Year of Faith 2012/13

The FAITH MOVEMENT invites you to a

DAY OF FAITH

at St Patrick’s Church, Soho Square, London W1

June 18^th 2013, starts 11 am

Special guest speakers:

 Rt Rev Philip Egan, Bishop of Portsmouth 3pm

George Weigel, author of Evangelical Catholicism 7.30pm

Other speakers include Canon Luiz Ruscillo, Director of Education, Diocese of Lancaster. The Day will include Mass, lunch, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, opportunity for confession.

Tickets :  £20.00 , includes lunch and supper.

Daytime only: £10.00 includes lunch.

Evening only: £10.00 includes supper.

Book your place now!  Send cheque payable to FAITH/KEYWAY  to: St Peter’s Church, Bishop’s Rise, Hatfield, Herts AL10 9HN. Please give your name, postal address and email and enclose a stamped addressed envelope .

Studying...

...the ethics of human embryo research, reading Dignitas Personae as part of an academic course, . It is when you get to grips with the subject in a fresh way, that you realise all over again  what a  truly horrible mess we are now in. There are tens of thousands of tiny, dot-sized  living human embryos - the "spare" results of attempts at in-vitro fertilisation - stacked in chilled cabinets in laboratories. There is no ethical way to deal with these. If they are simply thrown away, we have embarked on a decision to destroy human life, a decision with massive implications.  And they cannot just be "donated" to women who would like to have children, as you cannot do that with human life - and these people would grow up not knowing who they really were, who their brothers and sisters were, and so on. We have created a real and ghastly horror of the type that a fiction writer of the 1950s and 60s would have relished. These living beings could be tampered with, experimented upon, messed about...

with so much else....

...in the news, you might have missed this item...

...and so...

...off to Birmingham, to the former home of Bl John Henry Newman at Maryvale...

A weekend of study and lectures...and, thanks to a new laptop, I am now able to work on trains and in spare half-hours at coffee-shops. But is this always wise? Time to think, and pray, and relax,,matters a great deal more than Auntie is sometimes prepared to admit. A useful feature by Stratford and Leonie Caldecott,  in the latest issue of The Sower, excellent magazine published at Maryvale, gives pause for thought: it is about being slow  over important things. Moves towards "slow food" in place of the ubiquitous  fast food with its style of  eat-on-the-street-and-drop-rubbish-anywhere   could, they suggest, be  usefully echoed by a move towards "slow catechesis" for Catholics: think about beauty, about strong family and community bonds, think longer-term, think with the Church...Pope John Paul warned against the idea that the New Evangelisation would be a quick-fix, and we should heed his words...

As if to push the message home, this weekend saw Auntie unusually tired. Overslept this Sunday morning  in the peace of Maryvale - I had a room at the front of the old house, a snug corner room slanting off, Maryvale-style, from one of those glorious slightly slanting staicases - and missed Mass. Hurried cup of tea as everyone else was finishing breakfast, and then we all went off to the morning's lectures...in the late afternoon, travelling back to London, I abandoned the laptop and simply took a Sabbath rest. Evening Mass at Westminster Cathedral, with something memorable about it as we prayed for dear Papa Benedict and for the Church...

Read this...

.... among one of the finest and most thoughtful homilies that the Holy Father has ever given us. The quiet wisdom of this man of God...in this, his final Ash Wednesday sermon...

" The tests which modern society subjects Christians to, in fact, are many, and affect the personal and social life. It is not easy to be faithful to Christian marriage, practice mercy in everyday life, leave space for prayer and inner silence, it is not easy to publicly oppose choices that many take for granted, such as abortion in the event of an unwanted pregnancy, euthanasia in case of serious illness, or the selection of embryos to prevent hereditary diseases. The temptation to set aside one’s faith is always present and conversion becomes a response to God which must be confirmed several times throughout one’s life.

The major conversions like that of St. Paul on the road to Damascus, or St. Augustine, are an example and stimulus, but also in our time when the sense of the sacred is eclipsed, God’s grace is at work and works wonders in life of many people. The Lord never gets tired of knocking at the door of man in social and cultural contexts that seem engulfed by secularization, as was the case for the Russian Orthodox Pavel Florensky. After acompletely agnostic education, to the point he felt an outright hostility towards religious teachings taught in school, the scientist Florensky came to exclaim: “No, you can not live without God”, and to change his life completely, so much so he became a monk.

I also think the figure of Etty Hillesum, a young Dutch woman of Jewish origin who died in Auschwitz. Initially far from God, she found Him looking deep inside herself and wrote: “There is a well very deep inside of me. And God is in that well. Sometimes I can reach Him, more often He is covered by stone and sand: then God is buried. We must dig Him up again “(Diary, 97). In her scattered and restless life, she finds God in the middle of the great tragedy of the twentieth century, the Shoah. This young fragile and dissatisfied woman, transfigured by faith, becomes a woman full of love and inner peace, able to say: “I live in constant intimacy with God.”

The ability to oppose the ideological blandishments of her time to choose the search for truth and open herself up to the discovery of faith is evidenced by another woman of our time, the American Dorothy Day. In her autobiography, she confesses openly to having given in to the temptation that everything could be solved with politics, adhering to the Marxist proposal: “I wanted to be with the protesters, go to jail, write, influence others and leave my dreams to the world. How much ambition and how much searching for myself in all this!”. The journey towards faith in such a secularized environment was particularly difficult, but Grace acts nonetheless, as she points out: “It is certain that I felt the need to go to church more often, to kneel, to bow my head in prayer. A blind instinct, one might say, because I was not conscious of praying. But I went, I slipped into the atmosphere of prayer … “. God guided her to a conscious adherence to the Church, in a lifetime spent dedicated to the underprivileged..."

...and...

...this video is also good to watch...

Continuity...

...and people pouring out of churches into the London streets, with smudges of ash on their foreheads.

I went to St Patrick's, Soho Square: it's a busy church and on days like this there are two lunchtime Masses. People were coming out of the 12.30 as I arrived for thr 1.05.  This latter Mass was celebrated by Fr James Bradley of the Ordinariate, and Fr Alexander, the parish priest, came in to help with the distribution of ashes and with Holy Communion.  Ash Wednesday is a solemn day,  and not one on which we are meant to feel cosy and comfortable, but there is something reassurring about the way it comes around again, each year, with Lent beginning and and the message of repentance and spiritual renewal  re-echoing...

Later I was due to give a talk to the St Patrick's Evangelisation School, so I had a quick  cup of coffee, worked on  my New Laptop, tackling some emails, thenm headed back to St P's. Then "Feasts and Seasons" to SPES, explaining how the Church's calendar works, and how the traditions and customs have arrived over the centuries...the London Tube station that commemorates the Incarnation, the significance of the link between the Polish word for "lady" and the French word for "bread" - and how both are linked to Bethlehem...and more, and more...

BTW, if any group wants me to come and give a talk on this subject, just send a Comment to this blog, with an email address at which I can contact you. I love to explain about the Church's feasts and seasons, and have found that youth groups, Confirmation classes, schools, women's groups, Catenians, and parish groups all enjoy it...

The media is full of speculation about the next Pope, and the internet is buzzing.  Meanwhile the real lobbying will  happen when all the Cardinals gather, and factions and groupings will emerge.

For the first time, mobile phones and twittering and so on will make the whole procedure seriously leaky unless all concerned behave like men and keep their discussions private and conduct themselves honourably...

Please watch...

