Monday Jan 15th
Plans for the Catholic Women of the Year event for 2007 are now under way. Anyone can nominate a Catholic woman to be one of our Cath Women of the Year: we are looking for the "unsung heroines", women who are loyal to the Church and express this in real neighbourly service, in supporting or initiating some good work, in upholding Christian values in public life or in business or professional work.....just send a letter to the Chairman at 22 Milton Rd, WARE SG12 0PZ or email it to mijamajoje@ntlworld.com

You must give the nominated person's FULL NAME AND POSTAL ADDRESS (BTW, this only applies to the United KIngdom....sorry, American or Aussie reader, you will have to launch your own similar initiatives!) and a couple of paragraphs explaining the reason for the nomination. Please do not send a note to me saying "Why doesn't some one nominate so-and-so?" Just get on and do the nominating!!! If for some reason you don't want to write a letter, get some one else to do so.....

Excellent edition of FAITH magazine (subscriptions: contact subscriptions@faith.org.uk) - I particularly like William Oddie's piece about the Archbishop of Canterbury and Rome and women priests, and, as always Fr Richard Neuhaus writes crisply and amusingly on things American. He is especially good on the question of "Allegiance to God or country?" But don't take my word for it - go and get a copy. Londoners can get one by visiting the (excellent) CTS bookshop in Westminster Cathedral paizza (it's next to McDonalds!) or from the back of one of the big London churches such as St James', Spanish Place.....

Sunday Jan 14th
Wonderful concert at Westminster Cathedral Hall, given in aid of the work of Miles Jesu, new Catholic movement which runs all sorts of ventures from help for street-children in Russia to conferences and meetings explaining and teaching the Catholic Faith in Britain.

There was a happy atmosphere and the music a joy: young violinist Ruth Rogers and pianist Matthew Schellhorn. Some glorious Mozart, some Debussy and Franck (less enjoyable piece by a modern comoser called Wilson). Afterwards there was wine and a delicious buffet. Miles Jesu have some good material, including a DVD on the theme of "Vocation" which I intend to watch.....they also have booklets and a journal "Continuity" and a website www.milesjesu.com. The crowd could have been bigger at the concert, but it was a wonderful evening and a good start to their 2007 activities.

As I left, one of the helpers pressed some chocolate cakes on me (I have never been known to refuse choc cake) to take home. At Clapham Junction one of the routine can-you-give-me-some-money-for-a-place-to-stay types asked me for cash, and I told him truthfully that I didn't have any, but offerred him some cakes which he accepted. One is always in a quandary about people asking for money: I know a couple of the regulars on our train-route , and they know me, and they know that I invariably suggest that they go to The Passage (Carlisle Pl;ace, SW1 - near Westminster Cathedral) which not only offers accomodation and food but can help with sorting things out for the longer-term too.....though of course that's not always what they want.....on one occasion, when I had told a chap about The Passage, and written down its name etc for him, he moved on down the train, and another passenger, sitting opposite, said "What was the name of that place you mentioned? Here - give them this!" and handed me a £10 note! I was touched, and wrote to Sister Ellen at The Passage when I got home, telling the story and enclosing the money. She didn't find the story at all unusual: I rather got the impression that sort of thing happens quite often!

Spent a lot of time today messing about with my bike. As I was cycling down past Green Park the other evening, another cyclist shouted (rather rudely, I thought!) "Where are your f---ing lights?" I thought that the dynamo lights worked perfectly well, but evidently they don't, and on Friday a policeman, in the same district oddly enough, as I rounded that tricky bit in front of Buckingham Palace, stopped me and said much the same thing but in more polite language:"Are you aware that you have no lights whatever? You are risking a serious accident...." Hmmmm. Sorted through various cupboards at home, chucked out a lot of junk, found lights from old bike. How to fix them on? (Old fixtures lost with previous bike - stolen by unknown thief from oustide station last year).

Sunday Jan 14th
A couple of people have sent Comments to my Blog concerned that a priest working at the Vatican has published a book about Oscar Wilde. I honestly cannot see why they are bothered by this. Surely Wilde is a superb example of a man who found in the Catholic Church the peace and absolution that he so desperately needed as a penitent? Just the oither day I was reading to a small niece his lovely children's story about the giant and the wintry garden, and we were both very touched by it...I had bought the book at a Christian bookshop a couple of Christmasses ago and most warmly recommend it....

Thank you to all who have contacted me with information on how I can view American DVDs.....but I still desperately want to know how I can obtain a copyof the new one about Pope John Paul!!! How can I - or any other person in Britain - actually obtain it??

Sat Jan 13th 07

Catholic Women
Meeting yesterday of committee of Association of Catholic Women.http://www.associationofcatholicwomen.co.uk/index.html We are extremely busy at the moment: raised a good sum of money towards the London-based Clinic for Children with Downs syndome, are launching our nationwide 2007 Religious Education Project for Catholic primary schools, have a Day of Recollection in London on February 24th at St James Church, Spanish Place (nearest tube: Baker Street. Starts 10.30 am, includes Mass, Stations of the Cross and the Rosary as well as inspiring talks. Bring a packed lunch). We decided to revive our tradition of pilgrimages and are making plans for one in the summer. Elderly and housebound ACW supporters who are unable to get to events easily can recieve the excellent OREMUS newsletter with news, topics for prayer etc (see website). Our Chairman wrote to Prime Minister Tony Blair pointing out the errors and confusion in his (surely extraordinariuly arrogant??) call for the Catholic Church to change its moral teaching....Blair thinks that somehow giving people in Africa more condoms will stop the killer disease AIDS, when all the evidence points to the contrary: that the massive distruibution of the things has made things worse and the only project that is working is the encouragement of a chaste way of life with abstention outside of marriage and fidelity within....) The ACW website (see above) is running well, number of visitors soaring, and is full of useful material including information about our booklets, regular Review sent to all supporters, and more.....

We enjoyed a gentle laugh at the newsletter of fem-group "Women Word Spirit" (see yesterday's blog too) - my personal favourite in current issue is a bit of woffle which is claimed to have been spoken by an Indian Chief from America, but to which the WWS has had to add a note saying "exclusive language altered" before reprinting!! Dear ladies, if you want to use material which you claim is from an Indian Chief (incidentally, I'm not sure that it is? I've seen it elsewhere ascribed to a Buddhist monk) at least pay him the decency of transcribing it accurately. And...er.... if you study the topic a bit, and check your facts, you might find that Indian Chiefs were not exactly into feminism.....

Among the alleged Indian Chief's wisdom: "This we know - the Earth does not belong to humans - humans belong to the Earth.....Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the children of the Earth...." I am not sure that Indians in America really believe that - certainly their proud heritage of battles and struggle both between themselves and against settlers does not bear it out - they have never seen themselves as simply "belonging to the Earth"and without free will to achieve anything, but as men and women with a far greater and nobler heritage.

Meanwhile, nearer at home, in this newsletterWWS members are given their Calendar with dates and events to note:"Roman Catholic Caucus of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement. All welcome at Mass for lesbian, gay, transgendered Catholics, their parents, families, andf friends. First and third Sunday every month at....."

Allow a brief moment for speculation about the Indian Chief's attitude towards lesbian, "transgendered" etc people.....

This Calendar (which also promotes the regular protest-vigils at Westminster Cathedral and St Mary's Cathedral EDinburgh organised by Catholic Women's Ordination) has no disclaimer, and the newsletter says it is "the voice of catholic women's network". Is this group still officially listed in the Catholic Directory?

Other blogs....

Cheery message from Father Dwight Longenecker whose blog is full of good things...http://gkupsidedown.blogspot.com/ Fr Dwight is the author of a number of books and essays is always a wonderful read....Some years ago, not very long after his resignation from the Anglican ministry and his admission, with his family, into full communion with the Catholic Church, he came to give a talk to the Catholic Cultuiral Group. It was about the use of film as an art form, and I have never forgotten it - looking at important themes and messages in the classic "film story"....made us all think a lot about how film is a central part of that creative world which also includes songs and theatre and storytelling....oh, and he's v. good at the latter, too, and did a wonderful job at one of our early Towards Advent festivals, with enthralled children in the Gallery gathered round him as he told stories from the Bible and of the Church's saints and heroes....

Useful chat with Fr Tim Finigan of Hermeneutic of Continuity http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/. He patiently explained (for approx 14th time....) how to make links with other blogs....but, as you see, Fr Tim, I'm still not getting it quite right..........(picture him as he reads this, pounding head against study wall...."children in my parish catechism class could do it!! Aaaaargh!!!!")

As part of sense of link to worldwide English-speaking blogging community, feel I ought to mention that Father Richard Whinder is curate in our parish, assistant to our excellent Father Peter.......

Friday Jan 11th

That Women's Circle
Time for some light relief. And where better to find that than in one of the unintentionally amusing Catholic feminist lobby-groups which still float about, and talk with the sort of pre-arranged jargon that you also find in Government-funded workplace seminars aimed at policing people into the right social attiutudes.

"Women, Word, Spirit" used to be called the Catholic Women's Network. In its latest newsletter it has a "ten years ago" column which notes a particular effort of mine. The story has partly become legend, so I'll just tell it factually and briefly: back in 1997, reading the Network's newsletter I was struck at how easy it was to follow their jargon, so I started to compose a contribution of my own. This purported to come from a women's circle in Australia, and described how they met for a "desert experience" around the swimming-pool, with avocado salads and wine, and shared their misery at how the Church oppressed them, for example by refusing to accept a relationship one was having with a married man, etc etc. They created their own Eucharist with one another ("You are Christ!)" and affirmed each other's innate self....etc...etc...oh you know the sort of thing. I only wrote it for fun, but thought the CWN might just believe it, as its nonsense so accurately reflected their own. So after enjoying it with my (Australian-born) husband, I posted it to friends near Perth and asked them if they'd kindly oblige by mailing it back to the newsletter editor in England.

