shadowlands1

Crackdown on Ugly Churches

2011-11-22T05:02:00.000-08:00

Happy St Cecila's Day. Ora pro nobis. I'm sure she despises both rock and protest songs.

The Catholic Herald today draws our attention to an article by Andrea Tornielli on a new Vatican commission being set up to combat the rise of ugly modern Church buildings. There are so many images on Google from which one could choose, aren't there?

What a glorious monument to modernism they are...

'A team has been set up, to put a stop to garage style churches, boldly shaped structures that risk denaturing modern places for Catholic worship. Its task is also to promote singing that really helps the celebration of mass. The “Liturgical art and sacred music commission” will be established by the Congregation for Divine Worship over the coming weeks. This will not be just any office, but a true and proper team, whose task will be to collaborate with the commissions in charge of evaluating construction projects for churches of various dioceses. The team will also be responsible for the further study of music and singing that accompany the celebration of mass.

Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Benedict XVI, consider this work as “very urgent”. The reality is staring everyone in the eyes: in recent decades, churches have been substituted by buildings that resemble multi purpose halls. Too often, architects, even the more famous ones, do not use the Catholic liturgy as a starting point and thus end up producing avant-garde constructions that look like anything but a church. These buildings composed of cement cubes, glass boxes, crazy shapes and confused spaces, remind people of anything but the mystery and sacredness of a church. Tabernacles are semi hidden, leading faithful on a real treasure hunt and sacred images are almost inexistent. The new commission’s regulations will be written up over the next few days and will give precise instructions to dioceses. It will only be responsible for liturgical art, not for sacred art in general; and this also goes for liturgical music and singing too. The judicial powers of the Congregation for Divine Worship will have the power to act.

As is known, last 27 September, Benedict XVI transferred jurisdiction of two areas, from the Congregation for the Divine Worship to the Rota Romana (the Holy See’s Court of Appeal), under the motu proprio Quaerit simper...'

For full article click here.

Purgatory

2011-11-21T17:09:00.000-08:00

If by God's great mercy we go to Purgatory, is our tenure there because of our offenses against the Divine Justice or is it because we were not humble and docile enough to the Holy Spirit to pray, in times of temptation and, indeed, at all times?

Sin is repulsive to God and His Justice demands that we make reparation in the next life for our sins. However, I'm just wondering whether we really go to Purgatory for our offenses, when surely the root of all our sins is our neglect of humble prayer which is the source of friendship with God and the only source of any obedience to His will.

Surely, if there were any way to avoid the pains of Purgatory, we would seek ways in which to do so, even though our nature is perverse and we can choose to abandon prayer, the very life of the spirit. It is this freedom of the will that means that we can obtain salvation at the last or our perdition. We are inclined to push God to the periphery of our existence but the Catholic Faith teaches us that it is by no means impossible for us to become true men and women of prayer and to 'pray without ceasing'.

One gets the impression from the lives of the Saints that their whole existence was powered by prayer from the rising of the sun to its setting. I am gradually getting more disciplined at saying morning and night prayer, but, in between, as anyone who has been reading the blog the past day or two will be able to tell, it is a Haily Mary there and an Our Father there. It is all very sporadic, hence my asking advice about the Office. Those I know who pray the Office emanate an inner peace and quiet confidence in God. The examples of the Saints show us that they are not so much 'supermen' but humble men who learned to rely no longer on themselves at all, having discovered their different weaknesses, but instead entrusted themselves to God's love and providence at every moment.

St Augustine of Hippo tells us that our hearts can have no rest until they rest in God. This is our daily experience and yet there are some whose love for God leads them into a deep life of prayer - it is that prayer that becomes the driving force of their love, their thoughts, words and actions. I don't doubt that we go to Purgatory to 'serve time' for our offenses. Neither am I suggesting 'sinlessness' is something with which we are graced or that we shall obtain within this life. However, I know men and women of great, frequent and fervent prayer and they are inspirational, not necessarily in what they do, but in who and what they are. Their great love for God is borne out of their humilty and perhaps constant awareness of their own dependence on God in perhaps every waking hour. They are those who can say, 'It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me'.

Saints teach us that faith is caught, not taught and that the 'just shall live by faith'. Saints go to Heaven really because of their intimate friendship with God, a friendship which is nourished and nurtured through prayer. We can do nothing of ourselves and it is this friendship that leads to 'good works' which, without faith and prayer, become empty and devoid of the love in which they find meaning. If we should desire the things of Heaven, then we must be willing to accept poverty of heart and dependence on God. Whenever I fall into grave sin, one of the first things I think is, 'I should have prayed, hang on, I could have prayed'. I wonder if the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for whom we should pray, think that too.

So, as is obvious, I am not actually very good at praying, but I'm becoming more aware of the fact that, as the Catechism teaches, 'It is always possible to pray'. For those who are admit they are stubborn-hearted, like I, then this truth of the Faith should be encouraging. It is, always and at all times, everywhere, wherever we are, whatever we are doing, it is always possible to pray, even if our nature is so perverse that we can go nearly a whole day without conversing with or petitioning God. How strange we are and what a great mystery Faith is. And I will admit it. Even now I am thinking, 'Yes, I will, yes, I will, after this blog post, as if this blog post is more important than prayer!'

The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde

2011-11-21T14:01:00.000-08:00

Quite some time ago, I asked my Catholic therapist a question: If you could recommend any one book for me to read - one that speaks to and addresses my issues, my problems, etc. - what would it be?

This was her answer:

Huh? What? Oscar Wilde? As in the homo that my bisexual boyfriend of so many years worshipped and adored? Gay icon extraordinaire? Was this a joke?

Nope.

She recommended this book, written by a convert to Catholicism, because it is a book that explores Wilde's lifelong dance with the Catholic faith. Or rather, his lifelong fascination with it, but a fascination that more resembled a quest to run from, hide, and avoid it. (It's also a book that strongly challenges - no, it actually destroys - the accepted notion that Wilde died of syphilis, as contracted from his numerous homosexual escapades.)

To be honest, I've known nothing of Oscar Wilde because by the time the bisexual boyfriend had gotten around to reading and introducing me to Wilde, I wanted to avoid anything that smacked of decadence and homosexuality, etc., like the plague. I didn't even know until just recently that Wilde had written "The Importance of Being Earnest." So let me say it was very odd for me to agree to read a biography about a person in whom I had no interest and no experience. But I did.

While reading this book, I wept. Many times. I related to Wilde's story and struggles in ways that shocked, scared, and even comforted me in the sense that I didn't feel so alone as a human soul.

Parallels and similarities to my own life and situations from the past abounded: I saw him struggle with the real and true love he had for his wife - and then abandon it for the lure of homo erotica. I observed his struggle with pride, notoriety of the self-created kind, and caricatures of his own making that eventually turned into reality (and were his eventual undoing). I watched him wrangle and wrestle with the Holy Spirit as he pitted Him up against his domineering intellect and desire for absolute freedom.

I cried for Wilde (and myself) as he landed himself in prison, saturated with the knowledge that he was there because he had ignored the truth of his inner self and Truth itself. And then I cringed when upon his release from prison, he is unable to make the change that he so desperately wants to because sin has eclipsed his being to the point that it has transformed him into a person he nearly despises but can no longer escape from: himself.

Oscar Wilde eventually converted to Catholicism on his death bed.

When I finished the book, I had the overwhelming urge (and still do) to have a mass said for him. But I figure I'll just get laughed at if I tried or someone will think it's a joke.

Below are quotes I found inspiring and thought-provoking, as taken from the author of this book, Joseph Pearce, as well as quotes from Wilde's writing. I offer them here not really for anyone but myself - as a memory or diary of a journey I made with Oscar Wilde earlier in the year. Sort of a reminder to actually ponder and reflect deeper upon something that made such a huge impact on me.

"Anarchy

Freedom's own Judas, the vile prodigal

License who steals the gold of Liberty

And yet has nothing....." Oscar Wilde

A Catholic friend to Wilde: "You will be damned, you will be damned, for you see the light and will not follow it!"

"Wilde's 'higher emotions', his aesthetic sensibilities, were attracted to Rome, but he was troubled by a pessimistic rationalism that led him toward scepticism. The warring paradox at the center of his psyche was that he was emotionally attracted to the faith but temperamentally tempted to doubt. Logic, as perceived by the pessimistic side of his character, led him away from the Church and not towards it. He accepted...that Catholicism was the only rational form of Christianity...." Joseph Pearce

"...loving for their mere artificiality those renunciations that men have unwisely called virtue, as much as those natural rebellions that wise men still call sin." Oscar Wilde from "A Picture of Dorian Gray"

"The tragedy at the core....is that Wilde had ceased to believe in metaphysical truth while remaining in love with it...The paradox of Wilde's position is that he believes in the capacity for belief but only possesses the capacity for disbelief. He is in love with the Church but finds himself exiled with the unbelievers. He desires metaphysical truth but can only see it as a beautiful lie." Joseph Pearce

"I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy." Oscar Wilde from "The Importance of Being Earnest"

"I don't think now that people can be divided into the good and the bad as though they were two separate races or creations. What are called good women may have terrible things in them, mad moods of recklessness, assertion, jealousy, sin. Bad women, as they are termed, may have in them sorrow, repentance, pity, sacrifice....." Oscar Wilde from "Lady Windmere's Fan"

"Nowadays people seem to look on life as a speculation. It is not a speculation. It is a sacrament. Its ideal is love. Its purification is sacrifice." Oscar Wilde from "Lady Windmere's Fan"

"[The definition of a cynic is] a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." Oscar Wilde from "Lady Windmere's Fan"

"With no clear understanding of the true nature of love, its source and its sustaining power, she [Salome] fails to perceive life's highest common factors and turns to its lowest common denomination. Incapable of love, she is left with lust." Joseph Pearce discussing Oscar Wilde's "Salome"

"....a man who has lived a life of sin is confronted at his death with the consequences of his actions. As the Book of Life is read, it emerges that he has been cruel, has spilt innocent blood, has idolized lust and has betrayed his friends. He answers defiantly when God decrees that he is to be sent to hell that God cannot send him there, 'Because in hell have I always lived.' The man's wisdom outwits God, who has no answer. Eventually God answers that as he cannot send the man to hell he will send him to heaven. The man tells God that he cannot send him to heaven either, 'Because never, and in no place, have I ever been able to imagine it.'" Joseph Pearce discussing Oscar Wilde's "The House of Judgement"

"And every human heart that breaks,

In prison-cell or yard,

Is as that broken box that gave

Its treasure to the Lord.

And filled the unclean leper's house

With the scent of costliest nard.

Ah! happy they whose hearts can break

And peace of pardon win!

How else may man make straight his plan

And cleanse his soul from Sin?

How else but through a broken heart

May Lord Christ enter in?"

Oscar Wilde from "The Ballad of Reading Gaol"

Normal Service Will Resume Shortly...

2011-11-21T13:30:00.000-08:00

I'd like to dedicate this song to all those named in it. I hope this does not offend those of the faithful who were recruited to the CV project because it isn't aimed at them. This song is about how many are 'called' but few are 'chosen' in the Church.

Apparently His Grace, the Archbishop of Westminster, has expressed his 'disappointment' over the Government's plans to redefine marriage. Isn't 'disappointed' how you feel when you don't get a job or when Arsenal slip to 6th in the league or something?

Catholic Voices

Catholic Voices?

What’s that?

On the TV and the radio

Its sounding flat

Oh they’ve all been media trained

But there’s something they lack

You don’t need a script to tell the truth

Where’s Paul Priest, James Preece, me and Mac?

We enjoyed the Papal Visit oh but looking back

It would have been nice to tell the media that

‘We love the Pope and have you got a problem with that?’

We got Austen

We got Jack

Oh but smooth operators don’t win any Souls back

You need some people who love the Faith and Pope and don’t hold back

Why were we left out?
Do they think we’re deranged?

Catholic voices!

O Can you hear them?

O Catholic voices!

Where are they when you need them?

Catholic Voices!

We’re limited in choices, dear

Whooah oh

Catholic voices!

O Can you hear them?

O Catholic voices!

Where are they when you need them?

Catholic Voices!

We’re limited in choice this year

Whooah oh

Magic Circle?

What’s that?

It’s the management of the Church by liberal Bishops and

The choices of the new appointees on the terna that

Is given to the Nuncio

So what’s up with that?

The chance of getting men who are loyal to the Pope is fat

Holy, potential Bishops ignored like leprotic cats

Do they think that this is some kind of game?

Catholic voices!

O Can you hear them?

O Catholic voices!

Where are they when you need them?

Catholic Voices!

We’re limited in choices, dear

Whooah oh

Catholic voices!

O Can you hear them?

O Catholic voices!

Where are they when you need them?

Catholic Voices!

We’re limited in choice this year

Whooah oh

Ah well

Who knows whats down the road?

Maybe 'Gay Masses' will appear in the heart of Soho

If they continue we’ll be told to hold our tongue, you know

And we’re the ones labelled insane!

Catholic Voices?

What’s that?

It’s a way of sidelining critics of liturgical tat

And vocal critics of Episcopal choices that

Have led to the decline of the Faith!

Catholic voices!

O Can you hear them?

O Catholic voices!

Where are they when you need them?

Catholic Voices!

We’re limited in choices, dear

Whooah oh

Catholic voices!

O Can you hear them?

O Catholic voices!

Where are they when you need them?

Catholic Voices!

We’re limited in choice this year

Whooah oh

(Repeat)

We're limited in choices this year
We're limited in choices this year
We're limited in choices this year
We're limited in choices this year

We Can't Talk to Young People About Salvation...

2011-11-21T06:18:00.000-08:00

...but we can sing about it.

The good news is the message of Salvation. The bad news is that over in Italy, as Rorate Caeli reports, even the dead are still being denied a funeral in the traditional Rite and that, as Linen on the Hedgrow reports, West Wales is about to lose its only Traditional Latin Mass. Let's do as he asks and pray a Rosary for its continuation. Meanwhile, here is an anonymous Catholic law student who attends the Traditional Latin Mass rapping. You can't hear all the vocals but you get the general gist. He talks about sin and Salvation too...It must just be Bishops who don't believe it can really be discussed, then...

Little Office of Our Lady

2011-11-20T14:16:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine from Church prays the Divine Office everyday at those times during the day when he can, since he works. As some might have guessed, one thing I lack in my life is discipline and I have a copy of The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I don't know why but it keeps looking at me and making me feel guilty. It is there on a desk and it is not being prayed.

The friend kindly showed me the basics of how to pray it, it is in both Latin and English and I'd like to try but I'm a total beginner and I feel a little out of my depth even opening it up. I suppose anything alien to us is going to make us a little apprehensive.

If I were to pray it tonight, I would pray 'Compline' right? Maybe its like swimming in the sea and you've just got to jump in, otherwise going waist deep with your arms in the air is more painful.

How long does it take to pray one part of the day's office? For some reason it appeals to me because of the word 'little'. I'd be interested in comments from people who already pray it especially those who believe it has helped them in their prayer. Is it like a replacement for the Rosary or do people pray both?

Across Universae Ecclesiae

2011-11-20T12:13:00.000-08:00

As promised...The tune sounds quite familiar, but I just can't 'imagine' where I've heard it before.

Across Universae Ecclesiae

Prayers rise from the Faithful

Like the incense rises from the Altar

As is written

All Across

Universae Ecclesiae

Contrite hearts and consolation

Together Ad Orientem

The Choir sings the Kyrie

Eleison

Mass alone can change the World

So save the liturgy and save the World

The Mass alone can change the World

So save the liturgy and save the World

Tender mercy invites us

To wonder at His Majesty

The Love that's written

All Across

Universae Ecclesiae

Priest mediates for the Faithful

Stands in persona Christi

The Choir sings the Gloria

In excelsis Deo

Mass alone can change the World

So save the liturgy and save the World

The Mass alone can change the World

So save the liturgy and save the World

Priest announces Verbum Domini

Thurifer, torches and MC

Is written all across

Universae Ecclesiae

Acolytes and Priest you see they genuflect upon the knee

The Gospel Acclamation peels

Allelulia

Mass alone can change the World

So save the liturgy and save the World

The Mass alone can change the World

So save the liturgy and save the World

Recollect the Lord of Lords will condescend

Disguised as bread and wine

Upon the Altar

All Across

Universae Ecclesiae

Priest utters Ineffable and holy words of Consecration

The Sacrifice of Calvary

Agnus dei qui tollis

Tollis peccata mundi

'Oh good there's no Sign of Peace'

Deo gratias

And remember. NOBODY is bigger than Jesus! Meanwhile, I found this comment on Rorate amusing...

Beryl said...
Sorry, but when I tried to play this song on Fr Blake's website I could not understand a word because of the bad enunciation of the singer. Inaudible! I thought it was rot. Having read the words via Rorate Caeli's link I wish they had not been set to 'music' but left as they were. The appearance of the singer also irritated me.

That's the price of fame in the traditional Catholic World's new media. They build you up only to knock you down. I'm getting an injunction out on this Beryl character!

Occupy Brighton: Up to Date Reportage on the Most Limp-Wristed Revoution in History

2011-11-19T18:13:00.000-08:00

I don't want to be on X Factor. Why would I when I'm on Rorate Caeli!? It doesn't get bigger than that in the traditional Catholic World!

If anyone wants a copy of the song below, by the way, I have home recording software on my computer and a copy is yours for just £2.49, yes, that's right, just £2.49, by which time I'll have got around to the elaborate sax solo and the difficult B-side, Across the Universae Ecclesiae.

Anyway, more reportage from the Occupy Brighton camp tonight, where I've been choosing love over fear in what has to be the most limp-wristed revolution in history. Not that its just a Brighton thing. This kind of not-in-the-slightest-bit-offensive, very confused protest is now going global. I don't know what is amiss with it, its just I can imagine Che Guevara walking into the 'occupied territory' on the Victoria Gardens strip, wondering why he'd even bothered learning about dialectical and historical materialism, throwing his kalashnikov into the fountain and walking off in a huff. They were even worried about making noise after 11pm because the landlord of the King and Queen pub had told them he'd made a complaint about noise to the Council because his baby daughter wasn't sleeping well. So, in a spirit of true civil rebellion, the camp complied because they don't want the Council to get complaints. "Let's not storm the Winter Palace tonight, boys, we might wake the children!"

That's not to pour scorn on the resolve or idealism of the protesters. Most, though by no means all, are quite young, naive and just want to see the World be a nicer place in which niceness prevails over political corruption, corporate greed and the inordinate love of money. That's right! Just £2.49!

This evening there were about ten of us around the campfire. Guitars were released from their cases and played, though I must say I did not have the courage to play any of my own material ("Summorum what?") It was only when I walked home with a friend that we discussed the reality of the Occupy situation and that, in fact, despite the presence of between 20-25 tents on the site, only ten people were around all night. I asked my friend whether anyone might have gone to bed early and he said, "No, they're empty, mate." I spent a good hour trying to catch up with an incredibly competent guitarist as he negotiated his way through a series of intricate song arrangements with chords that I have never seen. There was a truly cringeworthy moment (yes another one) when I played along to him playing 'Another Brick in the Wall' for which I shall have to answer on the Last Day.

Credit where it is due, though, for the Occupy Movement is not, from what I can see, rejecting the homeless. I talked to one man by the campfire who has been homeless in Brighton quite a long time and who apparently goes on the Soup Run by the Peace Statue. He has a tent and sleeps in the Occupy camp and he's grateful for it because in his words, 'it is the only just rent system in Brighton'. He has a point. We discussed how much housing benefit St Patrick's Nightshelter take from the Council in terms of public money and how even more rapacious corporate scumbags like Baron Homes Corporation Ltd plunder the misery of the homeless at 17/19 Grand Parade and use the money to help sister organisation, Baron Estates, acquire a vast portfolio of property at home and abroad.

He says that every hostel and temporary homeless accommodation place he has been offered from the Council he has refused and walked away. Why? Because they are all s**tholes, squalid dives of places where you literally have to be on drugs in order to stay there, in order to stay sane. He was particularly scathing of St Patrick's Hostel, where all he found in his room was a messed up rubber mattress and a sink covered in blood! All of these places charge a top-up of between £10 and £20 a week even though it is obvious both charities and businesses in the tramp-farming trade could do well without it.

So, he prefers to sleep rough and has done for a long time. He isn't on smack, crack, Jack Daniels or even Scrumpy Jack. He chooses to live as a rough sleeper because he has seen all there is to see of Brighton's accommodation for the homeless and life is genuinely more pleasant and safe outside. He even camped out for a while near 'millionaires row' where Brighton's celebrities reside, like Fat Boy Slim a.k.a Norman Cook, who started out in The Housemartins and went on to become a very rich local DJ.

All he did was camp on the beach near the millionaires and lit a campfire, slept out there with a placard demonstrating against Brighton's squalid and corrupt hostels system and the millionaires called the police on him and made repeated efforts to have him removed from the beach! Nice! God forbid that millionaires should see such eyesores as the homeless outside their windows! All I can say is, thank God the Occupy Brighton people let him sleep in his tent there and he has a nice fire he can warm himself by. Good on them!

Meanwhile, please pray that I will not be possessed by the spirit of '68, or if I am, to be exorcised of it soon so that I do not join these young idealistic children of the revolution in their fight against enemies both 'visible and invisible'. Say a prayer for them. They mean well. One of them even works at Domestic and General. The homeless man said that this camp is being treated very leniently and that if the homeless had tried this camp city (yes I know its already a camp city) then police with batons and tasers would have been in before the fire could be stoked.

The idealistic young people will most likely eventually quit the camp within the year (that's the 99% of them who do have flats) and ten or twenty years down the line vote Conservative. The 1% of the camp that is genuinely homeless are the real deal. Their stories, I believe, should be reported more. Aside from that, I think that the Occupy movement is just an excellent excuse for young left-wing people to feel 'good', chat, make friends and sing songs by a campfire like, presumably, their parents did. I came home to my nice warm flat, ate some nice warm pate on warm toast, had a nice hot cup of tea and now I'm going to my nice warm bed. Tomorrow morning, like many of the radicals of Occupy up and down the country, I'll have a nice warm shower, some nice warm lunch after Mass and maybe pop over tomorrow evening to chat with them again to warm myself by the fire like St Peter denying his Lord. Gosh, now this is what I call my kind of a revolution! I get to keep living as I have been and watch the World change before my very eyes! Right, bedtime, but first I'm going to listen to the proper Catholic legend, Bruce Springsteen, one more time. "Tramps like us, baby we were born to ruuuuuuuuuun!" Incredible...

One last thought on Occupy. Somehow, we have to communicate to the Occupy movement that with only one or two exceptions, great mass movements that push God to the periphery or exclude Him are either doomed to fail or result in some kind of tyranny. St Francis of Assisi and Blessed Theresa of Calcutta show us that we can only change the World for the better when we ask for Divine Help and when we are servants of God, rather than masters of human affairs. If all men and women in Parliament and the banking industry served God, then our current climate, let's face it, may perhaps be a little different.

The Ballad of Summorum Pontificum

2011-11-19T06:39:00.000-08:00

As promised...

The Ballad of Summorum Pontificum

It was the 7th July 2007

“The most beautiful day

This side of Heaven”

A treasure was released

The Mass of all Ages

The Missal was closed

Now a Priest turns the pages

So we kneel down and pray the Confiteor

Now he’s facing the right way, towards the Lord

Ad Deum quit laetificat juvemtutem meum

He turns around and the people say give us some more!

For over 50 years

A Mass that lay hidden

Came out of the closet

No moth there had bitten

No dust was upon it

For this Mass is timeless

You can tell when you walk through the door!

You can hear the bells ring out thrice at the Sanctus

He turns around and he says "Orate Fratres"

Priest and people pray Domine non sum dignus

And the people say give us some more

Some more

Summorum Pontificum!

Gimme some more, some more

Gimme some more

Some more

Summorum Pontificum!

Gimme some more, some more, give us some more!

