Every Child is a Blessing

In our parish we are blessed with very many births each year - as anyone who has attended the 10am Mass on Sunday morning will have experienced for themselves! Sometimes, sadly, the great joy of parents expecting a new addition to their family can be turned to distress and heartache when they hear that there is a possibility their baby may be unwell. Often great pressure is put upon them to terminate the pregnancy at an early stage even though, as many of our brave parents have discovered the prognosis itself lacks accuracy. We have many healthy children in the parish whose parents were recommended a termination because their child was diagnosed as having Downs Syndrome or some other disorder.
Not every diagnosis however is so shaky and sometimes the child is indeed unwell. The pressure put on parents to end the life of that child can be unbearable. One mother in our parish was accused of being `cruel´ because she refused to agree to an abortion. It is not unusual for parents to be told that the baby will live for such a short time that 'it´s not worth' continuing the pregnancy. I'm grateful to Fr Tim Finigan for drawing my attention to this short video:

Fr Angelus at Forum Christi

This week Fr Angelus from the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal spoke to Forum Christi about the spirituality of St Therese of Lisieux ("The Little Way").
He told us that St Therese said that she "always had the desire to be a Saint" but found a great gulf between her life and those of the Saints she had read about. So she began to make small sacrifices and acts of charity for the love of Jesus.
This is something we can do in our lives - for example instead of avoiding those people who annoy us we should make a special effort to see them and do something nice for them, even simply giving them a smile, and do this for God.

Sex Education

Recently the press has given a lot of coverage to some research that purports to show that abstinence programmes in schools don't reduce teenage pregnancies. The research itself is open to question but what's really interesting is what isn't mentioned. If abstinence programmes don't work then they are on a par with sex-ed programmes which don't work either - but are very lucrative for those behind them.
For a thoughtful reflection take a look at this article.

The Dawkins Delusion

Fr Philip Miller spoke to the 18-30 group, Forum Christi, last night on "The Dawkins Delusion". The talk was a critique of Richard Dawkins' recent book "The God Delusion", where Dawkins argues against the concept of God, and religion. Fr Philip is well placed to speak on this topic having himself a science background - he studied physics at Cambridge, and then completed a doctorate in astronomy (not, as Fr Marcus stated, astrology!).
The talk began with a list of the points where we could agree with Dawkins, for example disagreeing with fundamentalism and a literal interpretation of scripture (rather than an interpretation, in context, by the faith community). This was followed by a discussion of areas where we would disagree with the book, for example Dawkins alleges that faith is blind following without, or even against, evidence and without the need for thought.
The talk was followed by lively discussion, and the evening ended with a decade of the rosary and Theology on Tap at the Nightingale.

Policies make life hard for families

Zenit, the news service from Rome, carries an article on how families can be put at a financial disadvantage by Government policies. It will be interesting to see whether any political party comes up with concrete proposals to alleviate the discrimination against families. This is the first part of the article:

Marriage and family life in Britain have declined dramatically in recent years and one of the causes is government policy. This is the thesis of Patricia Morgan, in a policy brief entitled: "The War between the State and the Family: How Government Divides and Impoverishes." The study is published by the London-based Institute of Economic Affairs. The number of marriages has fallen notably, while the age at which couples marry has risen and the proportion of births out of wedlock has rocketed from 8% in 1970 to 42%. It is true, Morgan admits, that around one in four women with a child born out of wedlock goes on to marry in the subsequent eight years. But a quarter or more of children now have lone parents, who bear and raise their offspring in one or a series of cohabitations. In addition, cohabitations in which children are born are much less likely to be converted into marriage, and more likely to dissolve than either marriages or childless cohabitations. Moreover, Morgan argues that there is a generally upward trend in the proportion of cohabiting relationships that dissolve rather than turn into marriage. And, after they break up, it takes about two years to form another relationship, often another cohabitation. This decline in marriage is a worrying trend, the study explains, given the important social role of family life. Not only does marriage perform social tasks that are not easily replaced by other institutions, but it is also an important means of bonding fathers with their children. Morgan points out the importance of marriage for men, in terms of connecting them with the community and encouraging personal responsibility. Single-parent families and divorce also have severe negative effects on children that have been substantiated by numerous studies, Morgan points out. Problems include lower educational results, poorer work prospects and inferior health. Adults are also better off being married. "Married people are consistently better off in terms of longevity, mental and physical health, and suffer lower levels of violence and addiction," the study argues. Welfare payments The breakdown in family life has led to a big rise in government welfare spending. Payments related to child support rose from 10 billion pounds ($19.6 billion) per year in 1975 to 22 billion ($43.2 billion) in 2003 (in 2003 prices). No less than two-thirds of this increase was due to the big increase in one-parent families, according to Morgan. The problem with this is that a disproportionate amount has gone to single-parent households. Two-parent families are, in effect, being economically discouraged through the combination of welfare payments and the tax system. Thus, the government promotes a situation that favors the increase in single-parent families, with the consequent social ill-effects. "Anti-family activists have expressly sought to undermine any economic, social and legal need and support for marriage by getting any privileges granted to married couples, including tax allowances, withdrawn, and recognition extended to different types of households and relationships," Morgan explains. In many cases couples with two children would be financially better off if they split up and the mother claimed welfare benefits. For example, if one parent is working full time at the minimum wage, or at average income, the couple is worse off living together than if they were to split up -- to the tune of 260 pounds ($510) per week. Only when joint incomes reach 50,000 pounds ($98,125) a year is there no loss from being a couple. Thus, a combination of payments in cash and in kind raise the welfare available outside the married state by enough to take away economic reasons for forming a conjugal household. While the rise of illegitimacy and the retreat from marriage might not simply be due to economics, it would be unwise to ignore the financial factor that forms part of the environment in which people make decisions about relationships and children. In fact, many people, Morgan admits, will have other reasons that could override economic factors in deciding whether to marry. "But it would be foolish to simply assume that people do not change their behavior in response to the costs and benefits of different directions," she observes. The welfare system encourages lone parenting especially when the earning potential of the father is relatively weak. It does this in three ways, Morgan explains. First, the bias in tax and benefits systems discriminates against couples, particularly single-earner couples. Second, it can encourage single mothers to have children in order to obtain welfare benefits and thus improve their economic situation. Third, the benefits system can bring about labor market conditions that are less conducive to couples making a decision to marry.

