Hoisting The Flag...

There is probably some technical term for it.

Anyway, after Benediction this lunchtime, Fr. Tim decided that it would be a good time to get the Papal flag flying in preparation for the Holy Father's visit to Britain. Did I mention that it's only five days away...?

First the flag was inspected...



A brief discussion as to the best location for the flag (until we get a proper flagpole) resulted in a large ladder being carried over to the car park lamp post...



There was quite a good wind, but the direction was rather inconvenient. No doubt the Senior MC will be able to tell me what direction it was. As a result, the flag is actually back-to-front. I did try to get a photo from the other side, but His Hermeneuticalness decreed that my car was not a fitting backdrop for the flag... admittedly, there was also a dirty great shed in the way...



However, I wanted to see what I could do about that flag... and, with the wonders of Photoshop, promptly flipped the photo...



That should confuse a few people...

Counting Down The Days...

I can hardly believe how close the Papal Visit is...

I'm getting particularly excited because, well, in my capacity as a British Catholic Blogger, I have managed to get a Papal Visit Press Pass.

Yes, you read that correctly. I actually have managed to get my paws on a press pass for the Papal Visit. I can hardly believe it. It certainly wasn't easy, and I had to hassle a lot of people, but I got there eventually.

Where "there" actually "is" is another matter...

I also tried to wangle my way into Westminster Cathedral for the Papal Mass, but no dice.

The main advantage to having the pass, as far as I can work out, is the ability to come and go with a bit more freedom than a regular pilgrim. It will also be fascinating to see what facilities are available in the Media Centre.

So, for a few days, I get to pretend to be a proper journalist - in much the same way as I previously pretended to be a proper author. This blogging lark is fun.

Working on the basis that, if you don't ask, you don't get, I started off my temporary journalistic "career" by getting myself invited along to the Catholic Herald's reception in honour of the Papal Visit.

Arriving outside the venue, I saw some very nice cars (big, shiny black ones, if you want to know - hey, I'm blonde. A car is a car) with chauffeurs waiting... and I began to wonder if I'd gatecrashed way out of my depth...

I later discovered that these cars belonged to the Hon. Sir Rocco Forte and HRH Princess Michael of Kent.

Yes, I am name-dropping.

I didn't get to speak to them, mind you, but that was my own fault. Being faced with the complexities of holding myself up on crutches, holding a drink (only orange juice, sadly, as I'd left the car at North Greenwich station) and retrieving various edibles from the passing waiters, I had opted to perch on a windowsill near the drinks' table and chat to anyone who came near - there's method in my madness... I figured I'd see quite a few people as they came to replenish their glasses... unfortunately I had failed to factor in the waiters circulating with bottles!



I did get to speak to Damian Thompson and Luke Coppen (with Fr. Tim Finigan in the photo) who somehow made me feel as if my lack of an invitation had been a complete oversight on their part. Anna Arco was present as well, having jetted back from Dubrovnik earlier in the week (according to her Facebook statuses.) Anna is always great fun to talk to, and she seemed almost as excited about my getting a press pass as I was. Joanna Bogle made an appearance, and we agreed to meet up for a chocolate cake and blogging session sometime soon.

Oona Stannard came and introduced herself, but she beat a hasty retreat when I muttered something uncomplimentary about the CES. I later heard that she'd been buttonholed by Daphne McLeod, and Daphne was rather more successful in challenging Oona about some of the CES's recent antics. I am very sorry to have missed that encounter. I am also rather sorry not to have met Daphne herself.

Mark Dowd (The Pope's British Divisions) came over to chat - I was extremely surprised that he remembered my name: I have dreadful problems with names, and have to make a real effort to learn them. He thanked me for the interview, which was even more surprising, given how short my contribution had been. I really enjoyed our conversation, which ranged from the parlous state of catechesis in this country (demonstrated by the Sixth Formers in Derby) through to the Stand Up for Vatican II mob having pretty much lost the argument (as admitted by Bernard Wynne in his interview slot) and finishing with Mark's latest (excellent) Catholic Herald article on the Holy Father. He left early, as he had to get down to Bath for more interviews in the run up to the Papal Visit.



His Hermeneuticalness was able to circulate, so got to meet rather more people... I did consider trying to get upstairs just to have a good look round, but the stairs appeared rather terrifying. I didn't fancy leaving the party by ambulance.

