The Hermeneutic of Continuity

Tomatoes are up there among my favourite foods. Now there is a new reason to like them: apparently they are so Christian that one Muslim group has ordered its followers not to eat them. You can see why from the picture above with the blatant Maltese Cross staring out at us. H/T to William Oddie for this completely bizarre story. Actually I'm not brilliant at eating vegetables and fruit but I do like tomatoes, whether sliced into a salad with oil and vinegar, spread in paste upon a pizza base (preferably without rubbery mozzarella) or taken from a tin to make spaghetti amatriciana or something similar. (BTW I did Biology A-level and I do know that the tomato is a fruit, so no pedantic comments on that subject please.) They are also very good sliced up in a sandwich with Wiltshire ham from the Sainsbury's deli counter. I am delighted to know that my tomato consumption now counts as an act of Christian witness. The Lord is good to me. Da Dum DUM His light will shine on m

Fr Perrone, the Rector of the Assumption Grotto has taken away the forward-facing altar that disrupted the line of sight to their magnificent High Altar (at which Mass is normally said anyway.) Te Deum Laudamus has the story: Assumption Grotto's Sanctuary: Low Altar Removed . Interestingly, there will be a moveable altar available for priests who want to celebrate Mass versus populum . It seems to me that this is a good arrangement for the time being: have the High Altar as the norm and the Volksaltar available to be wheeled on if needed. This would be much easier than setting up the High Altar as we have to do several times a week at Blackfen. The proper High Altar, as you can see from the photo of Assumption Grotto, leaves a proper space in the sanctuary for the various functions that happen at High Mass, Vespers, Benediction and other services. In very many Churches, the removal of the forward-facing altar will restore the architects original vision for the Church.

Sir Dan of the blogosphere left me a message earlier asking for prayers for Irish farmers. He is currently on holiday in Cork and has spoken to farmers who are really down about the weather this summer which has threatened their livelihood. Here is a prayer you could say, taken from the Roman Missal: To avert storms A domo tua, quǽsumus Dómine, spiritáles nequítiæ repellántur: et aëriárum discédat malígnitas tempestátum. Lord we pray thee that evil spirits may be driven away from thy house and that the fury of the tempest may cease. or alternatively: For fine weather Ad te nos, Dómine, clamántes exáudi: et áëris serenitátem nobis tríbue supplicántibus; ut, qui juste pro peccátis nostris afflígimur, misericórdia tua præveniénte, cleméntiam sentiámus. Lord hear and heed our cry and grant our petition for fine weather, so that through they compassion which forestalls our need, we who are justly punished for our sins may feel thy clemency. Thinking of Irish matters, and especia

Earlier this year, Rorate Caeli ran a report on Bishop Luiz Demétrio Valentini, Bishop of the Diocese of Jales in Brazil giving an address at the 53rd anniversary of the Masonic Lodge "Colonel Balthazar" in Jales. (In the picture below, he is the one not wearing a tie.) Yesterday, again from Brazil, Rorate Caeli reports on an equally bizarre event, a  Masonic Memorial Mass for the "Day of the Freemason", celebrated by Father Geraldo de Magela Silva, of the Diocese of Pesqueira (state of Pernambuco, Brazil.) Here is one of the photos. One of the commenters wittily observed that the aprons bear a striking resemblance to the Google Mail logo but I am not going to enter into any conspiracy theories on that score. Here, thanks to EWTN , is the text of the 1983 Declaration from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding membership in Masonic associations: QUAESITUM EST Declaration on Masonic Associations Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine

Zephyrinus and I took lunch today at La Cucina di Antonio in Halfway Street, Blackfen. This refurbished restaurant is becoming one of the hotspots locally but it was my first visit. The warm and friendly welcome from all at La Cucina prompted me to promise an advert here on the blog. There is a very reasonably priced Sunday menu which was fine for us. I had the grilled sardines followed by the veal; Zephyrinus (to whom I wished a happy feast day) had the spaghetti bolognese followed by roast beef. The ordinary list Valpolicella was good - though there is an impressive list of special wines if you want to spend more. All most acceptable in a relaxed atmosphere ideal for some strategic pastoral planning over Sunday lunch. The restaurant is closed Sunday evening and Monday lunchtime to allow for family  time off - another recommendation in my book.

