Sawston again.

Readers of this blog will know that Sawston Hall, the Tudor Catholic house, just south of Cambridge, has been posted on before. Well, it is on the market again for £4,750,000.

I would be interested to learn if there is a project afoot to purchase and maintain the house as a Catholic site, and one to which we could contribute.

There are so few remaining Catholic houses of that era; this one remains entirely as it was, and it contains the 'finest priest-hole in the land'.

Night of Light.

We are holding a children's celebration of the eve of All Saints at St Ignatius parish, Ossett, WF5 0DQ. It will take place next Thursday, 31st October, at 6.30pm. For school-age children only, with proper adult supervision. Activities, treats and ending with a candlelit procession.

Parents can drop off or stay. There is no cost attached. Please don't dress your children up as this is already in hand.

Let's reclaim Halloween for Christ and let our children see the light in the call to be saints.

Live at the Oratory.

On Wednesday of this week the British Confraternity of Catholic Clergy held its Annual Colloquium at the Oratory in Oxford.

I took the above photo towards the end of the day, outside the church, capturing only some of the participants. 

I took part in the Colloquium last year for the first time and was again warmed by the experience of meeting priests from up and down the country; so seldom do we get together. The various speakers helped to give form and content to the day, and I was glad to meet Bishop Jarrett again from Australia.

Thanks go to the Fathers of the Oratory for welcoming us for the day; yesterday the first group of Fathers arrived in York to begin establishing an Oratory at St Wilfred's in York. May both these priestly movements be a source of light today. 

A Western approach.

This is an aerial view of Bunbury, a Cathedral See in Western Australia. The bishop of this Diocese, Mgr Gerard Holohan, has written a tremendous Pastoral Letter on the subject of internet pornography addiction. This letter, he says, is a response to the growing problem of pornography in his province of Australia.

The Letter is extensive in length so I won't paste it here; but it well worth opening this link in order to read it in full.

Addiction to internet pornography is endemic, not just in Western Australia but in the Western world, if not the whole world, yet it is rarely spoken of. Bishop Holohan's Letter then, is extraordinary in the way that it approaches this matter so publicly, so thoroughly, but above all, because it is such a wonderful proclamation of Christ.

The Letter begins by speaking about Jesus Christ as Saviour. It then speaks about the nature of addiction to pornography - once something that was little understood yet now something whose biological and chemical consequences are becoming well understood.

The Letter then returns to speak about the person of Christ, and how by entering into, or seeking to renew a relationship with Him, He is able to transform the woundedness of human personality and psychology.

This is a Letter which should be brought into our culture in a public and unself-conscious way, enabling the subject of internet pornography to come out from the shadows, and to be brought into contact with Christ - Saviour, Healer, the one who, uniquely, can transform human life, in all its interior division, and make a person whole.

God bless Bishop Holohan for his courageous and apostolic attitude in the face of this cultural tsunami. 

Spare a thought for NSW.

Many in New South Wales are praying urgently for rain. You will have seen on the news that bushfires are raging on the Central Coast some hundred miles north of Sydney. The fires are so extensive that the Sydney skyline is now overwhelmed with smoke and ash. 

Hundreds of homes have been destroyed and there has possibly been a death.

During my years in Sydney I did not experience a bushfire, but I feel for those whose homes have been lost and for all those who are anxious and frightened as the unpredictable fires rage around, and as these fearsome skies envelope the city. Rorate caeli ...

A woman at the centre.

Pope Francis has entrusted the whole world to one woman. But she is a person who has surrendered her whole self to God's plan in Christ Jesus. So, if there is one human being that you can trust the whole world with - then it is her.

This is the prayer of Consecration. The certainty and the simplicity which is expressed in this prayer and the act that it accompanies stand in sharp contrast to the secular attitude  of self-reliance and independence:

Holy Mary Virgin of Fatima,

with renewed gratitude for your maternal presence

we join our voice to that of all the generations

who call you blessed.

We celebrate in you the works of God,

who never tires of looking down with mercy

upon humanity, afflicted with the wound of sin,

to heal it and save it.