...this video,  about freedom of speech.

...and...

...the work of the Church goes on. A conference at the Kairos Centre in Roehampton for the various diocesan speakers for  Aid to the Church in Need.  These are the men and women who travel to churches giving talks at Mass and appealing for funds to help the Church where there is persecution, oppression, or grim poverty. This massive international charity is currently supporting churches in - among many other places -  Sudan, Syria, Pakistan, India.... Auntie has been involved since a teenager, and was smuggling Catholic literature into Eastern Europe, and gathering to pray outside the old Soviet Embassy in Kensington, and so on, back in the 1970s and early 80s...

 Mass in the beautiful Chapel at the Kairos centre. A talkative lunch. Sessions discussing current projects, systems for organising appeals, etc.

Talked to Heart Gives Unto Heart Radio about the Holy Father, and what happens next, and so on...

On to a family gathering in Islington for a pancake supper (Shrove Tuesday). Swapping of academic talk w. academic relative. Late train home. Am deep in a book about Paul VI, having recently discovered his role in helping refugees in WWII,  relevant to some research I am currently doing. He is an underrated figure: I'm learning a lot.

Home late, just in time to eat some chocolates before Lent begins...

Praying...

...for our dear and beloved Benedict XVI.     A sad day. God will reward him for his humility and courage...and for all his years of magnificent service to the Church.

Nothing...

...Auntie, like everyone else is astonished, and any words at this stage are superfluous.

Auntie at Maryvale...

...for a splendid celebration to thank Canon John Redford for his years of work. A beautiful Mass, the packed Maryvale chapel  ringing with  plainchant and with some splendid hymns ("How great thou art..." "O Jesus I have promised...") , a solo Panis Angelicus at Communion... and then a generous buffet lunch: the two big lecture rooms were opened up to merge together, and a table was spread where normally there are rows of desks and the draped stall with its open Bible and lighted candle. Today there were  stacked plates and napkins, and delicious food and wine. A fine speech by Prof Jack Scarisbrick  led the tributes. It was a grand day.

Canon John's books have been lifesavers for those seeking to understand and grasp the divinity of Christ, in the face of the standard ohbutJesusdidn'treallyunderstandwhohewas  line pushed for years in theology discussions and in RE lessons and so on. Read his "Mad Bad or God" which is excellent. Also this book on the Gospel of St John.

On the train to Birmingham - through lashing rain - I read the excellent lecture given to the Ordinariate in the USA  by Archbishop Muller of the CDF .  I journeyed home with Fr Michael Cullinan -  mathematician and theologians, director of the BA Div. -  with  lashing rain turning to sleet and snow and then back to rain again as we crossed the Chilterns. Lots to talk about re the state of the Church and the nation...

to a dear nephew...

...who, among much else, is Auntie's Computer Consultant. Lovely new laptop. How to make it work. "You have to carry it gently, Auntie...", One can connect to the Internet anywhere...cafes, trains...does that mean people know where I am? Who? Feels a bit spooky somehow. Can people log in and read my emails? Are you sure they can't? 

Auntie doesn't really like computers, although she has been a dedicated user from the moment they took over from typewriters...oh, and I know all about howwonderfulitisandyoucangetyouremailsanywhere  and all that. But it locks you in to work, home is no longer sacrosanct, news follows you everywhere, emails whizz in and need to be answered, work-work-work runs and jumps and squeals at you all the time...

Nephew and his dear family, however, are a joy. Beautiful and gifted wife, four enchanting children. New baby gurgling agreeably. Voices now calling at the door :"Is Auntie Joanna finished yet? Can she come and play?"  

At Evensong...

... at Pr Blood Church, I found myself sitting next to the excellent Neil Addison of the Thomas More Legal Centre.  A good discussion later over supper. It's clear - this also came up at a discussion elsewhere earlier in the day - that one result of the Govt's planned legislation will be that civil marriage will be made separate from marriage in church. Couples would go through a legal ceremony - this could perhaps be done in a solicitor's office - on a different day,  quite separately from the wedding. The legal ceremony could even be a Civil Union, as that would confer adequate legal protection to cover things like immigration status or inheritance matters.   And the Church could celebrate Holy Matrimony with joy, unencumbered.

It is likely that a change in the law on this will be presented by supporters of the govt's Bill:  it may be offered in an irritating or rather smug aren't-we-clever sort of way, which doesn't mean it won't be useful.   However, it should come from our side of the debate - our Bishops should be taking the initiative and putting it forward now. It is an idea that has been around for a good while - other Catholic lawyers were suggesting it at the time of the Blair government's divorce laws, and it has also been discussed in the USA...a good analysis of the idea is is made here..

A busy day: I did some broadcasts for Heart Gives Unto Heart Radio,  tackled some more work at the CTS, and got up to date on various plans for later in the year (Australian lecture-tour coming up).

And don't miss THIS CONFERENCE,  which could not be more topical or important. Auntie will be there, and so should you. But it's especially important for teachers and for school governors, for clergy and for anyone working with the young. Be there!

Keep up to date...

...on the marriage issue: here

Cameron will have to go.

Meanwhile, the long hard slog starts,  through the committee and the Lords, to safeguard the rights of children in schools, of freedom of speech, and freedom for the Church.

Tooting Bec...

...is a suburb of South London and its unusual name originates through its links with the abbey of Bec in Normandy. (The "Tooting" part is from the pre-Saxon tribe that lived in these parts long years before. The Bec part came, obviously, more recently following the Norman Conquest).  This evening a friend suggested I went along to one of a series of talks being given given at Tooting Bec's  Centre for Catholic Formation, run by the archdiocese of Southwark, to mark the Year of Faith. . AND I AM SO GLAD I DID!  The lecture was by Dr Caroline Farey, of Maryvale, and it was excellent. It was absolutely  packed, despite it being a cold and wet evening. Sandwiches, hot drinks, and then we all settled down with copies of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and had a brilliant evening of study and discussion.  This whole series is proving hugely popular: other speakers include Mgr Keith Newton of the Ordinariate, Fr Stephen Wang from Allen Hall, Bishop Philip Egan...

In general chat, before and after the lecture, naturally much talk about the Govt's horrible plans and how they could affect Catholic schoools etc. We were all urged to keep up the pressure on Members of Parliament: there is still everything to play for. DON'T GIVE UP: relishing gloomy talk and telling one another Oh it's all Too Late Now, and The Rot Set In Years Ago and If You Ask Me It'sAll the Fault of (fill in here the name of the clergy/politicians.media etc etc)  is a waste of time.    Don't waste time. Write to your MP and ask to meet him. Get info here.   And get a grip about what it takes to win a war.  The military maxim is: morale is to the materiel as three to one.

Spent today...

...and yesterday, and will spend tomorrow, mostly in the basement of the CTS offices in South London, packing and posting brochures to schools for the Assn of Catholic Women's annual Schools RE Project. There are some 2,000 Catholic primary schools in Britain - one in ten British children is educated at a Catholic school. The schools are consistently highly rated, and most are over-subscribed and hugely popular.

Tea with a much-loved relative, at Harrods, a treat that was given to me by my family as a Birthday gift, and saved until now, when it was needed.   Hugely enjoyed and appreciated.  A  proper tea:  lovely china, a piano playing, crisp damask napkins, tiny sandwiches with the crusts cut off, scones with jam and clotted cream (incl. rose-petal jam),  delicious cakes and pastries, Earl Grey tea...

