Ad Multos Annos, Fr. Ian...

On Tuesday evening I was blessed to attend Fr. Ian Vane's Silver Jubilee of Ordination Mass at English Martyrs' Church, Horley.

Here I have a slight confession to make - I hadn't realised that Fr. Ian Vane was no longer at Worthing (it can be a bit difficult to keep track of this sort of thing) but, since I don't know where Worthing actually is, that didn't make any difference. Fortunately, someone else was responsible for navigating. I just drove where I was told. It wasn't until after Mass, when one of the parishioners asked me if I was a visitor from Worthing that I realised we were somewhere else...

The style of the church was quite striking - not to my personal taste, but the Tabernacle was dead centre, which really is all that matters!

The Mass was very moving: I especially liked the torch bearers during the Canon...

Afterwards, there was a celebration in the hall. Bishop Kieran Conry (also celebrating his anniversary of Ordination) helped Fr. Ian to cut a couple of cakes - and there was a little bit of a scrum to get photos, though the cakes were moved to a more convenient spot, which helped to reduce congestion.

I've just realised that I didn't get any cake this time either...

Fr. Tim managed to muscle in on the photography...

Then, the mad axe-murderer pose, as they slice into the cake with the picture of Fr. Ian on the icing...

And then a slightly more sedate pose for the second cake...

Fr. Dominic Rolls, Fr. Hugh MacKenzie and Fr. James Clark, three great priests from the Faith Movement, were easy to round up, and willingly posed for the camera. No doubt they'll feature again on the blog when I post photos from this Summer's Session at Woldingham...

Finally, I managed to corral Fr. Ian Vane and Fr. Roger Nesbitt together for a photo - this was unbelievably difficult to coordinate, as neither wanted to interrupt the other's conversation, and no sooner was one priest ready than I found the other had been buttonholed by someone else! However, eventually...

I'd just like to finish off by offering my congratulations to Fr. Ian Vane, and to say "Ad multos annos!"

A Call To Arms...

Several people have said to me that the latest proposal by the Irish government to make failure to report any confessions of the sexual abuse of children a crime punishable by imprisonment would be completely unworkable, and therefore it isn't something to worry about. It isn't serious, it's just "an expression of disgust" at the crime of paedophilia which was for so long covered up and unreported.

On the contrary, I think that this is the start of a deliberate attack on the Church, because of her moral stance on issues such as marriage, contraception and abortion.

It may well be an unworkable law, but that is no reason to allow it to pass without protest.

Caroline McCamley, who writes the St. Genesius Blog is of the same opinion. She has put up the "Protect the Seal" ribbon with the invitation to share it around the blogosphere. We need to make a stand here and now, and not wait for the first priests in Ireland to be put on trial for refusing to break the Seal.

Show your support. And pray for the Church in Ireland.

(A twitch of the mantilla to Jane for bringing the campaign to my attention.)

Just For Leutgeb...

I thought this little gem might appeal to Leutgeb, who is doing her utmost to drill some basic stuff about square notes into our skulls... and doing rather well, actually...

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...

Ad Multos Annos, Fr. Jonathon...

Today I was privileged to attend the Ordination to the Sacred Priesthood of Fr. Jonathon Routh at Our Lady, Help of Christians, Folkestone.

It was a wonderful occasion. I had a brilliant vantage-point from which to take a few photos (I had been asked to sing the Ave Maria at Communion, and it was easier to stay up in the organ loft.) Part of the Sanctuary was out of my line of sight, but I think I got a few pretty good shots, a selection of which are shown here. The rest will (eventually) find their way onto my Flickr account.

First of all, the candidate for Ordination is called and presented, with the Rector of St. John's Seminary, Monsignor Jeremy Garrett, declaring that he had been found worthy for service as a priest...

The promise of obedience to the Ordinary, Archbishop Peter Smith...

The Litany of the Saints...

The laying on of hands...

Fr. Roger Nesbitt then invested Fr. Jonathon with stole and chasuble, which had been brought up by Fr. Jonathon's parents...

