The Hermeneutic of Continuity

The Congregation for the Clergy has been one of the movers and shakers in terms of using the internet to get the message across. Cardinal Claudio Hummes regularly writes to priest on the email list and Archbishop Piacenze also gives great encouragement. Now there is a trio of videos on YouTube about the priest Alter Christus . I'm just posting before leaving for Wonersh so I haven't had time to watch them all yet but look forward to doing so. I recognise the French priest who, when I met him, was working at the Congregation for Divine Worship. He is from Caen so I was pleased to tell him that my father was involved in the liberation of the town (though I expect that there must be some frustration at how little of it was left after the battle.)

The Catholic Truth Society recently launched its latest batch of pamphlets; as ever, an excellent collection. I hope to write some more about some of the publications but I would like to single out first of all the new booklet by Fr Marcus Holden and Fr Andrew Pinsent, authors of Evangelium . Their new booklet is called Apologia: Catholic answers to today's Questions .Traditionally, apologetics focussed largely on the refutation of protestant errors. This is still needed but a more urgent task facing us now is to give a positive answer to the various challenges posed by secularists and atheists. Apologia addresses such questions concisely and effectively, following the structure of Catholic catechesis under the headings of Creed, Sacraments, Morals and Prayer - without neglecting those points raised by protestants or unformed Catholics such as "Why do I need to confess my sins to a priest?" or "Why can't we have women priests or married priests?" The v...

The Thomas More Institute exists to promote a more informed ethical engagement in public and professional life. Last evening, James MacMillan addressed the institute on the subject of "The Musical Search for the Sacred in Modernity". Here is the summary from the STI website: When John Paul II wrote his Letter To Artists in 1999 he said: ‘Even beyond its typically religious expressions, true art has a close affinity with the world of faith, so that, even in situations where culture and the Church are far apart, art remains a kind of bridge to religious experience’. Art music in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has seen an astonishing resistance to the anti-religious consensus found elsewhere in the modern art world. The search for the sacred still seems to be central to the work of composers, even in unexpected ways. On the way home, I had the satisfied feeling that this had been an evening very well spent. To my lasting dissatisfaction, I have never continued the ...

James Preece has a roundup of posts on the Government-CES-PSHE affair: see Ed Balls: Catholic Schools "must explain how to access an abortion" . This morning two other good posts were published that are worthy to be added to the list: Cranmer in his post Teaching abortion in an ‘enlightened’ and ‘non-judgmental’ way gives a good analysis of the way in which terms like "non-judgemental" are being used to erode the freedoms for Catholics and others that developed over three centuries. As he rightly says: One cannot be ‘neutral’ about sex, sexuality or the sanctity of life without being indifferent. Joanna Bogle gets to the key point that many clergy and laity now have no confidence in the CES and that a fresh start is needed.

Linacre Ethics Forum Presents a chance for junior healthcare professionals and students (medics, nurses, pharmacists and those interested inethics are welcome!) to explore and discuss Catholic healthcare ethics: Recovering a virtue ethics in bioethics Rev Nicanor Austriaco OP Tuesday 2nd March 2010 - 6.30pm for 7 The Forum is held at Vaughan House, SW1P 1QN (Just behind Westminster Cathedral) Rev Nicanor Austriaco OP is on a short visit to the UK and is a highly recommended speaker. See the Linacre website for information about the International Conference on Fertility, Infertility & Gender, to be held at Maynooth (near Dublin) from 16-18 June, and for details of the latest Linacre publication: Incapacity and Care , by Helen Watt

PICTURE stands for "Priests’ ICT Use in their Religious Experience" and studies the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and of the internet in particular, by the priests of Christian Catholic Church. The project has been endorsed by the Congregation for the Clergy. It is run by NewMinE (New Media in Education) at the the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI, Lugano, Switzerland - pictured) in collaboration with the School of Institutional Social Communications of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. There is an online questionnaire - it doesn't take too long to fill in, so I recommend it to brother priests. This is a sensible project aiming to find out useful information, not an attempt to generate silly headlines about confession on the internet and suchlike..