Accept with the benevolence of a Mother

the act of consecration that we perform today with confidence,

before this image of you that is so dear to us.

We are certain that each of us is precious in your eyes

and that nothing of all that lives in our hearts is unknown to you.

We let ourselves be touched by your most sweet regard

and we welcome the consoling caress of your smile.

Hold our life in your arms:

bless and strengthen every desire for good;

revive and nourish faith;

sustain and enlighten hope;

awaken and animate charity;

guide all of us along the path of holiness.

Teach us your own preferential love

for the little and the poor,

for the excluded and the suffering,

for sinners and the downhearted:

bring everyone under your protection

and entrust everyone to your beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus.

Amen.

"Mulieris Dignitatem" revisited.

The three-day conference which has just taken place in the Vatican on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Pope John Paul II's Letter on Women is a very important element in the formation of our culture. Woman stands at the centre of human life and at the centre of Salvation. It is when woman is truly herself that men know how to respond. It is Blessed Mother who enabled the renewal of humanity to take place in Jesus Christ.

The secular vision of woman, whilst giving woman a sense of her personhood, has at the same time, done much to take her dignity away. The secular vision moreover, implies that the Church is responsible for denying women their dignity. The fact remains however, that it was the Church who gave women their dignity in the past, and it will be so again today.

An important development is that a renewed vision of both masculinity and femininity is emerging from a re-reading of the Theology of the Body; what the Theology of the Body says about men and what it says about women. This now has to enter into culture through the lives of men and women who will allow their identity and their lives to be fashioned by this genuine vision, rather than by secular culture.

I took the above photo in the main hall of Notre Dame University in Sydney. There in 2009 one of the Dominican Sisters from Nashville led an eight-week study on the Letter "Mulieris Dignitatem". Participation by young people in this study was very edifying, and has borne much fruit. I know that the number of young Catholics who are marrying in Church in Sydney has risen, and that a significant number of young women from Sydney are presently testing a vocation to religious life.

Another significant element which took place during this eight-week study was the presence of young men. The majority of the participants were women, but these young men came in order that their vision of women might be renewed. And during the weekly recess for questions and discussion, the men came away from the women's group in order to reflect, from a masculine perspective, on the Pope's teaching. The whole event took place in a most thoughtful way and we would do well enable such reflection to take place wherever there is an opportunity.

Jubilee reading.

In March I posted on the books which I had read since returning from Australia. Well, I have kept up a good pace with reading since then, in this my Silver Jubilee year. These are the titles which I have read since the end of March:

"The Heritage of Catholic York", by John Rayne-Davis, which I found to be a very poor book.

"Evangelical Catholicism", by George Weigel, which, in spite of its journalistic style, is a very important book for our era. This is one which I will read again.

"The quest for the true Cross", by Carsten Theide and Matthew D'Ancona, which I found to be a very poor attempt to chronicle this topic. I almost reached the end of the book, but had to give up.

"Voices of Morbath", by Eamonn Duffy; the presentation of a tremendous history of an English village during the reformation by a genuine historian.

"Prayer: Living with God", by Simon Tugwell OP. This is my second read of this masterpiece on the Spiritual life.

"New Rules", by Daniel Yankelovich. I only very occasionally dip into psycho-babble books, but with hindsight, this 1981 study reveals much about what has been taking place in our society in recent decades.

"The autobiography of an Elizabethan", by John Gerard. Again, a second reading of this tremendous account of Catholic life in England under Elizabeth I. 

"Cardinal Heenan", by James Hagerty. An easy synopsis of the life of this good English bishop, but I didn't learn anything new.

"A Crown of Thorns", by John Cardinal Heenan. An excellent piece of history by the bishop himself. This book will remain an important reference point as our Catholic history develops. 

And I'm presently in the middle of reading two books:

"A man on a donkey", by H. Prescott, which is an old-fashioned and very slow novel about the Pilgrimage of Grace. I'm about a quarter of the way into it and not much has happened yet.

"The fulfilment of all desire", by Ralph Martin. Again, I read this masterpiece a couple of years ago, but it is so good that I am savouring every page.

Oh, and my slow reading of the Summa is still continuing (very slowly).

