finished, we gathered in WEstminster Great Hall and studied its history. A section of the stone-flagged floor was blocked off and I presume this is for the insertion of a plaque commemorating the Pope's visit last year. It will join the other plaques martking the great events that have happened there...St Thomas More's trial, Sir Winston Churchill's lying-in-state etc.

John Henry Newman...

...was the subject of a really excellent talk at Holy Redeemer Church, Chelsea, this week (see announcement below). The hall was packed - every chair was used, people were sitting on the window-ledges and standing at the back and in the kitchen. The talk, illustrated with power-point, was superb, and everyone was gripped. Newman's story really is a fascinating one, and sheds light on so much that has happened in the development of the Church in our country since.

The plan is to offer this talk to other parishes, so watch this space.

We made a good sum for the Maryvale Institute.

Next time some one tells you the Church is dead, dying, all-gone-downhill-since-Vatuican-11 etc etc etc etc, tell them to get real.

Interesting statistics...

...in discussions re the Ordinariate.

Apparently in gathering figures for official records, a "large" congregation in an Anglican church is deemed to be one of 55 or over. Can this really be true?

Obviously, for reasons of history, Catholic parishes cover in Britain cover far wider territories than do Anglican ones, so a congregation in any given church is likely to be larger. But even so...most Catholic parishes that consider themselves to be fairly small still count people in hundreds, and I know of several suburban parishes that are in four figures,and some of more than 2,000.

While on the subject of church attendance: I was informed by a Catholic writer back in the 1980s that there would be no one at Mass at all in England and Wales by the start of the 21st century, based on his projections. I think of this from time to time. How wrong he was. About a third of the people at a Sunday evening Mass in our parish were hardly born when he made that prediction: but there they are, kneeling and praying. His prediction was made with a sort of gloating ooh-isn't-it-dreadful approach which at the time seemed to me very impressive and knowledgeable and grown-up. But when I came acros it in some old papers I was sorting a few months ago, it just looked cross and sour - and, of course, wrong.

So making predictions is dangerous. But here's one anyway, as a hostage to fortune. I believe that the Anglican Ordinariate parishes being etablished in Britain over the next year and a half will survive and thrive. They will not grow dramatically at first, but will flourish quietly and significantly. Revisit this prediction with me in five years' time and let' see.

A talk...

...tonight (Tuesday Feb 8th) at Holy Redeemer Church, Chelsea, about John Henry Newman. Speaker: Dr Andrew Nash.


We are serving coffee and marmalade cake. Among Newman's correspondence is a charming letter to some ladies who had kindly provided the Birmingham Oratorians with some jars of marmalade. So we felt marmalade cake would be a suitably Victorian thing to serve...

Donations of £3 per head are invited, proceeds will go to Maryvale.

You may find...

...the current issue of New Directions interesting: gives insights into what is happening with the Anglican Ordinariate.

Interested in the Royal Wedding? Click on that link to get Auntie's take on it.

Typing...

...has been a bit difficult with a broken arm, so I have been doing only crucial reports, academic work, neccessary journalism etc. Hospital appt on Tuesday so things will be better after that.

Life v.v. busy - meetings re Ordinariate, also plans for Rome trip next week.

But there's also been a need to relax, so a happy day with young relatives in Surrey, and a lovely afternoon at the National Gallery w. a dear niece, where we decided to tackle the Impressionists so enjoyed Monet and Degas at length. Then Tea and talk as the London sky darkened beyond the Gallery windows. You get a rather dramatic view of Nelson's column from the cafe/restaurant basement as you look upwards. As we left, there were all sorts of activities arranged around Trafalgar Square to mark the Chinese New Year.

Some of the London pubs are beginning to put up listings for various celebrations for the Royal Wedding in April. But there is somehow a slightly wistful feel to the talk on this subject. Britain has such muddles about marriage and family life at the moment. Officialdom has for the past decade been urging that marriage should not be honoured above any other "relationship" and that the words "husband and wife" should be shunned in favour of "partner" etc etc etc... But we are now allowed to celebrate and honour the marriage of our future king. And with a Royal Wedding comes a hint of promise about the future: an assurance of continuity in Britain, of some sort of heritage that is not yet dead.

In the weird and bleak culture of today's West, our Monarchy holds out, wobbly but still present. Can it survive if the Christian culture of which it is a part is so much under attack?

Things have been busy...

...and Auntie is hampered by having a broken arm. You can catch up with me here.

A glorious Mass...

...for Candlemas at Westminster Cathedral. Things are depressing in any British city as 2011 opens. The Christian presence seems - at best - muted, the increasing presence of Islam is the most notable religious feature. Lurid magazines shriek pointless headlines about the sexual antics of nonentity TV "celebs". Young people seem angry and cross and sulky and frightened - you don't often hear laughter or giggles and the predominant noise from groups of people is often sullen sexual expletives or very loud crude obscenities as an argument breaks out.

Then the Cathedral and people are drawn to its presence as it is illuminated at night and looks warm and glowing across the piazza. Inside, people hold candles, and faces are lit up, and music soars. A great rumble of voices responds as the back-and-forth of the Mass begins. There is appropriately glorious music at the Gloria. Christ is our light!

Is it...

..."The Ordin-air-ree-ate" or "The Ordin-ah-ree-ate"?

Mostly, people seem to use the former. And is the latter a mite pretentious? Opinions?

...and on to Maryvale...

...where, as always it was a joy to arrive and to go up the drive and past the wide lawn, and plunge into warmth and friendship when barely through the front door. I had come straight from the lovely family who had hosted me for the Ordinariate meeting the night before...and found the team at Maryvale busy with a mailing to Ordinariate people!

Our weekends of lectures for the BA Divinity course are always excellent...this time we were tackling St John's Gospel, and also Moral Theology...