People have been emailing me all day about the Radio 4 Today programme this morning . A liberal rabbi, Jonathon Romain went into bat first, berating the (actually worthless) amendment to the CSF Bill, purporting to allow faith schools to teach Personal Social and Health Education "in a way that reflects the school’s religious character." As I pointed out the other day , the amendment is indeed worthless since all schools, including Catholic schools, will still be required to give information about contraception, abortion, and homosexual partnerships: and they must teach a "range of views." In other words, whatever they do in terms of presenting teaching in a way that reflects the religious character of the school, they are not allowed to teach that Catholic doctrine is true. The Today piece was bizarre. Rabbi Romain was complaining that the reference to the school's religious character was unacceptable. Ed Balls was cast as the enemy, defending the rights of f...

This coming Saturday, 27th February, from 3pm -4pm, pro-lifers will meet at the Church of St Anthony of Padua, Headley Way, Oxford which is right on the corner of the John Radcliffe Hospital entrance. There is Exposition inside the Church for the hour. There are then prayers along the road side of the entrance to the hospital where. Prayers will be led by Fr John Saward. Refreshments are available in the Church hall afterwards.

Ealing Abbey are holding a "Discovering Priesthood" day next month. This initiative involves the Benedictine Community, Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and the diocesan vocation director. Fr Stephen Langridge, Fr Stephen Wang (Allen Hall), Fr Francis Selman (Allen Hall), Fr Richard Nesbit (Westminster Vocations) will be coming as well as some young priests who were ordained at the Abbey and seminarians who work with us in catechetics. Everyone who is coming has been involved in the parish catechesis in some way. Here are the details: DISCOVERING PRIESTHOOD A day for young men We invite young men to join us at a ‘Discovering Priesthood Day’ on Saturday 13th March, 10.00am - 4.00pm The day offers young men a chance to meet priests and seminarians from the diocese and religious communities to learn more about the life and ministry of a priest. To book a place or for further information contact: Deacon Gordon Nunn, at the Parish Office, Ealing Abbey, 2, Marchwood Cresce...

Eamonn Manning has set up a group on Facebook to assist in redistributing liturgical items. See Liturgical Swop Shop . Here is the blurb: Need a liturgical artifact/book/item? Then leave a post on the wall! If you have some liturgical items you would like to go to a suitable home, either free of charge or in exchange for something, then leave a post on the wall! The more people know about this the better the success at finding the Tenebrae Hearse, Pax, Reliquary, Hanging Pyx, Inflateable Reredos or Missal you need! Please detail what the item is, how much or what you are willing to exchange for it and where its location is...

This post is scheduled for publication on Monday morning when I will be lecturing on sacramental theology at Wonersh. Do take a moment to vote in the poll on the sidebar about whether the LinkWithin widget should stay. I am heartened by the healthy showing of votes for "I don't care - but I like clicking polls." I think this must be an option for any future polls on the blog.

Photo: Daily Mail The Daily Mail the other day reported on the story of James Shepherd and his mother, Elisabeth. At the age of eight, James was knocked over by a car which had mounted the pavement; he was left in a coma from which doctors advised that he had virtually no chance of recovery. He did recover consciousness and some use of speech but has no controlled use of his limbs. Elisabeth Sheppard contacted the Daily Mail in order to provide an alternative to the widespread support for Kay Gilderdale who helped her daughter Lynn, who suffered from ME, to commit suicide. The story of the Sheppards is all the more powerful because of the genuine difficulties and temptations that Mrs Sheppard admits to facing. Her marriage broke up, she was in mental chaos for some time and did herself consider helping her son to die. From these experiences, she draws the conclusion that she was at times an unreliable carer in need of effective support, and that: It's this close involvement in h...

