Another Tale Of Woe...

No, I didn't forget to add oil... or water... or petrol... I wasn't filling up the wrong bit. And I didn't leave my car lights on either. No, this time it is definitely the car's fault.

This morning I intended to get to Mass, Adoration and Benediction as usual on Saturday morning in Blackfen. It looked like it was going to be a nice day, and so I thought I might go out for a little drive afterwards as well. Sadly, the car had other ideas. I turned the key in the ignition and nothing happened.

I have the home start option on my breakdown cover, so I called them out. The chap thought it was probably a flat battery, and started to charge it up. I immediately cheered up - I've had flat batteries before (though usually because I've left the lights on) and prepared to drive to church. The chap then broke some bad news - the battery wasn't charging up at all, so it was probably the alternator...

A phone call to my usual garage mechanic indicated that there was no chance of getting the required part on the Saturday before the Bank Holiday Monday. It could be fixed on Tuesday if I got the car towed to the garage...

I arrived at the church just in time to join in with the Marian anthem after Benediction, and said a fervent prayer that all would go well on Tuesday... after all, school starts again on Thursday, and I do need to be able to get there...

Michael Voris Hits London...

For anyone who has spent the last month and a half in solitary confinement, this week saw the arrival in London of Michael Voris, the founder of St. Michael's Media and RealCatholicTV, to give a talk on living the Catholic Faith.

Several people have given excellent summaries of the talk itself and their reactions: Robert Colquhoun (Love Undefiled) actually has a recording of the talk and the questions. Francis Phillips wrote a piece for the Catholic Herald, and the Reluctant Sinner has blogged about the evening, as have Joseph Shaw (LMS Chairman), Annie Elizabeth (Defénde Nos in Proélio) and Leutgeb (Bara Brith).

Michael Voris isn't to everyone's taste - I don't agree with everything he says, and occasionally I disagree with the manner in which he says the stuff I do agree with - but I felt he had been getting rather a bad press of late. It reminded me of the run-up to the Holy Father's visit to the UK. Lots and lots of negative press - though in this case it was from the blogosphere rather than the mainstream media.

However, I believe that part of the reason that Catholic catechesis has failed in the past four decades is the idea that we mustn't say anything which might offend other people. If you never say anything which might cause offence to someone, you will probably never say anything at all. As Voris himself pointed out, sometimes you will offend people for no other reason than you just walked into the room!

I've experienced that one - I was once challenged: "How dare you claim to be a better Catholic than me!" I hadn't claimed any such thing, in fact I hadn't said anything. What I had done was to wear a mantilla at Mass, and for some obscure reason this caused offence! So, as far as I'm concerned, Voris deserves great credit for being willing to speak out about the Faith, and for telling it straight.

Michael Voris spoke very engagingly, and, although he didn't say anything new or earth-shattering, it was good to have some affirmation of what many of us are trying to do, namely to follow the teachings of the Church as faithfully as we can. It was, if you like, a pep talk, a bit of encouragement. In the flesh, Michael Voris is quiet and unassuming, and very entertaining. Yes, it was very different from his on-screen persona, but then, those appearances are shot with the intention of making a particular point, and are carefully scripted for that purpose, so they would be rather more direct and "in your face."

It became a sort of impromptu blognic, especially when we all decamped to a local pub - I spotted several of the usual suspects, and some new ones. I was particularly gratified when, giving my name to one of the people organising things as I arrived, he appeared to know who I was (fame at last!)

As well as the bloggers I've already mentioned, it was fantastic to meet up with the indefatigable Bones, the irrepressible Paul Priest (OTSOTA), the sultry and sophisticated Red Maria (Dolphinarium), the charming Multum Incola Fuit Anima Mea (who couldn't resist letting me know who he was, though I'm sworn to secrecy), the very Ecumenical Diablogger, and the gorgeous and giggly Blondpidge (Catechesis of Caroline) who was being let out for the evening, and, in between feeds, passed round the most beautiful and placid baby I have encountered in quite a long time. Normally babies take one look at me and scream. Little Miss Pidge gurgled and cooed and snoozed her way through the evening. John Smeaton and Juventutem were also on good form. I was delighted to make the acquaintance of Giles Pinnock, former Anglican clergyman, who blogged as OneTimothyFour before he swam the Tiber - I sincerely hope he will start blogging again soon. There were many blog readers present too, and I particularly enjoyed meeting Marianne Cuthbertson for an entertaining gossip... great minds think alike, and all that! Her daughters had made it to the talk hotfoot from World Youth Day.

During the break between the talk and the questions, I managed to join Red Maria, Blondpidge and Peter Williams outside for a breath of fresh air. Peter is one of the speakers for Catholic Voices, and he tweets as @PeterDCXW, though he has been threatening to start a blog since the Faith Summer Session. He couldn't resist the charms of Little Miss Pidge as he called her...

Michael Voris stepped up to the plate to do some Pidge-handling to give her mother a break...

And finally, many, many thanks to Paul Smeaton, who pulled off the amazing coup of organising such a fantastic and successful event, seen here with Michael Voris (and Little Miss Pidge.)

Is The BBC Biased Against Catholics?