Brigettine nuns bustling about, a lecture hall with people gathering and swapping news as things begin, the chapel with the candles glowing. There have been new carpets put down since I first started coming to Maryvale a couple of years ago, and there is a fine Papal flag in the hall as a memory of the Holy Father's visit to Birmingham, and a sense of gentle glee over being able to say "Blessed John Henry Newman"...but the old house still has that indefinable scent of Old England, a vague feeling of the faithful from centuries past joining in the prayers in the chapel, the strange and agreeable tilt of the old stairs, the sense of being a guest in an old, old home...

The Ordinariate...

...is developing speedily. I had a fascinating evening with a parish in Kent. A full hall, warm hospitality, good links with the local RC parish...an unforgettable evening, with much thoughtful discussion with clergy and their families, after the main meeting...

Been reading...

..from some recent editions of First Things. I picked up a couple pf copies from a friend...wish I had done this before, as it's a a great magazine, a feast of good reading, with good stuff on current social trends, bioethics (scary but important warnings from Wesley Smith about developments in euthanasia etc), educational and cultural issues, and more...

A facinating evening...

...at a lecture on the subject of the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School. I have - like many other London Catholics - become aware of the tensions aurrounding the future of this excellent Catholic school.

Pope John Paul II in Familiaris Consortio, emphasised the central and fundamental role of parents in choosing an education for their children. Schools are to be run as a service for families, not regarded as part of an ideological battleground...

AT LAST....

...a really good idea.

This has been launched by young Catholics who are serious about finding a spouse.

Auntie is aware that this is an important matter: I've had so many pleas from (attractive, bright, delightful) Catholic girls asking if there are any good Catholic chaps out there...preferably without dedication to specific liturgical opinions but with a reasonable range of interests and a sincere ordinary commitment to a Christian way of life, plus a sense of humour.

INTERESTED IN LEARNING HOW TO SPREAD THE FAITH?

The Association of Catholic Women
ART AND MUSIC in R.E.
A Study Day
for Teachers at Catholic Schools
March 30th 2011

at The Maryvale Institute, Old Oscott Hill, Birmingham B44 9AG
12.15pm: Lunch
1.00pm: Teaching Christ through Art - Presentation by Dr Lionel Gracey
2.15pm: Tea
2.45pm: Learning Gregorian Chant - Workshop with Jeremy de Satgé
4.00pm MASS – at which we will sing some of the chant learned during the afternoon
Open to all teachers. There is no charge for this day.

A chance to enjoy a day at Maryvale – home of John Henry Newman, and today a study centre welcoming Catholics who want to explore and celebrate their faith!

TEACHING CHRIST THROUGH ART :
An audio/visual presentation with Lionel Gracey.

Lionel Gracey graduated in medicine at Cambridge University, and completed postgraduate studies at Harvard. He was Consultant Surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital, University of London, from 1966-91. Following retirement, he obtained a pontifical degree in theology from the Maryvale Institute, Birmingham, where he is currently a Lecturer in Religious Art.

LEARNING GREGORIAN CHANT:
Children can benefit from the relaxation and peace that chant brings

Jeremy de Satgé had an early musical training as a chorister in Sheffield Cathedral Choir. Later, he sang bass in Clifton Cathedral Choir and decided to concentrate his efforts on music full time, enrolling at Trinity College of Music, London graduating in 1987 with a Singing (with teaching) Licentiate Diploma (LTCL) and the Fellowship Diploma (FTCL) in singing performance.

This Study day is aimed at teachers in Catholic primary schools, but we have a limited number of places available for others, e.g. leaders of children’s liturgy groups, First Communion classes etc. Contact us!
For more information on the Association of Catholic Women, visit our website: www.associationofcatholicwomen.co.uk

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please complete this and return it, by email to: artadmin@maryvale.ac.uk
Or by post to: ACW Study Day, The Maryvale Institute Old Oscott Hill BIRMINGHAM B44 9AG
YES, I want to attend the Study Day at on March 30th 2011

Name (caps please)..........................................................................
School or parish .............................................................................................
email/tel no.....................................................................................

This has been going the rounds...

“I’m thinking of joining the new organization set up by the Roman Catholic Church to assist potential Anglican converts. Would I require any special headgear?”



“No. Just an ordinary ’at.”

A most beautiful Mass...

... organised by Aid to the Church in Need, at Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Sutton, to mark the anniversary of Fr Werenfried van Straaten. The church was very full - people squeezed up to fit me in as I arrived rather late. A beautiful Ave Verum at Communion, and also "Be still my soul" sung to Finlandia...

I am so much aware at present of how much dedication there is in the Church - here, on a cold weekday January morning, people were crowding to Mass and to hear a talk on the current needs of Christians in different parts of the world...

Tomorrow (Friday) I am due at the CTS to pack some envelopes in connection with a new project. At this morning's gathering, I tentatively asked a couple of people if they might be able to come along and help.. immediate enthusiastic response, and they started making arrangements to get to the CTS office etc.

Earlier this week, I went to a talk at Ealing Abbey, about Blessed John Henry Newman, preceded by Mass and Adoration...again, large crowds. The talk was meant to be in the parish hall but had to be moved to the church because of the numbers.

Home...

...to hospital appointments, and a number of events:

THE KEYS, The Catholic Writers' Guild, held its annal meeting - it is always held near the feast of our patron, St Francis de Sales - and a special Mass for the late and much-loved Fr Kit Cunningham. He was our Guild Chaplain for many years. A beautiful sung requiem Mass at St Mary Moorfields and Piers Paul Read spoke in tribute to Fr Kit at the end. Fr Kit was a leading spirit in the Guild from the early 1990s onwards and our meetings in the crypt at St Etheldreda's Ely Place opened up a new chapter in Guild history...the flourishing of the Guild today owes much to this.

On Wednesday the Catholic History Walks had the first event of its 2011 programme with a tour of Westminster Cathedral. I arrived in good time and was puzzled by a large crowd gathering by the door...then came to realise they had all come for the tour! We had a grand afternoon: I love showing people the Cathedral's special places, and seeing how there is always something of new significance: the big stone marking Pope John Paul's visit of 1982, the new mosaic of St David blessed by our present Holy Father just a few months ago...

