Will Cristina Odone assume the mantle of Alice Thomas Ellis?

I do not mean that in any demeaning sense with regard to the writing styles of either Alice Thomas Ellis or Cristina Odone, it is just that it is rare that we Catholics are endowed with a journalist who is not afraid to speak out on behalf of burning sensitive issues such as homosexual and lesbian marriages, IVF, abortion and so on.

Alice Thomas Ellis has passed to her eternal reward but, in her day, her straight talking, no nonsense approach to Catholic life endeared her to the few traditional Catholics who were clinging to the mast during the
80s and 90s.



Now Cristina Odone appears to be moving in the same direction; perhaps not quite with ATE's traditional verve but, who knows what's down the road?

I admire people who stick up for the faith, in many respects becoming "dry" martyrs, being pilloried by commentators and their contemporaries and being booted off the editorial team as happened to Alice Thomas Ellis when she was dismissed from The Catholic Herald payroll after criticising the late Cardinal Hume.

Cristina Odone is now taking similar flak (coincidentally, if I remember correctly, she was the Editor of  The Catholic Herald at the time of ATE's removal).

Currently, she is being targeted by the 'hate' gang of homomaniacs and perverts who rise like scum to the surface whenever the subjects of goodness and decency are mentioned.

Here is a sample of some of the more printable comments after Cristina's blog entitled "Heterosexual marriage: the love that does not dare to speak its name":

"You keep complaining of people like yourself being seen as bigots. Perhaps if you do not want to be accused of bigotry you should avoid comparing homosexuality to lechery, polygamy, and child rape as you did in a recent poll. My God, you are vile".

and

"I can't. I just can't. What a hot mess of an article. 
Perhaps "heterosexual married couples" are so dang happy because *they're not the target of bigotry every day from you, and from people like you*? Cristina, you're a bigot. And if marriage makes people happy, WHY DO YOU WANT TO DENY NON-HETERO PEOPLE THAT HAPPINESS? It makes ZERO sense".

and

"The problem with Cristina is that she basically whips up these "all gay people think all straight people are bigots and they hate us lines", which naturally then cause straight people to be defensive. SHe creates a gay backlash all of her own - whereas if she just shut up, we would all get along fine"

There are 240 more comments that, in the main, are full of invective which indicates how the liberal lobby reacts when matters homo/lesbian/trans/and bisexual are raised in the media.

But where did Cristina Odone begin her career? We know that she was born in Kenya to an Italian father and Swiss mother and that her early life was spent on the international circuit accompanying her parents to wherever her father's role as international banker took them.

After her parents divorced she attended an independent school in Oxford and mingled with over 40 nationalities before going to Oxford to read French Literature and History.

After Oxford came The Catholic Herald post which she held for four years before going overseas to assume a role in the financial sector.
She has worked for The Spectator, The Observer and the New Statesman and is now currently writing for The Daily Telegraph and also blogs on the Telegraph site.

She has four books to her name, one being 'The Good Divorce Guide'.
I have no knowledge of the content of that book or, indeed, of Ms Odone's marital status other than she is married to a financial journalist, Edward Lucas.

The fact is, she is an avowed Catholic and she does appear to write sensibly with regard to matters of faith and morals and that type of journalist is as rare as a pork chop in a mosque.

In 2007 she withdrew from a Royal Commonwealth Society Christmas Carol concert where she was due to speak because the organisers felt that her remarks could offend those of "little or no faith".

Here are some of those remarks as extracts from her speech:

’I wonder what the Christian children at Portree Primary school in Skye would say about equal opportunities.
Their local authority had forced them to drop the word "Lord" in the grace before meals, as it was deemed offensive.

I wonder what Shabina Begum would make of equal opportunities. She was the young Muslim girl who took her school to court when it banned her from wearing the veil?

And what of Nadia Eweida? Does she think this is a country of equal opportunities? She was the woman, you may remember, who learned the hard way that a Christian may not wear a crucifix when working for BA.

H/T Archbishop Cranmer

As to her traditional Catholic outlook?

Well having followed her writings over the years I can say that she is moving in the right direction....literally.