Ecce Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi

Now we can hear the words ring out

Every Sunday

The Latin Mass is back
Put your guitars on the floor

We have Communion kneeling and on the tongue

All ages they pass

All ages they vary

The Mass of Ages belongs

In our seminaries

Our Bishops they don’t want it

Oh if only they could

Say “God bless our Pope

The great and the good!”

Some more

Summorum Pontificum!

Gimme some more, some more

Gimme some more

Some more

Summorum Pontificum!

Gimme some more, some more

Gimme some more!

The Mass that brings sinners

To the Fountain of grace

The Mass that made martyrs

Embrace their pains

The Mass that brought hope

To the poor and abandoned

Finding in Jesus (bow head)

The perfect Companion

But that Mass is back (back)

To liberal dismay

That Mass is back (back)

To liberal dismay

That Mass is back (back)

To liberal dismay

That Mass is back (back)

You might find one today!

Some more

Summorum Pontificum!

Gimme some more, some more

Gimme some more

Some more

Summorum Pontificum!

Gimme some more, some more

Gimme some more!

(Repeat x 2)

It was the 7th July 2007

“The most beautiful day

This side of Heaven”

Did I Ever Mention?

2011-11-18T18:49:00.000-08:00

Did I ever mention that the one meeting I ever went to by Magnificat was just totally weird, bordering on creepy?

It was a few years ago and I only went because a special priest friend was the speaker. But my oh my! Speaking in tongues, worship/praise music (rock on baby!), and hands in the air praising the Lord like we were down south pentecostal. I sat there completely dumb-founded in near disbelief that I was actually at a Catholic event.

Hey, if those women are moved that way, great. I say, the more the merrier and many different expressions of faith, including the charismatics. But for me? No.

Anyone else ever been to Magnificat?

News of Great Joy

2011-11-18T04:06:00.000-08:00

It's back! And not before time!

Fr Ray Blake has announced a new, weekly, traditional Latin Mass is to be celebrated every Sunday at 9am at St Mary Magdalen Church.

You heard it here first! Though it is possible you heard it here first.

That The Bones You Have Crushed May Thrill: Among the first to bring you breaking news in the traditional Catholic world. To document the liberation of the Traditional Latin Mass secured by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in 2007, I have penned a new song which will be appearing on this blog over the weekend.

Occupy and Christ the King

2011-11-18T02:47:00.000-08:00

I spent half an hour talking with a few of the people at the Occupy Brighton tents in Victoria Gardens near the Pavillion last night. I've been reading some of Tim Stanley's reports from Occupy New York and wanted to get a gist of what the movement is about in Brighton.

I have to say that, like what I have read about Occupy in London and elsewhere, the aims and ideals of the movement appear inchoate and vague. The occupiers just have this general feeling that 'something' is wrong. There's a real sense of a 'democratic deficit' which is already present nationally even if the undemocratic European nightmare still staggers on. There's the firm conviction that unbridled capitalism is producing rotten fruits, but when has it ever produced notably good fruits?

Talking to one man who was there to give a talk tomorrow to the occupiers, I said that protesting against capitalism was a bit like protesting against Original Sin. There is grave injustice in the World, the greed of people at the top of society makes greed seem even worse and avarice even more ugly than it is for the rest of us, even though we are guilty of the same faults, because the impact on the rest of society is disproportionately large.

Certainly in Brighton, even though it is being organised by anarchists, there is something peaceable and communitarian about them. There was a homeless man or two hanging around with a dog, a load of tents, some small, some big, the number of which has been steadily increasing after three weeks. I arrived after the community had had their general assembly. They have the full support of seemingly the Council, the police and Caroline Lucas MP in their expression of peaceful non-conformism and protest. To my surprise, they weren't all middle class idlers (like myself) but some were poor and noticeably so. There was even a picture of the Divine Mercy with the words of Our Lord at the Last Judgment ("I was hungry and you...") plastered over the main tent. I couldn't help thinking that Dorothy Day might have considered residing here and using it as a base to protest against society's reluctance to adopt Catholic social teaching and to gather stories for her Catholic Worker. I was told that some of the occupiers even work and come back in the evening.

This Sunday, in the new calendar at least, it is the Feast of Christ the King and I wonder whether I might print off a copy of two of Quas Primas and give it to the occupiers. In it, Pope Pius XI writes...

'If, therefore, the rulers of nations wish to preserve their authority, to promote and increase the prosperity of their countries, they will not neglect the public duty of reverence and obedience to the rule of Christ. What We said at the beginning of Our Pontificate concerning the decline of public authority, and the lack of respect for the same, is equally true at the present day. "With God and Jesus Christ," we said, "excluded from political life, with authority derived not from God but from man, the very basis of that authority has been taken away, because the chief reason of the distinction between ruler and subject has been eliminated. The result is that human society is tottering to its fall, because it has no longer a secure and solid foundation.'

Brighton, however, does not appear to be a place in which any form of radicalism takes off. It is still too pre-occupied with itself and its own image. The number of radicals in Brighton is small (is it 1%, I wonder?) and most Brightonians, especially the youth, are probably still more concerned with the pleasures of the World, bars, nightlife, clothes, having fun, having sex, getting drunk, taking drugs etc. It was noticable that the occupiers have a sign saying 'No drink or drugs by law' on the entrance to the camp, because obviously they don't want to give the police an excuse to close them down and street drinking is illegal in Brighton. I did wonder whether it was also to keep some people out of the camp. While I was there, one man, dressed in an army uniform came in and introduced himself as someone who could help with 'security' for the camp. He had apparently helped out with 'security' in London. Presumably he was some kind of Che Guevara type. I later heard that there is no 'security' at the camp because it sounds too oppressive. Instead, there are 'tranquility' teams who go around, enforcing 'tranquility'! How very Brighton!

"You appear distressed and argumentative, dear. Would you like a herbal tea and some aromatherapy to help you relax? No? I see....Reiki?"

There are quite a few tents there in Victoria Gardens but, in all honesty, the protest looks a little small and almost totally inoffensive. Protest movements have moved on from the bloodthirstiness of the Russian revolution presumably because of men like Ghandi and Martin Luther King who won acclaim and respect for their goals through peaceful protest and non-violence. That seems to be the model for even a group dominated by the hard left.

The occupiers, seemingly a mixture of relatively young to not as young, are a community forged out of confusing times when economic and political corruption have met and entwined. There is a sense that people have no voice or stake in society and that 'something must be done'. They don't know what should be done, but neither do any of us, all we know is that society is 'tottering to its fall, because it has no longer a secure and solid foundation'. I asked one of the occupiers how long this protest would last. He replied, 'As long as it takes to make a change, so if necessary, forever.' Thank God, they have a fire to see them keep them warm over winter. I must say, if there was a small group of Catholics there representing the Church, I would consider joining them. We could Catholicise the group from the inside with Rosary by firelight, guitars and the rest. Unfortunately, I'm getting a bit old for such things. I need to get a job and pronto. I'd like to settle down, get married and start a family, which, let's face it, in Brighton, is the most revolutionary thing one can do.

Perhaps we could all donate some money and buy them a nativity scene for over Christmas?

I hate Benetton

2011-11-17T10:47:00.000-08:00

I have never bought anything from Benetton. Their advertising has always irritated me because it is so naff and fake. Their clothing is bland. If any of my friends looked like this all the time, or even part of the time, I'd want to die, not because of their ethnic diversity but because they're so irritatingly smug. I have always hated Benetton, but today I hate them more than I did before.

I'm glad to see the Vatican is taking legal action. I for one was offended by the advertising image. Their advertising campaign is called 'Unhate' forgetting that while we Catholics are called to love God, our neighbour and justice, we are also called to hate sin. I bet that for all of the pseudo-we-can-create-a-new-world-of-peace-n'-love ad campaigning (while making loads and loads of cash) their clothing is made by 10-year-olds-in China anyway. If Benetton are so ethical, when are they brining out their 50p range of warm winter woollies for the homeless?

Smeaton Battles Dr Death

2011-11-15T15:08:00.000-08:00

Medicine Man: Dr Philip Nitzchke

Do read Paul Smeaton's excellent accounts, in parts one and two, of his dicing with 'Dr Death' at Dragonhall Community Centre in Covent Garden, London.

I hear he isn't coming to Brighton this year, but, perhaps without an awareness of the irony, Nitzchke is concentrating on Eastbourne in the South East.

Eastbourne is sometimes described as 'God's waiting room' since many retired and elderly live there. It isn't entirely fair on Eastbourne, of course, because there are people young and old who live there, but there we go. Nitzchke sees his role in life as that of a doctor 'helping people along' on their journey out of this World and into the next. Where we would say that we can 'help people along' in suffering, old age and infirmity through our care and our prayers, and after natural death by our prayers, Nitzchke takes the more maverick view that we can help people along by helping them kick the bucket. In other words:

"Here you go love, here's the barbiturates and you basically put the bag over your head like this, but remember, I'm not recommending suicide or promoting it in any way. No, not like that, like this, dear."

John Smeaton has some advice on what we can do in order to complain about Nitzchke's activity in the UK. I expect that, sadly, Paul will have been most likely a lone voice in the wilderness speaking out against the activity of someone who once, presumably, took the hippocratic oath.

This is one individual Theresa May should have definitely considered blocking from gaining entry to the UK. Well done to Paul for challenging him and giving him the Church's view of what is really, to put it mildly, a very reckless and really terrible thing to be doing. Essentially, as anyone who has heard of Nitzchke will know, he prepares the ground for people to commit suicide, selling 'suicide kits' to the vulnerable and basically showing people how it is done. May God protect Eastbourne's elderly, sick and vulnerable from the terrible beliefs of Dr Philip Nitzchke. I know we are living in an age in which moral relativism is endemic, but even though we have the obvious 'evil dressed up as good' situation here, it is difficult to make sense of what Nitzchke is doing. What was unthinkable years ago is very much on the table now.

Hanging By a Thread

2011-11-14T18:36:00.000-08:00

My faith is hanging by a thread right now. (Nothing to see here, move along.)

It's amazing how when you're "right" and prideful and up on your soap box, they're loving you and want more, as with a near mob mentality.

But when you've been gone for awhile.....who? (Oh never mind, did you see this new blog over here?)

The Catholic blogosphere is no different than any other kind of blogosphere out there. No different than TMZ or People Magazine. It's all about the "in" and "out" lists.

How to Bring Back Lapsed Catholics and Watch them Walk Away

2011-11-14T16:09:00.000-08:00

God never gives up on us. God's love is faithful, patient and unfailing, but we can turn our backs on Him if we choose. We pray that we shall not do that as we draw our last breath and I certainly pray that nobody I know, including me, chooses to reject God entirely.

I was just thinking about a friend of mine who I met in a bar now a couple of years ago. He is ill and stays in a lot now, alcoholic, suffering in his limbs, kidneys and presumably liver as well.

He gave up the Faith years and years ago. So did his mother who divorced. He himself is divorced. He never sees his son.

He has come to Mass a couple of times but says of himself that he is 'not worthy'. I've explained that none of us are 'worthy' but that God Himself, God alone can make us fit for receiving Him through Confession. He seems strange in as much as he seems to believe in the Church and God. In that sense he is not an atheist. He believes in the Real Presence.

I have given him a Rosary. We have had discussions, many discussions about the Faith. Once I brought him to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. He began to swear. I had to walk him outside because people were trying to pray. He began shouting at me in the porch of the Church saying, "Why have you brought me here!? I know what you're trying to do!" He began swearing and told me to "F____ off!" as he walked down the street.

I don't know what happened interiorly to him that evening, it is between him and God. As we walked up to Church that evening, I even remember thinking, 'Should I ask him whether he is ready to meet his Maker?' Perhaps I shouldn't have invited him because when we take someone to Benediction we really are leading them straight to God. Looking back, whatever was going on within him, his behaviour, wild and concerning though it was, illustrates to us that the Blessed Sacrament is real and that the Lord Jesus's Presence is Real. It isn't bread we are adoring, it is Jesus Christ Himself. If it were just bread, he wouldn't have reacted so violently to it.

I've consistently invited him to Church but he always says, "No." For his birthday I gave him a statue of St Francis of Assisi because he is born on the 4th October, which is the Feast of St Francis. When I went to visit him I asked him where the statue was and he said it was in a drawer. When I asked him what it was doing in a drawer he replied that the statue was freaking him out because it kept on "looking at me" and "making me feel guilty".

Of course, this man is still my brother because he is a baptised Catholic. His mother is still my sister even though she gave up the Faith in the 1960s and 70s. I visit him once every week or two, three weeks and he only lives around the corner, but there is this real sense that I cannot force the Faith on someone who might even believe that it is 100% true, but for one reason or another is rejecting God's love, mercy and Salvation.

The Catholic identity is in his blood, but so is hepatitis. I hope and fervently pray that even if he never goes to Church again that he will obtain a happy death. I hope I obtain a happy death as well, obviously, for it is one thing we cannot take for granted. The fact that two generations of Catholics have given up on the Faith is terribly sad. I wonder why that happened and I wonder why they feel they cannot come back or do not want to.

They are two of the five million Catholics who are lapsed and they'll remain anonymous, but it is two generations, three even, because there is no way that his son will be raised Catholic that have abandoned Holy Mother Church. How is the Bishops Conference initiative, 'Crossing the Threshold', going to reach them because, ultimately, as I have to acknowledge, you can take a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. It is between them and God. His mother offered me a ham sandwich on a Friday recently and I politely replied that the Bishops have asked us to abstain from meat on Fridays so she very kindly made me a cheese one instead, but I thoroughly believe that if I were so bold as to ask her round for a prayer meeting or to Mass, she'd flatly and politely refuse.

I am quite sure that this is not a rare story. The Catholic Faith has been decimated since the 1960s on the ground and I don't think our Bishops really understand the full implications of that - what that means in terms of devastated lives, families, relationships and injury, perhaps, for some, mortal injury, to Souls. I recently read something from the Diocese that appeared to be championning the "growth" that we have seen since the Second Vatican Council. What planet are the Bishops on!? What "growth"!? The only growth that has emerged in the Church in England and Wales is a growth of heresy, liberalism, terrible vestments, irreverent liturgy and above all, lapsation! Heck! Here's an idea: what with 2/3 of all UK Catholics not going to Mass anyway, why not consider implementing Summorum Pontificum and just go with the flow because let's face it, with rates of lapsation as they are, they've little to lose but face. Perhaps that is the problem. Our Bishops only ever meet Catholics who do go to Mass and it can appear that the Church is flourishing, but, meanwhile, back in the real world, it is a different story.

Still, the next time his mother asks me if I want a sandwich, I can tell her that the Bishops have asked us to invite non-Churchgoing Catholics to Church.

Catholic Bishops Set to Re-Evangelise England and Wales

2011-11-14T12:20:00.000-08:00

Fr Z today draws our attention to the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales's decision to move up a gear in the re-evangelisation of the UK.

In particular, the Bishops hope to recapture the imaginations and hearts of those who have traditionally been described as 'lapsed' Catholics.

According to Fr Christopher Jamieson, one of the keynote speakers in the campaign's launch, the new language of the 21st century Church in England and Wales describes lapsed Catholics as either 'non-Churchgoing Catholics' or, and this is a classic, 'resting' Catholics. And there we were thinking that 'resting' Catholics were all dead!

In fairness, the poster for the Resource Day held in York on Saturday for 'ministry and outreach' to non-Churchgoing (lapsed) Catholics' does at least mention the dreaded 'L word'. The same poster for the Resource Day in York admits that 'lapsed' is the category into which 2/3 of all Catholics in the United Kingdom fall. According to The Guardian that is about 5 million people. Just think. That is 5 million people who have not yet been introduced to 'Shine Jesus Shine'!

We shouldn't joke about it though, for, as all the Bishops will attest, Salvation is a very serious thing, the most necessary and serious thing and Souls are gravely at risk. You won't hear them say that, of course, but that is what they mean. So when our own Bishop Kieran Conry says, as he does in The Guardian report...

"We have something we're trying to market and we're just reminding people there's something that can bring you happiness, satisfaction and friendship."

...we know that His Lordship is saying that Our Blessed Lord's Heart is pierced through by love for Souls, for those who have forgotten Him and that it is only in His Heart and His Holy Church that Catholics, faithful or lapsed, shall find rest. We know that we can't really "talk about Salvation", but that is surely what His Lordship means.

"We have something we're trying to market..."

The evangelisation drive is entitled 'Crossing the Threshold' and it has been featured today by The Guardian and is also featured on the Bishops Conference website. In all seriousness it is a real challenge to us that 2/3 of Catholics in the country are gravely at risk of losing Heaven forever, but it is also a real challenge to the Bishops. So what are the ideas that will bring those wandering sheep home? Well, according to the Bishops' Conference website:

'As part of the legacy of the Papal Visit to the UK, representatives from across England and Wales gathered for a unique event to focus on outreach and ministry to non-churchgoing Catholics (March 2011).

Three bishops, representatives from 19 dioceses from a broad cross section of Catholic organisations were among the delegates who came together to pray, share experiences and good practice.'

'Good practice'? I haven't heard that phrase since I left temping work in the public sector. You can read the Bishops' recommendations here. Fr Christopher Jamieson's personal suggestions are particularly interesting. These include:

1. Invite them to house groups and prayer groups
2. Offer meditation and silence. Young people can be encouraged to do sponsored silences. Don’t underestimate the power of the simple.
3. Music – have concerts of sacred music in church buildings,
4. Make sanctuaries – consider in your town coming to an agreement with the other churches that one church will stay open 24 hrs for people to pray and sit; e.g. Night Church
Then invite them to Mass.

Your thoughts are welcome here. I know quite a few lapsed Catholics. I've asked whether they would like to come back to Church many times and perhaps one comes every now and then, but they don't come back. Most are lonely, depressed, alcoholic, living on benefits and suffer mental illness, in some way on the margins of society. I try to show them love and compassion, give them a Rosary or a religious item if I have one lying around. Each person has their own reasons why they don't come to Mass and I expect that those reasons are varied, not necessarily because their lives run totally contrary to Church teachings.

To me, it seems like going to Mass on Sunday is simply an Act of Love for God. First it is an obligation of course, but we can only really make the effort if we believe that the effort is worth it and that God is definitely worth it. I do think this new initiative is interesting, I just wish it had been placed under the patronage of Our Lady of Walsingham or even a patron like St George. Reading through the literature it seems slightly disconnected from the Catholicism of previous generations, in terms of the language and the spirit of it, but I could be reading more into it than is there.

Perhaps I should undertake a survey of my lapsed Catholic friends and ask 'What would bring you back to the Catholic Church?' First, I'll ask George and see what he says. Are the Bishops really asking people to go out in pairs and knock on people's doors, like the Apostles did and the Mormons do now? I don't want to sound negative since my own efforts to bring home Catholics to the True Fold are so paltry. Churches have community centres - you could have informal evenings there, but why do prayers in there when you can have Exposition in a Church before the Lord Himself or something really silent and prayerful like a Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form? Do I really have to invite everyone round to my studio flat for Heaven's sakes? Michael Voris has some interesting thoughts today which could just shed some light onto the reasons for the collapse of the Catholic Faith in the West.

Does it Matter if a Priest Doesn't Preach Well?

2011-11-11T10:27:00.000-08:00

This is the question asked today in The Catholic Herald, following Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi's call upon priests to preach the Faith better.

Perhaps the beauty of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form is that good preaching seems less important, more of a 'bonus'. In the Novus Ordo good preaching seems to be essential.

Someone like St Anthony of Padua was a magnificent preacher, greatly gifted with eloquent and powerful preaching, but then great Saints are rare, not common, the exception to the rule, so how come the Faithful knew the Faith inside out before?

Recently at the Church of Christ the King, where the pentecostalists feed the poor on a Monday (with preaching), I met a lady who had only recently started going to the church. I explained to her that the Catholic Church teaches that the bread and the wine become the true Body and Blood of Our Lord and she replied that none of her Catholic friends had told her that. I told her that the Catholic Church teaches Our Lady to be the 'new Eve' as Our Lord is the 'new Adam'. She replied that none of her Catholic friends knew that.

Is it preaching that has gone wrong? Or is it something deeper?

William Oddie on the Incorrupt Heart of St John Vianney

2011-11-10T02:44:00.000-08:00

A heart of a Saint that is incorrupt obviously isn't any kind of proof of God's existence. It's just a heart that, surely, for perfectly logical scientific reasons which will one day be explained by empiricists, refused to decay.

The fact that the man to whom the heart belonged is a canonised parish priest is mere coincidence.

The fact that the heart, in all truth, belonged in another sense solely to the Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Heart to which it was devoted and consecrated, is another coincidence. Just as an aside, does anyone have any idea what evidence for the existence of God would look like?

Anyway, that heart, the heart of St John Vianney is to visit Shrewsbury at the request of Bishop Mark Davies for the renewal of the Diocese and for the devotion of the Faithful. William Oddie asks why the incorrupt heart cannot do a tour in the style of the relics of St Therese of Lisieux. Oddie's idea is a suggestion, since given that the heart of the Cure of Ars will be in the country, why do not other Bishops desire the relic to come to their Diocese too? William Oddie suggests...

'I have an idea. The origin of the visit was in a visit Bishop Mark himself paid to Ars, where he has three seminarians: why not (surely there’s still time to arrange it) a halt at each one of the four remaining seminaries in England (as well as a visit to their local cathedrals), so that those preparing for their own priesthood might spend several days in the presence of this most powerful saint? It could hardly do less than irresistibly affect their priestly formation; it could be a major step in the renewal of the whole English Church.'

Would it be against the 'spirit of Vatican II' for the laity to ask their Bishops whether the incorrupt heart could come to their parish or Diocese? If it would not be against the spirit of Vatican II, should we be writing letters to our Bishops imploring that the heart visit our Dioceses?

Occupy Occupy

2011-11-09T18:24:00.000-08:00

An Outside View tonight posts on the Occupy Movement's efforts in Brighton.

He makes an interesting point in the following passage...

'The Brighton occupation raises another point. Most of the campers seem to be middle class, affecting a working class accent. They have the resources to equip themselves with comfortable, weathertight accommodation. But also in Brighton is a hard core of genuinely homeless people, with nowhere to go, who are living in the streets and sleeping in shop doorways.

I wonder if it has occurred to these concerned anarchists to engage with their neighbours who have fallen through all the safety nets? How would they feel about sharing their well-found accommodation with those much worse-off than themselves?'

I hate to say it, but for all the good intentions of the Occupy movement's rather vague campaign aimed against capitalism, bankers and the rest of it, a few homeless men turning up at the doors of their tents (if indeed, anyone lives in the tents at night) might have them running back home to mum and dad. It is obvious that like a lot of campaigners and protesters, Occupy think global, when, in fact, Christ teaches us that we need to think local, very local, to the very poor in our midst or even just to our neighbour, who might be, God forbid, a banker! They think macro, whereas Our Lord, from the Gospels at least, seems to think micro.

Obviously, the more influential in society one is, decisions can affect millions of lives, but my personal take on it is that a load of protesters sleeping in nice tents in sleeping bags is a bit of an insult to the homeless in Brighton. I might add, also, that if Brighton's homeless community formed a community like this in protest at inadequate housing provision, or being locked out of a housing network that demanded a 'local connection', then the police and the Council would be onto it sharpish and you wouldn't hear anyone, certainly not Mary Mears, standing in their defense. These protesters, however, are being indulged by the authorities to a level which is quite eerie.

They may be the '99%' against the 1%, but what about the 0.03% of Brighton that is rough sleeping, every night, without a nice cosy fire to gather around, nice new tents, supplies of food and drink, camaraderie, guitars and big signs saying, "We are the 0.03% of Brighton." I am quite certain that a demonstration of real voice by the homeless would last about a day before being raided, but then, I guess we'll probably never know. If these middle class protesters think sleeping in a tent is hard, well, let them take up residency in crack central, 17/19 Grand Parade, and see how long they last there or try it without a tent. The temperature is dropping again and when winter bites, the protesters might think again. The homeless community of Brighton can think again, but those who don't have a 'local connection' will not be able to demonstrate against the greed of Baron Homes, the sinister way in which they are courted by the Council and the whole nature of the housing benefit hostel rip off that is Brighton's homeless circuit. Is it really the case that the authorities think these Occupy guys are untouchables because their dads are barristers or something?

