whitesmokeahoy

New Year Reminiscences - London 'yesterday' and Orkney 'today'

2012-01-05T00:31:00.000Z

Wishing you all a blessed and happy New Year.

Yet another New Year celebration sharpens the sense of life’s transience. This is not to be morbid but it does install a certain sense of urgency to life, a realisation that time is precious and must not be wasted. I find myself reminiscing, remembering events in my life even from childhood, more years ago than I care to admit! Which brings me to the first part of this post which concerns London, the city of my birth. The following short articles relate to the London of the 18th and 19th centuries, all exhibit a certain charm and even strangely, a sense of ‘deja vu’, and are taken from 'London is London' by D.M.Low, published by Chatto and Windus, 1949.

Shoplifting.
On Monday last, at noon, a woman, most handsomely dressed, and affecting the woman of fashion, went into the shop of a hosier in the Strand, and appeared (being without a hat) as if she had just stepped out of a carriage; and indeed this was the case. She asked to look at some silk stockings; several pairs were shown her; and presently in came a fellow in livery, who, with his hat off, said, “Sir Thomas is in the carriage, my lady.” She replied that it was very well, and she would be with him in a few minutes. She then paid for two pairs of stockings, went away, and got into a post-chaise, which then drove off. This latter circumstance somewhat surprising the hosier, he examined the different loose parcels of stockings that he had opened, and discovered that her ladyship had stolen nine pair.
From a newspaper quoted in W.Besant’s ‘London in the Eighteenth Century’

Underground
Yesterday, Mary Anne and I made our first trip down the ‘Drain’. We walked to the Edgware Road and took first-class tickets for King’s Cross (6d each). We experienced no disagreeable odour, beyond the smell common to tunnels. The carriages hold ten persons, with divided seats, and are lighted by gas (two lights), they are also so lofty that a six-footer may stand erect with his hat on. Trains run every 15 minutes from six in the morning till twelve at night (with some slight variation) and about 30,000 are conveyed on the line daily: shares have risen, and there is a prospect of a large dividend.
From ‘A Mid-Victorian Pepys’ – dated January 26, 1863; by William Hardman

Mr Pooter at Home
My dear wife Carrie and I have just been a week in our new house, ‘The Laurels’, Brickfield Terrace, Holloway - a nice six-roomed residence, not counting basement with a front breakfast-parlour. We have a little front garden, and there is a flight of ten steps up to the front door; which, bye the bye, we keep locked with the chain up. Cummings, Gowing, and our other intimate friends always come to the little side- entrance, which saves the servant the trouble of going up to the front door, thereby taking her from her work. We have a nice little back garden which runs down to the railway. We were rather afraid of the noise of the trains at first, but the landlord said we should not notice them after a bit, and took £2 off the rent. He was certainly right, and beyond the cracking of the garden wall at the bottom, we have suffered no inconvenience.
From ‘Diary of a Nobody’, by George and Weedon Grossmith (1847-1912 and 1852-1919)

True Christian Charity – England 1791
‘The influx of French refugees into England at the time of the French Revolution, is a remarkable although little known occurrence in English Catholic history. They began to arrive in the spring of 1791, when Mgr de la Marche, Bishop of Saint-Pol-de-Leon, and others who had earlier stood out against the French Republican Government, made their escape to England in smuggler’s vessels. By 1792 there were 3,000 French priests in England, 1500 of these in London, and many of the others in Winchester, Jersey, and other parts of the London District. By 1801 the numbers of French clergy in England alone had risen to 5,600 which included 30 Bishops and 50 Vicars General., and 4000 lay persons. The need of the poor exiles was indeed desperate. The priests in particular were often utterly destitute, with the French laity little better, and it is one of the most creditable facts in history, says Bishop Ward, that the Protestant English received these émigrés not only with hospitality, but with an open-hearted generosity. The King himself exempted them from the operations of the Aliens Act, with the Treasury making grants of £450,000, and all classes of society subscribing large sums for their support. Oxford University printed a Latin version of the New Testament for the use of the priests, followed by the four parts of the Roman Breviary, all as gifts. Clothing, living accommodation, and means were provided for the refugees, with a wing of the Middlesex Hospital given over to house the sick priests, and a chapel installed for those well enough to say or hear Mass. The English were impressed by the exemplary conduct and spiritual zeal of the French clergy, to the extent that Pitt declared in the House of Commons that such spirituality had not been equalled since the earliest ages of Christianity. The admirable deportment of the French clergy and their familiar presence on the streets of London, did much at the critical time of the Catholic Relief Bills, to break down prejudice and familiarise the public with Catholic services, chapels and ways of life. Many new chapels were opened , as well as schools, libraries, and even hospitals, due entirely to the courage, trust in God, and pastoral zeal of so many of the French clergy, supported by the generous charity of English Protestants.’
From ‘Catholic London’ by Douglas Newton.( Published by Robert Hale, London. 1950)

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Now to the present, where here on Stronsay in Orkney, we have our own chapel, ‘Our Lady’s Chapel’, which has been subject to considerable renovation over the past few years. It now looks very smart on the outside, having recently been re-rendered and dashed, and very welcoming and devotional inside. We have a beautiful, marble/stone main altar with the image of Our Lady of Lourdes carved into the stonework beneath the altar-top, and facing the congregation.

'Our Lady's Chapel' - main altar

An impressive filigreed dark oak Communion rail, with carved figures of pelicans and fruits of the vine, divides the sanctuary from the body of the Church, which has dark , traditional-style wooden pews and kneelers divided by a narrow centre aisle. Recently a fine older set of the fourteen Stations of the Cross was fitted, each Station about 34”x28”, and together taking up virtually all the wall space around the chapel, yet looking really striking and quite appropriate. Last summer, the interior of the chapel was completely re-decorated by the Brothers, under the artistic direction of Brother Nicodemus, with innovations such as a dark- blue ceiling with delicate gold stars thereon, and other discreet gold embellishments , creating a very beautiful chapel.

Our Lady of Victories

Add to this the several magnificent statues, particularly that of Our Lady of Victories, the statue of Our Lady of Fatima on the sanctuary, the large Pieta situated inside the chapel above the main portico, and the statue of the Divine Infant of Prague, and still others, and you have an idea of how fortunate we are.

Our Lady of Fatima

We are indebted to Fr Michael Mary (F.SS.R) and Fr Anthony Mary (F.SS.R) from Golgotha Monastery, Papa Stronsay, who look after our spiritual needs, with the traditional (EF) daily Mass and the Sacraments, weekly Benediction, and when possible a sung High Mass on Sundays and feast-days. We also regularly enjoy the company of the F.SS.R Brothers, with their devotion and cheerfulness, friendliness and willingness to help in any way. Courage is an essential part of their armoury, and this includes the Fathers, for occasionally the crossing from the monastery to Stronsay on a wild day, in their tough but quite small boat, is daunting to watch, let alone undertake!

Pieta

When the monks first arrived here, ‘Our Lady’s Chapel’ did not exist, it was merely a stone outbuilding originally used as a salt and fish store, then as a general store for hardware, general parts, and tools, and was part of the monk's main house on Stronsay, now known as St Magnus. In 2002 Fr Michael Mary took the decision to convert the building into a chapel as an act of reparation to Our Blessed Lady for a blasphemous description of her Divine Motherhood - equating this with the status of a modern, unmarried mother, which was included in a Christmas greetings letter distributed from the Stronsay Kirk.

The Divine Infant of Prague

I am sure that Our Lady has looked with great favour on her Chapel, which has recently been the subject of two fine poems on the website.

First, a poem by David Welch, posted November 28th, 2011, on his web-site 'These Anointed Ruins' :- http://anointedruins.wordpress.com/

Our Lady’s Chapel, Stronsay

In a chapel far away
Where North Sea storms
batter the humble wooden frame’
divine treasures elude my touch:

Latin hymn book, rose edged,
Hard, narrow, blessed bench
Communion rail, wood filigree,
Scent of hands in folded beads,

And above them winter sun,
held between finger and thumb;
Corpus Domini Nostri Jesu Christi
Custodiat animam meam.
© 2011 David A. Welch

Next, a poem by our resident 'litterateur':-

Our Lady’s Chapel.

Stronsay’s Bethlehem, the dwelling of Jesus:
Once the Salt Store supplying to Herring drifters
Thereafter the island’s hardware shop; source for hammers and nails.
Today then, yet still a salt store for the Fisherman’s sons
Where daily the sounds of hammers and nails strike to the stars
and resound in the Heaven beyond, boding
Sacrifice renewed, Fish flesh, living Bread and salty savor.
Ave verum corpus natum de Maria virgine.
Rejoice store of salty tears, O Maria!
Rejoice little house of God, small cave of Bethlehem
Old shed, old shop and humbled house of tools and salt
you will not now rust away but be yourself preserved and exalted:
Tabernacle, Store of Wondrous Delight,
Ark of Salvation over the wild sea
bearing on your Mast the crucified Son fixed by hammer with nails
passage us to our Homeland,
Unite us to His wounded Side
Wash us in His Blood and Water and draw
as by miracle of Moses’ Rod
tears of salt and sorrow for sin
through the Intercession of Our Lady Mother and Mistress Mary:
Salve Regina Mater Misericordiae.
Fr Michael Mary F.SS.R

Thank you David, and Fr Michael Mary, for these fine poems. We look forward to more, when you can find the time!

Our Lady of Aberdeen, pray for our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, our Bishop Dom Hugh Gilbert OSB, the ‘Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer’ (F.SS.R) Community, and all the faithful in our diocese.

'Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, they shall have their fill' (Matthew 5:6)

2011-12-09T16:40:00.001Z

Not long ago I came across the following website:-
'These Stone Walls -Musings from Prison of a Priest Falsely Accused'
The author, Fr Gordon Macrae, is now serving his 17th year in an American prison having been falsely accused and unjustly convicted of sexual offences against minors.

'Christ before Pilate' - Munkacsy (1844-1900)

To anyone who goes along with the ‘where there’s smoke, there's fire’ theory, I strongly urge you to read just some of Fr Macrae’s posts. I find the whole saga truly shocking, not because of Fr Macrae, but because of the apparent failings in the American judicial system, particularly the impression I have that justice is really only available for those who can afford to pay for it.

Unfortunately there have been many genuine cases of child abuse by priests and religious, but I suspect that there have also been many cases where prejudice and anger, and indeed greed, have combined to distort the truth, resulting in grave injustice.

The peculiarly American practice of ‘the settlement game’ with substantial sums of money paid to ‘victims’ in lieu of court cases, has inevitably guaranteed a huge number of abuse accusations, the majority probably untrue and many going back decades, often with the accused long dead.
Certain Church leaders have acquiesced in this injustice, almost certainly through misguided intentions, preferring to keep matters quiet and out of the Courts, and paying out vast sums of money in ‘compensation’ regardless of the truth of the allegation, and apparently mindless of the character assassination of the accused.

Recently a new book has been published highlighting the experiences of six priests falsely accused and convicted of abuse. To quote from Fr Macrae’s latest post:

http://www.thesestonewalls.com - (see also link on my sidebar)

"A Book Every Priest Needs  to Read: Catholic Priests Falsely Accused
‘Catholic Priests Falsely Accused: The Facts, The Fraud, The Stories’ is a new book by David F. Pierre, and a Corporal Work of Mercy for the Church and priesthood.
If you’ve been wondering what might make a thoughtful and practical gift for your parish priest this Christmas, consider arming him – and yourself – with the truth. It might seem a strange thing to give the priests you know a book about every priest’s worst nightmare, but doing so – and reading it yourself – could very well be an act of generosity, justice, and mercy.

The book documents the stories of six priests who have suffered under the millstone of false witness over the last decade of scandal in the Catholic Church, and their arduous trek to exoneration. Having lived in this nightmare for close to two decades, I could not put the book down.
But David Pierre also included a seventh account that has not – not yet, anyway – had a happy ending, and it made my hands tremble. It’s Chapter 20 in his book, and it’s entitled “Guilty or Falsely Accused? The Disputed Case of Fr. Gordon MacRae, Diocese of Manchester, NH.”
I could feel my anxiety rise as the chapter title jumped off the ‘Table of Contents’ at me, and I braced myself. I have seen the words “the case of Fr. Gordon MacRae” abused and manipulated in the mainstream media far too often to expect anything just and fair. What makes the case “disputed” is the fact that I was convicted in a 1994 trial, and, in covering that fact, most in the news media have overlooked the devil in the detail.
Not so for David F. Pierre. He presents in this new book a factual analysis of my trial, and what he calls “an alarming opposite side…that has not been widely told.”
David Pierre did his homework, and captured well “the Twilight Zone” aura around my trial, exposing how spectral wisps of rumor and innuendo were reshaped by a prosecutor to get a conviction with no evidence at all.
David Pierre simply took the story that has been hiding in plain sight, and stated it in plain speech. The result could rival the legal thrillers of John Grisham and Scott Turow. Sometimes real life makes for the most gripping drama."

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This book is available through Amazon (£11.84 from Amazon.com. - £21.00 from Amazon.uk) Both these prices include postage, but delivery takes about 1 month from the USA.)

'Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall have their fill' (Sermon on the Mount - Matthew 5:6)

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Figure of Justice, Old Bailey, London

Whilst on the subject of Justice, I think it right to express a muted appreciation of Tesco PLC, for their reply to my recent letter criticising their support for the London Gay Pride parade. I think that their reply, reproduced below, speaks for itself:-

'Dear Mr ...
Thank you for your letter ........ We took a decision to support World Pride with a small donation of £30,000.00 following a request for help earlier this year from our Out at Tesco network for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender staff. We believe that everyone should be welcome at Tesco, whether as a customer or a member of staff, and decided that agreeing to a small donation to the event would be a tangible way of demonstrating that we respected and supported our colleagues.
We do understand that this decision is not supported by everyone, and indeed that it has aroused some strong opposition as well as some support. It is never our intention to upset our customers, and I am very sorry that our decision to support the event has moved you to write to us to express your concern.
I do hope that over time, you will be able to see this small donation in the context of our much wider support for many hundreds of charities and local communities. Over the past year we have contributed over £64 million in total to charities and good causes in the UK and across the world. For example, we raised £7.2m for children with cancer last year, helping Clic Sargent fund specialist care at home for children. We are set this year to raise over £5 million for our current Charity of the Year, the Alzheimer’s Society.
Once again, I am very sorry that our donation to World Pride has shaken your confidence in us. I hope I can reassure you that we take your views very seriously and that, through all the work we do for good causes as well as through our core retail business, we do indeed strive to be a company in which you can place your trust.
Y.S. Tesco PLC.

The tenor of this reply suggests that the efforts of all those who contacted Tesco PLC criticising their support for the Gay Pride event, were worthwhile. I must admit to some surprise that their involvement was a modest £30,000, not a large sum by today’s standards, and assuming there are no ‘hidden extras’, hardly suggests major support for the event. Many consider that any support is too much, and I suspect that the significant adverse public reaction it incurred will not have gone unnoticed - ‘Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam’.

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Immaculate Conception - Zurbaran 1598-1664

‘No man can choose his mother; but should such a thing ever be granted to anyone, who is there who, if able to choose a queen, would wish for a slave? Or, if able to choose a friend of God, would he wish for his enemy? If, then, the Son of God alone could choose a mother according to His own heart, we must consider, as a matter of course, that He chose one becoming a God. And as it was becoming that a most pure God should have a mother free from all sin, He created her spotless.’

'Thoughts from St Alphonsus, on the Immaculate Conception
of Mary' (Compiled by Rev C McNeiry, C.SS.R)

'Wealth and power' - the world does not change

2011-11-08T16:27:00.015Z

The global economy is in a mess. The press and media regale us with doom and gloom; world stock markets are down; Governments bail out commercial banks; bankruptcies, unemployment, homelessness, civil unrest; health and social services cut back; astronomical hike in fees for university students; fuel, gas and electricity prices rising, with spin-off effect on food, heating, and travel costs. But hold on, I can hear you say, what's new about this, we've heard it all before ........!

Allow me to quote from an interesting and revelatory book – ‘Pope Pius XI and World Peace’, by Lord Clonmore, published in 1938 by ‘The Catholic Book Club’. Although dealing with the relationship of the Catholic Church and State some seventy-five years ago, I have a feeling that the words of Pope Pius XI have as much relevance to our own times as they did then.

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Pope Pius XI (1857-1939) (Pope 1922-39).

“It is patent that in our days not only wealth is concentrated, but immense power and despotic economic domination are concentrated in the hands of a few, who for the most part are not the owners, but only the trustees and directors of invested funds which they administer at their own good pleasure. This domination is most powerfully exercised by those who, because they hold and control money, also govern credit and determine its allotment, for that reason supplying, so to speak, the life-blood to the entire economic body, and grasping in their hands, as it were, the very soul of production, so that no-one can breathe against their will. The accumulation of power, the characteristic note of the modern economic order, is a natural result of limitless free competition, which permits the survival of those only who are strongest, and this often means those who fight most relentlessly, who pay least heed to the dictates of conscience” (Pope Pius XI)

‘This power, against whose will ‘no-one can breathe’, is what may briefly be called the ‘Money Power’. In the Middle Ages usury was unable on the whole to flourish; plenty of attempts were made, but the discipline of the Church, which hates usury as one of the gravest sins, was almost always too strong for the would-be money lenders. With the break-up of Catholic Europe following the Reformation, the usurers were able to start on their work of enriching the already wealthy at the expense of the poor. In England it was the ‘Money Power’ which brought Charles 1 to the block, and what was known as ‘Dutch Finance’ came over once and for all with William of Orange. One of the conditions necessary for this destructive and parasitic system to flourish is that there should be free competition, which means in fact, cut-throat competition. The present system of cut-throat competition places the borrower at the mercy of the lender. There is no doubt that the State has almost everywhere played into the hands of the money-lenders, to whom it has made over what was once the King’s prerogative, the right to issue money’ (Lord Clonmore - Pope Pius XI and World Peace)

“The State, which should be the supreme arbiter, ruling in kingly fashion far above all Party contention, intent only upon justice and the common good, has become instead a slave, bound over to the service of human passion and greed. As regards the relations of people among themselves, a double stream has issued forth from this one fountain-head; on the one hand economic nationalism or even economic imperialism; on the other a no less noxious and detestable internationalism in financial affairs, which holds that where a man’s fortune is, there is his country” (Pope Pius XI)

Cardinal Achille Ratti, Archbishop of Milan, prior to election as Pope Pius XI

‘An example of this capitulation by the State to the ‘Money Powers’, were events in England in 1914 when war was declared. Due to unprecedented money demand, with the Banks running out of money, the Bank Act was suspended and a moratorium was declared. This would have been a very good moment for the King to reclaim his office of issuing money; to bring this about, it would merely have been necessary to issue treasury notes for the national expenses which had to be met in English currency, and to open State credits with producers on agreed terms. Unfortunately the ‘Money Power’ recovered all too soon from its first panic, and was able to prevail on Parliament, by then in a state of alarm, to issue the treasury notes through the banks, and ‘to borrow in order to pay for the war’. (Lord Clonmore - Pope Pius XI and World Peace)

“The King was prevented from exercising his office of issuing money to his people, and was forced to pay the banks and their clients, high rates of interest upon book entries. The King was forced, that is to say, to pledge the products and labour of his people for generations, in exchange for that which belonged properly to himself, and at the moment when the bankers’ inability to pay in gold had just been revealed” (Dr McNair Wilson)

“Christianity alone can supply an efficacious remedy for the excessive solicitude for transitory things, which is the origin of all vices. When men are fascinated by and completely absorbed in the things of this world, Christianity alone can draw away their attention and raise it heavenwards. And who will deny that this remedy is now urgently needed by society?” (Pope Pius XI)

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Satan tempting Christ

Today, in virtually all walks of life, more and more power is concentrated in the hands of the few. Financial institutions have been taken over by more powerful competitors, which themselves soon suffer the same fate. We know from experience the power and influence they wield, to the extent that in the event of severe fiscal problems, governments are prepared to bail them out with tax-payer’s money, rather than let them fail. They seem to be a law unto themselves, with profitability the acid measure of success. Money equates with power, and in our world in which so many do not know God and do not want to know Him, it is not really surprising that the acquisition of wealth and the power this engenders, will be used to satisfy worldly ambitions usually far removed from the spirit and indeed the letter of God’s laws. Power is an influence for good or evil, and without God’s help our fallen human nature is incapable of resisting the attractions of the world, the flesh, and the devil. There is a saying that ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’, and we only have to look at world history of the 20th century to realise how true this is.