It thus arrived with its proper postmark, and the dear ladies published it without suspecting a thing...until I saw it in the newsletter and telephoned the Daily Telegraph which splashed the story of the prank, and the wider media took it up from there....

You see, what the dear ladies hadn't grasped was the gross nonsense of it all...because they take this sort of rubbish for granted as truth. A desert experience in luxury with lavish food and wine around a swimming pool? A supposedly Christian group wallowing in selfishness? Blaspheming the Eucharist? Encouraging each other in adultery? All just fine, apparently.

And they still can't quite cope....in the current issue they wonder why I used my "considerable energies" on this spoof.....dear ladies, I didn't. It was the work of half-an-hour, and fun. And, believe me, I am using most of my still considerable energies in a great many other projects.....some of which, if you knew about them, would probably annoy you dreadfully......

Thursday Jan 10th

DVD matters

I am very keen indeed to see the new film about Pope John Paul 11 which is being sold through Ignatius Press. But we can't get it here in Britain!!! Ignatius informs me that it's not for distribution outside the USA.

When will a British distributor come forward?

Does anyone have any knowledge about this?

I am aware that DVD restrictions are a bore. In this connection, does any American reader of this blog want a nice DVD of a classic American film? It's called "Cheaper by the Dozen" and I bought it while in the USA. I saw the film at school as a child (it was very old even then - we were occasionally given film-afternoons as a treat and I remember us all weeping over "Mrs Miniver".....). I was thrilled when I saw it all nicely boxed up as a DVD in America, and bought it....only to find that of course I can't view it here. Up on the screen comes just an annoying little statement saying that viewing is blocked.

I am ready - this is a serious offer! - to post it to any American who would enjoy it! I hate to see something wasted. And it cost me nine American dollars. I could have spent that money on sweets or something. (Well, OK, maybe not sweets as American chocolate doesn't taste quite right, and some of their other sweets are simply horrid. But maybe a lavish ice-cream or two).

New Book: "The Tide is turning"

I have been sent a copy of a paperback"The Tide is Turning Toward Catholicism" by David J. Hartline (publ. by something called "Catholic Report"). It is upbeat and cheerful, and has reports of how the new mood in the Church in the USA is definitely one of theological orthodoxy, young people rallying to authentic teachings, colleges such as Franciscan University of Steubenville, Thomas Aquinas College in California etc all doing well, etc etc etc.....all of which is true. But I don't think this sustains its central thesis, which is that the tide in society generally is turning towards the Church. I think the actual trend is more interesting: things are undoubtedly moving in a good direction within the Church (and more so in America than in Britain, and more so in Britain than in mainland Europe). But meanwhile the trend in western society is increasingly against the Church. It is precisely the clash - between a re-invigorated (albeit numerically smallish) Catholicism, and a general opposition to Christianity in a rich and godless west - that is the reality before us in the next decades. The crunching noise that is made when these two clash - which not be one big crunch but a lot of grating and discomfort spread over a period of time and involving different people and events and experiences.......that noise will be the noise of the first part of the 21st century for many of us.

Feature in Catholic Herald

The latest Catholic Herald has a short feature by a friend of mine, Sara Mellor, who is blind. She makes some pertinent points about some specific needs of blind people. Travel is difficult and complicated - taxis are expensive. The days can seem very long and quiet when you are alone in a house. What many people in this position want more than anything else is just some companionship - a visitor telephoning or dropping in. Sara lives some way from London, and in a rural area. The Association of Blind Catholics and St Cecilia's Guild do a great job in providing tapes on Catholic subjects but......nothing beats simple human friendship, and for a Catholic it's a special delight to be able to talk about things of deep interest....but hard to do so if it's just too complicated to catch a couple of buses or trains to get to a meeting, retreat, or conference.
Sara mentions specifically that she would love to go on a retreat, but in a strange (often large) building it is difficult to navigate alone. She needs to be accompanied. I have accompanied her to a number of events....is there anyone out there who might be prepared to join the team from time to time? This might be something for an older (retired?) person with some spare time, and who would enjoy the chance to attend a meeting or conference......send a message to this blog (in confidence) and we could follow up.....

Thursday Jan 11th


Domestic:

Some replies to comments: yes, I know one can order books from a library and thus ensure that they get on the shelves. I always recommend people to do this: it's a simple way of getting good books into a Library. I already have three Ratzinger books ordered at Sutton Library....and they have promised to get them for me, but I don't know why they are so long delayed, as the request was made back in the Autumn and the books can easily be obtained from Family Publications in Oxford....I think they may be seeing if they can borrow them from another place on an inter-library loan instead.....

Re my Catholic Cultural Group: if you are London-based and might be interested, send me your NAME AND ADDRESS to this blog, as a Comment. ALL COMMENTS COME TO ME FIRST in the form of an email and I DO NOT PUBLISH THEM unless it iseems suitable, so naturally one that simply gave private information for my own use would be treated as such.

Thursday Jan 10th

I am writing this in the early hours of the morning. Thanks to wonderful work by a brilliant nephew, my computer is all up and running with a new router. OH IT IS BLISSS!!!!

Wednesday Jan 10th
Cycled through pouring rain to a library to use the Internet....yes, still problems at home.....

It is curious how alienated one can feel in a modern public library, or indeed other official public facility such as a doctor's waiting room, simply because of the material that is presented all around one.

This is a library building I have known all my adult life: I was a Borough councillor here for many years in the 70s and early 80s, and our Council meetings were in the big Europa Gallery on the ground floor, where the walls frequently echoed to my speeches. But now? It's a fine library and the computer section is superb: beautiful machines, a businesslike silence and sense of order. Once logged on, there is the possibility of extending time as required. Downstairs, there is a pleasant coffee-shop where I relaxed with a book and hoped my soaking jacket and gloves would dry before the journey home. But......in the Religion section, row after row of rubbish-books on witchcraft and the occult.....a reasonable range of books on Christianity but the ONLY one about Pope Benedict is a gross, silly and (thank God) largely unknown one which takes the form of an attack by Edward Stourton of the BBC who opposes central Church moral teachings.....why not some of the books by Peter Sewald, or Ratzinger's own memoirs ("Milestones" - a very good read, available from Ignatius Press USA or Family Publications, Oxford). And, heck, at least a couple of the 40-odd books written by this world-famous theologian who has ended up at Pope......Oh, meanwhile of course there were two copies of John Cornwell's book attacking Pius X11 (no other book about him).

Oh, and elsewhere, publications with headlines screaming that anyone not accepting the new Govt plans on Sexual Oreintation must be a bigot...and horrible novels blatantly sexy.....

However, in the History section I found a new and extremely interesting book, which is relevant to this week's headlines about events in Poland....the book is "To Kill a Priest" (by Kevin Ruane, published by Gibson Square), and is about Fr Jerzy Popieluszko, who was killed by the State secret police. It is extremely detailed, and sometimes reads rather like a police file, but it does set out the facts and conveys a fascinating background to the Poland of the 1980s......the complexity involving the web of deception that was routinely woven, to set priest against Bishop, layman against clergy, youth against teacher, worker against worker....no wonder the general policy in Rome has been to assume that nothing in the Polish situation is simple, and that one should treat with caution anything seen in any official folder. This does not excuse, but it does explain, the events surrounding the apppointment and then sudden resignation of the proposed Archbishop of Warsaw this past weekend.....

We are now all going to see a wave of cyncism among younger Catholics in Poland - those brought up on the legends of heroic Catholic opposition to Communist rule. There was heroic opposition, and Fr Jerzy was part of it. So was the great Cardinal Wyzinski, and of course our dear Holy Father John Paul. But there was also compromise, acceptance of what should have been unacceptable, bad decision-making as well as good, and shoddy behaviour under conditions where shoddiness became blurred with simple realism. Those of us who haven't had to live in a police-state should hesitate to make bland judgements.

To London to collect mail for the Christian Projects Schools Bible venture for 2007 ( involves pupils writing essays on Bible themes - open to all UK secondary schools - send SAE if you want your school to take part: Christian Projects, PO Box 44741 London SW1P 2XA) and to visit pro-life office in St Matthew Street. This is near the Cathedral so I dropped in - there is a very attractive Christmas crib which of course has just had the three Wise men added. They have a camel which is rather too small! But it's a lovely Crib, and well worth a visit. Picked up a copy of the Catholic Herald - very sound comments von the back page in the "Charterhouse" section for Holy Days. I am not going to let up on this: our Bishops have made a silly mistake in transferring some of these to Sundays, and it is something that will have to be rectified.

Interesting story, too, about beleagured Govt minister Ruth Kelly - she has refused to meet a representative of our Bishops to talk about the new horrible Sexual Oreintation Regulations......this is particularly offensive and wrong as she is a Catholic and must recognise that the Church has grave questions to discuss on this matter.

Miss Kelly is currently at the centre of a controversy about having chosen a private independent school for one of her sons. But the problem is not that this is wrong - she comes from a well-to-do family and herself went to Sutton High School (which I passed today on my bike - fairly expensive local school, with excellent academic record) and to Westminster (top London school, exclusive and justifiably famed).....it is entirely right that she offers her children the same sort of opprtunities. What is wrong is that she is part of a Government which is making it EXTREMELY difficult for anyone but the rich to make use of these schools - all the Assisted Places schemes and publicly-funded scholarships have been abolished....so she is getting for herself what she is actively denying others.