Sky Fairy Myth Believing Cretins

2011-11-04T09:25:00.000-07:00

I've set up a new blog documenting the litany of 'sky fairy myth believing cretins' in history and their intellectual inferiority to the greatness of atheism which is so obvious it need not even be explained.

Sky Fairy Myth Believing Cretins

It is a joke site, please don't take it seriously.

Blech

2011-11-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

As I am now about half-way through Thomas Merton's "The Seven Storey Mountain," it occurs to me what a travesty Catholic publishing has become.

Some of the newest books out there, recently published and soon to be published, are absolute pablum and marked by gross frivolity. Not all, of course, but many.

If that's all it takes to get a book published, then heck - as many of you suggested when I told that very personal story here on my blog some time ago - it's time for me to write my own book.

"Where's the Evidence, Cretin!?"

2011-11-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

A man and a woman have been married for a few months. They are in love, they get on well, everything has been going well. Until, one day, the husband begins reading The God Delusion.

His wife comes downstairs on Saturday, asks him if he wants a coffee. He replies that he would like one. She makes it and he sips it and puts The God Delusion down.

"Darling", says the husband, "Do you love me?"
The wife smiles. "Oh funny face, you know how much I love you. Of course I love you, sweetcheeks!"

But the husband isn't smiling. He turns to her, puts his coffee on the table, lights a cigarette and says, "Where's the evidence, cretin?"
"What? Are you mad!? Don't call me that!" says the wife, "Why on earth do you need evidence?"
"Because I do. I need evidence in order to believe something," he says, "People who don't believe things without evidence are sky-fairy myth fairytale tossers with no brain".
"Well," she smiles, "I'd have thought last night would be some evidence, wouldn't you, hey?"
He replies, "You could have been faking it. I need hard, empirical, scientific evidence."
"I can't give you hard, empirical, scientific evidence! What's gotten into you?!"
"I need evidence", he repeats.
"Well you'll have to trust me," says the wife.
"Trust you. I can't!" says the husband. "How can I trust you without evidence?"
"Oh for ****s sake! What's going on? I married you didn't I, isn't that evidence enough for you?!" she says exasperated.
"You could have loved me that day and maybe I believed it then, but now I need proof. Do you love me?"
"Yes, of course I do" she replies, "We've only weeks got back from our honeymoon. We're happy, aren't we?" she says, tears rolling down her cheek.
"We were, but now I need evidence," he replies, coldly.
She sobs, "I don't know what to say. I don't know what kind of evidence you need. I love you, darling, that's all I can say. Why is what I tell you not enough for you? All I can do is tell you that I love you and try and show you how much I love you. I'd do anything for you. I'd die for you if I had to! You have to take it on faith."
The man stares with eyes fixed upon his wife, "Faith? What kind of irrational creature do you think I am?! Evidence, bitch. Come on, I need it now."
The wife runs upstairs, shouting, "You've gone mad! You're insane!"
"I'm insane?! I'm insane!? It's you who can't provide the evidence!" he retorts.
His wife's tears turn to anger as she returns with a suitcase. "I'm going to stay with mummy in Shropshire and maybe, maybe if you sort yourself and snap out of this 'evidence' garbage I'll consider coming back. Who do you think you are anyway, calling me a cretin!?"
Quickly, she grabs her keys, takes her handbag with her suitcase with her and goes out, slamming the door behind leaving only the sound of her fading footsteps behind her.

"See," says the husband, as he takes a drag on his cigarette, "I knew she didn't love me...Now, what page was I on...?"

Traditional Solemn High Requiem Mass at Arundel Cathedral

2011-11-03T17:15:00.000-07:00

REMINDER

SATURDAY, 5th NOVEMBER, SOLEMN HIGH MASS,

ARUNDEL CATHEDRAL,

AT NOON.

Proving God's Existence and God's Silence

2011-11-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

God's Silence

As said in a video below on the five ontological proofs of God's existence, St Thomas Aquinas was not writing at a time when there was a crisis of faith, or, at least, not at a time when atheism was so widespread.

I find the arguments advanced by Aquinas to be quite convincing, but then, I would wouldn't I? The irritating thing about atheists is that they really believe that they have blown a huge hole in the Church's side. They believe that they have found a convincing argument against God when in fact it is still a matter of faith, honed by reason and reason inspired by faith. I found Pope Benedict XVI's quote interesting recently, that only the purification of believers will enable others to believe.

The arguments advanced by atheists are not particularly reasonable. They are often soaked in bitterness, calumny and mockery. I've been having a debate on a blogpost below, though none of the 'opponent's' comments are published because he or she insisted on remaining anonymous and I've promised not to publish anonymous comments. It cuts down on flak. You get into it at first, you think of things you think are clever to say but ultimately arguments get flung across the internet room like muck at a blasphemous french play.

The message of the Apostles was quite simple - almost 'evangelical' really - declaring that Christ had died because of our sins, but God rose Him up and by Faith in Him, we can be His disciples, and through Him, know the Father. By dying with Him, in Him, to our sins, we will reign with Him in the world to come. For this proclamation, newcomers to the Christian Faith could expect no worldly gain, but a high likelihood of martyrdom, as it turned out, for about 400 years.

That said, the Apostles must have known when they were wasting their time with people. Our Lord encouraged them not to stay in a house in which their message was rejected, but instead to 'shake the dust off your feet' and move on. Yet, for the Apostles, their argument had fertile soil, surely, since the Jews were not disbelievers or atheists. Some will have been hard of heart, but they believed in one God. For St Paul and those who went to the Greeks and the Romans to take the message of the Gospel, this, too, was fertile territory because those cultures believed in gods or many gods. Belief was already there, the message of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit was alive to them because they already believed in the divine in some way.

Historically, not many cultures have rejected entirely the very idea of God. Historically, most cultures would laugh at the idea of atheism. In simpler days, people looked up and the moon and stars and thought, somehow, of the Creator. The intellectual or philosophical battle against atheism is a relatively modern reality, it is new, set in a new era which is post-enlightenment. Just thinking on a personal level, of my 'first move' towards God in adulthood, looking back, He must have been the 'first cause' and 'prime mover' in what is for us Catholics a lifelong conversion process which is still incomplete after death (only Purgatory, for all but a few, brings total conversion).

That 'first spark' really was a pang of Conscience. There was someone who I loved very much, but my love for her was self-centred. I couldn't love her without her being with me after the break-up. I inwardly hated her for not being with me, yet I loved her more than words could say and in a way she was my darling Beatrice (H/T Dante). I found myself in the middle of a battle over which love would win, or even whether true love would win against, well, me, frankly. Losing her left me with a broken heart. I had mistreated her but still she meant the world to me. I still dream of her occasionally.

Ultimately, the saga led me to what can only be described as a 'spiritual encounter' upon my realisation that my love for her was imperfect and that there must necessarily be a love that goes beyond myself, a love that was outside of myself, greater than myself and yet reachable or findable, that could be found or entreated or asked for, or yes, prayed for. It was a question of loving someone but failing miserably to love. There must, I realised, be a love that is greater than what I have, for the paucity, poverty of my own love was suddenly so apparent to me.

My love for her was intense, yet so weak, objectively, in the light of what I increasingly sensed was the love that "we call God". I considered my own love which now felt so small, helpless and utterly incapable of wishing her good without my presence in her life and realised that the love that I was looking for is "what we call God". You could call it the realisation of my own 'selfish gene'. It was then that I cried out for God and, as St Augustine said of Him: 'You shattered my blindness'. Ultimately, God is Love, gentle, tender and consoling. Somehow, as Dante said, God is the 'love that moves the earth, the moon and the stars'. Even St Thomas Aquinas asked for all of his works, as he approached death, to be burned, declaring instead that "God is Love".

For those who sadly do not believe, or for those who refuse to, arguments, even ones grounded in Thomistic philosophy, do not really work. We know that God can be discerned or arrived at through Reason, but really it is a very personal thing. Certain events in our lives take us away from our entrenched viewpoints or lifestyles. We can live our lives everyday, when things are going well for us, and never question anything about what we believe. Some come to the Catholic Faith very gently, having enquired of it, each has his or her own reasons, but for some, an awareness of God's presence in their lives occurs because of some violent dispossession or through some damage in life or personal awakening or from a tormented conscience. Some arrive at Love because of love. Yet, in the drama of the World, every person is in what Michael Voris touchingly called a 'theatre of redemption' and redemption is, and always be, a very, intensely personal thing.

Atheists insistently ask for proof. "Where is your proof?" they ask, angrily. Personally, I don't have any "proof" for God's existence, I can only tell you that He is and that He is Love. No amount of 'proof', or recounting of personal stories of faith would ever be enough. It is something we all have to learn in our own time and in God's time. "Ah, but you believe in God because you are weak" an atheist would say and the atheist would actually be right, but then the Man pictured above did not come for the strong, but for the weak, the contrite and to bind up broken hearts. He came to save those who want to be saved, to heal those who want to be healed, to forgive those who want to be forgiven. As to those who do not think they need to be saved or who do not want to be saved, we entrust them to His great mercy as we do ourselves. I wonder if there was a single atheist in Jerusalem at the time of Our Lord who wanted Our Lord to prove that God exists. Ah yes, now I think of it, there was...what was his name again...ah, yes, Herod! "Prove it! Work a miracle for me!" Yet, Our Blessed Lord, before Herod remained totally and utterly mute. There I will end this post, but I find the following paragraph from the Catechism of the Catholic Church quite beautiful, this idea that the chief redemptive moments in the world, similarly, are achieved 'in God's silence.'

'People are sometimes troubled by the silence of St. Mark's Gospel and the New Testament Epistles about Jesus' virginal conception. Some might wonder if we were merely dealing with legends or theological constructs not claiming to be history. To this we must respond: Faith in the virginal conception of Jesus met with the lively opposition, mockery or incomprehension of non-believers, Jews and pagans alike;151 so it could hardly have been motivated by pagan mythology or by some adaptation to the ideas of the age. The meaning of this event is accessible only to faith, which understands in it the "connection of these mysteries with one another"152 in the totality of Christ's mysteries, from his Incarnation to his Passover. St. Ignatius of Antioch already bears witness to this connection: "Mary's virginity and giving birth, and even the Lord's death escaped the notice of the prince of this world: these three mysteries worthy of proclamation were accomplished in God's silence."153'

The Saints rarely set out to 'prove' God's existence, neither did Our Lord seem to be preoccupied with 'proving' God's existence to those who did not believe. In the Gospels, He responds to those who reach out to Him in faith. Similarly the Saints were rather more obsessed with loving God and with being His instruments of love and messengers of His redemption of the World, than with proving Him. So, I can sympathise with the atheist because I have been an atheist, but looking back, I really do think the greatest folly of atheism is not to demand 'evidence' of God's existence, when His existence is to be seen in the rising and setting of the sun. No, the greatest folly of atheism is for a human being to imagine, even momentarily, that there is nothing, no power, no mover, no love, no good, no cause, no virtue, no force, no being which is greater than himself. That is the unsurpassable arrogance of atheism. That is why, within it, are the seeds of human destruction.

Essential Viewing for Abortionists

2011-11-03T12:29:00.000-07:00

St Thomas Aquinas for Beginners

2011-11-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

Hey You - You Know Who You Are

2011-11-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

".....it is more difficult for people of this century to believe in the Devil than love him. Everyone worships him, yet no one believes in him."

Charles Baudelaire

All Souls

2011-11-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

Great Moral Teacher

2011-11-02T04:15:00.000-07:00

Dawkins: Losing the plot?

Richard Dawkins has described Our Lord as a great moral teacher. According to Dawkins, in fact, if Our Lord had known (we believe He does know) what we know today, He would be a disciple of Dawkins, an atheist, because atheists are "intelligent" not like those "dumb" Christians.

There are lots of things that simply don't add up about Dawkins arguments, that must be why he won't spend any time debating with Christians whose arguments are grounded in theology or, Heaven forfend, Scripture. At some point, someone who is obsessed with disproving God's existence is going to have to refer to texts which have as their main thread the revelation of God. At some point, someone who wants to tell the World that God (probably) does not exist, is going to have to examine Scripture.

The problem is that atheists, especially those atheists whose specialist subject is biological science, are usually quite ignorant of Scripture. So, we have Dawkins describing Our Lord as a 'great moral teacher'. According to The Catholic Herald...

“Jesus was a great moral teacher,” Richard Dawkins said to The Guardian earlier this week. “Somebody as intelligent as Jesus would have been an atheist if he had known what we know today.”

Gandhi is a man who is often described as a 'great moral teacher'. He was famous for saying, "I love your Christ but I hate your Christians." Fair enough, I guess. He taught non-violence, peaceful protest against unjust political rule and generally 'turning the other cheek' and, let's not forget, that it was still cool to wear sandals. Here are some Gandhi quotes, from someone who is widely admired as having been a great moral teacher.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

We can assume that for his statement that Our Lord was a great moral teacher, Dawkins has searched the Gospels, since we really have no other historical record of what Christ said. So, let's source from quotes from Our Lord, the great moral teacher...

Before Abraham was, I am.

You will see the Son of Man coming in great glory on the clouds of Heaven.

When you pray, pray Our Father, who art in Heaven...

I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven.

I am the living bread which has come down from Heaven.

Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have eternal life.

When the Son of Man is lifted up from the Earth I shall draw all men to myself.

You are Peter and upon this rock I shall build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.

And, according to Dawkins, Our Lord is a 'great moral teacher' and 'intelligent' too. Our Lord sounds like a man worth listening to. Of course, Our Lord's moral teaching is perfect. He is a great moral Teacher, the greatest because His words are 'spirit and they are life' and they came from God's own mouth, but there is a distinct difference between what Gandhi said and what Our Lord actually said. Gandhi didn't, for example, say stuff like, "If anyone believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live."

Dawkins refused to debate with a Protestant Christian theologian because he was 'too busy' or something. It would be a 'waste of time'. Perhaps he realises that if he debates with someone who knows Scripture then he'll (probably) lose. I don't know why he doesn't just stick to his specialist subject, which is, ironically, not God, out of whom he has made so much money, but the inheritance of acquired behaviour in chickens. Why should he 'waste his time' debating with a creationist, he said. I expect that even against a creationist, the simple fact is that Dawkins would have lost the debate. I expect that is the real reason he refused it.

And while we're discussing Dawkins, another thing. Do you remember that bus advertising campaign with the slogan, 'God probably does not exist, so don't worry if you murder your husband' or something like that? What gets me is that word 'probably'. If you told me that there was 'probably' not a lion outside my door, but there was a 10 % or even 1 or 2 % chance that there was a lion outside my door, I might actually consider not going to the front door. I want to hear that word 'definitely'. I want to know that there is definitely not a lion outside my door. The Catholic Church says God's revelation to us in Jesus Christ is full and final - it is definitive. For the Church, there is no 'probably'.

Char's Memories of the 80's - Volume 24

2011-11-02T04:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I was at a rummage sale looking through a pile of about 100+ CDs. As the familiarity of the music represented in the pile became more and more obvious, I turned to the woman running the sale, and said, "Whoever owns these CDs.....we could have hung out and been friends, since back in the day we had the same exact taste in music."

Further conversation with the woman revealed that they had belonged to her son, who was a year younger than myself. Or would have been, as she revealed that he had committed suicide a few years ago. I told her I was sorry, etc., and quietly left with a Weezer CD for a buck.

But later I got to thinking about the music her son liked, at least as was represented by his leftover music collection, and decided that it was, for the most part, an incredibly sad and morbid collection. And I would know, since I had, essentially, the exact same collection of CD's (and still do.)

One very prominent presence among those CDs was The Smiths, as well as Morrissey (lead singer of The Smiths.) If you know even the smallest bit about them, then you know that "depressing" doesn't even begin to cover it. And still, to this day, I reminisce fondly upon the music of The Smiths and Morrissey.

For most of us Generation X'ers, our introduction to The Smiths was this:

"I am the son and heir of nothing in particular....There's a club if you'd like to go, you could meet somebody who really loves you - so you go and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own, and you go home and you cry and you want to die.....I am human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does......" (How Soon Is Now)

However, in an odd way - even while the lyrics to "How Soon Is Now" are completely representational of The Smiths - the music is not. This is more the norm:

"And if a double-decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die...well the pleasure, the privilege is mine....." (There Is a Light That Never Goes Out)

As great as The Smiths were, when the lead singer, Morrissey, went solo, that's when the music got even better (in my opinion). It was still depressing, but became hauntingly introspective, as well. This particular Morrissey song can still make me cry if I allow myself to get lost in it:

"This is the coastal town that they forgot to close down - come Armageddon come!....Everyday is like Sunday, everyday is silent and grey.....Hide on the promenade, etch a postcard, how I dearly wish I was not here....." (Everyday Is Like Sunday)

As an adult, I see now how utterly despairing the music of The Smiths and Morrissey was (not to mention clever and snarky). I can easily understand the influence it had on me during formative years: Some young people fight depression and angst, while others run to it and immerse themselves in it. I was the latter.

Sadly, I wonder if that man who committed suicide was too.

I Don't Think St Jean Vianney Would Approve...

2011-11-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

I've recently taken up dancing classes. I believe it is what wicked modernists call 'jive'.

However, those going to the Good Counsel Network's November Ball might want to watch some of these videos. They are very, er, educational.

My personal opinion is that in this day and age there is something quite innocent about this dancing. It is for chaps and ladies, after all. It seems to teach about relationship and bonding. There has to be 'connection' for it to work. It is stylish and quite sexy (when done by those who can do it well).

It seems to do some teaching about male respect for ladies, I don't know how, it just does. He has to be gentle, but also its interesting because the man leads and (assuming the man knows how to lead) the lady follows. It says something about the compatibility of male and female. It is rather traditional in a way which couldn't have been imagined 50 years ago when I expect parents thought their children dancing in this way would be 'immodest'. 50 years later we got the rave scene which was 100% influenced by drugs. If you weren't on drugs, you just didn't get it.

St Jean Vianney, whose holy heart, excitingly, is coming to the United Kingdom, was apparently very against dances in Ars. In fact, part of the success of the holy priest was that he managed to get people, through his holy example, penance and prayer, to stop dancing, frolicking, cavorting and getting smashed and to adore the Living God instead, to tend to their souls, be holy, go to Confession and live for God.

That said, I think that if St Jean Vianney were on Earth today, surveying the moral landscape of, say, France, or the United Kingdom, he would still want people to do all that he managed through his holy life to convince people to do, but he would probably think jive rather tame, in comparison to what is about on the 'club scene'. He might even appreciate a dancing class starting up in his community centre or a Church disco to help the parish bond, in a Catholic way of course. All you need is a laptop, a disco ball, a stage, a PA system and a dance teacher.

The people who attend are young and old, a total mixture of ages. I am rubbish at it myself, I am proud and tend to sulk if I can't do something well first time, but I enjoy watching others dance - it is quite graceful, even watching the old folk dancing is quite lovely. Parish community halls seem to do Fairtrade stuff, but less bingo, dances, music, discos, quizzes, social evenings or just stuff for people to get to know the people who they hope to spend eternity with.

I get the impression that parish life has been quite decimated in the United Kingdom. Community centres used to be the focus of the community, that is, the parish community. Nowadays, they're just rented out to weird Tai Chi groups and Yogi masters. People can go to Mass and never know anyone there but for a few they have talked to. Perhaps it is another strange failure of the fruits of the Second Vatican Council. Perhaps Mass has taken 'centre-stage' as being the 'entertainment' and 'community bonding' session. That would be a strange knock-on effect, wouldn't it? All that working for 'justice and peace' but no bingo and no fun.

If you are interested, there seem to be groups all over the South East and probably all over the country, just google it, but remember, I still don't think St Jean Vianney would necessarily approve.

A Not So Amusing Sign

2011-11-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

Mgr Andrew Summersgill: To the English College?

Let me be the first to say that if I were put in charge of the Papal visit, it would likely be an unmitigated disaster.

Neither are Priests ordained to be events managers. That said, most reports that I have read on Mgr Andrew Summersgill suggest that as he is known for his role in the Papal visit to the United Kingdom, so is he known for his liberalism.

Liberalism is a great problem for the Church, a veritable dragon of an enemy, something said forcefully by the kindly Cardinal made Blessed during the Visit by Pope Benedict XVI last year. Surely, the Church in England and Wales needs Bishops and Rectors of Seminaries who will do battle against it, rather than promote or refuse to challenge it. While this is just the opinion of a simple, if not particularly humble, layman, I would not be the only Catholic today to suggest that the replacement for Mgr Nicholas Hudson, Rector of the English College in Rome, someone known too for his liberalism, should be a man whose theology is not unrecognisable from that of the reigning, and gloriously so, Pope.

The news, therefore that there are rumours abounding that Mgr Nicholas Hudson is possibly on the way to promotion to the Diocese of Plymouth and that Mgr Summersgill will replace him at the English College, is, I think you will agree, a little alarming. Any sense of alarm at this news should not be personal against these men, for I am sure they are indeed good and fine men. However, in all charity, we should want the best for the Church in England and Wales and the best for Holy Church's seminarians, future Priests and Bishops and for their spiritual formation. We should pray to the Saints to intercede for us today, of all days.

Read Damian Thompson's report here.

Meanwhile, today is a Feast day. If your local Sainsbury's is open, I thoroughly recommend this exquisite chocolate fondant torte made by a company called Gu. It is currently one pound cheaper than it usually is, at £3.49 or something. Economic crisis? What economic crisis! Yes, it is as good as it looks...

Fr Z, you have simply got to try this! Believe me, you won't look back.

If there were a persecution of the Church and someone said to me, "If you renounce your Faith we will make you chief taster of Gu chocolate fondant torte and all Gu dessert products," then... well, I shouldn't supply any enemies of the Faith with any potential ammunition or ideas.

I've never taken crack, but I'll bet this is better than crack. Crack takers! Take this instead!

And finally...I am rather taken by Fr Z's idea of Catholic Fortune Cookies. Quotes from the Saints and from the Gospels would be good.

I like the idea that they would be challenging, as well as ones which are more generally encouraging and hopeful.

So one could be something like, 'You are more important than sparrows, even the very hairs of your head are counted', alongside quotes like 'Thou fool, this very night an account shall be demanded of thy soul' and stuff like that. Things that will help us to repent and things that will give hope, for our repentance is necessary for our hope. Great idea, Father!

Amusing Sign

2011-11-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

I saw a sign similar to this in a shop window recently. I'd never seen it before and even though I don't agree with the authors of the quote, since I believe they were 'revolutionary socialists', nor do I agree with violence to achieve political ends, even good political ends, like re-instating a Catholic monarchy, I must say I thought it was a little amusing.

It is odd that someone who was so militantly Catholic has become the poster boy of the militant left. I wonder what he would, or perhaps does, make of it? He may have been subversive to the State but I doubt very much he would have had much time for Che Guevara.

Isn't it a paradox that...

2011-11-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

...the Mass that doesn't mention the word 'sin' is the Mass that liberals do not wish to see celebrated in Catholic Churches? One would think that liberals would prefer the Mass that doesn't mention the word 'sin'.

That'll be the Latin Mass, obviously. Strange. Perhaps liberals are too obsessed with 'sin'. What a paradox it is that those who do welcome the Traditional Latin Mass are accused of 'Jansenism'! As I read on Fr Ray's blog once, the Latin Mass tends not to focus on our sin, but on the mystery of God's generous condescension to us.

What if We Just Said...Happy All Saints Day?

2011-11-01T02:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Feast of All Saints to all readers.

Why not celebrate this holy day (of obligation) by going over to the dissenting liberal Facebook group still carping about the new translation of the Roman Missal, entitled 'What if We Just Said Wait?' and let them know what you think of their question, which really means, 'What if we just said let's rebel against the Vicar of Christ?'

What if we just said 'wait'?

Well, upon death, that is what many must say, but when its your time, its your time. You can't say, 'just give me another couple of weeks to put my house in order'...

Then a voice thunders...