St Michael crushing Satan

In the 'media' world, the international interests of the Murdoch organisation, reflect enormous political and social power, not to mention wealth; yet it seems that this is never enough. Commerce is exactly the same with companies amalgamating or being taken over, eventually all becoming absorbed into one giant conglomerate. Tesco’s, now a multi-national company, is in virtually every major town in the UK, posing a permanent threat to local family shops many of whom cannot compete and are forced to close down. ‘Might is right’, is unfortunately the name of the game.

Central government and the Civil Service offer real opportunities for attaining positions of power. Elected Members of Parliament, once established in ministerial positions, assume power and authority commensurate with their job. Problems arise when they exceed their remit. An example of this in my opinion, is the recent decision by the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, to refuse aid to a certain African nation due to their uncompromising opposition to homosexual practices. This suggests that the life-threatening needs of the starving, sick, homeless, and unemployed, are of no consequence when measured against the 'promotion' of homosexuality, a lifestyle which is totally opposed to the religious beliefs and social traditions of many third-world countries

Unfortunately today’s materialistic and secular culture has confused the true meaning of 'charity'. Charity is defined as 'the love of God above all things, and the love of our neighbour for God's sake'. The provision of contraception and abortion facilities, contrary to God's law - which includes the Natural law, is not 'charity', and to force unwilling poor countries to accept this particular condition, under threat of depriving them of essential financial aid, is tantamount to moral blackmail and an abuse of political power.

The Tribute Money (George Hayter 1792-1871) -  'Render to God the things that are God's, and to Caesar the things that are Caesar's'

One wonders if there is a hidden agenda shaping the UK ‘Aid’ programme. With ‘population control’ a major platform, is it that the financiers, politicians, commercial and industrial interests, who hold the reins of power in the west, fear expansion in the third-world, as a threat to their monopoly of power. Both the Prime Minister and Andrew Mitchell seem very keen to assure members of the House that ‘the whole of our development budget is spent in Britain’s national interest, and a large chunk of it goes to support our own security and prosperity here at home.’

The tragic and terrible irony in this matter, is that much of UK aid will be used to deliberately kill babies still in the womb; tens or even hundreds of thousands of innocent lives terminated before they see the light of day. Additionally the promotion of contraception, will effectively restrict that population increase so necessary for future development. Truly an example of misuse of power resulting in an enforced culture of death and evil...

Alternatively, when aid is used to enhance life, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, providing health and medical services, financing education and creating job opportunities, and other positive ventures, it is truly a power for good, offering real hope for present and future generations...

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On this subject, a few quotes from Hansard, 26th October 2011;

Mr Jeffrey M. Donaldson (DUP): 'The Prime Minister has warned African countries that unless they improve gay rights, he will cut their aid, yet in many African countries where we pour in millions of pounds of aid, Christians face great persecution and destruction of churches, lives and property. Here in the UK, anyone who displays a Bible verse on the wall of a café faces prosecution. Was Ann Widdecombe right when she said that in the 21st century hedgehogs have more rights than Christians?'

The Prime Minister: 'Ann Widdecombe is often right - not always right, but often right. The right hon. Gentleman makes an important point. The way we judge our aid decisions is to look at human rights across the piece. That means how people are treating Christians and also the appalling behaviour of some African countries towards people who are gay'.

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Mr Mitchell - ‘Over the last year there has been an increase in many countries support for development, which is quite right and in accordance with the commitments that they have given. Britain has been in the lead in that regard. All our spending is in our national interest, and large amounts of it support our security, and indeed our future prosperity’

Mr Mitchell: 'The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. The whole of our development budget is spent in Britain’s national interest, and a large chunk of it goes to support our own security and prosperity here at home'.

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Just two questions:-
1. How has the government reacted to those African nations that are murdering and persecuting Christians?
2. In what way is the whole of our development budget spent in Britain’s national interest, and how is it that a large chunk of it goes to support our own security and prosperity here at home?
Know the answers, please share them in the 'comment' box.
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Finally,a reminder of Christ's words to the Apostles regarding wealth and possessions:-
"Amen I say to you, with difficulty shall a rich man enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew.Ch 19 vs 23/24)

Strange Timelessness of 'Vitae Patrum'

2011-10-04T19:06:00.001+01:00

The extracts below are taken from ‘The Desert Fathers’ translated from the Latin by Helen Waddell, and published in 1936 by Constable & Co Ltd, London.

Title Page of 'The Desert Fathers', Adapted from 1st Edition (1615)

In the Preface to the book, we learn that ‘the original of these translations is the Latin of the Vitae Patrum, a vast collection of the lives and sayings of the Desert Fathers, edited by the learned Rosweyde, and printed at the Plantin Press in Antwerp by that most exact typographer and his very good friend Balthazar Moret, in 1615. The texts assembled by Rosweyde, were those with which the Middle Ages were most familiar: not the Greek originals, with the translations into Latin made for the most part in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries. Rufinus and Evagrius were contemporary with the men of whom they wrote: Pelagius and Paschasius a century or so later. Jerome and Cassian write at first hand of the desert, in Latin, not in Greek.The present book contains only a fragment of its vast original, which runs in the 1628 folio to more than a thousand pages in double column.’

‘I first came to the Vitrae Patrum sixteen years ago, not for its own sake, but in a plan I had of reading for myself, with a mind emptied, what the ordinary medieval student would have read, to find the kind of furniture his imagination lived among. It held me then, as now, with its strange timelessness. I began a translation of it, continued at intervals in the years since. This book is not a study of the Desert Fathers, their place in the ascetic tradition, or the authenticity of the sources. That would demand a range of languages and of knowledge far beyond me. A few of the gentlest stories of the Desert Fathers, the kindness between them and the wild creatures they lived among, appeared in Beasts and Saints (1934), and it must be remembered that whilst the Desert has bred fanaticism and frenzy and fear: it has also bred heroic gentleness” (Helen Waddell - 1936)

The Desert Fathers Of the Excellent Way of Life of Divers Holy Men - (John the Sub-Deacon, Book III)

The Abbot Sisois was dwelling alone in the mountain of the Abbot Antony: for his servant tarried in coming to him, and for ten months he saw no man. But as he walked upon the mountain, he found a certain Pharanite herding cattle. And the old man said to him, “Whence comest thou, and how long hast thou been here?” And he said, “Indeed Father, I have had eleven months on this mountain, and I have not seen a man except thee.” And the old man, hearing it, went into his cell and smote himself, saying, “Lo, Sisois, thou didst think thou hadst done somewhat, and thou hadst not done so much as this man who is of the world.”

This same Abbot Sisois sitting in his cell would ever have his door closed. But it was told of him how in the day of his 'sleeping', when the Fathers were sitting round him, his face shone like the sun, and he said to them, “Look, the abbot Antony comes.” And after a little while, he said again to them, “Look, the company of the prophets comes.” And his face shone with a double glory, and lo, he seemed as though he spoke with others. And the old men entreated him, saying, “With whom art thou speaking Father?” And he said to them, “Behold, the angels came to take me, and I asked that I might be left a little while to repent.” The old men said to him, “Thou hast no need of repentance, Father.” But he said to them, “Verily I know not if I have clutched at the very beginning of repentance.” And they all knew that he was made perfect. And again of a sudden his face was as the sun, and they all were in dread. And he said to them, “Look, behold the Lord cometh, saying, ’Bring me my chosen from the desert.’” And straightway he gave up the ghost. And there came as it might be lightning, and all the place was filled with sweetness.

They told of the Abbot Macarius the elder, that he was once walking in the desert, and found the head of a dead man lying on the ground: and when he stirred it with the staff of palm that he had in his hand, the head spoke to him. The old man said to it, “Who art thou?” And that head answered the old man, “I was a priest of the heathen that used to dwell in this place, but thou art the Abbot Macarius, who hast the Holy Spirit of God. Wherefore in whatever hour thou hast had pity on them that are in torment and hast prayed for them, then are they a little consoled.” The old man said to him, “What is this consolation?” That head made answer, “As far as the sky is distant from the earth, so deep is the fire beneath our feet and above our head. And standing in the midst of the fire, there is not one of us can see his neighbour face to face. But when thou dost pray for us, we look one upon the other, and this doth pass with us for consolation” Then said the old man, weeping, “Woe to the day in which man was born, if this be the consolation of his pain.”

'An old man was asked by a certain soldier if God received a penitent man. And after heartening him with many words, he said to him at the last, “Tell me, beloved, if thy cloak were torn, wouldst throw it away?” He said, “Nay, but I would patch it and wear it.” The old man said to him, “If thou wouldst spare thy garment, shall not God have mercy on His own image?”' (‘Divers Sayings’ – John the Sub-Deacon, Book IV)

St Kevin and the Blackbird (Beasts and Saints 1934)

‘At one Lenten Season, St Kevin, as was his way, fled from the company of men to a certain solitude, and in a little hut that did but keep out the sun and the rain, gave himself earnestly to reading and to prayer, and his leisure to contemplation alone. And as he knelt in his accustomed fashion, with his hand outstretched through the window and lifted up to heaven, a blackbird settled on it, and busying herself as in her nest, laid in it an egg. And so moved was the saint that in all patience and gentleness he remained, neither closing nor withdrawing his hand: but until the young ones were fully hatched he held it out unwearied, shaping it for the purpose.’

Saint Kevin

For a sign of perpetual remembrance, many images of St. Kevin throughout Ireland show a blackbird in his out-stretched hand.
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All you holy Saints and Hermits, pray for our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, and for the Church.

'Letter to Trilussa' - Pope John Paul I

2011-09-12T22:28:00.001+01:00

Albino Luciani - Pope John Paul I

'The eldest child of working class parents, with two brothers and one sister, Albino Luciani was born on October 17, 1912, in the town of Forno di Canale, in the Dolomite Alps of north-eastern Italy.

He attended seminary in the town of Feltre and graduated in philosophy and theology at the seminary of Belluno, a city in the Dolomite foothills, and the home town of nineteenth century Pope Gregory XVI. He was ordained priest in 1935, and returned to his home region to work as a parish assistant, a teacher of religion in a 'mining technician's' school, and a teacher of dogmatic and moral theology at the Gregorian Seminary in Belluno.

In 1948, he was appointed by the Bishop of Belluno to oversee catechetics - the teaching of the faith - in the provincial diocese, later recounting his thoughts and experiences in a book, ‘Catechism in Crumbs’.

In 1958 Pope John XXIII appointed him Bishop of Vittorio Veneto, a local diocese at the foot of the Alps, and subject to Venice. Pope Paul VI promoted him Patriarch of Venice in 1969 and named him a cardinal in 1973.

He was elected the 263rd Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church on August 26th, 1978, in one of the shortest conclaves in Church history.

The sixty-five year old Luciani adopted the name John Paul I. Thirty-three days later he died unexpectedly in his sleep.'

He once said of himself: “I am only a poor man, accustomed to small things and silence.”

Whilst Patriarch of Venice, he wrote a number of open letters to illustrious writers, fictional characters, and historical figures of the past. These were then published in book form in Italy in 1976, under the title ‘Illustrissimi’.

Cardinal Luciani was first and foremost a pastor of souls, and these letters were written to convey the truths of the Faith, but written in a light and sympathetic manner, reflecting both the writer's compassion for the weakness of men, and his joyful faith and trust in the love and mercy of God

Reproduced below is his letter to Trilussa, (pseudonym of Carlo Alberto Salustri), a Roman poet (1871 –1950), whose satire, often light-hearted and good-natured, at times became bitingly sarcastic about what he saw as the hypocrisy, malice, and egoism of the contemporary world. His best known works are 'Fables' (1922) and 'Jove and the Animals'(1932)

Dear Trilussa,

I have re-read that melancholy and autobiographical poem in which you tell of being lost, at night, in the middle of the woods, when you met an old blind woman, who said: "If you don’t know the road, I’ll come with you, because I know it!"

You were surprised: "I find it strange that someone who cannot see, can guide me". But the little old woman took your hand, and said firmly: "Come along".

This is faith. I agree with you to some extent: faith is truly a good guide, a dear and wise old woman who says; 'Set your foot here, take that path up there.' But all this happens when faith has already established itself in our minds, and become a firm conviction, and from there directs and guides the actions of life.

The conviction however, must first be formed and planted in the mind. And here, my dear Trilussa, is our present difficulty. The journey of faith today is not a mere walk along a woodland path, but a journey at times difficult, often dramatic, and always mysterious.

It is difficult in the first place to have faith in others, accepting what they say just because they say it. The student hears the teacher say that the earth is 148 million kilometres from the sun. He would like to check this but how can he? He summons his courage and with a deliberate act of faith, accepts: 'Our teacher is honest and well informed, I'll trust him.'

A mother tells her son about earlier years, of sacrifices

made to protect him and care for him. "Do you believe me ?" she says. "Will you remember how much I've done for love of you?"

“How can I fail to believe you ?” the son answers, “I'll do all I can to be worthy of your love."

This son must feel tenderness and love towards his mother as well as trust in her; only thus will he know the impulse to self surrender, the commitment to life.

Faith in God is something similar. It is a filial 'yes' to God, who tells us something about His own intimate life: it says 'yes’ to the things narrated and to Him who narrates them. The man who says 'yes' must have not merely trust, but also tenderness and love, and must feel like a small child.

'I'm not the type who knows everything, who has the last word on everything, who checks everything. Perhaps I am used to arriving at scientific certitude with the most rigorous laboratory controls; here, on the contrary, I must be satisfied with a certitude which is not physical, not mathematical, but depends on good sense, on common sense. And more than that, by trusting in God, I know and accept that God may come into my life, and direct and change it.'

In his ‘Confessions’, my dear Trilussa, Augustine is far more impassioned than you are in describing his journey towards faith. Before saying his total ‘yes’ to God, his soul shudders and writhes in painful conflicts. On one side there is God, inviting him; on the other, his old habits - his former 'friends', who 'tug gently at his clothing of flesh', whispering, 'Dost thou cast us off? Remember the moment we leave you, that certain things will no longer be allowed you - forever!’

God urged him to hurry, and Augustine pleaded, ’Not at once, just another moment’, and he goes on for weeks in a state of indecision and inner turmoil, until assisted by a powerful thrust from God, he summoned his courage and made up his mind.

As you see, Trilussa, in the human drama of faith there is a

mysterious element; the intervention of God. Paul of Tarsus experienced it on the road to Damascus and describes it in this way: ‘That day, Lord, you seized me: through your grace I am what I am.'

Here we are in the heart of the mystery. What, in fact, is this grace of God, and how does it operate? It is so difficult to say!

Conversion of Paul on the Road to Damascus (Caravaggio)

Imagine that the unbeliever is asleep; God wakens him and says, ‘Get out of bed!’

Imagine that he is sick; God puts some medicine in his hands, and says, ‘Take this!’

The fact is that a non-believer, all of a sudden, without having thought of it, finds himself reflecting at a certain point on problems of the soul and of religion, and is potentially open to faith.

After this intervention, which happens ‘without us’, God does other things, but ‘with us’, that is to say with our free collaboration. Waking us from our sleep is done by Him alone, getting out of bed is up to us, even if we need His help in the first place.

The grace of God, in fact, has force, but does not mean to force us; it has a holy violence, but intended to make us fall in love with the truth, not to have our freedom violated. It can happen that once wakened, invited to rise, taken by the arm, some may instead roll over on the other side, saying ‘let me sleep’.

In the Gospel we find cases of these sort. “Come follow Me,” Christ says, and Matthew rises from his work and follows Him; another however, though invited, answers; “Lord, let me go first and bury my father,” and never shows up again.

These are people, Christ reflects sadly, who put their hands to the plough, then turn back. This explains how there is a whole range in belief, going from those who have never had faith, to those with too little faith, those who are lukewarm and feeble in their faith, and finally those who have a faith that is fervent and productive.

But this explains only up to a point, my dear Trilussa. Why do some of us not believe? Because God did not give us His grace.
But why did He not give us His grace? Because we did not correspond to His inspirations.
And why did we not correspond to them? Because being free, we abused our freedom.
And why did we abuse our freedom? This is the hard part, dear Trilussa; and something I don't understand.
I prefer to think of the future rather than the past and follow Paul's invitation: “We exhort you not to receive in vain the grace of God”

Dear Trilussa! Manzoni describes as a ‘glad marvel and a banquet of grace’ the return of the Unnamed to the faith. Manzoni knew what he was writing about; he also had ‘returned’.

Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873) - Italian Poet/Novelist

The banquet table is always laid, available to us all. As for me, I try to profit from it every day, propping up the life of faith that the previous day's sins have toppled. I wonder if Christians who, like me, feel themselves sometimes good, sometimes sinners, will 'agree to be good dinner-guests with me'.

Ack. 'Illustrissimi' - Letters from Pope John Paul I -Albino Luciani. Collins, London. 1978.

Thoughts on the Monastic Life; Papa Stronsay 2011 - Muscovy 1650.

2011-08-12T22:30:00.001+01:00

  St Alphonsus de Liguori C.SS.R

We live on Stronsay in Orkney, and our small but growing congregation, centred on ‘Our Lady’s Chapel’, is served by the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer (F.SS.R) from Golgotha Monastery, Papa Stronsay. We are blessed with daily Mass in the ‘extraordinary form’, with weekly Benediction, Confessions, etc. On certain major feast-days and special occasions, eg. Holy Week, Christmas, clothing of novices, vows, centenary celebrations, etc. we are invited to Papa Stronsay, being conveyed by the monks in their sturdy little boat to and from the island, and always treated with great hospitality, essentially as part of the family. These joint experiences, the physical crossing of the sea, short though it may be, followed by participation in the most devout traditional liturgical ceremonies of the Church, sometimes lasting two or three hours and often into the night, frequently followed by hospitable fare, combine over time, to create a rather special spiritual and experiential bond between the monastic community and parishioners. We do not lose sight of the fact that everything done is for the glory of God, and the salvation of souls, and this is why we thank God for the presence of our monks here, and pray that their faith and holy perseverance will soon be rewarded by their full canonical erection in the Diocese.

I confess to having a considerable interest in the history of monastic life. I emphasise that this is purely an aesthetic interest, as in the event of waking up one morning to find that mysteriously I had become a monk overnight, I fear that I wouldn’t even last the day! We all recognise the admirable qualities that it takes to become a religious, and of course the final invitation is from God. I console myself by remembering that in God’s house there are many kingdoms, and that I would be more than happy to be the least of all the royal servants in the most insignificant of those kingdoms.

I am currently reading, for the second or third time, a book entitled ‘Borderland’ by Anna Reid, described by the author as ‘A journey through the history of Ukraine’; a paperback published in 1998 by Phoenix. I have no intention of reviewing this book except to say that it is a fascinating read, beautifully written, and I thoroughly recommend it. However whilst in monastic mind, I would like to quote a short passage from the book, relating to the year 1650 or thereabouts, in which the author recounts the experiences of an Orthodox cleric, who with his Superior, visited certain monasteries in Moscow and the Ukraine. The author is writing about Kiev in the Ukraine:-

‘Seven hundred years of provincialism had its advantages. Third city of the empire, Kiev never felt the grip of government in quite the same way as Moscow and St Petersburg. An early traveller to say so was Paul of Aleppo, an Orthodox cleric who accompanied his father Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch, on a fund-raising mission to the Tsar in the 1650s. Landing at the mouth of the Dnieper, this smooth Mediterranean pair were initially not much taken with Ukraine. The mosquitoes bit, the food was dreadful, and the services went on for ever. ‘We never left church,’ Paul confided to his diary, ‘but tottering on our legs after so much standing’.
Moscow, though, was far worse. ‘Anyone wishing to shorten his life by five or ten years,’ Paul wrote, ‘should go to Muscovy.’ In the monasteries ‘mirth and laughter and jokes’ were forbidden, and spies watched through cracks in the doors to see ‘whether the inmates practise devotional humility, fasting and prayer; or whether they get drunk and amuse themselves’. Drinkers, he was told, were sent to Siberia; smokers were liable for execution – news which put him ‘in great fear’ on his own account. After all this, as he wrote on his journey home, Ukraine seemed like paradise:
‘For during those two years spent in Muscovy , a padlock had been set on our hearts, and we were in the extremity of narrowness and compressure of our minds; for in that country no person can feel anything of freedom or cheerfulness.......... The country of the Kosacks (Ukrainian Cossacks), on the contrary, was like our own country to us, and its inhabitants were to us boon companions and fellows like ourselves’.
The battered pair were even happier to reach Moldova, where they ‘entered the bath, after twenty-seven months, during the whole of which time we had neither entered a bath nor washed ourselves with water’.

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Having read this, I imagine that vocations to the religious life in the Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th century, must have been few and far between! Probably even worse than today in our Church, with some notable exceptions - ‘Deo Gratias’! By the way I haven’t heard of any of the F.SS.R community being banished to Siberia, and I haven’t heard of any executions – yet! Only joking, of course, says he nervously, watching three formidable figures in black walking slowly and deliberately towards him, each carrying a black, rectangular object in their hand. Phew, it’s Saturday morning and time for choir practice for sung Mass tomorrow! It’s Brothers Magdala, Martin, and Peter, each carrying their ‘Liber Usualis’ ! Now where did I put my copy?

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Some really good and encouraging news for nurses (and the unborn)
Neil Addison, a Liverpool barrister, reports on his Religion Law Blog that he has 'recently successfully represented two Roman Catholic Nurses who were told that they could not refuse to work at a weekly Abortion Clinic run by their Hospital.'

  http://ccfather.blogspot.com H/T Ben Travato ‘Countercultural Father’ blog
  http://religionlaw.blogspot.com H/T Neil Addison ‘Religion Law Blog’

This is truly good news for all pro-life nurses and ultimately for the unborn. Congratulations to Neil Addison for his dedicated and professional services. It is refreshing and encouraging to find the law on the side of individual conscience in moral matters of such importance. Spread the good news, especially to all those in the nursing profession.

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‘Holy Mary, Queen Assumed into Heaven – pray for our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, and for our Country'

'Take up your Cross and Follow Me' - thoughts from Archbishop Charles Caput

2011-07-10T22:08:00.003+01:00

With grateful acknowledgements to 'Les Femmes- the Truth' - Mary Ann Kreitzer. http://lesfemmes-thetruth.blogspot.com/

From Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, Head of the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado:-

"Take up your cross and follow me."

"The world urgently needs a re-awakening of the Church in our actions and in our public and private witness...We need really to believe what we say we believe. Then we need to prove it by the witness of our lives. We need to be so convinced of the truths of the Creed that we are on fire to live by these truths, to love by these truths, and to defend these truths, even to the point of our own discomforts and suffering. We are ambassadors of the living God to a world that is on the verge of forgetting him. Our work is to make God real; to be the face of his love; to propose once more to the men and women of our day, the dialogue of salvation...The form of the Church, and the form of every Christian life, is the form of the cross. Our lives must become a liturgy, a self offering that embodies the love of God and the renewal of the world... Let us preach Jesus Christ with all the energy of our lives. And let us support each other -whatever the cost- so that when we make our accounting to the Lord, we will be numbered among the faithful and courageous, and not the cowardly or the evasive, or those who compromised until there was nothing left of their convictions; or those who were silent when they should have spoken the right word at the right time."

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, Head of the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado

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Yesterday was the diocesan feast day of Our Lady of Aberdeen, in which diocese Stronsay is situated.

'Our Lady of Aberdeen, please pray for our Holy Father, our Bishop, the Transalpine Redemptorist community, all priests and religious, and the laity of our diocese'.

'Song of the Wooden-Legged Fiddler' by Alfred Noyes

2011-06-14T19:52:00.000+01:00

A little light relief does us all good, so grab your fiddles, have a swig of your favourite grog, and away we go:-

Song of the Wooden-Legged Fiddler

(Portsmouth 1805)

I lived in a cottage adown in the West

When I was a boy, a boy;

But I knew no peace and I took no rest

Though the roses nigh smothered my snug little nest;

For the smell of the sea

Was much rarer to me,

And the life of a sailor was all my joy

CHORUS:- The life of a sailor was all my joy!

My mother she wept, and she begged me to stay

Anchored for life to her apron-string,

And soon she would want me to help wi' the hay;

So I bided her time, then I flitted away

On a night of delight in the following spring,

With a pair of stout shoon

And a seafaring tune

And a bundle and stick in the light of the moon,

Down the long road

To Portsmouth I strode,

To fight like a sailor for country and king.

CHORUS:- To fight like a sailor for country and king.

And now that my feet are turned homeward again

My heart is still crying Ahoy! Ahoy!

And my thoughts are still out on the Spanish main

A-chasing the frigates of France and Spain,

For at heart an old sailor is always a boy;

And his nose will still itch

For the powder and pitch

Till the days when he can't tell t'other from which,

Nor a grin o' the guns from a glint o' the sea,

Nor a skipper like Nelson from lubbers like me.

CHORUS:- Nor a skipper like Nelson from lubbers like me.

Ay! Now that I'm old I'm as bold as the best,

And the life of a sailor is all my joy;

Though I've swapped my leg

For a wooden peg

And my head is as bald as a new laid egg,

The smell of the sea

Is like victuals to me,

And I think in the grave I'll be crying Ahoy!

For, though my old carcass is ready to rest,

At heart an old sailor is always a boy.

CHORUS:- At heart an old sailor is always a boy.

This poem is among the 'Collected Poems' of Alfred Noyes, volume 1, published by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1913. It reminds me of the work of William S Gilbert, of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, and perhaps was performed in the Music Hall of the day. If anybody can enlighten me, it would be much appreciated.

Alfred Noyes (1880-1958)

Alfred Noyes was an English poet born in Wolverhampton in 1880, died Isle of Wight 1958. He taught English Literature at Princeton University, USA, from 1914 to 1923. His first wife died in 1926 and he subsequently married a widow, Mary Angela Mayne Weld-Blundell, originally married into the recusant Catholic Weld-Blundell family, settling at Lisle Combe, near Ventnor, Isle of Wight.

Noyes was a prolific poet and writer, publishing his first collection of poems, 'The Loom Years', at aged 21. From 1903 to 1908 he published five additional volumes of poetry, including 'The Forest of Wild Thyme' and 'The Flower of Old Japan and Other Poems'.

In 1918 he followed with a short story collection 'Walking Shadows, SeaTales and Others' which included 'The Lusitania Waits', a ghost revenge tale based on the sinking of the Lusitania by a German submarine in 1915 – although the story hinges on a misconception that the submarine crew had been awarded the Goetz medal for sinking the ship.

In 1924 Noyes published another collection, 'The Hidden Player', and at the British Empire Exhibition, the same year, he wrote a series of poems set to music by Edward Elgar and known as 'Pageant of Empire'.

Alfred Noyes converted to Roman Catholicism in/about the late 1920s, and wrote about his conversion in 'The Unknown God' (1934). In his later years he suffered from increasing blindness, and in 1953 he published his autobiography 'Two Worlds for Memory'. In all he wrote about sixty books including poetry, novels, and short story collections. He died aged 77 years and is buried at Freshwater, Isle of Wight. (Wikipedia)

This is a further post on Alfred Noyes, the first one can be seen here,

http://whitesmokeahoy.blogspot.com/2009/11/alfred-noyes-english-catholic-poet-1880.html

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A Pentecost Prayer:-

'Come O Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle within them the fire of Thy love, send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth' Let us pray,

'O God Who has taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant we beseech Thee, that by the gift of the same Holy Spirit, that we may be always truly wise, and ever rejoice in Thy consolation, through Christ Our Lord. Amen'

'May the Holy Spirit guide and protect our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, and the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.'

The Western Rising of 1549 - Martyrs for the Old Mass

2011-05-09T18:11:00.001+01:00

I recently came across a copy of an interesting document, given to me in the summer of 1999, as a participant in a Pilgrimage on the Devon/Cornwall borders, commemorating the 450th anniversary of the Western Rising. The Chaplain was the much loved late Fr Michael Crowdy, and the pilgrimage leader the late Mr Robin Pannell, (Carmel Books), a knowledgeable and inspirational man, with a droll sense of humour and strong traditional Catholic views, which he expressed firmly and fearlessly whenever appropriate.. A copy of the document entitled 'The Western Rising of 1549' (see below) was given to those taking part in the pilgrimage, also a short written history of the Western Rising by the late Michael Davies, and published by the Latin Mass Society.

In his article Michael Davies makes some interesting points, beginning with the reminder that although King Henry VIII wanted a new wife, several in fact, he did not want a new religion. Where the liturgy was concerned he was particularly conservative, and when he died the traditional Latin Mass was still being celebrated in every church in the country, unchanged but for the removal of any prayer for the Pope or commemoration of St Thomas a Becket.

King Edward VI (b.1537 d.1553) reigned 1547-53

On the King's death he was succeeded by the sickly nine year old boy King Edward VI, the son of Henry's third wife Jane Seymour. The new King was no more than a puppet of his Protestant dominated Council, whose stated aim was to obliterate the Catholic faith from the face of the land, the principal means adopted to achieve this aim being to destroy the hitherto unchanged immemorial Latin Mass and replace it with a vernacular Protestant Communion service.

Their leader in this objective was Thomas Cranmer, appointed Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII. Cranmer lived a lie whilst Henry was still alive, secretly espousing Protestantism yet still a Prince of the Church.He even celebrated the traditional Latin Mass at Edwards coronation, but shortly afterwards used a series of injunctions to initiate the revolution. The injunctions abolished all processions, ordered the destruction of all images,including those in windows; imposed Communion under both kinds; had parts of the Mass celebrated in the vernacular; condemned any form of the recitation of the Rosary; and forbade the burning of all lights apart from two on the altar. The clergy were ordered to exhort the faithful to do away with images in their homes.

Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury

In 1549 the Latin Mass was abolished and replaced by a new 'Order of Service' in English, with Communion under both kinds, from which every specific reference to 'sacrifice' had been removed. Apart from its doctrinal significance, the change from a totally Latin to a totally vernacular liturgy involved a cultural disaster of significant proportion as it severed the liturgical musical heritage of western Christendom, which was entirely in Latin. The imposition of the 1549 Prayer Book made clear to the ordinary Catholic that his beloved Mass had been taken from him.

The 'Western Rising' was what would be known today as a 'grass roots' reaction to the new English 'Order of Service'.The demand for the restoration of the traditional Latin Mass originated from the laity and not the clergy, most of the latter choosing to use the new service rather than incur the ferocious penalties decreed for those who refused it. In the village of Sampford Courtenay, W. Devon, the men of the village forbade their priest to use the new Service, insisting that he say the Old Mass. As the news of the restoration of the Old Mass spread through neighbouring parishes, many men from surrounding villages gathered in Sampford Courtenay determined to show unity of purpose.

Within a very short time the Old Mass was restored in many local parishes, and the rebels-as we shall call them, then occupied the small town of Crediton, about 8 miles from Exeter,where they planned to gather strength for a march upon Exeter.By this time Government troops were instructed to bring the insurrection to a speedy end, and as a result drove the rebels from Crediton by means of firing the thatched roofs of the barns being used by them, and forcing them to disperse.

The victory was a hollow one, for the rebels re-grouped in larger numbers at Clyst St Mary, about 2 miles outside Exeter, under the leadership of Sir Thomas Pomeroy and Humphrey Arundell. The historian and Protestant Professor W.G.Hoskins, described their march on Exeter:-

'With the sacred banner of the Five Wounds of Christ floating before them, and the pyx borne under a rich canopy, with crosses, banners, candlesticks, swinging censers, and holy bread and water "to defend them from devils and the adverse power," the procession of Devon and Cornish farmers and labourers, led by a few of the gentry, ignorantly pitting themselves against the whole power of the state, marched on Exeter behind their robed priests, singing as they advanced....

The Sacred Banner of the Five Wounds of Christ

...... We do not know how many conservative or stubborn Westcountrymen marched in that hopeless rebellion, a few thousand probably. They spoke and thought for tens of thousands, no doubt, who disliked and detested the changes. The religious nature of the rebellion is made clear by the fifteen demands of the rebels (see below).

Cranmer rejected the demands outright, accusing the 'ignorant' rebels of being led 'by the nose' by the clergy, and demanding that they surrender. The rebels refused and fierce fighting ensued with the poorly-armed rebels sometimes outnumbered four to one by Government forces, many of them foreign mercenaries, commanded by Lord Russell (Lord Privy Seal) and Lord Grey de Wilton. On the first day, some 1000 rebels were killed, and a further 900 taken prisoner and then massacred without pity.. The battle continued the next day, again the rebels were vastly outnumbered resulting in defeat but not without honour, refusing to concede as long as life and limb lasted. Few survived, yet still they fought for the old Mass, with the final battle at Sampford Courtenay involving 2000 rebels against a royal army of 8000 trained troops, with as many as 1200 rebels killed.

Groups of rebels still kept up the fight, with a final confrontation at Kings Weston in Somerset, where exhausted and outnumbered, they suffered 'great slaughter and execution', with 104 men taken prisoner. Singly or in pairs they were hanged in Bath, Frome, Wells, Glastonbury, Ilminster, Dunster, Milverton, Wiveliscombe and other Somerset towns. In Devon, every crossroad seemed to contain a gibbet from which hung the putrefying corpse of one of the humble Catholics involved in the fight for the old Mass, a fearful reminder of the price that had been paid for daring to uphold the Faith of their fathers. A total of at least 4000 Westcountrymen died for the traditional Mass at the hands of the Royal army.

The new English 'Order of Service' had received its baptism of blood. The Magistrates were ordered to enforce the use of the Prayer Book, and the church bells used in every parish by the rebels " to stir the multitude and call them together" were to be removed with the exception of the smallest which could be retained " to call the parishioners together to the sermons and divine service". Thus were the peasants of the West induced to accept "the very godly order set forth by order of parliament for common prayer in the mother tongue

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"On Pentecost Sunday, by law, the Traditional Latin Mass was abolished in England. It was the last in a series of anti-Catholic actions of the government, with almost no opposition from the bishops. From that date a New Order of Service was to be used, designed to please Protestants and to make those who attended it week after week become gradually Protestants themselves. For nearly all of England this was most unwelcome. For the faithful in Cornwall and Devon it was totally unacceptable. They took up arms. The year was 1549, two years after King Henry VIII had died. These are the requests made by these faithful Catholics, willing to die for their faith" ---

The Western Rising of 1549

Articles of us, the Commoners of Devonshire and Cornwall, in divers Camps, by East and West of Exeter.

1. We will have the general council and holy decrees of our forefathers observed, kept, and performed, and whosoever will gainsay them, we hold them as heretics.

2. Restoration of Statute of Six Articles of Henry VIII against heresy.

3. We will have the Mass in Latin as was before, and celebrated by the Priest without any man or woman communicating with him.

