...on Thursday, when Baroness Cox gave the Craigmyle Memorial Lecture at the House of Lords. This lecture is sponsored annually by the Catholic Union, of which Lord Craigmyle was President for many years.
Baroness Cox focused on the plight of Christians suffering for their faith in various parts of the world. She highlighted in particular Southern Sudan, from which she has only recently returned. Slavery is still a reality in Sudan: people, including children, are kidnapped and sold as slaves. The humanitarian relief organisation with which Caroline Cox is involved has been able to rescue some children, and their stories were heart-breaking...
The lecture, which was illustrated with pictures taken by Caroline on her recent visits to various countries, gave a good overview of the whole question of religious freedom in the world today. THis included, of course, a discussion bout things in Britain. It is nonsense to suggest that Christians here are in any way persecuted. But recent court cases have been worrying, and there is a lack of depth and breadth to the discussion about the role of Christianity in our heritage which is frightening.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Goodwill...
..at Assisi. At a time of much uncertainty and fear on the international scene, I found this a rather moving report...
Saints and Celebrations...
...and an English village in the enchanting beauty of a golden October day. I was invited to speak at a village church in Hampshire to mark the patronal feast of All Saints. Teams of enthusiasts had created floral arrangements around the church to honour various saints, each with a little dish of appropriate food - thus a Cattern Pie for St Catherine, and Scottish shortbread for St Andrew, and bara brith for St David, and more...My task was to explain about the calendar and the origins of celebrating saints days, and to set the whole thing in context. It was a charming and friendly event and I was made very welcome - a happy day.
Friday, October 28, 2011
London's history...
...and a team of us wove our way from St Patrick's, Soho Square, via St Giles-in-the-Fields and Bloomsbury Baptist Church to SS Anselm and Cecilia in Kingsway (links with Bishop Richard Challoner and the Gordon Riots) to St Etheldreda's Ely Place and thence to St Sepulchre-without-Newgate. I had been asked to lead a History Walk for members of SPES, the St Patrick's Evangelisation School, and we were joined by a number of other enthusiasts...we explored the history that tells the story of the Christian faith in this land from Roman times onwards, we prayed in each church we visited, we experienced kind hospitality and we pondered the passing of the centuries...
The SPES team is a terrific group, lively and enthusiastic and prayerful. St Patrick's is a joy - the church, so gloriously restored, is a place of great beauty and a midday Mass there is peace and refreshment in hectic London.
Exploring history involves the big sweep of things - Saxons and Normans, St Giles founded by Queen Matilda as part of a hospice for lepers, the events of the Reformation,. the Free Church traditions and the Baptists, Victorian England and the Catholic Revival...but it's also the everyday and the ordinary, the local men who died in the Great War of 1914-18 and are commemorated on a heartbreaking Memorial which begs that they never be forgotten, the parish notices in KIngsway which show Church life still bustling on, the people dropping into St Etheldreda's quietly to pray as we gazed at its stained glass and statues...
The SPES team is a terrific group, lively and enthusiastic and prayerful. St Patrick's is a joy - the church, so gloriously restored, is a place of great beauty and a midday Mass there is peace and refreshment in hectic London.
Exploring history involves the big sweep of things - Saxons and Normans, St Giles founded by Queen Matilda as part of a hospice for lepers, the events of the Reformation,. the Free Church traditions and the Baptists, Victorian England and the Catholic Revival...but it's also the everyday and the ordinary, the local men who died in the Great War of 1914-18 and are commemorated on a heartbreaking Memorial which begs that they never be forgotten, the parish notices in KIngsway which show Church life still bustling on, the people dropping into St Etheldreda's quietly to pray as we gazed at its stained glass and statues...
Cardinal George Pell...
...gave an excellent and thought-provoking lecture on climate change at Westminster Cathedral Hall on Wednesday. Read more here. Afterwards, he answered questions with great patience and goodwill: it was a model of how a Bishop shpoul;d speak and act.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
You may feel...
...that you've read enough of Auntie's thoughts on World Youth Day, but just in case you feel you haven't, try this feature...
And you might be interested in this feature about nuns...
And you might be interested in this feature about nuns...
Been reading...