Photo: Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk Recently, the Government introduced an amendment to the Children, Schools and Families Bill, allowing Faith schools to teach Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) "in a way that reflects the school’s religious character." The Catholic Education Service (CES) claimed credit for this, citing its "extensive lobbying." As we have now come to expect, according to a wearily familiar pattern, the purported concession is worthless, allowing the Government to be seen to appease Catholics, and then reassure the secularists and gays who protest loudly. Under pressure from humanist and homosexual activists (e.g. NSS and Pink News ) but focussed particularly as a response to the Accord Coalition , the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has issued a response . In a "Let's be absolutely clear" statement, the DCSF specifies that faith schools will not be able to opt of statutory PSHE and SRE (sex and rela...

I just came across the LinkWithin widget. This adds boxes to the foot of each post, linking to other posts (from this blog) that might be of interest. It has to take a few hours to crawl the blog and is then supposed to throw up relevant posts. It struck me that it might actually be useful to readers but let me know what you think by voting in the poll on the sidebar.

Berenike in the combox suggested this as an activity for altar servers: [ Link to the video ] I'm cool with that - provided they remember to carry the acolyte candle in the outside hand.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) today put on a Study Day for clergy on the problems of sex education in Britain with particular reference to the Children, Schools and Families Bill. Fr John Fleming gave a lucid and concise presentation of the problems with the proposed legislation. Extensive research carried out in Australia has shown that although there is widespread support for sex education programmes, the majority of people are actually not familiar with the content of those programmes. The same is true in Britain where the DCSF cite a study showing that although parents report being in favour of schools providing factual information, 57% know little or nothing of the content of the sex education courses. The vast majority report that no consultation has taken place about the courses. Fr Fleming highlighted the fact that despite the intention of sex education being to reduce STIs and teenage pregnancies, the evidence shows that not only have these aims...

A priest friend of mine today made an amusing point. He referred to the various groups campaigning for women priests, the abolition of celibacy, opposing Summorum Pontificum , delaying the accurate translation of the Mass and so on. He wondered why they were not holding novenas, rosaries, and all-night vigils of adoration for these intentions.

"Have a lugubrious Lent" was a greeting invented by a boy at my school in a whimsical moment. More seriously, may the good Lord assist you with his divine grace in the penances that you undertake. I celebrated three Masses at Blackfen today, one of them according to the usus antiquior . There was a good number of young families at Mass today, but quite a few people seem not to bother with Ash Wednesday nowadays. Perhaps this is partly down to the fact that since the Holydays of precept have been moved to Sunday, it is harder to imagine coming to Mass during the week voluntarily, even when a popular sacramental is on offer. The above photo is a screen grab posted by Fr Z from the CTV coverage of the Holy Father's Mass at Santa Sabina today. He has lots more and there are plenty of encouraging liturgical details: pontifical dalmatic, Cardinals in dalmatics, no concelebration, "Philip cut" Roman vestments... all as we are now becoming accustomed to.

While surfing around the British Humanist Association website, I was amused to find the page giving Fees for Humanist Ceremonies . The fee ranges are given as follows: Funerals/Memorials - £130-£175 Weddings/Partnerships - £320-£700 Namings - £130-£250 Currently, the corresponding amounts for me would be: Funerals - £119 under the same arrangements (payable to funeral director as part of charges for disbursements) although this fee is not in any way insisted on. Weddings - voluntary donation. I am normally given something like £100-£150. £300 would be exceptional. Baptisms - voluntary donation. I am normally given something like £20-£50. £100 would be exceptional. I'll remember this next time someone says to me that they don't want to get married in Church because it is too expensive. Bear in mind also that we do not charge for the use of the Church whereas presumably the couple have to pay for a venue at which to hold the humanist partnership or naming ceremony in add...

Last Sunday, a group gathered outside Westminster Cathedral to protest against the visit of the Holy Father to Britain. They walked to the Italian embassy in Grosvenor Square and had a rally there. The British Humanist Association website gives some information about the event and there is a page at meetup.com . (The organisers give a figure of 200 attending so there are unlikely to have been more than that.) The demo was set up to co-ordinate with a similar one organised in Rome by the Facciamo Breccia Coalition . Speakers came from the BHA, the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association, the Protest the Pope coalition, the European Humanist Federation, the National Secular Society, Outrage and others. The various groups report on the event focus on their own concerns. The humanists emphasise the secular Europe agenda while the gay groups claim that the demo was mostly LGBT. I expect it was a mixture of both. We can expect from of the same in the run-up to the Holy Father's visit,...