Auntie enjoyed every moment.

...and on to the next stage...

...of the Government's ghastly and insane scheme to redefine marriage.

It is horrible to watch a once-great nation having this cruel rubbish foisted upon it.

A terrible and tragic day.

Keep praying.  The number of Tory MPs voting against the Bill indicates that the real fight is only just beginning. There is a long hard road ahead, and the fight to defend marriage is one that will never be surrendered: the Bill now has to be fought clause by clause in the Commons and the Lords, and meanwhile the battle in the culture is one that will be played out for a long long time and obviously eventually the cause of truth will triumph.

But how horrible to know that history will record that the British Parliament did actually at one time vote to pretend that men could marry men and women could marry women. And how sad it is to be in London witnessing this, living through this, knowing that this insanity is happening in the country which once contributed so much to the world and had a quality of real greatness about it.

Pray...

...that the govt's ghastly planned marriage law will not be imposed, with all its attendant misery...

Read here for common sense on this subject...

...and then...

...after an overnight stay in Sussex (see below), back to London by train, and then I was on my knees in this church... not in prayer, but helping to clean and hoover etc. The church has been entrusted to the care of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and a team of volunteers spent the day doing some cleaning and sorting. It's a good parish with a fine history. On the wall to one side of the sanctuary are two War Memorial tablets with long lists of names of the fallen of the 1914-1918 War - a great many names for this small corner of the world, near London Bridge. The church stands alongside the Borough Viaduct, along which the trains rumble with a comforting sound. There is a good-sized parish house, all in good order because the Salvatoreans, who have been running the parish for some years, had their priests from overseas stayinng there while studying in Britain.

It was a cheery day, everyone working busily. Things drew to a close as evening arrived: a couple of us were in the church as the  6pm Angelus bell sounded, and said the prayer together, a fitting close...

To Sussex..

... to plan the next series of Catholic History Walks with Bryan and Jayne Lock, who organise the whole thing. As always,  a great delight to be with them, by the sea. Evening Mass at St Peter's Church, Shoreham-by-Sea, a good sized congregation for a cold winter evening. This is evidently a lovely parish.  Adoration for an hour before Mass.

On to the Lock family home,a cheery talkative supper and then we got down to business and planned the Catholic History Walks for the Spring and Summer of 2013. Note these dates now!

Monday Feb 25th, meet at 6.30pm, (ie after the 5.30pm Mass) steps of Westminster Cathedral. We'll be visiting Parliament. As with all the walks: no need to book - just turn up!
Monday March 18th, meet 6.30pm outside Holy Redeemer Church, Cheyne Row, Chelsea. We'll be walking in the footsteps of St Thomas More around Chelsea.
Tuesday April 16th, 6.30pm meet at SS Anselm and Cecilia, Kingsway - we'll be walking around Lincolns Inn Fields, seeing the pub where BishopChalloner used to meet Catholics secretly.
Monday May 13th, meet 6.30pm Westminster Cathedral - we'll be walking around St James Park and Whitehall.

And book these dates in advance: Tuesday June 18th - all day - a DAY OF FAITH organised by the FAITH MOVEMENT. (More info on this later. But book the date in your diary now!)

Sunday June 23rd - The annual MARTYRS WALK through London. Meet 1pm at St Sepulchre's Church, near the Old Bailey (narest tube: St Paul's). We finish with Benediction and Tea at Tyburn.

August 8th-11th THE JOHN PAUL WALSINGHAM WALK organised by the Dominican Sisters of St Joseph, and supported by the Catholic History Walkers. (Oh, and by the way, there are some good pix of the Reunion Walk for the 2012 John Paul Walkers here...)

A CRUCIAL CONFERENCE...

...sponsored by the Catholic Union and the diocese of Shrewsbury. It tackles the whole question of parents, schools, and sex education...your opportunity to get informed.

Some excellent speakers. Organiser Louise Kirk is to be commended by a superb initiative, which could not have come at a better time. Click on that link, spread the word, and let this conference be a great event that helps to set a whole new agenda.

Rain...

...and Auntie is known to love rain. But sheltering from torrential sloshes of water in Chelsea, it became clear that we could not follow the original plan for our History Walk and go along by the Thames and pause at St Thomas' statue, and follow on to Beaufort Street and Allen Hall...

Sprinted through the rain to the presbytery of the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More, and kind  Canon Brockie  said "Of course!" when I asked if I might have the keys to the church, and make it an "inside walk", doing a tour of the church and learning its history.  Hurrying back, jingling the keys, I broke into "Singing in the rain..." and felt cheery.

It's a lovely church, quite unique, built in the 1890s, many interesting items including portrait of St Thomas More... it has a  regular congregation of over a thousand every Sunday, lots of young people.   But it's not particularly famous, and is in a very quiet side-road, with no passing traffic. Canon Brockie said " I often think I'd like to sit down with some of the people, especially all the 20- and 30-somethings,  and just ask how they came to know about the church and why they started coming to Mass."  He added that  all the central London churches get large congregations. "The media just don't get it - whenever they show a church they always tend to show it empty with just a few people who have dropped in to pray. They never show a church on an ordinary Sunday."

Solace and inspiration...

...in reading Fr Leo Maasburg's book about Mother Teresa, with whom he worked in India and Russia and Armenia among other places...there are many gems in this book...some very amusing stories, some exciting ones  and some poignant and tender ones...

But the main thing that I have learned is how little personal possessions really matter: how we should tread lightly and firmly across the years, getting on with what we are meant to do but not bothering about acquiring lots of material things or holding on to them once we have got them. I realise that this may be due to my own position as I plod into late middle-age: the desire to paste mementoes into albumns, and store up nice little nicknacks in drawers and cupboards has long faded, and even that oh-I-must-keep-that-dress-I-did-so-love-it has given way to the realities of charity shops and offloading things. But it isn't that: it goes deeper. We don't really own things: everything is a gift and lots of the things we really like could in fact be given away.

Mother Teresa - whom I met and of course have never forgotten meeting - was a very forthright and everyday sort of speaker. I mean, she didn't gush. She had simple tastes and liked to give out holy pictures and - especially - Miraculous Medals. She didn't offer pearls of wisdom - it was just a matter of doing what Jesus wanted and living b y the law of love. She talked about love, and seeing Jesus in everyone and especially in those who were suffering. And that was about it: oh, and she wanted people to smile a lot more. She urged her sisters to make a smile even if they didn't have one.

This has been a useful book to carry around on difficult days.

A day in Parliament...

...and the urgent  need to get MPs to grasp the realities of the planned new law on genderless marriage.  A very decent MP said he wanted a genuine debate on the subject, and felt this take place once the Bill had been passed,. Uh? The time for a debate is BEFORE something becomes law, not afterwards!

The general message that emerged from one meeting today was "What's the rush?"  -  even people who were uncertain of their views on the whole thing, felt that this was being hurtled through the House of Commons in a quite bizarre way, with no proper time for debate and reflection and recognition of the huge changes that it will impose on society.

This week...

...I am meeting various MPs to talk about the govt's idiotic and senseless plans to impose genderless marriage on Britain. Because so many people simply find the whole thing ludicrous, there is a vague feeling that it can't really happen or that if it does, it will just be something absurd that affects only a tiny number of people and can safely be ignored. How wrong they are: this is something that will require amendment to hundreds of laws, poses a threat to the freedom of speech of teachers and public officials, and will create misery for children and confusion about people's actual relationships and identity (children born to "two dads" through surrogacy arrangements etc).  Already it is clear that the Secretary of State for Education has misgivings.  And we ain't seen nothin' yet...there is potential torrent of complicated litigation, and all sorts of long-term  political and social horrors compounded by the anger and frustration that this utterly daft and ill-considered piece of social engineering will produce.