Fr. Jonathon's hands are anointed with the oil of Chrism...

And Archbishop Peter Smith presents Fr. Jonathon with the paten and chalice...

One of the deacons looked as if he was going to knock out the Archbishop with the thurible... despite this, the Archbishop didn't flinch at all...

Fr. Jonathon told me afterwards that he found the raising of the torches at the Elevation of the Host and Chalice to be extremely moving...

I'd just like to offer my congratulations to Fr. Jonathon, and to wish him many happy years of faithful service.

Success... (Possibly!)

Monsignor Furretti does not appear to have used the litter tray for a few days. She did go and kick the litter around a bit the last time I changed it - I can tell because it's in a neat pile to one side of the tray - and she may have peed in it so as to mark it as "hers," but she hasn't deposited anything more noxious.

She has been eating well, so, unless she is monumentally constipated, I can probably assume that she now goes out into the garden to do the necessaries...

This is a great relief to me. as I was beginning to wonder whether I should invest in a gas mask.

I suspect that the stag beetle hunting season is now over for this year. Either that or stag beetles are finally extinct in south-east London. Monsignor Miaowrini appears to have turned her attention to mice... (I'm hoping that blackbird and pigeon are off the menu for the time being!) Furretti doesn't appear to bring stuff home - though she's happy to play with whatever Miaowrini drags in.

I know a lot of people say that their cats bring them dead rodents as "presents." Sylvester certainly did, and he even brought me the occasional live offering. I thought Miaowrini was doing the same thing (only she doesn't seem to kill her prey) and would do my best to rescue her captives. It would appear that my swiping of her trophies has not gone down well... the last two times Miaowrini brought a mouse home, she took one look at me approaching, promptly picked the mouse up and ran off with it back out through the catflap.

Strangely enough, I don't feel inclined to upbraid her for her selfish attitude...

A New Definition Of Patience...

This really made me laugh for about 10 seconds. After that, I wanted to wring the pigeon's neck. How the cat managed to show such restraint beats me. My two hooligans wouldn't have shown such forbearance...

UPDATE: Ok, YouTube pulled the video for some reason. It was a pigeon or parakeet or some such feathered thing which wouldn't leave a snoozing kitty alone. The cat just did its best to ignore the bird, pushing it away gently. Like I said, I wanted to wring the bird's neck, it was that irritating. I saw the video on I Can Has Cheezburger? If you are curious as to why I didn't just delete the post rather than explaining the absent video, well, posts on Blogger exist in the ether even if they've been deleted, unless you over-write them, and I wasn't going to find another post to go with the title any time soon...

Happy Fourth Of July...

I guess that all my transatlantic readers (you know who you are, all four of you!) will be celebrating today (well, what's left of it... I'm a bit snowed under today!)

One of the most amusing posts for an ignoramus such as myself is the one by Vincenzo - three You Tube cartoons to explain what all the fuss is about. I think I like this one best...



...though I'm not sure about "the pursuit of happiness" ! Go over to Vincenzo's for the other two...

Returning To The Socks Motif...

Jonathan, Blackfen's senior MC, likes to make sure that the servers do not wear inappropriate attire on the Sanctuary. This includes an insistence on plain black socks, as one of our servers discovered last year...

Apparently James, Chislehurst's MC, is rather less strict. He occasionally plays the organ at Blackfen (extremely well, I might add) for weddings, funerals and other occasions when our usual organist is otherwise engaged. He was playing for the wedding on Saturday, and proudly showed off his red socks...

I persuaded him to run through the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria with me once the congregation had left - I'm singing it at an Ordination next week, and need all the practice I can get! I was delighted to find that I hit the top A without any trouble (I was a bit squeaky when I practiced it at Wonersh last week, but then I hadn't sung anything high for ages...)

On the subject of weddings, the one on Saturday was celebrated ad orientem, and I have to say that, from a purely aesthetic viewpoint, the setup is much, much better than the versus populum one...

Shame about the chairs. Now, if Fr. Tim could just get some backless stools for the bride and groom, it would be absolutely perfect...