Is the Pope a Catholic? Do bears etc. etc?

A conservative estimate of 1.5 million young people, or a more generous (and possibly more accurate) figure of 2 million young people, you'd think that would constitute news, wouldn't you? I mean, how many young people were rioting in the UK? That made the news worldwide.

But no, the BBC chose to concentrate on 5000 protestors.

Fr. Ray Blake has a brief summary, as has Bones. The Idle Rambler has a post which goes through the figures, courtesy of Rome Reports.

Annie Elizabeth, of Defénde Nos In Proélio opines that the protestors are all miserable and angry, whereas the pilgrims are filled with joy. Presumably only misery and rage are newsworthy as far as the BBC is concerned.

Milo Yiannopoulos of the Catholic Herald and Damian Thompson of the Telegraph are both of the opinion that the BBC coverage of World Youth Day events in Spain has been disgraceful. Even more surprisingly, even Andrew Brown of the Guardian actually agreed, and that's a telling indictment.

The Reluctant Sinner really exposes the double standards of the BBC in its reporting of World Youth Day (given all of 30 seconds) compared to a piece on an offshoot  of Hare Krishna, namely ISKCON, run by a chap called Richard Slavin. Dare I say that, looking at some of the allegations against Slavin, I can't help wondering what sort of treatment he'd have received if he had been Catholic...

If you want to complain, I suggest you do so here. You might even get a reply. But don't hold your breath.

Twitch of the mantilla to Et Expecto for getting the link to the BBC passed round a few blogs!

Cat Stuff...

This morning was rather unpleasant, weather-wise. Through the mists of sleep, I was vaguely aware of rain pelting down, and then had it confirmed beyond all doubt by the enthusiastic snuggling-up of a rather damp cat against my arm. Trying not to become too wide-awake, I rubbed Miaowrini’s head and back vigorously in an attempt to dry her off a bit and warm her (and my now cold, damp arm) up. Both of us then went back to sleep. Furretti, more sensible than her companion, hadn’t gone out at all, and was still snoozing contentedly by my feet.

I awoke later to the sound of the catflap banging. Normally it just squeaks a bit, so the increased noise was a sign that one of the cats had brought in some of the local wildlife. With a sigh, I moved Furretti off my feet and went to investigate.

Sure enough, I found that Miaowrini had succeeded in catching a pigeon. A large pigeon. So large that Miaowrini was practically riding the pigeon, and I had visions of the bird taking off with the cat on its back… fortunately, the pigeon couldn’t stretch its wings! The pigeon did, however, succeed in getting behind the sofa. Miaowrini still doesn’t seem to have figured out how to finish off her prey, and she was giving the pigeon a good lick… though I did see teeth-marks on the pigeon’s neck, so I guess that the cat is learning on the job!

I’m getting good at pigeon rescue. It’s a matter of simple logistics: if the cat lets go of the bird, the bird will fly away, but there’s no escape. The bird will fly around the flat, closely followed by two cats (Furretti having by this time woken up, quite keen to get a piece of the action), all my statues will be reduced to 3D jigsaw pieces, and I’ll be cleaning bird poop out of my hair. So I have to leave the cat in situ until I can get hold of the bird. I can’t just grab the bird because I don’t want to get scratched by the cat or pecked by the bird…

So, I grabbed a towel and threw it over the pigeon and the cat together. Unfortunately, Miaowrini took the opportunity to try and bite the bird, which squawked a bit, but I was able to wrap the towel around the bird with one hand while grabbing the disgruntled cat and pulling it out from under the towel with the other. I then took the wrapped bird to my bedroom, opened the window, and held the bird out until it gathered its wits together and flew off.

To be honest, this one nearly dropped like a stone. Fortunately it didn’t actually hit the ground, but it was a very low-flying pigeon…

Miaowrini managed to pluck quite a few feathers, and I decided to photograph the spoils of war…

Furretti loves playing with feathers, even though she doesn’t appear to be such a good hunter.

And, just to give you an idea of how small Miaowrini was compared to the pigeon…

And Another New Arrival...

Rather like buses, new blogs seem to arrive together...

Anyway, a certain MC has started to post his thoughts on stuff. I have no idea who he is, and he wishes to remain anonymous, but he appears to read this blog.

He also doesn't appear to be averse to cats, which marks him out as one of the good guys. I hasten to add that he hasn't posted any cat stuff himself, which means that readers of this blog who are not so keen on kitties can go and visit him without any trepidation.

Do check out the Thoughts of a Catholic MC.

New Blog On The Block...

An excellent new blog appears to have been started by the Licensed Fool, called On With The Motley. I particularly enjoyed his thoughts on the Sacrament of Confession.

Do go and check him out...

...and tell him I sent you. That way I might even get onto his blogroll...

Thinking Ahead...

We should all be planning for our futures - and I'm not talking about pension plans. How we spend eternity is far more important than that.

The Curt Jester has been giving it serious consideration. However, he has really big plans. Not only does he intend to become a canonised saint, but he wants to be declared a Doctor of the Church. In furtherance of this laudable ambition, he has calculated that he needs to move to Avila and become a Carmelite...

Hmmmmn.