Campbell slams 'putrid media'

Journalistic integrity: Campbell in combative mood...

Channel 4 reports...

'As Alastair Campbell tells the Leveson inquiry elements of the press have become 'putrid', a former investigator claims data chiefs refused to take action against newspapers on illegal information.

Mr Campbell, a former journalist, submitted 55 pages of written evidence to the inquiry on press standards, saying that whilst the "good journalists are still in the majority", competitive pressure are having a severe impact on media ethics.'

55 pages, eh? Not a bad effort. How many pages were there in the 'sexed-up' Iraq dossier on WMDs, though?

Is it just me, or does anyone else get the feeling that the Leveson inquiry into the behaviour of the press is being used to justify a future assault on its freedom to investigate anything Government does at all? I expect some MPs are still reeling from having their expenses claims documented in The Telegraph. The News of the World's actions were abominable but I get the general feeling that it is going to be used to muzzle the 'fourth estate' big time.

Another Catholic School in peril - Coloma.....Southwark's "Vaughan"

EF Pastor Emeritus, good priest blogger that he is, posted on the Coloma Convent Girls' School issue earlier this month, you may read the post here

I particularly liked EFPE's comment:

   "Maybe Catholic Schools should discriminate, in favour of the Faith, and should be supported by Bishops and Archbishops. I have long-standing doubts about the actions of  school commissions whether in Southwark or Westminster. Time and time again the Church seems to be surrendering long fought for rights originally recognised in th 1944 Schools Education  Act.  I saw the same thing happen with Hospitals and warned over 20 years ago of what would happen if we did not insist on our Legal rights. Now we are faced with Chaplains given fewer rights and Catholics having to INSIST that their religion be recorded when they enter hospital AND that the Catholic chaplain be notified.
I sometimes despair at the level of ignorance which appears to exist amongst the hierarchy. Mind you, I think they would very quickly be educated if the Catholics in the pew kept their hands firmly closed and joined  (in prayer) when the second collection for Catholic Education is being taken. Even in the Church, money speaks, as does its absence!"

It is looking more and more as if Southwark Diocese under Archbishop Peter Smith, is trying to do a "Westminster" ie control the school absolutely as Archbishop Nichols tried to do with Cardinal Vaughan School.

Why, oh why do they always go for the decent, principled Catholic Schools and let ones like Bonus Pastor with its explicit sex ed programme go free?

Here is the report from the local newspaper 'Croydon Today'.....my comment in blue....
                 ​
           Coloma Convent Girl's School's head teacher Maureen Martin

The school awards maximum points to potential students baptised within six months of birth, with two points given to any child after 18 months.
The parent said the policy was "unfair" and broke the School Admissions Code. Coloma's admissions policy was also described as "unclear and discriminatory" by the diocese, which criticised the decision to award points for involvement in "church activities".
Rated "outstanding" following its last Ofsted inspection in October 2009, the school, in Upper Shirley Road, is one of Croydon's most respected and oversubscribed schools.
When its September 2012 admissions policy came up for review the only two objectors were the parent and the diocese.
The diocese said families who could not provide evidence were being discouraged from applying to the school, adding that the policy was particularly unfair to single parents. (But, the Church insists on a Baptism Certificate being produced if you wish to be Confirmed or Married)

The parent said Coloma was wrong to use Canon Law, which states families "are obliged to take care that infants are baptised in the first few weeks", and that early baptism only reflects commitment to Catholicism at the time, not 11 years on.

Schools Adjudicator Dr Bryan Slater cited a previous adjudication which, the school said, had shown the priority given to the date of baptism did not contravene the School Admissions Code, though at the time the diocese had made it clear that it did not support the measure.
Dr Slater said in his report that the school's rationale behind awarding points for early baptism and involvement in parish life is that the alternative, distance from the school, would lead admissions to be "dominated" by those able to afford to live nearby, contradicting Coloma's inclusive ethos.
Dr Slater upheld the complaints, with the report stating the social mix of the school was already unrepresentative of the area it was in
He said: "I am unconvinced the school is able to justify its reasons for departing from diocesan guidance in employing the oversubscription criteria. I agree with both objectors that there is potential for unfairness."
Dr Slater said he had given "very careful consideration" as to whether to change the school's admission arrangements.
He added: "I am mindful that parents have only until the end of October to make their expressions of preference, and that it would be unreasonable at this juncture to ask them to do so on an altered basis.
"Accordingly, but with some reluctance, I think it is now too late to amend the arrangements for 2012-13."

Coloma refused to comment.

The Insanity of Sin

If Hitler had not done himself in and he had been put on trial, would the psychiatrists have been brought in to judge whether he was sane or insane when he ordered the killing of millions?

"It seems Adolph had issues surrounding his mother and perhaps an uneasy relationship with his father. We think that this may have disturbed his emotional development..."

You don't say! Are we moving 'beyond good and evil'? Isn't there a level on which every mass murderer could be designated as 'insane'? How does an investigation or a court come to the conclusion that someone was suffering 'psychosis' when they committed mass murder? Was Stalin just suffering from a 'psychotic episode'? Where do we stop? To my mind, which as we know is sometimes prone to eccentricities, declaring Breivik as someone who suffered acute psychosis or schizophrenia is a terrible insult to those who are genuinely mentally ill and who suffer from unwanted 'voices', delusions or illusions over which they have no personal control and the vast range of mental illnesses in existence.

I know a few people who suffer from schizophrenia. None of them have anything like the kind of terrible hatred that Breivik had for people he sees as 'unfit' to live. Even though they suffer greatly, they have an enormous amount of love and compassion for others. Some would do violence or injury to themselves, but they would never inflict anything like this on anyone else. Genuine schizophrenics are left to rot in their homes without care and to wander about the community trying to deal with their 'voices' and behaving very oddly in the eyes of the rest of society. They don't methodically shoot 69 people and orchestrate an intricate terror plot. Who else are we going to let off for being 'insane' or 'psychopathic' murderers? Shouldn't Tony Blair be in an asylum by now?

How do you evangelise a Zombie?

I have worked, during most of my career with young people aged from 16 years of age up to 24 and beyond. They came from all sorts of backgrounds and had all sorts of beliefs or none at all.

A third of them were excellent students, well behaved and diligent. Another third were just there; they existed, they scraped through their assignments and they finally passed through the system (I can identify with that sector, I was like that in my time so don’t give up hope on them  completely).

The final third are the walking dead; some College staff referred to them as “the knuckledraggers” – what unkind person could have used that phrase?

But, it was true. They grunted at times, they were, largely, unwashed, they could not actually string a sentence together and they could not hold a knife and fork.
 They could not tell you who Churchill was let alone Jesus Christ.

Amazing but true.

The problem is, of course, that these are the children of the latch key kids generation.
Their parents came home after school (if they ever went there) to an empty house, not a home.

Food came from the freezer and was microwaved to an instantly edible mush. It was consumed in front of the television (porn videos from under dad’s side of the bed?) and it was eaten using only the fingers. Easier and it saved on the washing up.