And while MPs talk about it, and Parliament's time is taken up with it, the huge problems facing Britain - including the soaring crime rate,  the rising tide of illteracy, the breakdown of family structures, the long-term unemployment facing  many graduates -  all grow apace...and we are fighting two wars in remote places with no prospect of victory in sight and  our young men being killed and maimed, and the world scene is an increasing  frightening one with uncertainty (to put it mildly!) in the Middle East...

Do you suppose there is even the faintest chance of persuading a sufficient number of Members of Parliament to vote against this stupid project and tackle the real needs of the country?

Pray.

Ealing...

...in West London, for the traditional Conventual Mass at Ealing Abbey at 10.30.  No mean achievement, given that I had gone to bed not many hours before (see below), and had to negotiate the bus and Tube journey on its slow Sunday schedule...

The Mass at the Abbey is beautifully sung, and the great arches seem to swoop the sound up to Heaven. People are reverent. Holy Communion under both kinds. The robed choir processes in and out behind a great Cross.  Afterwards, I chatted to friends - we had been together at the party just a few hours before!

My reason for going to Ealing was to be with Dennis and Mary O'Keefe. Dennis is a distinguished academic whose writings and lectures have stirred, inspired and challenged people over the years. Just at the moment he is giving us all a lesson in courage.  Following grave injury in a fall two years ago he is immobilised  recieving round-the-clock care in a nursing home, with the support and love of his wonderful family.  Relays of friends have of course been visiting. Sometimes in pain and frequently enduring discomfort, Dennis nevertheless has been showing courage and good humour. His wife Mary is a tower of strength. Trying to think of something that would be interesting and helpful to him, we came up with the idea of  starting a discussion about his experiences in Poland back in the days of Communism, when Dennis, along with Roger Scruton, was a speaker in Poland at gatherings of the underground University, giving lectures on philosophy, and taking part in wide-ranging debates...part of the extraordinary series of activities which led to the formation of Solidarity and the eventual collapse of the Communist system.  Now the  fulll story is being put together, and a piece of valuable history is being recorded. With Dennis describing some of the adventures, and me scribbling in a notebook, and emails back and forth to Poland - and a planned visit by Auntie to Krakow in March - this whole project is slowly taking shape.

This morning, Dennis had been able, with difficulty, to sit in a wheelchair for Mass celebrated at the Home. It was exhausting, but an achievement, and made the day special.

Curiously, Ealing in the part of London that has long been "little Poland", with Poles settling there after WWII, and Polish churches and shops and a whole community life. Sometimes, after visiting Dennis, I've dropped into a Polish shop or used a Polish internet cafe, and it has seemed v. appropriate...

A wonderful family party...

...given by a wonderful family. Alexander and Marie-Angeline have a bunch of delightful children, and a beautiful home exuding gracious hospitality, and invited 50 guests to mark Alexander's 50th birthday! It was a magnificent evening: the youngest child led us in Grace, there was  a delicious dinner at candlelit tables, speeches, music - Alexander's brothers sang a song composed in his honour and recited a beautiful poem,  the children presented a charming and  very amusing power-point with scenes from over the years...oh, it was all enormous fun, and there was such a spirit of goodwill and unity and friendship...this is the kind of evening that is a gift, a glimpse of how things ought to be...

We left at a very late hour, or, rather, an early one, because it was into the first hours of Sunday when we drove home...

"When does the family start?"...

...Winston Churchill pondered in a speech: "Where does family life start?" and answered his own question  "It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl - no superior alternative has yet been found."

If he said that today, as Prime Minister and a Member of the House of Commons, he would be denounced and possibly threatened. There would be calls from his dismissal and he would be told he must make an instant and grovelling apology.

His statue still stands in Parliament Square, greatcoat on against the chill, strong defiant expression as he leads the nation in its finest hour.  For how much longer, I wonder? Probably at some stage there will be calls to take it down because of his unacceptable views .

From France...

...copies of La Vie magazine, with reports and features on the French  and British govt's attempts to force genderless marriage:   "David Cameron impose sa revolution culturelle".

 In the coming week, I am seeing various MPs to discuss this ghastly plan.

f you have already written to your MP, write again. Ask for a meeting. Get info from here and use it. Pass leaflets to friends and family: drop them through your neighbours' letterboxes.

To The John Fisher School...

...in Purley, where the splendid Mr Dan Cooper runs the splendid FAITH Group. I gave a talk on the Ugandan Martyrs. A bright and cheery group of boys. Chaplain Fr James Clark was there: an excellent young priest and it was good to chat. I was at his ordination in the school chapel just a few years back. The school has a fine tradition of producing great priests.  

Heard the rumour that World Youth Day will be in Krakow in 2016?  And that  Bl John Paul II will be canonised there? I've trawled the Web and can't find any info. It sounds a great idea...though the canonisation could draw such vast crowds that it would be better to have it separately in Rome?

Organising...

...the annual Schools RE Project run by the Association of Catholic Women. This is sponsored by the Catholic Truth Society (look at their posh new website!)  and so we organise a team of ladies who gather at the CTS, brew some tea, and then fold and pack all the leaflets that are sent to Catholic primary schools across Britain. It's chatty, agreeable work: we sit in the big CTS basement, from where, later in the year, we'll be mailing out the prizes, and we catch up on news as we work, sticking labels on to envelopes, folding and packing the leaflets, taking sackloads to the posting-room for franking. I have spent a good part of my life doing this for one project or another, and it seems to satisfy some deep-down urge for that project-accomplished feeling that you get when you have tackled a big pi;le of ironing, or done the Christmas cards or completed your tax return...

Also coming up is a planning meeting for the Catholic HIstory Walks.  These have been going well and indeed have become a major part oif Auntie's life.

Book these into your diary:

THIS COMING MONDAY, Jan 28th, meet 6.30pm Church of Our Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More, Chelsea.

MONDAY FEB 25th, meet 6.30pm (after the 5.30pm Mass) steps of Westminster Cathedral. We will be visiting PARLIAMENT, and seeing the great hall where St Thomas More was tried, and where the present Holy Father addressed  the nation in 2010...

Sunday June 23rd, the annual MARTYRS' WALK through London. This is a prayer-walk, during which we say the Rosary, stop to pray at various chuyrches along the route, and finish with Benediction at Tyburn. BOOK THE DATE IN YOUR DIARY NOW: we gather at 1.30pm at St Sepulchre's Church, Newgate.(near the Old Bailey. Nearest tube: St Paul's).

There is something surreal...

...about normal life continuing, and London being the great city that it is, and everyone assuming that all of this will continue...while actually our government is seeking to overturn the whole basis on which our society  - and any other society - has existed and thrived.

If gender-free marriage is imposed, then the death-wish which one can already sense in our culture with its hideous promotion of abortion and its ugly hedonism, will be that much stronger and more immediate and menacing...

To the Mansion House...

...home of London's Lord Mayor, for a Livery Company Dinner (pattenmakers), with kind friends.   Jamie in white tie and struggling with studs.  Glittering candles and  acres of white damask, formal Grace, and a fish souffle,  roast duck and some nice chocolatey things, and cheese...a piano playing, and then the Loyal Toast, (done in some style with  National Anthem)  that mumur of "The Queen"  and the sudden silence as everyone drinks, and the scraping of chairs and chatter as everyone sits down again...

