Pope Benedict

I admit to being somewhat indifferent to the Pope's visit in advance. I was wrong. From his landing in Scotland to the final blessing in Birmingham, it has been an amazing, encouraging and moving experience. As the Pope stood next to the Queen and the two national anthems played, I experienced a great feeling of pride: here were the Queen of my country and the leader of my Church. It defined for me what it is to be an English Roman Catholic. Over the next few days we witnessed the emergence of the "real" Benedict and not the malign caricature so often portrayed by the media and his enemies. He came across as a gentle and warm man and it seemed clear to me, that even many among the politicians and media presenters were touched by his personality. His visit has done a great deal to gently but firmly assert the value and importance of religion and the right of Roman Catholics to be and to be heard.Of course, there was opposition and controversy but it was not of his making and the pettiness and spite of it did nothing to diminish him, but spoke volumes about where the true spirit of love, mercy and justice is to be found.
He has energised and re-supplied a beleagured Church in this country with the spiritual and intellectual requirements to live in faith in a secular society, with pride and without apology for ones' belief or diffidence in expressing it.
So this great and holy Pope returns to Rome, but he leaves us in better heart and spirit, because of his apostolic visit. My hope and prayer now is that the Bishops clergy and laity build on what he has created and not simply revert to the old ways. He has given us a true spirit and the backbone that it needs. We are English. We are Roman Catholic. This is our home and we are going nowhere, least of all disappearing into the shadows of a "private" faith.

Aid to the Church in Need

Aid to the Church in Need is holding its annual Westminster Event soon. Here are the details.

Annual Mass and "Hope without fear" event
Westminster Cathedral and hall
Ambrosden Avenue
London SW1P 1QW
Saturday 16th October

Mass of Our Lady ( Feast of St Margaret Alacoque)


The day begins with Sung Latin Mass in Westminster Cathedral at 10.30am. Mass will be followed by an afternoon of talks in the cathedral hall. We're delighted to welcome some very special guests from the suffering Church in Sudan and Siberia.

Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio, South Sudan, is leading his people in South Sudan through a time of great uncertainty. Despite the country's fragile peace agreement, he has seen his people fall victim to atrocious attacks including crucifixion. Benefactors are helping to provide hope, funding Christian education at the Save the Saveables schools, training seminarians, Sisters and catechists, and helping priests reach Christian communities with new vehicles.

Father Michael Shields from Magadan , Siberia, is a long time friend of Aid to the Church in Need. An American from Alaska, he chose to serve in a former Communist gulag camp in Magadan, Siberia. Millions died here. Father works for those who survive, ensuring their stories are told and their suffering acknowledged by the authorities. He is the author of the Aid to the Church in Need publication Martyrs of Magadan - a book that tells the stories of 15 survivors of the gulags. Earlier this year, Aid to the Church in Need paid tribute to Father Michael's work by including him in the book Heroic Priests.

Neville-Kyrke Smith, UK Director, Aid to the Church in Need, Has travelled extensively in Eastern Europe and, this year, he will give an update on the help benefactors are giving to Christians in the Ukraine where he recently visited.

John Pontifex,UK Head of Press and Information Aid to the Church in Need,
will speak about suffering, faith and hope in Pakistan and how benefactors are helping to nurture this hope.

For more information please visit our Website:
http//www.acnuk.org./events.php/223/aid-to-the-church-in-need-annual-mass-and-hope-without-fear-event-westminster

Liars

Today's Gospel is one of those uncompromising statements that Jesus makes, which leaves no room for self-delusion. It begins by talking about oaths and the futility of swearing by this or that and then goes on to say stick to Yes or No. This bit contains a real challenge akin to when Jesus asked whoever was sinless to cast the first stone. Because, the truth is we are all liars and pretty well experienced at it. When I read this, I suddenly realised what a liar I am and how I have heavily littered by path through life with lies great or small. Until reading it I would admit to the occasional porkie, but that would be just the tip of the iceberg. And there is something more worrying than the capacity for self deceit, when deceiving God or others. Elsewhere in the Bible, Jesus refers to the Evil One ( mentioned also in this Gospel) as a liar and the father of lies. So, we can be assured that when we lie, we are doing the will not of our Father in heaven, but the father of lies. There are, therefore no little lies, no white lies. They are all wrong and sinful and an offence to God and a rejection of his grace and love. Sadly as Jesus points out, those who find more and more exaggerated oaths to support their honesty are more likely to be lying and doing the work of the wrong father.

