It seems that we now have...

...a chap of whom no one in Britain has ever heard imposed upon us as "President" of the European Union. And we haven't been allowed to vote on whether we want to be part of a European Union, or have a President, let alone allowed to vote on who that President should be. And we are all too sick and tired of the whole wretched subject even to feel as angry as we ought.

Years ago at school we sung a hymn which had some lines that have stayed with me: "Empires rise and sink like billows/ Vanish and are seen no more..." One day the EU will be added to those empires. I rather hope it happens in my lifetime.

The Internet...

...is scarily good at turning non-events into news stories and whizzing them around the world, spreading false information. Read here to discover an example...

I'll be in....

...Manchester on Tuesday, speaking at the University, and also at the NW Catholic Writers' Guild...and next weekend I'm off to Kent this parish to enjoy an evening which will feature this film, which is worth seeing...

If you want...

...a thoughtful and interesting comment on the latest Catholic/Anglican thing, this is a good read...

A young relative...

...came for the weekend, and it was a delight. We had a happy afternoon with Granny, tea and talk and reminiscences and family news and plans for Christmas and so on. Then after a rainy walk, and a cheery pub visit, there was a Chinese meal and a film... and then this morning we went to the sung Mass at Westminster Cathedral, followed by coffee and cake...at the Cathedral there was a spolendid Mass for the Feast of Christ the King, and at the end the choir sang Christus Vincit....

If you were near Buckingham Palace...

...on Thursday night, you would have heard three rousing cheers for HM the Queen, followed by prayers for her and for our country. This was the culmination of the third of our Catholic History Walks. We began at Westminster Cathedral where a crowd gathered - rather a larger crowd than had been anticipated, and I was glad when the organisers arrived with a good microphone...we went down Victoria Street, and across St James' Park, with stops at various points for talks, and we learned about the Cathedral's history and Cardinal Vaughan, and the Queen's visit there on St Andrew's Day for its 100th birthday, and then St James and the tradition of pilgrimage, and then the Chapel Royal and Charles I and Charles II, and Catherine of Braganza and Henrietta Maria and more...and we took in all the Georges and the Regency and Maria Fitzherbert and thence to the early 19th century and Catholic Emancipation, and by now we were walking up the Mall, and on to Buckingham Palace and Queen Victoria...it was a mellow Autumn evening and a friendly crowd, and a great atmosphere, and a great sense of loyalty as we cheered our monarch, and a great sense of deep prayer as we committed our country - the new session of Parliament just opened with yet more idiotic legislative plans to wreck what's left of our education system etc - to God. Standing there by lamplight, the voices praying the "Our Father...", people open and quite unembarrassed, I suppose it was rather British and eccentric...

Want to join us on future walks? We are doing various routes. The next two Catholic History Walks are on January 20th and February 17th 2010. Each time, we meet on the steps of Westminster Cathedral at 6.30pm, after the 5.30pm Mass...

Come and learn about reviving the Catholic Faith...

...at a screening of a new DVD on just this theme. Aimed specially at the young, but everyone is welcome. "Arise once more" sets out the steps for an authentic revival of Catholicism in Britain.

Beginning with the early arrival of Christianity in Britain, this film takes you on a tour of Catholic history, through the Medieval period and the Reformation, the Second Spring, the Modern Crisis, and ends with hopes and plans for the revival....

Commentary is provided by various speakers and authors including Fr Marcus Holden, Fr Andrew Pinsent, Fr Thomas Crean, Fr
Nicholas Schofield, and more.

SCREENING AT:

- Our Lady of Lourdes, Uxbridge, Middlesex
Friday 27th November 2:00pm

- St Joseph's, New Malden, Surrey
Friday November 27th at 8pm

- Parish of St. Benedict, Ealing Abbey
Saturday 28th November 2:00pm

- Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen, Kent
Saturday 28th November 7:15pm

- St. Augustine’s, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Sunday 29th November 7:00pm


For further details about the DVD or to order a copy visit www.saintant.com
(promotional video clip on website) Tel: 01834 812643

A party!

...to celebrate the launch of English Catholic Heroines, published by Gracewing Books.

Drinks and speeches and tasty snacks and talk and hugs and congratulations, all at St Wilfrid's Hall at Brompton Oratory. This is a place which is a sort of home-from-home for the Bogles, because we held our Silver Wedding party there, and I have spoken there at all sorts of meetings and conferences and taken part in all sorts of social events. It was lovely to be celebrating with some of the various contributors to this book, and it was a happy evening. Tom Longford, my splendid publisher, presided with much good cheer, and John Jolliffe, who got the whole project off the ground and produced English Catholic Heroes last year was among the guests.

Readers of this Blog can join in the fun by buying the book! Ideal Christmas gift, packed with highly readable stories. Find out about England's great Catholic women, from St Etheldreda to Maria Fitzherbert, from heroic martyrs like Margaret Clithreoe and Anne Line to writers, nurses, teachers, and founders of religious orders...