It was a really wonderful party, and a superb way to kick things off for the Holy Father's visit... Congratulations (and many thanks) to the Catholic Herald for putting on such a great event.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee ! Only five more days to go!!!

The Lure Of Cheap Flights...

They say that there's no such thing as a free lunch, and, by the same token, those cheap flights are usually too good to be true... This was sent to me by a friend, and I laughed out loud... and, since I'm generous that way, I thought I'd spread the laughter round a wee bit...

Scotland Takes The Honours Yet Again...

I previously compared the efforts of Scotland and England & Wales on the Papal Mass Furniture front, and concluded that Scotland had very definitely scooped first prize.

Now, via BBC Scotland (and the Scottish Catholic Media Office, which appears to have its act together) I discover that a new tartan has been designed in honour of the Papal Visit. There is a deep symbolism in the whole thing from the different colours used through to the number of threads in the design (one for each Scottish parish, it seems!).

And it is simply gorgeous.

I want one.

I don't need a full skirt - that would require rather a large amount of material. I want the shawl that piper Louise Marshall Millington is wearing in the photo.

The Isle of Man produced commemorative stamps. And the information on them is wrong (which apparently increases the value, but is rather an indication of how disorganised things were this side of the border...).

England & Wales have produced, ummmm...?

Scotland unveils a glorious new tartan.

Game, set and match, I think...

The Voice Of Reason...?

This has got to be one of the most rational of newspaper reports from the secular press, that I've read in a long time. I certainly appreciated the understatement in the first two paragraphs:

"When Pope Benedict XVI touches down in Edinburgh next Thursday at the start of a four-day state visit to Britain, he may be forgiven for thinking he is not particularly welcome.

"The Devil himself could hardly have got a worse press."

Stephen Glover describes himself as an Anglican who retains a few traces of irrational anti-Catholicism. At least he recognises his own bias, but his article is one of the most evenly balanced I've encountered since the announcement of the Holy Father's State Visit to Britain.

Do go and read the rest of it.

The Pope's British Divisions...

An interesting play on words, that...

"The Pope!? How many divisions has he got?" was apparently Stalin's dismissive response to Pierre Lavin on the proposal to include the Pope in the Allies' War Conferences. And, according to the programme, there is plenty of support for Pope Benedict XVI here in Britain, most heart-warmingly from the seminarians interviewed at Oscott.

The programme decided to highlight a few other divisions.

On the whole, it was far from the hatchet-job I feared. I was annoyed by the fact that, given the number of young people interviewed by Mark Dowd when he came to Blackfen, (none of whom have any difficulty accepting Church teaching on morality) the only teenagers to be portrayed on the programme were ones who were so poorly catechised in the tenets of the Faith that they thought their support for abortion was compatible with their professed Catholicism.

I was also irritated by the fact that Bernard Wynne was described as being involved in Stand Up for Vatican II, but his Chairmanship of the dissident group Catholics for a Changing Church was not mentioned. He and his group actively oppose Church teaching. That fact is not being made clear.

I was amused to hear that one ex-parishioner complained that she left because the choir were suddenly being required to sing more Latin. According to the documents of Vatican II, the choir should never have stopped being required to sing Latin!!

And two quotes from me made it onto the programme... I don't recall them being quite so close together in the original interview, but I was very pleased that my quoting of Pope Benedict's "Truth is not subject to a majority vote" didn't end up on the editing-room floor.

The programme is available (only for the next week) on the BBC's Listen Again feature. Several of us will hope to hear it tonight (I didn't expect to be able to listen this morning) but the evening edition is 15 minutes shorter than the morning one, and I don't know which bits will be edited out.

So far, a few other bloggers have given their verdicts. Check out Fr. Ray Blake, Fr. Michael Brown and The Sensible Bond.

UPDATE: This has attracted further comment. You can read more from John Smeaton, James Preece, Dominic Mary and His Hermeneuticalness himself...

His Hermeneuticalness On The BBC...

A couple of weeks ago (the Feast of the Assumption, to be exact) a couple of people from BBC Radio 4 came to Blackfen, making a programme for the run-up to the Holy Father's visit.

In addition to recording the Mass, they wanted to speak to parishioners. Unfortunately, I got roped in... heaven only knows what they'll make of my interview. I liked Mark Dowd, but I was struck by the extremely negative body language of the sound engineer/producer, Helen somebody-or-other.

