Still Alive...

I've been rather busy over the past few days. First priority was to get a short article written for the Catholic Herald. No idea if it actually passed muster, but at least it was in on time. With a busy weekend schedule, I haven't actually had time to sort out all my photos from Fr. Charles Briggs' Silver Jubilee Mass, the photos from the Faith Summer Session, the photos from the Missa Cantata for the Feast of the Transfiguration and from Vespers, and photos from yesterday's Mass at Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane (I happened to be in central London - not looting, I hasten to add!)

Today I have travelled down to Eastbourne, delaying my sorting of photos still further...

I'm not fleeing the looters, by the way, I'm just dog-sitting for my parents who are off visiting my sister. I'm not particularly happy about it (I'd much rather be home looking after my cats) but there is a silver lining to this cloud, namely the discovery that 10am Mass at Our Lady of Ransom will be in the Extraordinary Form for the duration of my stay...

I shall take some photos of Eastbourne if the weather stays nice, and add them to all the ones I have to sort out on my return...

Kitty-Update: By Popular Demand...

I was truly surprised (and very humbled) to find out how many people at the Faith Summer Session read my blog. Even more surprising was the number of people who were actually keen to know what the cats have been up to lately. Yes, that's right... I spend ages on my more serious posts, and hardly anyone noticed. They all wanted to know about the cats.

When I arrived home, I spotted Monsignor Furretti lying on the grass in the front "garden" (it's actually just a strip of grass and some bushes to one side of the car parking area). I got out of the car, and she sat up. She made a chirruping noise, so I called her, at which point she came running up to me, and rubbed up against my ankles, purring enthusiastically. I then brought her inside and gave her some biscuits, which she ate with gusto.

Monsignor Miaowrini was nowhere to be seen, so I called her name through the catflap a few times. A short while later she came charging in, but she headed straight for the cat biscuits. After eating her fill, she came over to greet me. Slightly different priorities, but she is a much smaller cat - I think Furretti steals most of her food when I'm not looking...

Having fed the cats and made a fuss of them both, I had time to unpack and check the rest of the flat. I found the following little note from my next-door neighbour (who had been on cat-sitting duties.)

Dear Mac,

I came in and found the cat biscuits all over the kitchen floor. I have put them into some spare containers, and I hope that is of some help.

I am sorry, but I haven't seen both cats in together, so I can't tell which cat ate what food, sorry. I made a fuss of Furretti and have seen Miaowrini in the garden, so I assume both cats are ok.

Killing Fields

Mice (dead) - 4
Birds (dead) - 3
Mice (half alive) - 2
Birds (half alive) - 1
Plums (half eaten) - 3

Hope you had a good time.
Love Jan.

I have to admit that I didn't know cats liked plums. Cheese, crisps, coffee, yes... plums, no. I shall endeavour to find out more tomorrow...

Hope For The Future...

Well, I have returned from the Faith Summer Session at Woldingham, which was excellent. I had quite a few things to sort out, I'm a little tired, and tomorrow is likely to be rather hectic, so there won't be much blogging until Sunday... or perhaps Monday...

However, I did want to get this picture up without any delay. There is much doom and gloom being spread about vocations, so I thought I'd share a little good news.

We were truly fortunate to have four newly ordained priests celebrating Mass - the final Mass of the week was celebrated by Fr. Ian Vane who has just marked his Silver Jubilee of Ordination.

This was too good an opportunity to miss, so I persuaded them to allow me to take a photo - getting all four together was a bit like herding cats, but I managed it eventually...

From left to right: Fr. Andrew Gallagher (2 July 2011), Fr. Liam O'Connor (30 June 2011), Fr. Domenico Zanrè (27 June 2011) and Fr. Jonathon Routh (9 July 2011.)

Blogging Break...

I am off to the Faith Summer Session at Woldingham this week.

Apart from a brief visit to Chislehurst for Fr. Charles Briggs' Silver Jubilee of Ordination on Tuesday evening, I expect to be rather too busy at the Session activities to hunt down an available computer (I don't have a laptop.) I might manage to find one that isn't being used by Scottish teenagers desperate to know if their results are out, but I'm not counting on it. As a result, I shall probably not be blogging until my return on Friday.

I hope to have lots of photos from the Jubilee Mass and from the Summer Session to be posted when I get home.