However, he stance on the SExual Oreintation Regulations is a far more serious matter and it's very, very worrying that there has been no one at all in the Government prepared to meet our Catholic spokesmen and even discuss things properly.

And please, if you are an American reader, don't write in and say "But isn't Tony Blair practically a Catholic?"

Finally: while on the Internet, looked up some of the delightful pix of the Holy Father baptising babies in the glorious surroundings of the Sistine Chapel. These are beautiful scenes: gentle pastor with silvery hair, awed but happy parents proffering small bundle of baby for baptism, the Holy Father's hands pouring water from a delicate shell over a noble and ancient font. And the H. Father's talk to the families - breaking from prepared script, speaking with wisdom and commonsense in a setting so rich in history and tradition - are well worth reading.

Golly, this beats any official "naming ceremony" offered by a local authority, as seen in modern Britain.

Tuesday Jan 9th
Excellent copy of ANNALS - an Australian magazine which always has me stopping whatever else I am doing to dip into it - in the post. It's a "Journal of Catholic Culture" and this edition has a really good feature about the revival of a Catholic seminary in Ukraine, by Father Paul Stenhouse, some fascinating stuff on Christmas folklore - which is well-informed and explains the background to many well-known carols etc - and a piece about architecture which highglights the appalling ugliness of today's grey blocks that dominate our towns and cities....contact annalsaustralasia@nareg.com.au or at PO Box 13 Kensington NSW Australia 2033.....

Cycling on various errands in mild wet weather. Catholic Times contacts me to tell me a number of replies have been recieved to my recent QUIZ....I'll enjoy checking them and seeing who has won the prize.....

In the evening a torchlit gathering outside Parliament to protest about the "Sexual Orientation Regulations". Yes, this bit of legislation sounds daft and it is. The idea is so to normalise homosexual practices that even voicing opposition to them on behalf of some Christian group will be illegal....thus a Christian running a business which specialises in wedding photography could pay a huge fine for refusing customers who wanted him to take pix of a homosexual marriage.....

Large number of (mostly evangelical) Christians outside Parliament, praying and singing hymns....no microphones allowed so speakers addressing the crowd had a problem. Notable were the LARGE numbers of people from "black churches" - a group which has previously not made an impact on the political scene. I bet this gets ignored by the mainstream media. These are people who had travelled from all over Britain, who are young, dedicated, community-minded, with families and a vivid sense of Christian commitment and social responsibility. "We must pray for our nation" was a phrase one heard a lot. Also comments such as: "I'd be prepared to go to prison rather than have my church forced to betray Christian principles" "No way are we going to allow our church hall to be used for a 'gay' wedding reception, or anything that goes against God's word on the right way to live. We stand by the Bible." "I want to bring my children up in a Christian country."

Of course all this was ignored, and the attempt in the House of Lords to have a fresh look at the Regulations was defeated.

Among Catholics at the gathering, I met the stalwarts of the National Association of Catholic Families, all cheerful and together, with a priest who blessed us all, and lots of young faces....signed up a couple more people for my Catholic Cultural Group (meets in London - open to anyone, age range say 18-40 who would enjoy talks on Catholic culture in books, music, art, history, etc etc....send a Comment to this blog if interested).......also met Yvonne Windsor who had organised the splendid carol singing at Waterloo and Victoria stations (we made over £700 and a number of useful charities have benefited).

It is impossible not to be gloomy about the future of Britain....not about Christianity here, which I think will continue and has all sorts of bright possibilities....but about Britain as a country with any sort of coherent future as a nation with a real sense of community......when it is recognised that homosexual activity is being so widely promoted, aborting babies is regarded as a standard part of "health care", and teenagers are routinely given powerful abortifacient drugs as part of accepting promiscuous sexual activity. No community of poeople has ever survived which has lived this way, and there is no reason why Britain should.

"If we are going to be put in prison, we'll sing and pray together as we are doing now" one cheerful young man told me. I thought about priest-holes and the English martyrs....Catholics have a tradition of persecution here which gives us a certain specific heritage. I wonder how brave I would be if really made to face the prospect of imprisonment for my beliefs?

Mon Jan 8th

Contacted the mailing firm which we use to mail out the brochure of the annual Schools Bible Project to schools acros Britain.....the 2007 mailing goes out shortly, which means that every secondary school in Britain will recieve a brochure inviting pupils to take part. It's very simple: pupils have to imagine they were present at an event in the life of Christ (we give them a list from which to chose, with Bible references) and then write about it in the first person. We get massive numbers of essays, and some are really excellent: we have a large team of judges which meets in the summer and ensures that every single essay is read and evaluated. A large number of certificates of Merit and Special Merit are awarded and the final four best essays get prizes, and the young winners come to London for tea at the House of Lords to recieve these. Organising all this is a big task but well worth while. The whole thing is organised by an ecumenical Christian educational charity of which I am chairman. The object is not to preach to the children, but simply to offer the opportunity to discover the New Testament and study it - schools really value the Project and our winners over the years have come from a wide variety of religious backgrounds. If you are a teacher or parent and would like your child to know about this project - individual entries are accepted of course, for example from children being educated at home - send a stamped addressed envelope to: Christian Projects, PO Box 44741 London SW1P 2XA. (Sorry - this project is only open to children in the United Kingdom).

Rushing about organising all sorts of other work and activities - today is the first real day back at work for most people, and London has lost its Christmasy feel.

Long and useful telephone chat with Josephine Robinson of the Association of Catholic Women http://www.associationofcatholicwomen.co.uk/ - we have a number of projects on the go and this year promises to be a busy one. Among other things, Josephine hopes to revive our pilgrimages - ACW groups have gone to Cambridge, to Littlemore at Oxford to honour John Henry Newman, to Aylesford ( ancient shrine of Our Lady and St Simon Stock) and various other places over the years. We raised nearly £400 at a recent coffee morning in aid of a clinic for children with Downs Syndrome. We run a religious education project for children at Catholic primary and infant schools, and we hold meetings, days of recollection, day-conferences and other events, run a popular quarterly Review, are co-sponsors of the "Towards Advent" Festival at Westminster Cathedral Hall each year, and more.....the Association's theme is that we are women who "give our glad assent to the teachings of the Catholic Church". If you are interested, look up our website, or send SAE to ACW, 22 Surbiton Hill Park, Surbiton KT5.

The Christian Institute http://www.christian.org.uk/home.htm is doing an excellent job opposing the Govt's daft and appalling new "Sexual Orientation Regulations". These new rules could force people - including you and me - to adopt the politically-corrrect but morally wrong line on homosexual activity and refrain from teaching and promoting the Church's unchanging and unchangeable position on this subject. For example, a Christian group which insisted on offering instruction which affirmed the traditional and authentic Christian message on this could be banned from fulfiling all its work(eg a group which insists that children be adopted only by a married man and wife)......and at the personal level a Christian running a bed-and-breakfast accomodation in his own home could be forced out of business of he refused to offer a double-room to a homosexual couple who requested it.......it is worth visiting the Christian Institute's website to learn more about this.

Sunday Jan 7th
Just been reading the Holy Father's Christmas message to the Roman Curia. DO READ IT....you can find it here :http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/december/documents/hf_ben_xvi_spe_20061222_curia-romana_en.html

and it is full of very good things, although it has a sad and wistful note about the future of Europe.....

Our parish has had a wonderful Christmas crib, which today was altered to include the three Wise Men...it is lovely to see families going up to enjoy the crib-scene and to pray, and it reminds me so much of being taken to do just that as a child.

I feel very fortunate to belong to St Joseph's, New Malden: it's a friendly parish and there are lots and lots of young families, plus many young people in the teens-30s bracket, for whom a new group, Forum Christi is about to be launched, with talks on aspects of the Faith. At the 11.30 am Mass we have plenty of sung Latin, and people join in. Our beautiful new parish centre which adjoins the church smells of clean new wood and bustles with people going to and fro, visiting the bookshop, having coffee-after-Mass, chatting to Father Peter our parish priest.

Sat Jan 6th
It is always sad taking down the Christmas decorations....but this year I am keping up the Crib until Candlemas. It is so nice having it there in the evenings with the candles lit and glowing into the stable scene.

Golly, the feature in the Catholic Herald about blogging has produced quite a response: lots of coments to this Blog, several of which I have deleted because they were so nasty.

The photograph accompanying the feature is grim - why didn't I comb my hair and put some powder on that shiny nose? My cheeks always look very rosy but in this pic I look ridiculous. And...er....I suppose I could have worn something a bit better than the denim shirt and my favourite comfortable old guernsey, even though you can't see the darns on its elbows.....

If you are a regular reader of this Blog, but don't ever read the Catholic papers, you are missing out. The Catholic Herald is a really good read - lots of material from Rome, some crisp and interesting comments on topical issues in the Church and society, good feature articles, excellent book reviews, a real sense of being in touch with the wider Church. And in the Catholic Times you can read the excellent Fr Marsden - always an excellent read - and there is also a weekly column by JB, which isn't brilliant but which does give info and history about all the feasts and traditions of the Church's year.

Off to Premier Radio tomorrow to record some early-morning "Thought for the Day"-type broadcasts. They will be broadcast in the wek begining Jan 15th, and if American readers of this Blog want to hear them, Premier is available over the Internet (use a search engine to find it).

In the Bogle family, we are great supporters of authentic tradition, so tomorrow I'm having a small tea-party to mark Epiphany (can't do it today, too much else going on, end of a hectic week). I will make a galette (puff-pastry and marzipan, with a hidden "king" token) and light the candles by the Crib.....