The Undead on Procession in Brighton

2011-10-31T14:03:00.000-07:00

Let the undead bury their, er, undead...

Last weekend, Brighton was hit by its annual procession of the undead. Basically, people, mostly young people, dress up as zombies and go on procession through Brighton. This appears to kick off what turns out to be more or less a week of 'festivities' grounded in the thin end of the occult wedge. In fact, even a few days before All Hallow's Eve, the checkout girl from Sainsburys was serving customers dressed up as one who has risen from the tomb in a less than glorified body.

A huge amount of commercialism surrounds 'Halloween' now but that shouldn't detract us from a desire of the young to go on procession, even if it is just to give outward expression to an inner reality. It is a little sad that there is only a small, if growing, visible public counter-culture in Britain when it comes to Catholic processions, not that vast swathes of the youth would want to join in - it might even freak some people out a bit.

One can also see in the zombie processions and what amounts to a week of preparation for Halloween, with all the parties and dressing up and stuff two societies running in parallel lines - one society, society at large, immersed in a culture obsessed with death and another society - the Church - which with a strong heartbeat should live up to Her proclamation of life 'in all its fullness'. Tomorrow, thanks be to God, October will be over and November will have begun, a month in which Holy Church intensifies Her loving prayers for the Souls of the Departed. It struck me today that the Souls in Purgatory's greatest torment is not the 'purifying fire' but the thwarted desire to see God 'face to face'. They are in a different realm and though they anticipate and greatly hope to see God, believing surely in this eventuality, their spiritual reality is much different to the Saints in Heaven and indeed ours. The Saints in Heaven see God and enjoy the vision of His Glory. We do not see the vision of His Glory, and yet, at Mass we do see God, disguised as bread in the Blessed Host.

The Souls in Purgatory must therefore yearn for what the Saints in Heaven possess and what we here on Earth possess also, when we receive Holy Communion, for unlike those in Purgatory, when we receive Holy Communion, we are united in our Souls to God. God and us become one. Much as it may seem as if our lot, on Earth, is a vale of tears, our position is more enviable than that of the Souls in Purgatory, since at Communion, we possess in our souls what those souls do not - Jesus Christ Himself, His Body, Blood, Soul, Humanity and Divinity.

How much those Souls in Purgatory must lament that they did not perhaps always appreciate that this was so. How likely that we shall be guilty of the same lack of love for Our Lord! How much we should be aware that it is His Body and His Blood!

How much then, we who have time that we often squander, should have compassion on the Dead and remember them in our prayers as often as we can, for we have been promised by Holy Church that our prayers can bring them not just relief, but the eternal vision of the Triune God. We, too, can gain indulgences from Holy Church, as Rorate Caeli reminds us today, by visiting a cemetery and praying for the dead in the month of November. If we are wise, then we shall surely do so. What a great mystery it is that we poor and feeble creatures can bring relief to the Souls in Purgatory by our prayers. If we knew what Purgatory was like, then surely we would endure much for them and pray very regularly indeed for them.

How Things Have Changed

2011-10-30T15:06:00.000-07:00

While I'm sitting here giving out candy to trick-or-treaters, something occurred to me.

Two years ago, for sure, I remember being completely annoyed at all the black kids who come into our neighborhood looking for Halloween candy. They're here again this year, as usual. (We live in a town with a very large inner city element.) Their parents or friends drive in, drop them off on a corner, and then pick them up two or three blocks later and then drive them to the next corner, etc. Many of them have no costumes.

But this year? Not annoyed at all. In fact, I'm happy to give them candy, knowing they have none or little in their own neighborhoods, which are mostly unlit and unsafe, anyway. Those kids deserve that candy.

A change of heart. But so much more to go.

What's On In the Van?

2011-10-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine leant me a Daily Mail disco compilation with this cracking song by The Nolan's. This song is playing therefore in the van on a regular basis. I just thought I'd update readers because with the world economy in turmoil, floods, earthquakes and famine ravaging the Earth, what's playing in my van has got to be at least '...and finally' newsworthy.

For those who want to learn this song on guitar, there are some significant key changes and they don't sound quite right to me, but it is exceptionally great song by a Catholic band, though, I wouldn't like to bet my van on whether they've all lapsed or not. What with the last 50 years having seen a decimation of the Catholic Faith, it wouldn't surprise me. All The Nolans went to Cardinal Wiseman school in Greenford, Essex, and St Catherine's Catholic secondary in Blackpool. I hear that they have reformed or, at least, did in 2009. Perhaps they'd consider coming down to Brighton and doing a gig for the Building Restoration Fund at the community centre. Their autobiography, Survivors, is available for anyone interested in the joys and the sorrows of the Nolans story and is apparently for sale on their website.

Assisi III

2011-10-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

You can have all the beards in the World, but there is only one Pope.

Well done to Archbishop Rowan Williams for kneeling before the Tabernacle of the Lord.

May the Lord assist him in calling in the Government to use water cannons on the protesters outside St Paul's Cathedral.

No more Mr Nice Guy, Archbishop, its time to get mean, and I mean Westminster City Council kind of mean. If you asked them to do it to the homeless, that would be bad, but these guys are just left-wing, Gap-wearing protestors who look as if they are posing for a new magazine dedicated to the sole subject of 'how to look great while protesting'.

Are you going to let them close down the Anglican Cathedral in London? Do they think they can do that to you just because you have a beard, are verbose, thoughtful, reflective, sensitive to modern day man and above all because you are an 'accommodating' Anglican? Well, no more accommodating! Get ready, protesters! Nobody ****s with the Archbishop of Canterbury!? You got that, amigos?! Nobody! Now let me introduce you to my little friend!

Half of them are probably just tourists anyway and apparently most of their tents are empty. Its just water - it won't kill them. They'll do what I always do, and go running home to mummy and daddy. They probably need a good wash anyway. Let's see how 'anonymous' and 'united as one and divided by zero' they are when their tents are being water cannoned into the Thames!

Pope Benedict XVI is a true Successor of St Peter, a fisher of men. Look at all these souls who he brought to Christ to adore Him in His Sanctuary.

Scouting for Catholic Blogs

2011-10-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

'Be prepared' for a three-fingered salute...

A commenter has appeared on my blog on a few occasions, I have noticed that he is popping up on James Preece's blog as well as at Smeaton's Corner.

Anyway, I thought I would just warn Catholic bloggers to 'be prepared' for the individual. He is called 'Scout', at least that is his avatar name and whoever it is, the individual is so concerned at the rise of the Catholic blogosphere that he has decided to start a blog called 'Catholic Internet Watch'.

The 'Catholic Internet Watch' blog is, as you can expect, rather anti-Catholic in tone, devoting itself to 'exposing Catholic lunacy, prejudice and hypocrisy on the internet'. My personal opinion is that there is something a little 'lunatic' about spending your life bewailing the opinions of Catholic bloggers, when you are not even a Catholic. I mean, should I just dedicate one blog against the, how shall we say, misunderstandings, of our brother pilgrims in the Islamic religion? Sounds a bit silly, if you ask me. I mean, if I did, I could be accused of being some kind of 'Islamaphobe' and I might even deserve the name. Still, that's his choice, I guess. Other 'scouts' were into other pastimes like orienteering, doing a good turn once a day, tying undeniably intricate knots and putting up tents in the dark, but if you want to troll around the internet, mate, commenting on the blogs of faithful Catholics, dissecting the opinions of their (sometimes incredibly eccentric) commenters, posting them up list-like on your blog and generally being angry with the Catholic blogosphere, then, well, its your life.

The individual himself, however, remains enigmatic. In defence of his Catholic-baiting, the individual protests...

'I am the grandson of three Catholic grandparents and count Catholics amongst my friends. Real anti-Catholic prejudice is something I deplore. Growing up in London during the 1980s and 1990s, I remember the suspicion against Catholics at the time of the IRA bombing campaign. [Read: "I can slag off Catholics and the teaching of the Church which they often re-iterate on such topics as abortion because my grandparents were Catholic and I know some Catholics. I don't think Catholics are all dangerous Irish terrorists, but I do dislike them immensely. Especially the faithful ones."]

Critics ask me, "Why focus just on Catholics?" It is true that narrow-mindedness can be found amongst the members of other belief systems [Really? You mean, like those of 'humanists'?]. I could start a blog called "Protestant Internet Watch", "Muslim Internet Watch" or "Atheist Internet Watch" and find much of legitimate concern to blog about. If I wanted to be even-handed, I could do an "Everybody Internet Watch" and devote each week to a different misbehaving group. [Why not Scout Watch? I was only in Cubs, but I reckon those Scouts are well dodgy. It never seemed natural to me.]

The fact of the matter is, though, that my time and knowledge is limited, and as the old dictum goes, "it is best to write about what you know best". I believe I am, or hope I am, well-placed to study Catholic internet goings-on because I was immersed in that world for a while myself [Okay, but are you now, will you ever be or have you ever been, A CATHOLIC? Because if you are not inside the Church, in full communion with the Pope, then you are going to find it all a bit confusing. It may very well be the case that the best you can do, in your current position, is respect the right to religious freedom and its expression...]. But that does not make me "anti-Catholic". In fact, I admire the more beautiful aspects of Catholicism, and was at one time very personally interested in the religion on a positive level. [Is he talking about the Latin Mass?]

What eventually turned me off was the effect Catholicism has on so many of its followers. [Something incredible happens to Cathoilc believers. They believe! Not only do they believe but they publicly defend and proclaim the Catholic Faith! Outrageous!] That is why Catholic Internet Watch was born. The internet is a largely anonymous forest where you can often best gauge what people are really like and what they are really thinking. It is here that I learnt about the darker side of the collective Catholic mind, and I believe it has to be exposed if people are to become aware of the problem that exists. In many ways, the Catholic leadership fails to deal with or even encourages bad thinking and bad behaviour, and this is also something that needs to be exposed. [Clearly, Scout has not been scouting so long as to pick up on Catholic blogdom's oft-repeated exasperation with the Bishops Conference of England and Wales].

Catholic Internet Watch encourages Catholics to build on that which is good and beautiful within their movement, and challenge that which is bad and ugly. My blog could not be more pro-Catholic in the most authentic sense of that term. It is only by taking on the hardliners and challenging the Catholic community to address them that progress can be made in taking the Catholic Church forward, both morally and reptutationally.' [Read: "The liberal ones who don't really believe are okay, but the ones who both believe and endeavour to teach or preach the Faith in its fullness are 'hardliners'. Frankly, they're a bit like terrorists."

Oh, we're so 'hurt' and so 'offended'. We should really call the 'Equalities Hotline' immediately because some troll has set up a blog devoted to carping at Catholic bloggers. I can't believe Austen Ivereigh would sink this low! That was a joke by the way. Still, I'm at a loss to explain which Bishop could possibly be responsible for this deeply uncharitable blog. That's the Catholic Internet Watch blog, I'm talking about, by the way, not mine.

That said, I do rather recoil in horror at some of the things Catholics have been writing about marital rape according to one blogpost that CIW pens and some of the things Catholics say about Jews on the internet which can, as we know, be most unpleasant. All in all, however, I do get the impression that this individual must have to spend quite a bit of time to get to genuinely offensive Catholic blogs and I get the impression that this individual might just generally also despise faithful lay and priest Catholics and perhaps, maybe, just maybe, the Pope too.

Personally, I think this is a case of 'spiritual envy', because he has noticed that Catholic believers have Faith, which he doesn't have, Hope, which he doesn't have, and Charity (though he could be forgiven for thinking we need to work on all three, especially the last). With that I will end the post. So God bless you, Scout. I will certainly pray for you, not so much for the success of your blog, because it is awful, may God strike it down and bring it to ruin without harming your computer, but for you, that the Lord may shower you with blessings, both spiritual and temporal, that Our Lady watch over you, the Saints intercede for you and that God may grant you His peace in this life and the vision of Himself in the next.

Clocks Go Back Tonight...

2011-10-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

...so remember to set your grandfather clocks for tomorrow morning's Mass.

I don't want to sound like 'Big Brother', just I've had experience of turning up for Mass and people are having coffee and biscuits in Spring. The worse that would happen this time of year is turning up for Mass an hour early, which is okay if you can access the Church, or cold if you cannot.

Dominican News?

2011-10-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

Does anyone have any pictures or words on todays prayerful vigil outside Blackfriars Hall, wherein the Catholic Labour MP, John Cruddas, whose track record in terms of voting on life issues and the rest is abysmal? How did it go?

I was greatly encouraged to hear that one Dominican priest, Fr Leon Pereira, has written a reply to Paul Smeaton over the inclusion of John Cruddas on a bill of speakers at Blackfriars Hall today.

Fr Pereria's letter to Paul Smeaton is one of which St Dominic would most likely approve wholeheartedly...here it is...

'Dr Cruddas’ voting record as an MP on abortion and same sex unions is not in keeping with the teaching or mind of the Catholic Church. This matters all the more because I am given to understand that Dr Cruddas describes himself as a ‘practising Catholic’ - a designation at odds with his actions as an MP. His actions appropriate the dimension of scandal precisely because he is a public figure. Therefore what he says and does in public which is contrary to Catholic faith and morals, all the while describing himself as a ‘practising Catholic’, are a scandal to the Faithful and prone to reinforce the assumption that perhaps these things (abortion, same sex unions, etc) do not matter, and that Catholics may reasonably conform their mind to that of the age, and still somehow (mysteriously!) remain fully Catholic without incurring any penalties whatsoever. That is a grave wrong wrought against God and His Church.

Is the Church then unable to dialogue with institutions or individuals who hold certain beliefs contrary to our Faith? Not at all. From the beginning we prayed for the very same emperors and authorities who persecuted and killed us. We appealled to them, to their reason, for tolerance and for the truth (the sole truth that comes from God which they can still perceive by the use of their reason, and not necessarily faith) which enables genuine justice and peace in society.

Notice how in her history the Church has not hesitated to negotiate with authorities, no matter how evil their deeds. We hold out the hope for their conversion and salvation, beginning with the cessation of their evil deeds, but also we do not see anything or anyone as beyond hope whilst they are still in via, still alive.

Fr Leon Pereira OP leads prayers at 40 Days for Life vigil

So in our desire to spread the Gospel, we should never be reluctant to dialogue with anyone, whatever their beliefs, so long as they are genuinely open to dialogue. You cannot dialogue with soliloquists, but we can still pray for them. I see the invitation extended to Dr Cruddas as a great opportunity for the friars at Blackfriars, Oxford, to ascertain where exactly his faith has gone wrong, and how his conscience has come to be so deformed.

I am not too surprised that he has ended up like this, because the Church in our country has for too long been filled with compromise on essentials, and tolerated error - error which has poisoned the minds of too many Catholics who take secular assumptions as their yardstick in morals, and not Christ and His authoritative teaching, expressed by His Church.

But when Blackfriars opens its doors to the public to hear Dr Cruddas, this becomes a different matter. The invitation, although not an awards ceremony, nevertheless takes on the air of an accolade. Out of politeness it is unlikely that Dr Cruddas will be asked serious (however awkward) questions. Instead it is most likely he will leave Blackfriars with a sense of vindication, confirmed in his erroneous position by our silence and misplaced courtesy. Is it inconceivable that he or his supporters may say that he was honoured by an invitation to Blackfriars, where he set forth his positions in a well-received and unchallenged lecture, etc? The false impression given then is that Dr Cruddas truly is what he calls himself: a ‘practising Catholic’. And it is the Catholic in the pew who will suffer - either by being misled into error, or by the scandal this will cause.

At the heart of this, I wonder why Dr Cruddas in particular was invited by the Las Casas Institute? There are many MPs to invite, so the reason is unlikely to be his membership of the Commons. I hazard that it is his Catholicism and perhaps his affiliation to the Labour Party. But, as I have said above, his distorted understanding of the Catholic Faith is a scandal because he is a public figure. There seems to be an assumption in this country that to be Catholic is to be Labour. This naivete reached a nadir in the fawning displayed by our Church over that most reprehensible couple Tony and Cherie Blair. In Mr Blair’s case, I cannot understand how he could be received into the Church without a public abjuration of his erroneous beliefs and practices - for example, his own voting record on abortion. These were errors he committed before he became a Catholic, but they were in the public sphere, and his reception as a Catholic without any recantation is a continuing scandal.

The Church must remember that her one Lord and Spouse is Jesus Christ, and not hurry to jump into bed blithely and blindly with any political party or establishment. It is such ‘promiscuity’ which infects us, infects our faith, and makes the Church weak, sick and compromised.

The assumption that the Church’s social teaching is more naturally alligned to the political Left is a false one. The great irony is that Dr Cruddas (who has woefully failed to stand up for the Catholic teaching on abortion by his voting) has been invited by an institute committed to ‘justice and peace’ (our normal shorthand for Catholic Social Doctrine) when the single greatest justice and peace issue in our country is abortion! Is that like inviting the BNP to speak on ethnic minorities?

Justice and peace has, in the U.K., often been interpreted as ‘soft’ issues, that the middle classes can protest safely, for example, nuclear weapons and their disarmament, or ecological issues. I call them ‘soft’ because they do not impact our daily lives, even though we live in the shadow of nuclear destruction and environmental pollution (I am suspicious of ‘Climate Change’ being treated as a pseudo-religion, one which supplants the Gospel in the minds of too many Catholics and Christians; the only unforgiveable sin for them seems to be one’s ‘carbon footprint’). The things which do impact our daily lives are abortion, employment, just wages, euthanasia, the poison of contraception, and the erosion of both marriage and the family.

Perhaps the ‘Cruddas Affair’ is a wake up call to Catholics. Why is the Church so sycophantically snuggling up to the Left? Why do we tolerate errors on this scale? Why are Catholic public figures not brought to task for the scandal they cause? Justice and peace must be at the heart of the Church’s faith and morals, and I mean true justice and peace, and not simply those ‘easy’ or ‘soft’ issues which the wider society will not object too much to, and which does not require individual Catholics to convert to the Gospel.

We sign agreements to make our parishes ‘Fair Trade friendly’. That requires a conversion of sorts, although I understand that Fair Trade as it now stands could be improved and made fairer. But why do we not make a covenant with all our families (remember, they are the ‘domestic Church’ according to Vatican II!) to be ‘Humanae Vitae friendly’? Is it a good use of our energies to chain ourselves to the gates of Faslane, when hundreds of thousands of children are slaughtered in our cities every year? Probably not, but it is easier isn't it? It's easier to moan about carbon footprints than to form our consciences according to the mind of Holy Mother Church. But then the Gospel isn't about what's easier.

Yours,

Fr Leon Pereira, O.P.'

God bless this Dominican priest and those who care passionately about the Truth of the Holy Faith to organise and attend a vigil in reparation for Mr Cruddas's inclusion on the list of speakers today at Blackfriars Hall.

Tesco to Sponsor Gay Pride March in London

2011-10-29T04:49:00.000-07:00

Tesco have decided to sponsor Gay Pride in London

In terms of lower prices, though it has to be said the cost of living in general appears to be skyrocketing, the major supermarkets have us over a barrel.

Catholics, those Catholics who do not agree with Gay Pride marches and the political homosexual agenda, may in futur.e decide, however, to boycott Tesco due to the supermarket giant's decision to sponsor the Gay Pride march in London.

To read more click here. H/T Chrysostom

shadowlands1

2011-10-27T19:48:00.001-07:00

hello fellow friends from around the world, welcome.

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace...

2011-10-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

The address of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to religious leaders in Assisi,

27 October 2011

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Distinguished Heads and Representatives of Churches, Ecclesial Communities and World Religions, Dear Friends,

Twenty-five years have passed since Blessed Pope John Paul II first invited representatives of the world’s religions to Assisi to pray for peace. What has happened in the meantime? What is the state of play with regard to peace today? At that time the great threat to world peace came from the division of the earth into two mutually opposed blocs. A conspicuous symbol of this division was the Berlin Wall which traced the border between two worlds right through the heart of the city. In 1989, three years after Assisi, the wall came down, without bloodshed. Suddenly the vast arsenals that stood behind the wall were no longer significant. They had lost their terror. The peoples’ will to freedom was stronger than the arsenals of violence. The question as to the causes of this dramatic change is complex and cannot be answered with simple formulae. But in addition to economic and political factors, the deepest reason for the event is a spiritual one: behind material might there were no longer any spiritual convictions. The will to freedom was ultimately stronger than the fear of violence, which now lacked any spiritual veneer. For this victory of freedom, which was also, above all, a victory of peace, we give thanks. What is more, this was not merely, nor even primarily, about the freedom to believe, although it did include this. To that extent we may in some way link all this to our prayer for peace.

But what happened next? Unfortunately, we cannot say that freedom and peace have characterized the situation ever since. Even if there is no threat of a great war hanging over us at present, nevertheless the world is unfortunately full of discord. It is not only that sporadic wars are continually being fought – violence as such is potentially ever present and it is a characteristic feature of our world. Freedom is a great good. But the world of freedom has proved to be largely directionless, and not a few have misinterpreted freedom as somehow including freedom for violence. Discord has taken on new and frightening guises, and the struggle for freedom must engage us all in a new way.

Let us try to identify the new faces of violence and discord more closely. It seems to me that, in broad strokes, we may distinguish two types of the new forms of violence, which are the very antithesis of each other in terms of their motivation and manifest a number of differences in detail. Firstly there is terrorism, for which in place of a great war there are targeted attacks intended to strike the opponent destructively at key points, with no regard for the lives of innocent human beings, who are cruelly killed or wounded in the process. In the eyes of the perpetrators, the overriding goal of damage to the enemy justifies any form of cruelty. Everything that had been commonly recognized and sanctioned in international law as the limit of violence is overruled. We know that terrorism is often religiously motivated and that the specifically religious character of the attacks is proposed as a justification for the reckless cruelty that considers itself entitled to discard the rules of morality for the sake of the intended “good”. In this case, religion does not serve peace, but is used as justification for violence.

The post-Enlightenment critique of religion has repeatedly maintained that religion is a cause of violence and in this way it has fuelled hostility towards religions. The fact that, in the case we are considering here, religion really does motivate violence should be profoundly disturbing to us as religious persons. In a way that is more subtle but no less cruel, we also see religion as the cause of violence when force is used by the defenders of one religion against others. The religious delegates who were assembled in Assisi in 1986 wanted to say, and we now repeat it emphatically and firmly: this is not the true nature of religion. It is the antithesis of religion and contributes to its destruction. In response, an objection is raised: how do you know what the true nature of religion is? Does your assertion not derive from the fact that your religion has become a spent force? Others in their turn will object: is there such a thing as a common nature of religion that finds expression in all religions and is therefore applicable to them all? We must ask ourselves these questions, if we wish to argue realistically and credibly against religiously motivated violence.

Herein lies a fundamental task for interreligious dialogue – an exercise which is to receive renewed emphasis through this meeting. As a Christian I want to say at this point: yes, it is true, in the course of history, force has also been used in the name of the Christian faith. We acknowledge it with great shame. But it is utterly clear that this was an abuse of the Christian faith, one that evidently contradicts its true nature. The God in whom we Christians believe is the Creator and Father of all, and from him all people are brothers and sisters and form one single family. For us the Cross of Christ is the sign of the God who put “suffering-with” (compassion) and “loving-with” in place of force. His name is “God of love and peace” (2 Cor 13:11). It is the task of all who bear responsibility for the Christian faith to purify the religion of Christians again and again from its very heart, so that it truly serves as an instrument of God’s peace in the world, despite the fallibility of humans.

If one basic type of violence today is religiously motivated and thus confronts religions with the question as to their true nature and obliges all of us to undergo purification, a second complex type of violence is motivated in precisely the opposite way: as a result of God’s absence, his denial and the loss of humanity which goes hand in hand with it. The enemies of religion – as we said earlier – see in religion one of the principal sources of violence in the history of humanity and thus they demand that it disappear. But the denial of God has led to much cruelty and to a degree of violence that knows no bounds, which only becomes possible when man no longer recognizes any criterion or any judge above himself, now having only himself to take as a criterion. The horrors of the concentration camps reveal with utter clarity the consequences of God’s absence.