So, let's take lying in all its forms much more seriously. If it is a sin, then I have a lot of unconfessed sins to account for. Maybe I should take up the challenge Jesus lays down in this Gospel.

By their fruits......Cumbrian murders

Yesterday saw the progress of evil through small, peaceful, unsuspecting communities, ill prepared to deal with such savage and unprovoked violence. Indeed, what community could be prepared for such an event or even to anticipate that it may happen. We rightly conduct our lives looking for a more hopeful and pleasant reality. But, whether the level of death and suffering amount to yesterday's horrific level, or whether it is a single act of violence and destruction, we know only to well the presence of evil within our communities.

As Christians, we have an understanding of evil that locates its origin outside of humanity in the objective evil known by many names, the most common being Satan. When evil acts are committed, it is this force that gives them birth and delights in the misery that they bring into the lives of human beings. But the origin of the act does not absolve or excuse the individual from complete personal responsibility. Lest anyone be deluded enough to blame the Devil alone, we need to say that it is in the exercise of our free will that we enter into a diabolical partnership of wickedness and we, therefore, are utterly culpable for the acts - can we still call them sins? - that we carry out.

It is true that there are exceptions such as those who are disturbed by mental disorders of one kind or another whose judgements are so impaired as to make it impossible for them to know a right action from a wrong one. The evidence so far does not suggest that the perpetrator of these killings was mentally ill, certainly not to that degree. In fact, the evidence suggests that he was very much in control of what he was doing. In one particular instance, he beckoned a poor 66 year old lady to come across to him and when she did so, in all innocence, he shot her in the face. And so, a woman delivering catalogues for Betterware to earn a few pounds extra was brutally and deliberately murdered by someone who did not know her and had no reason at all to harm her. That sounds like evil to me.

Even in Christian circles these days we are reluctant to talk about evil and sin. We attribute wrongdoing and failure to psychological, environmental, cultural influences and so on and, of course, these are factors. But they are also the ways by which evil is mediated into the world.
Our humanity and our society are compromised by original sin and by the continuing malice of the evil one, so we fall short of the perfection in which God created our species and which is his desire for us to return to.

For whatever reason, Derek Bird made a pact with the devil. Not a conscious, melodramatic selling of his soul, but a surrender to that potential for and attraction to evil which is inherent in our fallen natures. He is responsible for the acts he committed and must now answer to God for his sin. His only hope is God's mercy.

Aid to the Church in Need

A couple of nights ago, there was a talk at Sacred Heart Church, Blackpool given by the Lancaster Diocese rep for Aid to the Church in Need(ACN). There were four people turned up, not counting the priest, a poor turnout. As it happens, it was well worthwhile taking the trouble to be there to hear the plight of our fellow Christians throughout the world, mainly in the Middle East and the Far East, but also Latin America. Whilst we have some mild degree of persecution in this country, others across the world have a much tougher life because of their faith. Murder, rape, damage to property, false accusations and poor access to justice, economic and social deprivation are the familiar lot of many Christians. Christian communities are under pressure and in some countries, Iraq for example, the very existence of the Christian community is under threat;this in the place where some of the earliest Christian communities are to be found.

Aid to the church in Need provides help to such communities working though the local Bishops. It is not only Catholics but all Christians who might benefit and, in the case of education, people of other faiths who have access to Catholic schools. ACN has less of a profile than,for example, CAFOD and it's work and its methods are different in some respects, but no less valuable.

As always, there is a need for funds, though Thursday's talk was not a fundraiser. There are all the usual ways of supporting ACN: donations, merchandise, fundraising and, of course, prayer for the workers and for all our persecuted bretheren. It would be good, of course, if other parishes were to invite the local secretary for ACNN to give his talk( perhaps when the weather is warmer and the nights lighter). His contact details are in the Diocesan directory. We should not, though, just walk by on the other side. We are not being asked to suffer and die for our faith: others are. We can do something so that ACN can continue to do something.

Click on the blogpost title to link to ACN UK webpage.