4. We will have the Sacrament hang over the High Altar and there to be worshipped as it was wont to be, and they, which will not thereto consent, we will have them die like heretics against the Holy Catholic Faith.

5. We will have the Sacrament of the Altar but only at Easter delivered to the lay people, and then only in one kind.

6. We will that our Curates shall minister the Sacrament of Baptism at all times, as well in the week as on the holy day.

7. We will have holy bread and holy water made every Sunday, Palms and Ashes at times accustomed. Images to be set up again in every Church, and all other ancient old ceremonies.

8. We will not receive the New Service because it is but like a Christmas game, but we will have our old service of Matins, Mass, Evensong and Procession, in Latin as it was before. And so we the Cornish men (whereof certain of us understand no English) utterly refuse this new English.

9. We will have every preacher in his sermon and every priest at his Mass, pray especially by name for the souls in Purgatory as our forefathers did.

10. Calling-in of the English translation of the Scriptures, that is unauthorised translations.

11. Demanding the release of Dr.Moreman and Dr. Crispin, two Canons of Exeter, who were imprisoned in the Tower.

12. Demanding the recall of Cardinal Pole and his promotion to be of the King’s Council.

13. Demanding the restriction of number of servants a man might have.

14. Restoration of half the abbey and chantry lands and endowments, and foundation of two abbeys in every county.

15. For the particular griefs of our country we will have them so ordered as Humphrey Arundell and Henry Bray, the Kings Mayor of Bodmin, shall inform the King’s Majesty, if they may have safe conduct under the King’s Great Seal to pass and repass with a Herald of Arms.

By us: Humphrey Arundell John Thompson, Priest

John Berry Henry Bray, Mayor of Bodmin

Thomas Underhill Henry Lee, Mayor of Torrington

John Sloeman Roger Barrett, Priest

William Segar

Chief Captains The four Governors of the Camps

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All you holy English Saints and Martyrs, pray for us and for our Holy Catholic Church.

Holy Mary, pray for England thy Dowry.

'Father Francesco, in Paradise remember this lamb of yours'

2011-04-03T16:25:00.000+01:00

'Tribute to Father Francesco Pitocchi C.SS.R' by Don Angelo Roncalli, from 'Journal of a Soul'.
(continued from previous post)

      'During the following years I found the same overflowing kindness; and on the numerous occasions that I returned to Bergamo from Rome, accompanying my Bishop and master, Mgr Radini Tedeschi of revered memory, my heart impelled me to hasten at once to San Gioaccino, Monterone, or Sant’Alfonso, to find my dear Father Francesco. Again I would confide in him my joys, anxieties, and the various events of my life, and receive advice, encouragement and comfort from him. He was pleased to be remembered, especially from far away, and to have news of his former Bergamasque students, and the passing of time made no difference to the kindness he continued to show his children..
      What tranquillity there was in his goodness! In all the various circumstances in which I saw him, I never heard a word or saw a gesture betray even the slightest disturbance of his spirit. This imperturbable, sometimes implacable serenity, when on certain occasions he demanded from one of us acts of great but necessary self-denial, seems to me to have been one of his most effective means of earning our measureless esteem and the perfect confidence of the consciences which he directed.
      He had a sure touch in directing souls, treating them according to the needs and temperament of each, urging this one on and holding the other back, sometimes praising and at other times correcting, always watchful and perceptive in his guidance, yet always gentle, one might almost say motherly.
         This kindness seemed all the greater and made the more lasting impression because it drew dignity and splendour from the example he set before us of resigned and contented serenity amidst the atrocious physical sufferings which tortured him for so many years.
      We always knew him as a man in pain. In fact it was his physical sufferings which prevented him from devoting himself to wider and more exhausting ministries in his Congregation, or from going away from Rome. When with sorrow and filial compassion we saw that bent head which he could only raise with the greatest pain, because of the violent contraction of the nerves, and never, never heard a word of complaint that the Lord should have sent him this mortification, we used to say that truly his resemblance to his saintly founder and father, St Alphonsus, was perfect.
        As he was always in pain and always cheerful, his continual appeals to us to seek the holy will of God in all things were irresistibly persuasive. He helped us with advice and with prayer to discover this will of God, and having found it encouraged us to follow it with no other thought, no pre-occupation with any personal ambitions or interests, but with generous and loving hearts in the service of God.

       The supreme wisdom of the spiritual direction given by Father Francesco Pitocchi was in this simple but sublime doctrine, in this training of every soul to work for the triumph of the will of God and His kingdom, in the soul itself as well as in the whole world: ‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done”.
      The last time I saw him was a few days before he died, he was in great pain in his humble cell at Sant’Alfonso. His last words to me were, “What God wills, Don Angelo, and as God wills……this alone…..this alone”
      I would, I could, add much more. But I am held back by the thought that the most sacred pages in the history of our souls are those which every one of us guards religiously in his own heart.

      Of special memory to me is the 1904 vacation, the last I spent at the seminary, Father Francesco was with us in the country at Roccantica. With little notice and a certain reluctance, I was obliged to preach a short sermon, and having had no opportunity to prepare anything, I simply quoted from the ‘The Imitation of Christ’, on the subject of ‘The four things that bring much peace to the soul’
It is heavenly doctrine: who can forget it?

1.    Seek, my son, to do another’s will, rather than your own
2.    Choose always to have less rather than more
3.    Always seek the lowest place and to be inferior to everyone.
4.    Always desire and pray that the will of God may be wholly fulfilled in you.

      I then added a few words of my own which, as I was at the time absorbed in reading the life of St Francis, related to the story of Brother Leo on the mountain of La Verna, who, when the Poverello was raised in ecstasy, ran forward to clutch his feet and kiss them, weeping and crying: ‘My God, have mercy on me a sinner, and through the merits of this holy man grant me your grace’
      I still see before my eyes Father Francesco’s smile of pleasure at the subject and example chosen. ‘You see’ he said to me, ’how obedience has come to your rescue. Always obey, simply, and good temperedly: leave the rest to the Lord. It is He who speaks to our hearts.’
      Eighteen years later I think with great emotion of the truth of that doctrine. When I think of him, my dear departed Father, my soul finds comfort in seeking him in that light of glory to which, we may hope, he was raised, much higher than the tall beeches of La Verna. Like humble Brother Leo, I love to contemplate him and, almost as if I were kissing his feet, I repeat with tears of sadness and love: ‘Father Francesco, Father Francesco, in Paradise remember this lamb of yours. And you, my God, have mercy on me a sinner, and through the merits of this holy man, grant me your grace.’

Don Angelo Roncalli
Rapallo, December 14, 1922. Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Ack ‘Pope John XXIII Journal of a Soul’ pub.First Four Square Edition 1966

Father Francesco Pitocchi C.SS.R - 'God is all and I am nothing'

2011-03-08T17:47:00.000Z

Father Angelo Roncalli (c1910) -centre row, 3rd from right,

- personal secretary to Bishop Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi of Bergamo (centre) from 1905-1914.

A tribute to the memory of Father Francesco Pitocchi C.SS.R. by Father Angelo Roncalli.

Rapallo, 14th December, 1922

The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

I had the good fortune to meet him first towards the end of 1902, twenty years ago. I had just returned to the Roman Seminary after my military service, to resume my theological studies, and prepare myself for holy orders.

At the conclusion of our first meeting he gave me a motto to repeat to myself calmly and frequently:-

‘God is all, and I am nothing’ – this was like a new principle that opened to my gaze new horizons, unexplored, full of mystery and spiritual beauty.

And I was satisfied.

That motto, which at once began to cut down any pretensions of personal pride, was like the first chapter of a precious book which, from that evening, Father Francesco taught me to read for my spiritual edification.

When I think now how much I owe to my dear Father’s wise teaching I blush at the small profit I derived from his loving instructions; but I also feel great satisfaction, which seems to me legitimate and holy, because those two years of immediate preparation for my priesthood were indeed, through the mercy of God and through the work of this worthy minister of his, the most fruitful and the richest in ideas and directives for the training of my spirit.

I used to go to see Fr Francesco, as did many of my companions, when he visited the Seminary, generally twice a week. He would listen with great kindness, but did not say very much, often contenting himself with a thought from Scripture sufficient to convince us that he really cared for the soul of each one of us as if the Lord had sent him for that one alone; such was the interest he showed in our weaknesses and in our puny efforts to overcome them, which he supported with fatherly kindness. When we left him, kissing the cross on his stole or his hand raised in absolution or blessing, we felt as it were, new vigour, pleasurable and powerful, an enthusiasm, a great enthusiasm, to do good, which, in spite of so many failings - I speak for myself - was the best part, the beauty and the joy of our youth as seminarists.

Sometimes Father Francesco could not come to the seminary, either because his physical sufferings prevented him or because he was prevented by other and graver responsibilities: so we were allowed to go to see him at San Gioacchino. There in his cell, so neat but so humble, our dear Father was completely at home, in his own setting; it even seemed as if his face, words and bearing became even more holy and persuasive against that background of simplicity and monastic and apostolic poverty. That poor simple bed - how poor it looked - with the small wooden cross placed on the rough coverlet, the bare desk, the few paper devotional holy pictures which hung on the white walls, and the few books of moral or ascetic theology scattered around, the general atmosphere of piety, conferred a singular and convincing authority on the loving warnings he gave us concerning detachment from wealth, honours, and all ambitions, even the ambitions of ecclesiastical life. He spoke of the wisdom of being faithful in little things as a habitual discipline of the soul, which would have the effect of training us in a holy generosity and an enthusiasm for the adventures and sacrifices of the priestly apostolate in the service of Jesus Christ, the Church, and the souls of men.

In Father Francesco’s humble cell we breathed, like the sweetest perfume, the spirit of his great heavenly patron and father, St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori.

St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (1696-1787)

St Alphonsus, what a glory and what an example he is for the Italian clergy to study and venerate! We have been familiar with his life and works from the first years of our ecclesiastical training, and it is true that this great Doctor and Bishop whose spirit was to pass beyond the Alps and be miraculously spread abroad after his death, producing a wonderful flowering of apostleship and holiness, presents in his beloved person all that best corresponds to the genius of Italy, alert, shrewd, full of common sense and at the same time full of liberty, substance and poetry.

Father Francesco Pitocchi knew his St Alphonsus, loved him and led others to know and love him with a fervour which aroused admiration. From his lips there flowed with astonishing facility episodes and details of the great Saint’s life, which he knew how to produce at the right moment, as examples and encouragements for us in the various events of our lives: he would repeat to us thoughts and words taken from his writings, which he always kept by him and advised us to read frequently.

He used to say that St Alphonsus never grows old, and that his simple, modest writings contain inexhaustible treasures of doctrine, of sacred learning and that wisdom which is eternal and the very sap of holiness.

He had great respect for other religious institutes, especially the Jesuits who had been the teachers of his youth, but he always felt himself to be heart and soul, a Redemptorist, content with his vocation for which he was thankful to God; faithful to the point of scrupulous self-sacrifice to his Rule and enthusiastic about his Congregation. He loved to tell us its good works, the glories of its apostolate throughout Europe and in the foreign Missions, and the old and new fruits of its learning and its work for the sanctification of souls.

The secret of the attraction which Father Francesco exerted on everyone around him, and even on those who only met him once, lay in his truly fatherly character and the way in which he at once interested himself in everyone’s needs, as well as in his great discretion, his gentle, patient charity and his unalterable calm.

Discretion is the most important quality of a director of souls. The possession of it is a great gift of God: a gift that is granted to few.

Father Francesco had this gift in the highest degree. Without any of those searching enquiries that disconcert the penitent, but with the immediate intuition of the man of God, he knew at once how to understand the moral character of whoever came to him, and to see to the depths of his soul. After knowing him for a month or two he knew all about a young man’s past and present: even the future was apparent to his clear gaze.

We understood this: he read our eyes, he read our hearts. And our hearts opened to him spontaneously; we felt we had to tell him everything, interest him even in the smallest things; and so it happened that his advice and direction quietly and sweetly permeated the whole of our life in its various manifestations and interrelations: pious practices, studies, physical health, success and failures, happy or melancholy adventures, everything. For every problem or event he had the right word, the advice, the corrective, the comfort. He was admirable in adapting his ministry to the various characters and the variety of circumstances. Everyone seemed to draw from him all that he needed and that which was right for him.

The two years in which I was able to profit from frequent and continuous contact with Father Francesco, were difficult years for young seminarists, in so far as the wind of modernity, sometimes impetuous and at other times gentle and caressing, which was later to degenerate, in part, into so-called Modernism, was blowing almost everywhere, and was to poison the heart and soul of many; especially during the first months it was a temptation to everyone. We students were so fortunate, for so long as we stayed with Father Francesco we were in no danger of being seduced by dangerous novelties. His great spirit of discretion, averse to all extremes, knew how to withhold consent from all that was uncertain, imprudent or insufficiently examined. He was intent above all on establishing in the consciences he directed the superior and balanced judgement that would make us shun futile arguments, thus teaching us the wise art of proceeding from words to things, from learning to life, to the life of priests and apostles.

And his charity, St Paul’s ‘charity of God’, how it shone in Father Francesco’s eyes, on his smiling lips, in his whole person! To go and open one’s heart to him, and feel at once his response, warm with fatherly tenderness, took but a moment. And his kindness was expressed in patience, the long-suffering of Christ, an endless bearing of our troubles and indiscretions, a sweetness which was not sentimental but sober and dignified, which tempered correction, rendering it more acceptable. His words were serious and stern when necessary, and in days of gladness as in days of uncertainty and trouble, he found refinements and a warmth of speech the memory of which still moves me.

What memories I have of August 11, 1904, when as a newly ordained priest I returned from Rome to say my second Mass: the whole villa lit up, the seminarists waiting to meet me, the welcome from my Superiors, always too kind and indulgent towards me, but most of all I remember the first priestly embrace of Father Francesco.

In December that year he insisted that I make my first attempt to preach in public. It was to be on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the fiftieth anniversary of that dogma, and it was to the Children of Mary in Our Lady’s chapel at San Gioacchino. I wrote everything down, and on the preceding evening recited it all to my Father, on my knees, after confession. He listened to me, smiling kindly and encouraging me.

The next day, complete failure! I was at once put off by the general atmosphere which to me, a countryman, seemed too aristocratic. I lost my presence of mind, my fluency, my fervour; I even lost my way in my own manuscript: I confused the New Testament with the Old, the witness of the Doctors of the Church with the imagery of the prophets, St Alphonsus with St Bernard, the middle with the beginning, and the beginning with the end: in short, a disaster! When I had finished and tore myself away from that altar, I was like a shipwrecked man cast up on a shore, completely lost.

Once in the presence of Father Francesco, in his little room near the sacristy, he encouraged me with such kindness in his bearing and his words, that in the end I was content to have suffered that mortification, which he made me offer to Our Lady, with a resolve to attempt another public sermon as soon as possible.

(to be continued)

From ‘Journal of a Soul’ by Pope John XXIII

Four Square Editions 1966

Pope John XXIII - Papal Coat of Arms

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'The cross of the wicked thief, endured with impatience, became to him a precipice leading to hell; while the cross endured with patience by the good thief, became to him a ladder to paradise'

('Thoughts from St Alphonsus' compiled by Rev C S Neiry C.SS.R - Burnes, Oates,Washbourne 1927)

'O Holy Mary, Mother of God, guide and protect thy people, especially our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI'

Illustrissimi - letter to GK Chesterton. 'Our Lady Vulnerata' at Valladolid

2011-02-01T16:50:00.000Z

Here is a further short extract from 'Illustrissimi', the letters of Albino Luciani, Patriarch of Venice, written in the early 1970s for the Italian Christian paper 'Il Messagero di Sant' Antonio'.In 1978 Albino Luciani was elected Pope, taking the name John Paul I. After only 33 days in office, he died of a heart attack.In these letters the author addresses well-known persons, both real and imaginary, expounding on their lives and experiences, and using these to illustrate God's love for mankind in spite of our weakness and sinfulness, and the need to live our lives in accordance with His laws and the laws of His Church. This letter is to G.K.Chesterton, English journalist and author (1874-1936), a convert to Catholicism in 1922. He wrote many novels and was a brilliant polemicist, who longed for an ideal society without social inequalities, based on good sense, religion, and humour. His works include 'The Napoleon of Notting Hill','The Man WhoWas Thursday', and the 'Father Brown Stories'.

GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON (1874-1936)

Dear Chesterton,

On Italian television during the past few weeks we have been seeing Father Brown, your surprising detective-priest – a character who is typically yours. A pity we haven’t also had Professor Lucifer and the monk Michael. I’d very much liked to have seen them as you described them in ‘The Ball and the Cross’, sitting beside each other on the flying ship.

' When the flying ship is above St Paul’s Cathedral, the Professor gives ‘a shriek indescribable’ as they pass the 'cross on the ball' set on top of the dome.

“I once knew a man like you, Lucifer,” says Michael, "this man also took the view that the symbol of Christianity was a symbol of savagery and all unreason. His history is rather farcical. It is also a perfect allegory of what happens to rationalists like yourself.

He began, of course, by refusing to allow a crucifix in his house, or round his wife’s neck, or even in a picture. He said, as you say, that it was an arbitrary and fantastic shape, that it was a monstrosity, loved because it was paradoxical. Then he began to grow fiercer and more eccentric; he would batter the crosses by the roadside; for he lived in a Roman Catholic country. Finally in a height of frenzy, he climbed the steeple of the Parish church and tore down the cross, waving it in the air, and uttering wild soliloquies up there under the stars.

Then one still summer evening as he was wending his way homewards, along a lane, the devil of his madness came upon him with a violence and transfiguration which changes the world. He was standing smoking for a moment, in front of an interminable line of palings, when his eyes were opened. Not a light shifted, not a leaf stirred, but he saw as if by a sudden change in the eyesight, that this paling was an army of innumerable crosses linked together over hill and dale. And he whirled up his heavy stick, and went at it as if at an army. Mile after mile along his homeward path he broke it down and tore it up For he hated the cross and every paling is a wall of crosses.

When he returned to his house he was a literal madman. He sat upon a chair and then started up from it, for the crossbars of the carpentry repeated the intolerable image. He flung himself upon a bed only to remember that this too, like all workmanlike things, was constructed on the accursed plan. He broke his furniture because it was made of crosses. He burnt his house because it was made of crosses.

He was found in the river.”