Yet I do not intend to speak further here about state-imposed atheism, but rather about the decline of man, which is accompanied by a change in the spiritual climate that occurs imperceptibly and hence is all the more dangerous. The worship of mammon, possessions and power is proving to be a counter-religion, in which it is no longer man who counts but only personal advantage. The desire for happiness degenerates, for example, into an unbridled, inhuman craving, such as appears in the different forms of drug dependency. There are the powerful who trade in drugs and then the many who are seduced and destroyed by them, physically and spiritually. Force comes to be taken for granted and in parts of the world it threatens to destroy our young people. Because force is taken for granted, peace is destroyed and man destroys himself in this peace vacuum.

The absence of God leads to the decline of man and of humanity. But where is God? Do we know him, and can we show him anew to humanity, in order to build true peace? Let us first briefly summarize our considerations thus far. I said that there is a way of understanding and using religion so that it becomes a source of violence, while the rightly lived relationship of man to God is a force for peace. In this context I referred to the need for dialogue and I spoke of the constant need for purification of lived religion. On the other hand I said that the denial of God corrupts man, robs him of his criteria and leads him to violence.

In addition to the two phenomena of religion and anti-religion, a further basic orientation is found in the growing world of agnosticism: people to whom the gift of faith has not been given, but who are nevertheless on the lookout for truth, searching for God. Such people do not simply assert: “There is no God”. They suffer from his absence and yet are inwardly making their way towards him, inasmuch as they seek truth and goodness. They are “pilgrims of truth, pilgrims of peace”. They ask questions of both sides. They take away from militant atheists the false certainty by which these claim to know that there is no God and they invite them to leave polemics aside and to become seekers who do not give up hope in the existence of truth and in the possibility and necessity of living by it. But they also challenge the followers of religions not to consider God as their own property, as if he belonged to them, in such a way that they feel vindicated in using force against others. These people are seeking the truth, they are seeking the true God, whose image is frequently concealed in the religions because of the ways in which they are often practised. Their inability to find God is partly the responsibility of believers with a limited or even falsified image of God.

So all their struggling and questioning is in part an appeal to believers to purify their faith, so that God, the true God, becomes accessible. Therefore I have consciously invited delegates of this third group to our meeting in Assisi, which does not simply bring together representatives of religious institutions. Rather it is a case of being together on a journey towards truth, a case of taking a decisive stand for human dignity and a case of common engagement for peace against every form of destructive force. Finally I would like to assure you that the Catholic Church will not let up in her fight against violence, in her commitment for peace in the world. We are animated by the common desire to be “pilgrims of truth, pilgrims of peace”.

Thankfully, no traditional Catholics will find the idea of a statue of St Francis of Assisi dancing to Scott Mackenzie's 60s classic offensive, because they'll all be too offended by the Holy Father's speech to all religious leaders and none because His Holiness didn't tell them to convert or else.

Mears Brothers Cleared of Wonderland Scam

2011-10-27T10:05:00.000-07:00

Mears Brothers Ltd: Thoroughly pleasant chaps...

In what amounts to an astonishing twist of justice, the Mears brothers at the heart of a 'wonderland' scam have been cleared of their conviction. Two more thoroughly pleasant and decent men, you would be hard pushed to find.

How did they arrive at a situation whereby from being behind bars for an alleged massive fraud to perhaps being recompensed for the result of what now appears to have been a mistrial because a juror received a text that said 'guilty'? Find out here. Phew. And there I was thinking this town was still ran by gangsters with leverage and influence over the Council. Strangely, no retrial application has been made...

I didn't realise that the contract awarded to Mears Group Ltd by Brighton and Hove City Council in 2009 was worth £200 million. What a bargain.

UN: "Earth Could Collapse Like Chicken and Mushroom Pie"

2011-10-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

2100: Earth implodes after the 12 billionth baby is born

Why? Because world population figures are literally exploding, potentially causing whole towns, cities and yes, even countries, to fall into the depths of the Earth in what UN scientists have called the 'Fray Bentos Population-Earth Effect'.

In this nightmare scenario, because of human greed and selfishness, Earth itself would fracture and then disappear. This is what will happen to Earth if you have more than one or two children. Because the world population figures could, by UN Population experts, literally EXPLODE to 12 BILLION PEOPLE, the Earth, according to a new report commissioned by the UN, could potentially implode.

Is this what you want to see happen to Earth? Are you that selfish? Can you not think of the future generations, of your children's children, who we strongly discourage you from allowing into the World? Can you not think of their share of the Earth's resources?

Doomsday: The 'Fray Bentos' Population-Earth Effect

Is this what you want Earth to look like?

Is it?

Is it?!

Is it?!!!

These mushrooms could be your children and your children's children! Are you insane? Think of them and either abort them, or contracept forever! Are you that EVIL and SELFISH that you won't KILL YOUR future CHILDREN so that the future generation can also enjoy the fruits of the Earth?

Here at the UN we think you are, because even though our Malthusian population institute has got it wrong on population growth and human resources before, so many times, we are, fundamentally, motivated by eugenic ideology, not facts, not truth, but ideology. Thank you for taking time to read our frightening eco-eugenic propaganda and don't forget to kill your children and thwart the creation of new life. Look, its happening already!

If you've had more than 2 children, then remember...YOU DID THIS!

No Abiding City

2011-10-25T16:01:00.000-07:00

Brighton's homeless have, according to the BBC, doubled this year. Meanwhile, I received a text telling me that, in Oxford, homeless are left outside in the cold because all the shelters are full. I am quite certain that there is an unusually large queue for this time of year at the soup run on the seafront, due to what has been described as a "purge" from London, around venues for the Olympics and that some have made their way to the 'city by the sea'.

The BBC link above actually has some quite shocking quotes from homeless people who tell of their having been forcefully pushed out of areas of London. The South East is therefore receiving some more homeless than is apparently usual. China did the same, India did the same, so who can blame that other 'third world' nation, the UK, from doing the same. After all, they're not good for tourism and the image of the UK.

It has been a strange two days or so. On my way to going to visit George and Diane yesterday I came across a couple, Neil and Margaret, outside the Jobcentre in Brighton, having recognised Jim, a former successful jockey, now hanging out in Brighton hoping to be found by the Rough Sleepers Team in Brighton. He turned up at the door of the Church on Friday during Catechism asking for a sleeping bag. Fr Ray gave him his jacket and I gave him a duvet from the garage of the Church. His story is rather confusing, I have to admit, but however he got here, he is in Brighton and is now rough sleeping.

Despite the fact that the interview above is rather 'in your face' I thought it worthwhile posting it up. It isn't 'politically correct', it isn't necessarily 'tasteful' and it isn't that 'pleasant', but nevertheless, these are the real opinions of real people living life on the edge in Brighton and for that reason they are worth hearing. I don't personally agree that 'foreigners' are taking a great deal of housing, certainly not in Brighton, Brighton being not half as cosmopolitan a city as, say, London, but nevertheless, that is their perception. Given that the man, Neil, has fought for this country and is left destitute after his stint in Northern Ireland, I certainly believe his words are worth listening to. I found it astonishing that the couple were looking for work at the Jobcentre even though they are homeless, but, even so, they are cut off from the benefits system, Neil having missed his letter telling him he has a medical assessment, when he was in Manchester, because they sent the letter to the wrong address. If you don't turn up for your medical assessment, in this country, then you are cut off from the benefits system. They've been in Brighton a week or two and sleep in a car park and it is getting colder by the day.

Their words are a challenge to us all. Perhaps there are issues with them, there is likely to be, but I believe that the Gospel still speaks through them. They are right to say that unless they have been here 6 months sleeping rough then they will not be considered to have a local connection and the Council will not house them until they have seen winter through.

I recently heard that a man of just 39, a rough sleeper called Steph Kelly died in Brighton on the streets. He had been taking a great deal of drugs over time, upon his release from prison. At the meal at the evangelical Church for the homeless on Monday they gave him a minutes silence. Men and women cried as they remembered the friend that they lost to drugs, alcohol and a cocktail of prescription drugs. People had tried to warn him to stop but he couldn't, wouldn't or didn't think he or the life he was living was worth it. You might perhaps think that street homeless and hostel homeless would become immune to hearing of the deaths of their brothers and sisters, but despite the harshness of their lives, often ravaged by alcohol and drug addiction, they intensely love their brothers and sisters. I know someone who says he has 20 friends who died in the last two years. He worries that he is next, but he 'doesn't care' either whether it is him. He says he cares when others die, but he doesn't care if he dies. There is a certain nihilism there, a devil may care attitude towards himself and yet when it comes to others, it is something else entirely.

Meanwhile, this evening, I met a lady who had a most horrendous story to tell. She is a mental health nurse who now feels she cannot work in the United Kingdom because the NHS is so appalling. She complained of the way in which the NHS deals with mental health patients and especially the 'care in the community' system. She said that in America, things are markedly better, whereas here, we never get to the root of the problem for mental health patients and just throw medication at them and then let them go. However, tonight she was particular angry.

Why? Well, her story, or rather the story of her niece, who she was comforting tonight, is not pleasant. The story of her niece is, in fact, perhaps the most harrowing story I have heard for a long time. Recently, her niece, who I met, and her boyfriend and son, befriended someone in their area. They didn't know he had mental health issues. One night, he called at her flat, where she lives with her boyfriend and son and was troubled, so they invited him in for a cup of tea. The man proceeded to go to the kitchen and got knives out of the drawer and started cutting himself up in front of them. In fact, he started cutting himself up so much that he cut a vast array of his arteries all over his body. The boyfriend tried to stop him but he just kept grabbing more knives. The mother had to get the son and literally throw him out of the house while getting the neighbours to call the emergency services. By the end, the man was dead, only to be brought back to life later by the emergency services. The niece now lives in a house which is covered in the man's blood. Totally covered in blood.

They have tried repainting the walls but the blood is still coming through. The man thought he was possessed and was trying to cut 'the demon' out from himself. He was rushed to hospital but the couple and the son were left in a house literally covered in blood. Understandably, they want to move but the Council are not yet doing anything to move them. The house should really be abandoned by now, in my opinion, and they are still in shock. But the most harrowing aspect of the story is that even though the man was at death's door, having cut himself to pieces, literally with parts of his internal organs hanging out, he is now out of hospital and is calling at the door of the couple and he won't stop going round. Why has the man not been sectioned? Why is he not in a secure hospital? Is he not a 'danger to himself and others'? Well, this is 'care in the community'.

Apparently, it was Margaret Thatcher who closed down all the mental asylums of Britain and just let the society that she said did not really exist deal with psychopathic mental patients. Say a prayer, or a Rosary, for the lady (you can pray for the 'iron lady' as well, of course), her niece and her family as despite the terrible things that have happened at the flat, the local authority seems to be washing their hands of the situation, while they are still trying to wash the blood off the walls and repaint them despite the fact that blood is still coming through. I don't know why people who are troubled come to Brighton but they do. Some people are desperate to get out. The lady I was speaking to about it is Catholic but she has lost her faith over the years, so say a prayer for her too and for the protection of her relatives.

The niece, who still lives in the same house, still coping with the trauma of what happened went on her way back to the same house where the same guy is still calling round is on the edge of a breakdown. Her boyfriend is, following what he saw, having a nervous breakdown. I told her that the Catholic Church has exorcists but that it is likely that 99% of cases are literally to do with 'mental health'. She replied that if you had seen this guy cutting himself open and opening up his chest in front of you, his eyes and face changing so much that that person you thought you had met was no longer there, you'd know that demonic possession is totally real.

Oh and, last, but by no means least, pray for the man who is (at best) seriously mentally ill, who is harrasing the family and that the authorities will take action that will save his life and bring peace to their lives. Welcome to Brighton and, remember, its nothing like what the Council and tourist board say it is. You could have the best 'global economy' run by a world bank in the World, even one run along the lines of the Church's social teaching, but, somehow, I don't think it would save the West. Only Our Blessed Lord can save this country.

This is Laurence England reporting to you live from Brighton and, while the view here is sometimes pretty, there is no doubt in my mind that this country is going to the wall, big time and how! If you live in the countryside, well, good for you! My advice, for the time being, is stay there! And it isn't even Halloween yet...Ave Maria, gratia plena...Anyway, to end, let's end with something light. As you'll hear from our video, I've got nothing on John Squire, but George, even though he isn't famous, is still a better singer than Ian Brown. Why not say a prayer for Ian and his ladywife too who is, apparently, a Mexican lady.

What I'm Selling on Ebay This Week

2011-10-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

Haven't been on Ebay for awhile!

Everything I'm listing right now is for Christmas, and it's almost all vintage.

I have more than this up for auction right now, and I'm busy adding more. Bills to pay! Christmas to get ready for! No different than most people in those respects.

The Holy Family (All Saints Party)

2011-10-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

Well, here's the 2nd Place Winner entry in the age 0-5 category at our local All Saints party that was held this past weekend:

That's Alan as St. Joseph, and his best little friend Mary as Mary, holding the Baby Jesus (who is wearing a crown that I made to show that He is the King of Kings.) We're not sure, but it may be the first time the party had an entry that included more than one person.

We think they won because of the props and we've decided that it's all about the props with the costumes. The winner in this age category was the 4-year-old daughter of friends who was dressed as St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, carrying a little chalk board slate. She was so adorable!

I have video of some of the costume competition, but I'm not sure if I should put it up here or not? I'm considering it so that people who've never been to one of these parties (like us) can check out (at least on a small scale) what it's like. There were way more families there than I anticipated.

We had a nice time, although we didn't meet or talk to too many families there, instead mostly holed-up at a table with a handful of people we already knew. There were people there that visually disturbed me, but I admit they were in the minority. (I know someone is going to be irritated at me for making this observation, but the bottom line is that I have avoided stuff like this in the past because I'm not in the mood to be judged for wearing jeans and trendy shoes/jewelry by people wearing jeans jumpers.)

More importantly, Alan had a great time! He was thrilled to win gold coins playing games and then being able to choose prizes from a prize table with his coins. Of course, he picked out goofy stuff, but he's four! The kids also got candy bags, which I thought were really stingy, but any amount of candy is acceptable to my son who has nicknamed himself the "candy boy." (I say they were stingy because I know darn well that many of the kids attending this party are not allowed to go trick-or-treating and this might be all the seasonal candy they receive.)

Interestingly enough, we are going to another All Saints party this coming weekend. I know! I can hardly believe it myself. The reason is too complicated to get into here, but it has to do with our son going trick-or-treating on actual Halloween night. (He's going as Spiderman, in case anyone's interested.) The party this weekend will be much larger than our local party and is the "big" Milwaukee-area All Saints party for the homeschoolers. I'm waaaay more nervous to go to that one than the one we just went to.

They had an adult costume competition at our party and I'm motivated to enter it next year. I know exactly what Saint I want to go as, and believe me, it will raise some eyebrows! (Sinister laugh.)

All in all, the All Saints party was a good thing. Can't promise we'll go every year, but I think we'll try to make it something we participate in as much as we can.

Cough. Cough. Jean skirt in photo above. Cough.

Jon Cruddas MP Should Not Be Given a Platform at Blackfriars

2011-10-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

Jon Cruddas MP: An inappropriate choice of Catholic speaker

That's my opinion and the opinion of a growing number of Catholics concerned that a Catholic politician who has a track record of voting for anti-life legislation is being given a platform to speak at Blackfriars Hall, the Dominican permanent private hall of the University of Oxford. I'll allow John Smeaton of the SPUC to fill you in on the details...

I hear that Mr Cruddas was dropped from the Catholic Internship scheme by the Bishops Conference precisely because of his public views on abortion, the Stonewall legislation, on the legislation that forced Catholic adoption agencies to close or deny their links to the Church. Good for the Bishops. Bravo...

'In December Mr Cruddas told The Catholic Herald that abortion:

"should be safe, legal and rare".
Since 2000, Jon Cruddas MP voted 18 times with the anti-life lobby, for example voting in favour of the anti-life Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act at second reading (which denotes approval for the bill's principles) - a law designed to kill millions of innocent human beings deliberately created never to be born. He also voted for the pro-euthanasia Mental Capacity Bill (now Act) at second reading and third reading (which denotes approval of the bill as a whole). Mr Cruddas has expressed his pride in his voting record in support of the homosexual agenda.* In this connection I draw attention to the June 2004 US bishops' document Catholics in Political Life which says:
"the Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."
[...] Jon Cruddas is due to speak at Blackfriars Hall, the Dominican permanent private hall of the University of Oxford. Organization for this event is led by the Las Casas Institute Halley-Stewart scholars Robert Heimburger and Marcos Medina. The event is entitled ‘The Modern State and the Kingdom of God’. Jon Cruddas is giving talk five Building Democracy.

It is appalling that a "Catholic" politician who holds pro-abortion opinions has been invited to speak at this event and on this topic.

Hear hear! I was passed a leaflet concerning this event today and lost it. If anyone can tell me any more about this man's rather scandalous inclusion at a Dominican event, do let me know and I will post it up. "Safe, legal and rare". You can read the rest of his dreadful interview as he attempted, in vain, to seek the Labour leadership here.

Catholic politicians approaching Holy Communion should be "safe" (in a State of Grace), "legal" (voting in line with a conscience informed by Holy Mother Church) and really, and truly, because it seems that a number of Catholic politicians in the UK care more for their careers than for the Gospel, and cannot therefore fulfil the first two criteria, Catholic politicians approaching Holy Communion should be "rare".

Why Divorce Doesn't Rock...

2011-10-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

Pop group, The Stone Roses, are set to reform amid rumours (yes, this is gossip) that the singer Ian Brown needs 'Fools Gold' (the title of one of their songs) to, rumour (yes, that'll be gossip) has it, help him settle up for a divorce from his lady wife.

Everyone knows that divorce is a terrible, tragic thing for individuals, families and society. Everyone knows it is terrible and damaging. Nobody really wins. This is why some firms of solicitors advertise nowadays, quite brazenly, the fact that they can offer the public 'great deals' on divorce settlements, advice and the rest with big banners above their offices entrance saying 'Get divorced here'. Even the breakdown of human relationships is a source of revenue and money nowadays.

With such a high percentage of marriages ending in divorce nowadays (is it one in two or three now?), it isn't surprising that some, even within the Church, rather resent Christ's teaching on it and would rather He hadn't said what He said about the matter and the subsequent teaching that the Church continued to proclaim after He had ascended and sent the Holy Spirit to guide Her into all truth. Such a teaching didn't always win the Apostles friends then and it doesn't win those of their Successors who are brave enough to repeat it today.

Like many teachings of Holy Church there is no doubt that the Church's teaching on divorce, remarriage and the rest is 'difficult'. I'm just now trying to think of an area of Church teaching which isn't 'difficult'. Ah...no, I can't. What a surprise. Divorce ruins peoples lives and there is plenty of evidence on the net in terms of studies to suggest that it is especially damaging to children, yes even rich children. Anyway, regardless of why Ian Brown and The Stone Roses are reforming (which will interest some and leave other readers mystified), I thought I'd just compile a small list of rockstars and popstars who have divorced. Could the problem be that too many of them just 'wanna be adored' or are rockstar/popstar divorces and their incredible frequency just reflective of a society that can't handle marriage, children and the vows they made when they were 'in love'.

Rock is, as the Holy Father has noticed, the Devil's playground. Here's that list. I don't understand quite why so many of these people are pin ups, modern heroes, people that people want to emulate, people that people near worship...

Noel Gallagher (Oasis)
Liam Gallagher (Oasis)
Amy Winehouse (now deceased)
Johnny Cash
Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi)
Bruce Springsteen
Mick Jagger
Phil Collins
Sting
Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)
Michael Jackson
The Edge (U2)
Slash (Guns 'n' Roses)
Mariah Carey
Paul McCartney (The Beatles)
Phil Spector
George Harrison
Elvis
John Lennon
Bob Dylan
David Bowie
Bob Geldof
Marvin Gaye

...the list goes on...and on and in fact, unless you only like classical music, I expect that at least 70% of your record or CD collection was recorded by a divorced rock/pop star. Now. I am a poor sinner and I am in no position to 'cast the first stone' and indeed nobody ever pretended that the rock hall of fame was a Litany of the Saints. Each of the above and their rock and pop counterparts will have their own personal, possibly quite harrowing reasons and stories behind marital breakdowns. I know it isn't something we should be voyeuristic about and we are not to judge. We know that Our Lord doesn't snuff out waning candles or crush broken reeds and Our Lord loves the broken-hearted ('What becomes of the broken hearted?').

There just seems to be a trend in rock and pop to enter into this realm of fantasy, ego-centrism so that people become divorced from reality and end up in divorce settlements. Who am I, indeed, such a wretched sinner to judge? Still, I do find the trend among the modern musicians to divorce intriguing. How on earth could that small, and it must be small, minority of pop and rock stars who do settle down and have a family cope with the vast array of temptation that must come their way? Do rockstars, the men at least, always remain 'children' and never accept responsibility and the reality of family life which is, to many, myself included, rather daunting or even frightening.

It is also telling in another sense, in as much as it is incredibly difficult nowadays, to find a 'rock/pop' star who is able to say anything, and I mean, anything, positive about the Pope or the Catholic Church and yet some are Catholics. Many musicians are 'tortured' souls dealing with inner 'demons'. Music is for many cathartic. Many songs, even modern ones, express a yearning for redemption, unconditional love, meaning and ache that we all have within us for God. Consciously or unconsciously, many pen songs that can touch upon our deepest spiritual yearnings for comfort and consolation or understanding.

Yet, if you can find a modern musical artist who can be questioned about the Pope or the Church without slagging both off about Aids, HIV, condoms, teaching on contraception, abortion, homosexuality, and the usual areas of 'difficulty' then I will give you, as Cardinal Arinze once said, a 'turkey', maybe even for Christmas, though I expect the Christmas number one will take care of that. Some of the modern musicians are even Catholic, as I say, albeit lapsed. Maybe there is a bit of a trade off, I don't know, as if someone were to speak out for the Church then their record sales would hit the floor or something.

Like I say, I'm not judging these people listed above or the many others who divorce. It is their heartbreak we are discussing. I just don't know how healthy it is for a society to put these people on pedestals like it does and to near worship them even though, really, in terms of wives, husbands, mothers and fathers, they are simply not good role models. I don't believe that 30 somethings out there are going around thinking, "That Ian Brown is cool. He's the singer of the Stone Roses. He's getting divorced. Right, that's it, I'm getting divorced too!" I just think that perhaps 30 somethings shouldn't be thinking, "Great, the Stone Roses are reforming! Wow! I'm getting a ticket no matter how much it costs." Why? Because he's got a child with his wife and his marriage is falling apart. Meanwhile, the guy, no matter what his reasons, is off to tour with the band of his youth and I think that that is ultimately terribly, terribly sad. Secondly, I saw them live the last time they toured and they were absolutely atrocious then. I can't think of any reason why they should have improved this time. The man can't sing for Heaven's sake.

The really irritating thing is that Ian Brown and a lot of the modern musicians are also so terribly self-righteous. So many of the above are always lauded for their commitment to social causes, or for slagging off the Government, or condemning corruption, or for wanting to end poverty, or feed the World, or something perfectly noble like that. Meanwhile, when it actually comes to true charity, which, as we know, begins at home and the self-sacrificing love that it takes for marriage and family life...well, it just becomes the 'creative spark' needed for that 'difficult' second or third album. As Ian Brown once said on Newsnight before a confused BBC presenter, Tracey MacLeod on The Late Show..."Amateurs!"

Is he still going to wear that dollar bill-decorated t-shirt?

New Translation 'Chant': Will parishes be provided with Diocesan sick bags?

2011-10-22T09:47:00.000-07:00

...Warning: Do not, I repeat, do not watch the above video on a full stomach...

The St Mary Magdalen Choir Blog has posted a quite astonishing piece concerning what parish choir leaders should be expecting from the first Sunday in Advent. The choir leader attended, in a spirit of fraternity with other parish choir leaders in the Diocese, a 'taster' of what the new translation of the Mass could mean for the liturgical renewal of parish life in Arundel and Brighton. She was, reading from the blog, to put it mildly, quite taken aback. Apparently the music above is what the Diocese rather generously describes as 'Gregorian Chant'. For once, words fail me. All I will say is...No, I've been posting too much on that subject recently. Just watch the video and you'll see what I mean. Is this a Mass setting for the Catholic Church or music for a megachurch in Hackney?