Friday Jan 5th
A delightful meeting with the authors of a new CTs publication "The Joy of God's Plan", due to be launched by the Catholic Truth Society at Westminster Cathedral Hall on Jan 31st. This is a DVD and booklets giving an introduction to Natural Fertility Awareness, and it is a project which has been longed planned and carried out by a team of people who have been working for years with young couples and parents, and who also bring their own personal experience and commitment to the subject.

The project has the support of Archbishop Kevin McDonald of Southwark, who will be attending the launch, together with Bishop Bernard Longley of Westminster. The team producing the material comes from Luton Good Counsel - one of a number of local groups which in recent years have helped dozens of young women through pregnancy and childbirth, offering friendship, counselling, and support through often difficult circumstances and helping to ensure a child's safe delivery into a world where there will be a love and a welcome.

This new DVD pack will be of huge value to marriage preparation groups in parishes, and to women's organisations. Contact the Catholic Truth Society for more details, and send me a COMMENT at this Blog if you are interested in attending the Launch - clergy, youth workers, teachers, all particularly welcome.

My feature in the Catholic Herald re blogging has produced a large response in the blogging fraternity....which incidentally has proved itself super-sensitive to even the merest hint of amused criticism!

My only real worry about blogging is that it traps people at computers....while giving the illusion that one is in contact with millions of people across the globe, talking about important things etc, etc, writing or reading a blog is actually a matter of sitting at a desk engaging in chat which can become addictive - and meanwhile there's a whole world going on outside. I have (temporarily!) solved this problem by having massive computer problems at home - as regularreaders of this Blog will know - and consequently having to work at public libraries or internet cafes. I am writing this at Sutton Library, with just eleven more minutes allowed on this machine....this concentrates the mind....

This evening I am off to a Twelfth Night party at a cousin's. She was my bridesmaid over 25 years ago, and we last met at the Silver Wedding celebrations last June.....it will be fun to catch up, and I always enjoy Twelfth Night and ensuring that Christmas ends on a high note instead of just fizzling out.....

Speaking engagements coming up: I will be at St Walburga's, PRESTON, on Jan 28th, speaking to Catholic students. Come along and join in! Starts at 6.30pm with Mass. I'll be talking about "Celebrating Catholic Feasts and Seasons".

Jan 4th
Extraordinary mild weather again. When this blog is read in 10 yrs time, probably the comments on the weather will regarded as the most significant - either we'll be well into Global Warming by then, with England a parched dry land growing olives, or we'll be back to proper cold winters and people will be wondering what all the fuss was about....

News reports from the Girl Guides suggest the organisation is opting for more sex education programmes, talks about drugs and so on. This is the continuation of a trend noted a couple of years ago when a friend who held some position in the Guides contacted me to show me the handbook "Look Wider" which had some gross and silly material which included a pic of a Guide holdfing up a condom, and suggestions that the girls should discuss, for example, same-sex marriages.....There was quite a lot of publicity about all this, but we felt that any criticism should come with practical suggestions, so we mapped out a whole alternative range of ideas for activities, including discussion topics an d ways of involving girls in looking at social and spiritual and political and cultural ideas.....to no avail......

Like millions of other women, I owe a lot to the Girl Guides, and have also in my turn done things like testing Guides for badges....and even had the pleasure of knowing that my books have proved useful in some Guide groups.....

So I feel very strongly indeed that something horrible is happening when a graet movement like this goes lunatic and starts joining in the current obsession with getting youngsters fixated on sex.

Golly, they are getting this all wrong. The whole point about the Guides is that they should be offering something DIFFERENT, startling, fresh, counter-cultural. When Girl Guiding began, at the start of the 20th century, many girls had never had the chance of doing outdoor things like hiking and camping, learning woodcraft and tracking skills, cooking over camp-fires, forming into patrols and organising hikes and expeditions. Many were expected to spend their lives in other people's parlours and kitchens, dusting and cleaning, carrying water in jugs and polishing silverware....others were expected to have more priviledged lives, barely doing any housework and encouraged to believe that a whole range of useful activities were somehow "unladylike". Girl Guiding brought girls together acros the barriers of wealth and social class, introduced them all to the great outdoors and to cheerful ideas of teamwork and service to others. Generations of girls learned First Aid, simple cookery, the fun of being part of a team committed to some enjoyable project, comunity service, and coping with all the minor hassles of life.......Today, girls are slithering back into a modern version of the sort of narrow, indoor lives from which this wholesome movement had rescued them!! They are stuck with endles propaganda which narrows their field of vision, so that it's all sex, pop culture, spending money on trivia, and staying indoors in case some health-and-safety regulation may be infringed. THE ONE THING THE GIRL GUIDES SHOULD BE DOING is ditching any talk whatever about sex, drugs, or other fashionable topic......instead there should be a wholesale re-commitment to the notion of challenging the social mores of the day.....show young people there is a world to discover, with big challenges requiring real skills, courage, and a sense of initiative. Get girls (and boys!) learning how to

- and this is just a list for starters -

camp for a week in the countryside
cook out of doors
cook in an ordinary kitchen using fresh ingredients
care for a bedridden patient
organise an afternoon of games and fun for some small children
entertain elderly people on a regular basis
show people round the local town/city/village noting items of historic or other interest
sing songs for car journeys
play games for use at Christmas or for wet afternons
use a code sch as Morse or semaphore
use Braille
use basic alphabetical Sign Language
acquire a qualification in First Aid
plan and execute a walking-trip covering,say,16 miles in 3 days
recognise the main star constellations
memorise the kings and queens of England from William the Conquerer onwards
know the lives of at least ten English saints or heroes
explain the basic concepts mentioned in the original Baden-Powell Scout promise, including "honour" "duty" and "service".

Phew!

Meanwhile, I've spent today hoovering and cleaning in a house still dominated by stacks and STACKS of Christmas cards, Advent wreath, and other dust-collecting matter.

HAVE YOU BOUGHT A CATHOLIC TIMES YET and done my Quiz??

This evening, we decided to continue celebrating Christmas so borrowed another DVD and watched "Father of the Bride" (starring Steve Martin). It is charming - recommended. (Yes, yes, I know it's sooooooooo 1990s. Doesn't matter. Nice film).

Jamie was given Hilaire Belloc's "Charles 1" for Christmas and has been reading it to me. An excellent read - why hadn't I discovered this book before?

Jan 3rd
Man came re our Internet problems. Jamie talked to him, and to British Telecom and to Orange (Internet provider) etc etc on the telephone. I said Hail Marys in another room while pretending to tidy up and do housework. Oh, I do hope the wretched thing is sorted out....preferably without people coming to blows or meeting in court......

Newsletter "Consortio" arrives from the International Theological Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family, based at Gaming on Austria: I spoke at their conference in March which was a wonderful gathering at a glorious mountain location in Austria (Sonntagberg, where a pilgrimage house next to a fabulous baroque basilica has been restored by friends of ours, the Doblhoffs, and is now being run as a retreat house and conference centre). After the conference, Jamie and I visited the Theological Institute at Gaming - a restored medieval Charterhouse which also houses the European campus of Steubenville's Franscican University. There are some great young people involved with the Institute, and a sense of life and enthusiasm and working for the future of the Church. There are also some very distinguished experts in a number of fields, and a list of recent lectures is tantalising: topics ranged from "What has Rome to do with Brussels? The European Union, Human Rights, and the Dignity of every member of the Human Family", to Christian-Jewish dialogue, celibacy, the Roman Rite, and Good Shepherd Catechesis Training. A number of people from Britain attended the March conference, which is a good sign - the Institute is going to play an important part in developing and fostering sound thinking on marriage, family life, family policy, and projects for communicating this to young couples and to the whole Church, especially in Europe. It's all light years away from the the dreary material on these subjects that we have been recieving from other Catholic sources in recent years, such as the pointless "Listening 2005" expensive paperwork produced, alas, from the Bishops' Conference bureaucracy in Ecclestone Square here in London......

Today, J and I are beavering away at our respective computers, and J has just "burned on to a disk" (official correct term, am v. pleased w. myself for using it) my latest book, which will go by post to GRACEWING my publishers today.

HURRAH!!!!

It is a lovely feeling to start a New Year and have a book safely away....

What is the book? Glad you asked. It is "The Yearbook of Feasts and Seasons" a completely rewritten, reworked, updated handbook for celebrating all the traditional feasts of the Christian year at home, in school, in a parish or religious community.....packed full of recipes, games, songs, information, snippets of history etc etc. Am indebted to all sorts of people, such as Mrs Evelyn Birge Vitz - whom I met at that conference at Sonntagberg and whose excellent cookery book has been a most useful source - and the dear nuns at Minster-in-Thanet in Kent, for ideas and inspiration.

While lots of families do have a great time at Christmas with games and music and fun, too many - even Catholic - people have no idea of the richness that is theirs by right, and have cross unhappy irritating experiences watching TV, playing computer games, bickering, and feeling let down, with a sense of disappointment that what should have been memorable and pleasant was rather horrid. For the proper celebration of the feasts of the year people need things to do: Christianity is an incarnate Faith and living it doesn't just mean vaguely knowing what it is about, but marking it throughout life with signs and symbols, food, music, games, talk, arts and crafts, indoor and outdoor activities......

When I go out to post the disk to Gracewing, will cycle on to Mother's for cup of tea. My Christmas gift to her included the beautiful new Calendar produced by Italian magazine Famiglia Christiana with lovely pix from Rome of our dear Pope Benefdict.....superb shots of gardens at Castel Gandolpho, and of Papa Benedict at prayer, working on papers, on the telephone, etc. He does look so reassuring. I like to see pix of him doing everyday things, although it's a terrific workload for a man of almost 80.....

