Next Catholic History Walk...

...is on Wednesday (Oct 22nd), at 3pm (NOTE TIME), at St George's Cathedral, Southwark. Nearest tube: WATERLOO or LAMBETH NORTH. We'll be looking around the Cathedral itself and learning its history.

...and more...

...on the Synod: read this.

Flying home...

...filled with memories of Poland and with a fresh understanding of its history and people...

Watch this to understand a bit more too...

And on the subject of That Synod...

...you really do need to read this  to get some grasp of what is going on in Rome.

Evaluating...

...the message of St John Paul's life, sitting on the steps of the church that he helped to build  at Niegovic, and then pondering his portrait in St Florian's in Krakow...

Today is the anniversary of his election as Pope in 1978. Then followed the extraordinary missionary journeys, the assassin's bullet, the consecration of the world to Fatima, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the huge gatherings for prayer and Mass on every continent, World Youth Day, the Catechism of the Catholic Church,  the Theology of the Body, the establishment of devotion to the Divine Mercy, the great encyclicals...and more...and the death on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday, and then canonisation this year,  St John Paul, numbered among the great saints of the Church....

We hadn't timed the filming of this EWTN feature to finish on the anniversary of his election, but it just fitted that way, and as we sat over a late and badly-needed meal in the great square in Krakow, a gentle rain began to fall after a week of glowing Autumn sunshine, and the project was completed...

So: home, and a whole set of projects ahead of me. . Blessed Sacrament Procession on Saturday, starts 1.30pm at Westminster Cathedral (do come!).

A colleague in Rome...

sends this report  about the Synod, a useful read. And this is really an essential read. As is this.

Auntie has been busy in Krakow, interviewing people for EWTN...we drove here from the Tatra mountains via a popular local  Marian shrine...Krakow is beautiful in Autumn sunshine with faint occasional sprinklings of rain...

Cardinal Dziwisz is about to fly to Rome for the beatification of Paul VI. More and more, Paul VI's courageous encyclical Humanae Vitae is proving prophetic and wise. The mid-session report from the current  Synod meeting in Rome - which, as already noted (see below, and umpteen comments elsewhere including the links above) is somewhat mixed - does say some useful things on this subject:

"53. It is not difficult to notice the spread of a mentality that reduces the generation of life to a variable of an individual's or a couple's plans. Economic factors sometimes have enough weight to contribute to the sharp drop in the birthrate which weakens the social fabric, compromising the relationship between generations and rendering the view of the future less certain. Being open to life is an intrinsic requirement of married love.

54. Probably here as well what is required is a realistic language that is able to start from listening to people and acknowledging the beauty and truth of an unconditional opening to life as that which human life requires to be lived to its fullest. It is on this base that we can rest an appropriate teaching regarding natural methods, which allow the living in a harmonious and aware way of the communication between spouses, in all its dimensions, along with generative responsibility. In this light, we should go back to the message of the Encyclical Humanae Vitae of Paul VI, which underlines the need to respect the dignity of the person in the moral evaluation of the methods of birth control."

Such attitudes will be felt by some commentators to be scandalous, and I remember, back in the early 1970s, horrible and vicious attacks on Paul VI with people saying  "I'm praying he'll die soon" and so on and so on...

And now Paul VI is rightly honoured by the Church, and his successors upheld the teaching, and will continue to do so down all the years to come...and there will be rejoicing in Heaven at this beatification, and joy in the hearts of Catholics worldwide.

Thank God for St John Paul...

...a magnificent Pope in tough times, with a message for all times...

Difficult to write about a TV programme on which one is working,  because describing what we are doing, and where, and how it is all working out, gives away the whole thing in advance which seems rather a pity. Watch EWTN in due course and you'll see Auntie and team in Poland in this new feature...and meanwhile, you might enjoy this one  which begins the story...

And...writing this in the Tatra mountains, after an unforgettable day exploring St John Paul's legacy, gives lots to ponder, especially at this time. The news from the Synod in Rome is rather bleak, and it is tragic that the Synod Fathers seem, so far,  to have sidelined  the opportunity to explore and teach the riches of the Christian understanding of marriage, of Bridegroom and Bride, Christ and Church, in the way the world so achingly needs...instead, there is kindness and goodwill but also muddle and misdirection (which means that some of the kindness will get  misdirected too)...