I figured that it wasn't going to be exactly positive when I got asked about the problems we'd had in Blackfen when Fr. Tim introduced the Extraordinary Form of Mass into the Sunday schedule, and I got asked about why we didn't have collections for CAFOD (I made a booboo of colossal proportions when I confused Haiti and Thailand: they promised not to use that bit) and whether people calling for women priests could still be called Catholic...

*ahem*

Several other people were interviewed, and I'm sure that they acquitted themselves better than I managed. Fr. Tim was interviewed separately, possibly because of escalating noise levels in the club, or possibly because of time constraints on the Sunday. I became even more convinced this would be a hatchet job of the first order when I heard that the whinger-in-chief (Bernard Wynne - he of Catholics for a Changing Church, Stand Up for Vatican II and Catholic Voices for Reform) and Elena Curti of The Suppository had also been interviewed.

The blurb doesn't give me much hope either...

Anyway, the programme is going out tomorrow. The Pope's British Divisions is on Radio 4 at 9am - unfortunately, I'll be busy at that point. It's being repeated at 9:30pm, however, so several of us are going to attend the usual Thursday evening Rosary & Benediction and then go into the Parish Club and ask for the Sky channel to be switched to Radio 4.

Watch this space...

Changes To The Blogroll...

The blogrolls have been getting longer and longer, as I keep discovering great blogs to add to them. At the moment, I have three - one for priests, one for British blogs (located in Britain, that is, not nationality) and one for Overseas Blogs.

I am loathe to divide blogs into Premier League and Lower Divisions because some blogs would never get a look in - you can figure out your own favourites. I might have to create some other categories, though, as the rolls are so long that it's difficult to keep track of everything.

With that in mind, I have been checking the blogroll links. Any blogs which haven't been updated in the past two months have been removed from my rolls. There is one exception so far - Ttony of The Muniment Room has just stopped blogging temporarily (I hope) until after the Holy Father's visit... He gets a homework extension until October.

Today I managed to review the Clerical and the British blogrolls. Later this week, I intend to get round to checking the Overseas blogs...

If you think that I have removed you from the roll unfairly, then leave me a message in the combox. I will review my decision. Please note, I do not put every blog I read in the blogroll. It is, after all, my blogroll, and this is a Catholic, family-friendly blog (I hope.)

I Need Cheering Up...

I had a bad night, and seriously overslept this morning. I've been feeling grouchy all day as a result, and even the arrival of my papal flags didn't cheer me up (They were rather a disappointment - I hadn't realised they were made out of paper, I thought they'd be polyester.)

So I've decided to emulate the great Fr. Z, and ask for people to put any good news they've had, or anything which has cheered them up, in the combox.

I'll start off with this lolcats photo, which made me smile, and reminded me of the photo below...

And Yet Another Swimmer...

Giles Pinnock, the Anglican priest who has just resigned from his parish because he has decided to convert to Catholicism, put up a post asking prayers for another priest has done the same thing, on the same day.

The other priest's wife, Blondepidge, is already Catholic, and she has her own blog. Unfortunately, the decision to leave home and lose income has happened at the worst possible moment - she's waiting to start a full-time degree with a view to going into teaching, and, as well as having a six year-old and a young baby, she's just discovered that she's pregnant again. Possibly with twins...

Blondepidge bravely explains why, despite the encouragement of her doctor to have an abortion, she and her husband have chosen to continue with the pregnancy. Unfortunately, there have been some really horrible comments made, so do pop on over and redress the balance.

Another Swimmer Prepares...

Fr. Giles Pinnock needs our prayers. He has become convinced that he needs to come home to Rome, and, as such, has resigned from his Anglican parish of St. Mary the Virgin, Kenton.

Giving up one's job, one's home and one's whole way of life is a daunting prospect for anyone, and probably even more so if it affects one's family. Pray for him as he prepares to swim the Tiber.

Twitch of the mantilla to Jeffrey Steel.

Positively Inspired...

If I were ever to get a dog, I'd have to name him "Anathema" just for the pleasure of getting to utter the phrase Anathema, sit...!

His Hermeneuticalness told me that, as there is no such thing as a new heresy, just the old ones resurrected every few centuries or so, we ought to start a twitter hashtag to go along with #FollowFriday - namely, Anathema Saturday.