Dawkins Won't Debate With Christian Apologist

2011-10-21T04:56:00.000-07:00

Dawkins: Intelligent, brave, but above all, humble...

Tim Stanley today posts on Richard Dawkin's decision not to debate with Christian apologist William Lane Craig because, basically, what is the point in Manchester United playing Cheltenham Town FC? It's obvious that Cheltenham Town are just amateurs in comparison. In the video here, Dawkins, back in 2009, asserted that he wouldn't debate with Craig because he doesn't debate with Creationists. Interestingly, he said that he would debate with Bishops, Cardinals, Archbishops or the Pope, but not with born again Christians. So, you cannot say Dawkins does not respect authority!

For once, I have some sympathy with Dawkins. Those born again Christian apologists are quite frightening! They are full of fire for the salvation of sinners and yet are nearly totally ignorant of even the Bible they claim to love!

You tell them that scripture says one Baptism is necessary for the remission of sins, and they don't accept your Baptism or your Faith because you're not 'born again' enough.

You tell them that scripture says that the Lord Jesus left to His One True Church, His Body and His Blood in the Eucharist and they don't accept it saying that He meant it in some weird metaphorical way, as if Our Lord's words were left to them for interpretation.

You tell them that Christ left to His Church the power to forgive sins when He 'breathed on the Apostles' and said, 'receive the Holy Spirit' and yet still, in the face of all that scriptural support for your assertions, deride and mock the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith.

You tell them that the book they claim to know, venerate and love was, at least the second part at any rate, written by Catholics and even the first part would have been written by Catholics had they lived to see Our Lord in the flesh, since all the Prophets (that'll be those Jews again) longed for the coming of the promised Christ who would take away the sins of the World. They weren't Catholics then, but, the Church assures us, they are now, from Adam to Daniel. Whatever they are, they're not Baptists.

You tell them that the story of Creation is not a perfect scientific description of the formation of the Universe and all that is made, but an allegory of our original state of perfection and the entrance of Original Sin into the World, which is washed away by Baptism, and they look at you like you're the Antichrist.

You tell them that scripture supports the immense significance of Our Blessed Lady in Revelations since it is clear that the 'woman' who battles the big red dragon is our Heavenly Queen and they don't get it.

You take them through a small open-top bus tour of the works of canonized Catholic theologians and philosophers and you only draw from them blank faces.

You tell them that if Christ had willed that there should be a million different Churches saying a million different things about His nature and about salvation, with a million different doctrines, then He would not have prayed for unity for His Church and prayed that His disciples should all 'be one' and they say 'we are all one' even though they can't stand the doctrines of Holy Church.

You tell them that their Bible, had it not been doctored and an entire book, that of Maccabes, not been removed from the King James edition, then their Bible as well as yours would testify to at least a rudimentary understanding of Purgatory, purification after death, or at least the holy practice, as we cast our eyes forward towards All Souls Day, of praying for the repose of the souls of the dead.

You tell them that scripture supports the Church's assertion that the Church is built upon St Peter, the Rock and that Christ singles out Peter as the foundation of the Church upon which the gates of Hell shall never prevail and suddenly, the born again fruitcakes are calling you a 'fundamentalist'.

Yes, I have sympathy for you, Professor Dawkins. Believe me, against guys like that, you simply cannot win! They simply won't listen to reason!

Why can't he put a cork in it?

2011-10-21T02:46:00.000-07:00

Williamson: What is he trying to achieve?

For some good analysis of Bishop Richard Williamson's latest attempts to cause an ecumenical train crash with multiple casualties, read Catholicism Pure and Simple.

Worth a read is the Transalpine Redemptorists response. A Reluctant Sinner has posted a comprehensive answer to the public meanderings of this most offensive and reckless man. Ah, what to say? Other than to say that every time Bishop Williamson speaks on such things, he crucifies Christ all over again.

He fosters disunity in the Body of Christ, the Church, rather than unity, and he also fosters emnity with the children of Israel, the Jews, rather than peace. What has the World come to when a layman has to tell a 'Bishop': "Jesus died for you. He died on account of your sins" This is basic Catholicism, I know, but hey, this guy clearly needs a little catechesis. And why is he banging on about the "Jew's behaviour"? What is so wonderful about his behaviour? If his behaviour was that great, wouldn't the Holy Father have publicly commended such a fine and wonderful Christian who uses whatever influence he has to promote the Gospel? No. In fact, in The Light of the World, the Holy Father makes it quite clear that he was unaware, when the excommunication was lifted, 'what kind of a man' the Vatican was dealing with.' Yikes! If the Holy Father said that of me, I'd be bricking it!

So what kind of a man are we dealing with? Well, every time he speaks to the media and does this he seems to set back talks further, create more distance between the SSPX and the Church, cause more harm and offense to the Jewish people and just generally raise Hell. Yes, historically speaking, the high priests of the Temple, were Jews, just like Our Lord, Our Lady and the Apostles were Jews, and indeed nearly all characters in the Gospels were Jews. A small group of these worked actively towards Our Lord's cruel torture and death. This small group whipped up a portion of a crowd and raised public sentiment against Our Lord. However, other than Williamson, I know no Catholic who reads the Passion narrative purely in its historical context and who reads it thinking, 'The evil Jews crucified Christ. Wicked, wicked Jews!'.

This Man, Jesus Christ, is, after all, the man who submitted Himself to a cruel and terrible death out of love for all of us, out of love for me, out of love for Bishop Williamson and out of love for, yes, the Jews, even those Jews who were historically, personally present and responsible at the time for His death and execution. "Father, forgive them," He cried, "for they know not what they do." Even Caiaphas, in his great malice, cannot have really understood Who he was mocking upon the Cross, because if he did, he quite simply wouldn't have done it. He'd have begged forgiveness. There is a blindness there, a hard-heartedness, an ignorance and an unwillingness to come into the light. He didn't recognise, like the Centurion did, in Jesus, the only Son of God.

Unfortunately, while we cannot, in the same spirit, ask the same forgiveness for Bishop Williamson from the Heavenly Father, for we cannot say that he 'knows not' what he does, we can pray for him. Sadly, he does know what he is doing and it is incredibly damaging to the Church and to relations with the Jewish people and to the SSPX. That is why he is so disturbing. What is motivating him other than Pride and malice? Does he say these things because he longs for the conversion of the Jewish people, like St Paul? Or is he just, actually, well, masturbating?

He does not strike me as a man who loves Jesus Christ, nor His Church, nor even the SSPX. He strikes me as a man who loves only himself, which, for (even an invalid) 'Bishop' is incredibly sad. Ironically, in that sense, I find him to be something of a Caiaphas character - a bit heartless. Say a prayer for him that the good will the Church seeks from all men towards Her may be at least in some part evident in his life. I'm being a bit nasty aren't I? Still, if Bishop Williamson thinks spouting mental diarrhoea through the media is acceptable, then he has to accept some coming back his way, even if, as is most likely, he never reads it. For me, the most appalling thing about Williamson isn't his repetitive 'controversial' remarks - it is his public demonstrations that he is a source of disunity, division and most of all, that he is blatantly, publicly distancing himself from the theology and thought of the Holy Father. What he is doing, which appears to be deliberate, is quite wicked.

Update: Please see a good analysis at A Sensible Bond

'Occupy' Movement: Do They Want a Catholic Monarch?

2011-10-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

"What do we want? A Catholic on the throne! When do we want it? Now!"

With their Guy Fawkes masks and their two finger salutes, presumably connoting the dual nature of Christ, it looks like they do. Wonderful news!

On a more serious note, I must say that I find the 'Occupy' global movement to be rather sinister because we don't really know who is behind it. Who is funding it?

Apparently the movement is very much linked to 'Anonymous' who now have posters all over Brighton. Yes, Brighton! They have a website which is calling people to action under what appears to be a kind of middle class Marxist/anarchist umbrella. I've read some interesting stuff about the Occupy movement, especially by Brendan O'Neill of Spiked on his Telegraph blog, who has pointed out that the movement is, for a revolutionary youth-led initiative, both tame, lame and totally unfeared by the establishment it publicly states to oppose. These young 'revolutionaries' appear to be more concerned with how they look, than their actual agenda. Take this quote from an Occupy protester in New York (this is for real by the way)...

Interviewer: '"Why are you protesting?"

Protester: “I like the use of public space as a performative realm and I like the combination of bodies in space. I think it makes a statement.”

Er! Hello! What is this?! A protest or a meeting of Narcissists Anonymous!? Others have pointed out the links between 'Occupy' and the establishment itself. Others have wondered whether the movement may in some way have its origin in the establishment and that anarchic revolutions which have been seen in the Middle East and Africa are the desired end. I must say that a 'revolutionary' movement taking aim at the heart of the establishment is hardly going to be granted public approval from the White House and I shall not be the first nor last person to suggest that any new political movement which does not deeply offend George Soros, but instead wins his public approval, is perhaps not totally authentic or inspired from a 'grassroots' level. It does appear to be The Guardian's cup of Tea (Party), but while that shouldn't surprise us too much, it should make us wonder who is behind it.

The motif of the movement appears to be these Guy Fawkes masks, which keep the faces of the people who want 'change' hidden. Clever, clever. The idea has been lifted from the (propaganda?) Hollywood movie V for Vendetta, wherein the protagonist blows up the British Houses of Parliament (spoiler) and all the people rejoice because the leader is a 'bad man' and they watch her blow, liberated, as they are, from their political oppressors.

Both the film and the current trend among upper middle class lefty activists to wear these masks, which appeared first in Britain, notably, during the riots of the Summer, have forgotten that our history books tell us that Guy Fawkes, with some Catholic mates, plotted to blow up Parliament because he and his friends wanted a Catholic monarch on the throne. That is, Guy Fawkes desired monarchy, Catholic monarchy specifically, rather than anarchy or even parliamentary democracy and certainly not a new variant of Marxism that enthrones reason alone as God, despises religion, persecutes and crushes the Church and sets up a stronger vanguard of capitalist oligarchs to rule over the people with more ferocity than ever they did before.

Ironically, The Catholic Knight tells us that Catholic Prophecy suggests European revolutions will occur, but that the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph and after a quite terrifying intervention by Almighty God, it will all result in a Catholic monarch from France restoring the Holy Roman Empire in a great new age for the Church lasting until the appearance of the Antichrist. Wow! It all sounds absolutely mental to me, but then, thank God, we are not bound to believe such things since they are sourced from private revelation. Thank God, indeed, for the less we believe it, the less likely it is to be true, right!? Still, it is worth telling it to these youths in Guy Fawkes masks though, just to see the look on their, er, faces.

Liberalism Arrives in Poland

2011-10-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

Palikot: Liberals cannot abide the Cross

A former Vodka tycoon (yes really), Janusz Palikot has caused uproar among Poland's Catholic community (which is meant to be about 99.1% of the nation's population), by calling for the Cross adorning the Parliament's wall to be removed because...

“We respect the religious character of the cross. That is why it should not be pulled into political disputes and should not hang in the parliament.”

According to this news report, Palikot 'would take the matter to Poland's Constitutional Tribunal, if the Speaker of the Lower House did not take on board his party's requests. Failing that, he said that he would turn to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg'. I think he has forgotten his country's history or perhaps desires for it to be erased from national memory and let's face it, the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg can always be relied upon to defend freedom and liberty of religion, national culture, heritage and have a strong history of venerating the Holy Cross.

Evidence, if more were needed, that as soon as liberals enter the corridors of power, they wish the Cross to be removed from people's minds, hearts and politics. I hope and pray Polish parliamentarians and the vast majority of the country tell Palikot where to get off and say, "Thanks for the vodka, Janusz, but if it has to be a choice of either you or the Cross, then the Cross stays and you go." Pray for Poland which, not for the first time in its history, is the last man standing in defense of what remains of Christendom.

Catholics Driven from their Homes by the State

2011-10-20T06:33:00.000-07:00

A lady stands in solidarity with the Crucified...

No matter what you believe about gypsy communities, that is the long and short of what took place yesterday. Driving these Catholics, men, women, elderly and children from their homes wasn't cheap either. I hear that even those dreadful taser things were used. It can't have been pleasant for the children to witness yesterday's scenes.

For £20 million, perhaps the local authority could have found other land for them. They could have just given them £50,000 to buy a plot of land and let them get on with it, couldn't they?

There are days when reading The Telegraph just makes you want to take out a subscription to The Guardian. This was one of those days. I'm sure if the economic crisis got really bad and homeowners couldn't keep up on their mortgages and a significant proportion of the 'law abiding majority' found themselves in tents, caravans and vans, they'd soon have a different perspective on the draconian application of planning regulations by local authorities, but until that day, cruel prejudice and a rather dark human mode of justice will doubtless prevail.

Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith's blog post for The Catholic Herald today is short, sweet and to the point. There has been a lot of vitriolic nonsense directed towards the activists who campaigned for the gypsy community at Dale Farm. Personally, I'd have thought anyone who stood up in defense of these marginalised, misunderstood and often despised Catholic families who actually take Christ's teachings very seriously would be highly esteemed in Our Blessed Lord's eyes, but there we go.

Pansy Grayling Throws Toys Out of Pram in No Pope Show

2011-10-20T05:18:00.000-07:00

AC Grayling: Had hoped for private discussion with the Pope

You know all is not well with Britain's soul when even 'devout Christian', Sir Cliff Richard, backs gay marriage and admits that he has something akin to an assisted 'suicide pact' with his sister because by then he believes euthanasia will by then be legal. How times have changed!

The singer is one of those people for whom one is tempted to campaign to make assisted suicide legal, just for a day or two, for a 'hard case' that makes for 'bad law'. Was the crooner the power behind the throne of the Blair years, conducting Government policy from his yacht? It wouldn't surprise me, but then, let's face it, it could have been any one or all of the sprawling cast of the mega-rich cabal of acolytes that gathered like flies around the heap of dung that was the Blair years, couldn't it?

One wonders whether the never-to-retire, shacked-up-with-a-'former Catholic priest'-pop-creature who was famously a leading luminary of the 'Nationwide Festival of Light' organised by Malcolm Muggeridge, Lord Longford and Mary Whitehouse, campaigning against the pornographic nature of the mass media age, is too much different to his long-term friends, Tony and Cherie 'devout' Blair, in their conception of a God made in their own image and likeness. My, how times have changed since the 70s, however, and with the times, the opinions of the singer who made heaps of money out of atrocious records (and worse movies), while spreading his Christian credentials everywhere he went. What is the difference between these strange 'Christians' who maintain that Christianity needs to be updated to the 21st century or adapted to modern times and atheist A.C Grayling? Not much as far as I can see. At least Grayling is intellectually honest enough to say that he believes there is no God, and that the moral law, if such a lofty thing exists for him, is a blank sheet of paper on which humanity can write, rather than pretending that God agrees with him on a moral issue because "some of my friends are in gay relationships". If some of my friends were murderers, adulterers and thieves, would that make murder, adultery and robbery right?

Anyway, back to Grayling. The combative atheist who usually pulls no punches in condemning the Catholic Faith as a force of darkness overshadowing a world enlightened by the light of his atheistic, rationalistic philosophy has thrown his toys out of the pram and snubbed the Assisi III pilgrimage of Truth meeting with people of all faiths and none and most importantly, the Holy Father himself. It has today been posted on by Francis Phillips of The Catholic Herald and the pilgrimage promises to be an interesting, eye-catching, hopefully not eye-watering event. I have every confidence in the Holy Father that he can lead this without the event looking as if he believes 'your truth is as good as mine'. It is, after all, the battle against relativism that has marked his very impressive pontificate. The 'poor man's Dawkins' (that's Grayling, you understand, not His Holiness) has, sorrowfully, backed out because...

“I thought it was originally to have a discussion with the Pope about the place of religion in society but then it turned out it was a minor event and what they wanted was these guests to accompany the Pope on a pilgrimage. So I decided to withdraw.”

If it was a discussion with the Holy Father about the place of religion in society, that would have been a rather short exchange...

Pope Benedict XVI: "And what role do you believe, Mr Grayling, religion should play in the public square?"

A.C. Grayling: "None whatsoever, Ratzi! I believe this man-made garbage you describe as religion should be eradicaed from the Earth, starting within the education system and working its way up from there, until all religions except the one which reigns supreme, my own particular brand of intolerant atheism, are utterly destroyed, especially your paedo-kiddie-fiddling-Nazi Youth one, Your, er, Holiness...May I take this opportunity to thank you for inviting me and to arrest you for crimes against humanity?!"

Pope Benedict XVI: This is an interesting point of view. How do you make your head spin 360 degrees like that?

The problem with some atheists, you see, and most especially the religious types, is that they are so convinced of their own rightness that accompanying a diverse group of people of 'all religions and none' is like some personal (almost papal) endorsement of collective insantity. Grayling is a fundamentalist, remember and you can't dialogue with fundamentalists. The idea of pilgrimage, to Grayling, is nonsense when even agnostics and reasonable atheists are happy to go to Santiago de Compostella because, whether you believe, or whether you do not, life, objectively speaking, is for us all a journey. Even pagans believe that. The Holy Father is right to say that life is a pilgrimage towards truth for all, no matter to what religion, if any, you subscribe and that eventually we all meet Truth Himself.

Personally, my suspicion is that Mr Grayling cannot abide the idea of accompanying a diverse group of religious people anywhere and would rather surround himself with fawning atheist admirers and perhaps cannot stand the idea that the Holy Father might get gain more limelight and press coverage out of Assisi III than he will. What's the point in being a famous atheist if you're not the centre of the attention of the liberally biased media and the Successor of St Peter simultaneously? A.C Grayling...What a pansy! He's silly really, because if he had trusted in God then, who knows, perhaps he would have got five minutes with the Pope who is known for his generosity in terms of time and charity towards even those who despise him. By the way, regarding Assisi III, I do think that critics of Francis Phillips's article are wrong to suggest that the town's most famous son would be opposed to the idea. After all, wasn't his whole apostolate marked by loyal obedience both to the Pope and the Magisterium?

I hear Libyan dictator, Col Gaddafi is dead. May he rest in peace. Condolences to Peter Mandelson, Tony Blair and all those British foreign diplomats who knew him so well and of whom Gaddafi must have been so fond. All of them must be devastated, especially Mr Blair, since his meetings with the dictator are an aspect of his political career of which he is particularly openly proud and of which he is always only too happy to discuss in public. We haven't yet legalised it in this country yet, oh give the Government time, but we're already exporting 'assisted suicide' abroad: Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden and Col Gaddafi.

Never Say Never

2011-10-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

Sigh.

OK, we're gonna give it a try. We're gonna go to the All Saints party this weekend with the homeschool crowd. I don't know why we're going, but we're going.

My traddy-ish friend has this concept where her daughter will be Mary and Alan will be Joseph and the baby doll as Jesus. So now what? I have NO sewing or costume making skills. (Note my friend wants her little girl and Alan to WIN the costume contest.)

I do have a big tree branch/walking stick to use as a staff. That's about it.

Help me out here.

The Need Is Great

2011-10-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

So, you know how I'm now volunteering at that start-up, brand-new Catholic high school, yes?

Well, start-ups have needs. MANY. Out of a bit of desperation, I thought I'd just mention here that they really, really, really need a vacuum - that works and works well. (I've been cleaning, and let me tell you, high school kids are messy.) Such a donation would be considered an in-kind donation for the actual value of the item, totally tax-deductible.

They have other needs, too. Like books for their library - books on any and all topics, especially those that would mesh with a classical curriculum.

Leave a comment or shoot me an email if you can help.

Such a Vague Question

2011-10-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

How does one develop character?

In oneself? In your children? In spite of modern education? (Much of which is worthless.) In a detached, narcissistic, personal-rights-as-God culture?

It's something I think about and worry about.

£150 a Week for a Small Brighton Bedsit: How?

2011-10-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

I know someone who lives in a bedsit in a relatively small building of studio/bedsit flats in Brighton. I went round to see him recently. I was happy for him, and still am, since he has accommodation in Brighton. He had been sleeping for six months on the seafront when the Council suddenly changed their local connection policy and gave him accommodation in a Brighton hostel. That Brighton hostel was very grotty, as most Brighton hostels are. To his surprise, only a few months later, he heard that he had been given a flat in Kemptown. He admits to having been quite stunned when he heard, since what with not having the necessary 'local connection', what could possibly entitle him to a bedsit?

He was thrilled, since, it had appeared that the Council, having maintained that they operate a 'local connection' policy, did a complete reversal on that policy for him, and not only gave him a hostel room, but, later in the year, a proper bedsit flat. Since then, he has been obtaining furniture and the like. The room is very humble - a sofa, a chair, a single bed, a small toilet and shower. It smells a bit, there's some damp, but he isn't complaining. He's still looking for work, but at least he is housed and has a roof over his head. He still finds himself going to soup runs occasionally and places where you can obtain food for free. He doesn't have a drink or drugs problem or what any diagnosed 'mental health issues'. He isn't a part of any hedonistic Brighton scene. Much like how he behaved in Brighton's hostel when he was there, and indeed, when he was street homeless, he is the kind of person who just 'keeps his head down' and gets on with life.

Anyway, why am I writing this? Well, when I paid him a visit recently, I was surprised because he told me about the place where he lives as I looked round his room. There are about 15-17 flats in the building, all owned by one landlord. His surname, as I remember, is 'Cox'. More than that I do not know. Each 'flat', or rather, dingy bedsit, houses one person, but the friend told me that if I thought his room was small, then, "I should see other tenant's rooms". The thing is, you see, that having looked around Brighton at various times in my life, looking to rent, I know that a bedsit of the nature of what my friend is living in should be about £100 a week tops and, for that, your studio flat would be quite immaculate. If I were an estate agent, or a landlord, I would be seeking about £60-70 a week for his place, having seen it and I doubt very much that on the private rental market, the landlord could get too much more than that for each room as they are so tiny. But that is why this block of flats is so disturbing.

My friend told me that all of the 17-ish flats in the building, of a similar size to the one pictured, are inhabited by mostly single men on housing benefit and Jobseekers Allowance/Income Support. In other words, in order to obtain a rental contract with this landlord, you have to be on JSA or at least be dependent on housing benefit, paid by your local authority to his bank account. Such an arrangement is, to my mind, rather fishy, since the landlord who owns this building of frankly rather grotty bedsits charges the Council £150 a week for each one. This is, at the very least I would say, double what he could charge, given the size of the rooms, on the private rental market. How can this be? I've asked the question before, but it has to be said, what are these cosy arrangements that Brighton and Hove City Council have with various landlords in Brighton and Hove? How do they come to pass and who sets the rates? Who is in charge of these affairs?

How can it be that a 'social landlord' can charge a local authority double or perhaps treble what he could charge in the private rental arena? Is the extra money some kind of 'payback' for civic action on homelessness and the housing of the vulnerable? Where is the justice for the tenants who, presumably, don't get much, if any, choice where they are placed by the local authority? For £150 a week, the Council could presumably pay a private landlord not in the social landlord Council network scene something less, or get something better for a 'client' for the same amount. Either way, while the residents are not really so much complaining, some of them do think that what the Council is paying the landlord of this property is rather steep given the quality of the accommodation. Most are just pleased to be housed, one chap I talked to there having lived there for 4 years.

Does being a 'social landlord' entitle you to loads of public money or loads of taxpayers money? Shouldn't tax payers be holding Councils to account that they should be looking for value for money from the public purse? Are these residents being exploited in any way because their position in society is vulnerable? Well, we know that that kind of thing doesn't happen in Brighton, but it is a possibility. At least one landlord who lives in Brighton today expressed what certainly seemed to be a gasp of shock at what the landlord of this bedsits property was charging, as the friend told him after Mass. Perhaps more people in Brighton should know of it.

The Gay Gospel?

2011-10-14T15:24:00.000-07:00

Don't Baptists misread the Bible too?