In case any of you are concerned, my next-door neighbour will be on kitty duty. Despite the fact that she's crazy about my cats and will make far more of a fuss of them than I do, I suspect I'll be in the dog house on my return...

Attempts To Restrict Pro-Life Advice Services...

Of course, that's not how the Broadcasting Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) will describe it. No, it merely states that it wishes to review its old advertising codes. It particularly wishes to change its regulatory position on post-conception advice services (PCAS.)

The proposals include allowing commercial PCAS to advertise on television, allowing advertising by all those seen as providing suitable credentials, and requiring services to state if they do not refer for abortion.

Lets be absolutely clear on this. Post-conception advice services will consist of two groups: abortion providers who get paid for performing abortions (a multi-million pound industry) and pro-life charities which exist on a shoestring but do their utmost to help women in crisis pregnancy situations.

Requiring services to state if they do not refer for abortion basically rules out Catholic groups: referral for abortion is cooperation, and, as far as I understand it, incurs the penalty of excommunication, latae sententiae. Catholic pro-life groups will therefore not be able to make any such referral, and will have to say so.

The abortion providers, however, are under no obligation to point out that they have a direct financial interest in getting a woman to have an abortion. Technically, they can claim that they allow the woman to choose for herself, but I have not heard a single case where a woman in an abortion clinic has been given practical advice on how to keep her baby, counselled against having an abortion, or even told the negative consequences to a woman's health and psychological well-being resulting from abortion.

The "suitable credentials" requirement by the BCAP is another cause for concern, in that it will probably require groups to agree to refer women for abortion.

The consultation period ends on 8th August 2011. SPUC asks that people read use the briefing paper that they have prepared before contacting the BCAP to make their views known.

Updating Things...

I am not the only one who feels it's time to sort stuff out... SPUC are in the process of updating their charities bulletin, a summary of whether charities are engaged in activities contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church. The last bulletin is dated 2006, and a lot has happened in five years, so an update is definitely needed.

This is a very valuable resource for anyone who wishes to avoid inadvertently funding stuff such as embryo experimentation.

If you have any information on specific charities, you are invited to contact Anthony Ozimic.

A Quick Plug...

Just thought I'd take the opportunity to plug an excellent blog which is fairly new to the scene. Defénde nos in proélio is written by Annie Elizabeth, who describes herself as a Catholic wife, mother, home educator and breastfeeding counsellor.

She's written an amazing post about breastfeeding and its links with NFP and other things (I had no idea that the development of the dental arch was so dependent on breastfeeding!)

Do pop on over and leave a comment - it's lonely when you first start blogging, and everyone needs a little encouragement.

Possible Pruning Of Blogrolls...

I am contemplating a further change to the design of my blog.

Yesterday I had just a single post showing, and I suddenly realised, as I scrolled down, how very unwieldy my blogrolls have become. I think I shall create a page or two for the blogrolls, and only have a small selection of blogs on the main sidebar, possibly the most recently updated blogs, with their latest posts.

It's just a thought - I'd quite like to be free to put other stuff in the sidebar...

(In)voluntary Euthanasia...?

There are further attempts happening at the moment to legalise euthanasia in this country.

The common rallying cry for those who are pro-euthanasia is that one should have the right to choose to end one's own life, and have help to do it if needed. Heart-rending cases of people suffering from terminal and debilitating conditions are trotted out before the media, with the people concerned declaring that they wish to end their lives and don't want their nearest and dearest to suffer for helping them to do so.

The problem is that people who are suffering from debilitating conditions may not always be (dare I open a whole can of worms here?) in the right frame of mind to make such a choice.

Now, before I get shot down in flames, I am speaking from personal experience. Back in the late 1980s / early1990s I was suffering from chronic pain and I could only walk with crutches. More distressingly, I was told by several doctors that they could find no real physical cause for my pain.

Fortunately, I was working as a doctoral research student at the time, and my professor told me to stop researching the alcohol and start researching a couple of conditions which had been identified in my medical notes to see what I could find out. (The internet was not widely available at this time, so I couldn't just run a quick Google search, you understand!) It transpired that not only did the two conditions interact in such a way as to increase the pain I suffered, but that the whole of the front of my tibia was eroding as a result of previous surgery. Eventually, further surgery put things right, and, while I still have problems, I'm no longer on crutches and no longer on morphine!