If you think that I am painting a damning picture, you are right. But it is also true. And this is the next, evolved generation. The generation that are adept at playing computer games for 12 hours at a stretch, the generation that has lost the art of communication.

Now as Catholics we have a mission in life to lead others to Christ. Not in a Jehovary sort of way, that is crass. Not in a Protestant TV  evangelical sort of way, they wouldn’t watch it. And certainly not in a happy clappy, cheery wavy, Catholic charismatic sort of way. That way only fools the charismatics.

The Holy Father has charged the Bishops to evangelise in 2012 but I’ll bet you a meal for two at McDonalds that no attempt will be made to make contact with the massive numbers, possibly hundreds of thousands that I speak of.

Why? Because it’s hard. Because the number of clergy the Church has that are versed in communicating with young dissidents does not run into double figures, because the ideas cupboard is bare; not only bare, the Bishops have forgotten that it ever existed!

We need new ideas, new ways of approaching this group. They are so tragic, sleepwalking to Hell. They need saving.

But who will save them?

And more to the point – how will they be saved?

Watch this space for some attempt at answering this troubling situation in a few days time.

Equality Men

Equality man: There he goes...

It was Satan who first discovered that the idea of 'equality' was not all that it was cracked up to be.

Desiring 'equality' with God led to his expulsion from Heaven. In desiring 'equality' he lost God forever. In desiring 'equality' he became the chief adversary of God.

Similarly, the calls of advocates of 'gay marriage' for 'equality' make those who advocate it adversaries of marriage, the Church and even God Himself, since marriage was raised high to a Sacrament by Christ and it was ordained that a man and a woman be married 'since the beginning'. Even those using the language of 'equality' to endorse same sex civil unions are surely doing marriage and the Church a great disservice.

It is silly to discuss heterosexual marriage in terms of being 'better' than 'gay marriage'. It is simply the case that marriage by its very nature requires the couple to each be members of the opposite sex for the procreation of children, the transmission of new life. It is only in that relationship that children can be born. What hypocrisy there is concerning 'equality' in this country anyway! If people really advocate 'equality' then how come 90% of unborn downs syndrome babies are aborted in the UK.

Each person deserves to be treated with respect and dignity,  even equal dignity, for all are made in the image and likeness of God, but even then, it is only the Holy Father for whom one would genuflect on the left knee. We should only kiss the Episcopal rings of Bishops and Cardinals. We might not do it for bin men, but then we wouldn't do it for anyone who wasn't a Bishop, Cardinal or Pope. We call the Queen, Your Majesty.  We have a myriad of titles for Our Blessed Lady with which we honour her. There is clearly a hierarchy in Heaven, a hierarchy on Earth in the Church and outside of the Church, in authorities. Not everyone in the police force is a chief constable.  Not every Freemason is 33rd degree, which is why it is strange that so many of them must be forcing this stuff down the population's throats.

It may be too soon in Advent for a Gaudate...

....but here is one anyway

It lightens the economic gloom and focuses our minds on what is to come - that is more important than world financial crisis, global warming and even Bishops!

Gaudete! one and all!

Have the guts to nail your colours to the mast!

Perhaps I got out of bed the wrong side this morning or, maybe it's a winter thing, deprivation of sunlight etc.

 We get a lot of that in Pembrokeshire from November to March each year.

 And, each year I renew my vow to go and live in a beach hovel on Ithaca and eat grilled snapper or mountain goat all washed down with  rough red wine; and say my Rosary to the lonely waves.....you can see the state I'm in, but, actually, today it is anonymous commentators that have provoked my bile.

Also, those who make their comments using a pseudonym, just as bad if not worse.

         If you are 'Anonymous' or 'Cub' please take this off before commenting


They are hiding behind a mask; one that they have assumed on a whim. They adopt names such as "Cub" or Exprodcatholic" (please note that I am using pseudonyms for those using pseudonyms.....it gets even more complicated from here on!) But, I have no wish to encourage these 'beings' to comment on this post, in fact, I wish to actively discourage them full stop.

If you have a view it is not an unreasonable expectation that you would have the courage to put your name behind it.

It follows, also, that if you are a Catholic you would have the courage to speak up for the faith when it is called for.

Or do you, at the meeting of the Parish fuehrers, slip a mask over your face when you wish to say something that you know will provoke their ire. Like "Whatever happened to the communion rails?" or "Why has someone placed that horrible bunch of flowers on the head of the statue of Our Lady?"

Perhaps these anonymous types and their nom de web counterparts just say nothing and let the matter go, it's so much easier than putting one's identity to something.

Enough of this droning on.......suffice to say that all, reasonable comment is welcome on this blog but to those who wish to hide their identity, please go and, how can I put this in a Catholic manner?

Shove off!  Phew, that took all of my powers of restraint!


Note: This does not apply to those bloggers who use a pseudonym but whose identity is well known and available within the blog profile information. 

A little Advent plainchant to lighten the gloom

To Thee before the close of day. Creator of the world we pray.......Te lucis ante Terminum....

Blog Alert: 'Will You Mantilla With Me?'

Click here for a blog dedicated to the mantilla.

Channel 4's 'Dispatches' on the Exploitation of the Homeless by Landlords

A friend has told me that Jon Snow has produced a documentary with the Channel 4 Dispatches team uncovering the exploitation of the homeless in the United Kingdom, by companies and landlords who take the Council's money and leave their tenants in squalour. Long term readers will know this issue is close to my heart at the moment. If you want to watch it click here the friend has told me it is on next Monday at 8.00pm.

Courtesy of Channel 4

'As the numbers of the homeless rise, Dispatches goes undercover in the property rental market again to find out what really happens when you're without a roof over your ahead and desperate.

Local councils are supposed to look after you, but now the housing minister wants them to sort the problem by working with private landlords. But how suitable are the landlords they send you to? And what checks do councils make on the rooms they rent?

Jon Snow, with a team of undercover reporters, returns to investigate the reality of life for people at the mercy of private landlords, and finds families with young children sent by local authorities to live in filthy, bed bug-infested properties, while their rogue landlords make a fortune out of public money.

Have you been affected by the standard of your rental property? If you have a story about your housing situation and want to share it with Dispatches, you can email us at dispatches@channel4.co.uk.'

I know several people who would like to share their housing situation stories with Channel 4. I think I might send them an email. Exposing the cruel injustice of Baron Homes Corporation Ltd, Baron Estates, the Council and the Mears Group plc is well overdue.

Inculturation......"but not as we know it Jim!"

The "inculturation" word has been bandied around quite a bit recently, including a few times on this blog when I posted on the issue of an 'African Mass'.

But what, precisely, do we mean when we use the word?

Do we mean an acceptance of a degree of local culture that is not, ordinarily, strictly in line with Catholic teaching?

 Morris Men - would they be an acceptable
part of the liturgy?

