Yesterday, Anna Arco posted her interview with Archbishop Nichols concerning the papal visit. His Grace rightly draws attention to the importance of the meeting of the Holy Father and Queen Elizabeth. That will surely be one of the greatest photo opportunities of recent times.
There is still considerable frustration about many aspects of the visit, and particularly the failure to organise a major event which people can attend en masse. Of course we can watch it all on the television and I arranged a while back for the big screen in the parish club to be reserved for the duration of the visit, but we can, after all, watch footage of the Pope most days via the Vatican's YouTube channel or EWTN. People want to be able to say "I was there" not "I watched it on the telly".
Apparently there will at least be the possibility of lining the streets: it is important for Catholics to do so in large numbers, cheering, singing and waving flags. (Now would be a good time to start learning by heart the verses of God bless our Pope!) There also needs to be plenty of footage posted on YouTube of the crowds in response to the inevitable mainstream channel "not as many people as expected" claims.
In Loss and Gain, John Henry Newman characterised Catholicism as "the popular religion". An estimated 286,650 people turned out for the visit of the relics of St Therese last October. The liberal establishment did not expect that. Popular Catholicism is far from dead in England.
6 comments:
Father, I am praying that RECORD BRAKING numbers of Brits come out and show support for His Holiness. This is a 'witness by presence'. We need as many of the faithful and clergy and religious to attend as many and with as many as possible to show that Island has a Catholic core, not just remnant. Good job at keeping us all apprised. Hope the newly formed CCC for England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales will be able to INSPIRE the folks to ASPIRE in demonstrating their public love and support for the Vicar of Christ.
I hope they work out all the details so people will be able to gather en masse to see the Pope. That would be a most blessed event. God Bless.
We have paid for this visit in advance. Was it pay to the TV companies to cover the visit? I thought companies paid for media rights to cover large sporting events.
Parents and children want to hear the words of their Pope speaking words that are both 'beautiful and difficult' and be there to support him.
We are fed up with 'English Catholicism'.
A Catholic Mother
I feel sad that my brothers and sisters in England & Wales still have no venue for an en masse gathering. Things north of the border seem to be progressing quite well and DV we will gather at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow for the visit of B16 just as we did for JP2 all those years ago (doesn't seem that long). If the weather is half as good as on that glorious June day then we will be doubly blessed.
I watched the Moon landings, which some say were faked, on television but was at Coventry with Pope John Paul. That was real!
Here, in Portugal, we did that when the Pope visited us. When we couldn't, we would see him in the television but everytime we could, we would go to the streets. It was full, everywhere there was people waving and shouting, happy with the Pope, even those that think that being catholic is to be baptised and, when they die, go to a catholic church to the funeral.
We showed that we are a catholic country, a bad one but, even so, catholic.
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