Lucifer was looking at him with a bitten lip. “Is that story really true?” he asked. “Oh no,” said Michael, “It is a parable. It is a parable of you and all your rationalists. You begin by breaking up the Cross; but you end by breaking up the habitable world.”

The monk’s conclusion, which is yours, dear Chesterton, is quite right. Take God away and what is left, what do men become? What sort of world are we reduced to living in?

‘Why, the world of progress!‘ I hear someone say, ‘the world of affluence!’ Yes but this famous progress isn’t all it was once cracked up to be. It contains other things in itself: missiles, bacteriological and atomic weapons, the process of pollution, all things that unless they are dealt with in time, threaten to plunge the whole human race into catastrophe.

In other words, progress that involves men who love one another, thinking of themselves as brothers and as children of the one Father, God, can be a magnificent thing. But progress that involves men who don’t recognise a single Father in God, becomes a constant danger: without a parallel moral progress, which is continuous and internal, it develops what is lowest and cruellest in man, making him a machine possessed by machines, a number manipulated by numbers; he becomes what Papini calls ‘a raving savage, who to satisfy his predatory, destructive and licentious instincts, no longer uses a club, but has the immense forces of nature and mechanical invention to draw upon.’

Yes I know there are plenty of people who think the opposite of this, who consider religion a consoling dream invented by oppressed people ….. who consider God as dead or dying…. ‘yet, dear Chesterton, you and I go down on our knees before a God who is more present than ever. Only he can give a satisfactory answer to the questions which, for everyone, are the most important of all; Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?

The sense of justice that lies in every man, whatever his faith, demands that the good we do and the evil we suffer should be rewarded, that the hunger of life found in everyone should be satisfied. Where and how, if there is no other life? And from whom, if not from God? And from what God, if not the one of whom St Francis de Sales wrote: ‘Do not fear God, who wishes you no harm, but love Him a great deal, who wishes you so much good.’

What many people fight is not the true God but the false idea they have made of God. A God who protects the rich, who only asks and demands, who is jealous of our growing prosperity, who spies continuously on our sins from above to give himself the pleasure of punishing us.

Dear Chesterton, you know God isn’t like that; you know that He is both good and just; the father of prodigal sons, who wishes them all to be, not sad and wretched, but great and free, and creators of their own destiny. Our God is not man’s rival, He wants us to be His friends, He has called us to share in His divine nature and in His eternal happiness. And He does not ask anything excessive of us: He is content with very little, because He knows quite well that we haven’t got very much.’

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I found the following interesting information on the website of the Royal English College, Valladolid, Spain, an English seminary founded in 1589 by the famous Jesuit priest, Fr Robert Persons, to train priests for the English Missions. Twenty-seven former students are recognised as martyrs for the faith. The College is no longer used as a major seminary, due apparently to the decline in vocations, but it organises a 'propaedeutic' year ie. a preliminary year for priestly aspirants, before they begin their full seminary training elsewhere.

OUR LADY VULNERATA (THE WOUNDED ONE)

The image of Our Lady venerated in the College Chapel, is that of La Vulnerata, or The Wounded One. The story of the Vulnerata goes back centuries; but in 1596, as Spain was recovering from the defeat of the Armada and was gathering another fleet in the city of Cadiz, the Earl of Essex together with Sir Walter Raleigh led an English fleet into the harbour, defeating the Spanish fleet and taking possession of the city. Some of the English troops started a riot and dragged a statue of the Virgin Mother and Child from a church to the market square, where they desecrated it. They broke off both arms, and all that remained of the child were parts of his tiny feet on his mother’s knee. The mutilated statue was later retrieved, taken to Madrid, and given a place of honour in a private chapel of a Countess.

The priests and seminarians of the English and Welsh College in Valladolid asked the Countess if they might make reparation for the behaviour of their fellow countrymen who had desecrated the statue. She agreed and the statue was brought to Valladolid and installed with great solemnity in the College Chapel in 1600. Every year during Holy Week the statue is processed along the street, where it is met by a huge 'paso' or float, which has a large depiction of the Crucified Christ resting on top of it. The two images meet, and dance to each other for a brief period--then the Vulnerata comes back to the College.

Prayer to Our Lady Vulnerata

Dear Mother, as I gaze on your wounded and mutilated image, I humbly beg your pardon for the grievous insults to you, great Mother of God. Help me to notice the wounded children of the world, and see your beauty in the faces of the poor and disfranchised. Let me love them better, as your Son commanded. I praise you through the faith, loyalty and blood of the missionaries who prayed for courage before your image, and I ask you to keep today’s missionaries in your loving care as they, too, carry the Good News throughout the world. Amen

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Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, and guide and protect our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.

'Illustrissimi' by Albino Luciani - Letter to St Therese of Liseux

2010-12-28T17:12:00.000Z

Albino Luciani was born in 1912 in the small village of Forni di Canale (now known as Canale d'Agordo),situated between Venice and the Italian border with Austria.

He studied at the seminary of Belluno, was ordained in 1935, and was then sent to the Gregorian University in Rome where he took a degree in theology. After several years teaching theology at the Belluno seminary, Luciani was appointed Vicar General of Belluno in 1948, and ten years later Pope John XXIII, who thought very highly of him, named him Bishop of Vittorio Veneto. In 1969 he became Patriarch of Venice, and on 5th March 1973 Pope Paul VI made him a cardinal.

On the death of Pope Paul, Albino Luciani was elected Pope on 26 August 1978, taking the name John Paul in honour of his two immediate predecessors.

After only 33 days in office, Pope John Paul I died of a heart attack during the evening of 28 September 1978.

Pope John Paul I

The ‘Illustrissimi’ (the Letters) by Albino Luciani, were written between the years 1969 and 1978 when he was Patriarch of Venice, and were published in the Italian Christian paper ‘Il Messagero di Sant Antonio’. The letters are addressed to various individuals, some fictional, some historical. He writes to legendary figures, to important scientific, historical and literal people, to characters from their books, plays, operas, poems, to saints and even to Christ himself. If the recipients are varied, the subjects he discusses with them are even more so. Although addressed to many different characters, and related directly to their particular interests, the letters were meant for the ordinary person living in the 1970’s. They were written as a teaching device, as a means of proclaiming the gospel, of opening people’s minds and hearts anew to the message of Christianity.

The papacy of Pope John Paul I lasted only 33 days, allowing little time for him to become known to his flock either in his public appearances or in his writings. However these letters reveal some of the character of the writer, a man rooted in the Gospel, but with his feet firmly on 20th century ground, calmly surveying the contemporary, tempestuous and troubled world, smiling at its absurdities, regretting its evil, and rejoicing in its good. A man firm in faith, hope and charity; humorous when musing on the follies and frivolities of people, yet firm in maintaining Christian ethics and moral standards. A man who understood people from within and who identified with them, yet a man to whom his faith was the breath of life and the source of joy. (Basil Hume OSB, Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. October 1978)

Letter to St Therese of Liseux.

Dear Little Therese,

I was seventeen when I read your autobiography.

It struck me forcibly. You called it ‘The story of a little flower’. To me the will-power, courage and decisiveness it showed made it seem more like the story of a piece of steel. Once you had chosen the path of complete dedication to God, nothing could stop you: not illness, nor opposition from outside, nor inner confusion and darkness.

I remember the time I was ill and sent to a sanatorium, in the days before penicillin and antibiotics, when death awaited pretty well anyone who was sent to hospital.

I was ashamed of myself for feeling a little afraid. ‘At the age of twenty-three,’ I said to myself, ‘Therese, who until then had been healthy and full of vitality, was filled with joy and hope when she first spat blood. Not only that, but when her health improved, she got permission to end her fast with a diet of dry bread and water. And you’re almost trembling! You’re a priest! Don’t be silly!

*********************

Reading it again, on the centenary of your birth (1873 to 1973), what now strikes me most is the way in which you loved God and your neighbour. St Augustine wrote: ‘We reach God, not by walking, but through love.’ You also called your road ‘the way of love’. Christ said: ‘No one comes to me unless my Father calls him’. You were perfectly in tune with these words, feeling ‘like a bird without strength and without wings’, and seeing in God an eagle who came down to carry you off on high, on its wings. You called divine grace ‘the lifter’, which carried you to God swiftly and easily, since you were ‘too small to climb the harsh ladder of perfection’.

I said ’easily’, but let me make it clear: I meant it only in one way. In another …..,.. well in the final months of your life your soul felt as if it was going down a kind of dark passage, seeing nothing of what it had once seen clearly. ‘Faith’, you wrote, ‘is no longer a veil but a wall’. Your physical sufferings were so great that you said, ‘If I had not had faith, I would have chosen death’. In spite of that you kept saying to the Lord you loved, saying with your will alone, ‘I sing of the happiness of Paradise, but without any feeling of joy; I sing simply because I want to believe’. Your last words were: ‘My God, I love You’.

To the merciful love of God you offered yourself as a victim. All this did not prevent you from enjoying what was good and beautiful. Before your final illness you loved painting, and wrote poetry and short plays on religious subjects, taking some of the parts yourself and showing quite a talent for acting. In the last stage of your illness, when you felt briefly better, you asked for some chocolates. You had no fear of your own imperfections, not even of having sometimes slept during meditation, out of weariness (‘mothers love their children, even when they are asleep’).

Loving your neighbour, you tried to serve others in small, useful ways, but to do so unobserved; and you preferred, if anything, to do this for people who irritated you, those you understood least. Behind their un-likeable faces you sought the beloved face of Christ. And no-one noticed these efforts of yours. ‘How mystical she was in chapel, and at her work’, the prioress wrote of you, ‘At other times she was very amusing, full of fun and making us laugh uproariously at recreation’.

Joy mixed with Christian love appears in the song of the angels at Bethlehem. It is part of the essence of the Gospel which means ‘good news’. It is characteristic of the saints. Joy may become perfect charity if it is shared, as in fact, dear St Therese, you shared yours at recreation in the convent.

Therese, the love you gave God (and your neighbour for love of God) was really worthy of Him. This is how our love should be: a flame fed by all that’s great and fine in ourselves; a rejection of all that is refractory in us; and a victory that carries us on its wings and takes us as a gift to the feet of God.

These few lines certainly don’t contain the whole of your message to Christians, but they are enough to point out a few things to us.

(From ‘Illustrissimi by Albino Luciani. The Letters of Pope John Paul I, published by Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1979)

***************

'The Little Way' by St Therese of Liseux

"Sometimes, when I read spiritual treatises in which perfection is shown with a thousand obstacles, surrounded by a crowd of illusions, my poor little mind quickly tires. I close the learned book which is breaking my head and drying up my heart, and I take up Holy Scripture. Then all seems luminous to me; a single word uncovers for my soul infinite horizons; perfection seems simple; I see that it is enough to recognize one's nothingness and to abandon oneself, like a child, into God's arms. Leaving to great souls, to great minds, the beautiful books I cannot understand, I rejoice to be little because 'only children, and those who are like them, will be admitted to the heavenly banquet.' "

"For me, prayer is a movement of the heart; it is a simple glance toward Heaven; it is a cry of gratitude and love in times of trial as well as in times of joy; finally, it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus. . . . I have not the courage to look through books for beautiful prayers.... I do like a child who does not know how to read; I say very simply to God what I want to say, and He always understands me."

St Therese of Liseux

"Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love."

*******************

Today is the feast day of the Holy Innocents, massacred by order of King Herod, intended to kill the Child Jesus. O Holy Innocents pray for us and for our Country, and we particularly ask your prayers that legalised abortion be recognised for the evil that it is, and banished from the Statute book.

Our Blessed Lady, Cause of Our Joy, guide and protect our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI.

'Vital-Organ Transplants' - 'Brain Stem Death' conceptually suspect and clinically dangerous'

2010-11-25T17:02:00.001Z

Saint Panteleimon the Hermit (284 - 304)

Recently in the Orcadian, our weekly local newspaper, the Scottish Executive published a large advertisement promoting the human ‘organ donor’ scheme, and asking for more donors, ‘prepared to give the gift of life to others’. In the same paper, NHS Orkney published a half-page article endorsing its support for the Scottish Executive in promoting the scheme, and also asking for new donors, who could be as young as 13 years of age. Both these items also mentioned that as there were insufficient donors to meet demand, a system of ‘presumed consent’ was being considered, whereby consent would be presumed for everyone unless there was clear evidence in writing to the contrary.

On reading these articles I was reminded that the question of ‘presumed consent’ had raised its head about three years ago, when the Prime Minister of the day, Gordon Brown, had suggested that this might be a suitable means of increasing the supply of usable human organs for transplant purposes. I remembered that at that time I was concerned about the ethics of organ transplants, and particularly so when it came to ‘presumed consent’, and I hasten to add that I am now even more concerned.

                                      Saint Luke - Guercino (1591-1666)

I must say straight away that I am not any sort of doctor or medical person, and that my sole claim to fame is a First Aid certificate acquired nearly 50 years ago! However it is possible to glean considerable information from professional and trustworthy sources through official websites, which when balanced with the Church’s pronouncements on the subject, and mixed with a portion of common sense, enables one, I think, to have a reasonably balanced view of the matter. I hasten to add that I have great sympathy for the sick, and I have generally great respect for the medical profession, and admiration for the continuing advancement in medical knowledge and technology when used ethically and morally for the good of humanity.

As far as this post is concerned, it is necessary to make the distinction between   ‘transplants of vital organs, such as the heart, lungs and liver’, and ‘transplants of lesser organs, tissues, and body parts’, and I must emphasise that this post is only concerned with the former category, for it is in these cases that vital organs are removed from a live donor.

When this matter arose three years ago, I sent an email to the Guild of Catholic Doctors, requesting information on the nature and ethics of ‘organ transplants’ - particularly in relation to the teaching of the Catholic Church, to which I received the following reply;

From: Guild of Catholic Doctors
To: Brian Crowe
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 8:17 PM
Subject: Re: organ transplants

Some organs are taken from very recently dead patients. Most are taken from was is termed 'heart beating donors'. These are donors who have been declared medically 'brain dead' and are kept 'alive' on life support machines until the organs are taken. Obviously there is then the discussion to be had on what is the definition of death. I am not sure which articles you have been reading but we have published some divergent views on this.

The Church has not ruled on this. In most matters the church, quite rightly, clearly lays down the moral principles, but then bows to science on technical matters, which are the remit of science. There is never conflict between truth, so if the science is valid and true (in the sense of being in agreement with the moral truth), the church will accept it. (See Pope John Paul II in his encyclical 'Faith & Reason') In the 'old' days it was easy to tell when someone died - their heart stopped. With modern science that is no longer a valid criterion for death as it is possible to get the heart going again and keep organs alive (including a removed heart, which continues beating) for some considerable time after what was previosly defined as death. Para 2296 of the Catholic Catechism supports the principle of organ donation and also laying down the moral principles. A significant number of our membership are transplant surgeons and physicians.

It is possible to remove one of the two kidneys from a healthy living donor, and now with surgical advances it is possible to remove half a liver from a healthy living donor. The half left in the patient will regenerate to its normal size with a short period as will the half that is put into the new recepient.

I hope that helps

Signed Dr. ……………….

            I was grateful for this reply but in truth, it raised as many questions as it answered. I followed this up at the time with an email to a certain member of the Scottish hierarchy, but received no reply. It may well be that my message failed to reach the intended recipient, but whatever the reason I heard nothing, and the matter receded into my mental 'in-tray' where it has since remained. It was only the recent publicity in the ‘Orcadian’ that reminded me of this outstanding correspondence, and persuaded me to look again at the details.

       Christ Raising Lazarus from the Dead - Studio of Tintoretto (1518-1594)

Reading the original reply from the Guild of Catholic Doctors, it appears that Catholic doctors themselves hold divergent views on the morality of organ transplants, a divergence based primarily on the question of ‘point of death’. As I understand it, the crucial factor is that for a ‘vital organ’ transplant to have a chance of succeeding, the vital organs viz. heart, lungs or liver, have to be removed whilst the donor is still alive. Inevitably in the process, the donor will die. Clearly to deliberately and knowingly cause the death of a donor by removing his/her vital organs for transplant purposes, is ‘murder’ and must be wrong.

It seems that over recent years, medical science has defined (some say invented) an hitherto undocumented human condition, now defined as ‘brain death’ or/and ‘brain stem death’. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, it is at this stage that vital organs such as the heart, lungs, and liver, are removed from a donor. For some doctors, the ‘brain death’ or ‘brain stem death’ diagnosis legitimises the removal of vital organs from donors, although many other doctors do not share this view. I find this seriously disturbing, and wanting to find out more, recently visited several websites dealing with this subject.

   ****************

Assuming that what I have found is truthful, and I have no reason to doubt it, the reality is shocking and worse than I could have believed. One particular site, that of Dr Paul A Byrne MD, past President of the Catholic Medical Association (USA), is totally condemnatory of so-called ‘brain death’, which he describes as a cynical ploy to deceive; he also condemns ‘organ transplants’, which effectively destroy the life of the donor, because to be usable, organs have to be removed from a live person, who then dies as a direct result. Another site ‘The Life Guardian Foundation' (www.thelifeguardian.org) incorporates much information on this subject, including a frank article by Dr Byrne MD in which his logic and conclusions appear indisputable. This website also includes an harrowing account of the devastating experience of a mother in the USA, whose 18/19 year old son accidentally shot himself in the head, and was taken to hospital where, in spite of positive medical prognosis, it appeared that little real effort was made to save him. Instead, after various medical 'procedures', he was certified ‘brain dead’ and his vital organs were then removed. It transpired that at some time in his short life, the young man had altruistically agreed to be a donor, which apparently was known to the hospital authority when he was admitted.

                                               ******

Below is a short extract from the Life Guardian website:-

'CRITICAL INFORMATION CONCERNING "BRAIN DEATH" AND ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION'

For over forty years there has been a deadly code of silence pertaining to "brain death." Behind closed doors a controversy raged. Many of those in the medical field opposed this reinvention of death. The controversy continues.