Fr Christensen writes the blog White Around The Collar . He recently reported on a new class that will be offered at the Mundelein Seminary next quarter. He will be taking the course on preparation for celebrating Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

The Gregorian Chant Network has been launched to promote the use of Gregorian chant in the Sacred Liturgy. The initiative is supported by the Latin Mass Society , Una Voce Scotland , the Association for Latin Liturgy and the Schola Gregoriana . There will be a three-day course at the Oratory School, Reading, from 9-11 April, directed by Nick Gale, the Director of Music at Southwark Cathedral. The course will cater for beginners and more advanced singers alike. Details at the GCN website .

I warmly recommend the Family Education Trust (Family & Youth Concern) which campaigns tirelessly on pro-life and pro-family issues. The latest bulletin is now available online. This issue has several articles related to the Children Schools and Families Bill, sex education, homeschooling and the rights of families.

Mary's Dowry Productions have been busy preparing their next film: on the life of St Anne Line. Here is the trailer: The film about St Margaret Clitherow is now out. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet but will post on it when I do.

Today I have set myself the task of giving a short presentation to the priests of the Bexley Deanery on the subject of "New media and the priest" with reference to Pope Benedict's message for World Communications Day . The Holy Father mentioned in particular "images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites" so I will select just a few examples of these. For images, there is the collection at The Work of God's Children's Educational Project that I mentioned the other day, and L'Osservatore Romano's photo site which give resources for priests. The use of images is also well implemented in such videos as "Why I am a Catholic" This video is by by Katerina Marie Cabello whose blog is Evangelical Catholicism . The video slideshow gives six reasons for being Catholic: 1) the Eucharist, 2) the Church, 3) the Sacraments, 4) Mary, 5) Marriage (actual and spiritual), and 6) Communion of Saints. The song for the video is "Jesus Ch...

Another video for you: the Dominican Sisters of Mary from Ann Arbor, Michigan, appearing on Oprah. The treatment of the religious life is positive, respectful and informative; the sisters are interviewed sensibly, allowing them to explain their way of life. This is an amazing community: there are just under 100 sisters. Average age is 26. The above video is the first in a series: you can get the others from YouTube.

Fr Dwight Longenecker picked up this amusing video, a parody of Downfall (2004) in which Adolf Hitler learns of Pope Benedict's popularity and blows his top. It is better if, like me, you don't know too much German but the subtitles are hilariously matched to the emotional content. Kudos to: Devin Rose of St. Joseph’s Vanguard And Our Lady’s Train

An observant clerical correspondent informs me that this year the dates of Lent and Easter correspond exactly with those of 1858, the year Our Lady appeared to St Bernadette in Lourdes. The first apparition on 11 Feb 1858 was a Thursday - the same this year; and Easter Sunday was April 4th - the same in 2010. The photo above is the group from my parish in 2008, the 150th anniversary of the apparitions. This year, we are combining with St Mary's Chislehurst.

The BBC has produced a series of three programmes on the life and work of Francis Campbell, the British ambassador to the Holy See. The series is to be shown on BBC 1 in Northern Ireland only, starting this Wednesday 17 February. There is a short trailer at Our Man in the Vatican , and there is a programme information brochure . This might be quite significant since HMG will obviously have an interest in giving a certain spin to relations between the UK and the Holy See. The series includes an interview with Tony Blair. UPDATE : BBC1 Northern Ireland is available on Sky channel 973.