While I was at seminary I kept a list of all the books which I read, and I have obviously started doing this again. It is quite interesting to look back on what one has read, and of course, to make room for books that one still wants to read.

I took the above photo at the end of August. It shows the site (the green field bordered by trees) of the Carthusian Monastery of Axeholme (Low Melwood Priory), near Epworth in Lincolnshire. It was here that Augustine Webster was Prior. I made a small detour when returning to Yorkshire after the Youth 2000 Festival at Walsingham in order to see this site. Nothing, apart from stretches of the original moat, now remains of this Charterhouse and the site is now farm land. However, a group from my new parish in Ossett go there on pilgrimage each May.

50 years later.

Last month, as a way of acknowledging the Year of Faith, I started reading Fr Ralph Wiltgen's first-hand history of the Second Vatican Council, "The Rhine Flows into the Tiber". I first read this account of the Council when I was at seminary in 1983. It is a very interesting and worthy historical document, written by a priest-observer of the Council, as it took place. He titled his book thus in order to emphasise the influence which the German-French bishops had on the Council, an influence which overtook that of the Roman Curia as the Council sessions were held.

Two things have struck me during this reading. First, the scale and complexity of the organisational and administrative background to the Council's proceedings. With over 2400 Council Fathers taking part, representing the entire Church, to undertake such a Synod as this was quite a feat. Secondly, the number of differing viewpoints and theological movements which were present during the Council, expressed by a multitude of different groupings of bishops, made an already complex situation look untenable. In fact the different voices and opinions which are present today in the Church are, in many ways, a continuation of the discussions and arguments which took place during the Council, both inside and outside the Council chamber.

It is a wonder that, in spite of the human complexity of the Council's deliberations, the voice of the holy Spirit could be heard at all. And that, since today, so many arguments rage on, that the directives of the Council Fathers in the Sixteen Decrees, can be heard above the clamour of voices which claim to speak in the name of the Council.

So too, with the teaching of the present Holy Father, whose words are being dissected both inside and outside the Church, and all sorts of positions being proposed as their genuine interpretation. The Holy Spirit obviously wants to give the Church something through Pope Francis; that is the voice to listen out for and to obey. 

Just plain busy.

Apologies for this last recent gap in my posts, but I have just been plain busy. Moving into a new parish appointment is quite bewildering as there are so many new people to get to know, and so much to learn. Moreover, for three days of last week I was in Bayswater giving some inaugural formation to the new Spes Team. Although there is so much for me to do and learn in my new post these three days with the new Spes Team members were especially uplifting and rewarding. Do remember these young people in your prayers, for God can use their commitment very powerfully. 

Priestly expression.

On our final evening in Kevelaer the St John Vianney Fraternity held a torchlight procession through the town to the shrine where we would make an act of reconsecration of ourselves to the Mother of God. The photo above shows us preparing for the procession in the grounds of the basilica.

More than any other aspect of the Society it is public acts, such as this one, which have drawn me to the Society. Each time we meet we hold some simple priestly act, undertaken unself-consciously in public, in which we, as diocesan priests, express our identity.

On  this occasion we processed from the basilica gardens, vested and carrying lighted candles while chanting the Litany of Our Lady, through the town to the shrine where Bishop Guy-Marie led us in re-consecrating our priestly selves to her.

This simple act, which concluded our week of fraternity, wonderfully expressed the depth of our Fraternity and our mission as priests - in making this act we know where we stand in the world, and in that office we stand together.

Three witnesses.

During the SJMV summer session in Kevelaer we had two trips to nearby places. The first was to Xanten, the town in which St Norbert was born. It is here in the crypt of the Cathedral (photo above) that the mortal remains of Blessed Karl Leisner are buried. Karl Leisner, then a deacon, was imprisoned in Dachau Concentration Camp, and there in 1944 was secretly ordained priest. He died of TB only a few months after the liberation of the camp in 1945. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1996.

The following day we visited Munster, the See of the bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen, where the Cathedral holds his tomb.

The way in which this courageous bishop preached against the Nazi regime is now famous, and we were able to see the pulpit in the church of St Lambert from which he denounced the crimes of the Nazis. He was beatified in 2005 by Pope John Paul II.