Jan 3rd
Man came re our Internet problems. Jamie talked to him, and to British Telecom and to Orange (Internet provider) etc etc on the telephone. I said Hail Marys in another room while pretending to tidy up and do housework. Oh, I do hope the wretched thing is sorted out....preferably without people coming to blows or meeting in court......

Newsletter "Consortio" arrives from the International Theological Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family, based at Gaming on Austria: I spoke at their conference in March which was a wonderful gathering at a glorious mountain location in Austria (Sonntagberg, where a pilgrimage house next to a fabulous baroque basilica has been restored by friends of ours, the Doblhoffs, and is now being run as a retreat house and conference centre). After the conference, Jamie and I visited the Theological Institute at Gaming - a restored medieval Charterhouse which also houses the European campus of Steubenville's Franscican University. There are some great young people involved with the Institute, and a sense of life and enthusiasm and working for the future of the Church. There are also some very distinguished experts in a number of fields, and a list of recent lectures is tantalising: topics ranged from "What has Rome to do with Brussels? The European Union, Human Rights, and the Dignity of every member of the Human Family", to Christian-Jewish dialogue, celibacy, the Roman Rite, and Good Shepherd Catechesis Training. A number of people from Britain attended the March conference, which is a good sign - the Institute is going to play an important part in developing and fostering sound thinking on marriage, family life, family policy, and projects for communicating this to young couples and to the whole Church, especially in Europe. It's all light years away from the the dreary material on these subjects that we have been recieving from other Catholic sources in recent years, such as the pointless "Listening 2005" expensive paperwork produced, alas, from the Bishops' Conference bureaucracy in Ecclestone Square here in London......

Today, J and I are beavering away at our respective computers, and J has just "burned on to a disk" (official correct term, am v. pleased w. myself for using it) my latest book, which will go by post to GRACEWING my publishers today.

HURRAH!!!!

It is a lovely feeling to start a New Year and have a book safely away....

What is the book? Glad you asked. It is "The Yearbook of Feasts and Seasons" a completely rewritten, reworked, updated handbook for celebrating all the traditional feasts of the Christian year at home, in school, in a parish or religious community.....packed full of recipes, games, songs, information, snippets of history etc etc. Am indebted to all sorts of people, such as Mrs Evelyn Birge Vitz - whom I met at that conference at Sonntagberg and whose excellent cookery book has been a most useful source - and the dear nuns at Minster-in-Thanet in Kent, for ideas and inspiration.

While lots of families do have a great time at Christmas with games and music and fun, too many - even Catholic - people have no idea of the richness that is theirs by right, and have cross unhappy irritating experiences watching TV, playing computer games, bickering, and feeling let down, with a sense of disappointment that what should have been memorable and pleasant was rather horrid. For the proper celebration of the feasts of the year people need things to do: Christianity is an incarnate Faith and living it doesn't just mean vaguely knowing what it is about, but marking it throughout life with signs and symbols, food, music, games, talk, arts and crafts, indoor and outdoor activities......

When I go out to post the disk to Gracewing, will cycle on to Mother's for cup of tea. My Christmas gift to her included the beautiful new Calendar produced by Italian magazine Famiglia Christiana with lovely pix from Rome of our dear Pope Benefdict.....superb shots of gardens at Castel Gandolpho, and of Papa Benedict at prayer, working on papers, on the telephone, etc. He does look so reassuring. I like to see pix of him doing everyday things, although it's a terrific workload for a man of almost 80.....

Jan 2nd
Hampton Court looks simply beautiful this Christmasmas-tide, with people skating and a children's old-fashioned carousel with proper music, the mellow red-brick of Wolsey's palace glowing in wintry sunshine. We met friends, Alenka and John, from America, at the Tiltyard restaurant. I have known Hampton Court all my life, and first learned about English history through visits here, feeling slightly oppressed and scared at all the Tudor parts which somehow still reek of intrigue, nasty plots, hints of the Tower to come....but loving the wide grounds and the shining Long Water, the walk across the bridge with the Thames below, and - far best of all - the excitement of a boat trip.

We had planned a walk along the towpath to Kingston, and lunch there, and it all worked out beautifully....anyone who has seen the film A man for All Seasons will know this stretch of the river: it is used for the approach to More's house at Chelsea, because modern Chelsea is too urban, and here it is all green grass and old walls and glorious trees. And it is also used, absolutely truthfully, for the scenes showing More arriving by boat at Hampton Court itself, for meetings with Cardinal Wolsey. Remember the little set of steps running up and down again at a low wall? And the trees on the opposite bank, dipping down towards the water?

Today the river was high, and the tide running extremely fast. Only a couple of boats went by, and they were finding it quite hard going. We walked and talked: Alenka's weekly column from America is in the Catholic Times along with my weekly feature about celebrating feasts and seasons of the Church's year, and it was fun to be able to catch up with one another in person and not just in print! We paused to admire the gates - they are beautifully gilded, (I think for the Queen's Golden Jubilee - not sure?) - that link the newer part of the Palace, the William-and-Mary bit, with the river.

The Canadian geese along the riverside at Kingston look extremely fat and overfed - they get so much from all the families who come for riverwide walks with bags of bread to feed them. As they waddled about, and the great river surged along, and we talked and relaxed with great delight.....it was growing dark as we finally said goodbye and Alenka and John caught the train back up to London whole we caught a bus back along to Hampton Court, where J. had left the car. It all looked even more magical in the dusk, with the carousel lights glittering, and the gargoyles by the main door looking extraordinary, and the Lion and Unicorn at the front gates still standing proud. As we walked to the Palace from the bus-stop we passed the house where Sir Christopher Wren once lived - I've never noticed that blue plaque before - and the big Green where there is always a Fair at Whitsun and where, long years ago, I had my first taste of candy-floss.

Here at home I did some work, brewed some tea, and - as we are still in holiday mood - we settled down to watch a film on our DVD. Jamie got The Battle of Britain from Blockbusters: made in about 1969 or 70, stars Susannah York and Chrisotoher Plummer and Kenneth More - remember? Very good, especially having the German bits in authentic language etc. It also lists accurately the information about those who took part in the Battle - interesting to see how many Poles, a fact not emphasised in the version of the story I got as a child.....

Tidying up in the kitchen, my eye fell on an item from yesterday's newspaper: the Royal Air Force has linked up officially with Stonewall, the homosexual-rights lobby group, to establish a homosexualist agenda within the Air Force. We speculated for a moment about what the Battle of Britain era RAF chaps would think of that....well of course we laughed and so on but.....what lingers after a conversation like that is a sort of heartache.

January 1st 2007
Anyone who hasn't looked at the current Catholic Times newspaperand tried out my Quiz is really missing out. The paper is sold in most Catholic churches in Britain. Go to yours, get a copy, and take part in the Quiz. There are prizes....

People always say that Christmas is just for children....but as far as I am concerned, it gets better and means more every year. The fact of the Incarnation seems more staggering, more beautiful, and more interesting. A sense of gratitude for belonging to the Church - not always very strong when it is tested by silly liturgies or by tiresome churchy events, propaganda, or bureaucracy - can swell strongly viewed from the perspective of this central event for all humanity. The timelessness of so much of what we do - family, laughter, evergreens, feasting - chimes with one's deepest sense of a need for structure in life. And anyway, Christmas is filled with things I like: proper games, country walks, ginger wine, country pubs, dark afternoons, colder weather (not cold enough this year, but one can't have everything), interesting books, carols, and going off with Jamie on expeditions to share pleasant meals with cheery people. I like knowing that the Holy Father is celebrating Christmas Midnight Mass in Rome with crowds and crowds of people. I love the repetition of the Scriptural accounts of the events in Bethlehem, with readings and carols endlessly repeating the details of shepherds and wise men and the star and everything. I love knowing that it's all been marked and celebrated and thought about and known and discussed and loved for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.

On car journeys, when we weren't listening to Christmas carols (I gave Jamie a CD of old carols and wassailing songs as part of his Christmas present.....) we listened to a wonderful exploration of Hilaire Belloc's PATH TO ROME produced originally as a radio documentary and now available from the Belloc Society. Hugely recommended.

Plans for the New Year, ideas for things to do and write and organise.

Dec 30th

Glorious Christmastide. Thick mist over Exmoor creating a curious stillness when we walked. Christmas morning Mass with the Credo sung in Latin. Presents under the tree and a big roast turkey. The Queen saying the same sorts of things she has always said, but somehow it seems more poignant now, especially when she referred to Christmas as celebrating "the birth of our Saviour", a most beautiful and solid phrase and one that is absolutely true and, these days, somehow striking because so gloriously absolute and old-fashioned, and faintly politically-incorrect.... Keep going, your Majesty, and keep talking in the language we all understand.

On Boxing Day the Meet took place as usual, though we didn't see it, as we were busy with family activities, and then went for a walk along the salt-marshes. There is something about looking back towards a village at a winter tea-time from the sea-shore, when the lights are glittering in the windows - warmth and light and human companionship against the darkening evening....

We made a round of family visits. One of the best evenings - with relatives in Kent - was filled with games (everyone writes 10-15 famous names on bits of paper, these get mixed up in a bowl, thjen you draw them out and have to describe the person on it, without sayin g his or her name. Your team get 30 seconds to guess as many names correctly as they can manage....)

Now back at home, and trying to reply to the mountain of Christmas cards.....and enjoying ginger wine and other goodies......

Saturday Dec 23rd
A happy hectic week.

Wonderful meeting of the Catholic Cultural Group on Wednesday: Maggie Fergusson gave us a talk about her biography of Scottish poet George Mackay Brown. What a fascinating subject, any why hadn't we heard of this poet before? His work is superb, evocative of the Orkneys where he spent all his life, tender in exploring the great mystery and reality of the Faith. Maggie's book is a must-read.