I am thinking here of the Chinese example when, allowances were made by the 17th century Jesuit missionaries, for the Chinese practice of  veneration of relics of ancestors to be incorporated into the faith.

Soon afterwards, this bending of  beliefs was rescinded by Rome and, ever since then, it has gone to and fro, mainly in accord with how the Pope at the time viewed such a practice.

This example is a sensitive one; many western Catholics have keepsakes of parents and grandparents tucked away somewhere.
Does the problem begin to materialise if you build a shrine in the corner of the sitting room and put locks of Grandmama's hair within?

Or, is it more a liturgical thing......you may pray for the soul of your ancestor but not get involved, to any degree, in worshipping the mortal remains (naturally).

It is quite a leap from this sort of debate to then describe the congregation doing an African (or Chinese for that matter) dance during Holy Mass as being part of the 'inculturation' process.

Is it right to permit deviations in the liturgy according to local custom or culture? "Yes, yes, of course!" (I can see the comments in the combox now) but I believe that this form of inculturation is wrong, for the following reasons.

The Mass is the Mass is the Mass (here he goes again you say). It should be the same Mass whether you attend in Amsterdam or Honolulu, apart from the obvious change in languages. But, of course, it's not.
A couple of years ago I wandered into an Amsterdam Church during an OF Mass and my expectations as to what I would witness were not at all disappointed inasmuch that it was all terribly informal and (apparently) ad libby.
The priest ignored the altar and carried out all of his duties, at a green baize card table centre stage.
I had no idea of where we were in the Mass and then, a few days later I repeated the exercise in Istanbul and was similarly confounded, or, is it kebabbed?

At this stage I have to mention the Latin Mass in its Extraordinary Form but, I'll keep it brief as we all know the points regarding its universality.

Some people obviously believe that it is asking too much of a Ugandan Swahili speaker to contort their tongue and their inclinations  in accepting the quiet, soulful delivery that is an integral part of the Extraordinary Form of Mass.

Patronising? Almost certainly.

For years Africans, Indonesians, Brazilians and even English men and women accepted the Mass in Latin and without question. Why now must we bend so that we have a Mass in Erse or Urdu? And, even worse, why should we have to accept limbo dancers or weird liturgical perversions in the process?

This inculteration business carries its own form of inverted political correctness with it.
They ( 'they' being those who like the concept) apparently approve of it only when it involves native peoples performing folk dances up the aisles and across the sanctuary.

They do not seem to have thought this through. If it's acceptable for black Zimbabweans to do it - why not white English Morris men or, (Heaven forfend), The Michael Flatley River Dance Club from Ballydehob to go a leppin' and a stampin' across all and sundry.

It is tempting to go further with the analogies but, for all of your sakes, I shall hold it there.

My point really is that inculturation (if that is what it must be called) is OK up to a point.
That point is perhaps best illustrated by the Missa Luba recordings that hark back to the 1960s.

The first was an African rendering of the Tridentine Latin Mass sung (mainly in Latin) by a Congolese choir, they coped with the Latin easily enough, as did five year old boys - I was one.

 If you have not heard it before, listen and see if you believe that it is acceptable.

And there it ends. No dancing, no non Christian rituals, no hats on the menfolk, no animal sacrifices at the Offertory.....just an African people worshipping God using their style of music...better still had it all been in Latin!

That's my take on inculturation for you!

Is there a trend emerging in the film industry?

There are films that have recently premiered and some more that are on the way and all of them have the same theme, Catholic faith and victory, of a temporal sort.

Cristiada........soon to be released, set in Mexico in the 1920s

The Way.......now available from Amazon at around £8.99 and well worth every penny...set in France and Spain

and now, courtesy of Fr Bede Rowe's blog, news of another film due for release January 2012......War in the Vendee....set, of course, in France.
The Vendee was the region that suffered most in the wake of the French Revolution. Catholics were massacred and put to death in most foul ways.
Here is a clip from the film....

ADVENT COMES.............

Saying the Unsayable

Fr Gabriel Amorth, Chief Exorcist at the Vatican

I like Fr Gabriel Amorth. I like the fact that he says things which he knows will be leapt upon the media and ridiculed.

I like the way he does not seem to care too much if others should think him foolish for being faithful to Christ.

I admire the fact that even though what he has said concerning Harry Potter and Yoga will appear to the World as bonkers, he is actually on the button.

He is an expert in his field, yet people will think they know better than he. Even though he has years of experience in dealing with the demonic and diabolical aspects of the spiritual realm, which in any other walk of life would give a person credibility when they speak out on a subject, people, even Catholics, will consider that his opinions concerning the promotion of witchcraft and 'self-enlightenment' in modern society to be eccentric.

I particularly like the fact that he is seemingly always pictured holiding a Blessed Crucifix, looking Heavenward for protection and help. I admire the fact that, even though he is held up to ridicule, he himself has probably liberated countless souls from the clutches of possession and from the snares of the Devil. He has, doubtless, by the physical possession of a person, come face to face with the vicious enemy of his and all of our souls.

Bishops and Priests speaking out about the ongoing and forthcoming cuts in welfare are right to express concern about the temporal welfare of the UK's poor. It is important that the poor are not abandoned by the State to a merciless World in which few real jobs actually exist in a time of deep recession.

That said, the Church is not an arm of the social services, She is the Body of Christ, the Ark of Truth and Salvation. Salvation! That is what we desire, even if appears at times, to ourselves and to others that we do not want it at all. If Bishops and Priests do not appear interested in saving souls then of what value will have been all of the justice and peace work?

When we read the statements of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Westminster and they appear interchangeable with each other and Labour Party statements, we should be concerned that the spiritual welfare of the Church's flock is being neglected by our Shepherds and Priests.  May our Bishops and Priests never be afraid to appear as fools in the World's eyes, in remaining loyal and faithful to Our Lord Jesus Christ. May they never be afraid to 'say the unsayable' and to proclaim the spiritual truths of the Holy Faith to bring men and women to repentance.

If, in a country which has fallen into such a spiritual abyss as England, we and our Priests and Bishops are not mocked, ridiculed or even despised by politicians and the people for preaching the Gospel, then we have to ask the question, why not and what has gone wrong? For we know that Our Blessed Lord told us that when the World speaks well of us, it is then that we are in our moment of greatest danger. I like Fr Amorth because he doesn't care who likes him. He's prepared to say things that will mean he will be mocked and derided.

I bid you farewell from Brighton for now, where I am battling on the front line, in my dressing gown and boxer shorts, but with only a Holy Rosary for a weapon. 'Pyjamahadeen' seems positively mild in comparison to the insults hurled at Fr Amorth! May God bless him, reward his courage and embolden also the Catholic Voices team never to fear appearing foolish to the World, for, to the children of the Devil, the children of God will always appear to be mad, bad, rad, trad, glad and dangerous to know. Go on Catholic Voices! Preach the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The power of Christ compels you!

Bishop Williamson's Going to Love This!

