Cardinal George Pell...

... one of the very best: a good man, a fine priest, a great Australian. Currently being subjected to a vile attack, and deserves our full support.

Read here..

Interested in St Thomas More?

Then come and join us on the HISTORY WALK this Sunday (June 7th).  Meet 2.30pm at the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer in Cheyne Row, Chelsea.

Auntie and prison...

...read about the work of the Church in prisons in the latest issue of The Portal. Here...

NEW DAWN IN THE CHURCH...

...is the name of a big gathering that has been taking place at Walsingham for some years. They have invited me to be among the speakers this year, and I went to the organising group, based in Liverpool, for the weekend to learn about it all and discuss things...

It turned out to be an immensely interesting weekend, with a most useful afternoon of talks with Myles Dempsey, initiator of the whole project. Then a  lively tralkative supper with young people associated with the Prince of Peace Community house where it is all based...a lady from Ireland, a couple from Austria, a priest from Zambia, a girl from Germany...we ended up having a fascinating discussion about languages and accents, revealing in the end all sorts of things about habits and ideas and customs...much laughter and also much thoughtful stuff...

Celibacy for priests....

...why?

A talk on the subject organised by the FAITH Movement.  Tuesday, June 2nd, 7.30pm at 24 Golden Square London W1 (hall of the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory). Speaker: Fr Stephen Brown, chaplain at Bradford University. ALL WELCOME.

Off to Bavaria...

...next month for a project on the life and work of Pope Benedict XVI.. I have written a bit about this in the latest issue of OREMUS, the magazine of Westminster Cathedral...you can find out more here...

VOCATIONS...

...and a visit to the Vocations Centre at Whitstable in Kent. The LOGS (a group of Ordinariate ladies) have established a joyful tradition of an annual summer visit, and we love it: Mass in the beautiful chapel with its "Duc in altum..." inscription arund the chancel, a delicious and talkative lunch with Fr Stephen Langridge and the young men who are at the Centre discerning a possible call to the priesthood, the Rosary at the garden shrine...it's always a very special day.

LONDON: History....

...with a visiting American priest  who will be bringing a big group later in the summer. We walked around St Thomas More's Chelsea, and included a visit to the seminary, Allen Hall where we were made most welcome. The seminary  numbers are going up and they are having to rearrange accomodation to find the neccessary rooms this Autumn. This is good news...

Hurry and book your place...

...on the John Paul II Pilgrimage to Walsingham. 6th-9th August, starting with an open-air Mass in the ancient abbey at Bury St Edmunds - where Magna Carta was first drawn up.

Easy to book - simply email sister.hyacinthe@googlemail.com


More info here

"You can't go there - the roof's fallen in"...

...was what friends said when I announced my intention to go to Mass at Blackfriars, Oxford. Well, actually, the roof hasn't fallen in - but the chapel does need some work and restoration, and so at present Masses are celebrated in the Refectory.  It's a good sized  long room, formal, panelled, with a fine ceiling - but it is smaller than the church and so Mass was absolutely packed and it all got rather warm. But it was a most delightful and inspiring Mass - whereas the Sunday morning Masses attrract families with children, this evening Mass in Oxford of course  sees large numbers of young people, They filled every available space, including the Medieval-style long benches lining the walls on either side. Splendid singing - the Mass is combined with Vespers, so the psalms rang back and forth, the strong voices of the young Dominicans (there are lots of them!) mingling with those of the young congregation. A young girl was being confirmed, ands we all joined in the reaffirmation of Baptismal promises: "Do you renounce Satan?" "I do" "And all his works, and all his empty promises?" "I do"...

It was a delight, afterwards, to exchange news with Fr Richard Conrad, a longtime family friend and coincidentally one of my lecturers when I was doing my first Degree at Maryvale. and with Br Samuel Burke...

And then I hurried to the station and am writing this on the train to Paddington, looking out from time to time at the  most glorious glowing sunset over the passing countryside.

OXFORD...