             "Brain death" was invented for the sole purpose of organ transplantation, living human medical experimentation, and a means in which measures to sustain life could be legally withdrawn. It was the first legal form of euthanasia in the US. This deadly code of silence has been broken.
               It is time to inform the Public of the Truth... (end of quote)

**********************

                      The Anatomy Lesson - Rembrandt (1606-1669)

In the UK the Royal College of Physicians reported in 1976 and 1977, rejecting the whole ‘brain death’ criterion as scientifically worthless, and adopting the notion of 'irreversible brain stem dysfunction' as an indicator of death.
                                                 BUT
‘The UK ‘brain stem death’ standard for the diagnosis of death on neurological grounds ignores evidence of persisting life and function in other parts of the brain, and has never been accepted in the USA – where the irreversible cessation of function of the entire brain, specifically including the brain stem (‘whole brain death’), is required'. The US President’s Council on Bioethics has recently described the UK standard as “conceptually suspect” and “clinically dangerous”.(Wikipedia - Controversies in the Determination of Death : a White Paper by the President's Council on Bioethics. Washington, DC December 2008. www.bioethics.gov)

                  ***************
‘Organ donation’ is big business on a world-wide scale. Would-be recipients pay sometimes huge sums of money for organ transplants. Donors, often from poor communities in the Third World, are driven by desperate financial need, to sell kidneys and lesser organs, for pitifully meagre sums of money. Although these body parts are not in the donor 'category' that we are considering, one can appreciate the substantially higher 'market value' of vital organs, and the temptation to find donors at whatever cost, financial or moral.
‘Big business’ means big money, and we know that ‘money is the root of all evil’- no idle saying. Regrettably but almost inevitably, where there is big business there is corruption.

In many European countries, everybody is automatically considered to be an organ donor unless there is evidence to the contrary in writing. This principle of 'presumed consent' is being actively promoted in those countries in which it is not yet enshrined in law, which includes the UK.
I suspect that the European Parliament in Brussels, with its record of anti-life legislation, and its own liberal and humanist agenda, has much to do with the almost 'pro-active' promotion of this scheme, which appears so laudable and yet is shrouded by misinformation and suspicion of deception.

Of course it is right to remember the many principled, selfless, and caring doctors and nurses, who take a stand against un-ethical practices, who honour and dignify their profession, and whose priority is always the good and well-being of their patients.

The Pieta - Luis de Morales (1509-1586)

The evil of ‘vital organ transplants’, based on the premise that it is essentially murder to remove 'vital organs' from a live donor who will inevitably die as a result, in order that these organs be transplanted into a recipient to keep them alive, seems clear on rational and common-sense grounds alone. With regard to the condition of 'brain death' or 'brain stem death' - used to justify the morality of 'vital organ transplants', how can it be possible for a person to be alive and dead at the same time, or to be partly dead? It is like squaring the circle, an impossibility. At any one time we are either alive or we are dead, there is no in-between stage. Please see the website of Dr Paul A Byrne MD, who writes so clearly and authoritatively on this and other related matters.

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/byrne

St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) - philosopher and theologian

With increasing pressure from local and government organisations, the ‘organ donor’ scheme is insidiously worming its way into the ‘things we ought to be doing’ charts. I doubt that many donors are aware of the full implications of their decision, particularly if the donor is a child of only 13 years of age. This appears particularly likely when considering the simple, and some might say inspired, design of the on-line donor application form (see below) which not only fails to differentiate between 'vital organs' and 'other organs and tissue', but in 'Section A' lumps them all together as one.

St Philip Benizi(1233-1285)-Superior of the Servite Order.

When visiting the ‘NHS blood and tissue’ website, I found the ‘on-line’ application form for potential organ donors, a copy of which I have pasted below:-

THE ON-LINE APPLICATION FORM FOR ORGAN DONOR

I want to donate the following for transplantation after my death:

A any of my organs and tissue

B my

kidneys heart liver small bowel

eyes lungs pancreas tissue

The first significant point of note is in the first line, namely the words ‘after my death’; and the next point is the inclusion of heart, liver, and lungs, each with its own tick-box, in Section B below.

It is inconceivable that the wording ‘after my death’ is a mistake, or that the ‘heart’, ‘liver’ and ‘lungs’ have been included by mistake. But we know from eminent medical authorities, that these particular vital organs can only be usable if taken from a live donor, they are useless if taken from a donor already dead

The question has to be asked:-

‘How can the NHS invite potential donors to donate their heart, liver, or lungs, after their death, when to be usable, they have to be removed before they die?’

Theoretically the relevant reply would seem to be that death is officially recognised when ‘brain cell death’ is confirmed, legitimising the removal of vital organs, whilst at the same time ensuring that the heart remains beating and the body still functions, until such time as the vital organs are physically separated from the body, when the body then dies (as understood in pre 'brain cell death' days!) Although of course, it was already dead, wasn't it?

Some might well think that the wording used in the donor application form is seriously misleading, and represents justifiable grounds for accusing the NHS donor authorities of gross misrepresentation. There certainly appears a case to answer!

Saint Giuseppe Moscate (1880-1927)- Italian doctor and scientist

We know that many doctors and other medical and scientific experts, including the US President’s Council on Bio-Ethics (see above), do not accept the UK criteria for ‘brain cell death’, the latter describing it as ‘conceptually suspect and clinically dangerous’. Yet it is used today in the UK presumably with the backing of powerful influences in the medical and scientific world, apparently without any effective public criticism or suggested action.

Saint Martin de Porres (1579-1639) - Dominican Lay Brother

There is a particular drive to increase the numbers of young ‘organ donors’, as apparently young organs are more likely to be successfully transplanted than those from older donors. During September and October this year, the ‘Organ-donor’ road-show visited 14 University campuses in the UK, using the ‘Superhero’ theme, with the addition of a female companion.’ and obtained a total of 5,472 new signatories.
.

                  Blessed Niels Stensen (1638-86) -anatomical scientist

Even as I write, I get the feeling that I will be accused of meddling in medical matters, which are not my business.
Yet it is my business as it is everyone's business, for it is my life or my wife's life or my children's lives or anybody's life that could be at risk. To me there appear genuine grounds for suspecting that all is not quite what it seems, and that fine words disguise the shadow of evil. I'm sure that there is good will and intention in many people involved in the ‘donor scheme’, but there are others perhaps who have their own agenda; ambition, money, career, social advancement, or whatever, who are prepared to go along with the evil principle that 'the end justifies the means'. We know that deception is an art in which Satan, the master of all deceit, excels, especially so in matters of life and death.

We pray for loud and authoritative guidance on this matter from our Church, and ask that it will be sooner rather than later.

Our Lady of Good Counsel of Genazzano

‘Our Lady of Good Counsel, pray for us, and guide and protect our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI’
‘Saints Cosmas and Damien, pray for us’

Scandal - £400 million grant for Abortion/Contraceptives in Third World

2010-10-23T22:48:00.000+01:00

On the economic and social front it has been a difficult week for the British people. The government have announced drastic - some would say draconian, cuts, affecting every aspect of society. Health, education, law and order, employment, housing, defence, you name it and it has suffered. But what's this, a government department unaffected by the economy drive, can it be true? Indeed it is, for the DFID - the 'Department for International Development' is apparently going ahead without so much as a sideways glance, in its stated plan to give £360,000,000 to the IPPF -the International Planned Parenthood Fund to fund 'sexual and reproductive health rights' aka 'widespread availability of contraception and abortion facilities', particularly for women in poor countries.

Why should the British taxpayer foot the bill for such a cause? What right has this government or any government to commit our money - £360,000,000 of it, and more, to a cause which many people consider positively evil? Why do those responsible think that this money is better spent on providing contraceptives and abortion facilities in third world countries - many of whom do not want them but are having them forced on them by Western powers in a form of (im)moral blackmail, rather than using the money at home where it is really needed for the genuine good of our own people?

'Put you on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places' (St Pauls letter to the Ephesians 6, 10-17)

************************

OVER £400,000,000 PROMISED BY UK GOVERNMENT

TO FUND ABORTION AND CONTRACEPTIVES IN THIRD WORLD

£47,000,000 Grant over 5 years, by UK AID to fund ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights for all’ PLUS
£360,000,000 over 2 years, from UK, promised by Prime Minister, David Cameron, at G8 Summit 2010, for the same purpose.
http://www.ippf.org/

With the government looking to save money, one department surely deserving of scrutiny must be the ‘Department for International Development (DFID)’, responsible for distributing UK Aid (taxpayer’s money) to worthwhile causes overseas. One particular organisation, little known to most people, the recipient of huge funding from the UK and other Western governments, is the ‘International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)’.

‘IPPF is a global service provider and a leading advocate of sexual and reproductive health and rights for all’. This rather grand statement translates as 'a global supplier of contraceptives and abortion facilities, and access to these - particularly for women in poor countries.'

Founded by the American birth-control activist and founder of the American Birth Control League, Margaret Sanger, in 1952, IPPF has six Regional Offices, with headquarters in London, employing over 300 people, and with a global network of Member Associations in over 170 countries. It is no coincidence that the origins of IPPF can be traced back to the Eugenics movement of the early 20th century, when contraception and abortion were regarded as a means of population control, especially in those countries now considered third world countries, and with euthanasia proposed for certain ‘mentally retarded and criminal elements of society’.

Bitter opponents of the Catholic Church and ‘pro-life’ and ‘anti-abortion’ organisations, the IPPF presents a liberal and humanist ethos. It receives financial support from the governments of most Western nations, particularly from the Scandinavian countries, from the USA, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, with wealthy philanthropic organisations like the Bill Gates Foundation, providing a substantial and continuing flow of income.

For the period 1st April 2008 - 1st March 2013, the UK government approved a Grant of £43,000,000 to support the ‘core work objectives of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).’

In addition, at the G8 Summit meeting this year, David Cameron pledged an additional £360,000,000 aid over 2 years.

Additionally the UK government made a further Grant of £4,000,000 for the ‘IPPF Safe Abortion Action Fund’(SAAF) for the period 01/03/2007 to 01/03/2009, a fund for the ‘increased utilisation of quality safe abortion and post abortion services, especially by young, poor, and vulnerable women’

The IPPF is a registered UK charity, with eleven of its employees earning £60,000 plus P.A., seven earning £100,000 plus P.A., and the top earner on £228,000 P.A.

http://www.ippf.org/NR

The IPPF is not part of any government sector, and there appear to be no conditions attached to the grants.

The funding is for ‘procurement of services relating to population policies/programmes and reproductive health care’ worldwide.

Its purpose and objective is geared to population control, with a projected policy of contraception and abortion for young, poor and vulnerable women, particularly in Third World and poorer countries.

It has its own commercial arm dealing in the marketing and supply of contraceptives.

****************

An official partnership programme between DFID and IPPF has been set up, in which the DFID’s Policy Division ‘recognises the specific role of IPPF in implementing DFID policy in the areas of sexual and reproductive health and rights, AIDS and maternal health, requiring sustained high-level advocacy work and international leadership in a difficult policy environment’

(N.B.. It appears from the DFID website that the current £47,046,525 funding went solely to projects in Bangladesh) http://www.dfid.gov.uk

I’m sure that most reasonable people would agree, that as a nation and where possible, we must help those less fortunate than ourselves. To provide funds to feed the starving, home the homeless, help those suffering from the effects of war or natural disasters, bring hope to the despairing, and other similar situations, are all clearly good causes.

However the provision of ‘contraception and abortion facilities’, is not in this category. Tax-payers have a legitimate interest in the beneficiaries of these huge grants, after all it is their money that the government is giving away, and very many on religious and/or ethical grounds consider this an evil cause, as I do, with many others, on purely rational grounds, opposed to such questionable profligacy in today's economic climate.

The government has previously asked for our views on saving their (our) money. A letter or e-mail to one of the Ministers listed below, complaining of :-

a) the use to which these very substantial Grants will be put;

b) the nature of the organisation to which the Grants are made; and

c) the very significant sums of (tax-payers) money funding these Grants, money which could be better used supporting our own fragile public services such as health, education, housing, employment, etc. - would seem called for.

Secretary of State for International Development - Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP
Minister of State for International Development - Alan Duncan MP
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development - Stephen O'Brien MP

‘There are three kinds of lies - lies, damned lies, and statistics' (attributed to various sources).

The following statement was made by Gill Greer, IPPF Director General, concerning promises of further financial funding made at the G8 Summit this year:-

“This is a significant step forward in saving the lives of world’s most vulnerable women and children. Ideological motivations meant that life saving family planning was purposefully omitted from the Millennium Development Goals, and therefore many funding decisions, until 2008. In those eight years, the consequence of sidelining access to modern methods of family planning was the death of 5.1 million women and 1.2 million children. A further 4.8 million children were orphaned. The political leadership, and the funds that must surely follow, of the G8 and other countries will help prevent this human tragedy from ever occurring again.”
http://www.ippf.org

How can Gill Greer possibly guess, let alone present as fact, the mortality and orphan figures she quotes? They appear as figures plucked from the lottery, impossible to check, impressive to those who want to be impressed, but otherwise wildly speculative.

This quote, and the rest of the same IPPF report, throws out numbers like confetti at a wedding, and has the stamp of political spin. There is no reference to the known adverse physical and psychological effects of contraception and abortion, or the moral or ethical issues involved.

To conclude, with thanks to ‘Eugenics-Watch’ website

‘On one side are the rich and powerful eugenicists, the followers of Malthus by way of Darwin. These Scrooges think that there are too many sick, too many old, too many inferior, too many Chinese, too many Indians, too many, too many, too many people. They want to take evolution into their own qualified, elite, wonderful hands; they don't believe in the sanctity of life or in democracy, its political expression; and they have learned nothing from the series of social disasters which their policies have inflicted on this century - except to be careful not to get caught. That's one choice.
‘And on the other side, there are the orthodox Catholics - and others of good faith (my italics), who believe that the world was made by a great and loving Creator on behalf of persons, all of whom are immortal souls from the moment of conception. Catholics believe that the world has a Redeemer, Jesus Christ; and a mother to teach it unselfishness - the great Mother of God, Mary most holy. Therefore they oppose that degradation of human beings which is eugenics, and support democracy. That's another choice.’

Recommended website for further information on Margaret Sanger, eugenicism, and the IPPF - http://www.trdd.org
The website 'Les Femmes - the Truth', also ran an interesting post on Margaret Sanger in June/July this year.

Much of the above post appeared on my other blog-site 'umblepie' in July this year. At that time it was not clear exactly how the Coalition government would deal with this, however it is now apparent from events in the House of Commons this week, that it has no intention of changing its stated policy in this particular matter. £400,000,000 would go a long way in alleviating at least some of the hardships of our own people.

On August 10th this year I wrote to the Ministers concerned, Rt. Hon.Andrew Mitchell MP, Alan Duncan MP, and Stephen O'Brien MP, through the House of Commons address, sending each letter separately by 1st class post, expressing my strong objections and requesting that the matter be reconsidered. I received no reply and must assume that my letters were totally ignored.

Maybe, if sufficient people were to make their opinions known to the appropriate Ministers, perhaps also their own MP, some effective good might be achieved.

'All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing' (att. Burke)

'St George, St Andrew, and St David - pray for us and for our Country'

Updated Memories of a Wartime Childhood

2010-10-12T22:24:00.001+01:00

For some reason I am finding it extremely difficult to compose a new Post. This could be due to a variety of reasons:- perhaps age (mine that is); the time of year - a time of mists and mellow fruitfulness, with a general slowing down in the natural world (which also includes me); or it could be a dose of 'post papal-visit syndrome', brought on by the great joy and happiness at seeing and hearing, and reading about, the recent visit to this country of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.

Whatever the reason(s) I am taking the easy way out, and am reproducing a slightly amended post from my older blog-site, 'Umblepie', which I wrote over two years ago, and which was for me, an admittedly self-indulgent trip down 'memory lane'. It may perhaps, bring back similar memories for you, or it may be a bit before your time - almost another world perhaps, either way I hope that you find it at least interesting, and at best interesting and enjoyable.

Memories of a wartime childhood

Please be warned, in the nicest possible way, that this is quite a long post, I’m in nostalgic mood again, I must really be getting old!

In September 1939 at the outbreak of the 2nd World War, I was not quite 3 years old and lived with my parents in south-east London. During the first 8 months of the war, a period known as the ‘Phoney War’ - because nothing really happened, I remained with my mother, after which time the bombing of London became more and more severe. In common with most young children, I was then evacuated to the country – in my case to a safe haven in Sussex, my mother remaining behind in London where she joined the Ambulance Service.

Evacuee boys with gas-masks

(photo Imperial War Museum)

My destination was a very large and grand country house which had been taken over by the authorities for the purpose of housing ‘evacuee’ children from London. The house was at Chelwood Gate in Sussex, and in normal times, was I believe, the residence of the Macmillan family - Sir Harold MacMillan was later to become Prime Minister of Great Britain (1957-63). I can remember little about my stay there, except sleeping in a high cot in a large room where several other children also slept, and spending a Christmas there with my mother who was visiting me, and looking up at the clear, starry sky on a cold Christmas Eve night and imagining that Father Christmas would soon be coming down from the sky with his reindeer and my Christmas present! This no doubt seems fanciful and a product of an overwrought imagination, but truly this is the one significant episode of my life at that time that has remained etched in my memory!

                     Gateway, Birchgrove House, Chelwood Gate
   (© Copyright Dave Spicer and licensed for re-use under this Creative Commons Licence)
I remained at Chelwood Gate for no more than a few months, after which I was sent to a small residential school near Reading in Berkshire, which again was considered a reasonably safe haven for evacuees. I have virtually no memories of this establishment, but I still have one memento somewhere around, a photograph of a small boy with other small boys, all dressed up as pixies! It is the sort of photograph that doting mothers love and their children hate! The sort that either your best friend or perhaps worst enemy would love to get hold of, so that on reaching a 'landmark' birthday you suddenly see this photograph reproduced in your local newspaper under the caption ‘Happy -- Birthday ----!’. I don’t really know how I come to possess this, but probably Mum kept it during her lifetime, and when she died it passed to me.
       My stay in Berkshire lasted no more than a year, for my mother decided that she would prefer me to live with her sister, my Auntie Kaye, and her two young daughters who lived - wait for it - on the outskirts of Birmingham! I have recently read that apparently after London, Birmingham was the most heavily bombed city in England! I remember walking to school across a small Common, and playing marbles along the roadside gutter – you could do such things in those days for cars were almost non existent! Yes there was the occasional bus and of course quite a number of bicycles, but apart from the rare commercial vehicle the roads were remarkably quiet, although I don’t suppose things were quite like that in the centre of Birmingham!