The other day, I asked for photos of Fr Thwaites since he was not the sort to have photos of himself all over the internet, like some of us. Many thanks to the Windsors for the one above, and to Greg Clovis for those below. I cropped out this one as a head shot if you want a small portrait to illustrate blogposts, for example. (You can use the other photos as well if you want, of course.) The Funeral Mass for Fr Thwaites will be at 12 noon on Friday 31 August at the Corpus Christi Jesuit Community, 757 Christchurch Road, Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset BH7 6AN. (Mass in the Ordinary Form.) At 12noon on Saturday 29 September 2012 at St Bede's, Clapham Park, 58 Thornton Road, London SW12 0LF, there will be a Solemn Requiem Mass celebrated according to the usus antiquior . Fr Linus Clovis will preach.

Teresa Higginson was an English mystic who promoted devotion to the Sacred Head of Jesus as the seat of human and divine wisdom. The devotion is a complement to the devotion to the Sacred Heart which celebrate's the human and divine love of Our Lord. The devotion to the Sacred Heart flourished in response to Jansenism which undermined the love and mercy of Our Lord. It is fitting in our own time to celebrate the Sacred Head of Our Lord, crowned with thorns, because Our Lord is again crowned with thorns through the denial of dogmatic and moral truth. I am pleased to hear that there is a new blog on Teresa Higginson and the Sacred Head .

On Sunday I wrote about the 11 year old girl who had been arrested in Pakistan for blasphemy. The British Pakistani Christian Association held a demonstration on Wednesday outside the Pakistani Embassy demanding her release. See a full report at their blog where they quote the 1947 inaugural speech of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali, the founding father of Pakistan: "You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State." As the BPCA rightly say, He would be turning in his grave right now if he knew how the apparatus of the Pakistan State is being cynically used against defenceless minority faiths. Thanks be to God, the blogs have generated media interest in this outrage and the Pakistani Government has had to take notice. The band Ooberfüse which I have mentioned before on th

Thanks to Brandon Vogt's ever excellent blog for the link to this video promotion for World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro.

We had a little celebration after morning Mass at Blackfen today. There was champagne and chocolate cake (as well as tea and fruit juice.) See Mulier Fortis for more details.

Back in 2007 I wrote about the prospect of the fine Church of the Sacred Heart in Limerick being turned into a  spa and leisure centre . In 2011 I followed up with the  Heartbreaking reportage  of the death of the developer, and the possible suggested uses of the building (Library / Museum /Leisure Centre / Bar / Restaurant.) I expressed the hope that the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest might be able to raise the funds to buy the Church. Praise and glory to God, this hope has been fulfilled. St Conleth's Catholic Heritage reports today that the Institute has been able to purchase the Church with the help of friends in Ireland, Europe and the United States. See the aptly titled post REJOICE! REJOICE! REJOICE! for a full report. Naturally, the Institute is acting in full co-operation with the Diocese to revive this much-loved Church that was in danger of falling into ruin. This development is a sure sign of the future of the Church. In every age the Church is

On Wednesday this week, the Octave Day of the Assumption and (in the older calendar) the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer made their profession, incorporating them into the canonically erected Clerical Institute of Diocesan Right. The admirable Bishop Hugh Gilbert first received the profession of the superior, Fr Michael Mary. I found it moving to see him kneeling before his Ordinary making this humble act of ecclesial communion. There are more photos of the cermony at the Translapine Redemptorist blog:  Our Public Religious Profession  and here is a video of the whole ceremony. (Bishop Gilbert's sermon is at 32:15 and the public profession of vows starts at 58:15.)

The Funeral Mass for Fr Hugh Thwaites SJ will take place on Friday 31 August at 12noon at the Church of Corpus Christi, 757 Christchurch Road, Boscome, Dorset. I expect that there will be some other Requiem Masses for him, so please let me know of any that are being planned and I will publicise them here. The above photo is from a good post about Fr Thwaites at Ecumenical Diablog . Fr Thwaites was not like some of us who have photos all over the internet - if anyone has a good photo that can be shared, do please email it to me so that I can post it for others to used.

Rorate Caeli recently mentioned that while videos of old rite Masses are commonplace, videos of the other sacraments are rare. I haven't got a video, but here is a nice picture from an old rite Baptism at Blackfen. Say a prayer for young Luca and his family.