Asbos

The article in this week's newsletters about Asbos for toddlers who damage Church property and fines for parents certainly generated a lot of interest. Some people were outraged. Others congratulated us and said it was about time too!

Most people, however, spotted that the date from which the new measures were to take effect was 1st April. So the time has come to own up. It was indeed an April Fool's Day spoof.

The accompanying photograph is, however, genuine and was taken by me in York earlier this year.

Ruth Ashfield at Forum Christi

Ruth Ashfield, an expert in John Paul II's 'Theology of the Body', addressed our Forum Christi group on Sunday. She spoke about the importance of appreciating sexual difference and complementarity between men and women and how this enables a proper understanding of human nature and society. In a very animated question time she dealt with issues regarding true Christian feminism, homosexuality, chastity education, the importance of an exclusively male priesthood. Afterwards the group went on to the Nightingale pub for 'Theology on Tap'!

Last week Ruth had joined Declan Jones in speaking to our Keep the Faith and Confirmation groups about living a life of chastity in the world today.

Comic Relief

The secular media have recently attacked a Catholic school for refusing to participate in Comic Relief fund-raising activities. Comic Relief will state in their offical response to questions from Catholics that none of their money goes towards supporting abortions in the Third World. Strictly speaking that is true. What they don't say is that they do support organisations that promote abortions. It is also clear that they give large sums of money to organisations that explicitly attack the Catholic Church on this issue. For example last year Comic Relief donated £637,054 to One World Action.
One World Action sponsors a report called "Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Central America - an agenda for action". Anyone reading it would be hard-pressed to defend One World Action against the charge that it is both virulently anti-Catholic and aggressively pro-abortion.
for a fuller account I recommend a quick visit to the article posted by Fr Tim Finigan over at the Hermeneutic of Continuity.

Wednesday & Thursday this Week

On Wednesday this week I celebrated the 6.45am Mass and then got things together for a trip to St. Andrew's University in Scotland where I was to address the Catholic Scoiety on the topic of vocations. I had been given the rather cumbersome title of "Where have all the vocations gone and how do we get them back?"

I flew from Gatwick to Edinburgh coincidentally meeting a parishioner as we boarded. From Edinburgh I took the train to Leuchars where I was met by Jamie, the president of the Catholic Society and Chris, from Boston, who kindly gave me a lift into town in his car.

The chaplain of the Catholic Society is also the parish priest. He was away attending the deanery Lenten Station Mass so I was asked to celebrate the Wednesday evening 7.30pm Mass in the chaplaincy. It was good to see the chapel, which can take fifty people, pretty well full. There were people from the parish there but I'd say that the majority of those present were students.

After Mass we had the meeting of the Canmore Society. After the talk there were questions and then the chance for a cup of tea before we retired to a local watering house for something more refreshing.

It was a good trip and I enjoyed myself very much. I was pleased to meet such an impressive number of students and find that some of them are indeed thinking about priesthood and religious life.