Fr Glen Tattersall and Fr John McDaniels look after St Aloysius Church in Melbourne, providing for the community attached to the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite. The website Latin Mass Melbourne shows a thriving Church with plenty of activities. Here is a (slightly distorted) photo of the Church which I grabbed from Google's street view: This year, Most Rev Basil Meeking, Bishop Emeritus of Christchurch, New Zealand, will be at St Aloysius for Holy Week to celebrate all of the ceremonies according to the usus antiquior . There is a programme at the website so if you are lucky enough to be in reach of Melbourne you have the opportunity to participate in some glorious liturgy with Gregorian chant and polyphony. Visitors would be most welcome at St Aloysius. I met Frs Tattersall and McDaniels in Rome last month at the Clergy Conference. Fr Tattersall was Assistant Priest, and Fr McDaniels was Deacon at the Pontifical Mass celebrated by Cardinal Cañizares Llovera at St Joh...

Many thanks to Fr Jerabek of Huntsville, Alabama for collecting together various resources for Lenten meditation. Lenten Reading Plans has four collections of readings for every day in Lent. The Church Fathers plan has substantial readings taken from the Fathers. For this, you would need to set aside a significant (though not unreasonable) amount of time. There is also a "Lite" version with shorter readings. The readings in the Lives of the Saints plan are taken from the Wednesday General Audience addresses of Pope Benedict. There is a plan for the Year of the Priest with readings from St John Vianney , and a plan with readings from Father Faber and Cardinal Newman . The collections are made available in pdf files, except the Saints plan which links to the texts on the Vatican website. What I particularly like about the whole project is that it is a very simple use of the internet for an apostolic purpose that could have a significant effect on the life of any ordina...

I just stumbled across The Work of God's Children's Educational Project , a co-operative online venture that is developing a free public domain curriculum for home-educators. I came across it because of the collection of public domain images . This includes several hundred black and white images that are useful for newsletters, as well as a good collection of images of saints . The main project is an excellent idea with a lot of potential to become a resource for families, whether homeschooling or not. The site uses wiki software to enable people to edit the pages and improve them.

A few days ago I meant to put up a link to this excellent article by Fra Lawrence Lew OP on Natural Law and the Government's Laws in response to the media reaction against Pope Benedict's Address to the Bishops of England and Wales . H/T Anna Arco

Not much time to blog up here on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors (and it is snowing as I write...) but in a quick burst transmission of emails I got a note from John Smeaton about his latest post: Catholic Education Service has helped draft the government's anti-life/anti-family sex ed draft guidance . John has been through the draft guidance document and details some of the more important problems that it presents. You may also like to see the post by James Preece on his correspondence with the CES: Talking to Catholic Education Services

The renowned German theologian Manfred Hauke has given an interview on the subject of the alleged supernatural phenomena at Medjugorje. ( Mariologist Hauke on Medjugorje: "Don't let the devotees fall into the void" ) The article is particularly valuable because of Fr Hauke’s sound theological judgement, something apparent illustrated in his introduction to the theology of Marian apparitions in general. After explaining the prophetic nature of such revelations, he takes issue with Rahner’s explanation of all such phenomena as “imaginative visions”, saying that such a subjective approach does not account for phenomena such as the apparitions at Knock where the place in which Our Lady and the saints stood remained dry despite the pouring rain. Having rejected this reductionism, he draws some useful distinctions highlighting the relative role of subjective influence and the intervention of God or of the saints. On the question of Medjugorje, he highlights the difference bet...

The Faith Theological Symposium at Ampleforth got underway last evening with a talk from Fr Stephen Dingley on the incarnation and the Church, followed after supper by Fr Chris Findlay-Wilson's talk on Teresa Higginson and devotion to the Sacred Head of Jesus. Teresa was an English mystic whose cause was introduced at Rome. It came to a halt because of a " non expedit " from the Holy Office, related to the devotion to the Sacred Head. Given the fact that the Divine Mercy devotion has been rehabilitated, it would be possible to get the cause going again if there is enough interest. To find out more about her, see the Teresa Higginson website. Devotion to the Sacred Head is a complement to the Sacred Heart devotion. Just as jansenism was countered by devotion to the human and divine love of Christ, so the intellectual assault of modernism is countered by devotion to the human and divine wisdom of Christ. Not much time to blog, obviously, though the IT Dept at Amplefor...