Priest bloggers recently gave wonderful accounts of a Bishop whose address to them melted hearts and brought pocket tissues out of jackets to dab eyes with sudden specks of dirt in them.

The then Mgr Mark Davies meet His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

In a Holocaust Memorial Day address yesterday (24 November) to an audience in gathered in Menorah Synagogue in Sharston, Manchester, Bishop Mark Davies warned all of us to be vigilant of ideologies that seek to destroy respect for the sacred and the human person.

I hear he has been known to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass as well. Oh, and he's having St John Vianney's incorrupt heart to the Diocese of Shrewsbury as well. Everybody in the back of the van! Deo gratias! Here is his address...

Courtesy of Independent Catholic News

'Thank you for your invitation to join you on this Holocaust Memorial Day. I have been asked in these opening words to address the importance of the Holocaust specifically for Christians and to thereby consider the theological significance of the Holocaust to the Christian mind.

As Blessed John Paul II expressed this, “no one is permitted to pass by the tragedy of the Shoah …” and no Christian can pass by the Holocaust without profound reflection. A Christian reflection might focus upon the mystery of evil, upon the sins of Christians and the need of repentance on the heartfelt prayer of Blessed John Paul II that our relationship “be healed for ever”. However, today in this short address I wish to focus upon the significance to the Christian mind of the attempted annihilation more than 60 years ago of that people who were called by the Lord, “before all others”.

I can only begin this reflection from silence, the silence often remarked upon at the scenes of the Holocaust where it is said the birds no longer sing. Four years ago I travelled with a group of Catholic priests to Auschwitz-Birkenau and my abiding memory will be of the silence which marked that day and continued in the group long into the evening. It is not only a human response to such horror but also as Pope Benedict described on his visit to that same camp in 2006: “To speak of this place of horror, in this place where an unprecedented mass crimes were committed against God and man, is almost impossible … In a place like this, words fail; in the end there can only be a dread silence …” It is a silence which must also mark this Holocaust Memorial Day. A silence which becomes in Pope Benedict’s words, a heartfelt cry to God which leads us to bow our heads before the endless number who suffered and were put to death and a plea to the living God that this must never happen again (28th May 2006).

We are painfully conscious that mass crimes, acts of genocide and cruelty on an unimaginable scale have continued to disfigure history. We think of the trial continuing today of the former rulers of Cambodia and we cannot forget the return of “eugenic” thinking directed against the unborn and the most vulnerable deemed “unfit to live” or threatened with “mercy killing.” The struggle against evil continues. Yet the Holocaust causes us in Blessed John Paul II’s words on his return to Poland in 1979: “to think with fear of how far hatred can go, how far man’s destruction of man can go, how far cruelty can go” (Mass at Brezeinka Concentration Camp 7th June 1979). “For the death camps,” he insisted, “were built for the negation of faith – faith in God and faith in man – to trample radically not only on love but on all signs of human dignity, of humanity. A place built on hatred and contempt for man …” And as he reflected as a now aged Pope on the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the prisoners at Auschwitz in 2005, “may it serve today and for the future as a warning: there must be no yielding to ideologies which justify contempt for human dignity …”

As Christians we cannot fail to see that amidst all the victims of Nazism it was a chosen people who marked down for systematic and total destruction. Both Pope Benedict and Blessed John Paul point to the significance of this will to annihilate the people, “who draws its origin from Abraham, our father in faith” (Romans 4:12) to the people who in the words of the Apostle Paul, “belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises …” (Romans 9:4-5).

Here I wish to share with you a story which was brought to my attention in a publication I was given Jerusalem earlier this year. It begins in the South Tyrol (a German-speaking region of Italy) in the last months of the Second World War. In the autumn of 1944 the remaining youth of the town all Catholics were conscripted into the collapsing armies of the Third Reich and in January of the following year despatched to the Eastern front under the command of SS officers. One boy, a medical orderly, finding his friend dead heard the officer sneer, “Now you may love your enemies; isn’t that what you were told by this Jew Jesus?” And he gave a courageous reply which he later realised flowed from his Christian faith and upbringing, “Yes, I love the Jews … they are the people of Jesus.” German soldiers were executed for lesser offences against Nazi ideology but somehow he survived amid the chaos of those days and became after the war a Catholic priest who dedicated much of his life to increasing understanding between the faith of Israel and the faith of the Church. As a teenager he had seen what Pope Benedict wishes to frequently reminds us as Christians that the Jewish people are “our fathers” in faith. “The people chosen by the Lord before all others to receive his word,” as the Catechism of the Catholic Church declares (CCC 839).

In this one, small incident in a barn on the Silesia in 1945 we see something of the hope which Pope Benedict expressed last year on his visit to the Synagogue of Rome that the memory of these events of the Holocaust “compel us to the strengthen the bonds that unite us so that our mutual understanding, respect and acceptance may always increase.” The Nazi reign of terror we recall today was based on a racist myth on an idolatry of race and state but as both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have reminded us it was also a radical rejection of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who is, “the God of Jesus Christ and all who believe in him”. For “the Almighty” Hitler and the Nazis spoke of was a pagan idol as Pope Benedict declared in Berlin’s Reichstag Building in September this year This idol Pope Benedict said “wanted to take the place of the Biblical God, the Father and Creator of all men”. “By wiping out this people,” he had declared at Auschwitz, “they intended to kill the God who called Abraham, who spoke on Sinai and laid down principles to serve as a guide to mankind, principles that remain eternally valid.” And contemporary historians point to the logical intention of the National Socialist State rooted in this idolatry of man, of race, of the state to destroy not only the Jewish race but Christian morality and the faith of the Church.

For it strikes us as both Jews and Christians as to how the Holocaust so explicitly trampled on every one of the “The Ten Words” “The Ten Commandments” in a systematic eradication of morality: “you shall not kill,” “you shall not steal,” “you shall not bear false witness.” As Pope Benedict reflected with the Jewish community in Rome earlier this year, “the Ten Commandments call us to respect life and to protect it against every injustice and abuse, recognising the worth of each person, created in the image and likeness of God … Bearing witness together to the supreme value of life against all selfishness, is an important contribution to a new world where injustice and peace reign, a world marked by that “shalom” which the lawgivers, the prophets and sages of Israel longed to see.”

The study of the Holocaust must lead, as I have tried to suggest in this brief talk to a deeper appreciation of the close bonds between the Jewish people and Christians recognising our common roots and the rich spiritual patrimony we share. An ideology which grew at the centre of European civilisation sought to remove from the face of the earth in this Holocaust the people called by the Lord before all others. This must surely lead us to recognise every continuing assault upon the value and dignity of every human life and person and to recognise in this the denial of the Creator. This must call us to vigilance in the face of the developing ideologies and mindsets of our time so often hostile to the Judeo-Christian foundations on which our civilisation was built. So as Pope Benedict reflected on the memory of the Holocaust: “the past is never simply the past; it tells us the paths to take and the paths not to take.”