The following day we celebrated the feast of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), Mgr Guy-Marie preaching about her witness.

These three days of our session together produced a most extraordinary resonance in us; to be touched by the example of these three saints who, in their day, resisted the prevailing culture and who lived and died in order to build, with Christ, the real culture. What was so impacting was to have made these visits with this group of priests, who conscious of the falseness of today's prevailing culture, are living in such a way as to help engender anew the real culture, the culture of grace - the Civilisation of love. May the vision of how we are to live today in the face of a prevailing culture which is destructive of human life become the heart of the New Evangelisation of Europe.

  

The SJMV summer session.

This year the summer session of the St John Vianney Society took place in Kevelaer in Germany, last month. Almost a hundred priests and seminarians of the Society came together in this small town just fifteen kilometres from Nijmegen on the German/Holland border. The heart of the town is a shrine to Our Lady; all the the town's roads converge on the main square, where a small octagonal chapel holds the icon of Our Lady of the Afflicted. The shrine has stood here since the 1640s. It was wonderful to be in a place whose beating heart is not a shopping mall or a row of Night Clubs, but a working shrine to the Blessed Mother.

The photo above shows many of the Society's members being introduced to the shrine by a German guide. The photo below shows the act of homage being led by the Bishop emeritus of Belley-Ars, Mgr Guy-Marie Bagnard after our first Mass together in the Basilica.

This year's summer session of the Society was particularly inspiring for me. The last summer session which I took part in was in August 2007. The membership of the Society has grown since then and it was great to meet the recently ordained members and the new seminarian members, and to reconnect personally with the members: this priestly movement at the heart of Europe is well and truly alive and kicking. I'll post again on this encounter.

Pilgrimage for the Sanctity of Life.

This coming Sunday, 22nd September, Bishop John Sherrington, is leading a Pilgrimage at Our Lady's Shrine in Walsingham for the sanctity of life. The pilgrimage begins with Holy Mass at noon at the shrine, followed by packed lunch, Holy Hour, Holy Mile walk, concludes at about 6pm.

Following this, from 25th September till 3rd November, the "40 Days for Life" takes place. This movement to protect mothers and babies is now coordinated worldwide. Nine cities in England now participate, including leeds. The movement has three components; prayer and fasting, vigils, and community outreach. Visit www.40daysforlife.com/leeds.

My new mission begins.

Three days ago, on Tuesday, I arrived in my new parish. It is the parish of St Ignatius in Ossett, near Wakefield. Of course, there are boxes everywhere and I greet much of my stuff, as I unpack it, as I would an old friend; it is over five years ago now that I packed all these things away as I prepared to leave for Australia. It is with a certain sense of relief - that I can establish myself again here in England, and also of hope - that the home mission has such strength - that I begin this next stage in my priestly mission.

The photo above shows the interior of the church - a tribute to both the parishioners and the last Parish Priest. Below are photographs of the presbytery and the garden. In due course I hope to post about my mission here as it begins, and after I have settled in a little more.

 

Remembered by name.

In my last post I spoke about visiting the site of the execution of the Oaten Hill Martyrs; Catholics who were executed for the Faith on 1st October 1588, just south of the old city walls of Canterbury. I should have remembered these great witnesses by name; they are:

Blessed Robert Wilcox, priest.

Blessed Edward Campion, priest.

Blessed Christopher Buxton, priest.

Blessed Robert Widmerpool, layman.

They offered themselves for the good of the Church in this country at the gallows which, formerly, stood on the site pictured above. The grace of their witness has marked this land for Christ.

A week in the life of the New Evangelisation.

Last week I was in Kent giving formation to the new Mission Team of the Vocations Centre in Whitstable. It was the inaugural week for this new team which Fr Stephen Langridge is developing at the Southwark Archdiocese Vocations Centre. The year will be a year of discipleship and mission for the members of the Team. It was a great joy and honour for me to have been with them in their first week. My part in the week was to help them settle in by offering some foundational formation and by endeavouring to nurture their vision of the New Evangelisation. They will be engaged in evangelisation activities throughout the year and we look forward to hearing more about them on the Southwark Vocations Blog.