Speeches by the Lord Mayor and others,  presentation of various awards and scholarships to young people, and Martyn Lewis as a guest speaker, being amusing about old days at the BBC and making a rather good plea that the media focus on some of the good things that are being done, especially by young people...

Auntie doesn't usually write about her social life, but this evening brought lots of memories.We had the Posthorn Gallop, which Auntie first heard at a regimental dinner at the Woolwich Mess (Royal Artillery) with her father long, long ago...and then a school choir sang, and ended with some Beatles songs..."Will you still need me/Will you still feed me/When I'm sixty-four?"  And when I first heard that, sixty four was a long way off...

...and you might enjoy reading...

...Auntie's review of. Fr Raniero Cantalamessa's latest book on love...

Worth watching...

...this video.

On Monday...

...Feb 28th, a CATHOLIC HISTORY WALK in Chelsea.  Come and walk in the footsteps of St Thomas More, see where today's young men train for the Catholic priesthood where once his garden stood, pray at a church dedicated to him, walk along the river that he knew as today's Londoners do.

Meet 6.30pm at the Church of Our Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More, Cheyne Row, London SW3,  6.30pm. DRESS WARMLY!!!  We'll be walking by lantern-light.

This is getting beyond parody...

..are these people real? They sound like characters in a spoof in Private Eye: read here...

In sleet and odd bits of snow...

...a London full of meetings. This ghastly Govt drive to redefine marriage sees us all at battle-stations...in one sense it's not unlike so many previous campaigns, in another it is different because the sense of urgency is greater, things move faster now, the Britain in which we are living and working is that bit more vicious, the whole situation that bit more grim.

In a dreadful twist, tiny victories won over the years may even work against us. One example: in sex-education in secondary schools, the law states that marriage must be taught. But if the Govt's vile plans go ahead, then "marriage" will mean a same-sex union, which will have to be taught as being  on a level with real marriage...

Meeting of the Education Committee of the Catholic Union. Last night saw a big gathering, sponsored by the Cath Union, with Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark, bringing together representatives of all the major Catholic groups and organisations. Action now going forward on various fronts.

And in the middle of all this,other busy Catholic life still continues. Planning session for the 2013 Catholic Women of the Year event. Info here. If you want to nominate some one, all you have to do is write a letter, explaining why a particular Catholic woman should be honoured: it should mention her activities, involvement with parish or other groups, etc, and the special qualities that she brings. We are looking for "unsung heroines", women who serve God and neighbour perhaps in quiet and faithful ways that do not attract publicity  (prison visiting, pro-life work, care of the elderly or sick, parish catechetics). Send the letter to:CWOY 22 Milton Rd WARE SG12 0PZ or email mijamajoie@ntlworld.com to arrive before April 30th 2013.

Keep up to date on the latest in the campaign to defend marriage here...

Meanwhile, for a bit more about my recent America trip, read this EWTN link...

Adventures, adventures...

...well, not very dramatic ones. But Auntie has been busy. Flew from Birmingham, Alabama to Charlotte in North Carolina, but the flight was delayed so  missed  connection to London. Kind airline staff  looked up alternatives, but a flight home via Frankfurt seemed less than alluring given the lateness of the hour...so booked into a local hotel. They do cheap hotels in the USA, where you can buy some food which you can cook up , and  there is also (real) coffee, small kitchen area, etc.  Phoned to cancel various meetings arranged in London for next day, left reassurring message for J. etc.  Sat working and had a cosy evening.

Flight to london the next day was not until late  afternoon. Billboard  at airport adverised the Billy Graham Library, evidently a big museum of his life and work. Got a taxi down the motorway - which is also named after him. Lovely spot in beautiful countryside, a barn with a big glass doorway shaped as a cross, and inside a whole series of interconnecting studios with commentary, films, exhibits, all streaming and slick, telling the story of Graham's life and work... rather touching to see posters etc from the 1950s, vanished world, Britain in black-and-white, everyone in smart clothes, attending rallies as if dressed for a wedding or job interview.  Graham's preaching is stirring, and he has consistently taken a solid stand on moral issues:  banned racial segregation at all rallies back when segregation was standard in the southern states of the USA, has been pro-life, supports man/woman marriage etc etc. He is now 94 - when he dies, a chapter of American history will close...

Back at airport, sat reading and making notes for book reviews, flew to Gatwick, train journey home through icily beautiful countryside and London, all grey and stark with freezing fog above snowy fields and streets and office blocks.  Even ugly slabs of buildings look better in mist and snow. Home. Slept.

Now: dealt with letters, domestic stuff, kitchen etc. The week ahead:  various meetings re the Govt's ghastly plans to redefine marriage, the mess this will create for schools, freedom of speech, etc...media  reports Obama's inaugural speech in which he has promised to do a similar wreckage-attempt on America...

Mass at EWTN...

...despite being televised, has a normal and reverent feel to it. There are robot cameras that swivel around noiselessly, high up on the walls, on either side,  near the sanctuary.  But once you have noticed them on first looking around the church, they make no impact.  The glittering candles on the altar, the high Monstrance with a statue of a golden-winged kneeling angel on either side, the quiet amosphere, the familiar sense of welcome with  pews and hymbooks and people finding places and so on, are what greet you.

The 7am Mass each day is televised - and is a sung Mass, with a cantor standing in the area behind the altar, where once the sisters were. They now, of course, live at their new convent some 40 minutes away, the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament - known in local dialect as The Shrahn, and visited by numbers of tourists and pilgrims every year. Non-Catholic groups from various Alabama churches often turn up there  to enjoy a visit and there's a gift-shop and picnic area.  EWTN here at Irondale has long since spread to occupy what was once the sisters' small convent. Yesterday I broke my glasses and in getting them mended I was introduced to the vast - and I do mean VAST - warehouse - where the scenery and props are made and stored. And there is a Franciscan monastery, and facilities for visitors who come to tour EWTN and watch TV shows being made, and so on.

EWTN  also includes a number of houses in a nearby road, where guests like Auntie stay. I'm typing this in a comfortable downstairs room in a well-equipped house with several comfortable rooms, big kitchen, sitting-room etc.

The Church in America has changed in the years since EWTN started to flourish - and EWTN has been a part of that change. A more reverent liturgy, a robust pro-life stance, a renewed sense of Catholic identity, are all evident in many parishes and Catholic groups and institutions. Not all, though. There is still a lot of silly stuff going on, and some awfully silly music in too many parishes.   And a new worry is the presence of a  rather angry "traditionalist" wing - part of which seems tto  loathe EWTN, incidentally - about which a US-based friend contached me the other day. She had just been subjected to a sermon from a young priest about female submission, and this, coming after being asked "Don't you feel drawn to veil?" in what is evidently the latest jargon of the group, has got her worried about the loopy trend among what she had thought were fairly normal people who attended an Extraordinary Form Mass...

America, land of the California hippy, the Amish, the burn-the-flag protesters and the gun-owning hunker-down-they're-coming types, seems to cater for all extremes. EWTN has a a commitment, vigour, pace, and serenity which seems capable of riding out whatever storms hit the Church.

The local MARCH FOR LIFE...