May the memory of this day, reflected upon by Christians and Jews, help all humanity to take those right paths. Amen.

The Lean, Mean, Keen, Straight-Talkin', Street-Fightin', Pyjamahadeen

Male blogging attire: And not a pyjama in sight...

Amid the war of words taking place within the Catholic realm of the new media, the label 'Pyjamahadeen' has been pinned on some Catholic bloggers.

Who would say something so nasty as he looks down his nose at those passionate enough to write about the Faith for free?

I believe this label is grossly unfair. Not only is it an imperious insult, from those who came up with it,  towards the Catholic blogging community, but it is a well known fact that Catholic bloggers loyal to the Magisterium and the Supreme Pontiff wear smoking jackets and boxers. The men, at any rate.

Don't worry. None of our smoking jackets are sourced from the Ivereigh Coast. I think there's a song here somewhere, but I should really resist...

It's official! the Holy Father approves!

Yes, Pope Benedict drinks Reverend James bitter! The above picture shows him when he was Cardinal Ratzinger (but a mole in the Vatican informs me that a draycart (beer delivery truck) makes a weekly call to the Vatican and drops off a keg of the ambrosial brew). So, now the Pope drinks Rev James bitter!

Now I can honestly* claim that the Holy Father and I share the same taste in good ale** -  Amazing.

* Definitions may vary

** Any member of the Brains Cardiff Brewery Marketing team who wishes to make a handsome donation in folding money to the LOTH Fund  should send me an email.

Restoration News

Well, the Catholic reporters are still camped outside my flat. Today they shouted, "Mr England, tell us your thoughts on George Michael's tour cancellation due to pneumonia." So obviously, I shouted back, "May the Lord smile upon him like 'Jesus to a child' and through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, may he recover and find peace in devotion to the Mother of God," as any Catholic would.


Fr Blake today puts up some pictures of the work going on at St Mary Magdalen's. I have to say the Church is looking quite beautiful nowadays.

I'm sure the Vatican's Sacred Art and Liturgical Buildings Commission would be well pleased with what he is doing.

With so many Church buildings saying so little about the liturgical orientation and prayer of the Church it is a great joy to see a Church being 're-orientated', so to speak, to focus upon the beating Heart of the Faith - the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

It is truly astonishing what Fr Ray has done in such short time. Why not make his day and put some money in the Building Restoration Fund today. None of us, surely, want to appear before God and be asked the question, 'What did you do for My floor?'

If you don't put any money in the Restoration Fund, I'll be forced to write a song about it. Think about it people. Just think about it. Do you have any idea of just how hugely irritating I could become? So give today and make his day, especially any Herald readers out there. And remember kids, don't do drugs or botox.

The man who has done more to keep the Latin Mass alive in England and Wales...

...more, in fact, than any single person over the past 40 plus years.

Not a Pope, not a Bishop, not, even a Monsignor, he is, a humble priest. The most humble of priests who asks to be described as being "Nothing really, totally unimportant except as a servant of God"

He was given the accolade in the headline when attending a wedding at the London Oratory some two years ago. After the Nuptial Mass this priest stood quietly to one side as the guests spilled out and photographs were duly taken, when an Oratory Father approached him and said:

"Father I just want to thank you for the wonderful work you have done over the years in keeping the Mass alive in this country. You have done more than anyone and we all owe you an enormous debt of gratitude".

The man he was addressing was none other than Father Peter Lessiter, once of Southwark Diocese and well known to many hundreds, if not thousands of Catholics around England and Wales.

God's humble servant- Father Peter Lessiter

In many respects, Father Lessiter is another St Jean Vianney - he mirrors this French patron of priests so very closely. He works among those most in need of the Latin Mass, he catechises the young, teaches the potential convert, baptises the infants, offers the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony to couples and yes, finally celebrates a Requiem Mass for them when they die.

And, like, the Cure of Ars, he takes the Sacrament of Penance to the needy and, at times, the Sacrament of Extreme Unction; travelling many hundreds of miles, often late at night in the process.

He is especially in demand from priests who are nearing death and who, in extremis, desire the traditional last rites despite having apparently accepted all the changes of modernism in the church during their priesthood.

How did this priest come to serve the Lord in such a manner?

We must go back to those confused and ugly days following the interventions of the 'periti' after Vatican II.

Fr Lessiter was a young priest, fresh from the seminary and going about his duties as a curate (we had them in those days) with vigour and integrity.

I remember those times and, in fact, was even a willing particpant in some of those changes, many were duped and fell under the spell of obedience to the Bishop at any cost.

But Fr Lessiter had made his vows to Almighty God, not to a Bishop and after eight years of attempting to reconcile his inherent belief in the teachings of Holy Mother Church he made the momentous decision to 'go it alone'.

There was never any element of wishing to abandon his vocation; Fr L is a man made of sterner stuff.
He resolved to place his trust in God and His Divine Son and to continue his mission in life, that of saving souls - surely the ambition of every priest.

He had spent eight years as curate at St Osmund's, Barnes and when he left in 1973 it must have been like stepping off a cliff. He launched himself out into a void and he knew not what would become of him. Whether he would starve or whether he would be abandoned by those who had professed support for him.

Those early years could not have been easy and Father chortles today when he recounts how so many people reviled him back then but are now saying to him: "Father, you were right after all"

He commenced his mission by travelling the country, taking the "outlawed" Latin Mass to the few faithful remaining. He travelled a circuit that would have exhausted many a lesser man. from London to Leicester, to Derby, Nottingham, Birmingham, Somerset, South Wales and beyond and then, the next week the same circuit again.

The 'Recusant' priest, celebrating the EF Mass
in homes, church halls, and makeshift chapels

Wherever he went he took his good humour and his love of Christ and His Church with him.
"We must pray for the priests and their Bishop's" he would say. "They are the innocent ones in need of our prayers".

And when things got rough as they so often did and his parishioners became bitter and twisted over the actions of a Bishop or priest he would tell them:
 "Don't get involved in the politics of the changes; go to Mass, receive Holy Communion and do your best to bring your children up in the Faith. That is all you can do as a good Catholic in these times. It will only drag you down if you become embroiled in the controversy".

He was called upon, on several occasions, to present himself before a Bishop and to give an account of his activities. Invariably, he would face not only the Bishop but a couple of his Monsignors also and then the interview would turn into an inquisition.

But Father L always remained cool and calm and answered all calumnies against him equably.

For a brief period he worked with the Society of St Pius X but soon withdrew because they had no concept of pastoral care; their priests would celebrate Mass and then take off for the next venue (they still tend to do this today). There is merit in this approach but they left a great many people cold behind them, 'no time for Confession, must dash!'

For the past ten years or so, Father Lessiter has lived in Axminster, one of the first bases for the Latin Mass post Vatican 2.

There he has built up an embryo order and  a small community around him, two nuns, a sizeable congregation and many lay workers scattered around England. The constitution for the order is a work in progress and, one day will be presented to the Bishop of Plymouth but, until then, he still tours the country albeit on a reduced circuit.

