A Rare Photo Of The Lesser-Spotted Mulier Fortis...

One in which I am NOT wearing a mantilla!

It is very rare that I acknowledge a photo of myself. And I usually threaten any camera-wielding individuals with death should they be foolhardy enough to cross my path. Most of them heed the warnings (I have a mean glint in my eye!) and back off pretty quickly. Even His Hermeneuticalness manages to avoid taking pictures of me - I don't even have to warn him any more, which is good, because I feel a little guilty about threatening priests with physical injury...

I really hate looking at myself in photos. The camera, it is said, adds umpteen pounds, and I don't need that sort of assistance. Added to that, I have a squint.

So when Mary, one of my friends, emailed me to say she'd found a photo of me while going through her photo collection, I was prepared to send it straight to the recyle bin. However, it was a picture from the time of the Papal Visit, and it was taken on the second day of his visit (the day I got that close-up of the Holy Father) in the Media Centre (I'd managed to get a press pass!).

It is, IMHO, one of the more acceptable photos of me, although my hair is in a mess...

Heheheheheheh... well, what did you expect...?

Stalin Would Be Proud...

The Seal of the Confessional is something the Confirmation candidates find very reassuring. Each year I find myself explaining to anxious teenagers that, no matter what they confess, their sins will not be discussed with anyone else by the priest - not with their parents, their teachers, their friends... nor with the police.

I usually tell them about the Hitchcock film, I Confess, and explain that, in some places in the past, priests have gone to prison because they refused to break the Seal, and some have been martyred.

Now it seems as though I shall have to add that the Irish Government wants to introduce a law which would compel priests to violate the Seal of the Confessional.

Fr. Ray Blake, in an excellent post, has identified some of the logistical problems, particularly the difficulty in identifying penitents, and the fact that, should the proposed law be passed, no-one is likely to bother confessing, with the excuse that "I don't want to give trouble to the priest!" Fr. Z has speculated (rightly, IMHO) on what is probably the real motivation behind this proposed law, namely hatred of the Church's moral teaching.

Paedophilia is a heinous crime, and it cries out to heaven for vengeance, as the saying goes. But if the Seal is broken for this, then why not for other crimes?

Stalin would have given his right arm to be able to bring in a law like this.

Facebook Is, Like, So Last Year...

I've been getting rather irritated with Facebook. It kept changing security default settings which was a pain. Then there was the ability of friends to sign you up to any group they liked, without your permission. Yes, it was possible to opt out, but you had to make the effort, or you'd get spammed by lots of emails from the group. More hassle. I also don't like Facebook messages. I'd much rather just get emails. Gmail is just so much nicer to use...

In an attempt to avoid the messages and spammy stuff, I changed my personal profile to a page. That meant that I could post stuff on my own wall, but I couldn't see anyone else's. Tweetdeck wouldn't access my page, so I couldn't use it to post links to my blog. And so, since I never bothered updating Facebook with every little thing I did, I've gradually stopped using it.

I do miss being able to see what people are up to. But the general buzz seems to be that Facebook is going to go the way of MySpace and its ilk... this little picture shows what I mean...

So, courtesy of Stuart, I've joined Google+. More ways to waste time on the computer. Oooh, goody!

A Few More Photos From The Ordination...

Fr. Jonathon's Ordination was extremely enjoyable, not least because I got to meet several old friends. I also got to meet a few new ones.

To my delight, I was tapped on the shoulder by EF Pastor Emeritus. I think he recognised the mantilla. Sadly I didn't get a chance to talk to him properly, nor take a photo - he was in the queue to receive a First Blessing from Fr. Jonathon after Mass, and I didn't manage to catch up with him before he left. It was, however, a real pleasure to be able to put a face to the blog...

I was very pleased to meet Brother Anselm (who used to serve Mass at Blackfen before he went to Douai Abbey) and Abbot Geoffrey Scott...

Sir Dan of the Blogosphere was in fine form. The main concern which he raised with Fr. Jonathon was the omission of Blessed Duns Scotus from the Litany of the Saints...

Sir Dan also told me that, should I persist in writing about my cats, he would be forced to stop reading my blog. Ouch! What a decision to have to make...

Fr. Stephen Bould, who recently joined the Catholic Church through the Ordinariate, and his wife Trish were spotted keeping some extremely dubious company...

Towards the end of the afternoon, Fr. Jonathon went to cut his cake (Oh no!! I just realised that I never got any!). There was a mad scrabble for cameras and mobile phones, and it was impossible for everyone to get a good photo at one go. This resulted in demands for a sustained cake-cutting pose to be held. The strain proved too much for the newly-ordained priest, who promptly suffered an attack of the giggles. I bet they don't warn them about that one in Seminary! Oh the pitfalls of parish life...

I also bumped into Andrew Taylor - I first met him when I was a helper on the Faith Summer Break (back when it was held at Folkestone) and he was an impish schoolboy. He hasn't changed much! He's posing here with Heather Rose, a lovely lady who crossed the Tiber with the Ordinariate group in Folkestone...

I was delighted to meet up again with Brother Richard Duncan, from the Birmingham Oratory, who gave me lots of inside info on Pushkin, the lucky cat who met the Holy Father. It seems that everyone wants to hear about Pushkin, and he gets fan mail too...

Brother Richard offered to introduce me to Pushkin should I visit the Birmingham Oratory.

Hmmmmn. That settles it. Sir Dan of the Blogosphere doesn't like cats. The Holy Father does (he made a beeline for the cat when he spotted Pushkin, and chattered away happily in German to it!) So there's no contest. Mulier Fortis remains a kitty-friendly zone...

Up In The Organ Loft...

Fr. Stephen Dingley played the organ beautifully. I was rather nervous (especially after being told that top A was rather ambitious!) and, although I hit the notes, I was later told (not by Fr. Stephen) that the nervousness was pretty obvious, and that I breathed in all the wrong places. Hmmmn. Maybe I need to beg Leutgeb for lessons...