...and on the American election...

 

...there's a good analysis here

I recommend it.

...and news from America...

 ...reveals a not-unexpected result in the elections: Biden/Harris by a narrow win.

If we assume that Mr Biden will be a short-term president, it seems relevant to look at Mrs Harris. She  emerges as an ambitious, highly materialistic woman largely without principles or ideology. The ardent feminists don't like her much, as she has pushed her own career rather than promoting the lesbian/transgender/rights-for-"sex-workers" etc agenda. 

It's always unimpressive when a woman who takes office starts not by affirming her commitment to public service or to the common good but by making  a speech  on the lines of "Ooh, how proud Grandma would  be of me!".  Maybe Grandma would, but that is hardly the point. Government is about service. Take a leaf from Mrs Thatcher's book - her words on becoming Britain's first woman Prime Minister were carefully chosen, to include a traditional often-quoted prayer and to show respect for the great public office she was to hold.  

That said, Mrs Harris' track record seems to suggest that encouraging American women to abort their babies is not high on her agenda.  She might even be persuaded that supporting or encouraging abortion is an unwise and imprudent thing to do, even if she is uninterested in the fact that it is also wicked and cruel. Pro-life campaigners should  work on that basis.   The cause is a sacred one. It would be a great pity if the pro-life movement in America diverted its efforts from saving babies' lives to support for Mr Trump's campaigning efforts for a re-run of the election.

All things considered, Trump  was quite a good president, with the Israel-Arab peace and - until the wretched Coronavirus intervened - an impressive achievement in the economy. He is vain, ungentlemanly and vulgar, with a sordid private life and an inability to control his temper....but his policies were not always wrong. Salvaging what was useful from his term of office could be included in the agenda for the future. 

Perhaps the most haunting Remembrance Sunday...

 

...in its history.  No one was allowed into Whitehall to stand by the Cenotaph, except the central figures (Royals, Government/Opposition figures, military bands).  The ceremonies went ahead, in the full traditional way, but...

We had decided to go, to be as near as we could, and stood in Parliament Square. Absolute silence and stillness at eleven o'clock struck. We could see nothing: there were not only barriers placed across the entrance to Whitehall, but screens to prevent even a glimpse of the Cenotaph.  We could hear the music - the pipes with the traditional lament and the band with "O Valiant hearts"...

No signal, however, was needed to mark the Two Minutes Silence. As soon as Big Ben struck, all in the Square and in the surrounding area fell completely silent. No one moved. I have taken part in the  ceremony over the years - accompanying my father to the Regimental service at Guildford Cathedral, walking in solemn procession to a local church  as a London Borough councillor, and in Westminster Abbey with J's regiment...but this utter silence on this strangest of Remembrance Sundays was somehow the most moving and powerful of all.

Afterwards we walked towards St James Park and had some coffee ("takeaway only") from a pastry shop, and so on to Westminster Cathedral, and silent prayer.   Later, a  back through the Park to view  the wreaths...and then home through the late afternoon...

SPENT TODAY...

 

...at Farm Street, where a well-organised team is feeding homeless people during this lockdown, with excellent meals provided by London's top restaurants.  

The meals arrived in boxes, stacked in white paper bags...I hate to see all that paper wasted, so was allowed to save, fold and take home the bags which will be used for packing prizes for the various education projects with which I am involved.

The volunteer team is very competently led and includes Fr Dominic Robinson  who is not only an excellent chaplain but has clearly  worked hard in preparation to ensure that the Farm St facilities are being used in a most effective way. The very attractive panelled Parish Hall is familiar to me as the meeting-place for the Catholic Writers' Guild over the past few years...and as the venue for the  lunch following  the Catholic Women Praying Together Mass  last year  which we had hoped to be an annual event...oh dear...may it happen some day...

And then home to a ZOOM meeting of the Friends of Maryvale, with plans for the months ahead...

This Autumn is being particularly beautiful...

 

...and it makes the weirdness of things more poignant.  On the first day of lockdown we  walked in St James  Park. Russet and golden leaves, and a Guards band was playing...perhaps a rehearsal for Remembrance Day on Sunday...but the crowds can't be there, on this 100th anniversary of the unveiling of the Cenotaph. 