...in Birmingham, Alabama, drew a good crowd. I was glad that I went along - not only to support it, of course, but also to observe and take note...lots of young families, parents with children in buggies or running about. We wouldn't get these good numbers at a pro-life rally back at home.  Back in the 1970s we got vast numbers: I remember a great rally in Hyde Park with something like 80,000 or more people, big coachloads coming from different cities, but it's not like that now.  The pro-life movement in Britain is active and  youthful -   there are some good things being done -  but  in the USA there is something much more community-based and strong going on. In America, the numbers at the local Marches for Life and the  great national March in Washington get bigger and bigger every year, and opinion surveys show a majority of people expressing a generally pro-life view.

There were rousing speeches, notably from a lady speaking for the local "Physicians for Life" and for a representative of one of the many pro-life pregnancy support groups. The local abortion centre closed down some months ago. The annual March for Life goes past it - I remember last year seeing the staff there standing forlornly outside as the great crowd slowly made its way along the broad street. 

In the crowd, the young Franciscans Friars from EWTN stand out in their brown robes: they are evidently on cheery and friendly terms with local people, lots of greetings and cheery chat. The local Bishop led us all in a prayer as the speeches closed.  A team from "40 days for Life' was serving hot coffee and sugary doughnuts. The mood was upbeat and positive: this is a movement that is going forward and has a sense of zest and vigour about it.

Breakfast at EWTN...

...can be a talkative and illuminating time.  Americans do eat some very odd mixtures of food: the scrambled eggs are delicious, there's a mushy sort of porridge called Grits which I have tried to like but can't, and then - all on the same plate! - they put a slice of melon and a Danish pastry. Excellent coffee.

Conversation tackles serious things...as American readers of this blog will know, but others may not, the Obama govt's  tax/insurance scheme insists that any group, including a Catholic one, must pay into a fund that will supply abortions and contraceptives for its staff.. This is going to be the BIG  PROBLEM over the next months. Obviously EWTN can't take part in any such insurance scheme. Legal cases pending.  If these result in an unfavourable decision, what happens next?

On this, and on related issues in the USA, people sometimes talk about imprisonment...
It seems weird to be sitting over slices of melon and good coffee discussing these things. For years, my talks with the EWTN  people would be about funding, expansion, viewing-figures...all these things are now going v. well indeed, and the network is thriving and is part of Catholic life in a way that M. Angelica perhaps always hoped for and prayed for, but never really dreamed was actually possible...but now there is a threat from Government  -  of a sort that, not so many years ago, we would all have associated with the Soviet bloc or similar...

Alabama...

...in pouring rain, and then, this morning, snow. I'm here at EWTN, and have been too busy to blog, as the past few days have been a timetable of:
 Mass/breakfast/prepareforfilming/filmprogrammes/lunch/preparefornextprogramme/filmprogramme/supper/prepareforhtenextday/sleep/sleep/sleeep/Mass/breakfast/prepare/etcetcetc...I surfaced yesterday and took part in the "EWTN LIVE" programme with Fr Mitch Pacwa...we discussed current events in Britain, the Govt's loopy/ghastly plans for  same-sex marriage, social trends in Britain generally, then (more cheerfully)  the Ordinariate, the Church in Britain generally, a look-back at the Papal visit of 2010...

On Sunday, while getting ready for the week's activities, I watched - on EWTN - the dear H. Father baptising babies in the Sistine Chapel. At one point, while a couple of assisting bishops were anointing the babes, he seemed to be leaning forward and I wondered if he was all right - but then the camera panned to him, and it was clear that he was simply leaning eagerly, watching intently and ready to get up and start baptising as everyone moved towards the font...I found this rather touching, this elderly but still-enthusiastic Papa...

And the babies he was baptising will be helping to shape the Church of the 21st century, in the unimaginable years to come...

A glorious...

...Epiphany carol service with the Ordinariate, held at St Mary's, Cadogan Street   The Cardinal Vaughan Schola sang - absolutely magnificently - and the candlelit church, which was full, was enchanting. Two great Christmas trees glittered on either side of the sanctury, candles glowed on the high altar and on either side of the pulpit from which there were  readings - one was done by the Duke of Norfolk, another by Mrs Jill Newton the wife of the Ordinary, another by journalist Peter Stanford, and so on...they included readings from Bl John Henry Newman and Bishop Launcelot Andrews among others. I was seated next to Fr Stephen Wang from Allen Hall, and as we stood to sing the first carol I whispered "Remember - Anglican heritage - these people really sing!"  and indeed they did - a magnificent sound and the church rang with it...the service finished with a beautiful Benediction, with a fanfare as the Blessed Sacrament was exposed and everyone sank to their knees...

On the way home, I stopped to buy a cup of hot chocolate at the station. A mistake: I balanced it on the edge of a seat on the Tube and of course it toppled over, spilling hot chocolate lavishly out on to the floor. "I'm so sorry...I'm so sorry..."  I blurted as I tried to soak up the mess with one small hankerchief:...and then a group of sturdy Americans moved in to help, with paper tissues, and some one else proffered a newspaper, and soon we were all busy mopping and cleaning with great goodwill... afterwards, we all got chatting...the Americans were from California, on a Chaucer tour, so  I started "Wan that Aprille..." and we  recited a bit and talked about the Prioresse, and  povre persoun, and the parfit gentile knight and so on...I asked if they'd been to the George Inn at Southwark, which of course they had: "It was the first place we visited!"...all very chatty and agreeable, and by the time they got out at Earls Court we were real friends...

I was first taken to the George by my father for lunch as a teenager, with my sister  - in Girl Guide uniform as we'd just returned from summer camp! - and more recently it's been one of the pubs where we've gathered after Evensong at Pr Blood church, ...

On a grey January morning...

...Mass at this church, and the congregation was so large that I initially thought perhaps it was something special. But no, just an ordinary Thursday.  And there's more:  on every Thursday there is Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament all day, so people come to Mass, and then stay on, and spend ome time with the Lord...We were reminded that the H. Father has asked us each to give an hour's adoration per week in this Year of Faith.

Golly...

...over the years so many prayers have been offered up "for the conversion of Russia". And for decades after 1917  the official Soviet Russian newspaper Pravda sneered at religious belief and took a staunchly atheist line, and people were savagely punished for open affirmations of Christian faith, and churches were closed or destroyed, and children were blocked from taking part in any religious activities, and pictures of Lenin were mandatory in schools and offices and all  public institutions, and even private homes were expected to have their "Lenin corner", and so on and so on...

And now, conversion. Extraordinary things, scenes unimaginable in  the Russia of the  20th century, are the stuff of Russia in the 21st.    Look here, and here...

I suspect that Russia's government and bureaucracy is in the hands of rogues and there is plenty of Mafia-like activity across the country. But, golly, when it comes to the official approach, and to the sheer numbers packing out the churches (which I noted on a visit to St Petersburg a couple of summers  back, too), well, Russia's  conversion is there all right.

Makes you think...Fatima...John Paul...the consecration in 1984...a promise kept...

THIS IS AN EXCELLENT INITIATIVE

 A new ALLIANCE OF PRO-LIFE STUDENTS has  been formed...and is being launched on January 16th. Lord (David) Alton will speak. I've met the young organiser of the group and  supporters...all  enthusiastic, knowledgeable, energetic, dedicated. 

The launch  needs the support of older people to get the group under way.

 To book your ticket for this launch, which promises to be a really good event,  visit www.allianceofprolifestudents.org.uk

A happy day...