...a lot of von Balthasar over the past few days. Also de Lubac. You can see how both influenced the thinking of Ratzinger the theologian - and how this has enriched us all.
Over the past months I've come to realise how my understanding of the Second Vatican Council has changed. For years I was told that this Council was simply dreadful, should never have happened, was nothing but a disaster, carried no real authority, should be dismissed as history. I don't mean that I neccesarily believed that, or that the people who said these things were the best and wisest people I knew - on the contrary, they were often belligerent and ill-informed: but as a Catholic journalist I lived with the fact that this was a consistent noise that framed the whole debate about Vatican II and helped to dictate its terms. It made it difficult to see the subject in perspective or to work up much enthusiasm for studying the Council's documents. Now I have done so, and also studied much of the material that influenced those who spoke there and who worked there - and it is all much richer and more beautiful and important than I had been led to believe.
Over the past months I've come to realise how my understanding of the Second Vatican Council has changed. For years I was told that this Council was simply dreadful, should never have happened, was nothing but a disaster, carried no real authority, should be dismissed as history. I don't mean that I neccesarily believed that, or that the people who said these things were the best and wisest people I knew - on the contrary, they were often belligerent and ill-informed: but as a Catholic journalist I lived with the fact that this was a consistent noise that framed the whole debate about Vatican II and helped to dictate its terms. It made it difficult to see the subject in perspective or to work up much enthusiasm for studying the Council's documents. Now I have done so, and also studied much of the material that influenced those who spoke there and who worked there - and it is all much richer and more beautiful and important than I had been led to believe.
Browsing the Web for news...
...about Blessed John Paul (feast day last Sat), I came across this item of interest.
Through falling Autumn leaves...
...to a meeting of the Board of Aid to the Church in Need at Brompton Oratory. Hugely successful conference on religious freedom - publicity re Ann Widdecombe's excellent speech still reverberating. Discussion on all sorts of current projects: this is now a major Catholic charity in Britain and we are blessed with an excellent team headed by Neville Kyrke-Smith, working with energy and competence. It funds projects around the world where Christians are impoverished or persecuted, unites people in prayer, acts as a source of reliable news and information. Sales of Christmas cards and gifts already brisk. Planning ahead: a pilgrimage to Walsingham on Sat April 28th next year, coach departing from London.
ACN will be among the many Catholic groups at the Towards Advent Festival on Sat Nov 19th at Westminster Cathedral Hall.There's a feature about this Festival in the ADOREMUS BULLETIN, published in the USA: you can read it here along with a number of other interesting features on liturgy, prayer, and related subjects...
ACN will be among the many Catholic groups at the Towards Advent Festival on Sat Nov 19th at Westminster Cathedral Hall.There's a feature about this Festival in the ADOREMUS BULLETIN, published in the USA: you can read it here along with a number of other interesting features on liturgy, prayer, and related subjects...
Monday, October 24, 2011
And then...
...I went to the BardFair. The what? A wonderful event run by The Bard School. Yes, bards. Poets, writers, singers of songs. With mulled wine and a warm welcome, a generous table of food and lots of delightful young people...and it all happens regularly at a well-known London church, St Mary of the Angels in Bayswater. I had vaguely heard of it, but being part of it, after arriving breathless after a busy day (and transport hassles - Tube lines closed for repairs), was wonderful.
Who are the Bards? Some students,a young Dominican, a couple of teachers, a musician or two, and people with all sorts of different jobs and professions who write and create and entertain...there was some poetry, some music, lots of good talk, displays of work. I bought some delicious scented soap made with rose leaves, and there was some lovely artwork, and lots of good creative things, and all this with candlelight and in a very happy atmosphere, preceded by a beautiful sung Mass.
The young Domimican read a charming and funny poem with kindness and wisdom in it. A young publisher read a poem inspired by a meeting with Richard Dawkins. There was a feeling of freedom, and a real sense of fun. Ihope to have more contact with the Bard School...
Who are the Bards? Some students,a young Dominican, a couple of teachers, a musician or two, and people with all sorts of different jobs and professions who write and create and entertain...there was some poetry, some music, lots of good talk, displays of work. I bought some delicious scented soap made with rose leaves, and there was some lovely artwork, and lots of good creative things, and all this with candlelight and in a very happy atmosphere, preceded by a beautiful sung Mass.