Down to Charing Cross and the river, via a rather bleak Trafalgar Square with policemen hovering about in their horrid new menacing padded gear and weaponry.   

On the bridge, as the dusk drew in, it was strange to see no lights glowing in any of the office windows...in the Norman Shaw buildings, where  I worked in the late 1970s as a Parliamentary researcher, all seemed blank.  The ugliness of the tower blocks beyond, and the odd look of poor old Big Ben all wrapped in sheeting and scaffolding...and yet the loveliness of the evening sky, and the haunting knowledge that this is London, our London, in this strange time in its long history...

Current policies ...

 

.... attempting to postpone the spread of the coronavirus are unjust and penalise the poor.

"Public health policy must consider everyone. The current lockdown strategy has protected young low-risk students and professionals who can work from home, such as bankers, lawyers, journalists, and scientists. By contrast, older high-risk working-class people were forced to work, risking their lives while building up the population immunity that will eventually protect us all. With collateral damage from lockdowns disproportionally hurting low-income people – especially inner-city residents – there has been a double whammy against the working class."

Read more here...

On All Hallows Eve...

 

....a splendid Mass and Rosary Procession at St Dominic's, Haverstock Hill, and the launch of the book on the new Luminous Mysteries garden. Bishop Nicholas Henderson celebrated Mass and preached, and there was a good-sized congregation (all suitably spaced - but the church is large). I was touched to be invited to speak, and told the story of the Garden and how the book came to be written.

Pics here...

It was the perfect way to mark this year's All Hallows Eve, and it gave us a joyful and uplifting time...which we all needed as we knew we were facing bleak news from the government, announcing the (unjustified) banning of public worship.

Our Bishops have rightly asked for some evidence that the public celebration of Mass spreads the coronavirus. 

Horrific ATTACK IN FRANCE..

 

....let's pray for the Church in France, now under vicious attack from Jihadists...

I echo the message of solidarity and prayer here

Meanwhile, you need to know...

 

..about some of the ghastly material being used in schools. You are paying for this revolting stuff, which is promoting  teenage sexual activity including the idea that they look up various perversion...

This is child abuse,

AND THERE IS GREATER CLARITY....

 

...when you find out what was actually said, and  in what context, and when: read here

NO, the Pope didn't announce a change in the Church's teaching on homosexual activity.

 

He didn't and he can't and won't.

Get the thing in context. Pope Francis was talking in an informal - and probably imprudent - way in a film celebrating his life and work. Bit of a vanity thing, really.

He was obviously trying to show himself in a good light, and emphasising that in opposing same-sex marriage he wasn't motivated by spite. He ended up giving a powerful message which he should have seen would be used by all who oppose the Church's teaching.

He should not have chattered on about this subject.  I fear he allowed his desire to look trendy to overrule common sense, prudence and a sense of duty.

A lot of damage has been done, and it may not be within his power to undo it. 

A walk along the Thames, on a most glorious Autumn day...

 ...to St Mary's University,  my first visit back since the Spring, when of course we had to cancel all plans for the celebratory launch of my History of the place. 

I loved working on the history, and it was a project well worth doing.  Various follow-ups now being pondered...

It was good to go into the chapel and to feel the same sense of belonging that I have  always felt there over recent years,, as post-graduate student and as Research Fellow... 

Walking dry-shod along the Twickenham bank of the river it seemed almost absurd to think back to Sunday and our extraordinary splashing and sloshing at High Tide on the Richmond side. Moral: check tide-tables before any walk.  The Twickenham side offers lots of history, and will be the route for the next Walk: Marble Hill House and Orleans House...links with the Georges and Mrs Fitzherbert and Alexander Pope and more...

Attempts to crush honest study of history are frightening. This was how history was treated in Eastern Europe in the 1950s-80s. I remember Polish people talking about how infuriating it was to be told about their country in jargon-laden rubbishy lectures...the Church has a role in countering this and  encouraging honest and authentic discussion and debate. In this, as in so much more, St John Paul gave us useful lessons...