That link for the History Walks gives info about the March and April events, and also dates for the summer. Note that the list for the special; February Mass has now closed.

HISTORY IS MADE....

...at Westminster Cathedral. Read about it here. The Anglican Ordinariate has been established, and honoured with the name of Our Lady of Walsingham. Its special patron will be Blessed John Henry Newman. Read the announcement from Rome here.

Over recent weeks, it's been exciting to be part of the team launching the magazine Portal, which is associated with the Ordinariate.

These are days to remember, days to cherish for always...

Quiet days with snow and John Paul the Great...

...snowbound in Alabama!

It has been beautiful.

With the EWTN studios snowbound for the first days of my stay, I rested and read and read...given free access to a good range of Catholic books, I decided that I'd find out more about John Paul II, having recently read the new tome on the subject by George Weigel. From rows of stacked and catalogued shelves of books, I chose William Oddie's John Paul the Great - a collection of essays by a number of well-known British and other Catholic writers including Leonie Caldecott, Dr Tracey Rowland, and Fr Aidan Nichols, and then added Oddie's unusually prophetic Roman Option. I also picked up Peggy Noonan"s John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father and added a newly-published book that had evidently just arrived: The Pope's Maestro by Gilbert Levine.

When the weather finally allowed things to return to normal at EWTN and we could start work on my new series, I was almost sorry: the peace and the books and the beauty of the snow and the pine trees had been a joy. But it all felt absolutely right. The new broke that John Paul II is to be beatified: the date is May 1st, the feast of Divine Mercy. I started work, and the week's filming has gone magnificently. I have never had a week like it: everyone has been so helpful, the broken arm slowed me down and made me work at a sane pace, we did everything without any problems and I even had free evenings and time to rest, and meals with friends. With daily Mass and the wonderful friendships that EWTN seems to forge, it has been a time of great delight.

Auntie in America...

...in a snowstorm, with a broken arm (see earlier entry describing Christmas adventures)...The TV station where I'm meant to be working hasn't been able to operate fully, as snow and ice meant that people couldn't reach it. However, I've been staying in a comfortable house and these last few days have been rather extraordinary...peaceful and happy, with books and rest and daily Mass. Yesterday, supper with the Franciscan Friars of the Eternal Word - a team of young, dedicated, friars in traditional brown robes with a sense of joy about them...they were v. kind and it was a delight to be with them. It was fascinating to be welcomed into this traditional Franciscan house: we had a reading during supper (Pope Benedict XVI on St Bonaventure - as it happens, a subject that I have recently been studying, and of great interest to me) and we sat all around a big set of tables set in a horseshow formation, beginning and ending with prayer. Conversation ranged over many things, including the recent Papal visit to Britain: as their special work is the media they were well-informed, and eager and interested... A happy and convivial evening, with something gloriously medieval about it, as I was walked home carefully across treacherous icy paths by a young friar...

Today, the weather abated a little and work began on the series of TV programmes I am making. The broken arm is proving a nuisance but is not preventing me from working.

You might be interested...

...to read this on the Anglican Ordinariate...

DATES...

...to note. Come and join me for a TOUR OF WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL on Jan 19th. Meet 2.30pm inside the Cathedral, by the entrance to the gift shop. No need to book - just turn up! More info on this and other History Walks and Talks here.

And note this date too: FEB 8th, Holy Redeemer Church, Chelsea, 7.30pm. Dr Andrew Nash gives an illustrated talk on John Henry Newman. Everyone welcome: come and celebrate Newman's beatification and find out more about this remarkable Englishman. The talk is in the comfortable Monckton Room in the crypt, and this promises to be most delightfdul evening. Coffee and cake. Donation £3.00, funds raised will go to the work of the MARYVALE institute.

To America...

...in a few days' time, and with much to accomplish before then,

Christmas was glorious, the English countryside glittering in bitter cold, snowy fields, clear starry skies. We stayed in a converted apple loft, cosy under a sloping roof, a skylight window open to the scent of the sea, a warm kitchen below. A round of family visits, church, chatty teatimes, games of charades, exchanges of gifts and hugs. Christmas was not without its drama - I fell headlong down some stairs as I hurried to fetch gifts from a car...and an afternoon was spent in a local country hospital, where I received excellent care...am now bandaged up and coping rather hilariously with the various domestic tasks that usually seem so easy...

We saw in the New Year with old friends, and went to Evensong at Gloucester Cathedral on New Year's Day, driving through countryside now brown and damp after the thaw. Now home, and catching up on tasks while sorting out fresh medical appointments to ensure that I'll be OK to travel in a few days' time...(prayers appreciated...)

Young friends returned enthusiastic about the FAITH Winter Conference, which brought together over 200 young people, including a large number of priests and seminarians, for talks and prayer and daily Mass and more,in the magnificent setting of Stonyhurst, in the days after Christmas. Amazing how the FAITH Movement has grown and grown - back in the 1970s, when it was first starting, we would have 40 or so people at a summer event, and now there are a range of different conferences and gatherings, and a whole new generation is turning out to listen and learn and pray and celebrate...

In America, I'm making some programmes for EWTN. There's a lot to do before I fly, and Christmas isn't fully over yet, we are invited to a party on Jan 5th.

BTW, we were in Oxford on Sunday, and went to a glorious Mass at the Oratory, packed of course and with wonderful music. In accordance with the current arrangement being tried by our Bishops, it was the Mass of the Epiphany, as they have instructed all parishes that this feast must be observed, not on its proper day, but on the Sunday nearest. I have yet to meet anyone who thinks this arrangement has any value at all. It is infuriating for priests and people alike, and this year's Epiphany has a particular absurdity - celebrated in church on Sunday Jan 2nd fully four days before it arrives on the calendar on January 6th. Please, please dear Bishops, listen to your priests and the faithful people: WE WANT OUR HOLY DAYS BACK!