A correspondent just sent me news of the death of Fr Hugh Thwaites SJ earlier today. I had the privilege of meeting Fr Thwaites when I was a young student and from time to time since then. He converted to the Catholic faith as a result of his experience as a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II. He never bore resentment for his treatment, reasoning that the Japanese guards did not have the benefit of the Christian faith. His approach to evangelisation was direct and simple because he understood the truth and beauty of the Christian faith and wished others to benefit from it. Fr Thwaites always spoke in a kindly and gentle manner while firing off spiritual advice that could blow you off your feet; he was a priest who made many converts almost instantly by his sincerity and holiness, and converted countless lukewarm Catholics to a deeper following of Christ. He was passionately devoted to the Rosary, loved the older form of the Mass, and remained faithful to the traditional Je

The English Martyrs Church, Whalley Range, Manchester is a beautiful English gothic revival Church. It was opened in 1896, but the mosaics of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More on either side of the High Altar were added in the 1930s, in memory of the first parish priest, Father Rowan. The parish priest Fr Geoffrey Marlor (a fellow-student back in the 1980s at the Venerable English College in Rome) offers Mass according to the  usus antiquior  at the fine altars in honour of Our Lady and St Joseph. Last year, one of the former parish priests died, and Fr Marlor is the executor of his estate. There are some items that might be of interest to readers: 1961 Breviary (Pius XII psalter) in good condition - SOLD Liber Usualis HJ Davies Pastoral and Moral Theology Vols 1, 3, and 4 A reasonable offer for any of these items (consonant with proper management of the estate) would be acceptable. If you are interested, please ring Fr Marlor on 0161 226 1980 (leave a message if

400 years after Luther, Humanae Vitae confirmed the teaching on marriage that he vigorously upheld. Mercator.net has published an article by a Lutheran scholar, Dr Allan Carlson PhD, the founder and president of the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society (See: Be fruitful and multiply and have 1.7 kids ... and a dog? The article was previously published in the journal Family Policy in June 1999.) The essay raises some fascinating questions regarding Humanae Vitae . As Dr Carlson rightly points out, one of Luther's complaints about the Catholic Church was its teaching that vowed chastity or celibacy was in principle a superior state to marriage. In response, the 24th session of the Council of Trent, in 1563, duly defined in the canons on the sacrament of matrimony (canon 10) that If any one says, that the marriage state is to be placed above the state of virginity, or of celibacy, and that it is not better and more blessed to remain in virginity, or in celibacy

Bishop Nicolas Brouwet, the new Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, celebrated Mass at Rocamadour according to the usus antiquior for the annual Pilgrimage of St Louis made by the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest. In the above photo (for which, many thanks to a correspondent) Bishop Brouwet is flanked by ICKSP canons and Mgr Wach in the courtyard at Rocamadour outside the basilica. The rector of Rocamadour, diocesan priest Father Ronan de Gouvello, welcomed Mgr Brouwet and presented him with a sportelle (pilgrim's badge) and a copy of the book of the Miracles of Rocamadour. I went to Rocamadour on pilgrimage in 2004 and took photos. I have uploaded some to a new Rocamadour Flickr set . Here are a couple of examples: View from the bottom View from the top

The 2012 Autumn Colloquium of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy (British Province of St Gregory the Great) will take place on Tuesday 23 and Thursday 24 October at the Oratory School in Reading. It is great to hear that among the confirmed speakers are Bishop Philip Egan who will by then be Bishop of Portsmouth, Mgr Keith Newton, the  Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of our Lady of Walsingham, and the Rev Dr Andrew Pinsent. These gatherings are enjoyable not only for the great speakers but also for the company of good like-minded priests. Along with the theological discussion, there is a great deal of swapping of pastoral ideas along with that solidarity which comes from similar ups and downs of experience in parishes. Hard-bitten footsloggers like me can do our best to encourage and support (and sometimes even advise) the younger clergy, and there is much that we can learn from their enthusiasm and dedication. Nowadays it is increasingly common for me to meet up with fo

The British Pakistani Christian Association brings regular news of the plight of persecuted Christians in Pakistan and the solidarity of British Pakistani Christians with their brothers and sisters at home. Many of the stories are quite disturbing and should be more widely known. Yesterday there was a report of what the blog rightly calls a "new low": the arrest of a Downs Syndrome girl for blasphemy . Muslims in a Christian area of Islamabad found copy of the Quran was found with some of its pages burned. The BPCA points out that such burnings nearly always turn out to have been done by Muslims, or by mentally unstable people. In this case, Rimsha Masih, an 11 year old Christian girl with downs syndrome was been arrested and charged with the crime last Friday. The police have rejected approaches by human rights workers and are presuming the guilt of this little girl. They have no regard for that fact that she is a minor or that she has Downs Syndrome. There are some n

Fr Tim Moyle's Where the Rubber Hits the Road is a blog worth following for its variety of posts on spiritual, theological, and social issues as well as the occasional item of wider interest. The other day I picked up on his link to the world's fastest bus , designed by engineers in the Netherlands. The bus looks more like the kind of stretch limousine that parents of little girls hire for their primary school leaving party but it has a cruising speed of 155mph. Suggested routes have been Amsterdam to Groningen (ditched by the Dutch government) and Dubai to Abu Dhabi which more feasible in financial terms and less hindered by obstacles on the route. I don't suppose it would fall within the Oystercard zone.