Golden leaves postively glowing in afternoon sunshine, people exchanging friendly nods and greetings,  light piercing through trees and turning ripples on the Thames into silver, children shouting and playing on Richmond Green...oh I do pray there isn't another lockdown. 

I had the privilege of meeting the great St John Paul ...

 

...and am thrilled that CTS has used my piece about him on their current blog celebrating his feast-day...

WHY WALK ALONG THE RIVER THAMES...

 

...when you can walk IN the River Thames?

Today's History Walk began very comfortably at St Elizabeth's church, Richmond, warmly welcomed by the excellent parish priest Fr Stephen Langridge,  we  then walked - properly spaced, obeying all the corona-rules - down into the town and across the Green, with me explaining about how the town got its name, and about Henry VII and the Old Palace, and more...

And then we turned Old Palace Lane and headed for the river. It was seeping up across the bank, with tiny rivulets making their way across the towpath. But I led the way as we strode out towards  the boatyards and then the fields and Ham...

But we had hardly gone a few yards  before the rivulets became a serious puddle...and people ahead of us urged us to turn back...and attempts to go further were clearly absurd and had to be abandoned - and as we turned  the towpath was impossible as it had become part of the river .... Only by  squelching and scrambling scrambling right up against the garden wall of  Asgill House were we able to regain Old Palace Lane, and by then we were wading up to our knees in the Thames...

Everyone remained in good spirits - in fact one member of the party was laughing so much he could barely speak, and another lined us up as I was pouring water out of my boots, and photographed us...

I've promised to check the tide-tables before any other Richmond Walk. 

We will shortly be celebrating...

...the feast of St John Paul the Great.

Did you know he had thought of taking the name Stanislaus I?

Info here

 

YOU CAN LISTEN TO AUNTIE JOANNA....

 ....on Radio Maria England.

This is a new initiative: an independent radio station,  linked to a "family" network centred in Italy.  There is a good range of programmes, with Mass and various devotions, music, and all sorts of talks and discussions. Auntie Joanna's contribution is a regular "Feasts and Seasons" programme, which each week has info on the feast-days and saints' days that are coming up...

Tune in here....

or here

VINDICATED...

 ...Cardinal George Pell with the Pope at the Vatican this week.

A little while ago......

 ...I was told emphatically that the modern Church has produced no saints.

This was and is rubbish.  But it is glorious to be able to refute it with the dramatic scenes from Assisi this weekend. A London-born computer whizzkid has just been beatified, a Millenial saint.   Read here...

Lift up your hearts.

The 2020 CATHOLIC YOUNG WRITER AWARD....

 

....had fewer entries this year but produced two fine winners/. You can read all about it here

With St John Henry Newman's FEAST DAY coming up...

 ...thoughts turn to Maryvale, which was his home  when he left Littlemore to start a new chapter of his life.

Today Maryvale offers a wonderful opportunity to study the Faith  and to become an evangelist.  We can't all be as effective as Newman - but we can certainly open up our minds and hearts, and share the good news of the Gospel. 

There's a lot of talk today about the Church needing missionary disciples. Maryvale is where you can get trained to become just that.

There  is a great range of courses - all done by distance-learning, something which Maryvale has been doing for years and is, of course, exactly tuned for this Coronavirus time.  You can do a training course in Youth Ministry.   There are courses for parish catechists.  Or you can get an Ecclesiastical Licence empowering you for a leadership position in a Catholic school.  Some of the courses obviously require good academic qualifications.: there's a course starting in January on Philosophy in the  Catholic Tradition...

Maryvale itself is a fine old house set in its own grounds not far from Birmingham.  One of the most delightful things about attending a course usually is the hospitality and welcome of the house. Like many other students over the years, I have had the privilege of using the room that Newman used while he lived there - with its small hidden window looking on to the chapel, where he knelt to pray..

But Maryvale isn't just a place, it's a real community and a superb experience, with wonderful tutors.

If you are feeling dead-end coronavirus-ish...click on to the website and plan for something new. This is a good time to commit to a new project  and a new challenge  - with a real and practical usefulness to the Church's mission, which in our poor country has never been more urgent...