Chris Cviic RIP

- a wonderful man, a fine writer and journalist, a man of great integrity. We attended his funeral yesterday at the Sacred Heart Church in Wimbledon. Read about him here. I learned so much from him, as did so many younger people. He will be hugely missed.

The church has been recently refurbished and I was troubled by the lack of kneelers in the pews - was this a way of trying to stop people kneeling properly for Mass? Everyone was encouraged to sit instead, even for the Consecration - all wrong. However, it turns out that the problem is a temporary one, as the incomplete pews will get their kneelers shortly. All the refurbishment has been delayed, and for a long while Masses have been in the church hall, with the stage turned into a temporary sanctuary.

To Waterloo station in the evening, for a last round of carol-singing. Funds raised this time will go to LIFE, which helps mothers and babies. As we sang and sang, a friend, hurrying homer from work, saw us and came to join in. When her train was called, she said "Must rush - I'm taking the children to Reconciliation at the Sacred Heart church. We'll be home by the time you finish here. Come over for mulled wine and snacks!" So in due course I made my way to their house, and there was wine and good talk around the Christmas tree, with children drifting off sleepily, and delicious mince pies, and a happy atmosphere. The Reconciliation service had been rather impressive, with lots of priests hearing confessions, and the family joked about all being freshly shriven as we greeted them.

Just a couple of days now until the great feast: life has a feeling of Advent, and Christmas promise.

Watched...

...a DVD of the Papal visit, which I'd bought for Christmas. Really rather good - I was expecting to sneer at it, because it had a sort of "official" feel and I thought perhaps this meant it would be feeble. It isn't. It brings back memories of the joy and happiness of those days...and it includes a good viewing of the meeting between the Pope and leaders of other faiths, with a wonderful welcome from the Chief Rabbi, which was not something widely reported at the time because most attention focused on the great public Masses and the meeting in Parliament etc. Well worth watching. Order it now for a post-Christmas treat.

Out into the snow...

...for more carol-singing. A local parish gave wonderful support when I asked if people would like to come and sing carols at a local home for elderly people, and then go house-to-house in some nearby roads. I wasn't sure how many people from the parish would come - but a wonderful crowd arrived, mostly young, and the singing was magnificent! It was a joy to see all these cheerful faces in the lamplight as we stood in the extraordinary beauty of a snowy street and sang "O come, O come Emmanuel..." and "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Good king wenceslas" with snowflakes softly landing on collars and hats and mittened hands...

It all goes to show that an ordinary traditional Catholic parish - this one is a big Jesuit parish in a London suburb - has wonderful people in it! And there is more...as we sang outside one big mansion-block of flats, a lady came hurrying out to invite us all in for wine and mince-pies. Turned out to be a stalwart of the parish, and had read about us in the newsletter and was so glad that we had come into her road - we had wine, and pies, and talk, and much convivilaity, and we sang "Silent Night" and were warmed and cheered...we went out again into the snow and sang to more houses and had a well-filled jar of donations when we finally called things to a close...

A parish lunch...

...on a snowy Sunday. The parish centre - a beautiful building, opened just a couple of years ago, built by the generosity of parishioners - was bright and welcoming, and the food delicious. There are over a thousand people at Mass in this parish on Sundays.

Statistics for church attendance are revealed in today's press: apparently more people are now worshipping, Sunday by Sunday, in churches of all denominations, than was the case a few years ago.

Been reading...

... Verbum Domini, the new Papal document on the importance of the Scriptures. It is, obviously, centred on the Scriptures themselves, and also on the Second Vatican Council's important document, Dei Verbum. This interests me v. much, becuse this, almost more than other documents of Vatican II, has been central to our studies at Maryvale.

Throughout the first half of my adult life, I was often told that the Second Vatican Council had produced nothing of real value, that it would one day be regarded as irrelevant, or that it had been a dreadful mistake. There had been so much post-conciliar muddle that it was easy to accepot this view (although I didn't). Wiser voices, which urged the reading and study of the Council's documents, tended to be drowned out - but when you could hear them, they gave good advice and now we are beginning to see the Council's true fruits. Chief among these has of course been the Catechism of the Catholic Church - another crucial reference-point in Maryvale studies. But we can also note a fresh approach - a logical one, given the development of the Church's doctrine in this area - to religious freedom and to the relationships between Christianity and other faiths. And the message offerred by Benedict XVI on his recent visit to Britain - which proved so attractive, and which won over so many who had thought they were going to haye him - was soaked in the Vatican II approach...

John Henry Newman knew that the Church needed an educated laity: people who could give a good account of what the Church taught and why. It is interesting to see the opportunities for achieving this increasing, not only through the New Movements in the Church with their programmes of study and action, but also through the various educational institutions, and indeed through the Internet. The women who asked for advice and help from Newman as they sought to know more about the Catholic Faith and apply it to their lives were anxious to serve the Church but were limited in the possibilities open to them. Whereas today...

Out in the snow...

...delivering leaflets giving the times of Christmas services at all the local churches of variouis denominations. The leaflets, produced jointly by the churches, wre at the back of church in by bundles, labelled road by road, and we were urged to take a couple of bundles and deliver them. I took a couple, and today was glad to have a good excuse to go out in the snow. Everyone was being friendly. I had brief snowball fights with every group of children I passed - sometimes it took a moment for them to realise that the missile that attacked them had come from the middle-aged lady in the green wellies, but they soon got the idea and swiftly retaliated. The sky had that pinkish glow that you opnly get on winter afternoons, and dusk was already falling as I got home shortly before 4pm. The only sad thing is that the carol service in our local church was cancelled - many of the roads really are impassable. But last night we sang carols at the local railway station, which was fun...after the main Rush Hour trains were over, we went to a local pub (ginger wine) and from there a final small group went on to the parish centre where we counted up the money and sat chatting...I enjoy these winter evenings and walking home through the frosted streets was rather lovely.

There's a good piece...

...about Pope Benedict XVI and the events of 2010 here. Do read it.