In one of my more inspired moments, I riposted that it ought, by rights, to be #AnathemaSiturday...

Yes, yours truly, blonde though I am, was able to bask in the pleasure of having demonstrated a moment of pure, unadulterated genius.

Given the nonsense that some of the crackpots on Catholic Voices for Reform are likely to be spouting, it might be a good idea to get a few of those anathemas out into the open... you know, like the one that condemns anyone who says that Christ never ordained the Apostles as priests...

Mind you, most of them find the new media a little difficult to understand, so they might not know what Twitter actually is...

Redemptorist Publications & The Bones They Couldn't Crush...!

Sorry, Laurence... Couldn't resist that opportunity... Now, enough frivolity.

It appears that Redemptorist Publications have little understanding of the new media. Once something is "out there" on the internet, there is little point screaming blue murder about copyright infringement just because one doesn't like a blogger's review... (I'm pretty sure that, if Bones had given a glowing endorsement of the pamphlet produced by Redemptorist Publications, not a single objection to his quotes would have been made!)

You see, Catholic bloggers are mostly orthodox. The reason that they blog is that they want to proclaim the Truth, in all its beauty, to share it with others.

People of a less orthodox bent can't really blog to the same extent - they have few opinions, because, after all, for them, "my truth" may be very different from "your truth" and one wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings by expressing the belief that "my truth" is correct, and "your truth" is not. That might be seen as being judgemental and unfeeling.

Orthodox Catholics, on the other hand, have got the certainty of the Faith behind their statements. 2000 years' worth of certainty, give or take a year or two, guaranteed by Christ himself, just as long as one is in Communion with the successor to St. Peter. And, no matter how much the baby-boomers scream about the spirit of Vatican II opening the windows and doors of the Church to allow discussion, anyone with half a brain cell, who troubles themselves to read the actual documents of Vatican II, will be able to see that there are certain definitive Truths held by the Church, which have been held since the beginning.

One of those Truths is that the ministerial priesthood is not open to women.

Not in the past. Not now. Not ever.

This teaching has been declared as part of the deposit of Faith, and, as such, must be given complete assent by the faithful. Complete assent means that it is not open to discussion. This is not because the discussion is being suppressed, it is simply because the matter cannot be changed. Can not. Not will not. The Church has declared that she does not have the authority to change this teaching.

The sun rises in the East.* This is not open to discussion. I'm not attempting to quash discussion of the matter, it just isn't possible to discuss something which is immutable. I might wish, were I of a philosophical persuasion, (I'm not, but I'll concede the point) to speculate as to the reasons why the sun rises in the East, but there would be no discussion, as such, because it simply isn't open to change. And no amount of money spent on bus adverts will have the slightest effect on this basic fact.

The Catholic Women's Ordination group, CWO, have failed to grasp this. This is basically because they see the ministerial priesthood as being little more than a way to exercise power within the Church, and a matter of equality. If this was all that the priesthood was about, then, yes, women should be able to be ordained. But it is not. And it has precious little to do with the feeling that one is called to be a priest... many men feel that they have a priestly vocation, but this has to be tested and affirmed by the Church. Many are called, but few are chosen, to coin a phrase.

If you want to read a clear piece on Pope John Paul II's teaching on the matter, you can read a far better post over at Bridges and Tangents by Fr. Stephen Wang (twitch of the mantilla to Fr. Tim Finigan) and for an even deeper analysis of why the CWO's arguments are so flawed, check out this excellent post by Fr. Philip Neri Powell (more mantilla-twitching, this time in the direction of Vincenzo.)

Anyway, à rétourner à notre mouton... knowingly to dissent from the definitive teachings of the Catholic Church is to declare oneself a heretic. CWO has, by declaring its intention to fight for the ordination of women, effectively done that very thing.

So we are left with several questions of vital importance. Why does a Catholic publishing house produce a leaflet which gives a link to CWO while claiming to be a spiritual guide for the Papal Visit to the UK? Why does the leaflet encourage the discussion of women's ordination in groups? Who is Lucy Russell, and why was she asked to write for the pamphlet when she appears, on the surface, to be so ill-equipped to defend the teaching of the Church?