                    Birmingham 'bull-ring' 1942, after heavy air-raid
                           (photo Imperial War Museum)

About 200 yards from Aunty Kaye’s house was a large ‘Prisoner of War Camp’ where Italian POWs were interned. A wall and masses of barbed wire separated the camp from the roadway. The inmates could often be seen strolling around the open areas behind the barbed wire, apparently quite cheerful in spite of, or perhaps even because of, their restricted but relatively safe lifestyle!
       My stay in Birmingham was again quite short, probably less than a year, as my mother succeeded in renting a small house in rural Surrey not far from Banstead, and she wanted me with her. She had worked as an ambulance driver in London until about 1942 living with friends or relatives, and she was on her own with my father serving abroad in the army. Much of his war service was spent in West and North Africa and I seldom saw him during these years. He very occasionally came home on leave and although I must have seen him briefly, I can remember little of these meetings. Once he sent me a surprise present, a fine, large wooden model boat, which he had arranged to be made by Italian POWs in Africa, and which was delivered to our new address in Surrey. It was a beautiful present for which I regret that I may never have fully expressed my appreciation. It was only much, much later, that I realised the trouble and expense that my father had been to, in arranging for me to receive this gift. At the time I had considerable difficulty in getting the boat to run. It was battery powered, but I didn’t seem able to make it work, and there was always the problem of where to run it. After numerous failed attempts, I rather lost heart and the boat was relegated to a safe place in our home, where it remained for many years. Of course the boat was made to be used and enjoyed, rather than just stored away, and eventually it went to a good home, an orphanage or children's home, where I'm sure it was received with great pleasure and delight. I know that my dear Dad would have been happy with this.
        Once settled in rural Surrey, I had to attend the local school which meant a walk across fields and through woods, a distance of probably just under 2 miles. At this period of the war the countryside was covered in concrete ‘tank traps’, barbed wire, and similar obstacles, with all signposts removed, as part of home-defence contingency plans in the event of enemy invasion.

'Pill-box'- widespread in the countryside

To a small boy such things were quite exciting – and dangerous! One day whilst returning home from school, I was testing the depth of the puddles in the middle of the wood -like small boys do, when I found not a puddle, but a large open manhole into which I fell. The hole was much deeper than I was tall, I could not swim and was alone, and the only thing to hold onto was some grass and soil around the circumference of the hole, but nothing strong enough to enable me to pull myself out. My Guardian Angel was certainly looking after me for I had reached the stage when I had begun to panic, when an older boy also on his way home from school through the woods, saw me and was able to pull me out. This boy whose surname I still remember, 'Richards', took me to his house, and his mother dried me off in front of the fire and gave me some warm, dry clothes, and some tea. This boy certainly saved my life and he is always remembered in my prayers.

One form of 'tank trap'

Our house was virtually on the flight path for enemy aircraft from Europe to London and Southern England, and it was quite common for unused bombs to be jettisoned by these aircraft on their return journey home. There was a large crater in the field opposite our house caused by one such bomb dropped earlier in the war, and a favourite boyhood activity was searching the surrounding countryside for shrapnel of all shapes and sizes from exploded shells, bombs, and damaged aircraft. During this period of the war, the V1 ‘Doodlebugs’ were in vogue and often these passed almost directly over our house. One day I was with a friend in the hilly countryside behind our house, watching a doodlebug flying in the distance, when its engine suddenly cut out and it dropped like a stone, exploding on impact with the ground. It was impossible to see whether it had caused any damage but I suspect that fortunately it had fallen in open countryside. The sound of the ‘doodlebug’ engine was unique, once heard, never forgotten! It was a steady and consistent loud, droning, noise, which you grew to recognise instantly. If you were in an air- raid shelter at home or in the garden, the thing you dreaded most was if the engine cut out when ‘the beast’ was directly overhead! The ‘doodlebug’ was a pilot-less aircraft, and I believe the RAF developed a technique for either destroying them in mid-air or even turning them around so that they returned from whnce they came.

                                     VI Flying-bomb (doodlebug)

       Our house was quite near to both an American and Canadian army camp whose inmates would have been involved in ‘D Day’ operations. We often investigated these camps from outside, and became adept at obtaining chewing gum and candy from generous and good natured GIs. This was very rewarding for us because strict rationing was in force, and we were only allowed three quarters of a pound of sweets per month which could only be bought with ‘ration books’.

                            Shopkeeper cancelling coupons in a 'ration book'

One of these camps occasionally invited the local people to their weekly film show, which invitation included a lift in a jeep to and from the camp. I recall that my mother took me to one of these evenings, and it was very exciting to be travelling in this open American Army jeep, driven by a real American soldier, in true American army style!!
       In common with many households in that area, my mother provided accommodation for service personnel. Servicemen stayed for quite short periods, and once we had an RAF man who was a brilliant pianist, possibly a concert pianist in civilian life, who regularly played on our modest, but cherished piano, to the delight of my mother.
        At one time I found a wristwatch lying somewhere in the house, and removed the back in order to see how it worked. Unfortunately having taken the back off, I found to my horror that I couldn’t get it back on again. Being only 6 or possibly 7 years old and terrified of returning the watch without a back, to its original location, I quite irrationally decided to hide it – under the stair carpet!! Don’t ask me why the stair carpet – but that’s where it ended up! Understandably the owner of the watch was rather upset when he couldn’t find it, and I was too frightened to own up to my misdeed, with the result that the village policeman was summoned. His mere presence was enough to break me, and with profuse tears and apologies the wristwatch was retrieved from beneath the stair-carpet – fortunately none the worse except that the back had been removed. I suspect that I was forgiven by the serviceman rather more quickly than by my mother, who no doubt had been rather embarrassed by the whole incident. Still I didn’t go to prison - as I feared I might; the watch was duly recovered and restored to its rightful owner – I can’t remember whether this included the back or not, although I like to think it did; and the policeman returned home to his house in the village satisfied with a job well done! I’m sure that it wasn’t very long before Mum forgave me – for it really was a case of genuine childish curiosity that went wrong! I must admit that throughout my life I’ve found it very much easier to take things apart than to put them together again! Things don’t seem to change!
        Any resemblance to a ‘normal’ life-style must have been very hard for wives and mothers during the war, with husbands and fathers away, not seen and perhaps not even heard from, for weeks, months and sometimes years at a time, and sometimes not at all. My two sisters were born after the war, so that at that time, I was an only child living with my mother and our dog Bobbie, a pretty brown and white spaniel/ cross bitch, with a lovely temperament - my mother’s faithful war-time companion.
        When I was safely esconced at school for the day, my mother sometimes travelled to town, which necessitated a long walk to the Station, and then an even longer train journey. One summer day, on one such trip, she was late returning. I had arrived home from school, and as time went on became very upset when she failed to materialise. I resolved to go to meet her, and whilst walking along this interminably long country road and still not having met her, I became even more upset. A lady walking in the opposite direction, stopped as she passed me, and asked me why I was crying. When I told her that my mother hadn’t come home, she gave me a 6d piece (known as a ‘tanner’ in those days), to cheer me up. This was a considerable sum of money to a small boy and certainly was some compensation for my distress, particularly as very soon afterwards I met my long-suffering Mum on her way home!
       Although food was severely rationed at that time, living in the countryside had certain compensations. In the summer we enjoyed plenty of fresh fruit, with apples and succulent Victoria plums available from the farm orchard nearby. I seem to remember that you could buy a bag of plums for 1d, and even now when I think of them,I fancy that I can still taste them!

                            Victoria plums at Id a bagful!

We lived a long way from our nearest Catholic church and we didn’t have a car - nobody had a car, and there wasn’t any local transport available, so I’m afraid that we didn’t often get to Mass. Additionally the continual demands on my mother caring both for ourselves and our live-in military guests, must have been exhausting and time consuming.
         I was nearly 8 years old when my mother decided that I should go to a Catholic primary school. The nearest was about one hours journey away, being part of a larger school taking in older boys. The journey involved a long walk (or bike ride) to the Railway Station, a train journey of 10/15 minutes, followed by a short bus ride and a final walk to school. The journey did not worry me, in fact it was quite exciting. Paradoxically, in spite of being at war, England was a much safer place for children in those days than it is today. The most dangerous part of the journey was crossing the main road near the school, as events were to prove! One day my Guardian Angel was working overtime, for after getting off the bus to walk the final stretch to school, I foolishly ran across the main road in front of the stationary bus, straight into the path of a car. Fortunately the car must have swerved slightly, for I ran into the side of the car rather than the car running into me, with the result that I bounced back off the car, ending up in the roadway in front of the bus, which happily for me, had not yet started to move. All I suffered was superficial bruising and hurt pride, for which I truly thank my Guardian Angel. I suspect that today, the idea of an 8 year old travelling alone on train and bus to and from school, would be condemned as ‘irresponsible’. However in those days, even though we were at war, children generally were safer, were more able to enjoy their childhood years, and I believe happier than most children are today. It is not that children have changed, it is not the children’s fault, it is the society into which they are born and in which they grow up, it is this that has changed.
       Our secular society has spawned a secular government, the fruits of which can be recognised by much of the legislation introduced over recent years. The Abortion laws have allowed the murder of over 7 million unborn babies in the UK alone, to which must be added the millions of human embryos discarded in the cause of 'medical' and 'scientific' research. Materialism, undue self-interest, and greed, have been nurtured by a faithless, humanist State education system, where God is generally ignored and immorality is taught and 'normalised' under the guise of morality, with obligatory ‘sex education’ for all children, even those at primary school. Traditional family values are so often denigrated, with pornographic and indecent literature and films readily available, and with legal recognition of same-sex marriages and sodomy, making that which was previously unthinkable, unmentionable, and unlawful, now socially acceptable! God has been sidelined, if not totally dismissed by much of society, and many children today know nothing of Him. Sadly so many children have become victims of a materialistic and manipulative culture, which promises so much but delivers so little; promises which without God, are totally illusory and unattainable. Yet life is good and truly precious, and God's presence and love is all around us, if only we open our eyes and look. 'Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you' - words spoken by Jesus.
       We remained in Surrey until early 1945 when we went to live with Auntie Kaye who had moved to Eastbourne in Sussex. She had rented a very large 1st floor flat over a butchers shop situated near to the Town Hall, and Mum and I and our dog Bobby moved in with her and her two daughters. I was just 9 years old, and attended the Catholic primary school which was a bus ride away at the far end of the town.

'Our Lady of Ransom' Church, Eastbourne

My principal memories of this time are of the lovely Catholic church of ‘Our Lady of Ransom’ which we attended for Mass, which was only a short walk away; watching the Town football team play at ‘The Saffrons’, a superb Sports Ground adjoining the Town Hall. I can still remember the name of my hero, goalkeeper ‘Bob Mallin’; and with my friends, exploring the numerous bombed-out houses and buildings that were everywhere to be seen. The war came to an end later in 1945, and it became necessary for people to plan for the future – something I suspect few had dared contemplate until peace actually arrived! I was dispatched as a boarder to Westminster Cathedral Choir School which re-opened that year, and within a few months my mother and father, recently demobbed from the army, moved to a small house in a country village outside Eastbourne. In hindsight, I suspect that it took months, if not years, for my parents to re-adjust to life in peacetime England. Times were still very hard, with industrial unrest, unemployment, and strict food rationing, compounding the widespread physical and psychological problems commonly experienced as a result of 6 years of war, with spouses and whole families growing apart through absence, separation, and all too often - death.
We were very fortunate as a family, having been spared so much during the war. Even so, my parents had lost lifelong friends, both military and civilian. During the latter part of the war my mother took me to see two elderly ladies - 'aunties' to me, who lived in a large house in south-east London. As a present they gave me a toy, comprised basically of a round metal hoop about 26” in diameter, with a solid handle fixed to the outside. In cross-section the hoop was about 2" wide, convex in shape, rather like the inside of an old-fashioned bicycle mudguard, and the challenge was to rotate a table-tennis ball placed on the inside track of the hoop, round and round the track at a fast speed without allowing it to fall to the ground.This was done by holding the hoop, usually horizontally, by the handle, and moving it quickly backwards and forwards. It sounds and was very simple, probably a very popular Victorian/Edwardian toy giving endless hours of fun to countless children! It certainly gave me a great deal of pleasure. Anyway, these dear ladies, who were close personal friends of my mother, were both killed instantly when a V2 rocket scored a direct hit on their home late in the war. The V2 was silent, with a range of 234 miles and travelled well in excess of the speed of sound, giving no time for the usual air-raid warnings and people to take shelter.

V2 Rocket - replica

They were fired from huge mobile platforms in secret, camouflaged sites deep in the hinterland of Europe, and if the war had not ended when it did , weapons such as this, together with others being developed, particular the supersonic warplane, could have totally altered the whole course of events, certainly in the short to medium term.

Today, 70 years on, the world is still bleeding from the wounds of ongoing war and hatred. Many people and nations reject God and His Commandments, denying the divinity of Christ and ignoring His teachings. The Catholic Church instituted by Christ Himself, is subject to constant persecution.
'Render to God the things that are God’s, and to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s', and 'seek ye first the kingdom of God and all things will be added to you'; then indeed will the world know true peace, the peace of Christ.

Thank you for sharing these memories, I hope that you have at least found something of interest, and at best have enjoyed reading them.

'Our Lady, help of Christians and Queen of Peace - pray for us and guide and protect our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI'

G K Chesterton (1874-1936) - literary giant and Catholic convert

2010-09-05T20:32:00.000+01:00

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, born 1874 in London, died 1936 in Beaconsfield.
Educated at St Pauls School, then at the Slade School of Art studying illustration.
From 1896 to 1902 he worked for London publishers Redway and Fisher Unwin. In 1901 he married Frances Blogg. In 1902 he was given a weekly opinion column in the Daily News and in1905 a weekly column in the Illustrated London News which lasted for the next thirty years. From his teenage years he nurtured a deep interest in Christianity culminating in his conversion to the Roman Catholic faith in 1922.
Chesterton was a large man, standing 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and weighing around 21 stone (130 kg; 290 lb). His girth gave rise to a famous anecdote. During World War I, a lady in London asked why he wasn't 'out at the Front', he replied, 'If you go round to the side, you will see that I am'. On another occasion he remarked to his friend George Bernard Shaw, 'To look at you, anyone would think there was a famine in England'. Shaw retorted, 'To look at you, anyone would think you caused it'.

Chesterton wrote around 80 books, several hundred poems, some 200 short stories, 4000 essays, and several plays. He was a literary and social critic, historian, playwright, novelist, Catholic theologian and apologist, debater, and mystery writer. He was a columnist for the Daily News, the Illustrated London News, and his own paper, G. K.'s Weekly; with his writings consistently displaying wit and a sense of humour. He employed paradox whilst at the same time making serious comments on world affairs. His best-known character is perhaps the priest-detective Father Brown. (Wikipedia – with thanks)

GKC snippets

"Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it."

"Obedience.- The most thrilling word in the world; a very thunderclap of a word. Why do all these fools fancy that the soul is only free when it disagrees with the common command? Even the mobs who rise to burn and destroy owe all their grandeur and terror, and a sort of authority, not to their anger but to their agreement. Why should disagreement make us feel free?"

"If there were no God, there would be no atheists."
                                                                                   All GKC
                            **********************
A taste of poetry by GKC.
The Horrible History of Jones – from ‘Poems’ (1915)

Jones had a dog; it had a chain;
Not often worn, not causing pain;
But, as the I.K.L had passed
Their “Unleashed Cousins Act” at last,
Inspectors took the chain away;
Whereat the canine barked “hurray!”
At which, of course, the S.P.U.
(Whose ‘Nervous Motorists Bill’ was through)
Were forced to give the dog in charge
For being ‘Audibly at Large’.
None, you will say, were now annoyed,
Save haply Jones – the yard was void.
But something being in the lease
About “alarms to aid police,”
The U.S.U. annexed the yard
For having no sufficient guard;
Now if there’s one condition
The C.C.P.are strong upon,
It is that every house one buys
Must have a yard for exercise;
So Jones, as tenant, was unfit,
His state of health was proof of it.
Two doctors of the T.T.U.’s
Told him his legs, from long disuse,
Were atrophied; and saying “So
From step to higher step we go
Till everything is New and True”,
They cut his legs off and withdrew.
You know the E.T.S.T.’s views
Are stronger than the T.T.U.’s;
And soon (as one may say) took wing
The Arms, though not the Man, I sing.
To see him sitting limbless there
Was more than the K.K. could bear.
“In mercy silence with all speed
That mouth there are no hands to feed;
What cruel sentimentalist
O Jones, would doom thee to exist –
Clinging to selfish Selfhood yet?
Weak one! Such reasoning might upset
The Pump Act, and the accumulation
Of all constructive legislation;
Let us construct you up a bit –"
The head fell off when it was hit:
Then words did rise and honest doubt,
And four Commissioners sat about,
Whether the slash that left him dead
Cut off his body or his head.

An author in the Isle of Wight
Observed with unconcealed delight,
A land of old and just renown
Where Freedom slowly broadened down
From Precedent to Precedent -----
And this, I think was what he meant.
                                                   GKC

*Note: Tennyson lived on the Isle of Wight for the last 40
years of his life. The lines "A land ... precedent' are from
Tennyson's "You Ask Me, Why, Tho' Ill at Ease"

The Donkey - from ‘The Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900)

When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moments when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.

With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.
                                 GKC

By the Babe Unborn – from ‘The Wild Knight and Other Poems’ (1900)

If trees were tall and grasses short,
As in some crazy tale,
If here and there a sea were blue
Beyond the breaking pale.

If a fixed fire hung in the air
To warm me one day through,
If deep green hair grew on great hills,
I know what I should do.

In dark I lie: dreaming that there
Are great eyes cold or kind,
And twisted streets and silent doors,
And living men behind.

Let storm-clouds come: better an hour,
And leave to weep and fight,
Than all the ages I have ruled
The empires of the night.

I think that if they gave me leave
Within the world to stand,
I would be good through all the day
I spent in fairyland.

They should not hear a word from me
Of selfishness or scorn,
If only I could find the door,
If only I were born.
                        GKC


Thou shalt not kill – from ’The Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900)

I had grown weary of him; of his breath
And hands and features I was sick to death.
Each day I heard the same dull voice and tread;
I did not hate him: but I wished him dead.
And he must with his blank face fill my life –
Then my brain blackened, and I snatched a knife.