But, at the time, I considered taking my own life. If voluntary euthanasia had been an option, I might not be here now. I'd discussed the possibility of amputation, but was told that phantom pain would probably result. The doctors could not give me any hope that the pain would ever stop. Suicide seemed a logical and rational decision. I was in unbearable pain, there was no treatment possible because no-one could find a cause for the pain, and my quality of life was pretty low. I knew that I could go on like this for decades, and it just didn't seem worth it. Luckily for me, my research started to identify possibilities, and I changed my mind. I then experienced my Damascus conversion (or, rather, reversion) and suicide was no longer an option.

I was very fortunate. So was Hannah Jones. At the age of 13, Hannah went to court to protest that she had the right to choose to die. In her case, this was by refusing a heart transplant. A year or so later, and she changed her mind. She has now completed her GCSEs and is looking forward to going to college... and she is delighted that she changed her mind.

If euthanasia becomes legal, people won't get the chance to change their minds.

I know that people will counter this by saying that euthanasia will always be voluntary. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to be the case. Euthanasia by omission of food and fluids is already happening in this country. There is nothing voluntary in this. Anything said, perhaps in a moment of despair, can be trotted out to support the ending of your life. You're not safe even if you have never actually said you're in favour of euthanasia. As Mr. Justice Charles said in his latest ruling in support of removing food and fluids from a woman in a vegetative state:

" There was 'convincing evidence from those who are nearest and dearest to her that there is nothing in her approach to life which would indicate that, if she were able to say something about it, she would not completely support what the family are asking me to do.'"

No chance for that lady to change her mind (assuming she ever made a choice in the first place!)

It's important to note that people have recovered from a persistent vegetative state, and there is ongoing research as to whether drug therapy can be used to help recovery.

Google+

For all those people who are wondering what Google+ actually is, and what makes it different to Facebook...



Twitch of the mantilla to the Idle Rambler, who actually posted this on Twitter (now that will really have confused some of you...)

BTW, you can find me on Google+ here, if you're interested...

Second Wave Of The Opening Salvo...

I said it before. If the Seal is no longer considered sacrosanct, then nothing is sacred. Literally.

This has absolutely nothing to do with child abuse. That just makes a convenient justification for the attack on the Church.

First of all Ireland. I might be wrong, but, from what I can glean on the internet, this doesn't appear to be something the Irish MPs will get a chance to vote on, it seems to be being added on to other legislation. I seriously hope that I am wrong on this.

And now it seems that Australia wants to join in. If we are silent in the face of this attack, it will gain momentum. Having scented blood in the water, the feeding frenzy will soon be under way.

I'll say it again. Paedophilia is being used as an excuse. And what a great excuse it is! The sexual abuse of children has, after all, been carried out by Catholic priests, and it has been covered up by Catholic bishops. And Catholics all go to Confession. Therefore, it stands to reason, doesn't it, that those priests must have confessed their crimes to those bishops (and other priests) and they were all protected by the Seal of Confession...

That's the logic of Joe Public. It's fuelled by statements in the press such as those given by by the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, which distort and misrepresent the facts. Most of us, faced with this "logic" keep quiet: the issue of child abuse is an emotive one, and any attempt to introduce notes of caution or correction are seized upon and castigated as attempts to downplay or negate the seriousness of the crime.

Child abuse is an appalling crime.

But we have to remove the emotive language, the distortions and the false assumptions in order that we can treat the issue with the seriousness it deserves.

It is important to note that the abuse of children is not peculiar to the Catholic Church. It happens in all areas of society. Research by Dr. Thomas Plante of Stanford University, (reported last year in the Catholic Herald) actually suggests that children who have anything to do with Catholic priests are between 1.6 and four times less likely to be abused by them than by anyone else. That is not to excuse the abuse carried out by priests, and it is understandable that one would expect higher standards from the Church... but, nevertheless, we must not act as if the Church alone is responsible for abuse.

We cannot stand by in silence while the Church is being attacked. We must make our opposition clear.

We also need to pray for our priests.

Many A True Word...

I was alerted to the existence of this amusing new blog by a comment from the author. Multum Incola Fuit Anima Mea chooses to take a swipe at some of the more ridiculous aspects of the world today through the use of wry humour...

I particularly enjoyed the hacking of the Eyerish Toesock's mail and the anti-Dracula group's non-directive counselling...

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...