"THE BISHOPS WILL NOT LISTEN TO US AND ARE DESTROYING THE CHURCH"

"Catholic doctrine is being eroded; there is no Catholic teaching in Catholic schools. We need more honesty from the English hierarchy. They don't want to admit to any problems. They want to pretend that everything is fine and dandy. They will not listen to protest."

God may not have changed but His Bishops have!

Words from a famous and great Catholic woman, Alice Thomas Ellis whose anniversary of death it is today (March 8th), may God have mercy on her soul. Those words were written by her in a momentous article in The Daily Telegraph, headed: "I accuse the Catholic bishops". It followed close on the heels of a piece she had written for The Catholic Herald which strongly criticised the late but not lamented Archbishop Derek Worlock of Liverpool. As a result of that article, (so it is alleged) countless priests contacted the then acting editor of the Herald, Harry Coen (good Irish name) and Alice Thomas Ellis was sacked. Now, the names Cristina Odone (Catholic Herald Editor) and Cardinal Basil Hume are also in this mix and I recall the allegations at the time; that the Cardinal had contacted Ms Odone and asked for ATE's dismissal..... that is now lost in time but, if true, it does not surprise me.


Born Anna Lindholm, Alice converted to Catholicism at the age of 19 and entered a convent to pursue her vocation. It did not work out and she left, in time marrying publisher Colin Haycraft.   Described as half Welsh, half Finnish, her first novel 'The Sin Eater' was published in 1977. She followed this success with a series of novels and a flurry of non fiction works including her much acclaimed 'Serpent on the Rock' a travelogue that looked at the sad state of the liberal excesses of the Church (1994).
Her home in Wales housed a collection of Church sized statues of the saints, which I think was rather a nice touch which we, as a family have since tried to emulate.

Extracts from  her Telegraph article follow here:-


I was born in Liverpool and later attended the art school there. You could breathe
Catholicism in the very air. The churches were wonderful, full of what the aesthetically pure would doubtless call Catholic kitsch, and full of worshippers.

Between 1980 and 1995 there was a net loss of 50,000 practising Catholics. This disaster was never publicised. Instead we heard constantly of the glorious ecumenical work being done by the Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, the Most Rev Derek Worlock, and the Anglican Archbishop, the Rt Rev David Sheppard, in their efforts to bring peace to the city. Last week, in my final column for the Catholic Herlad, I wrote publicly what many say privately, that Archbishop Worlock's venture with Dr Sheppard failed Liverpool's Catholics - and the city.

As a correspondent in the Telegraph put it: "The situation has been that if the Anglican Bishop could not accept a particular Catholic doctrine, the Catholic Archbishop did not teach it"....

There is a bitter joke going around Liverpool, that each gentleman had a signature tune. Worlock's being Anything Goes and Sheppard's, I did it my Way!

...One man, representing his parish on the matter of the destruction of the interior of St Robert Belarmine (church), found himself the recipient of a letter from the archbishop (Worlock) demanding an apology. Other bishops behaved similarly and Mass attendance has fallen dramatically everywhere. There is silence from the hierarchy and, after a while the people, neglected by their pastors, become indifferent.....

...Modernism, pluralism, syncretism and the madder forms of feminism are rife - not to mention many, many others too technical to describe here. There is continuing erosion of respect for the Blessed Sacrament. The Mass - the centre of our spiritual lives - is frequently distorted by priests with an agenda of their own. There is no specifically Catholic doctrine taught in our schools and teachers have been sacked for trying to remedy this.

"Well" people ask, "who would you like to be Liverpool's next bishop to be?" And I respond, not unreasonably, that a Catholic would be nice"

Ends/.....................

Alice Thomas Ellis was a great friend of fellow novelist Beryl Bainbridge, also a Catholic, and the two of them enjoyed their cigarettes together with their vodkas and tonic.
Tragically, one of her sons, Joshua, died in a fall from a roof and this naturally enough, had a profound effect on her. She was survived by four sons and a daughter.

The pen and voice of Alice Thomas Ellis are sorely missed in the church today. Sadly, not much appears to have changed in England and Wales with regard to the Bishops.