...and the celebration of a new Chesterton Library, based at the Oxford Oratory (St Aloysius).. Speeches, wine, delicious food, lots of lively talk.  There was a reading of a 1909 debate between George Bernard Shaw and Chesterton, with Dr William Oddie taking the part of the latter.  It made one realise how utterly faraway is that Edwardian England...

The evening was cheery, convivial, celebratory and gently academic, much greeting of friends and general enjoyment.

Afterwards, out into the Oxford summer night, with "hen party" girls shrieking and wobbling on their spiky stilt-heels, and joining groups of undergraduates in drunken vomiting and staggering about in the pedestrianised shopping centres. Police hovering about in their ugly heavy anti-stab jackets, with siren cars at the ready, lights flashing.

A bus out through the Oxfordshire countryside, and an overnight stay with relatives. In the morning, news, expected but still depressing, of Ireland's collapse into absurdity.  Over the past few years, I have learned much, of  the bossines and deficiencies in the old-style Irish Catholicism...it offers no joy to note that now Catholicism, in any style at all, seems to be treated with derision there...

A walk along London's river...

...with  lots and lots of history on the way...

Several kind readers of this Blog have sent me comments about the EWTN series currently running, about London's Catholic history. I am glad that the programmes are giving so much pleasure...the team working on this included some fine camermen and a great producer, and all the people interviewed gave of their very best too, making it a most satisfying project.  I loved doing it all, and the answer to the frequently asked "Will you do more of these features?" is most certainly "YES!".  There is so much rich history to explore, and it all has so much to teach us.

More info on all this can be obtained from EWTN: best to enquire there about broadcast times etc...I don't have this information.

And meanwhile in a Kent village...

...something good is happening too....read here. And admire Auntie's handiwork too...

You might need cheering up a bit...

...so read this.

Male and female...

...and why there are two sexes...and whether it's important...and why there is a male priesthood...and more...

Fascinating talk by Fr Roger Nesbitt at the Evening of FAITH held at Golden Square, Piccadilly, on Tuesday evening...

These are regular evening talks...more info here...

Looking ahead to the Synod in Rome in the Autumn...

...this is a rather useful read...

The Tyburn Lecture...

..is an annual event organised by the splendid nuns at Tyburn Convent.  Each year it is given by a prominent figure in British public life. This year's lecture, held a few days ago,  took up the theme of freedom, on this 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. A superb address - read here, examining the trial of  the heroic St Edmund Campion, and his defence of freedom, especially freedom of expression.

It is always a crowded gathering: I only just squeezed in at the back. Afterwards, the beaming nuns serve drinks and delicious food and there is a great chatter of talk...it's a grand gathering of men and women of the Church in England. It was particular pleasure to be greeted by Sister Margaret - who taught me at St Philomena's,...and to talk to Br Samuel Burke of the splendid young Godzdogz team...

A warm London evening, and it seemed a pity to hurry to the Tube. I set out to walk, sharing part of the route with Mgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate, going bac to Warwick Street. Lots to talk about, after a great lecture with a sweep of history and large ideas...

Cardinal Pell and St John Paul the Great, and the great Tradition...

...of the Church. The Synod this October will not and cannot change the Church's teaching on marriage. Read here.

We began in the Mary Garden...walked along the riverside...saying the Rosary...

...on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady  at Hampton Wick.

This is an annual walking pilgrimage, begun after discovering a story about St John Paul the Great.

In the 1970s, concerned about finding enough priests - in the difficult years under Communism - for his diocese of Krakow, he made a promise to our Lady that he would walk to every  Marian shrine within walking distance  of the city, if she would grant him one new young priest for each such pilgrimage. Soon his seminary was full...

So we've started a walking pilhgrimage... an adapted form of the Krakow idea.  Rather than go to various Marian shrines, a walking group starts in the Mary garden at this church, and  walks into Kingston,  crosses the Thames there, and then follows the river down to Hampton Wick,

We prayed the Rosary along the way, and sang the Regina Caeli at the shrine, and were given splendid refreshments and a happy social time  before departing to our homes...

English spiritual writers, and a great tradition...

...are combined in the CALLED TO BE HOLY Novena of Prayer. Find out more about it all here...