The title of the new blog thank you for the mustard is based on an example used by Chesterton to illustrate the problem of determinism: [...] you may say, if you like, that the bold determinist speculator is free to disbelieve in the reality of the will. But it is a much more massive and important fact that he is not free to raise, to curse, to thank, to justify, to urge, to punish, to resist temptations, to incite mobs, to make New Year resolutions, to pardon sinners, to rebuke tyrants, or even to say “thank you” for the mustard. There is no name or even pseudonym for the writer, so he is probably going to have to get used to being called "Mustard" just as Laurence England is often called "Bones". In the second post on the blog, Mustard speculates on what he would have done with the £148 million if he had won the Euro Lottery last week. I am in sympathy with him in his longing to travel on the Orient Express, and on gentle railway journeys through Spain an

The community of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer have been erected as a Religious Institute of Diocesan Right by the Rt Rev Hugh Gilbert, Bishop of Aberdeen. At the Transalpine Redemptorist blog, you can read the Decree of Erection given today on the Feast of the Assumption. You can also read the official statement of the Congregation. There will be a public profession of vows on the Octave day, the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, 22 August, celebrated by Bishop Gilbert. Deo Gratias! Congratulations to the Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer and may God bless Bishop Gilbert.

A letter to the Times from Catholics, including some priests, dissents not only from the teaching of the Holy See but also from the teaching of the late Cardinal Hume whom they quote in their support. The Letter was published on Monday with 27 signatories, some of whom are familiar contributors to the Tablet , others part of the Soho Masses Pastoral Council and others part of Catholics for a Changing Church (and related organisations.) You have to pay to read the Times online but the letter is published by Bondings 2.0 , the blog of New Ways Ministry. The principal argument of the letter hinges on a Note published by Cardinal Hume in 1997 which can be found at the website of the Archdiocese of Westminster as part of the justification for continuing with the provision of the Diocesan approved Mass for people with same-sex orientation at the Church of the Assumption, Warwick Street, Soho. The letter in the Times refers to Cardinal Hume's affirmation that "love betwe

Last year I wrote about the good example given by the Phillipino boxer Manny Pacquiao . Manny is now a congressman representing the Philippines district of Sarangani. Phillipine President, Benigno Aquino is pushing a "reproductive health" bill to subsidise contraception. The bill is opposed by the Bishops of the predominantly Catholic country and by Manny Pacquiao. This has been picked up by news outlets all over the world; see for example the Wall Street Journal Manny Pacquiao Hits Out Against Contraception . President Aquino meanwhile has powerful support from the BBC as you can see from this blatantly one-sided propaganda piece . Nowadays, of course, everybody knows that the BBC is discredited as a balanced commentator on such issues. If you want a reasoned presentation of both sides of the argument, you are better off with Wikipedia .

The Adoration of the Magi, Franklin Carmichael When I grew up in Croydon in the 1960s ("What a cultural paradise!" I hear you say) the fashion of the time was to regard "modern" as an adjective which invariably conveyed a compliment. Whether it was the Nestles building (nobody ever referred to it as Nestlé), the underpass or the new flyover or whether it was the replacement of the delicious current buns we were given at playtime by a Peek Freen wafer biscuit, or the static-charged polyester vestments that came into vogue a little later, anything modern was good, and to decry something it was a discourse-ending assertion to say that it was old fashioned . Without blushing, theologians would justify almost any departure from traditional teaching by saying that it was more relevant to modern man (feminism had not yet made its mark.) An obvious danger for us today is to follow the pendulum blindly and decry anything that is modern. The New Liturgical Movement doe