We also had a quiz, produced for us by Amanda Hill, a former finalist for Mastermind. (We have TWO former Mastermind finalists in the CCG - the other was our Chantal Thompson, at whose flat we were meeting.) Over delicious mulled wine and mince pies and other goodies - Chantal an excellent hostess - we called out the answers to questions about Christmas traditions, London history, saints, quirky bits of Catholic heritage, and more....

Two members of Miles Jesu (excellent new Catholic movement, involved in many good ventures in London) were there to tell us about their fund-raising CONCERT at Westminster Cathedral Hall on Jan 14th: Mozart, Debussy, Saint-Saens, and more.....email them at continuity@fsmail.net. I shall certainly be there.

Thursday saw a biggish group carol-singing again, this time at Waterloo station. The core of the group is Yvonne Windsor, with people from her local parish of St Simon in Putney, with various other friends added....money raised will go to LIFE (helping mothers and babies) and to the St Vincent de Paul Society. We sang and sang, and it was deeply enjoyable....people especially like "Ding Dong merrily...." and "Deck the halls with bows of holly....." Gentler, "lullaby" carols such as "Little Donkey" or "The Little Drummer Boy" just don't work on railway stations - the things to sing are the very well-known ones that can raise the roof.....

Last night J. had arranged for us to meet a young Australian friend, currently studying in Rome, who was flying to London for Christmas....but alas, very few people were flying to London yesterday and he, like lots of others, got stuck in the ghastly muddle caused by the fog at Heathrow. So J. and I ended up having a quick Chinese meal together and hurrying home through a Christmassy London, and caught the train home from Waterloo. As part of the treat, we bought some blueberries and chocolate-covered strawberries at the station, with the plan that we'd eat them on the train. I had brought Charles Kingsley's "Hereward the Wake" to read (it's not terribly good, but has a fascinating prologue with lots of information on all the kings in the period immediately before the Norman Conquest...something that I started to research when I had to write something about Edward the Confessor for the Catholic Times a while back.....). Cosy train, interesting reading material, dark night outside....all v. agreeable. I passed J. a delicious choc-strawberry, and ate one myself. Rather posh lady sitting next to me exuded very strong air of disapproval. I could feel it postively in almost electric waves. I popped in another strawberry. More disapproval. The lady and her daughter had a v. Wimbldon-ish look, so I knew they get out there. Almost tangible sense of relief when they did. OK, OK, I know it's horrid to eat on a train....but just the odd choccy? Perhaps I should have offered her one.

This morning, the delight of a long chatty phone call from my sister in New ealand....made
Christmas suddenly come alive....

And now we're about to pack the car and head for J's family in the country. "Hurry!" he's shouting....picnic packed, with hot soup. Presents in a lovely big bag just sent from Australia. Spare bed linen. Bag of Christmas goodies including cherry-topped cake bough last night at Waterloo.....

Gaudete Sunday
Rose-coloured vestments at Mass, three candles, including the pink one, lit on the Advent wreath.We were reminded to go to confession during this last week of Advent, as the best and most important preparation for Christmas.

I love the sense of a build-up to Christmas: Advent is definitely my favourite season in the Church's year. The Church offers us a lot and it's a pity we don't make more of it: the family in front of me had a small boy who had been given paper and biros with which to scribble and do drawings, so he turned his back on the altar and simply drew pictures, and whispered to his mother, and got hugs and giggles and little chats, all through Mass. Not particularly noisy or distracting - but what a pity: there was so much going on at the altar that would have interested him, had it been drawn to his attention. The sung parts of the Mass were in Latin, and children can enjoy that, and there was a good deal of incensing, and that sense of solemn activity blended with music and the ringing of bells....he could have felt himself a little part of that, had he been helped to do so.


This evening we are going round to some friends to mark Gaudete Sunday: their eldest boy is my godson and I have a parcel for him and smaller presents for his brother and sisters. At Blackfen last week, Fr Tim gave me some of the apples that he'd been given at Parkminster (Carthusian monastery in Sussex) and I am making them into a big pie for tonight. They are some of the swetest apples I've ever tasted.

Problems with my blog: a reproachful correspondent says I have published his/her email address in the "comment" section....I have spent the past half-hour going through every single comment for the past two months and can't find a single one that includes a private email address. I have specifically rejected several comments because they included private information or addresses which I felt the writers wouldn't really want on the Internet.....can this lady or gentleman please contact me again (I WILL NOT PUBLISH WHAT YOU SEND TO ME) so that I can sort this out??

Saturday Dec 15th

Jamie had stayed overnight at his club after a party, so we had a late lunch together and then dealt with computer problems (aaaargh!! yes, still problems....yesterday's blog was written at Sutton Library!) and then, once we'd managed to get in contact with the Internet (HURRAH FOR WONDERFUL NEPHEW!!!!!) we found out that the new film "The Nativity" was playing at just one cinema in London at 6.30pm so we hurried there by Tube.

It's good. At first I was a bit put off because there are a lot of Middle East scenes with people talking in accented English and wearing homepsun and grinding corn and things, which makes the whole unfolding story seem very far-away-and-long ago. But the actual Nativity itself - Star, baby, Wise Men, angel appearing to shepherds, beam of light over mucky stable - was suddenly powerful and one thought "Golly, it really did happen. God was born as a baby. One of us. Gosh."

We thought St Joseph was much too young - I am sure his relationship with Mary was sort of patriarchal, whereas here he was something between a brother and a terribly decent fiance - but I liked the Wise Men, and Herod was suitably horrible and plausibly so.

Afterwards we went to have something to eat - the scene where Herod gives the Wise Men a meal had made me terribly hungry - so in lieu of something Middle Eastern we popped into a Greek restuarant very near the cinema and had a tasty meal with some exceptionally nice feta cheese. J said the waitress sounded Polish and I agreed she had that sense of innate dignity that so many Poles have and which most modern Bris absolutely seem to lack. Afterwards we went to Notting Hill Tube station and there I suddenly realised I had left my specs at the restaurant - went back, and the nice waitress had them waiting for me. I said thank-you in Polish, and Jamie's hunch was right - she was Polish. Most satistfying.

Jamie says that some people claim - and people have claimed over hundreds of years, so it's worth taking seriously - that Our Lady didn't suffer the normal pains of childbirth. But in this film she does. We discussed. Surely she must have suffered pain, since Our Lord did on Calvary? And we know she suffered with him there, and stood at the foot of the Cross.....

I added that women down the centuries have taken comfort from the thought that Mary endured the same pains of childbirth that they had to endure, but J. said that wasn't neccessarily evidence.

A more complicated point, but to me a relevant one, is that one couldn't specifically eliminate childbirth pain without eliminating other pains, too - I mean, if Mary had, say, jabbed her hand accidentally on rock in the cave, would she have felt pain? Of course. Tiredness on the long journey? Naturally. Exacerbated by being with child? Of course. But then that latter part is all part of the childbirth experience - when could you say that discomfort ends and pain begins, and why would one be seen as part of Mary's ordeal but not the other?

And if the birth wasn't a normal one, but just a sort of sudden miraculous arrival with no normal birth procedure, why does the Gospel go into such specific detail about all the other homely bits - Joseph's worry about Mary's reputation, the practical arrangements such as bringing the swaddling-cloths and using the manger as a cradle? At which point does all the normal sense of a truthful account - which is partly what makes the Gospel so compellingly convincing - disappear? If the Son of God was not born of a woman in the normal way, but just arrived suddenly and painlessly into her arms, surely the Gospel would say so?

Anyway, this took us into v. deep discussion and we wanted to continue it on the Tube but didn't because of people listening, so I just went on thinking about Christmas and God coming into human history. At the cinema, a couple of nice (black, and I am sure Christian) girls said "Makes Christmas seem, like, real, doesn't it?" Yes.

Friday Dec 15th
Yesterday I spent two hours singing carols at Victoria station. We're going to do it again next week, at Waterloo. I absolutely love it - it's one of the best parts of Christmas.

You get crowds and crowds of people pouring through both these stations in the Rush Hour, and by singing traditional carols with great enthusiasm a number of useful things can be achieved:
- you can cheer people up
- you can convey some glorious Christian doctrine ("veiled in flesh the Godhead see - Hail the incarnate Deity" is my personal favourite - it comes in "Hark the Herald angels")
- you can collect a lot - and I mean a LOT - of money for charity
- you can sing at the top of your voice, and the accoustics are even better than when you sing in the bath
- you can be part of what Christmas is really all about.

I owe my real enjoyment of this to a complete stranger. Some years ago, a smallish group of us gathered to sing at a railway station. We didn't know that permission was needed, and we didn't have any carol sheets, and we weren't very good at singing. We struggled along, about 6-10 of us, and it was all a bit feeble. Then a chap turned up who was very slightly - but only slightly, merry after what must have been a rather good office party.

"Here - you're getting this all wrong!" he announced breezily in a strong, carrying voice. "This is the way to do it. Stand properly, in line but close, shoulders overlapping. Like a proper choir......That's right. Now, sing - and throw your chests out, and make the sound reach the ceiling. " We looked up. The ceiling at Victoria station is a long, long way up. "Now sing!" and he started :"Once in Royal David's city...." He had a superb voice. We sang. "Get those chests out!" he boomed. And sing out!" We sang louder. It sounded glorious! We got confident. Sang louder still. People started to stop and watch. People gave us money. We went on singing. As we finished one carol, he'd start another. By now we were up and away. Suddenly, we knew we were starting to get it right. We belted out all the well-known carols, mostly just the first verse or two of each as we didn't have the full words. We were exhiliarated.