Are you coming....

...to the Catholic History Walk tomorrow, Thursday Nov 19th? Just turn up. We meet at 6.30pm on the steps of Westminster Cathedral, after the 5.30pm Mass. Our walk will take us across St James' Park, and we'll be looking at the links between the Church and the English monarchy.

Come in comfortable shoes, and be prepared to walk whatever the weather. The walk will take approx one aand a half hours. Afterwards, people tend to drift off to local pubs, of which thgere are several nice ones.

Lots and lots of people...

... hurrying into Westminster Cathedral Hall through ferocious rain for the Towards Advent Festival....we had a magnificent array of Catholic groups and organisations, ranging from the Knights of St Columba to publishers like Fisher Press, Gracewing, and the CTS, we had the Catenians and we had Aid to the Church in Need, we had the Tyburn Nuns and we had pro-life groups and we had the Catholic National Library...and more...and more...

The Schola from the Cardinal Vaughan School sang gloriously - Byrd's Ave Verum was simply superb. Archbishop Vincent Nichols spoke about the beauty and significance of Advent and set just the right tone for the day. There were talks and a tour of the Cathedral, there were delicious refreshments, there was a terrific buzz of conversation and what I suppose one could grandly call "networking", there were stalls selling DVDs of beautiful music, and cards and statues and devotional items and monastic produce and books, lots and lots of books...

Talks during the day included one on Christianity in Iraq - fascinating, sobering - and one on the Crusades with Prof. Jonathan Riley-Smith, whose books on the subject are warmly recommended.

I met Benedictine monks (young, enthusiastic) and friends from EWTN and from the Catholic press. The hall got rather hot and crowded, and there was a sudden glorious rush of cold air as one hurried out to reach Vaughan House, where the talks were being held. There was a fine display of art produced by pupils at Catholic schools. There were people to meet, and ideas to exchange, and things finished with my leading a tour of the Cathedral as dusk fell and the Festival slowly drew to a close...

No praise too high for the Catenian Association which took on much of the workload in getting the day organised, and the Knights of St Columba who loyally distributed handbills in the Cathedral piazza directing people to the Festival, and the Association of Catholic Women which produced wonderful home-made sandwiches and cakes and more...

Every year I worry that the Festival won't be a success, and every year I am shown that I needn't have worried...

A happy evening...

...at Our Lady's Convent School in Loughborough, where I was invited to present the prizes on Speech Day. I was made most welcome, and it was good to be in a friendly atmosphere where one sensed shared values. It was a warm-hearted, traditional Speech Day - we began with "God Save the Queen", in which everyone joined enthusiastically, and there was a splendid array of trophies and shields to present along with prizes (book tokens) and certificates, and there were talks and songs from the pupils, and a speech from me...on the train going home, I settled cosily with hot chocolate and a copy of a book of reminiscences produced by a former pupil. All enjoyable...

Wow...

...extraordinary evening as a crowd gathered in Kensington to hear about a miracle at first-hand!

At Brompton Oratory - where Cardinal John Henry Newman once preached - a man who was healed of a grave spinal illness stood in the sanctuary and told us that the healing had come as a result of prayer through the intercession of Newman, and that this has been accepted as a miracle by the Church.

A copy of the Millais portrait of Newman stood alongside, its vivid colours glowing in the soft light beneath that great dome. History seemed to merge into the present as Deacon Jack Sullivan told his story - how he had begged Newman's aid as he sat in pain, distraught at the thought that he would have to abandon his studies and would never be ordained, his inability to walk or move making service as a deacon impossible. The miracle - initially of relief of pain so that he could continue to attend college, and then of complete healing, with doctors baffled as Sullivan bounded up and downstairs and along corridors - was described to a rapt audience.

It was a very London occasion - Catholics gathered at this great church on an Autumn evening, lamplight highlighting the golden and russet Autumn leaves, traffic humming. "Saints are our older brothers and sisters" said Jack Sullivan "We say we believe in life after death, but do we really? A miracle like this teaches us in the reality of the Communion of Saints, in which we profess our belief when we say the Creed". Across the decades, beyond two world wars and a thousand massive social and political changes, a saint from Queen Victoria's London was being honoured and remembered...

Autumn is a time for history.The Queen at Westminster Abbey for a service at eleven o'clock and our house, like others, falling silent for two minutes, along with the workmen in the road outside and people in shops and schools and offices.

Yesterday, the day that...

...the Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans who wish to have their own "ordinariate" within the Church was published, I happened to be giving a talk in a Forward in Faith parish. Evidently quite a lively parish, though not large - one main service on Sunday mornings - with Brownies and a playgroup and youth activities etc. Big redbrick church, Stations of the Cross round the walls, Angelus said at noon. Do let's all pray...