And this is an excellent and timely comment-piece too.

Oh, dear...joy and shadow...

...first, the good news. A happy snowy evening of carol-singing. We went from house to house in a residential area of London, and as our voices warmed up and we sang carol after carol, in a rather bitter wind and with drifting flakes of snow, there was a joy and unity and fun that was of the essence of Christmas...."We heard you coming as you sang down the road! It's lovely!" said one young mum, as she and her children stood in the dooorway to enjoy our carols, and one of the children came forward shyly with money for our collecting-tin. We had so many lovely encounters. One chap gave us £20. Many families brought their children down to hear us, in dressing-gowns and pyjamas. One elderly lady called out us us to wait, as she was disabled and it had taken her time to get to her front door, and she wanted to greet us. Another lady came hurrying down the road with a donation...

And we finished joyfully at a cheery pub, with red wine and lots of talk, and counting up the money - a goodly sum which we will divide between a couple of different groups working with the elderly.

Then the bad news. This morning I realised that my wallet was missing - must have been taken, I realised, during an earlier stage of the evening, possibly on the Tube...

Today happens to be a busy one - I had to hurry to London to deliver some Christmas presents, as well as tackling the various writing projects that have to be completed before Christmas... The last thing I needed was an extra hassle cancelling cheque-cards etc. All done now, and everything freshly organised. I'm writing this in an internet cafe, not far from St Paul's Cathedral. London is rather magnificent in its stark wintry glory, there are delicious things on sale in the coffee-shops, it's been fun sorting out the delivery of Christmas presents to various relations for opening on Christmas Day, and I happened to run into a friend, a monk, at Cannon Street station and we had a cheery chat. So life is good. But it would be even better if Britain was a country where a wallet was reasonably safe.

PS: I wonder what the thief will make of the holy cards and picture of the Pope, the little sewing-kit and and Rosary memo that he finds in my wallet?

While carol singing...

...some years ago at London's Victoria station, we were accosted by a man who had, I think, been to a rather good office party, and who told us that we weren't getting it right. We had spread ourselves out in a line on the concourse to try to make the sound spread, and were not doing very well at all. "No, no NO" he said. "Get together like this", and he formed us into a choir, standing together, shoulders overlapping. "Now get singing. Stomachs in, chests out, shoulders back." and he showed us to how to sing, really sing - and make the sound rise to the great arched ceiling above us, and out to the thousands of passengers teeming noisily into their trains.

And it worked! We were soon singing powerfully, and had attracted a considerable crowd, who were pouring money into our collecting-boxes and expressing delight at our performance.

Over the loudspeaker came the usual train announcements, and one of them caught the attention of our mentor "Bromley South!" he exclaimned "Bromley South! That's my train!" and off he dashed, heading for the platform...I swiftly followed him, and was just able to pant out "Who are you?" before the doors closed on him as the train made ready to take him away to the suburbs. "I run the choir at the Ministry of Defence" he called out. And then the train moved off and he was gone.

Each Christmas, as I form together a choir and get them singing, standing properly, shoulders overlapping, sound soaring upwards, I bless his memory. If he's reading this: THANK YOU!

Writers? Musicians?

You can enter for the competition to write the song for World Youth day 2011 - I came across info about this here.

I've written a review...

...of the Pope's new book for Common Ground, the magazine of the Council of Christians and Jews. It will appear in the next edition.

Organised my 2011 subscription to Magnificat, the now indispensable booklet which, beautifully produced and illustrated, arrives each month with Morning and Evening Prayer, lives of saints, useful information, inspirational reading.

Been writing Christmas cards, wrapping gifts, organising goodies to take to family gatherings, and doing other Christmas preparations. Two lots of carol singing this week, two lots next week. The Crib is now erected above our fireplace, minus the Bambino...he will be taken to Mass on Sunday to be blessed, in a tradition not long established in our parish but which has firmly taken hold and I think is delightful.

Went to an evening Mass at Westminster Cathedral - candles glowing on the Advent wreath, two tall trees at either side of the sanctuary.Now that Gaudete Sunday is past, there is a sense of Christmas truly being near.

The Holy Father...

...talking to Peter Seewald in the new book mentions in particular one of the New Movements in the Church : the Heralds of the Gospel. I was struck by this - because they have a London base not far from where I live, and I have had some contact with them, and they are splendid! In fact, just as I was settling down to read the book, they had been on my mind as I want to invite them to take part in one of the projects I am planning for the New Year. So it was particular delight to get their latest magazine - which came with a covering letter noting with joy the special mention given to them by the Pope in the new book!

BTW, Lefevbrists will not want to read the book, as it reveals the quiet wisdom of the Pope on significant issues where they will be at variance with him and with the Church. They will also not like an authoritative document now published: Verbum Domini, the Pope's new post-Synodical Exhortation on the Word of God. It quotes Vatican II extensively, highlights strongly the importance of the Church's friendship and dialogue with the Jews, emphasises the rich abundance of Scripture now offered to the faithful at Sunday Mass and gives good advice on how this is to be honoured in the liturgy, speaks well of ecumenical initiatives, and highlights modern saints (Teresa of Calcutta, Edith Stein, Josemaria Escriva) alongside older ones. Watch out for attempts to rubbish this document or belittle its authority. Meanwhile, get a copy and read it yourself - it's inspirational, and full of practical advice ( praying with the Scriptures, how to improve the standard of reading at Mass, importance of each family having a Bible, need to see the Scriptures as belonging to the Church, avoidence of fundamentalist interpretations.)

To anyone who is doing any sort of study of the Scriptures, this Exhortation speaks with a powerful personal message. It is somehow all shot through with prayer, and makes you realise how central, and how glorious, is the Bible that has been so faithfully handed down to us.

What are the ethics...

..of a Catholic blogger using material taken from Wikileaks?

Recent spillage of confidential memos sent from the British Ambassador to the Holy See to various recipients raises this issue. Should be "Catholic blogosphere" be so gleeful about gossiping that the more important question of the immorality of using sneaked material isn't tackled?