The young Domimican read a charming and funny poem with kindness and wisdom in it. A young publisher read a poem inspired by a meeting with Richard Dawkins. There was a feeling of freedom, and a real sense of fun. Ihope to have more contact with the Bard School...
An important conference ...
...organised by Aid to the Church in Need, on the subject of religious freedom. Among the speakers was the excellent Ann Widdecombe,and you can listen to her speech here.
For some years, as a Catholic journalist, I was writing about the position of Christians in the USSR,the Baltic states and in Eastern Europe, noting their struggles in the confusing network of laws that restricted religious freedom in all sorts of ways. This was the late 1970s and early 80s, with wrangling about children having the right to attend religious education classes, and people struggling to get jobs or degrees once it became known that they were regular churchgoers or had written religious poetry or contributed to magazines featuring essays on religious themes...and it felt somehow safe, writing about it all in London, secure in the knowledge that one was British and away from all that sort of thing...
...And now, in a most uncomfortable way, I'm reading about Christians in Britain getting into trouble at work because they have written in support of Christian marriage, and Christian sexual morality.
For some years, as a Catholic journalist, I was writing about the position of Christians in the USSR,the Baltic states and in Eastern Europe, noting their struggles in the confusing network of laws that restricted religious freedom in all sorts of ways. This was the late 1970s and early 80s, with wrangling about children having the right to attend religious education classes, and people struggling to get jobs or degrees once it became known that they were regular churchgoers or had written religious poetry or contributed to magazines featuring essays on religious themes...and it felt somehow safe, writing about it all in London, secure in the knowledge that one was British and away from all that sort of thing...
...And now, in a most uncomfortable way, I'm reading about Christians in Britain getting into trouble at work because they have written in support of Christian marriage, and Christian sexual morality.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
All very exciting...
...lots of people, wine, snacks, cake, speeches. A book launch is a bit like a christening-party, with everyone wishing the new arrival well. So the new book on Blessed John Paul has got off to a happy start...
It is hardback, with the most beautiful illustrations by Kati Teague.There's drama, with images of the Occupation in WW11, and the assasination attempt in 1981, and there is tenderness, with some lovely scenes of BlJP with children. There's lots of information about his mission and work - his devotion to the Rosary, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (nice pic of the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger busy at work on it), World Youth Day, and more...
The launch party was at St Paul's bookshop next to Westminster Cathedral, and was a lot of fun, with chatter and laughter. Afterwards, a family supper: I had spent the day with a dear niece - it's half-term this week - exploring Westminster and Parliament and then decorating the celebration cakes together at the bookshop.
It is hardback, with the most beautiful illustrations by Kati Teague.There's drama, with images of the Occupation in WW11, and the assasination attempt in 1981, and there is tenderness, with some lovely scenes of BlJP with children. There's lots of information about his mission and work - his devotion to the Rosary, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (nice pic of the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger busy at work on it), World Youth Day, and more...
The launch party was at St Paul's bookshop next to Westminster Cathedral, and was a lot of fun, with chatter and laughter. Afterwards, a family supper: I had spent the day with a dear niece - it's half-term this week - exploring Westminster and Parliament and then decorating the celebration cakes together at the bookshop.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
BIG DAY...
...the launch of my book on Blessed John Paul the Great. Party at a bookshop, speeches, cake, celebrations...
DON'T FORGET...
...the TOWARDS ADVENT FEstival on Sat Nov 19th, Westminster Cathedral Hall. Music from the Gallery Choir of Westminster Cathedral Choir School. Stalls and displays featuring a wide range of Catholic groups and organisations and charities: books, DVDs, craft goods, and more... A talk from Mgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. A special celebrtion of the life of Blessed John Paul with film and drama...
Everyone is welcome. Doors open 10am...
Everyone is welcome. Doors open 10am...
Sunday, October 16, 2011
The Scola Cantorum...
...of the Cardinal Vaughan School sang at today's 10.30am Mass at Westminster Cathedral: magnificent.
