Popular Acclamation

In the good ole days bishops were elected by popular acclamation, call me liberal, but I am actually in favour of this. The problem is how to do it without it the acclaiming being hi-jacked or just becoming mob-rule.

I can't help thinking the net might be the answer, a bit of popular acclaiming, followed by serious analysis. I think the net is something that could enable "Joe Public" a voice, within reason I am committed to it.

As pundits are predicting the vacancy of Westminster during the coming summer

nextcardinal@yahoo.com offers the opportunity make your suggestion. Simply putting forward a name is fine, giving reasons would be more useful.

Liverpool Cathedral revisted

I haven't been to Liverpool in thirty years, so it was good to visit it again. I am afraid I liked the Cathedral even less than I did previously.

Amazingly it was designed before the Council. It just seemed so terrible dated. I am sure I am going to upset many people by saying this but it reminded but it reminded me of Franco's basilica in the Valley of the Fallen, I suppose it was the light or maybe that it seemed to lack human proportion. I discussed it with a friend a "Wee Free", he thought it was a glorious space, for me it lacked an sense of intimacy or discovery, unlike its monumental Anglican counterpart, which struck me as being something dreamed up by one of those American early 20th century multi-millionaires: grandiose but lots of nooks and crannies where a man may weep before his God.

Emilia di Liverpool

St George's Hall Concert Room, the venue of Emilia

I really did enjoy the performance of Emilia di Liverpool, one of the most incredible of opera plots. Although the central character is the family "di Liverpool", that was about its connection to Liverpool. Lots betrayal and neurosis, all centred around the tomb of a girl's mum. She had eloped; the girl that is. Mum died 0f a broken heart. Dad was lost at sea. He returns, so does the lover, lots of cursing, the prospect of duel, lots of examination of human failty, everything is sorted out, girl goes mad and dies. The end!

The European Opera Centre's singers were really quite brilliant, better than I heard last time I was at La Fenice in Venice, they are all young and incredibly talented. If you can get there tonight or tomorrow, the last performances before it moves to Gdansk, seats are I think about £35, very cheap for really outstanding talent. I was so very impressed by the diminutive young Korean soprano who sang Emilia, Francesca Parks.

What I did find, I would like to say, amusing, but I think it was rather sad, Liverpool City Council took a couple of hundred seats for a free ballot, they had 900 applicants they handed out 100 of the tickets and then told the other 800 applicants the tickets had sold out, rather than suggesting they could buy tickets. Added to that there were seemed to be no advertising material about this event anywhere in the city, even at the venue itself there were no posters or banners, you could so easily have missed it. Consequently they have been playing to less than full houses, last nights house was about two thirds full, apparently the worse they have had. So I was absolutely delighted after the performance when a couple, Theresa and Martin, came up to me and introduced themselves, telling me they were avid readers of the blog. I am afraid if my parish council had been responsible for the advertising I would be making a few changes.

European City of Culture

I shall be away for a bit of culture, in the city of culture; yes Liverpool.

I am going to Donizetti's Emilia di Liverpool to renew my acquaintance with the conductor Giovanni Pacor and his delightful wife, who have left the Veneto to spend the winter months next to the Atlantic. Things people do for their art!

I'll be back on Friday.

Pray for Peace

The ethnic murders in Kenya remind us that 2008 needs us to pray for peace and justice, and to demand it from our politicians.

New Year's Eve and Day

I am as you might expect a great fan of the sartorial revival that is going on in Rome. I have always been a proponent of the seamlessness of the Church: the Church today is a direct continuation of the Apostolic Church. Wearing vestments that belong to his immediate predecessors ratifying their reign and his succession.

I was always a great admirer of the Great John-Paul, and like many asked how the shy Bavarian professor would ever fill his shoes, what all this revival is about is seems to be simply saying it is the Office of the Papacy that matters. Wearing the coat of arms of John XXIII or the mitre of Benedict XV means that Benedict XVI is only important in so far as he is their successor. Fr Justin has makes some interesting comments on this on his blog about the Pope dressing in harmony with the basilica, he also mentions the extravagance of the previous Master of Ceremonies.

The whole point of vestments is to cover up the personality of the priest or bishop, not to emphasise it. He is important because of what he is not who he is.

I do like the return of the Throne, the idea of the Chair of Peter is so important for Catholics.

I also like the way the cope is held open, with the suggestion of "alter Christus" being crucified, being led.

Holy Mother of God or The Circumcision

I was amused when a retired priest, who came to celebrate this morning, wished me "a Happy Secular New Year" this morning. He was of course mindful that the Church's New Year began on 1st Sunday of Advent. Of Course in England the New Year used to begin on the Feast of the Annunciation, which is the original feast of Mary's Motherhood. I am sure someone will know when it the 1st of January became widely recognised as New Years day.

Up until recently today's feast had the title of the "The Circumcision of the Lord", it must have been incredibly embarrassing for nuns to explain to little girls, but today it seems a shame that we do not remember this very Jewish aspect of the Lord's life, such glorious material to preach on, especially when according to the Jewish Council of great Britain there is a rise of anti-semitism in Europe and the US.

The Circumcision reminds us of the very Jewishness of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, of the importance of Jewish ritual and Law in his life. As lovely as it is to think of the Blessed Virgin as Mother of God, Theotokos, earlier title of the Feast gives us an great deal of catechetical material. I have no knowledge of why this feast's name should be changed but it does seem paradoxical that it should happen after the Council which called us to be ever more conscious of the Jewish origins of our faith.