Recent Publications

Vocations News
From time to time I produce a newsletter with information about what's been happening vocationswise in the Archdiocese. It began as a newsletter for priests to encourage them to be positive and pro-active about promoting vocations. After many requests we decided to produce it also for parishes. Currently we print about ten thousand which is roughly ten percent of our Mass going population in the diocese. We've not produced a Vocations News for a while and so our latest is a 'bumper edition' running to eight pages with all sorts of interesting news articles.
You may have seen some copies at the back of the Church.

Lenten Reading
Also at the back of the Church there are copies of Walk with Me and My Day by Day for sale. Walk with Me contains prayers and reflections for every day of the week during Lent. My Day by Day contains the daily scripture readings.

Catenians

Tomorrow, Monday, there will be another meeting of our fledgling Catenian Circle. The Catenians are a group of Catholic men who meet regularly to support each other with their friendship. We live in quite a hostile world and it's important for Catholic men to come together in this way.
Of course, it's important for Catholic women to come together too but as yet no one's come up with a female version of the Catenians. Traditionally we've had the UCM (Union of Catholic Mothers), the CWL (Catholic Women's League) and more recently the excellent ACW (Association of Catholic Women). Anyone wishing to start up one of these groups in the parish would be most welcome.
For more details about the Catenian Circle email us by clicking here.

EWTN

Parishioners will know that I spent Wednesday and Thursday last week being filmed by EWTN for a series of Holy Week reflections. It was a fascinating experience. First of all because it took so long. Lighting is, of course, very important. The Church lights weren't used because they create a flicker on screen, so much of the time was spent setting up special filming lights in order to look as natural as possible. With extra lights shadows become an issue so lots of things in the Church had to be moved to eliminate the shadows they might cast. Then, because it's Lent, there are no flowers in the Church and the Sanctuary looks penitentially bare. On camera, however, it just looks empty so other pieces of furniture had to be moved to break up the empty spaces a bit. Finally, the Sanctuary had to look like Holy Week which is when the meditations will be broadcast. For Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday it meant simply having the statues and Crucifixes covered. For Maundy Thursday, of course, the Altar Crucifix had to be veiled in white and the best vestments had to come out. For Friday everything had to be stripped bare.

We had a good group of people present to be filmed listening to the first meditation. They spent the whole morning in the Church and so we treated them to an Ash Wednesday lunch of soup and a roll. We filmed four meditations on Wednesday and one on Friday. By Wednesday evening I had a much clearer idea of what was required and more familiarity with speaking into a camera - so I re-wrote the next day's reflection: the one which will be broadcast on Maundy Thursday.

You no longer need a special satellite for EWTN, it can be obtained on the Sky network.

In the photo you see Paul the cameraman who had come over with Lesley and Niall - an ever patient and hard-working crew!

Lenten Resolutions

Last year on Palm Sunday we all picked up palm branches and waved them as we welcomed the Lord singing "Hosanna! to the Son of David". Those branches represented our desire to be united with Jesus, to receive him into our hearts and into our homes, to be his followers in the midst of the world.

We know that in Jerusalem two thousand years ago those shouts of welcome and joyful expectation were soon to change. The voices would be distorted into a clamour for him to be crucified. We can marvel at how fickle the people of the time were, how easily they let themselves be influenced by the subtle insinuations of a few powerful figures.

But with Lent round the corner we might ask ourselves what has happened to our own enthusiasm? How have we changed since last Palm Sunday? In our parish we carefully collect all the palms that are left over and we store them in the crypt of the Church. Before Lent we fetch them out and burn them in a special brazier then, using a pestle and mortar, we grind down the charred remains to make the ash for distribution on Ash Wednesday.

Our ash is blacker than that produced at ultra-high temperatures in industrial kilns and it is quite coarse. It is also an eloquent expression of the way in which our good intentions can so easily turn to ash and the need for us to begin again in Lent. I find that it is best to give some thought to Lenten Resolutions in the days before Ash Wednesday because if I leave it until the last minute I usually just rely on the typical fall-backs. Last year a priest friend of mine had a very effective resolution: not to check his emails until after breakfast. By keeping the computer off until later he found he had more time to focus on God in the morning. What will yours be?

The Great Silence

INTO GREAT SILENCE is the first ever film about life inside the Grande Chartreuse, the head monastery of the legendary Carthusian Order of monks based in the French Alps. A near-silent meditation on monastic life in a very pure form, the film contains no music except the chants in the monastery, no interviews or commentaries. The gentle rhythm of the monastic prayers and rituals give the film a beautiful cadence, and the passing of time and the change of seasons are captured by Groning’s stunning cinematography. A sublime experience that offers a welcome retreat from the frantic pace of contemporary life.

The film is showing locally at Richmond. Click here to get more details.

You can see a preview of The Great Silence here:




And here's a review of the film by Fr Tim Finigan who lectures at Parkminster, the Carthusian Abbey in southern England.