I was there to meet a young friend - working as an au pair with some relatives - as I had promised to show her around London. We had a happy day, beginning with a trip up the Cathedral Tower - spectacular views across London and out beyond to the misty suburbs and the North Downs. She was also awed by the Cathedral itself, where the 12 noon Mass, with wafts of incense and a vast congregation, was taking place. As we stood there, the priest was silently incensing the altar, and then the server incensed the concelebrants, and then all of us, and I suddenly saw it as a young outsider would, in all its beauty and solemnity, and realised all over again the glory of the Eucharist..."Pray, brethren..."
We went on to explore Westminster: the bells of the Abbey were pealing out, bright sunshine made the Thames glitter and golden leaves were fluttering down in St James' Park. We lunched at the Albert pub in Victoria Street, a favourite haunt, and then caught a bus to the City. There were protesters with banners denouncing captalism so various areas had been cordoned off, but we looked in at some Wren churches and finished with tea near St Paul's.
But London in Autumn beauty brings sadness, a sense of nostalgia. The Palace of Westminster, the Union Jack flapping against the flagpole on the Victoria Tower, Big Ben calling out the hour with its huge deep rolling note...I remembered days working in Parliament and writing on all sorts of issues, in the days when defending male/female marriage, and opposing gross forms of "sex ed" for children, and working to affirm the sanctity of human life all seemed more possible and achievable...
I was there to meet a young friend - working as an au pair with some relatives - as I had promised to show her around London. We had a happy day, beginning with a trip up the Cathedral Tower - spectacular views across London and out beyond to the misty suburbs and the North Downs. She was also awed by the Cathedral itself, where the 12 noon Mass, with wafts of incense and a vast congregation, was taking place. As we stood there, the priest was silently incensing the altar, and then the server incensed the concelebrants, and then all of us, and I suddenly saw it as a young outsider would, in all its beauty and solemnity, and realised all over again the glory of the Eucharist..."Pray, brethren..."
We went on to explore Westminster: the bells of the Abbey were pealing out, bright sunshine made the Thames glitter and golden leaves were fluttering down in St James' Park. We lunched at the Albert pub in Victoria Street, a favourite haunt, and then caught a bus to the City. There were protesters with banners denouncing captalism so various areas had been cordoned off, but we looked in at some Wren churches and finished with tea near St Paul's.
But London in Autumn beauty brings sadness, a sense of nostalgia. The Palace of Westminster, the Union Jack flapping against the flagpole on the Victoria Tower, Big Ben calling out the hour with its huge deep rolling note...I remembered days working in Parliament and writing on all sorts of issues, in the days when defending male/female marriage, and opposing gross forms of "sex ed" for children, and working to affirm the sanctity of human life all seemed more possible and achievable...
Saturday, October 15, 2011
And today...
...an excellent talk from Mgr Andrew Burnham at the Assn for Latin Liturgy meeting at St Mary Magdalene's, Brighton...
The sun sparkled on the sea, and the blue was a brilliant blue...but Brighton has a shabby, slightly sad feel at present, and it was good to get away from the shops and the sea-front and head for St MM's, which is a most beautiful church, and meet many friends there. The hall was rather over-full for the meeting and consequently much too hot, but the talk was enormously interesting and gave insights as to what the Ordinariate will bring to the life of the Church in Britain.
The sun sparkled on the sea, and the blue was a brilliant blue...but Brighton has a shabby, slightly sad feel at present, and it was good to get away from the shops and the sea-front and head for St MM's, which is a most beautiful church, and meet many friends there. The hall was rather over-full for the meeting and consequently much too hot, but the talk was enormously interesting and gave insights as to what the Ordinariate will bring to the life of the Church in Britain.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
An Archbishop speaks...
...and merits our full support. Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow notes that "a mandate to govern does not include a mandate to reconstruct society on ideological grounds, nor to undermine the very institution which, from the beginning, has been universally acknowledged as of the natural order and the bedrock of society, namely marriage and the family. In terms of law, its support and defence have been on a par with the defence of life itself. We weaken it at our peril."
The Archbishop's statement on marriage can be read in full here.
The Archbishop's statement on marriage can be read in full here.
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