And there is so much richness that is in danger of  being ignored...in JP's theology of the body and in the work of so many groups and movements within the Church, and the wordy and uninspiring ponderous mid-time statement from the Synod just doesn't get it...

But there's time ahead in which to get this right, and it's useful to get some good perspectives on the Synod from reporters such as this one...
 and this one...  and, probably the best-informed and most valuable so far,  this one...

...and time to pray before the full Synod in 2015 and its actual message and teachings,  for which current discussions are the throat-clearing preparations.

...and in the mountains...

... Zakopane...glorious scenery, rich culture, long late discussions on so many things...driving here was a mix of swift motorways and people selling mushrooms alongside, vast advertising slogans and a sudden glimpse of a shrine....

This morning, in Warsaw, a visit to the museum commemorating the Uprising of 1944. Extraordinary to  encounter the full and graphic story I first discovered  in a London flat from an elderly lady who had served with the AK, and who told it to me in this book...

The Polish fighters of 1944 were heroes, and the story of this battle is one that will be told dopwn the generations in Poland...

Sunday in Warsaw...

... roaring traffic, vast office blocks , a great modern European city.

We stood in the great square, where St John Paul made history with that 1979 "Let the Spirit descend on the land...this land."  The Square empty, sunlit, fringed by vast gleaming office blocks and a park with golden, glowing leaves.

Warsaw is so utterly different from the bleak city of the early 1980s, with rationed food and shop windows dressed up with paper cut-outs...

Working with an EWTN crew is fun, energising, and, by the end of the day, tiring. A long talkative supper, a quick email home to J. to tell him of today's adventures...

Lublin, Warsaw, and a day for JPII...

...and in unusually warm sunshine. We are filming a new feature for EWTN, exploring St John Paul's legacy in Poland. Lublin is a glorious city, with a castle and lots of royal history. The Catholic University - once the only such place of learning in the whole of the atheist bloc that stretched from Berlin to Beijing - is now named for John Paul II and is set in attractive buildings, with a courtyard of green lawns and a superb statue of  that moment when  Cardinal Wyzinski knelt to honour JPII and the latter raised him up...

Today is a special (annual) day honouring JPII and there will be a great Mass in Warsaw...and we also plan to film in the great Square where JP gave that unforgettable sermon back in 1979 and changed history...

The Mayor of Merton...

...attended the annual meeting of the WIMBLEDON LIFE GROUP, at which I was privileged to be the guest speaker. A good crowd, and a warm welcome. The group does excellent work supporting mothers-to-be who need help and housing, and is also busy campaigning against euthanasia...I spoke about Lord Falconer's "Assisted Dying" Bill and the danger it presents. It is very important that we oppose this ghastly idea of legalising the killing of gravely ill people. Useful material on this here...

I hope that Papa Emeritus Benedict...

...will enjoy the special gift that we are sending him. You can read more here (with pic)...

The spin...

...that is being put on the Synod now taking place in Rome is all rather tiresome.. but this report highlights a prayer vigil that, despite its size. many media outlets seem to have missed...

Given the assumptions that are being made about about the Synod could/should be doing, prayer seems to be the most reliable and useful approach at this stage...

To Mass...

...  in London, and then also dropped in at the Cathedral and also at a suburban parish, in order to advertise the
PROCESSION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT

THROUGH LONDON

on Saturday October 18th.

Starts 1.30pm WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL

crosses the Thames at Lambeth Bridge

finishes approx.  2.45- 3pm at ST GEORGE'S CATHEDRAL

ALL AE WELCOME: COME AND WITNESS TO THE FAITH

This Procession was started in 2011 to mark the first anniversary of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Britain and to give thanks. It has continued annually and grown steadily - come and make the 2014 Procession the best yet!

Ths staggering growth in the number of Catholics in the world...