He is a little infirm these days but his spirit is still strong.

After a series of strokes, two years ago, he was found lying semi conscious, having collapsed in his cottage one evening and lying for 12 hours overnight with one side of his body against a blisteringly hot radiator.
Lying in hospital, semi delirious, he insisted, when visited by the two sisters, on saying Mass, albeit a 'dry' Mass.

He lay on his bed, eyes closed and word for word, went through the Latin of the Holy Mass and, at the Hanc igitur he brusquely told the sisters to "Kneel down the King of Kings is coming!".
Even unconscious, he knew his duty in life - to say the Mass and to lead his flock.

Over the years, he has taken great joy in counselling seminarians especially and many of the clergy still seek his good counsel today, including one or two of the hierarchy.

He has been chaplain to my family ever since we 'jumped off the cliff' and became followers of the 'Mass of all Time'.
In 1989 he paid us an initial visit in remote West Wales and he kept on coming as our children grew in the faith.
Every month or so, the house would be readied for Father's visit and, in time we converted a room in our old schoolhouse to become a dedicated chapel. It was the least we could do for the sake of Our Lord and His good servant Father Peter Lessiter.

In 2012 Fr Lessiter will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination.

NOTE:
Fr Lessiter and his community live totally on the charity of those whom he has loved and served over the years. He has not asked me to make this appeal but, if anyone would like to contribute to his good works please send a cheque payable to Father Peter Lessiter.

The Community of Our Lady of Victories,
Mount Carmel,
Lodge Lane,
Axminster, EX13 5RT

Hold the Front Page!

Apparently, The Catholic Herald has covered my Summorum Pontificum song on its front page. On their website I can just make out the words, 'Blogger Hails Latin Mass on Folk Guitar'. Is it a folk guitar? I thought it was an acoustic guitar but then what does it matter? It's still an instrument from the pits of Hades!

Long live His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, gloriously reigning.

Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper in saecular saeculorum. Amen.

I won't let it go to my head... "Look everybody!"

Anyway, in other news, Fr Gabriel Amorth has suggested that the Harry Potter books and yoga are about as good and healthy for us spiritually as rock and pop music. He has a point. The Potter books encourage children to dabble in witchcraft and the occult. Witchcraft and the occult are about seeking power over people, time and places through mediums and spirits. Yoga teaches people that they are on the road to 'enlightenment' through the self when in fact the only light of the World is Lumen Christi.

Try telling that to Telegraph readers though.

I just got back home from St Mary Magdalen's Catechism Evening. Hoards of the Catholic press were camped outside my front door. Flippin' media! I'm going on that Leveson inquiry next week. Why don't they leave me in peace!?

"Mr England," they said, "give us your thoughts on the Eurozone crisis?!"

Obviously, I replied, "When the Eurozone returns to Our Lady, then Our Lady will return to the Eurozone!" 

Ah, the press lapped it up. Lapped it up, they did.

Resisting Catholic Voices

'But when they shall deliver you up, take no thought how or what to speak: for it shall be given you in that hour what to speak. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your opposers shall not be able to reply to or resist.'

Courtesy of John Smeaton, SPUC

'On Tuesday the Holy See (the universal government of the Catholic Church) made an excellent statement to a committee of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Among other things, the statement said that a proposed resolution on the girl child could:

"create a misleading impression that early pregnancy, per se, constitutes a health risk ... [W]hat is needed in such cases is prenatal and postnatal healthcare for the mother and her child, especially skilled birth attendants and appropriate emergency obstetric care, as enshrined in Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)."

In other words: abortion is not necessary when young girls become pregnant (something of which Archbishop Fisichella would do well to remind himself).

In a separate statement on the rights of the child the Holy See referred to parents thus (my emphasis in bold):

"[The Holy See] welcomes in this text the inclusion of the role of parents in the upbringing and development of girls, even though the prior and primary responsibility of their parents is not explicitly cited. In matters concerning the upbringing and development of the child, particularly in the area of attitudes and life skills, the measure of the best interests of the child is guaranteed by parental priority, as enshrined in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reaffirmed in Article 18, 1, of the CRC. Without these guarantees, what stands between children and the coercive power of the State in those places where serious human rights violations could be inflicted against them?"

In other words, upholding the status of parents as the first and foremost educators of their children is absolutely essential to protect children generally from abortion, infanticide and the violation of their innocence by explicit sex education.

The statement finished with a direct reference to abortion - and a very important reference to condoms* (my emphasis in bold):

"The Holy See reaffirms its reservations with the Resolution, especially regarding its references to “sexual and reproductive health” since the Holy See does not consider abortion or abortion services to be a dimension of such terms and regarding the term “family planning” as the Holy See in no way endorses contraception or the use of condoms, either as a family planning measure or in HIV/AIDS prevention programmes."

The Holy See's statement echoes the statement by the Catholic bishops of Kenya last December (my emphasis in bold):

"We reiterate and reaffirm that the position of the Catholic Church as regards the use of condoms, both as a means of contraception and as a means of addressing the grave issue of HIV/AIDS infection has not changed and remains as always unacceptable."

The Holy See's statement is an official confirmation that the Catholic Church rejects the position taken by Dr Austen Ivereigh and Jack Valero, the coordinators of Catholic Voices, who have falsely claimed that:

• "[U]rging a promiscuous infected person to at least use a condom ... is Catholic pastoral practice" (Dr Ivereigh)
• "[Using a condom] might be the right and responsible thing to do in order to prevent infection" (Dr Ivereigh)
• "[I]t is right for schools to teach how condoms help to reduce transmission of STDs." (Dr Ivereigh)
• “[The Church has] never said that in a particular case it’s wrong to use a condom to protect somebody ... [T]he condom itself may be a good thing" (Mr Valero)
• "[I]f in a particular case [church workers in Africa] think that a condom will protect then that may be OK" (Mr Valero).

What can you buy for £680?

Hmmm......you could get a very good meal for six at The Ivy Restaurant....or a really well tailored suit.....or, maybe a weekend in Paris for two....



and what else?.....

Um....um..don't tell me, it's on the tip of my tongue......

......hang on.....I know! ........I know!......



             .....You can get a baby aborted!

Yes, a mere snip at £680....a life snuffed out and no questions asked.

H/T to Protect the Pope for the report on how the British Government shells out this sum to abortuaries for every child murdered in its mother's womb - what a society!

What's it to be?
Dinner for 6 or an abortion?

Why Mixed Marriages Fail

A man walks into his front door through to the lounge where his wife meets him with furious eyes.