Sr Valery Walker is organising another Study Weekend for young adults from Friday evening 12 March to midday on Sunday 14 March. This will be a reflective study on the subject of Calvary and the Mass, with special reference to the work of St Thomas Aquinas. Talks will be given by Fr Thomas Crean OP and discussion with Sr Valery Walker OP. The weekend will be held at St Dominic's Convent, Station Road, Stone, Stafforshire, ST15 8EN. The suggested donation is £25. To book a place, email Sr Valery Walker . (There will be a similar weekend after Easter, April 16th-18th. Priest and topic to be arranged.)

This week, the seminary has a half-term break so I am not required to lecture today. Instead, I am on my way up to North Yorkshire, to the Abbey of Ampleforth, for the Faith Movement's annual theological symposium. This year, the papers are focussed mainly on topics in ecclesiology and the theology of the Eucharist. An exception is the paper this evening in which Fr Chris Findlay-Wilson will speak about Theresa Higginson and Devotion to the Sacred Head. (The papers are usually published separately as articles in Faith Magazine.)

The gay magazine Attitude has recently published an interview with David Cameron in which he has tried to convince the gays that he has converted from being a diehard supporter of Section 28 to being a right-on "it's normal and harmless" guy. For what it's worth, they don't trust him: the magazine invites readers to make up their own minds about "whether his pro gay conversion is simply to win votes." The text of the interview is not available online and there is no way I am going to scandalise my devout and hard-working Hindu neighbours by buying a copy in their shop, so I am relying on quotations. Ruth Gledhill has helpfully focussed on his remarks on Christianity. (See: Cameron tells Rowan: Make your Church pro-gay ) Cameron effectively confirms that if a Conservative Government is elected there will be no change in the current drive to prevent "faith schools" from teaching Christian doctrine. In response to the loaded question 'Do...

The January-February issue of Faith Magazine is now online with lots of goodies for you. The editorial is a post-mortem on the Intelligence Squared debate in which the motion "The Catholic Church is a force for good" was roundly defeated. See: The London Debate: Why We Lost and What We Must Learn William Oddie, the author of "The Roman Option", a critique of the lukewarm response in some quarters, to the converts who were looking for a home after the 1992 decision of the Church of England to ordain women priests, writes the column Comment on the Comments . Not surprisingly, he feels strongly about the opposition to Anglicanorum Coetibus . Other topics studied in this issue are the divinity and humanity of Christ, environmentalism and the personhood of the human embryo. You might also want to take a look at the editorial essay in the previous issue: Time to Proclaim the Primacy of Jesus Christ in Creation As ever, all the content of Faith Magazine is available...

St Ignatius of Antioch was martyred at Rome under the Emperor Trajan. His letters were therefore written between 98 and 117 AD. (If Eusebius was correct, he was martyred in 108 AD.) St Polycarp was martyred around 156 AD: as a boy, he knew St John, and in later life, he was an influence on St Irenaeus. Consequently these two Fathers form a most important witness to the faith and life of the Church in the immediate post-apostolic period. Kenneth J Howell, Director and Senior Fellow of the St John Institute of Catholic Thought , has made a fresh translation of the letters of St Ignatius and Polycarp's Letter to the Philippians , together with the later work The Martyrdom of Polycarp . A sensible and helpful note on the translation explains his interaction with existing translations and the occasional differences of interpretation. Throughout the text, there are notes on both the language and the interpretation, making this a most useful text for the student. Also of great value a...

Today, the Holy Father addressed the Bishops of Scotland . One of the points that he made was to distinguish between lay ministry and lay apostolate: Hand in hand with a proper appreciation of the priest’s role is a correct understanding of the specific vocation of the laity. Sometimes a tendency to confuse lay apostolate with lay ministry has led to an inward-looking concept of their ecclesial role. Yet the Second Vatican Council’s vision is that wherever the lay faithful live out their baptismal vocation – in the family, at home, at work – they are actively participating in the Church’s mission to sanctify the world. A renewed focus on lay apostolate will help to clarify the roles of clergy and laity and so give a strong impetus to the task of evangelizing society. This struck a particular chord with me, and at the back of my mind, I knew that I had written something on the subject some years ago. Looking back through the list of editorials that I wrote when I was editor of Fai...