...working with a friend on a project involving Bl. John Paul (details later, much later. Work in progress).

Incidentally, there are stories on the Web about a possible canonisation this year?  I had been thinking that 2015 was a bit more likely, possible World Youth Day in Krakow, 10th anniversary of his  departure from this life?

Off to the USA shortly to do some work for EWTN: much emailing back and forth about items needed for TV series, preparations neccesary etc. They are efficient, and also fun to work with. Every time I go there are minor adventures.  One year I  was unwell and had to go to hospital (excellent treatment: was able to return to EWTN and complete my programmes).  Another year I arrived with a broken arm following a fall, and then found myself in the middle of an unexpected snowtorm in Alabama (where snow is almost unknown),  marooned in a house far away from any shops etc...no one could get to EWTN through the snowbound roads. Some tins of food in the house but cooking was a bit difficult:  the kind friars based at EWTN came to the rescue, taking me carefully across the slithery surfaces of a silent snowbound campus to their monastery for supper...

LOGS...

...the Ladies Ordinariate Group.  Well, logs are solid, reliable,  useful.  Anyway, there are now a good number of us  of us, and it was a very cheery group that gathered in the parish room at Pr. Blood Church, London Bridge this evening.

LOG members come from the South London and Croydon Ordinariates - ladies from any other Ordinariate group or London parish are welcome at our meetings, as indeed are any other ladies who are in sympathy with our aims and ideas. Contact us via the church at the link given. 

Our patron saints are St Agnes and St Michael, our members having come from churches dedicated to these, and we have added Bl John Henry Newman (Ordinariate patron) and Bl John Paul. We are running a project for children, will be contacting MPs about the ghastly Govt scheme redefine marriage, have plans for events and pilgrimages through 2013. We meet monthly.

The formal part of the evening included a talk about Mary Sumner, founder of the Mothers' Union (we have been having talks on various 19th and 20th century women from the Anglican tradition: Octavia Hill, Lillian Bayliss, Joephine Butler...).  I think that Mary Sumner would be saddened by the failure of the MU in Britain  to defend marriage and Christian family life in recent decades, but gladdened by the magnificent - and very different - approach taken by the MU in Africa. One of our members this evening spoke about the Mothers' Union in Zimbabwe and it was fascinating.

I've been interested in Mary Sumner ever since staying with relations in New Zealand who lived in the suburb of Christchurch which bears her name. I'm glad to have learned her story.

Chatty lunch...

...with a friend, a young mum with children of school age and pre-school.  She recently attended a meeting to discuss the Govt's plans to redefine marriage, and saw some of the books produced for children to teach them about same-sex unions.       "They were for small children - picture books for children too young to read. Showing two men in a boat with a child, and so on.  Is this what we're going to get in schools?"

Quite. And have those responsible for our Catholic schools worked out how to arrange an opt-out for any propaganda classes that the Govt might feel it has to power to impose?

Contrary to popular belief, schools do NOT have to teach the currently fashionable/Govt official line on sexual matters and marriage:  a Catholic school is free to teach the Christian message on this as on other issues. What matters next is how to ensure that this freedom is retained - and that Catholic teachers understand this and know the Catholic message...

Interested in...

...the Ordinariate, and the South London parish of which it has been given charge? Look here...

January 6th...

...the feast of the Epiphany, and this year we are able to celebrate it on the proper day. Now, as a gift to us all in this Year of Faith, please dear Bishops of England and Wales, CAN WE HAVE ALL OUR PROPER FEAST-DAYS BACK?  We want to celebrate them on the proper days - Epiphany,  Ascension, Corpus Christi, the lot. PLEASE!!!

Today, High Mass at Westminster Cathedral. I hadn't planned to be there...set off to go to Ealing Abbey, but the Tube system was "undergoing routine maintenance work" on bits of the District Line, so things were muddly and  I ended up at West Kensington. Note: don't bother to go there. Dreary place. Thanks to a kind chap from London Transport  (or TransportforLondon or whatever name they now call it. Why do they keep changing?) , I was directed to a number 28 bus and got myself to Fulham Broadway and civilisation and by then it wasToo Late for Ealing so I nipped on to a Tube that got me to Victoria. And how providental, too - the Mass was glorious and we had the proper, full magnificent  SUNG  "Announcement of Easter and the Moveable Feasts", chanted from the sanctuary and it was splendid:

"Know, dear brethren, that as we have rejoiced in the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, so by leave of God's mercy we announce to you also the joy of  his  Resurrection, who is our Saviour.

On the 13th of Frebruary will fall Ash Wednesday, and the beginning of the fast of  the most sacred Lenten season..."

...and so on right through to "On the 1st of December, the first Sunday of Advent of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honour and glory for ever and ever Amen."

Most satisfactory.

And then on the steps of the Cathedral I ran into Dan Cooper, and we ended up having a cheery Epiphany lunch together, during which he told me about the excellent FAITH Movement Winter Session, from which he had recently returned. Some 170 young people, lots of priests, two bishops,  beautiful liturgy, some excellent talks...which will be available to hear on-line shortly (on that link I've given). I hope some one writes it all up: FAITH is a great Movement doing all sorts of good things, but it doesn't publicise itself enough. There is, however, info about the Summer Session etc in due course on their website, so check it out and book early - the FAITH events are always popular and over-subscribed...

Then I went on to Ealing. My reason for going there was to visit a friend who has been unwell, and of whom I will be writing later. And after spending some time with him, I headed for home territory and an dear elderly relative, with whom I spent the evening. We enjoyed a glass of Baileys, and a box of  (Fornum and Masons!) fudge, a present from grandchildren.

And that was all a good way to celebrate the Epiphany.

Epiphany joy...

...you can celebrate it with glorious music on Thursday January 10th at the big

EPIPHANY CAROL SERVICE

organised by the Ordiunariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. 

7pm at St Mary's, Cadogan Street,. London SW3.

And there is plenty to celebrate with the Ordinariate just at present: two beautiful London churches, a new order of contemplative nuns, and a whole mission field to share with the wider Church in Britain. The country so desperately need the message of hope that the Christmas season offers. Come and join in !   Nearest Tube: Sloane Square.

.. while the nasty stuff keeps rumbling on...

...from the Lefebvrists. We had all been given the general message that their leader was a moderate who could be brought back to the Church and bring some of the team with him. But his latest - rather rambling - speech has the same horrid rant about Jews and conspiracy theories that seems stamped right through this group and forms a central part of their world-view and their theology. In a lecture in Ontario  recently Bishop Fellay  called the Jewish people "enemies of the church," saying Jewish leaders' support of the Second Vatican Council "shows that Vatican II is their thing, not the church's." 

A return to the Church is not possible with this mindset. And it seems that the departure of Bp Williamson was due to the latter's inability to work as a team player, rather than to any deep-seated difference in views. Oh dear.

Evensong...

...and Mass at Precious Blood Church, London Bridge, with Mgr Keith Newton, of the Ordinariate. A meeting aftwards - everyone crowded into the Parish Room, a large attendance - to hear about the church being given into Ordinariate care. There is lots happening w. the Ordinariate as 2013 opens, and there will be more to come.  The Pr Blood  arrangement will show how an Ordinariate model can work. It promises well.