"Where have you been?" she asks shortly.
"I've just been at Church saying some prayers," he replies.
"You've been seeing her again haven't you?" his wife asks.
"What do you mean, I-"
"That woman!" she exclaims, "Oh, don't you worry, I know all about your little game! Yesterday, I spotted you going there with flowers for Heaven's sake. Flowers!? How much did they cost, eh?! You never buy me flowers!"
The man now on the defensive replies, "Yes, yes I did take her flowers. Nobody else buys her flowers nowadays so I did. She's a Queen! She deserves flowers!"
The wife becomes more agitated.
"A Queen is she? I see. So, she is the queen of your life and what am I? I suppose I'm just your hobby! And while we're on the subject, did you have a nice day at the office?"
"Yes, actually, work went very smoothly today, I think I'm in line for a promotion soon, thank you darling," the man replies, regaining his composure.
The wife walks up to him, face to face and digs inside his jacket pocket.
"Not that office! This Office!" staring at him accusingly.
"What?" he replies.
The wife reads out the introduction. "Seven times a day shall I praise you. Interesting, because you've never got a good word to say to me. I never hear you praise me."
"Have you lost your mind?" the husband says.
"No, but I should ask you the same question," says the wife. "Look, you get up in the morning and you're in the study praying to this woman. You go to work and on the train you're talking to this lady. You come home and go to the Church and give the woman flowers. At night you're on your knees before her asking her for help. Just where do I fit into all of this? I can't cope with it anymore."
"You're jealous of Our Lady?" he asks.
"Well it looks like there are three of us in this marriage," she replies. "So, come on. Out with it. What's she got that I haven't got?"
"What do you mean? She's got everything! She's perfect! She's the Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth, refuge of sinners and crowning glory of the Saints!" says the husband.
"What the-," says the wife.
"I know you don't understand it, darling. Shall we pray to her together?" he asks tentatively.
"Look," the wife replies, "its your religion and I don't want a part of it. I know its something that is important to you, but I can't cope with it anymore. It feels like I'm always in competition with her."
The husband tries another angle. "Look, this woman leads me to the Heart of Her Divine Son. For you, things can only be good as a result. Praying to her makes me kinder and more compassionate and things. I can't understand why you would object."
"Kinder, eh? More compassionate, eh? Well, next week I want some flowers," she demands.
"But I can only afford one bunch of flowers a week. They have to go to her. Anyway, darling, I'm saving up each week to take us on holiday" he replies.
"Oh, really. Oh darling that sounds wonderful." The wife begins to calm down.
"Yes, its a delightful little place in Portugal," the husband says, putting his hands around her waist.
"Oh darling, I can't wait. What's the place called?"
"Well, honey, its a beautiful little place called Fatima," he replies.
"Fatima...Oh it sounds delightful," says the wife as she walks over to the coffee table and picks up the husband's Office. She flicks through and out falls a prayer card which has been used as a bookmark. The wife reads it.
"Our Lady of Fatima, ora pro nobis."
The husband, caught off guard, hurriedly says, "Now, darling, don't be mad. I can explain everything! It's not how it looks, I-."
"Gerry," the wife says, "I think I want a divorce."

I like this post from Puff the Magic dragon

Never mind the associations that spring to mind from the name (I seem to recall a Danish couple, he bearded, she tres Scandinavian, singing the song gazing into each other's eyes, their names escape me).

The owner of the Puff the Magic Dragon blog has set up a meme, for want of a better word.

It is based on naming bloggers whom you have not met but would like to meet to have a drink with.

Here is my stab at it, though, truth to tell, there are so many great bloggers I have yet to meet that I am having difficulty in narrowing it down to four.

1. A blogger with whom I would like to go for a cup of coffee - Joyce

2. A blogger with whom I would like to invite for tea - Michael

3. A blogger with whom I would like to go out for a beer - James
4. A blogger with whom I would like to share a bottle of wine - Jane

The invited guests then make up their own lists if they so desire

I would also add Fr Ray, Fr Bede Rowe, Christine, Esther, Elise, John Whitehead, Gareth H, Charlie J, Clare, Patrick Button, Paul Smeaton, Brian, Ttony, Mary Regan, Bob, Ben, Ches, Chelliah, Breadgirl, Catawissa, Tony Layne .....and so many others to my list. But that's not allowed.

Daily Mail Covers Australian Twin Abortion Tragedy

Click here for the Mail report on the 'distressing clinical incident' that cost the lives of two 32-week (8 months) old unborn children and leaves a mother utterly devastated and heartbroken.

'Distressing clinical incident'? For Pete's sake! What planet are these doctors and nurses inhabiting!? Call it what it is - a double tragedy for a mother and a father and the destruction of two innocent human lives!

I'd imagine its only 'distressing' because the World is waking up to the truth of what presumably takes place relatively frequently in Melbourne's hospital-cum-execution centre for the 'unfit'!

I heartily and absolutely disagree with the decision of the parents to go ahead with this terrible choice, but, that said, I still hope they sue this infant death-centre to Kingdom come. What do doctors have to do to get struck off nowadays? Actually, what do doctors have to do to get put inside for murder?

What's the point in having such an amazing looking hospital if with all that you can't be arsed to give such improved resources, technology and advancements in medical care to a little baby with a heart defect? The real 'heart defect' belongs surely to those in the business of killing little children! How wrong does the World have to get it on this issue to realise that the Church is right?

'Just a clump of cells': A 32-week born baby

By the way, are the mainstream press whitewashing the fact that these unborn children were aborted 32 weeks into the pregnancy? The Mail report doesn't say it, if it did before, Lifesitenews does, however. The BBC report also confirms it. We should pray for all concerned.

There are a couple of comments on the Mail article from women who have been offered 32-week abortions for babies with cleft palate, a perfectly operable condition. For those wondering how doctors can do this it is always worth recalling that Josef Mengele was a doctor too.

The German Bishops just don't get it!

I shall refrain from using any German expletives here (great though they are at releasing one's angst!).

But really, the German Bishops are a bunch of limited thinkers are they not?

First they invest Diocesan funds into shares of  Weltbild, a publishing house that allegedly (note the word, allegedly) publishes pornography - yes, really! Catholic Bishops backing porno mags!

And now, when the mist hits the fan and they are found out...what do they do?

Of course, they do what any upright, Catholic organisation would do, they burn the shares, destroy them, commit them to oblivion and deny any future ownership of them. Or, alternatively they sell them and give all proceeds to charity in reparation of their stupid or negligent actions in acquiring them in the first place.
Or, at the very least they give the proceeds from the shares to a charity before taking the original investment sum back into their portfolio.

But......and it's a big fat German but....they don't do that.



They sell them.....you heard correctly...they are selling them and taking the accrued profits and the share price and stuffing it back in their coffers. Unless, of course, they tell the world that this is not the case.

Was that a butterfly coughing again?

O tempora O mores!

Modernity Turns the Gospel on Its Head

Fr Ray Blake's post, 'Contrasts', on Pugin's sketches of the industrial age compared to the pre-industrial age is fascinating.

As well as the liturgical 'progress' documented by Pugin, the most telling sketch is that of the poor houses of his age compared to the monastic servants of the poor in the 'bad old days'.