Returning to a much-covered theme that will be having readers make an exit for a different blog sharpish, an anonymous reader has kindly sent me a book 'for my armoury', thanking me for a 'sane and committed blog'. I'm quite sure some people think this blog is 'insane' and 'you should be committed'.

Anyway, this book has been sent to me from someone who likes the blog, so I'll say thank you, for it is a gift, but I found it strange to receive it since I am a Catholic and the author of the book is, wait for it, a fully-paid up Protestant who seems to be 'rent-a-church'.

Joe Dallas, the author, is 'past president of Exodus International, lectures extensively at churches and seminars and directs a biblical counseling practice in Tustin, California'. The book seems to be a personal travelog from 'pro-gay' theologian to 'mainline' Christian with biblical quotes aplenty addressing the mistakes made by 'pro-gay advocates'.

I do not wish to sound in the slightest bit derisory towards Protestant churches, or some of their gifted ministers, nor do I think that anything that is not in the Vatican library should be immediately burned, it is just odd that I've been sent a book written by someone in whose lexicon the words "Catholic Church" are most assuredly not. While I appreciate the gift of this book, I do think that the subtitle to the book is interesting, since it is highly likely that, since the author of the book is not a Catholic, that he may just be a 'pro-Baptist advocate' who has 'misread the Bible'.

Humbly, he suggests that while he was actively gay and signing up to 'pro-gay' beliefs, that he had 'lost his salvation'. Now that he has repented it appears that 'losing your salvation' cannot occur. Most amusingly, when he discusses the mainline Churches reaction to the gay liberation phenomenom, he mentions every denomination under the sun...except that which compiled and wrote the book itself. No offense to the kindly man or lady who sent me this...I'm just being honest. I immensely distrust books published by 'Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon 97402'. Inevitably, books written by 'reformed gays', or indeed people who have overcome some particular disorder, like 'reformed chocoholics' or even that most dreadful bore, the 'reformed smoker' are of the, "Sinner? Yes, I used to be a sinner and nearly lost my eternal salvation!" ilk. There are surely few more irritating to God than these and surely few more irritating to men. No offense to those who have given up smoking. I do admire you actually!

The One True Church, the Catholic Church, teaches that anyone, straight or gay, can have the faith of the Centurion and yet lose his immortal soul eternally should he die in a state of mortal sin, therefore cutting himself off from Christ. There are no free passes to Heaven. Let none of us fall into the sin of presumption that 'we've cleaned up our act' and are 'saved'. God has no favourites as St Paul says, for 'pride goeth before a fall'. Still...I'll dip into it, for it does have some very interesting points to make about the Christian LGBT movement, and its rise from total obscurity, to less obscure than before status, so thanks!

Petition in Support of Egypts Coptic Community

2011-10-14T09:35:00.000-07:00

I've been sent a petition about a No Way Out Campaign in support of Egypts Coptic Christian community, now under seemingly more open persecution than they were under Hosni Mubarak. The petition will be sent to UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague, US Secretary of State,Hilary Clinton and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Baroness Ashton.

'We, the undersigned, ask you to use your good offices to urge the Egyptian authorities to provide extra security to protect Christians in Egypt in the aftermath of sectarian attacks in 2010 including the Nag Hammadi shootings in January 2010 and the Alexandria church bombing on New Year’s Eve. In light of continuing violence against Egyptian Christians, we urge the government of Egypt to take proactive measures to address the root causes of sectarian violence, and to prevent acts of religiously-motivated hatred. It is vital that the rights of all Egyptian citizens are upheld as set out in article 40 of the Egyptian Constitution, and that Christians enjoy “equal public rights and duties without discrimination due to race, ethnic origin, language, religion or creed.” Furthermore, we ask you to encourage a review and restructuring of the legal measures employed after sectarian attacks, and to call for an end to informal reconciliation meetings which do not recompense victims or serve justice. The rule of law must be upheld in Egypt in order to break the cycle of religious violence.'

You can also download a paper petition on the same website to be signed by others of good will, parishioners, friends etc.

David Aron to Complete His 184 Mile Walk for Good Counsel

2011-10-14T05:09:00.000-07:00

This man deserves a beer and more, but donate to Good Counsel!

David Aron aims to complete his 184 mile along the Thames Path Walk to raise money for the work of the Good Counsel Network today.

David began his walk on Friday 7th October. He plans to attend the Old Rite mass for the Good Counsel Network this evening at Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane in Central London.

He has walked about 25 miles a day to complete the walk and has had to carry his sleeping bag, tent etc. Please sponsor David, and help the Good Counsel Network to protect more babies by giving support, friendship, food and housing to more expectant Mothers by clicking on to his JustGiving page.

Support Margaret Forrester, Catholic NHS Worker

2011-10-14T04:37:00.000-07:00

Margaret Forrester's tribunal begins on 15 November

This blog has, over the last couple of years highlighted some of those public cases in which the expression of Christianity has been, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI on his visit here, pushed 'out of the public square' and relegated 'only to the private sphere'.

It has to be said that, nearly without exception, those high profile cases have not involved a Catholic 'in the firing line'. Margaret Forrester therefore represents a watershed moment for us Catholics, as one of our sisters is now sharing in the the Lord's Passion and is in danger of being sacked for an expression of the Faith to a work colleague.

The Telegraph documented the story in December of last year. On the 15 November of this year, the Central London Employment Tribunal will hear the case of the 39 year old Mental Health worker who was suspended and disciplined by the Central London NHS Trust for handing a booklet concerning the psychological and emotional realities of abortion, covering case studies of five women who suffered post-abortion syndrome - feelings of guilt, despair, emotional pain or bereavement. Such a booklet seems like eminently sensible reading for anyone interested in mental health and, in fact, the colleague that Margaret Forrester handed the booklet to, entitled 'Forsaken', was not offended by the booklet. Even though this is, apparently, the case, the Employment Tribunal has decided not to call upon that work colleague for evidence in the hearing.

It has to be said that the NHS has become as devoted to abortion as the most fervent Catholic could be to Christ. It has embraced abortion as a religion. It is one of the defining articles of faith for modern Britain. Nothing can be said against it, since abortion is part of a new religion for a new age which has decided to render God and any form of traditional morality as implausible and obsolete. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy on abortion comes in for heavy criticism and is even silenced or loses their livelihood. The injustice of Margaret's treatment is, to we who believe in the fundamental right to life of the unborn, staggering. She has been accused of gross misconduct and yet the injustice being applied to her is gross. Therefore, I join with other bloggers and campaigners on her behalf to both pray for Margaret, and for those who seek to ruin her career for the simple act of raising awareness to a work colleague of the often terrible emotional impact of abortion on women, and, if you possibly can, to contribute to her legal costs.

Mgr Andrew Burnham to Come to St Mary Magdalen

2011-10-14T02:19:00.000-07:00

If you are in the area, this promises to be very interesting.

God Became Human

2011-10-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

God’s adversary, the Devil, despises our humanity, yet God so loved His Creation that He desired to unite Himself with it and become a man. God is not proud, distant or aloof. The Devil’s great sin was to want to be God. Our first parents sinned because they wanted or chose to be ‘like gods’ following the serpent’s temptation.

Yet Almighty God, who has no sin, who is all pure and all holy and who dwells in ‘inapproachable light’, before whom Israel's sons prostrate themselves in fear and awe, wants to become a man, wills to become a man, desires to be human and so does so! What are we to think? That being Almighty God 'in inapproachable light' surrounded by adoring Angels is not all it is cracked up to be?!

Yet it was His plan to do so, we are told, from all eternity, whether Adam and Eve had caused our humanity to fall or, indeed, not!

How strange and contradictory and mystifying is God! He said, after Creation, that man is ‘very good’, not just ‘good’ as he described the rest of it. The Creation of man is so ‘very good’ and in man's Creation He is so very delighted, in fact, that He chose, before all eternity to join in on the party and become one Himself! What great a dignity then now, has man! For it is not the other species, nor any other created thing which can 'boast in the Lord'!

He did not choose to become a whale, he did not choose to become a tiger. Much of nature he endowed with beauty but He did not choose to become a bird, graceful as they are (apart from pigeons). He did not choose to become a constellation, nor a planet, nor a star, nor a moon though all speak of His beauty. He chose to become human. This He did, while remaining God, for at no point in the Virgin's womb, or in His infancy, did He 'become God'. We are told that nothing in His own divine nature changed when He became man, even though he 'assumed humanity', and became man. His descent is contradictory and His death is contradictory to us. Why should unbelievers not believe it!? It often seems that nothing in man's nature changed either when God became man, since we see evil in the World and in ourselves and yet something in man's nature has irrevocably changed.

Man now has the capacity to know, love and serve God. Man is no more capable of great human achievements now than ever he was. Man cannot build buildings any better than he could before Christ came. He cannot make money better than he could before Christ came. He cannot be a more fierce warrior than he was before Christ came. Man can, however, now become 'by adoption, what Christ is by nature' because 'God became man, so that man might become God'.

In Jesus Christ, God chooses to become that which can issue forth blood, mucus, urine, faeces, that which can bleed, that which can have a runny nose or a cold, that which can undergo mental anguish, or even terror, that which can cry, that which can be frightened, that which can graze its knee as a child, that which can work and labour, that which can toil, that which can have friends, a mother, an earthly father under whom he places himself for protection and responsibility, that which can sleep, breath, that which can be abandoned, that which can even be tempted, that which can be betrayed, that which can trust only in God, that which can be spat upon and mocked, that which can be nailed to wood, that which can be tortured, that which can feel deserted by even God, even that which can pray and that which can die. God became human. Yes, the Devil despises our humanity. He cannot abide it, but not so God - for He desired, chose and willed to become 'like us in all things' except sin.

Vatican II for Kids (Vintage)

2011-10-13T06:14:00.000-07:00

From the October, 1963, issue of "Mine: A Magazine for Junior Catholics" that I found at a recent rummage sale:

(Sorry I had to break this layout apart, but it was too big to scan as one piece.)

Pretty benign, yes? I realize comparing adult explanations of Vatican II to child explanations of the same isn't fair, but something about this childish presentation tells me that uber-nefarious changes to the Church and liturgy weren't exactly the order of the day. Then again, "propaganda" intended for kids is always sweet and clean, isn't it?

This small kid's "magazine" (booklet) is very charming, and if anyone would like to have it, just shoot me an email and I'll send it to you. It has a short lesson about Blessed Hermann Joseph, some (gasp! horror!) Halloween puzzles and cut-outs, a story about Christopher Columbus (how barbarous!), and lessons about "Noe" (Noah) and the Old/New Testaments in relation to the sacraments. The cover is pure vintage Catholic, with two children kneeling beneath Mary, praying their rosaries.

I wonder if this magazine ever made it? It was produced in Minneapolis by a group of nuns, with approval from Archbishop Leo Binz of St. Paul.

"Preach the Gospel at All Times, If Necessary Use Words..."

2011-10-08T15:59:00.000-07:00

A Catholic family who travel in a mini-bus: Witnesses to Life and Faith

This quote, much loved and often banded around in the Catholic world, is attributed to St Francis of Assisi who, having humbly and prayerfully wandered an Italian town, presumably somewhere in Umbria, absolutely silent and in his habit, told astonished enquirers of his behaviour that he had preached to the whole town.

This evening, having earlier made the Rosary Crusade from Westminster Cathedral to Brompton Oratory with a large throng of Catholics, praying the Rosary and singing hymns to Our Blessed Lady, I went to a restaurant, Bella Pasta in South Kensington, to be precise, with my fiancee and her family. Half way through the meal, a family of nine arrived at the restaurant and sat next to us. The waiter had to arrange another table so that the whole family could be seated. I thought that this family might just be Catholic and might just have been on the Rosary Crusade and this was confirmed by the mother who was wearing a Miraculous Medal and the parents themselves when I, er, asked them.

It need not be said that large families - this delightful couple have seven delightful children - are extremely rare. They are, perhaps, as rare as Franciscan friars wedded to Lady Poverty wandering towns barefoot, but, my oh my, what a wonderful sight they are to behold! It appeared to me that their love and cherishing of the gift of life and their generosity to God shone forth like a light in a dark World. Everyone is used to seeing a family of two or three sit down at a restaurant. There is nothing ordinary or particularly counter-cultural about it, though in Brighton, of course, families do still run against the grain.

A family of nine, however, can turn a whole room on its head, a whole restaurant stop and wonder, and doubtless, a whole parish stand back in awe at what, today, is something like a modern day miracle. No, today, it is a miracle. It is impossible to sit with or near a family of nine and not be changed in some way, not be struck nearly speechless by the holiness of life and the generosity with which such couples live. To top it all, the children were well-behaved and the parents had this air of simplicity, humility, charity, strength and joy. They weren't stressed out and manic or fretting. I expect that, interiorly, this was rather the disposition of those who witnessed the family and reflected upon their own lives which had not borne such visible fruit - in terms of new life - and in terms of the spiritual fruits of the Holy Spirit Who has so graced this couple with jaw-droppingly bewildering peace and serenity. The children seemed to take care of themselves and the parents chatted while the mother fed the newest born on her high chair. Far from being in any way depressed, or encumbered, or 'burdened' this family radiated with joy, peace and love. Then, to double top it all, the mother told me that she home schools the children! She's a wife, a mother and a teacher to her children! Amazing!

Large families: consigned to history or due a glorious resurrection?

I told the couple that my parish priest always talks about how he prays the Lord would send him just one large family because it would teach the Faith better than he ever could and asked if they'd consider moving to Brighton! They said they couldn't afford it and they're moving to another more affordable county anyway.

I am sure the Priest in question will not be embarrassed when I say that now I understand exactly what he meant. This family and all those who are like them, who are open to life and who co-operate joyfully and generously with God's plan, are holy, heroic, saintly, counter-cultural, life-giving to the World and the words attributed to St Francis of Assisi can equally be said of them! For wherever they go, Christ's message of salvation, redemption, life, faith, hope and charity follow in their wake. They are the future of the Church's evangelical mission, as much as are those who follow Our Lord in Priesthood and Religious Life. They are Evangelists yet they need not say a word!

In order for people to see the Catholic life lived - to see Faith in action - these families must surely be esteemed and honoured by the Church which has given them the Graces to respond to God's call and be held high for the Church and the World to see their light. For the message of the Gospel is a challenge to us all: Do we choose Death, or do we choose Life? Do we say "no" to God? Or do we say "yes"? Do we trust that God will provide for all of our needs? Or do we not trust God's promises? Are we selfish and self-centred? Or are our lives centred on Christ and His love? The family I met tonight indeed preach the Gospel at all times and they do not have to use words. Wherever they go, they teach.

The rejected encyclical: Humanae Vitae

They may be a living embodiment of what the much hated by liberals encyclical, Humanae Vitae, taught us, but they appeared to me to be the happiest family I have ever met. Pray for large families and if you are a priest, if you don't already, pray that your parish may be gifted with one and you never know, the Lord may send you great teachers of the Faith who can do more walking into a Church or parish hall, than a thousand homilies could ever achieve.

To married brother and sister Catholics, I urge you, if you are generous enough to live the Catholic Faith with great joy and for your family to be abundant and fruitful then do it quickly, before the Government bans large families and endorses the Optimum Population Trust's two child per family quota campaign! I pray their plans fail! As it stands, the country's average birth rate is so low that the population is struggling to replace itself anyway, apart from Muslims, of course.

Ultimately, this family and families like them are also the Church's answer to the proposal to legalise 'gay marriage', because they have refused to go with either the 'spirit of the age' or its evil pseudo-religious twin, the 'spirit of Vatican II' and are immensely loyal sons and daughters of the Church. Both the 'spirit of the age' and the 'spirit of Vatican II' divorced both marriage and human sexuality from their primary function - the procreation of new life - children. It will, perhaps, surprise nobody to hear that they attend the Traditional Latin Mass every Sunday at 9am at their local parish Church in Northamptonshire. May God bless them and all couples who are open to the gift of new life and who endeavour to be faithful to God's loving plan for them. May their holiness of life continue to awaken in the hearts of men and women the flame of hope and the light of the Gospel. If we refuse God's gift of life then it is us who are poor and in the words of St Paul, 'to be most pitied'. I know that some will read this and call me a vile hypocrite because I'm not married and I have no children. All I ask you to do is pray for me, a poor sinner, that God may complete His work in me, for His Eternal Glory. It's incredible to see what you can make out of a white van, isn't it!?

Afternoon Must Read

2011-10-08T04:14:00.000-07:00

The LGBT organistion, Quest, is to offer a Mass at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Soho. To find out why this undermines Archbishop Vincent Nichols's public opposition to gay marriage, read A Reluctant Sinner's post today.

While the post makes clear that Quest and those who organise the Soho Masses are different groups, it also makes clear that these are 'different sides of the same coin'. The difference with Quest is that their dissent from the Church's Magisterium is even more entrenched, public and strident than that of the Soho Mass organisers. I agree with the blogger that it is impossible for Archbishop Vincent Nichols to defend the definitive nature of marriage as between one man and one woman, and to allow an organisation that publicly defies Church teaching, and which is publicly supportive of gay marriage, to use the Catholic Church to celebrate and promote their anti-Christian agenda. This is the reason why many Catholics will feel that on this issue, as well as others, the public words of condemnation in response to David Cameron's pledge to make gay marriage legal by 2015 ring very hollow indeed.

Two Horrible TV Commercials

2011-10-07T09:22:00.000-07:00

My husband and I are really annoyed with these two commericals, which are both from AT&T U-Verse:

These commercials do nothing but rip families apart. This is very, very sad that some advertising agency can't come up with anything better to sell their products.

The Way Movie

2011-10-07T06:43:00.000-07:00

Matthew Archbold today interviews Martin Sheen on the DVD release of the new movie, The Way, a tale as epic as the Santiago de Compostella pilgrimage at the heart of the new film.

It is not yet released in the UK, but it will be on 31st October. You can buy it at Amazon on pre-release here. It would make a wonderful Christmas or even birthday present to a brother or sister Catholic (hint hint!).

Or, alternatively, divert your gift to brave soul David Aron, who is commencing his sponsored 184 mile walk along the Thames Pathway for The Good Counsel Network tomorrow. Keep him in your prayers also.

I've only seen a trailer for The Way but it does look like its going to be a good movie and a tearjerker at that.

See...That's three blogposts today and I haven't mentioned either sex, homosexuality or gay marriage. Oh no...I've done it again! I'm just obsessed!

Please Pray for a Catholic Family in Distress

2011-10-07T03:52:00.000-07:00

The Rosary is a powerful intercessory prayer

As I said earlier, our Bishops have told us to fast today for Cafod, on this day, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary commemorating the victory for Christendom secured at the famous Battle of Lepanto.

I know a Catholic family who would appreciate your prayers and the Rosary is, as today commemorates, a powerful method of intercessory prayer.

I recently assisted an African Catholic man move his family's belongings from their home at Shoreham Beach into storage. He and his family attend St Peter's Catholic Church in Shoreham.

His wife is heavily pregnant with their second child. Even though the man earns relatively well, as a chauffeur in London for some really rather famous people, he is bed bound in hospital following serious surgery to remove a gall stone which was, it turned out, endangering his very life, because of its proximity to his liver. He is now convalescing but is unable to look for new accommodation while his wife is heavily pregnant and looks after their other child.

His wife and child are in temporary accommodation in Worthing. The accommodation is clean, but it is in no way suitable for a family soon to be 4, in one room, especially given that she is very soon to give birth to the new baby. Obviously, what with being temporary accommodation, the owners of the place are fleecing the Council for £176 a week to house the family in one room. Outragous! It is so obvious these 'Bed and Breakfasts' that are used as temporary accommodation are just cashing in and taking advantage of those who have fallen on hard times, often through no fault of their own! They get beds, no breakfast and even have to clean the room themselves!

I fear that the family are victims of a strand of racism which is still to be found in the Worthing, Shoreham, Littlehampton region of Britain. The father had already signed an agreement with a local Shoreham lettings agent for renting a new property, since the landlord wished to sell the property where they had been living for years in peace. The only problem was that on the very night before they were to move to the new property, the rental agreement for which he had secured, the landlord of the place to where they were moving suddenly backed out for no apparent reason. The father was totally distressed, as was the mother, and they were forced to go to London to stay with family and friends, their lives suddenly up in the air.

I agreed with the father to look for a property to rent in the region and so I did on rightmove.co.uk. He went and looked at a property in Lancing and over the phone had agreed some terms with the lettings agent and then suddenly, once more, the landlord backed out and the rug was pulled from underneath the family. I hear that this happens when people buy houses - as house buyers and sellers agreements are prone to suddenly "fall through", but I haven't heard of it in the renting arena. Now, he lays in a hospital bed incapacitated, even though his wife is about to give birth to their second child. He is also in a lot of pain following the operation.

I cannot personally look for accommodation for the family because the father is still in hospital and obviously he needs to be up and about to look at the property and deal with agents. I must say though, that I do have a bad taste in my mouth concerning their two experiences of suddenly being rejected by landlords for no apparent reason. Could it be that African families are not welcome in this part of the South East? I, for one, wouldn't rule it out. Along this part of the South Coast, it is amazing how many union jacks you see popping up over the roofs of houses - I know the national flag shouldn't mean, "This is a house of small-minded racists" but invariably it seems to. Just look, for instance, at Buckingham Palace...

So say a prayer for this Catholic family, since prayer can move mountains, while often we are unable, even through circumstance, to lift a finger.

What the TV Cameras Didn't Tell You About the Conservative Conference

2011-10-07T02:53:00.000-07:00

All smiles for the cameras but who was in the audience?

I find this article, written by Peter Oborne, to be a really refreshing and quite scathing attack of the big corporate interests that now dominate party politics - as well as party politics more generally. The article is really quite scathing of the Conservative Party, while still being intelligent enough to understand why big business leaders have replaced the ordinary party members who presumably used to throng Tory Conferences. It says a lot about why politics now is more corrupt than it ever was.

To me, that situation seems totally farcical. Outwardly, through the media, we are given the impression that the people who fill the Conference Hall are relatively 'ordinary folk' that Mr Cameron describes when he is talking about getting Britain working again as he does his 'Bulldog spirit' bit. But it isn't. It's the managing director of Tesco or the Chief Executive of some other huge corporation! It is reassuring that there are still journalists who have not been totally incorporated into the profit-obsessed world of big business and media yarn spinning for companies - journalists who still care about democracy and the truth about who really influences, funds and even dictates Government policy.

I have to say that when I heard Cameron's speech as he was defending his plans for businesses to expand onto the countryside, I did wonder whether he was speaking directly to the Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons and Co-Operative section of the audience, rather than us at home. Oborne's article is really quite damning of the Tories, who, lets face it, have always managed to outdo Labour - even during the Blair years - (though Blair, individually, is another matter), in courting the interest of large corporations and, doubtlessly, allowing such corporations to influence Government policy. Very interesting article, highly recommended.

Happy Cafod Fast Day of Our Lady of the Rosary

2011-10-07T02:07:00.000-07:00

Grrrr...and its my birthday. How could the Bishops call a fast today!?

Presents, cards, money, cigarettes, alcohol, rosaries, mass cards and letters of good wishes from friends can be sent to the Presbytery at St Mary Magdalen's Church. Dead puppies from my enemies can be sent to my PO Box address, which I seem to have lost. Don't worry if they arrive late, I'll still appreciate them.

Happy, er, Fast Day, everyone.

Today, I'm 34. I hear it is all down hill from here.

Worst Ever Catholic Youth Program - Ugh!

2011-10-06T13:32:00.000-07:00

I couldn't make this up.

Got a flyer from my son's school today, inviting the middle school kids to come to a city-wide Catholic youth group presentation called:

"I Want to Love Jesus, But I Don't Want to Be Called a Dork."

FAIL.

If you're worried that living your faith makes you a dork, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that you're not gonna be attending that program.

When will these misguided people figure it out? There's a reason my child attends a Protestant youth group.

The Church Will Not Give the Government "An Easy Ride" on Gay Marriage

2011-10-06T06:47:00.000-07:00

"This will cost you, mate."