Maria Ta Phong Tan was a Communist policewoman in Vietnam. She became a dissident, a blogger and a Catholic. She is part of the Free Vietnamese Journalists' Club. On 5 September last year, like fellow bloggers Nguyen Van Hai and Phan Thanh Hai, she was arrested for posting articles that supposedly distorted and opposed the Communist government. Her trial was supposed to have taken place on 7 August but we await further news of that: the trial has been delayed before with no information given to family members of the reason for delay. In a letter to new converts, Maria Tan spoke of her childhood and adolescence when she was brainwashed by the communist youth organizations to believe that Catholicism was against Vietnamese culture and family values. She went to law school and joined the firm owned by attorney Vu Tran Luat who defended eight Catholic parishioners from Thai Ha parish who were on trial for protecting their parish’s properties back in 2008. She realised that Vietnam

With his keen sense of the absurd, Jeff Miller, the Curt Jester has picked up on an instruction that Archbishop Cordileone has had to issue to the new parish priest at Most Holy Redeemer Parish in San Francisco. (See: Sentences that only make sense in context ) As the priest put it: I am the new pastor. There is a new archbishop. The archdiocese told me straight out, ‘No drag queens.’ Jeff suggests that another pertinent instruction might be "No sex toy bingo", just to make things clear, since that has also happened in the parish. Bishops used to issue detailed instructions about domestic arrangements for housekeepers, the proper care of tabernacles, and the requirement for the curate to have his own telephone. I hope that those concerns are not forgotten amid the newer imperatives of forbidding drag queens and sex toy bingo.

Wedding arrangements can be difficult when couples ask for inappropriate songs. Mgr Charles Pope looks at this question on his excellent blog for the Archdiocese of Washington . Mercifully, I don't face this too often; couples who have taken the decision to get married in Church can usually sense that there are things that might be rather tacky in that context even if they don't completely get the idea of sacred music. (This summer I am blessed to be celebrating a wedding for a practising Catholic couple who do get it, and have chosen some fine sacred music. Please remember them in your prayers.) The dialogue in Mgr Pope's post Wedding music and other difficulties brings me out in a cold sweat. Unlike the "smart or lucky" priests in the US who have a paid music director, most English parish priests do not have the financial resources for that, and so it would be me trying to persuade Bridezilla that "Baby It's You" would really be better for the r

The is some amusement to be had looking up film with commentators trying to make sense of the displays of Christian prayer at the Olympics. Meseret Defar (Orthodox) carried an icon of Our Lady and the child Jesus with her on the 5000m race that she won. After the finish, she took it out, knelt down and prayed, then kissed it and showed it to the cameras several times. The commentary was like a clip from Alan Partridge Commentator 1 [ as if she were kissing a teddy bear ] Look! Aaah! [ on seeing that it is an icon ] There's obviously a message in there somewhere isn't there? Commentator 2 Well there's a strong Christian community in Ethiopia. Commentator 1  [ haltingly ] Yes.. Yes.. and I think that was the ... err ... what we saw there. [ livening up again ] 15.04 25 Meseret Defar... You can watch it on the video at this page at 1.49. God bless Meseret Defar! Congratulations on winning the gold medal! Thank you for your witness to our Christian faith.

The Catholic News Agency has a confusing (inaccurate) headline: Priest says iPads, tablets no substitute for missalettes . The priest in question, Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ who blogs at CyberTeologia (Italian) in fact argued that iPads were no substitute for Missals. So far, so uncontroversial, I think. He quotes in full the letter of the New Zealand Bishops' conference ruling that electronic devices should not be used in place of the Missal by the priest at the Liturgy. Fr Spadaro examines the reason why we should not use such devices (see: Si può celebrare la messa con l’iPad? ) The New Zealand Bishops' Conference argues that faiths have sacred books and that the physical form of the Missal is an indicator of its special role in our worship. That is a good point, especially now that we have much more worthy books produced for the new ICEL translation. Fr Spadaro extends this to make a point in linguistic philosophy which I think might be on rather shakier ground. He says tha

It used to be a great aspiration to have ancient papyri and codices on view to all by being photographed and displayed on the internet. That aspiration has been superseded by the The Oxyrhynchus Project: Desktop Papyrology  which is trying to get transcriptions available for papyri which were discovered over a century ago, and, in many cases, remain unedited. One of the powerful elements of the project (to be found at the Ancient Lives website) is crowd-sourcing. You may not be able to recognise all of the letters and you might get some wrong, but with enough people working on the project, the combined work could be a great way of making transcriptions available far more quickly than by individual labour. Some may pooh-pooh the idea, insisting on the necessity of individual scholars checking the work of all these amateur enthusiasts. The great thing is - the two are not mutually exclusive. You can have amateurs do the donkey work and experts check it. If you are Catholic, thi