It documents quite well how the nature of loving and humble service made a shift from the Church's own view - that the wealthy serve the poor and find within that service salvation - to the new paradigm in which the poor serve the rich and find in it their unfortunate enslavement.

It is almost as if, liturgically and societally, the Pugin documents the Gospel, in the industrial age, being turned upon its head.

While I wish to God that Archbishop Vincent Nichols would be as vocal in currently vital areas of Catholic teaching, his recent remarks concerning the nature of the cuts are still important.  Yesterday, I met a friend who claims that his jobseekers allowance has been cut. He is now on 'hardship fund'. This is the result of sanctioning from the DWP. Yet, he claims, the sanctioning he is experiencing (which amounts to a cut to his benefits of £20 a week until March) is the result of his having applied for work! I asked him how the DWP could sanction someone for looking for work and applying for it. He said he doesn't understand it either, but that is exactly what has happened, saying he would show me the letter.

He now gets £45 a week. £20 a week of that he has to give to his landlord for the 'top up charge' for where he lives. That means that he is living off £25 a week to cover his food, electricity, bills etc. Other people I know who are sick or mentally ill are being called in to Atos Healthcare to be assessed, yet there are claims that these assessments are rigged anyway because the company who won the contract have to get 40% of people on sick benefit off of it. That started under Labour by the way. I heard a story from one guy I know who lives in a block in Hove with many people on sick benefit that people with mental health problems are literally committing suicide because of their benefits being cut. It sounds crazy but these people are not totally sane, are they? They're easily sent over the edge.

No doubt, workfare, if it is not already in existence, will be on the way quite soon, in which the poor will be forced to work for companies for half of the minimum wage to ensure that they 'contribute to society'. All of this is condemned by the left, of course, but this kind of economic exploitation of the poor is also condemned by Holy Mother Church.

Cuts will hit the vulnerable hard...but is it the State's' duty to provide?

Part of the problem is that the State has taken on so much and the Church's wealth and power has declined, leaving a large vacuum when the State no longer feels it can support the poor financially.  In days gone by the Church had a great deal of land and a great deal of money. Nowadays, parishes are themselves begging just to be able to ensure their roofs aren't leaky for the next 20 years. There is very little left over in Dioceses for almshouses or monastic communities whose work consists in the service of the very poor and sick. If ever I had a vision of what the Occupy movement should be, it would be just that. Groups of men, preferably Catholics, washing the feet of the poor, clothing them and feeding them outside St Paul's, outside Wall Street, and outside the King and Queen pub in Brighton. That would be an explicit gesture of exactly what kind of society of which the Occupy movement are dreaming. Joking with one man I know there I said it was all very good but, "Where is the friar? You must be requiring a Priest too, to say Mass for your cause?". I'm going to start sending paupers their way soon, as personally, I'm brassic.

I do worry that the Archbishop is too ideologically attached to the left to look for other avenues for the assistance of the poor than more State help. The State can't organise a p**s up in a brewery. It only knows how to take the beer away. Once benefits are cut, they will never be raised again. Ultimately, this is a society that is fragmenting and breaking down all across the spectrum of wealth. Those who have money behind them will survive the coming storm, but the poor will be left out to dry. Attacking the Government over this is one thing, but even Government has a point that their own kitty is running dry amid trillions of debt.

What the Church should perhaps be saying is that if the rich want to show mercy, empty themselves, and their pockets, and come to the aid of the poor, then they are free to do so and that now is the time. If parishes and Dioceses want to start food banks and receive donations from the rich then there is nothing to stop them. It is important to remember that the Church, since Her inception has always held communism in high esteem - its just that for the Church, communism has to be entirely voluntary. This is, after all, the communism that St Francis of Assisi held aloft for the whole Church and World to see. It is State communism that She has always condemned because it always robs human beings of freedom.

Homicide, Fratricide, Deicide, Regicide, Suicide, Patricide, Matricide, Feticide...

Rorate and Fr Tim have both drawn our attention to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynacologists and their frank admission that abortion amounts to murder because that's what descriptions of taking of life that end in '-cide' are.

Own goal? I would say so...

'Recommendation 6.21:

Feticide should be performed before medical abortion after 21 weeks and 6 days of gestation to ensure that there is no risk of a live birth [...] failure to perform feticide could result in a live birth and survival, which contradicts the intention of the abortion.'

Pelerin drew my attention to this article highlighted at Maria Stops Abortion which includes another horrific dimension to the horror that is abortion. Heaven help us all.

Pray for the Repose of the Soul of Dominic Mary

Quite recently it struck me that at some point one of the English speaking Catholic blogging community is going to die.

I don't mean this in a 'prophetic' sense, since we are all going to die, but that one day we would hear news of it and be greatly saddened.


Mulier Fortis today posts on the death of Dominic Mary, a Catholic blogger who died of a terminal brain tumour.

Remember him in your prayers. I'm pretty sure I met him once when he came to St Mary Magdalen's.

Gem of the Ocean, with whom Libera Me fell in love and to whom he was married has more news of the sad passing of a fellow Catholic blogger. Pray for him and pray also for her. Gem courageously cared for Dominic during the last months of his life in what can only have been a period of bodily suffering for him. Gem says...

'There doesn't seem like there's much for me to celebrate this year.  But there is.  I had Q for exactly a year and a day.  Never once did Q complain of having the cancer.  He'd get frustrated because he had a harder and harder time communicating.  Nominative aphasia, they called it.  I think I got to be with a saint in the making, and I thank God for that gift.'

 
Looking at Dominic's profile, it seems he also set up the blog site for the Sodality of St Tarcisius, the LMS's society for altar servers dedicated to learning and serving the Traditional Latin Mass, as well as a blog dedicated to encouraging the Laity to say the Divine Office, entitled re: The Divine Office. Ironically, the latest post on the Sodality of St Tarcisius is on praying for the living and the dead as members of the Society.

Prayer for the Living and the Dead

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui vivorum dominaris simul et mortuorum, omniumque misereris, quos tuos fide et opere futuros esse praenoscis: te supplices exoramus; ut, pro quibus effundere preces decrevimus,
quosque vel praesens saeculum adhuc in carne retinet, vel futurum jam exutos corpore suscepit, intercedentibus omnibus Sanctis tuis, pietatis tuae clementia omnium delictorum suorum veniam consequantur. 

Almighty and everlasting God, who hast dominion over both the living and the dead, and hast mercy on all whom Thou foreknowest shall be Thine by faith and works: we humbly beseech Thee that all for whom we have resolved to make supplication, whether the present world still holds them in the flesh, or the world to come has already received them out of the body, may, through the intercession of all Thy saints, obtain of Thy goodness and clemency pardon for all their sins.
(Collect Pro Vivis et Defunctis, Roman Missal)

May angels lead you into paradise; upon your arrival, may the martyrs receive you and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem. May the ranks of angels receive you, and with Lazarus, the poor man, may you have eternal rest.

I get the distinct impression from his blog that if you are going to pray for him, he would like your prayers to be in Latin. Requiescat in pace.