In our brief pauses, the clipped tones of the railway announcer could occasionally be heard "The-train-now-standfing-at-platform-fourteen-is-calling-at....." and then the lists of various surburban stations. At one of these announcements, our hero-helper suddenly said "Bromley South!" and headed without more ado for the barrier. My group went on singing, but I had the presence of mind to hurry after him, and was just able to pant out :"Who are you?" as he leapt forward to catch the train. For a split second he was there in the doorway, and answered "I run the choir at the Ministry of Defence!" before the doors closed, and the train moved off and he was out of my life for ever.

And ever since then, I've passed on his tips. Stand together. Bunch close, shoulders overlapping. Sing out. Make the sound hit the ceiling. Yesterday at Victoria we were a motley crew: a couple of dear nuns, a lady with a violin (who was excellent), Yvonne the organiser with wicker baskets full of sustaining flasks of tea, her husband - immaculate in formal City suit - and sundry other people including me in elegant but rather painful new ankle-boots (bought half-an-hour earlier in Victoria Street at that rather goodshoe-shop just by the Cathedral which was doing a half-price sale). I conducted. You need some one to conduct and it can't be done in a half-hearted way. You have to fill the entire railway station with singing. The object of carol singing is to make a glorious sound. This takes energy and commitment. We had carol sheets. We had enthusiasm. We sang out hearts out and honestly, we were good. Not just my opinion - lots of people told us so, and we made vast sums of money, as people put in loads of cash and even £5 notes.......

We had official permission to sing: Yvonne organised this, and was issued with passes, and I had to wear a sort of jerkin with the name of the church through which the thing was formally arranged (her local parish in Putney). I think it probably looked a bit odd as I waved my arms about, but it didn't inhibit movement. And just as we were getting organised, and Yvonne was sorting things out, two men with official faces and railway-official uniforms came up and asked me if we had our fire extingusiher. "Fire extinguisher?" I gulped. Apparently we had to have one. Regulations. I put on a strong, confident face and said that I was certain that our Official Organiser had arranged for a fire extinguisher. When Yvonne came up, I whispered to her urgently about it, and she said not to worry, all organised. And in a moment two chaps turned up with a massive trolley, and on it a sort of box, very large, and they set it down importantly and there it was, and it was the Fire Extinguisher.

Why did the railway people think we needed a fire extinguisher? Do they think that carol singers have a tendency to burst into flames, or something?

Anyway, we sang away for two hours and it was huge fun, and quite a number of people I know came by (Victoria station serves the suburbs where I grew up. Amazing how many familiar faces pass through it on a typical December evening). And then, when we were finished and had sang every carol a great many times and had truly made a glorious sound, we all set off for home and I plodded along with Yvonne to take the jerkin and thermos flasks and carol-sheets to her car, parked in Hudson's PLace along by the station, and the official railway chaps came and took the Fire Extinguisher away.

I would love to know - I really would love to know - why the railway people insist that carol singers cannot sing without a fire extinguisher.

At home I wrapped presents and wrote letters and dealt with Christmassy things. The Catholic Times has printed my reviews of the excellent new series of children's books produced by the Catholic Truth Society: hard-back, beautifully-illustrated,"The Rosary", "The Stations of the Cross" and more..... Moderately priced and the best children's religious books I have seen for a long while.

Wed Dec 13th
OK THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! If you have a daughter/granddaughter/niece/good-daughter who would enjoy a book for Christmas, you have JUST time to order from me a copy of "We didn't mean to start a school". Ideal for a girl aged 9-14....just £5.95p and it's an attractive paperback, an ordinary school-story of the traditional sort but set in the present day. I wrote it as an alternative to some of the gross pornographic junk that passes for girls' fiction in too many shops today. Had rave reviews from young readers. It's NOT preachy or pompous, it's just ordinary girls' fiction. Written under my pen-name Julia Blythe. Send me a cheque now: make the cheque out to J.Bogle and send it to me c/o 34 Barnard Gardens New Malden Surrey KT3 6QG. If you are in America, you can still order as I will race the book to you by airmail, but HURRY. I can accept cheques in American dollars. Add on sufficient to pay for the airmail postage, say $20 in all.

Hectic day. Rushed to Post Office to post gift to dear Auntie Skippie in USA, and to order new passport. Forgot to take money to pay for passport photo. Rushed back home. Out to Post Office again, sat in photo-machine and had pic taken, following instructions in French as I had accidentally pressed the wrong switch for the "what language do you want?" thingummy. Went home to sort out all the neccessary paperwork. Where was my old passport? Hunted high and low. Not on desk where last seen. Not on big table where presents and cards and Advent wreath and Christmas paraphernalia make hunting difficult. Not in kitchen. Tried bathroom. No.Nor bedroom. Nor bicycle basket. Jamie busy on lengthy Christmas letter to Australian rellies, wanted information "What have we done all this year?" Shouted out info about Silver Wedding party, arrival of new great-nephew, publication of latest book, trips to USA and Austria etc as I hunted for passport. Gulp. Nowehere to be found. Stolen? J. finished letter and I hurriedly approved it. Decided passport must havbe been left at Post Office. Set out there again. Am rather tired of that stretch of road. Arrived at Post Office, made enquiries. Yes: pleasant lady behind the counter found it waiting in a box of sundry items. Completed forms, posted everything to Passport Office. Caught train to London where am photocopying Aussie rellies' letter.

I note a comment from Big Sister in the "comments" box. OK, OK, I know I often look a mess, but honestly, I'm often in such a dreadful rush! Hair looks OK from the pic on Fr Tim Finegan's blog, no? Need advice on appearance generally: everyone commented approvingly when my sister arrived from New Zealand a couple of years ago and took me firmly off shopping and kitted me out.....but alas I've probably slipped back into normal scruff-mode since then tho' I do (honestly!!!) dress up properly when I got the chance and I looked OK for recent TV/House of Lords/etc things.....

Tuesday Dec 12th
Finally, I am at home and working on my own computer, albeit with a somewhat worried air, as if the thing might go on strike again, and my internet connection - gloriously restored by my wonderful nephew - might snap off and leave me once again staring at a screen with an irritating bland message on it telling me nothing is available....

Friday saw a cheery gathering at the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen....the excellent team from Miles Jesu had been running a "Dowry of Mary" event all week, with talks on different aspects of our country's Catholic heritage with the idea of fostering a sense of renewal and revival. It was a great delight to be part of the event for an evening. Things began with a Holy Hour in church, the Rosary, and Benediction. There was a most beautiful prayer, written by Cardinal Wiseman, which I had not heard before, listing some of the great saints and missionaries who brought the Faith to our country, and spread it among us. Later I gave a short talk, and then afterwards there was a cake, and wine, and a celebration as it was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I was given a lift home by Mac, of Mulier Fortis fame.

Very early the next morning I was up and about, packing a knapsack and hurrying to Gatwick Airport, where I caught a flight to Inverness. I was off to Pluscarden Abbey, up in the North of Scotland - and a perfectyly WONDERFUL time I had there, too!! It is glorious: a real Medieval abbey, left in ruins when all the monastries of Britain were ransacked and destroyed, then rebuilt in the second half of the 20th century when the land was given back to the Benedictine order by the family who had owned it for those centuries.....

Pluscarden has a good-sized community of monks: they chant the office at the set hours of the day, beginning in the early hours of the morning (Yes, EARLY - they rise at 4am!), they keep goats and bees, they live out the traditional monastic life and they make visitors very welcome. There is a comfortable guest-house, St Scholastica's, for ladies (men stay in the monastery itself) and it's all in the most glorious countryside, with the stars glittering in a sky untainted by street-lighting, with the wind roaring through the trees, and the sound of the abbey bell fresh and clear without any competition from traffic. Best of all, while I was there, we had a power cut so there was no electricity for quite few hours, until the power-lines were repaired. Mass was by candlelight on Sunday morning, with a December gloom outside and great singing and glittering lights within the great Abbey church. It was absolutely the most wonderful experience and I cannot adequately describe how enjoyable it all was.

Father Abbot was very friendly - I did an interview with him for the National Catholic Register (USA) - and full of laughter and common sense and wisdom. Going to all the chanted offices (well, almost all....I skipped the 4 am effort!) gives the visitor a most reassuring sense of awareness of this great unbroken wave of prayer, going on and on, all the days and weeks of the year..... St Scholastica's was cosy, the other visitors were good companions, and after Compline one had such an agreeable feeling of being safe and protected (the final prayer includes being blessed with a sprinkling of holy water)....and then a lamplit walk down the drive and hot chocolate and a vast range of interesting books for a good read....

I left Inverness in pouring rain to fly back to London on Monday morning, working on a great batch of Christmas cards en route - some recipients will find it odd that Bogle Christmas greetings come with an Inverness Airport postmark. Back to a slightly untidy house in which poor Jamie had been wrestling with computer problems and looked bleak and lacking domestic comforts. I brewed tea and told him my adventures and we talked about Christmas plans.

Friday Dec 8th Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Reproachful comments to this Blog asking me why I am not blogging.....well, it's because the WRETCHED PROBLEMS WITH THE COMPUTER at Bogle Towers still haven't been resolved!

It's infuriating. I am writing this courtesy of a pro-life office in London, but I mustn't abuse their hospitality. Back at home....no emails....no internet......

But here goes with some news.... Yesterday I was busy all day (coffee morning in aid of Clinic for Downs Children) and all evening (babysitting delightful small niece, overnight stay). On Wednesday I was at the House of Lords - prizegiving for school pupils who achieved awards in our 2006 Schools Bible Project, an ecumenical venture of which I am chairman. Caroline (Baroness) Cox spoke most beautifully to the young prizewinners, and we had cake, and the Bible prizes were presented with handshakes and photographs.....all most enjoyable. I took the young people round Parliament, explaining its history etc, with other members of my committee....and Richard Benyon MP, (son of Sir William and Lady Benyon who are great supporters of the Project), came and met them all and talked about his work as a Member of Parliament....Richard is an old friend and was at Sandhurst with Jamie.....