The Truth Behind China's One-Child Policy...

Back in April, I wrote a short post on the shameful silence of so-called "pro-choice" organisations (such as Marie Stopes) on the enforcement of the one-child policy in China.

Reggie Littlejohn posted a link in the com-box to a video report she'd made on the forced abortions and sterilisations happening in China. I felt that it deserved a wider audience, so I'm giving it a post of its own...

Lesnes Abbey Procession...

I was rather uncomfortable with the Eucharistic "Flash-mob" held in Preston. I did understand the thinking behind it, but I am firmly of the opinion that bringing Our Lord out in a hold-all is not the way to impress upon people that the Catholic Church teaches that the Blessed Sacrament really is God.

The more I think about it, the more uncomfortable it makes me.

So I was delighted that, last Sunday, we had our annual Blessed Sacrament Procession at Lesnes Abbey.

The ruins are in the middle of a park, rather than in the centre of a shopping area, but there are plenty of people who have gone to the park for a walk or a picnic, and they are left in no doubt that there is something special going on. We have First Communicants, altar servers, priests, deacons... there is music, prayer, readings... and Benediction.

There is much I dislike about the procession - the choice of music and the number of readings being my two main beefs - but it is a reverent occasion, and it is absolutely clear that we are there to worship Our Lord, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.

We were certainly blessed as far as the weather went... the week before had been cold, wet and windy, and even the previous day had seen quite a bit of rain.

The beginning of the procession...

The procession goes round the park...

Benediction was given by Bishop Pat Lynch...

When it was time for the Blessed Sacrament to be reposed, the deacon (wearing a humeral veil) was accompanied by servers...

I've taken more detailed pictures of the ruins and given a little of the history in a previous post.

The Knights of St. Columba did a sterling job of marshalling the procession and providing first aid, and three of them agreed to pose for the blog...

Three of the First Communicants from Blackfen got to pose for photos as well, first with Bishop Lynch...

...and then with their Parish Priest, none other than Fr. Finigan (who has a much better understanding of photographic niceties, and who persuaded the girls to relinquish water bottles, put their hands together and stand over by the wall...)

Corpus Christi

Just a couple of photos from the Mass held on the Thursday. It was reasonably well-attended, despite the Thursday no longer being held as a Holyday of Obligation.

 

I didn't manage to get any photos of the actual procession because I was helping with the singing, and I haven't mastered the art of manipulating Liber and camera at the same time. Nevertheless, I found it profoundly moving. The weather was a little uncertain, so we only processed around the church. Maybe next year we can have an outdoor procession.

On a related note, I thought numbers were rather low for the Feast of St. Peter & St. Paul last Wednesday. It did occur to me that a lot of people may have thought that the Holyday had been transferred to the Sunday, like Ascension, Epiphany and Corpus Christi. The sooner the Holydays are put back to their proper places, the better...

Blogging Blues...

Before you protest that I frequently seem to say I'll stop blogging in a passive-aggressive attempt to elicit sympathy, I'd just like to make it clear that this isn't an attempt to gain sympathy and I am not going to stop blogging.

At least, not this week...

Mind you, my blogging has been so irregular of late that I doubt anyone would notice if I had stopped... (Note to male readers* - that was your cue to comment in the com-box that yes, you had noticed my absence, and yes, you were concerned, but you had decided to be understanding and let me have some space in which to recharge my blogging batteries... please also note that a failure to make such comments will result in me sulking, in as conspicuous a manner as I can manage on my blog... and probably on a few other blogs as well...)

Seriously, I just ran out of blogging steam.

I might take another week or so off, to allow time to stoke the boilers... (Another note to male readers: that was your cue to comment in the com-box that you hope I won't be gone too long...)

* Just in case you were wondering, female readers know instinctively when (and how) to answer this sort of cri de coeur, even if they choose not to do so. In the five years I've been blogging, I've found that men often just need the little pointers as to when such comments** are expected...

** Boxes of chocolates (real, not virtual) are an acceptable substitute for comments (real and virtual).