A happy day...

...at Westminster. It began early, as I hurried to the Houses of Parliament to see that all would be well for the event I was organising for later in the day. And all was well. Men were cleaning up the filth and graffitti left by rioters. Words cannot adequately express the contempt felt by most of us for the lout who violated the Cenotaph, dishonouring our war dead and ripping down the Union Jack, so I won't try to write about it. Let's just say that the cleaning up had been done swiftly, and the policemen at St Stephen's Entrance were just as jolly and friendly as ever, and reassured me that the young people coming to recieve their prizes for the Schools Bible Project needed no special passes or anything of that kind and should just turn up and would have a happy day.

On to Westminster Cathedral where I had been invited to the celebration lunch for OREMUS, the Cathedral magazine, for which I write. It was very, very enjoyable: a delicious meal, with mulled wine and mince pies and Fr Tim, our Editor, making a most gracious speech thanking us all. We were in the Hinsley Room, the small hall built a few years ago for Cathedral parish meetings and activities, and as we talked around the table, children at the St Vincent de Paul school ran about shrieking happily in the school playground in the shadow of the great Cathedral.

And so back to Parliament. The Schools Bible Project is a nationwide event run by an ecumenical Christian group of which I am chairman. It is a priviledge to be involved and a great joy to meet our young prizewinners as they gather at Westminster. Lord Brennan, distinguished lawyer and Chairman of the Catholic Union of Great Britain presented the prizes, and spoke most movingly about the Bible and its beauty, its strength and its message. The young people, their parents and teachers, were a delight. We had a tour of Parliament, and together pondered its great history, its longevity, the great events that have taken place within its walls. We had tea, and the young people recieved their prizes and Bibles, and photographs were taken and out beyond the latticed windows the London lamplight fell on the Abbey and its gardens as dusk fell on one of the most famous views in all the world.

Just for the record, the winners in the 2010 Schools Bible Project are:

BOYS:
1st prize: Daniel Kelly, Dalriada School, Ballymoney, Northern Ireland
2nd prize: Ethan Evans, Afon Taf School, Troedyrhiw
3rd prize: Harry Brownfield, Chesham High School, Bucks
4th Prize: Alexander Poole-Gleed, Oaklands Catholic School, Hants

GIRLS:
1st prize: Maria Czepiel, King Edward VI High School, Edgbaston Birmingham
2nd prize: Olivia Rugeley, West Hatch High School, Chigwell, Essex
3rd prize: Claire McDonald, St Paul’s High School, Glasgow
4th prize: Rosemary Walmsley, King Edward VI High School, Edgbaston


The Christian Projects team later met to review the 2010 project and plan for next year. A good and happy day.

PS The chap who violated the Cenotaph has apologised and expressed true sorrow. See here.

Students shrieking and waving placards with obscenities...

...made it impossible to get into the Houses of Parliament today, which was irritating as I badly needed to be there to check on arrangements for a meeting tomorrow. Police with shields were out in large numbers, and a number of over-excited people with Socialist Worker placards were hurrying around while the main body of demonstrators chanted and shrieked and threatened and ranted.

Tomorrow the young winners of a nationwide education project are due to arrive to be given their prizes at the House of Lords. I've arranged a tour of Parliament, and tea, and a ceremony where they get their prizes and celebrate with their parents and teachers...I needed to make some last-minute checks to ensure everything was in order, but couldn't. We must just hope and pray...

Unable to get into Parliament Square I made my way instead up towards Westminster Cathedral - always a source of solace - and in the CTS bookshop (copies of the Pope's new book in the window, and selling rapidly)I met a nice lady who had taken a photo of Patti Fordyce and me at the glorious Hyde Park gathering for the Holy Father. She had lost my email address...and now I was able to give it to her, and she has since sent me the pic and I'll be posting it on this Blog in due course!

Also in the shop was Fr Stephen Langridge, from Holy Ghost Church, Balham - I had wanted to talk to him about a possible event in his parish and we had a useful talk over a cup of coffee.

Attempting to get to Waterloo by road was impossible. So I went to evening Mass at the Cathedral - where I met another friend and had a good chat in Ambrosden Avenue. And so home via Victoria. I wonder if the people are still shouting and ranting?

How much do you really know....

...about the Anglican Ordinariate? There is an informative account of a recent meeting here

A website magazine, about to be launched, The Portal has Auntie among its contributors...

Today...

...a useful meeting with a team who are involved with one of the projects at World Youth Day in Madrid in 2011.

WYD is such a vast event - I don't know if the Spaniards do any panicking, I think their general approach to life is not to fret and freak out but to assume that things will work well in the end... There will be tough times ahead: in Australia there was a barrage of anti-Papal hype in the media, and all sorts of practical and political worries - but then everything worked out gloriously.

There are all sorts of plans for young people from Britain to attend. They deserve our full encouragement and support. Back in 2005 I managed a sponsored cycle ride from London to Brighton to raise funds. Not sure what I can manage in 2011. But after hearing about the Madrid event I began to think about ideas and possibilities...

Read some of the H. Father's thoughts about World Youth Day here.

Tradition rules...

...as Christmas draws near. The fields are white with frost as a train carries me down to Sussex through the dusk, to a warm welcome and mulled wine and a family meal. We were meeting to plan the 2011 programme of Catholic History Walks and Talks...lots of v. good things, including a Mass in the Undercroft chapel in Parliament, and the now annual Martyrs' Walk through London finishing with Benediction at Tyburn. We talk until late, and then it is a joy to snuggle down with a book in a lovely room with the calm of Sussex and the scent of the sea...

On train journeys, I'm reading Light of the World, and hugely, hugely recommend it.

A Sunday in South London...

... as I went to Mass at Holy Ghost Church, Balham. It's a very big parish, lots of young families, and I knew the Mass might be crowded so I arrived in good time...and it was simply packed, and I was lucky to find a place in a pew, as many people had to stand at the back. Turned out to be the final day of a great Parish Mission, led by the Emmanuel Community which has a Mission Team based in Rome, and the Archbishop was coming to celebrate the Mass and preach.