Among the condemnations from a handful of Catholic Bishops of England and Wales has been a comment from our own Bishop of Arundel and Brighton that the Church will not give the Government an "easy ride" on David Cameron's Conservative Conference pledge to support what has become known as 'gay marriage'.

His Lordship also said of the move, "We can’t just let this slide by and say we are not interested." His comments in defense of the institution of marriage are encouraging. It is important that the Government is never given "an easy ride" when either the Church, or the fundamental Christian values that underpin society are either violated or in danger of being violated.

The Bishop's comments support the defense made by Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark and Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, both of whom condemned the Prime Minister's very public coming-out in endorsement of homosexual marital rights. The PM appeared to suggest he supports the proposal "because" he is a Conservative. Quite what he is trying to 'conserve' if he cannot 'conserve' marriage as being between one man and one woman, one can only imagine. Perhaps he should focus on the economy, since, let's face it, that would appear to be a higher priority than redefining marriage. We can only assume that Mr Cameron is only interested in "conserving" the four-party love affair with Stonewall. It turns out, after all, that at the last general election a vote for the Conservative Party, for a Catholic, and a vote for the Green Party, for a Catholic, were both equally abominable to God and, henceforth, look as if they always will be.

Unless, that is, the Prime Minister can be persuaded that popularity for his cause has only minority appeal and that he is morally and politically absolutely in the wrong. Will he outdo his predecessor in his intransigence in the face of his own grievous error? Only time will tell. However, we have more than one Bishop making it clear that the Government will not be given "an easy ride".

Be afraid, David. Be very afraid...

The problem we face, unfortunately, is that the comment by His Lordship does rather suggest that on every other issue on which Bishops have been called by Christ to battle for His Church, the Government of the day has been given "an easy ride". The comment suggests that, as His Lordship said in a recent article in The Catholic Herald, the militancy of some in the gay lobby in their demands for gay marriage is "a step too far".

Yet, for the life of me, I cannot see why the Bishops should make such a great exception for this. Was not the Civil Partnerships Act enacted under the Labour Government, also a "step too far"? Not, seemingly, for His Lordship, who maintains that even though such legislation was condemned at the highest level of the Church, for its approval of homosexual acts, the Civil Partnerships Bill apparently had the 'support' of the Catholic Church. His Lordship was described as believing, by The Telegraph that...

'...the Catholic Church supported civil partnerships, which confer the same rights to gay couples as marriage, because they give better legal protection to individuals in matters including inheritance.'

Now, it may be that, misguidedly and in the face of Vatican disapproval, the Bishops of England and Wales supported Civil Partnerships, but it is not true that the Catholic Church supported civil partnerships. Furthermore, and rather unfortunately, the Bishop's words suggest that whether the issue was Civil Partnerships Bill, the Equalities Bill, the Catholic's Early Sexualisation Bill (CES) proposed by Ed Balls, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, or the dreadful blueprint for the implementation of Nazism - the Mental Capacity Bill - all of them, bar Ed Ball's CES "easy rider", became the law of the land.

Did the Bishops allow those nasty pieces of legislation to be given "an easy ride" and did the Bishops Conference of England and Wales "let it slide and say "we are not interested"? After so many years of either acquiescence, indifference or scandalous support for anti-Catholic legislation under the Labour Government, in which the Church was either grossly naive about the intentions of those behind it, or indifferent to the consequences, why should any Government fear the Catholic Church because, apparently, this time, after all that evil legislation, the Church won't give the Government "an easy ride"? I am quite certain that the Government has far more trust in the Bishops Conference of England and Wales than do the Catholic faithful, sad as that may be.

Vroom, vroom: The 1969 cult classic, Easy Rider

It also begs the question, just how does the Catholic Church in England and Wales intend to combat this should the Government go ahead with the Cameron plan to support 'gay marriage'. Do the Bishops have enough, and I hate to say this, credibility among the lay faithful to call upon an army of them to fill the streets in protest against the Government's attempts to redefine marriage? Or are the Bishops now so distant from the laity, and even their own clergy, that the laity would be unsure of how to react to such a call, because they're knowledge of their own Bishop is so tenuous and they are not quite sure who their Bishop is? It will be no surprise to readers to learn that I would be among the first to join such a protest were it to be called. We are, after all, the Church Militant.

Or, alternatively, are the Bishops saying that the Government will not be given an "easy ride" because they, personally, will be a thorn in the Government's side by making public pronouncements against the Government's plans and intend to speak out in various committees? I find it confusing. There is no point in making empty threats and gestures. Furthermore, we have been given reassurances by the Bishops Conference that we need not worry because they are "on the case" and are fighting on our behalf, or rather Christ's behalf, only to hear later of some degree of complicity, acquiescence or indifference among the Bishops towards the fight. I do hope and pray that His Lordship is right and that the Bishops will fight to conserve the institution of marriage as being between one man and one woman, but I, for one, am not filled with confidence. Perhaps, God willing, this will turn out to be a watershed moment for the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

It looks like Mr Cameron has this one sewn up...

The Bishops should require neither imagination nor the gift of prophecy to realise that unless this is defeated, Priests could be hauled before a court years down the line, once, as the 'lobby' intends, the refusal of marital 'rights' to homosexuals in Churches becomes illegal. What will the Bishops be saying then? That the Government won't have "an easy ride" on this one as we witness the car crash that is 'down the road'? They must realise that, aside from the surprisingly reasonable (on this subject) Peter Tatchell, the pressure groups advocating and campaigning for gay marriage will most likely not be content until this terrible situation comes to pass.

Doubtless this blogpost will attract criticism because once again I am posting on the subjects of homosexuality and gay marriage and I am obviously 'obsessed' with the subject. Yet, if the World were not so obsessed by it, the Church's Pope, Shepherds, Clergy and lay faithful would not feel so utterly compelled to react against it. I am sure others have written it before, but it is not the Pope or the Catholic Church that is obsessed with sex. It is the World that is obsessed with sex. Because the World is so obsessed with sex, the Church must respond when the World's obsession with sex becomes so dominant and out of control that even marriage itself is under threat and the obsession becomes so all-embracing of society that marriage itself is seen as in need of redefinition, just so that one vociferous minority group feels 'accepted', 'tolerated' and totally 'equal' to married, monogamous persons who bear fruit and raise children as befits the natural law.

There is no doubt that the Bishops of England and Wales, or at least those who have spoken out publicly against the move so far, are looking to find new ways in which to present the Church's view in the new debates taking place, especially among those with power and influence, over human sexuality and marriage. As A Reluctant Sinner has noted in his excellent blogpost on the subject today, Archbishop Vincent Nichols used a recent Catholic Voices event to argue the need for the Church to "reframe" the debate in the terms of "human ecology" used by Pope Benedict XVI. At the said event, two publications, both co-written by Austen Ivereigh, were launched to proclaim to the World the ineffable goodness of the Catholic Voices project and its new and intriguing vision of "Catholic humanism". The Archbishop must be commended for his stance and especially his public endorsement of Benedictine theology. Will this convince MPs that this is one 'road' down which they do not wish to walk?

Our Lady of Fatima: Pray for us...

Catholic Voices

The Church needs strong 'Catholic voices' now from the Bishops Conference, from the Priesthood, from Religious and from the Laity. Time, I would suggest, is running out. The Church, today, does not require Catholics to come out as gay and defend their homosexuality - there are already plenty of them who do. The Church needs Catholics who are gay, or who rather carry the Cross of homosexuality, to come out as Catholic and defend the Church from the grave errors of the World. These voices need to be coherent, strong, bold, brave, unflinchingly faithful to the Magisterium and they need to be heard from the lips of those who are ready to lose everything for Christ in this World, so that they may merit to keep their souls in the next.

If strong Catholic voices are not heard in defense of the Church now, when She is so under attack from the secular World, even a 'Christian' Prime Minister, then, believe me, those who are charged with a duty to defend Her, but who refuse, will not be given "an easy ride" by Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Last Day. Those charged with responsibility by Almighty God within the Hierarchy of Holy Mother Church to defend Her so far have, with only a few exceptions, proved themselves 'unfit for mission'. With God's help, may they learn from their grave mistakes and may we assist them with our prayers and our own supporting role in this new phase of the Church's battle for hearts, minds and above all, souls.

I suppose that one problem for the Archbishop of Westminster in his fight against this proposal might be those Soho Masses, what with one of the organisers of the said Masses, Martin Prendergast, being something of an apologist (to put it mildly) for the gay marriage rights movement within the Catholic Church. But really, we must now all "hold" our "tongues" because there is absolutely no contradiction between the 'pastoral work' of the Archdiocese of Westminster and combatting any forthcoming Government campaign to legalise gay marriage. Still, let us give the Archbishop time and see what is down the road. Maybe the Bishops should take a line out of David Cameron's Conference speech as he assessed the Conservative agenda for the economy and make it their own: "It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog!" Go get 'em, your Lordships! You certainly have my prayers.

"Eucharistic Miracles"

2011-10-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

St Thomas: "My Lord and my God!"

A Reluctant Sinner posts news of a dramatic event in Poland which suggests that a "Eucharistic miracle" has taken place in the Church of St Anthony, Sokolka. The Holy See has yet to confirm the event to be of divine origin but...

Every Blessed Host is of divine origin. "Miracles" of the Eucharist are outward, visible manifestations of that which the Church teaches to be the case for every Blessed Host.

The phrase Eucharistic "miracle" is understandable, when that which is taught is made visibly manifest, but perhaps a little misleading, since every Holy Eucharist is a Miracle, a Wonder worked by God through His priests, at every Mass, in every Catholic Church, around the whole World, something attested to by St Thomas Aquinas in his Eucharistic hymn, Adoro te Devote:

Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore,
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.

Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived:
How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed;
What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly or there's nothing true.

On the cross thy godhead made no sign to men,
Here thy very manhood steals from human ken:
Both are my confession, both are my belief,
And I pray the prayer of the dying thief.

I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see,
But can plainly call thee Lord and God as he;
Let me to a deeper faith daily nearer move,
Daily make me harder hope and dearer love.

O thou our reminder of Christ crucified,
Living Bread, the life of us for whom he died,
Lend this life to me then: feed and feast my mind,
There be thou the sweetness man was meant to find.

Bring the tender tale true of the Pelican;
Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what thy bosom ran
Blood whereof a single drop has power to win
All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.

Jesu, whom I look at shrouded here below,
I beseech thee send me what I thirst for so,
Some day to gaze on thee face to face in light
And be blest for ever with thy glory's sight. Amen.

I find A Reluctant Sinner's speculation that Eucharistic miracles are possibly more common in these ages when belief in the Real Presence is, to put it mildly, on the wane, fascinating. It would seem that this Host fell to the floor and that it was after the Blessed Host fell to the floor that the 'brown patch' appeared. I find the speculation of 'rationalists' fascinating too - suggesting that someone nipped out after Mass, dug up a dead body from a nearby graveyard, got a carving knife out and glued some rotting human flesh to the Host in order to 'prove' the Eucharist to be the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, dare I say, even more outlandish than the more reasoned speculation that it was a Miracle of God - a visible manifestation of that which is true, even when the Real Presence is totally and utterly invisible as is the near universal norm. Of course, it is in a sense, a joyous wonder for a Parish priest that such a Miracle should happen at his parish Church, but there is also a real sense of warning attached to such Miracles. Let not that which is holy be trampled underfoot or be treated carelessly. Let Priests be holy and responsible custodians of the Lord's Body and Blood. Let men and women approach the Lord's Body and Blood with reverence with and with awe.

St Francis Clothed Himself in Christ

2011-10-04T06:23:00.000-07:00

A young man called Francis, before the town of Assisi, threw off his clothes, renounced riches and the paternity of his earthly father and entrusted himself to his Bishop, to whom he presented himself naked.

Nowadays, sorrowfully, it is Bishops who are naked, and men and women, young and old, who must remind them to clothe themselves in Christ.

Enjoy the Feast of St Francis of Assisi.

Oath Against Modernism

2011-10-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

Cardinal Vaughan: "Oath against modernism? No problem!"

I have a book for sale at my Catholic store which I obtained recently. From the passages I have read, the 'Letters of Herbert Cardinal Vaughan to Lady Herbert of Lea - 1867 - 1903', may not sound a riveting read, but it really does give a great insight into the heart, mind and soul of a much loved Cardinal who apparently led Catholics heroically in England and Wales as a great Shepherd and pastor to the Faithful. I suspect there will be at least one person who reads this blog who will happily take it off my hands.

Cardinal Vaughan's school, or at least the school set up in his memory, is at the centre of an ongoing disagreement with the Diocese of Westminster. That issue has been documented by bloggers such as Damian Thompson with much more knowledge of the situation than myself. Could it be, however, that there is a sense in which the battle over Vaughan may touch slightly upon the problems of modernism within the Catholic Church in the wake of the 'spirit of Vatican II'? Could it be that a whole raft of issues in the Church today touch upon the problems of modernism? Do I hear a resounding, "No s**t, Sherlock?!"

As I say, I know that I am ignorant of many of the issues debated concerning the school, but I doubt, for instance, that Cardinal Vaughan would have had a problem with a Catholic school verifying the Catholicity of parents, for instance, before allowing admission to their children to the school. I also doubt very much whether Cardinal Vaughan would have had a problem signing the Oath Against Modernism posted up by Fr Z and Fr Blake and Fr John Boyle today.

The oath raises questions: Would Tina Beattie, professor of theology at Roehampton University, sign it, for instance? Would the editorial team of The Tablet, sign it? Would Catholic teachers and teachers of seminarians sign it? How many individuals in the Church today would 'get it'? Would, even, the majority of our Bishops today be willing to sign it? Reading over the extraordinary oath, it is almost as if Pope Pius X sensed an immediate future for the Church that was a little more than bleak, as if the foundations of the Church were about to be shaken and that while knowing the gates of Hell shall never prevail against Her, desperately wanted to protect Her from the new age of 'rationalism' that was to assail Her and, to a point, infect Her. Popes, thankfully, desire to protect the Bride of Christ.

The very fact that he wanted this document signed by professors, preachers, priests, teachers and everyone who was anyone in any kind of teaching role within the Church makes it clear that if he didn't see the enemies of the Church within Her already, attempting to dismantle the Faith, then he at least saw them at Her gates. The same goes for Pope Pius XII with his definition of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Something that had long been believed by Christians perhaps has to be defined as an article of Faith, because a new age of 'progressive' thought believed by 'rationalists' seeks to undermine the supernatural origin of the Church and the uniqueness and sinlessness of the Blessed Virgin. Both Popes seem to have had a prophetic foresight of things to come after their reign.

The same can even be said for Pope Paul VI, so often criticised by traditional Catholics, with Humanae Vitae. Every Pope must be 'in the thick of it' and can perhaps see the 'wolves' surrounding the Church at different times and epochs when new philosophies threaten Her, not with extinction, but with persecution and a new variety of unbelief and heresy. And so it is today, with Pope Benedict XVI with Summorum Pontificum, the subsequent clarification, Universae Ecclesiae and the new translation of the Roman Missal. The actions of Popes can be mystifying to some, but looking back and even to the present day, it is as if many are gifted with foresight and like true defenders of the Faith, strategise a generation, maybe two, in advance, sometimes, even as a kind of 'damage limitation' exercise. They look out onto the horizon and see dark clouds on the way, in a way in which we cannot or do not, and plan for what is to come.

Anyway, back to Cardinal Vaughan, here is a nice excerpt from the book which, as I say, is available to anyone who wants it who can make me an offer if they choose. My store is something of an online car boot sale...

'I shall say Mass for you tomorrow, that we may both grow during the next year more and more fervent in His service, more and more dead to self, more and more purified from earthly motives and more and more helpful to one another. How much we have to be thankful for during the past year! We have both been permitted to do much in His service, more than in any former year, so far as I am concerned, for of your past I cannot judge: but, however that may be, how mch has been accomplished by our feeble hands: the College is where I could hardly have expected this time last year; the Tablet and now the Vatican are certainly heralds and champions of the Truth; the Catholic Truth Society has taken a hold and will spread still more. These three are important national works and are limited to no local or subordinate object and end. And these three have been emphatically our works, in which you have certainly had as great as, and probably a more meritorious share than, I have. Then there are all your more local works at Salisbury. And your books, which will spread truth and piety like the widening circles in the water. Let us then thank Our Lord tonight and say our Te Deum, and never give way to thoughts of sadness and despondency. There is still always one great dark cloud before you, I mean your children: but have patience and believe that patience hath a perfect work, and that by prayer and work we shall in the end obtain all we ask of God. What a sermon! Forgive me...'

The Tablet? A herald and champion of the Truth? I guess that someone there forgot to sign the Oath Against Modernism...

Finally Getting Out of the House (or The Irony of My Dislike of Latin)

2011-10-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

So, what have I been up to lately?

I am volunteering (and more!) at a brand new Catholic high school that just opened up for the first time in September. It's only been two weeks, but thus far, I am loving it in terms of my being out of the house after all these years, and feeling as if I have something valuable to contribute to the world.

How did this happen? Well, it came about due to a conglomeration of factors. One of the men who opened the school was recommended to us as a person who could answer many questions about the state of Catholic education in the Milwaukee area. So this past summer, we talked with him by phone. By the time we contacted him, we were aware that he had plans to open an authentic, classical Catholic high school in our area by virtue of Wisconsin's "school choice"/voucher program that had just been expanded by Governor Walker into our county. Thus, in our conversations, we asked this guy what the heck he was thinking in making such an attempt and why was he doing it?

We liked his answers. And we liked his attitude about what construes a real Catholic education. So in our minds, we made a mental note to try and support this new endeavor (if and when it would be convenient), but then just promptly moved on with our own lives and business.

However, as the beginning of the school year approached, this new school started to gain publicity in local papers, on TV, and through word-of-mouth whisperings. And what was being said wasn't good. For one, the school was being trashed because it was going to be a voucher school, and people were "predicting" that it was just some fly-by-night operation meant to unethically pocket tax-payer money without delivering the goods. Given the contentious school/union debacle here in Wisconsin, I'm sure you all can understand this kind of hostility.

But the situation has been made worse because the Milwaukee Archbishop has publicly come out against the school - he doesn't want it, doesn't support it, and has furthermore officially disallowed any priest in the Milwaukee archdiocese from performing mass or sacraments at the school. Such proclamations then fueled the anti-school choice crowd, who began to yell, "See! Even the Catholic Church is against this school!"

That's when I decided I was going to help this school in any way I could, since I agreed with the reasons why the school was being opened, approved of the backgrounds of the individuals who were doing so, and supported the pedagogy that was guiding their endeavor. Thus, I called the head administrator and told him I'd like to volunteer as much time as I could, doing anything that was needed.

Thus far, I've written correspondence, cleaned, put together mini-grant proposals, run errands, obtained documents needed for student files, and........get this.........been a substitute teacher about a half a dozen times! Sort of a Gal Friday, if you will.

Now, here's the shocker: The school isn't filled with nice teenagers from conservative Catholic homes. There's only one former homeschooler in the lot. Rather, the school is about 99% Hispanic, and low-income at that. So here's a bunch of largely inner city kids taking Latin, praying the Angelus and various novenas, and reading poetry written by 19th century Catholic priests in their rhetoric classes. Do the kids care about or understand what they're doing? I'm not sure. But the alternative for them is inner city high schools filled with drugs and violence, and well, you know what I'm talking about.

I have to admit, for me - who hasn't been in a high school alongside actual high school students since *I* was actually in high school - alot of these kids seem pretty rough-edged to me. But as I'm slowly getting to know them and their personalities, I see glimpses of the good and the potential they have, which makes me understand that what this school is trying to accomplish is very admirable. Again, do these students care or understand that they are in a privileged situation? Most of the time, from what I've observed, no. Then again, I wonder if deep down some of them do "get it," hating the strict rules and discipline, but knowing that those who discipline them are really the ones who care about them. Time will tell.

Substitute teaching has been, well, that's been an experience. Laugh if you want, but my first two substitute gigs were for Latin I! You should have seen the look on my face when I was told! The good news was that a pop quiz was provided for both classes, so I didn't have to really do anything in terms of actual academics. The bad news was that I think most of the kids were just lost, given that many of them struggle with English class as it is. (They all speak fluent English, by the way, alongside their native Spanish.)

More so, substitute teaching has been "interesting" for all the reasons you'd expect: Testing boundaries, pulling crap, and pushing the limits, etc. This is all new to me! Granted, I'm no dummy, as when I was in high school, I was always the prime instigator in pulling a bunch of shit with substitute teachers. Even so, times have changed. For example, teens today have ingenious ways to hide their cell phones, trying to text while in class or in the hallways. Furthermore, there's terminology that I'm not "hip" to. One rather sexualized young man sauntered up to me and asked me if I liked muffins or cupcakes? Of course, when he did this, the rest of the class started laughing. My brain was racing trying to immediately grasp what he was really asking me. I responded that I wasn't answering questions posed to me in code. About a half hour later, I figured out that he was asking me if I preferred women or men. Ugh!

For now, I'm volunteering as much time as they need. The last two weeks, I was there nearly everyday, for most of the school day. This week, I'll probably be there three days. Which is fine with me - they are flexible with consideration of Alan's schedule, etc. The only problem I've come up against is my not having enough semi-professional looking clothes to wear, especially since I've lost 25 pounds over the summer. I'm not required to wear skirts/dresses, as the girls at school don't have to either - the uniform is pants for everyone, and the uniform policy is one of the broader ones I've seen, owing to to the financial circumstances of the kids attending - yet I still need to find some new clothes! (They told me they're OK with jeans since I'm a volunteer, but even then, I'd need new jeans that aren't falling off of me. Even so, I plan on getting some casual, non-jeans pants because I feel it's important for adults to model proper attire to students.)

This new Catholic high school is small, with about 50 kids right now. But as the school choice/voucher program grows in our area, the school will likely grow alongside it. As such, the timing is perfect for me to get in on such an endeavor, because there's no fussy school politics to contend with, especially since this place just needs to make it and survive its first year. There's no "school kool-aid" to drink and there's no gossipy mother aides circling around like vultures. Besides, I'm a very creative, roll-with-it individual who inherently understands entrepreneurship. A person who can't keep changing or who's bothered by a continual refinement process wouldn't fit in at a start-up endeavor like this one. For the time being, it seems like a perfect fit.

I ask here your prayers on two accounts: The first one being the more important request, which is that the Milwaukee Archbishop would soften his heart and allow priests to offer mass and sacraments at the school. For the time being, a chapel service is being held once or twice a week, complete with the use of an incensor and very traditional readings and prayers. (Did I mention that I'm working for a - gasp! - traditional Catholic?) Still, even I can see that there is much to be gained on so many levels from weekly mass and having a priest come in to hear confessions, etc.

The second request is for prayers that this will work out for me, long-term. Sure, I'm probably in the "bloom" of the novelty of being out of the house and feeling useful and a part of something. Still, isn't that the point and what we've all hoped for me, even if no one has been courageous enough to say it out loud here? (Including myself.) More so, I want this to work out because you never know when a good thing might morph into an even better thing. Right now I could very possibly be working toward the success of a school that could expand into the authentic Catholic grade school that I keep hoping and searching for, mostly in vain. In other words, perhaps I am part of the solution to my own dilemma.

It's all new and it's all tentative. But I'm OK with that. It's exciting to see something unfold from the ground up. And of course, if it wasn't tinged with a bit of controversy, I probably wouldn't be interested anyway.

Good Counsel Network Fundraising Ball

2011-10-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

What?

I said 'Good Counsel Network Fundraising Ball'.

When?

November 19th, 2011

What Time?

6.30 PM.

Where?

55 Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2PN (nearest tube station is South Kensington).

What kind of evening will this be?

This will be a fun evening with a delicious 3 course dinner.

Will there be live music and great dancing?

Yes.

How much will it cost?

£70 per person.

Is there a special offer?

Yes. £630 for table of 10.

How should we dress?

Ladies Evening Dress, Gentlemen Black Tie.

How do I buy tickets to this great event for a great organisation?

Call to book now on 0207 723 1740 or book online.