All this, and I am off to the parish of BLACKFEN this evening - catching a train as soon as I have finished this - to give a talk, and then flying to Scotland tomorrow to spend a couple of days at Pluscarden Abbey.....

And I've been trying to get things organised for Christmas....we'll be staying in Somerset, with Jamie's brother and his family in their country cottage which is near where the Bogle parents live....

Oh, and I'm busy helping to judge some essays in the big competition organised by a major pro-life group. So when I'm not doing anything else, I'm reading through the most atrocious English ("aborshun is mostly wrong but them people has to have counsilling and it is about making choices.....") and trying to believe that some day, through prayer and work, we will restore a Christian culture to our poor country.......

Mon Dec 4th
Spoke in the afternoon to a Methodist Women's Fellowship, on "Advent traditions and customs". They were dears, and we sang from a hymn-book with an introduction by John Wesley, which said some very sound things about what a good hymnn should contain (no silly exaggerations or poor rhymes or meaningless woffle....enthusiasts for "Lord of the Dance" and similar horrors should note). Then hurried off by bike through the gathering dark , with just enough time at home to tackle a few mundane tasks and on to catch the train to London....where I was due to take some pix at St Pattrick's, Soho Square, of Jan Woodford, chairman of the Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon, handing over the money raised (£1,700 - which is pretty good, and one of the largest sums we've ever achieved) to Cenacolo, the charity which helps people with drug and alcohol addiction. They are BADLY in need of funds, and will use the cash to provide some basic facilities at the new property they have acquired out in the country where a community isd established....Cenacolo is based at St Patrick's, and its chairman, Philippe von Habsburg, who is a great friend (we work together on another charity, Aid to the Church in Need) was on hand to accept the cheque.....

St Patrick's is an extraordinary place. As we stood there, in the wild and windy but still curiously warm evening (weather still MOST peculiar....newspapers full of stores about no snow on the ski-slopes of the Alps, summer flowers blooming in Britain's suburban gardens), people were pouring in for a carol concert. This is one of the scruffiest but most wonderful and popular churches in London! It is desperately in need of funds for basic repairs and for its wonderful work which includes (in no particular order) a soup run for the homeless, ministry to prostitutes and rent-boys, several prayer-groups, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, talks for those interested in the Faith, regular times for confession, lunch-time Masses on weekdays for busy Londoners, a School of Evangelisation, an SOS Prayer-Line.....if the funds don't arrive, some of the fabric of the church (which survived a near-miss in the raids in WW11 - a plaque commemorates a bomb which lodged in the sanctuary wall) will simply crumble to danger-point. Are there any Americans reading this who might send a donation? This was the church where Archbishop Fulton Sheen did some of his best and most worthwhile work, among some of London's most vulnerable and tragic people....even in the 1950s, Soho was a ghastly area where many lonely frightened young people were prey to vicious pimps......and many have found new hope via the message they found in this church......A donation to St Patrick's, 21 Soho Square London W1, would pay tribute to Sheen's memory and do a LOT to ensure that this wonderful church goes on bringing God to people......the church itself dates back to the days before Catholic Emancipation, so is a real link with a rather heroic past....

After a cycle ride across London - which, as regular readers of this blog will know, is a city I love when it is rainy and lamplit - I arrived at the home of friends who are cheerfully giving me tea, advice, and practiucal help as I email the pic of the cheque handover to the Catholic press....still no email at home (AAAARGH!!!! words inadequate to express frustration at the struggles we are having on that score.....) so I am staying on to tackle emails and write this Blog......

London is glittering in its Christmas lights....great panels of blue and silver across Regent Street lighting up the night sky, and of course shop windows lavishly decorated and with every imaginable luxury cramming the shelves.....Christmas trees are beginning to arrive tho' the big one in Trafalgar Square will, quite rightly, not be present until much nearer the time of the great feast....

At home we have our Advent wreath on the table and I've started to sort and wrap some gifts...I like having them waiting and stacked on the table through Advent, with the little pile growing steadily larger as the days and weeks pass.

1st Sunday of Advent, Dec 3rd
Yesterday, the first Northern Festival of Catholic Culture, held in the fabulous crypt of Liverpool Cathedral. A school choir sang, Bishop made a speech. Happy atmosphere, lots of wonderful things on sale and display, including some lovely Christmassy things for children from St Paul Publications (books about the Natiovity, Christmas videos, DVDs), a wonderful array from books from various publishers, etc. Attendance was quite good during the morning, but tailed off during the afternoon - they will need more and better publicity in local parishes next year. However, at my stall (Association of Catholic Women, with books from Gracewing) I did pretty well, over £100 worth of books sold, and I made lots of contacts, chatted to fans of EWTN, etc. General feeling was that the day was pretty good for a first effort, and we must get MUCH larger crowds next year. Highlight of the day was a talk given by Fr Paul Watson of the Maryvale Institute, Birmingham. Later he visited my stall and we had a good chat - Maryvale is doing really well at present, and is giving a great many people the chance to study so much about the Faith......I also attended the talk given by the excellent Father Mark Elvins,whose book on Chivalry has just been published by Gracewing. I bought a copy, and carried it home gleefully to Jamie, who was so thrilled by it that he sat up late reading it even tho' it was after 1 am by the time I put it in his hands.....

At the Festival, everyone seemed to be talking about the H. Father's visit to Turkey, with much relief that it had all gone so well, and some pride in his dignity and composure in such complicated circumstances. Hurrah for Papa Benedict!!!

I seem to have spent much of the weekend travelling - caught the train to Liverpool late on Friday after a brief look-in at a party at Farm Street (Jesuit Church) to mark the launch of the new book about Stonyhurst. The speaker was journalist Paul Johnson, whose writing I much admire....in his speech he referred splendidly to the "insolence" of the Govt in attempting to control Church schools "when the whole history of education in this country belongs to the Church". That needed to be said and it was good to hear some one being robust like that. I arrived in Liverpool after a pleasant journey spent catcjhing up on lots and lots of reading, with no interruptions...bliss. Then by half-past midnight, I was with my kind hosts, checking on my emails and, along with them, pouring over news-websites telling of the Holy Father's activities in Turkey......

Friday Dec 1st

Whenever I have a little time to work on this Blog, practise techniques like linking to websites etc, or simply to write up something in a reasonably well-researched way, my wretched email goes down....

After a brief glorious reconnection yesterday morning (which at least meant I was able to write my Christmas feature for the CATHOLIC TIMES, which includes a quiz - do make sure you buy a copy) we are now out of email and internet contact again......so I am writing this at the local Internet Cafe, where I am by now rather well-known. I have my luggage beside me as I am off to Liverpool tonight, by a late train, to take part in the Northern Festival of Catholic Culture at Liverpool Cathedral tomorrow.

I desperately want to get in touch with some of the kind people who have contacted me via this blog....please understand that this must wait, as working under presure in an email cafe allows for so little time!!!!!!!

The H. Father sems to have done well in Turkey, and - best of all - is now safely on his way home again.

Yesterday evening, after spending the afternoon with a friend I hurried to Westminster Cathedral as I wanted to pick up a copy of the Catholic Herald. It was about 2 minutes to 7 and the Cathedral had just closed.... outside the CTS bookshop a nice chap sudenly asked if I was Joanna Bogle....had seen me on EWTN etc etc....we got chatting and, on observing that staff were still in the shop, he suggested I try pleading with them as copies of the CH were visible on the counter.....so I made pathetic faces through the glass and the nice chap there grinned and let me in, and for £1 there was the Herald in my hands. Now that's what I call service.

Although it is frustrating working in libraries and email cafes, it does mean I get about....read a scary piece in yesterday's Daily Mail about a (Catholic!) teenager who got totally hooked on computer games, skipped school, barely ate or washed....

If any Catholic blogger spends more than an hour at a time on the computer - I mean on just trawling the Net, blogging etc - he should get a life, and go off and do something else. Help your mum with the hovering, have a bath, go for a run, or something!

Last night, Jamie presided at the AGM of the CATHOLIC UNION (he is Chairman). The CU has done a fine job in fighting euthanasia and the Govt's loathesome Mental Capacity Act (killing off unconscious people by withdrawing water and food) and has stuck up for Catholic rights in education. Today's newspapers have further news on a topic the Union needs to tackle: The Govt is trying to race through horrible legislation which will force all Christian groups and organisations (and yes, this includes Catholic schools, welfare agencies etc) to treat homosexual couples as if they were male/female married couples, eg allowing them to adopt children via Catholic agencies etc. Archbishop Nicholls of Birmingham has spoken out firmly on this, saying the Church will close down its agencies rather than act contrary to Christian principles.....we all need to speak out, to, and demand that Christians are not forced to deny fundamental principles: Catholic schols must be allowed to teach that homosexual activity is wrong, Catholic residential institutions must be alowed to arrange all accomodation on the basis that accomodation for married people means accomodation for male/female marriage only.....Catholic organisations must be allowed to affirm, publicly, their support for the unchanging Christian teaching on this subject.....Catholic parishes must be allowed to deny the use of their halls to homosexual loby groups.....in short, we must be allowed to live out our historic faith and its moral teachings without some Government-imposed mandate to defer to new sexual obesesions.

IT IS WORTH EMAILING YOUR MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT ABOUT THIS.

Some day, when the history of these times is written, it will be of note that the Church remain firm and true, even though it cost something.