By a happy piece of Providence, I was joined in the pew by some friends - we suddenly noticed each other as Mass began and hymn-books were opened and so on, and it was so good to be there together!

The music at the Mass was simply superb, and included Mozart's Ave Verum at H. Communion...

Later - while waiting to meet Jamie - I dropped in to the Polish Church on Balham High Road. This is a former Congregational or Methodist church, and has been the Polish RC Church of Christ the King for some years. They evidently keep busy, because there was an afternoon Mass as well as the morning Masses, and families were pouring in...

I remember going to Mass in this church some years back, simply because there was an evening Mass and it happened to be convenient, and at that time there was still a conscious presence of elderly Poles, of the WW11 generation. I remember elderly chaps taking a collection for the veterans of the Armia Krajowa, the heroic Polish resistance group which fought the Nazis in the Warsaw Uporising. Today, the church has a different feel, with a great many families and young children, as a new generation of Poles has found its way to Britain. And the building has become more Polish: there are now beautiful stained glass windows, with the Ven. John Paul 11, of course, among those depicted, along with Bl. Faustina, and various other Polish figures, together with St Padre Pio, and St Therese of Lisieux, and more...and there are memorial plaques and so on that show the ongoing reality of parish life over the decades. Pleasingly, they have also retained the old panels and memorials from the church's earlier use, so as not to dishonour the Christian men and women who worshipped here long ago...

BTW, at Holy Ghost Balham, there is a big youth gathering for the New Year: info here. Pass it on.

A Traditional Advent...

...in London has to include Westminster Cathedral. Went there for confession - you always meet friends in the confessional queue and this was no exception. Always vaguely reassurring - and the Sung Mass was beginning, with its glorious music and solemn procession. It turned out to be a special Mass of thanksgiving for the work of The Passage, the centre for the homeless run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, which has strong links with the Cathedral. Rather touchingly, The Passage's banner was carried in procession. Three big candles were lit to mark The Passage's 30th anniversary...

The Cathedral magazine, Oremus, has some lovely Advent and Christmassy things in it, including a delightful piece about homecoming, centred on that bit in The Wind in the Willows where Mole scents his home, his old home...

I dropped in to the CTS bookshop in the piazza, to get a copy of Light of the World the new book in which the H. Father is interviewed by Peter Seewald. It is a superb read.

On to St Patrick's, Soho Square, where the young team were holding an all-night vigil of prayer. The snowy Square with its wintry trees is currently dominated by the renovation work being done at St Patrick's, huge boards blocking off the church, all rather dramatic. Masses are being held in a small makeshift chapel in the presbytery, the simplicity and poverty somehow adding to the drama. You come in from the bitter cold into the hall with its sense of news and activities and then open the door with a simple paper notice "Chapel", and there is silence, and Fr Alexander at prayer, and gradually the place fills up for Mass...

There was soup in the kitchen after Mass ended, and it was good to catch up on the news. The Prayer Vigil was specifically for young people, for vocations,and for the work of the evangelisation teams in the parish. The church will be ready for use in the Spring, and a big celebration Mass is planned...meanwhile Masses are being held at the other nearby Catholic churches, including Warwick Street and Notre Dame de France off Leicester Square. The regular Masses include those for the Spanish, Cantonese, and Portguese and Brazilian communities, and there is a whole range of other activities including of course the outreach to the homeless, and an Advent Festival, and regular talks sponsored by SPES, the Evangelisation School...

I've just been sent ...

...this, and you simply must watch it and pass it on...

And for some background...

...on the Ordinariate, read here...

You must, MUST read...

... this moving address by the Bishop of Ebbsfleet,as he preaches his farewell sermon, and leaves his mitre and crozier at the feet of an image of Our Lady.

When you have finished reading, you will want to be silent for a moment...you have just shared in something very important in the spiritual life of our country. Pray for him and for all involved in the Ordinariate over these next days and weeks...

London in the snow...

...looks glorious, and Trafalgar Square, with Nelson staring stonily down Whitehall, and the National Gallery grey and stately with whirling flurries of showflakes, was the stuff of tourist brochures. But students were gathering for another round of shouting, and in the adjoining streets were lines of policemen. They were friendly and cheery and when I expressed the hope that the rioters wouldn't become violent as happened last week, they were tolerant and British about it "They've got a right to make their protest, that's only fair. But there's no need for them to throw things and endanger lives."

Feels odd, in a way, discussing student grants when one is a mature student. When I left school, I was excited about becoming a journalist and although there were long discussions about university, I made the decision to go for a job on a newspaper, and an apprenticeship in what was to become a lifelong career, and have never regretted it. But I never felt that I had a "right" to go to university in a sense anyway - I always felt it was a priviledge, and one that those who took up the opportunity should regard as such. So I am rather ambivalent on hearing shouts and seeing banners that announce that attendance at university should be something that is regarded as a sort of fundamental thing, like a right to water or shelter or food.

This week, busy in the evenings with essays and reading (5th century, Council of Chalcedon. Christology. Gospel of St John. And more....) I am conscious of gratitude for the chance to do some studying late in life, via a Catholic institute which charges modest fees.

Another train of thought: studying some of the dramas in the Church's long history makes you ponder more recent events rather deeply. The Councils of the Church have a sense of continuity about them: you see the Second Vatican Council as having a greater importance than I had imagined, its documents a greater richness (I had always been encouraged to think of them as rather dull - as just "pastoral" and rather unimportant, but the reality is quite different). To become familiar with this sense of the consistency of things is to see how odd and out-on-a-limb the Lefebvrists have been...something which I imagine they are coming to see too.

The Catholic Union of Great Britain ...