Evening of Recollection

Tonight I preached the monthly Evening of Recollection for men in the parish. We have two recollections each month, one for men the other for women. Sometimes I'm asked why we don't combine them. The answer I give usually is sufficient explanation: these monthly mini-retreats are meant to be challenging. We hear the points that are made and seek to apply them to our own life - not to that of our spouse. It would be awful to say something when giving a meditation that then became ammunition in an argument at home! I might remind the men, for example, that they should be considerate to their wives and express that consideration in practical details - by bringing a gift home on Valentine's Day. I wouldn't want a wife to complain, "See, even the priest said you should do such and such..."
Anyway, I didn't in fact venture into such dangerous waters tonight. The first meditation was about the Mass and the second looked at 'unity of life' or how we live our Christian faith with integrity. There was also a talk given by a lay man and some time for examination of conscience and spiritual reading while I heard Confessions. The evening ended with Benediction at 9.00pm.
Pope John Paul once said that our parishes should become 'schools of prayer'. It is very much at the heart of priestly ministry that we should teach people to pray. Our Evenings of Recollection are one of the ways we seek to do this in our parish.

Towards a Vision

At present we are inviting parishioners to reflect on the twin themes of Communion and Mission. This has been occasioned by the consultation initiated by the Archbishop concerning the future of the diocese. It is time for us all to take stock, to consider what we are about as a Church and to ask ourselves how we may improve given our limited resources.

It is a process that is much more than considering which Churches to close, which parishes to amalgamate, or where to create new ones. All the same, this photo represents a novel solution to the problems of demographic shift in a diocese!

The Missionaries of Charity

This morning I left early in order to get over to the Missionaries of Charity house near the Cathedral. Sr Amada, the Provincial, had asked me to celebrate Holy Mass and to give some talks on the Sacraments. The Superiors of all the Communities in this province are staying there for a study week, including one sister who has come over from Iceland.

There isn't a room large enough for a class so we have our talks in the Chapel. The photo shows a few of the sisters getting ready for the second talk on 'The Sacraments in General'. In the afternoon we have a talk on the Sacrament of Penance followed by one on the Eucharist. I'm always happy to help the sisters if I can. They do a wonderful work in whole-hearted and free service to the poorest of the poor.

I was only recently back in the diocese after my ordination when this house was opened. There was some consternation from the local authority and the Mayor of the time, who was a Catholic, tried to drum up support for the sisters at a public meeting. The sisters were asking to open a house in a run down part of London. One very pompous official peered over his glasses and asked the then Provincial in a condescending tone: "Could give an account to the assembly of precisely what research you've undertaken that suggests there may be a need for your 'work' in Southwark?" "I opened my eyes", was the immediate reply. Priceless!

The First Woodpecker?

I don't know when woodpeckers usually appear in England but I saw this fellow just a few feet from me on Saturday morning. I can't remember seeing one this early in the year and suppose his appearance must be due to the mild winter. I wonder how many Londoners can boast woodpeckers in their gardens? Saturday was a race against time to get the newsletter completed and ready for printing. After opening the Church and spending some time in prayer I came back to the house intending to get the computer on, but instead I found myself fetching the camera!

The morning Mass took longer than usual, On the first Saturday of the month we have a servers' practice. They all serve at the Mass which inevitably adds to the length. Afterwards we had the customary 'Blessing of St Blaise', a blessing of throats which is given on his Feast Day.

Then, unusually for a Saturday we had a baptism. Nicolas Maria, pictured here in the arms of his proud parents, today was reborn in the waters of baptism as a child of God.

After Mass we also welcomed the students currently on the Maryvale Catechists' Course. This is a two-year course that leads to a qualification as a catechist approved by the Congregation for Education.

In this photo we see some of the second year students, including two parishioners, who were having a class on the parables of St Luke.

And here we see some of the first year students at a class on Christology given by Lionel Gracey. Lionel specialises in using the traditions of Christian art to illustrate doctrinal points. Later Lionel met with one of our parishioners who is an artist and produces some very fine Christian art.

After the evening's Mass I popped round to check on the building where the new Vocations Office is going to be located. There's quite a lot of work to be done to make it fit for purpose but I'm sure we'll get there before too long. Finally I had a meeting with a parishioner who markets website management software. We want to update the Southwark Vocations site, so watch this space...

Keep the Faith with Bowling

Tonight the 'Keep the Faith' group (year 7) met at Raynes Park for an evening of ten-pin bowling. Great performances in particular from Nicholas, Katie, Alexander and Maxine! In two-weeks time we have our regular meeting with Benediction, games and an opportunity to ask questions to a 'the priest in the hot-seat' .

On-line Petition

To sign a petition asking the Government to delay the introduction of the Sexual Orientation Regulations click here.
You can contact your local MP at www.theyworkforyou.com. For example a parishioner has sent me this link for Keith Hill.