The Duke Humphrey Society announces that the annual Requiem Mass for Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, will be celebrated in Blackfriars Priory Church at Oxford, on Saturday 20 February 2010 at 2pm in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. All welcome. Duke Humphrey was the youngest son of King Henry IV, brother of Henry V and uncle to Henry VI. He was a patron of learning and of the arts, he enclosed Greenwich Park, and is remembered at Oxford where the Sir Thomas Bodley restored the library founded by Duke Humphrey in 1602, and added to it, creating the beginnings of the University's Bodleian Library.

In the Tablet of 9 January, Clifford Longley wrote a piece in which he questioned the idea of "canonisation miracles." He wrote: The idea that God would demonstrate that a saint is truly in heaven by instantly healing someone’s fatal illness because he has been asked to by the said saint – who is in turn responding to the prayers of the victim or those near to him – seems to me so simplistic, so credulous, so presumptuous, so mechanical and so manipulative, that it brings no credit to the Catholic religion and indeed confirms the worst prejudices of its enemies. Is that really the kind of God we believe in? Don’t millions of people offer prayers every day for the recovery of a loved one – some of which are answered, some not? Doesn’t the very idea of canonisation miracles – in effect miraculous prayers as part of a PR exercise – mock them cruelly? The blog for the cause for the canonisation of John Henry Cardinal Newman has responded with an article Who needs a miracle? N...

Over the past couple of days, Stephen Hughes, Member of the European Parliament for the North East of England, has hit the headlines as a Catholic who has expressed indignant opposition to the Holy Father's comments on Equality legislation. Speaking at a meeting of socialists and democrats, Hughes said that he was appalled by what the Pope had said, and pointed to the duty of religious leaders to eradicate inequality. He protested that "Inequality is at the root of many social problems." One social problem for women in one part of the world has been that when they wanted to have a second baby, they have been forced to have an abortion. Other women in the same country have been subjected to forced sterilisation. The USA declined to continue funding programmes in countries which did this sort of thing. In 2001, the EU stepped in to make up the 33 million shortfall. In 2008, Amendment 134 to the EU budget was proposed: Community assistance shall not be given to any gove...

Well I suppose not quite, but interesting nevertheless. David Osler ("Ex-punk. Ex-Trot. Unchanged attitude problem.") writes a thought-provoking piece on his blog Dave's Part, about Pope Benedict XVI and UK Equality Law . Reading this, you need to exercise indulgence in ignoring some of the de rigeur socialist inverted snootiness about the Catholic Church and enjoy the fact that he highlights the inconsistency of the hated New Labour revisionism, as in: Well, New Labour in office has been adamant about its wish for ‘dialogue’ with ‘faith communities’, so it can hardly feign surprise when a religion with over 4m adherents takes it up on the idea. Again, leaving aside some of the bits we would all take issue with, just consider this from a left-wing commentator: Common sense alone dictates that the League Against Cruel Sports has no duty to be an equal opportunities employer in respect of illegal cock fighting aficionados. If you apply to be a Conservative parliamentary ...

Gracewing , together with a number of other European publishers, is marking the Year of the Priest with a number of titles. On Saturday 13 February at St Wilfrid's Hall (London Oratory) the most prestigious of these will be launched: Catholic Priest, Image of Christ. Through Fifteen Centuries of Art. The Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest collaborated in the book, and Mgr Wach, the Founder and Prior General, will celebrate Mass in the Little Oratory before the book launch, at 11.30am Here is the publisher's information about the book: The editor of The Catholic Priest, Image of Christ, Steen Heidemann presents 560 images of the priesthood, from masterpieces of art across fifteen centuries, which vividly illustrate the vocation, call to sanctity, apostolic work, spirituality and liturgical activity of priests. Accompanying the illustrations are profound expositions of the priestly life from major figures of the Church: His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Ant...