I had spent the day with relatives, enjoying the Pre-Raphaelites at the Tate Gallery. The exhibition includes some of the most loved and famous, including Christ in the home of his parents. Huge crowds - we arrived at 12 noon, and were only able to get tickets for 2pm. A long chatty lunch w. a delightful niece - talked about lots and lots of things, altho' honesty compels me to note that among them was a detailed plan for future episodes of Downton Abbey (fast-forward to WWII we decided, and young Sybil is a plucky ex-deb of the sort who parachutes into occupied France, while her cousin -  surely be named Matthew after his father - joins up in 1942/3 so could either be captured at Singapore or do something brave at Alamein...)

Warwick Street...

...and the Church of the Assumption. Controversial - to put it mildly - in recent years, and the object of letters written by Auntie, among others, to Rome. But now a new chapter opens. The Church has been handed over to the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.  Deo Gratias, and a hearty thanks too to Archbishop Vincent Nichols, who has acted with generosity and wisdom.

40,000 young people...

...gathered in Rome this past week to pray and celebrate with the Holy Father. Read about it here. Faith, prayer, joy and unity...a message of hope grounded in the truth of Christ.

Did you read about it in the mainstream media? Thought not. And some Catholic commentators will prefer to ignore it too, as being too encouraging and hope-filled.

I was at one time wary about Taize, couldn't get enthusiastic at all, rather disliked it.  Over the years I have watched and watched. listened, learned, watched and waited. Am impressed.

2013...

...begins.  On Sunday we were at Mass here...and Pastoral Letter came  from the Archbishop of Birmingham  honouring marriage and family life. It was a courageous and clear statement affirming marriage  as the lifelong union of a man and a woman.

“In our own country, where the Christian teaching on marriage is accused by a vociferous minority of being behind the times, we must patiently and courteously insist that the wisdom of Christ is good news for every age and for all people.”

“We are not claiming to be better than others, since we have the same struggle as everyone else to live a good life. But we have received in Christ a light to show us the way and a mission to share that light with others. St Paul urges us to teach each other and advise each other, in all wisdom.”

On the Government's plans to redefine marriage  Archbishop Bernard warned that “Government policy cannot foresee the full consequences, for the children involved  or for wider society, of being brought up by two mothers without a father’s influence or by two fathers without a mother’s influence. We first learn about diversity and acquire a respect for difference through the complementarity of our parents.”

Read more here... and here...

Over Christmas it was encouraging to hear many media reports of our Archbishops speaking out: they have our gratitude, our support, and our firm commitment to stand with them in the year ahead.

Auntie's personal plans for 2013 include a  session in the USA shortly for some work with EWTN, a Spring visit to Poland for some research on Blessed John Paul II, a couple of new books, academic work, and plenty of family activity.

Some dates for your diary

Monday Jan 28th, Catholic History Walk. Meet 6.30pm at Holy Redeemer Church, Chelsea.
Monday Feb 25th Catholic History Walk meet 6.30pm Westminster Cathedral (includes a visit to Parliament)

BOOK THESE DATES :
Tuesday June 18th  DAY OF FAITH, London, organised by the FAITH Movement. St Patrick's, Soho Square.
Aug 7th-11th, John Paul II Walk to Walsingham, for the New Evangelisation, organised by the Dominican Siusters oif St Joseph, Info here.

Glory to God...

...in the highest...

and Christmas good wishes to my readers. Off to visit extended family in this holy season.

The Holy Father has spoken magnificently in his Christmas message: read here and, interestingly and supportively, here...

...and has been the subject of vile and vicious attacks by lobbyists for same-sex marriage, who badly need our prayers and love.

Pray for peace and goodwill for 2013.

Tradition and glorious music...

...at Westminster Cathedral, with the annual Carol Service. Magnificent. As the choir sang  "Away in a manger" and  "L'Adieu des bergers" I sat letting it all soak in...and my gaze went up into the great sky-like darkness of the rounded domes, and those huge cavernous galleries, vast and bleak above us on this winter's evening, contrasting with the glowing light and comfortably packed congregation below....I remembered that the Cathedral was built on the site of a prison in what was for many years a rather grim corner of Westminster, in an impoverished loop of the Thames out beyond the old horse-ferry.  Was suddenly visited by the thought of grim times to come, and facing possible imprisonment for the Faith. Dismissed the thought, but it wouldn't go away. Suppose we are told that  pronouncing some of the Church's basic moral teachings conflicts with socially-acceptable norms and is to be criminalised? How do such things start? Perhaps with some one being dismissed from his job for opposing ame-sex marriage? Something like that?

Afterwards, a cheery gathering over mulled wine and mince-pies in the Cathedral Hall, familiar to me from many a meeting and social gathering, and of course from the annual Towards Advent Festival. Lots and lots of people, lots of talk and noise, mulled wine being ladled out into good-sized vessels.

Afterwards, chat continued in the piazza, the big Papal flag and our country's Union Jack flapping lazily and damply in the December breeze as we exchanged Christmas greetings...

GOOD NEWS...

...a formal announcement today:

Archbishop Peter Smith has entrusted the pastoral care of the Precious Blood parish, Borough, to the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Monsignor Keith Newton, in agreement with Archbishop Peter, is appointing Father Christopher Pearson as Priest in Charge with effect from 7th January 2013.

This  is cause for great rejoicing!

The South London Ordinariate has been worshipping at Precious Blood Church for the past several months, with weekly Evensong and Mass in addition to the Sunday liturgy, and is is a great, great joy that this fine church, right near London Bridge in an historic corner of London, will now be in the care of the Ordinariate and with Father Christopher as Priest in Charge. A new chapter of London's long Christian story now begins as the Ordinariate - bringing the Anglican patrimony into full communion with Rome and the worldwide Church - tackles its mission in this place with joy and dedication.

DEO GRATIAS!

A well- deserved...

...honour for Dan Cooper, dedicated teacher and leader of youth, strong supporter of the FAITH Movement, and stalwart defender of the Catholic Church. He has been awarded the Bene Merenti medal, presented to him in the chapel of the John Fisher School Purley, the school that he has served with such dedication over many years.

I met Dan this morning at Mass at Westminster Cathedral...where, incidentally, he features in the forthcoming (January) edition of OREMUS, the Cathedral magazine, pictured at the Towards Advent Festival where he ran the FAITH stall...

The Cathedral is always full for Sunday Masses, but as Christmas approached it is even fuller. A long, long queue of people for confession - all the extra chairs that had been set out were filled,and there were  people patiently standing...somehow this is a rather special and touching sign of the great reality of Christmas...

...and courage from a Bishop...

...
"This, we recognise, is our moment, our unique time to stand up for what is right and true as previous generations have done before us: to give witness to the value and dignity of every human life, to the truth of marriage as the lasting union of man and woman, the foundation of the family!" 

Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury has issued an advance statement of the sermon he is to give in his Cathedral this coming Christmas night, from which the above is an extract.

Bishop Mark:  WE ARE ALL WITH YOU and will defend marriage: the lifelong  union of a man and a woman, the foundation of the family, in the year ahead , with full commitment, asking God for the courage and tenacity we need.

Wisdom from Pope and Rabbi...

...read here...

France will rally on Jan 13th to call for sanity and truth. Cardinal Vingt-Trois is joined by Jewish, Moslem, and non-religious leaders in calling for human dignity and the common good to be defended against the French govt's grim scheme to redefine marriage. The govt's supporters held a rally the other day which the media hyped up, but it seems likely that the defenders of matrimony will draw far higher numbers. But will the French govt listen? 

Here in Britain, the debate will heat up savagely in the early weeks of 2013. Keep up the campaign.