...from 266 million in 1900 to 1,197 million in 2012, (you can read more about this here) is relevant to discussions about the forthcoming Synod on the Family.   This massive growth has taken place chiefly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The Bishops from these territories carry much - much! - more weight than those from Europe at a Synod such as this. Their grasp of the issues concerned - marriage, demography, relationships with non-Christian religions, education, economics - comes from a wide and deep database, and they speak with knowledge and confidence. On issues such as the rights and  dignity of women, the superiority of monogamy over polygamy, and the specific healthcare needs of the poor, they have crucial and necessary information to impart. Nor will the Synod be much influenced by chatter from the Western media.  Do not make the mistake of assuming that the opinions of media commentators in, say, Canada, Germany,  Denmark or the USA  will carry much weight at a Synod of the Catholic Church in 2014...

To Poland...

...in a week or so, to work on "John Paul: The Legacy"  for EWTN: we'll be going to Warsaw, Lublin, the Tatras and Niegovic, among other places. We will talk to people who studied under Wojtila at Lublin's Catholic University, we'll get a couple of young people reading from his play "The Jeweller's Shop" and from some of his poetry, we'll go to the mountains that he loved and see the church that was built under his initiative when he was still a young curate in the grim days of Stalinist Communism in the 1950s...

Trawling the internet to check a couple of details about St John Paul, I encountered weird attacks on him, including a Lefebvrist theologian denouncing this "false canonisation" a furious American campaigner predicting a gigantic catastrophe on the day, and an odd priest claiming to offer evidence including "immodest pictures" to show how wicked JP was.( The Lefebvrist chap and  the American campaigner seem to have fallen silent, especially when the planned flood/fire etc didn't happen. The other chap's pics turned out to be well known shots of the young saint picnicking and canoeing with friends).  All of these writings were confused and angry - but what was most striking was their note of dedicated bitterness: the passion that comes from having nurtured a hatred for a long time.

It certainly renewed my interest in teaching about this great saint and in passing on to the next generation the truth about his life of prayer, courage, wisdom and faith...

Knights and Dames...

...of the Order of St Gregory met at the Church of SS Anselm and Cecilia in London's Holborn for the annual Mass.  Glorious singing from the Schola of the Cardinal Vaughan School. Knights looking rather splendid in uniforms with silver trimmings, Dames in green cloaks...rather too warm, but the cloak can be sort of thrown back over one shoulder, which is a lot more comfortable.

Dinner was fun, candlelit, formal toasts, a sense of friendship and camaraderie: Bishop Richard Moth was the guest - he's Bishop of the Forces, spoke well, was amusing and then guided thoughts towards concepts of service and duty...it was a good evening. Afterwards, out into noisy and raucous London, a very warm night, so I walked down to the Strand and across the river to Waterloo...Jamie had been out late too, and as so often happens we met at the local bus stop...and so home together...

The Synod on the Family...

...will start shortly. There will be a lot of related debate/discussion/controversy  about what is said, and what is alleged to have been said, and so on and so on.

Meanwhile, we all need to get on with promoting the Church's message on marriage and family. Useful link, just sent to me, on a postgraduate degree in Catholic Applied Theology (Marriage and Family):  "As we approach the Extraordinary Synod, this is an opportune moment to let people know about the wonderful course we offer here which is centred on the teaching of St. John Paul II. The course was developed in academic collaboration with the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Rome and this collaboration continues today..." You can find out more here...  and shortly after receiving this, I found this commentary on the Synod, which exactly matches the point...

Hello to Dominic...

...who was among those taking part in the Catholic History Walk this evening. We started at Westminster Cathedral - a small group, only a handful of people, but somehow it turned out to be a particularly happy walk, and by the time  we were saying goodbye, in the lamplit churchyard of Westminster Abbey, with those glorious soaring gothic buttresses and the sense of quiet familiarity, we were real friends.

Big Ben chimed out the hour - 8pm - as we walked across Westminster Bridge, and on to Waterloo. We all found we lived in neighbouring suburban parishes, and a young relative of Dominic's goes to my old school...sometimes London really does feel like a collection of villages.

Read Auntie...

here, on Eastern Europe, and the New Evangelisation, and misty rain on Austrian mountains...