The above photo shows most of the Team, together with Fr Stephen and Fr Gerry Sheehan, who joined us for an afternoon visit to Canterbury. We visited the church of St Dunstan, where St Thomas More's head was buried by his daughter Meg, and later, the site of the gallows on Oaten Hill, where this photo was taken. Here on this site three priests and one layman were hung, drawn and quartered for their Faith, on 1st October 1588. We  prayed here together for the intercession of these four Blesseds for the mission today.

Another newcomer to the Vocations Centre, one who became an instant focus for the new Team, was the puppy Nemo. He even tried out his baby-teeth on my fingers! I imagine that the next time that I see him he will have forgotten me but will have become another great supporter of the New Evangelisation.

A Festival of grace.

This photograph is the only one which I took during the Youth 2000 Festival at Walsingham last week - this is a shame since the lowering sky which you see above was, the next day, to give way to lovely August sun. The photograph captures the moment when the procession with the Blessed Sacrament moved from the Shrine to the Youth 2000 main Tent. What the photograph doesn't show are the thousand young people inside the tent waiting to greet the procession as it entered. A further two hundred young people would come to join in the Festival on the following day.

Apart from the years when I was in Australia, I have participated and served this Festival every year since it began in 1999. This year's event was, perhaps, the best that I can remember. At least half of the young participants had never been before, they were manifestly focussed on the Lord's Eucharistic presence in the main Tent, and whole event  took place seamlessly through the agency of the organising Team. Particular thanks are due to that organising Team from the Church in this country, for their time, dedication and skills.

Visit the Youth 2000 website to see details of other events which will be taking place in the country later this year. 

A summer Festival approaches.

The young Church of Britain is invited to take part in the Youth 2000 Prayer Festival, 22nd to 26th August, at Walsingham. (www.youth2000.org) This is an extraordinary opportunity to be formed as a disciple through an encounter with Grace in Person. Deliberate no further; come, and invite your friends to accompany you. Set aside these days at Our Lady's Shrine in Norfolk as a priority.

The above photo was taken at the 2003 Walsingham Festival.

There is another blog-gap coming up as I shall be on retreat during the whole of the coming week, and following that I too shall be taking part at the Youth 2000 event. I'll return to posting in the last week of this month. 

How can we respond?

In the light of what I have said about Corpus Christi Catechetical College and its influence on the Church in England and Wales, what would I recommend in terms of ways in which we could respond in the present context? These following comments must, of course, be made in a general way because the way in which you personally could respond depends upon who you are and upon your situation.

First, ask God for light. Appeal to the Holy Spirit. Be led by God. This should be the basis and foundation of all our ‘doings’; that before ‘doing’ any thing, we might be able to receive and welcome the Word of God.

Secondly, consider taking part in a Catholic Conference, Retreat or Pilgrimage; there are many opportunities to choose from here. I think that it is important that we try to see a bigger picture, see what others are doing, and actually come into contact with them.

Thirdly, take one or more of the English and Welsh Martyrs for your inspiration and model. These are our fellow countrymen who actually opened up a way for the Church in this country. In a certain sense, they are our starting point.

Fourthly, receive formation yourself. If you wish to really participate in the Mission of the Church then you need to be formed. Maryvale Institute in Birmingham would be an obvious place to look, but there are many other ways, and at different levels. But seek formation which will prepare you for the area that you feel called to work in. The better formed you are the more effective you can hope to be.

Fifthly, the call for a renewed Catechetics is one which Pope Benedict made repeatedly, particularly with reference to parish life. There is need for a renewed Catechetics at all levels: principally adults and parents, then young people, then children. There are tremendous resources available now: Evangelium; Come, follow me; Faith in the Family; Fit for Mission; Engaged, etc. If you are clear about what you want to do, then locating resources to enable you, will not be a difficult thing. Joining forces with others and planning a project together will probably be more difficult to achieve – that is why submitting all to God in prayer should be your first endeavour.

I took the above photo recently of the Knight's memorial above the choir in Tewksbury Abbey.