Our Lady giving the brown scapular to Saint Simon Stock Aylesford is the beautiful shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Archdiocese of Southwark, home to the Carmelites who provide superb hospitality to pilgrims and guests. I didn't realise that they have a blog - A Prayer in Stone . Members of the Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma will be interested in their short account of the life of Titus Brandsma Carmelite Martyr . The Carmelites host many pilgrimages during the year, including the Latin Mass Society Pilgrimage which will on Saturday 13 October this year. (See LMS Southwark North for details.) They also supplement the income of the Priory (necessary for the maintenance of the buildings etc. by hiring facilities to other groups, from mundane local council training sessions to things such as Vintage Motor Cycle shows . Aylesford is much overlooked as a pilgrimage site. It is the home of Saint Simon Stock and the brown scapular. People should be making their way to

The latest edition of Mass of Ages has arrived in time to be available in the parish this weekend. In the last issue, there was an article about me. This issue has an article about Fr Simon Henry who blogs at Offerimus tibi Domine . Both articles focussed on the implementation of Summorum Pontificum in the parish, and on the use of the blogosphere as a priestly apostolate. It was interesting to read of how Fr Henry had to cope with arriving in a parish with a reputation already established (not necessarily accurately) and easily found on Google. An online reputation does not replace the experience of meeting a person, and this is particularly important for a pastoral priest. Things seem to have settled down now (as indeed they have in Blackfen) and Fr Henry is able to minister in his parish in relative peace. Mass of Ages is a very well produced magazine which does credit to the Latin Mass Society . Unfortunately it is not available online. You can buy a copy at the Latin Mass

Here's a cool video of a six * year old child singing the Salve Regina at my Church, rather drowning out some of the adults. His elder sister had just made her first Holy Communion. (H/T  Mulier Fortis .) *UPDATE : Actually I was guessing his age. His parents reliably inform me that he's actually only three years old . It must be a photoshopped, dubbed, cgi spoof, because Latin and Gregorian chant put children off and they all hate it.

Blogger "Cranmer" asks  Why does the BBC ignore Usain Bolt's God?  It is a good question. Usain Bolt always makes the sign of the cross before each race, offers a prayer and then openly gives thanks to God after he has won. As Cranmer says: The BBC have known for more than four years what Usain Bolt always does, before and after each race, without fail: how he chooses the moment the camera is on him to make the act of humble worship, as a very public witness that it is the Creator who made him fast. They have been briefed to bits by Bolt's PR team and by members of his family: Usain Bolt is a Bible-believing, God-honouring, Jesus-worshipping Christian. But not a whisper from the BBC; not a word of explanation of the real significance of these 'moments to himself'. Thanks to the censorship of Bolt's Christian identity, many people might simply assume that because his name is a bit like "Hussein", he must be Muslim. There may well have been

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross is one of my favourite saints because of the many different ways in which she speaks to our culture. Her intellectual prowess and campaigning for the recognition of women at German universities makes a genuine contribution to the discussion of the role of women in society. Her conversion was an act of great moral courage when faced by the truth. Her continued love for her Jewish heritage while being true to the Catholic faith pre-empted the Church's friendship to the Jews during and after the horrors of the second world war. Her serene acceptance of martyrdom is simply inspiring. It is also important to remember and to remind others that the Dutch Bishops protested against the treatment of the Jews. This resulted in the round-up of Jewish Catholics, followed swiftly by their being gassed at Auschwitz. This turn of events convinced Pope Pius XII that practical assistance would make more sense than issuing statements - his view of Nazism was n

The New Liturgical Movement has a post to advertise  Assumption Day Masses  in the combox. Here in England, we are well served by the Latin Mass Society listing  at its website. Here at  Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen , in addition to our English Masses at 10am and 4.15pm, we will have  Missa Cantata at 8pm. We will sing Mass IX ( Cum iubilo ) and the Gregorian chant propers will be sung by the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate. If anyone has been missed from the LMS listing, please feel free to add details in the combox or to email me . ADDITIONS Fr Geoffrey Marlor reports : I will be offering Mass here at English Martyrs, Whalley Range, Manchester (Low Mass) at 7am. English Martyrs is a fine historic church, blessed with two beautiful side altars (one of Our Lady and one of Saint Joseph, both untouched by reordering) at which I regularly offer Mass in the extraordinary form. Fr Anthony Logan reports : High Mass at St Mary Moorfields 6-30 pm. Birmingham Oratory. L