Anniversary waltz

Last Sunday I went to a service of unity at Sacred Heart Church in Blackpool. It was organised, I think, by the Methodist Church and was reasonably well attended. It was an hour of reflections, prayers and Scripture readings on the theme of light and darkness; and it was very well done and moving. In between the readings and so on there was excellent, loud and joyful praise led by the music ministry from two of the Churches. I suspect that Sacred Heart hasn't experienced the like of that praise for many a year. The music did not make me think nostalgically about the hymn singing at the various Sunday Masses I go to.

Anyway there we were, gathered together from our different traditions, doing what the Lord Jesus asked us to do: to be one. So, in the time of Prayer for Christian Unity, we got together and danced the anniversary waltz and, no doubt we will gather together and dance next year around the same time. That's how anniversaries work. There was no doubting the genuineness of those present and the pleasure of meeting together. But, while the week of Prayer for Christian Unity is to be valued and such meetings to be encouraged, you have to ask the question:Is that it?

The service was led by a a very pleasant woman who was the secretary for the local Council of Churches. I suppose I knew vaguely of its existence but that's about it. What does it do? When and where does it meet? Who is part of this Council and what sort of feedback, connection and consultation is there to the pewfodder? I cannot speak for the Methodists and Anglicans but, from the RC point of view, I feel the return of an old and reliable friend: communication or not as the case may be. I intend to do a seperate post on this, so let's move on.

Christian Unity is urgent, it is a command of the Lord, not a polite suggestion. Praying once a year and meeting during one week each year is just about a start. Now, I know there are big issues of doctrine, practice, organisation, authority and so on that seperate us, but these are not up to us to deal with; bigger fish than us swim in that pool (maybe one or two pirhanas as well).

But we should not hide behind the big issues nor use them as reasons for not meeting, sharing with and getting to know our non-Catholic but authentically Christian sisters and brothers. After all, we share the same Spirit and acknowledge the same Lord and Saviour.

Now,maybe there are all sorts of activities going on out there and maybe I should stop blogging and get out more. But I don't know what is happening and that brings us back to the issue of communication.

The name of Allah(2)

Whilst we might deplore the violent reaction of the Malaysian Muslims, it does tell us how highly Muslims value the name of Allah and how openly they are prepared to acknowledge and defend the use of the name. So where do we Christians stand in relation to the Holy Name of Jesus? Do we stand comparison with the fervent respect that Muslims accord to the name of Allah? Whilst there has always been a tradition in Catholic Christianity of devotion to the Holy Name, in practice we do very little to show what the name means to us and to oppose the improper use of the name of Jesus or Jesus Christ which, sadly, is all too common nowadays. It would be true to say that "Jesus" or "Jesus Christ" are used more nowadays in public as forms of cursing or swearing than they are in a reverential or holy sense. In films, books on TV Jesus is casually, deliberately and intentionally, in some cases, blasphemed and his name placed on a par with other swear words. If it is not the use of the name of the Saviour of the world, it is an equally casual recourse to the word God to express anger, frustration etc. Often, nowadays this takes the form of the three in one words omygod or omigod, so beloved of young people and so frequently encountered on TVand so on. Without pushing my paranoia too far, I suspect that quite often there is a calculated use of the words God, Jesus etc. with the purpose of offending, trivialising, mocking or whatever.

It is to the credit of Muslims that they would not tolerate such profane use of the name Allah. And it is to the shame of Christians that we so often fail to defend the names we hold sacred and to challenge a society that has so wrongly and maliciously appropriated them for more malign and unpleasant uses.

We need to look again at how we really understand, value and revere the names of Jesus and the word God. For a Christian to use the name of Jesus or God blaspehemously is a grave offence
Even in prayer, we should not lightly or casually utter the holy name, which is a whole world of prayer in itself.

And we should begin to learn from our Muslim brothers. I don't mean let's firebomb the BBC , but let's begin to make the case for more respect and to allow the name of Jesus to be raised up high so that eventually every knee will bow at the name of Jesus to the glory of God.

There are prayers and litanies to the Holy Name. Maybe now is the time to begin to reurn them to more general usage. Seek out a prayer and begin to incorporate it into your regular prayer time in reperation for the sins against the Holy Name. You could use a prayer like the "Jesus Prayer" or this one which is the concluding prayer of an old, traditional Litany to the Holy Name.

Lord make us love and fear thy name at all times;

for they are never disappointed of thy guidance,

whom thou dost firmly establish

in thy friendship.

Who livest and reignest world without end.