I totally agree with Fr. Ray Blake in suggesting that emails should be sent to the Secretary General of the Redemptorists, Fr. Joseph P. Dorcey C.Ss.R., asking some of these questions. I also wrote a review of the pamphlet, warning others that this publication, because of its promotion of a heretical group, could not in truth call itself Catholic... somehow I suspect that the review will not find its way onto the website... I shall let you know!


* Yes, I know. After all, I'm a Science teacher. I do realise that the Sun only appears to rise. Nevertheless, it only appears to rise in the East, so stop being so pedantic. Or I'll put you in detention...

Fantastic Video About The Holy Father...

I watched, absolutely entranced. I'm not entirely taken with the soundtrack, but that's just me. Watch and learn, my friends, watch and learn!



Mantilla-twitch in the direction of the excellent Mary O'Regan...

A Blogger In Need Of Prayers...

Just for once, it isn't me.... apart from the fact that all of us are in need of prayers all the time, that is.

But this evening, as I was checking through my SiteMeter stats, I discovered a blog I hadn't seen before. Quam Angusta Porta is written by Malvenu, a married man who is struggling with his faith. He believes that the Truth is to be found in the Catholic Church, but cannot quite bring himself to cross the Tiber for family reasons.

Please spare a few prayers for him, that he can see the way forward and come home.

Via Romea, The Musical...!

Heheheheheheh... we had our Parish Music Evening last night. As a special treat, the "Trio-Lars" sang us their Via Romea theme tune... something this very talented trio concocted during a thunderstorm, and based on their experiences during the French leg of the ordeal pilgrimage...

I'm delighted that my dinky little Canon IXUS 100 was able to capture the moments so well... but in case you are wondering, the lyrics are on the You Tube page for the video... and, since I'm generous that way, the embedding code is there too. But pretty please, give me a link back to the blog!

Redesigned Sanctuary For Cofton Park..?

Unasked by the Bishops of England & Wales, Vincenzo has generously submitted an alternative design. He's even provided before-and-after videos to demonstrate the differences this will make.

Unfortunately, I doubt that this will be acceptable to their Lordships.

*sigh*

I guess we're stuck with the one which resembles Ebbsfleet International Station...

Abortion Survivor...

This seems to be my day for videos. I saw this over at The Sensible Bond; it is the account of Gianna Jessen, who was born alive after a saline abortion. The video was made during a speech she made in 2007, on the eve of the debate to decriminalise abortion in Victoria, Australia.

The heart-stopping moment for me in this account is realising that it was only in August 2002 that President Bush signed the Born Alive Infants Protection Act... up until that time, the practice was to end the life of a baby who survived an abortion by either strangulation, suffocation, leaving the baby there to die or throwing the baby away!!

The news has been full of outrage this past week about a woman who shoved a cat into a wheelie bin, where it was stuck for 16 hours. I am a cat lover. I think it is dreadful that anyone could shove a cat in a bin. But it's only a cat. The same treatment was being meted out to other human beings, and IT WAS LEGAL !

Here in the UK it is legal to have an abortion up to birth if the child is disabled. I doubt that we have the equivalent of the "Born Alive" Act.

A Bunny In The Oven...

I like this picture. It's not a fail at all, according to my way of thinking. It helps to fight against the tendency of the media to portray animals are as cute and cuddly, and nothing to do with food.

I have often found myself staring in disbelief at children who do not realise that all our food is either from animals or plants. I still recall the lesson where, after I had made this assertion, one Year 11 class (that's 15 - 16 years old) proceeded to name a succession of different foodstuffs in an attempt to catch me out...

"Cornflakes?"

"Comes from maize, also called corn. It's a plant."

"Ummm... ok, toast?"

"Toast is made from bread, bread is made from flour, flour is made from wheat. Wheat is a plant."

"Aha! Tomato ketchup! That's not made from plants or animals!!"

"And, what does tomato ketchup contain, then...?"

"Tomatoes, of course... oh, yeah... tomatoes are, yeah... Well, what about spaghetti?"

I was soooooo tempted to say that spaghetti grew on spaghetti trees...

Carmel In Bulgaria...

A very moving account of a Carmelite convent in Bulgaria, with descriptions of some of the persecutions the nuns experienced when the Communists took over.

Unfortunately, it's only the first 10 minutes of the documentary, but still well worth watching. The thing that struck me most was the complete serenity on the faces of the nuns, and the complete absence of frown lines...



Twitch of the mantilla to Nazareth Priest and to Hilary White.