But ere I struck, my soul’s grey deserts through
A voice cried, ‘Know at least what thing you do.
‘This is a common man: knowest thou, O soul,
‘What this thing is? Somewhere where seasons roll
‘There is some living thing for whom this man
‘Is as seven heavens girt into a span,
‘For some one soul you take the world away ---
‘Now know you well your deed and purpose. Slay!’
Then I cast down the knife upon the ground
And saw that mean man for one moment crowned.
I turned and laughed: for there was no one by ---
The man that I had sought to slay was I.
                                                 GKC

****************************

"Of all modern phenomena, the most monstrous and ominous, the most manifestly rotting with disease, the most grimly prophetic of destruction, the most clearly and unmistakably inspired by evil spirits, the most instantly and awfully overshadowed by the wrath of heaven, the most near to madness and moral chaos, the most vivid with devilry and despair, is the practice of having to listen to loud music while eating a meal in a restaurant."
GKC

Our Blessed Lady, Queen of Heaven, pray for our Church and for our Country, and guide and protect our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, particularly during his forthcoming visit, when we ask God’s blessings on ourselves and our families and friends, and on all men of goodwill. We pray particularly at this special time, for the F.SS.R Community - ‘The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer” on Papa Stronsay, that their long awaited episcopal approbation may very soon be forthcoming, thus enabling the ordination to the priesthood of two of their community who have completed their seminary training – for the glory of God and His Church.
St Alphonsus, pray for them. Amen.

The Fairy Dentist and a 'Verdi' chorus

2010-08-01T23:52:00.000+01:00

Browsing idly through the bookcase, I came across an old school exercise book in which were numerous poems carefully and clearly hand-written, and all on the subject of fairies. This book belongs to my wife, having been part of her mother's personal effects when she died aged 90 years, some 12 years ago. The book is clearly a labour of love, and many of the poems date back perhaps 70 years. They are poems for children, but they have a delightful innocence which is very appealing.

Who is there that actually enjoys going to the dentist? I suspect that most people go only when they have to, when the pain of raging toothache exceeds the fear of the dentist's surgery. But what would we have done if we had lived in the Middle Ages, or if we live today in those third world countries where there are no dentists? We are truly fortunate in this country where we have access to skilled and qualified dentists, equipped with appropriate drugs and modern technology.....Deo gratias.

Now if you were a fairy .......?

The Fairy Dentist

O did you know the fairies had a dentist of their own?

He's got a little dentist house below an old grey stone.

The fairies love to go there where he works away beneath,

For he's always very gentle with their little pearly teeth.

And he's the greatest dentist man that ever has been seen,

For once he stopped a wisdom tooth of Mab, the Fairy Queen.

The dentist room is quite the prettiest colour ever planned,

With bluey-purple floor like sea, and greeny walls like land.

And when you clamber in the chair and tilt your chin up high,

You'll find the ceilings painted like a lovely sunset sky.

The chair is awf'ly comfy, it's a rocking chair that rocks,

And you sit on lots of cushions made of dandelion clocks.

The arms are made of ivy roots, most splendid things to hold,

And very reassuring when you're wanting to feel bold.

Then there's a toadstool table full of instruments and things,

And several well-trained Bumble-bees, but none of them have stings.

They're sometimes used for little girls, sometimes for little boys,

And when they're working hard, they make a funny, buzzing noise.

And on the toadstool table there's a fairy half-a-crown,

And a box of cotton-wool that's made from finest thistledown.

Some dainty little forceps made of wise old beetles jaws,

And a pot of liquid stuff that smells like summer out of doors.

And if you've got an aching tooth that isn't any good,

A nightingale comes singing from a little poppy wood.

He'll sing you fast and fast asleep, although it is the day,

And when you wake again you'll find your tooth has run away.

Then you say 'Goodbye and thank you very much for asking me,'

And you take the half-a-crown, and then run back home to tea.

So that's why fairies love to go (they'll even go alone)

To the little fairy dentist underneath the old grey stone.

(anon)

**********************************

And now, a little piece of musical entertainment...

On Saturday, April 24th, 2010, over thirty members of the Opera Company of Philadelphia Chorus and principal cast members from the upcoming production of La Traviata converged on the Reading Terminal Market Italian Festival.

Wearing street clothes and blending in with the crowd, the artists swung into action as the first orchestral strains of the famous opera were piped through the market, giving a rousing, surprise performance for hundreds of delighted onlookers who were there to enjoy the Italian delicacies and the everyday treats that the Reading Terminal Market has to offer.
The four-minute piece drew an overwhelming crowd, and won a thunderous ovation that included both laughter and tears from the audience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zmwRitYO3w

***************************

Thoughts from St Alphonsus for every day of the year - compiled by Rev C McNeiry C.SS.R

'Some people resemble the hedgehog. They seem all calmness and meekness as long as they remain untouched. But no sooner does a superior or friend touch them, by an observation on something they have done imperfectly, than they forthwith become all prickles' (August 1st).

**********

Our Lady of Aberdeen pray for us, and guide and protect our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI.

Former Soviet Dissident Warns For EU Dictatorship

2010-06-27T22:35:00.000+01:00

I recently came across the website of 'Brussels Journal', http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/865 in which was an article, published in February 2006, entitled 'Former Soviet Dissident Warns for EU Dictatorship'. The article deals with an interview between reporter Paul Belien, and Soviet dissident, Vladimir Bukovsky, aged 63 years, then living in the UK. Although this interview was more than four years ago, Vladimir Bukovsky has proved surprisingly accurate in his views. His certain conviction of economic collapse within the EU is exactly what is happening today, and his dire warning on a Euro police force (Europol) with increasingly unlimited and authoritarian legal power, is reflected in the manner of the recent heavy-handed police operation in Belgium, aimed at the collective hierarchy of the Catholic Church in that country. This is not to suggest that police action was unecessary, but the manner and scale of the operation, must surely come under scrutiny. Increasing legal prohibitions on free-speech, increasing state control over parent's rights, 'political correctness' rather than 'common-sense' in civil rights and equality laws, and much new European legislation, provide additional incentives for a large and powerful Europol.

Mr Bukovsky's view simply put, is that the EU was formulated, designed and intended, to emulate the old Soviet Union. This opinion might appear old hat or wildly eccentric to many readers, but what really strikes home is the accuracy of Mr Bukovsky's forecast. I have been given permission by Thomas Landen, the Editor of 'Brussel's Journal' to reproduce this article, which I think is both challenging and relevant in Europe today.

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From the desk of Paul Belien on Mon, 27.02.2006

Vladimir Bukovksy, the 63-year old former Soviet dissident, fears that the European Union is on its way to becoming another Soviet Union. In a speech he delivered in Brussels last week Mr Bukovsky called the EU a “monster” that must be destroyed, the sooner the better, before it develops into a fullfledged totalitarian state. Mr Bukovsky paid a visit to the European Parliament on Thursday at the invitation of Fidesz, the Hungarian Civic Forum. Fidesz, a member of the European Christian Democrat group, had invited the former Soviet dissident over from England, where he lives, on the occasion of this year’s 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. After his morning meeting with the Hungarians, Mr Bukovsky gave an afternoon speech in a Polish restaurant in the Trier straat, opposite the European Parliament, where he spoke at the invitation of the United Kingdom Independence Party, of which he is a patron.

An interview with Vladimir Bukovsky about the impending EUSSR

In his speech Mr Bukovsky referred to confidential documents from secret Soviet files which he was allowed to read in 1992. These documents confirm the existence of a “conspiracy” to turn the European Union into a socialist organization.

I attended the meeting and taped the speech. A transcript can be found below. I also had a brief interview with Mr Bukovsky (4 minutes), a transcript of which can also be found below. The interview about the European Union had to be cut short because Mr Bukovsky had other engagements, but it brought back some memories to me, as I had interviewed Vladimir Bukovsky twenty years ago, in 1986, when the Soviet Union, the first monster that he so valiantly fought, was still alive and thriving.

Mr Bukovsky was one of the heroes of the 20th century. As a young man he exposed the use of psychiatric imprisonment against political prisoners in the former USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1917-1991) and spent a total of twelve years (1964-1976), from his 22nd to his 34th year, in Soviet jails, labour camps and psychiatric institutions. In 1976 the Soviets expelled him to the West. In 1992 he was invited by the Russian government to serve as an expert testifying at the trial conducted to determine whether the Soviet Communist Party had been a criminal institution. To prepare for his testimony Mr Bukovsky was granted access to a large number of documents from Soviet secret archives. He is one of the few people ever to have seen these documents because they are still classified. Using a small handheld scanner and a laptop computer, however, he managed to copy many documents (some with high security clearance), including KGB reports to the Soviet government.

An interview with Vladimir Bukovsky

Paul Belien: You were a very famous Soviet dissident and now you are drawing a parallel between the European Union and the Soviet Union. Can you explain this?

Vladimir Bukovsky: I am referrring to structures, to certain ideologies being instilled, to the plans, the direction, the inevitable expansion, the obliteration of nations, which was the purpose of the Soviet Union. Most people do not understand this. They do not know it, but we do because we were raised in the Soviet Union where we had to study the Soviet ideology in school and at university. The ultimate purpose of the Soviet Union was to create a new historic entity, the Soviet people, all around the globe. The same is true in the EU today. They are trying to create a new people. They call this people “Europeans”, whatever that means. According to Communist doctrine as well as to many forms of Socialist thinking, the state, the national state, is supposed to wither away. In Russia, however, the opposite happened. Instead of withering away the Soviet state became a very powerful state, but the nationalities were obliterated. But when the time of the Soviet collapse came these suppressed feelings of national identity came bouncing back and they nearly destroyed the country. It was so frightening.

PB: Do you think the same thing can happen when the European Union collapses?

VB: Absolutely, you can press a spring only that much, and the human psyche is very resilient you know. You can press it, you can press it, but don’t forget it is still accumulating a power to rebound. It is like a spring and it always goes to overshoot.

PB: But all these countries that joined the European Union did so voluntarily.

VB: No, they did not. Look at Denmark which voted against the Maastricht treaty twice. Look at Ireland [which voted against the Nice treaty]. Look at many other countries, they are under enormous pressure. It is almost blackmail. Switzerland was forced to vote five times in a referendum. All five times they have rejected it, but who knows what will happen the sixth time, the seventh time. It is always the same thing. It is a trick for idiots. The people have to vote in referendums until the people vote the way that is wanted. Then they have to stop voting. Why stop? Let us continue voting. The European Union is what Americans would call a shotgun marriage.

PB: What do you think young people should do about the European Union? What should they insist on, to democratize the institution or just abolish it?

VB: I think that the European Union, like the Soviet Union, cannot be democratized. Gorbachev tried to democratize it and it blew up. This kind of structures cannot be democratized.

PB: But we have a European Parliament which is chosen by the people.

VB: The European Parliament is elected on the basis of proportional representation, which is not true representation. And what does it vote on? The percentage of fat in yoghurt, that kind of thing. It is ridiculous. It is given the task of the Supreme Soviet. The average MP can speak for six minutes per year in the Chamber. That is not a real parliament.

Transcript of Mr Bukovsky’s Brussels speech

'In 1992 I had unprecedented access to Politburo and Central Committee secret documents which have been classified, and still are even now, for 30 years. These documents show very clearly that the whole idea of turning the European common market into a federal state was agreed between the left-wing parties of Europe and Moscow as a joint project which Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1988-89 called our “common European home.”

The idea was very simple. It first came up in 1985-86, when the Italian Communists visited Gorbachev, followed by the German Social-Democrats. They all complained that the changes in the world, particularly after British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, introduced privatisation and economic liberalisation, were threatening to wipe out the achievement (as they called it) of generations of Socialists and Social-Democrats – threatening to reverse it completely. Therefore the only way to withstand this onslaught of wild capitalism (as they called it) was to try to introduce the same socialist goals in all countries at once. Prior to that, the left-wing parties and the Soviet Union had opposed European integration very much because they perceived it as a means to block their socialist goals. From 1985 onwards they completely changed their view. The Soviets came to a conclusion and to an agreement with the left-wing parties that if they worked together they could hijack the whole European project and turn it upside down. Instead of an open market they would turn it into a federal state.

According to the secret Soviet documents, 1985-86 is the turning point. I have published most of these documents. You might even find them on the internet. But the conversations they had are really eye opening. For the first time you understand that there is a conspiracy – quite understandable for them, as they were trying to save their political hides. In the East the Soviets needed a change of relations with Europe because they were entering a protracted and very deep structural crisis; in the West the left-wing parties were afraid of being wiped out and losing their influence and prestige. So it was a conspiracy, quite openly made by them, agreed upon, and worked out.

In January of 1989, for example, a delegation of the Trilateral Commission came to see Gorbachev. It included former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, American banker David Rockefeller and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. They had a very nice conversation where they tried to explain to Gorbachev that Soviet Russia had to integrate into the financial institutions of the world, such as Gatt, the IMF and the World Bank.

In the middle of it Giscard d’Estaing suddenly takes the floor and says: “Mr President, I cannot tell you exactly when it will happen – probably within 15 years – but Europe is going to be a federal state and you have to prepare yourself for that. You have to work out with us, and the European leaders, how you would react to that, how would you allow the other Easteuropean countries to interact with it or how to become a part of it, you have to be prepared.”

This was January 1989, at a time when the 1992 Maastricht treaty had not even been drafted. How the hell did Giscard d’Estaing know what was going to happen in 15 years time? And surprise, surprise, how did he become the author of the European constitution in 2002-03? A very good question. It does smell of conspiracy, doesn’t it?

Luckily for us the Soviet part of this conspiracy collapsed earlier and it did not reach the point where Moscow could influence the course of events. But the original idea was to have what they called a convergency, whereby the Soviet Union would mellow somewhat and become more social-democratic, while Western Europe would become social-democratic and socialist. Then there will be convergency. The structures have to fit each other. This is why the structures of the European Union were initially built with the purpose of fitting into the Soviet structure. This is why they are so similar in functioning and in structure.

It is no accident that the European Parliament, for example, reminds me of the Supreme Soviet. It looks like the Supreme Soviet because it was designed like it. Similary, when you look at the European Commission it looks like the Politburo. I mean it does so exactly, except for the fact that the Commission now has 25 members and the Politburo usually had 13 or 15 members. Apart from that they are exactly the same, unaccountable to anyone, not directly elected by anyone at all. When you look into all this bizarre activity of the European Union with its 80,000 pages of regulations it looks like Gosplan. We used to have an organisation which was planning everything in the economy, to the last nut and bolt, five years in advance. Exactly the same thing is happening in the EU. When you look at the type of EU corruption, it is exactly the Soviet type of corruption, going from top to bottom rather than going from bottom to top.

If you go through all the structures and features of this emerging European monster you will notice that it more and more resembles the Soviet Union. Of course, it is a milder version of the Soviet Union. Please, do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that it has a Gulag. It has no KGB – not yet – but I am very carefully watching such structures as Europol for example. That really worries me a lot because this organisation will probably have powers bigger than those of the KGB. They will have diplomatic immunity. Can you imagine a KGB with diplomatic immunity? They will have to police us on 32 kinds of crimes – two of which are particularly worrying, one is called racism, another is called xenophobia. No criminal court on earth defines anything like this as a crime [this is not entirely true, as Belgium already does so – pb]. So it is a new crime, and we have already been warned. Someone from the British government told us that those who object to uncontrolled immigration from the Third World will be regarded as racist and those who oppose further European integration will be regarded as xenophobes. I think Patricia Hewitt said this publicly.

Hence, we have now been warned. Meanwhile they are introducing more and more ideology. The Soviet Union used to be a state run by ideology. Today’s ideology of the European Union is social-democratic, statist, and a big part of it is also political correctness. I watch very carefully how political correctness spreads and becomes an oppressive ideology, not to mention the fact that they forbid smoking almost everywhere now. Look at this persecution of people like the Swedish pastor who was persecuted for several months because he said that the Bible does not approve homosexuality. France passed the same law of hate speech concerning gays. Britain is passing hate speech laws concerning race relations and now religious speech, and so on and so forth. What you observe, taken into perspective, is a systematic introduction of ideology which could later be enforced with oppressive measures. Apparently that is the whole purpose of Europol. Otherwise why do we need it? To me Europol looks very suspicious. I watch very carefully who is persecuted for what and what is happening, because that is one field in which I am an expert. I know how Gulags spring up.

It looks like we are living in a period of rapid, systematic and very consistent dismantlement of democracy. Look at this Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. It makes ministers into legislators who can introduce new laws without bothering to tell Parliament or anyone. My immediate reaction is why do we need it? Britain survived two world wars, the war with Napoleon, the Spanish Armada, not to mention the Cold War, when we were told at any moment we might have a nuclear world war, without any need for introducing this kind legislation, without the need for suspending our civil liberties and introducing emergency powers. Why do we need it right now? This can make a dictatorship out of your country in no time.

Today’s situation is really grim. Major political parties have been completely taken in by the new EU project. None of them really opposes it. They have become very corrupt. Who is going to defend our freedoms? It looks like we are heading towards some kind of collapse, some kind of crisis. The most likely outcome is that there will be an economic collapse in Europe, which in due time is bound to happen with this growth of expenses and taxes. The inability to create a competitive environment, the overregulation of the economy, the bureaucratisation, it is going to lead to economic collapse. Particularly the introduction of the euro was a crazy idea. Currency is not supposed to be political.

I have no doubt about it. There will be a collapse of the European Union pretty much like the Soviet Union collapsed. But do not forget that when these things collapse they leave such devastation that it takes a generation to recover. Just think what will happen if it comes to an economic crisis. The recrimination between nations will be huge. It might come to blows. Look to the huge number of immigrants from Third World countries now living in Europe. This was promoted by the European Union. What will happen with them if there is an economic collapse? We will probably have, like in the Soviet Union at the end, so much ethnic strife that the mind boggles. In no other country were there such ethnic tensions as in the Soviet Union, except probably in Yugoslavia. So that is exactly what will happen here, too. We have to be prepared for that. This huge edifice of bureaucracy is going to collapse on our heads.

This is why, and I am very frank about it, the sooner we finish with the EU the better. The sooner it collapses the less damage it will have done to us and to other countries. But we have to be quick because the Eurocrats are moving very fast. It will be difficult to defeat them. Today it is still simple. If one million people march on Brussels today these guys will run away to the Bahamas. If tomorrow half of the British population refuses to pay its taxes, nothing will happen and no-one will go to jail. Today you can still do that. But I do not know what the situation will be tomorrow with a fully fledged Europol staffed by former Stasi or Securitate officers. Anything may happen.

We are losing time. We have to defeat them. We have to sit and think, work out a strategy in the shortest possible way to achieve maximum effect. Otherwise it will be too late. So what should I say

My conclusion is not optimistic. So far, despite the fact that we do have some anti-EU forces in almost every country, it is not enough. We are losing and we are wasting time.'


	'Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, pray for us and for our Country, and guide and protect our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.'