...brings together Catholics who are concerned about the public and community life of the country. Excellent gathering for the annual general meeting at Vaughan House, Westminster,a grand attendance despite a freezing November night. Lord Brennan President, and Jamie Bogle Chairman. A lot to discuss, following the Papal Visit and the General Election, and a v. active year for the Union: among the highlights a memoral Craigmyle Memorial Lecture delivered by Dr Philip Howard on the sanctity of life.

I was able to report on the Catholic Young Writer Award, which this year for the first time was a joint project between the Catholic Writers' Guild and the Catholic Union. Having it as a joint Award has proved a real success, and we now have great plans for 2011 - I am especially indebted to Sarah de Norwall of The Bard School whose creative thinking has been extremely helpful...

Discussion about recent court decisions affecting the rights of Christians at work and in the public sphere, also on the importance of resistance to any and all plans or promoting euthanasia. After the meeting, a friendly and lively gathering over wine and snacks, many things to discuss. I had appealed for ideas for the Young Writer Award and two people approached me to offer suggestions - both at the same time and both with the same thought, and an inspired one...more on this in due course...

To Sussex...

...on Tuesday, for a very happy day, filming in Lewes for EWTN. You won't be able to view it until late 2011 - this was just the start of a good deal of filming for a new series of programmes tackling history, traditions, feasts and seasons... Lewes is a lovely Sussex town, with the great sweep of the Downs beyond, and cheery shops,and a rich history, and pleasing streets with cobbles and Georgian frontages and sudden old cottages. The day finished with chocolate cake and tea in the presbytery at St Pancras church...Fr Richard Biggerstaff, who had been walking us round the town all day and explaining its history for EWTN viewers, a welcoming host. BTW, he has an Advent series on EWTN any day now, info here...

As dusk fell, a train back up to London to address a meeting in Chelsea: "Women, the pro-life cause and the Catholic Church". A good gathering, extra chairs brought in, more people than I had imagined would turn out on a cold November evening, everything went rather well. I enjoyed giving this talk, and there was a great and friendly atmosphere - a happy evening to conclude a happy day...

Things have been v.v. busy, so writing up this Blog often happens late at night, as now. On Sunday evening I was at St Ann's Church, Banstead, giving a talk - a wonderful welcome from a wonderful parish. This evening - Wednesday - a convivial evening with fellow committee-members of The Keys, the Catholic Writers' Guild. Fr Peter Newby at St Mary Moorfields gave us all dinner: much lively conversation as we planned the programme for 2011. We have some good speakers lined up. BTW, our Catholic Young Writer Award was presented at our recent meeting: read about it all here. This Award has now been running for several years, and was established when Antony Tyler, founder of Fisher Press, was Master of the Guild...our present Master is journalist Mary Kenny, and she presented the Award to Corinna Keefe at the Guild meeting last week, when we had our traditional dinner and a wonderful illustrated talk on the Incarnation and Art, to lead us into the Advent season...

So Auntie was on the right track...

...and the H. Father hasn't changed anything. A great pity that L'Osservatore chose to break an embargo, and effectively misquote the Pope, and cause a ghastly mess. Will the editor now be requested to retire?

The clarification given today by Fr Lombardi doesn't really add anything. To my statement on the radio programme yesterday about homosexual prostitution - ie that the Church teaches that it is sinful - we can now usefully add that the Church teaches that other forms of prostitution are sinful too. This is something already well known, and doesn't add much to the debate - but perhaps it will mean that in addition to being denounced by one set of lobbyists, I will now be denounced by the Prostitutes Collective and its allies too (has happened before).

Comments to this Blog have included the usual vicious ones - I've left out only the most vile and ugliest, as I think that it's useful for my readers to know how much some people loathe me.

NO. The Pope hasn't changed the teaching on contraception...

....in fact, he wasn't even talking about contraception. He was talking about a different aspect of sexual morality, relating to male prostitution and therefore to homosexual activity.

You will find this link helpful.

Today, the Jeremy Vine show, a discussion in which Auntie took part. You can listen if you like - and perhaps you will share the views of people who have already written in to this Blog to say how much they hate and despise me.

Essentially, it's like this: it's like this: the issue about which the H. Father was speaking was about homosexual activity - which is itself sinful (and of course is absolutely not open to life So we are not discussing contraception here). A parallel might be made with another sinful situation: a chap plans an armed robbery, but something makes him feel that even though he has every intention of stealing, he doesn't really want to murder anyone. So instead of a gun, he takes a replica. Now - this doesn't mean that the Church will start to distribute replica guns to criminals. It doesn't mean that the Church says that robbing a bank is OK so long as you only use a replica gun. It doesn't even mean that the intention of using a replica gun is in any way acceptable. But the decision to abandon the real gun is, in however remote a way, a faint beginning on the road towards the beginnings of moral thinking.

For a flavour of London in November...

...you could try this blog....

Things have been v. busy...

...so I've been unable to write up everything adequately on this Blog.Brief overview: last week saw another fund-raising event for Maryvale, this time at the Sacred Heart Church in Wimbledon, another excellent talk on John Henry Newman by Dr Andrew Nash...on Friday a meeting of the Association of Catholic Women: we are running more Study Days on Art and Music for teachers in 2011 and have been given some generous funding to do so. Jeremy de Satge (The Music Makers) will teach Gregorian Chant - this is proving popular, and his recent workshop at the Towards Advent Festival was, as always, a success...

Today, after a busy afternoon, I ended up in Westminster,in time for an evening Mass at Westminster Cathedral. Because of some problem about a fire alarm, the Mass had to be transferred to the hall. It was oddly impressive, somehow, to see lots of people crowding in there, kneeling on the floor, with Mass celebrated at a makeshift altar. I was so glad I had gone. And I met a friend there, and we went on for a drink at the "Bluecoat Boy" nearby, and then walked to Waterloo, stopping at the Abbey to walk through the Field of Remembrance. The Abbey Cloisters were open, and there was some singing coming from within the Abbey itself - a choir practising, or something. Suddenly, there in the lamplight, was a sense of 1,000 years of history...

At Waterloo the papers all had front page news of Prince William's engagement.