No Smoking in Church

I have to put up signs like this in the Church - people don't of course.
I really want to put up signs saying, "No Gossiping", "No Sinning", "No Bending Hymn Books", etc, etc. I wonder if it is a government move against incense.

I was talking to our Dean today and he said he found a couple in the very act of fornicating in a side chapel recently.
There should be a law against it; at least in a public place.

We have an average of 7 new laws a day at the moment.

Now can anyone remind me of what Tacitus said about corruption, government and making endless laws?

Corruptissima res publica, plurimae leges. (Tacitus - An. 3, 27) - Thank you Fr Tim Finigan, see comments.

A Nice Quiet Day Off

Aaron Spinnelli

I finished of sorting out my holiday yesterday, I very rarely get a Sunday off, or as one of my parishioners said, "...we very rarely have a Sunday without you". When I was an assistant priest I always enjoyed the parish priest's holidays more than mine.

First of all I am going to Verona for a week, with friends for the Opera Festival, and then down to Rome for Aaron Spinnelli's ordination to the diaconate, that should be fun, a cohort of my favourite priests of the diocese will in Rome for the event all staying at the Domus Paulus, near the Piazza Novona.
I have known Aaron for years, he has always shown a remarkable maturity, I so was pleased when he was accepted by the diocese and began his studies in Rome, remember in him in your prayers in the month leading up to his ordination.

I always say Mass and hear confessions on weekdays and yesterday there was a little queue for confessions, but no-one went into the box, so I went outside to find out what was the matter, there were three people there who I thought were South Americans, one of the women was obviously blind. I asked what they wanted, "We want a shower", said the other woman. I thought I misunderstood, or this was a euphemism for the cleansing lather of the of the, "second baptism". But I discovered they spoke Spanish. Fortunately, Sr Joan, who had founded schools in Venuzuala and I should think had quelled a gang or two of drug dealers, and then started a day centre for the homeless in Brighton, was able to translate. In our multi-cultural society I have a number of people, who knowing the dire consequences of breaking the seal of confession, occasionally act as translators.
They did indeed want a shower, one of our parishioners took them down to the former church that is now a centre for the homeless.
They were Romanians, who had been living in Spain, for the last few days they had been living on the street. I presume they were professional beggars.
I spent a bit of the rest of the day looking for a lavatory brush, as one does as a priest, Robert Dyas had one only, for £15, rediculous, after much searching I found one, today, in a ironmongers for £1.45, such an item is like hen's teeth in Brighton.
I heard that at one of the Oratories a lavatory brush kept disappearing, an old priest there went on holiday, the superior decided his room needed a tidy. The lavatory brush was found in his bed. "I get an itch, Father, on my back, it is the only thing I can reach it with!" was the explanation.
(Sorry to be so mundane).

Blair to be Ordained a Deacon

I first saw this on Forest Murmurs, and now on Whispers and I don't believe a word of it.


Rumours that Blair -- an Anglican who frequently attends Mass with his Catholic wife and kids -- will himself swim the Tiber have swirled for years, resurfacing anew in recent weeks. However, several UK papers report today that the outgoing PM, whose last foreign commitment in office is a private audience with Pope Benedict next week, isn't just considering being received into the church, but ordination to the permanent diaconate:

Mr Blair discussed the idea of his taking such a role with Canon Timothy Russ, priest at the Immaculate Heart of Mary near the Prime Minister’s official country residence, Chequers.

The revelation is contained in a new book soon to be serialised by The Mail on Sunday – The Darlings Of Downing Street by Garry O’Connor.

The book states: "Tony expressed his strong desire when he stepped down to become a deacon – and a Roman Catholic deacon at that, confirming the often-speculated belief that he would convert to Roman Catholicism sometime in the future."

Mr Blair is reported as asking his confidant Father Timothy: "Would this be possible?" He was told: "It usually takes two or three years", to which he replied: "The fact that I'm PM, could this make a difference?"

The deacon idea emerged in a conversation a few years ago about Mr Blair's plans after he leaves office.

Father Timothy suggested that taking on a formal role in the Church could give him fresh moral clout when he campaigns on climate change and Africa.

The priest added: "He has a lot of potentiality for good. He is still looking for the meaning in his life."

The Blairs stopped attending Mass at the Immaculate Heart of Mary last year for "security reasons". The relationship with the priest became strained after he spoke out against the Iraq War, accusing the Prime Minister of moral surrender.

It is understood that Mr Blair will be accompanied by Cherie at the audience with the Pope in the papal apartments a week on Saturday. The couple are expected to spend the weekend in Rome before returning for their last 72 hours in Downing Street.

It will be Mr Blair's third visit to the Vatican in four years and a source said: "The fact that he will meet the Holy Father for his last official overseas engagement is highly significant and must raise speculation over his conversion to Catholicism."

The latest revelations follow recent comments by Father Michael Seed, who provides private Masses for the Blairs in their Downing Street flat.

The priest, known for bringing high-profile politicians and aristocrats into the Catholic fold, believes Mr Blair is poised to join the Church of Rome.

Converts are usually welcomed into the Church at the Easter Vigil Mass, held the night before Easter Sunday, but these arrangements are considered flexible.

Admittance to the Church is normally a two-year process. But Mr Blair, because he is already a regular attender, is likely to be fast- tracked.

As a deacon, he could help priests administer Mass, preside over baptisms and read the gospel in Church services. Unlike priests, deacons are not required to take a vow of chastity.

Mr Blair, whose children have been brought up as Catholics, regularly attends Mass at Westminster Cathedral and has become close to the leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor.

The Prime Minister's first meeting with the present Pope took place last June, but he had an audience with Pope John Paul II in February 2003, shortly before the US and British-led invasion of Iraq.

It later emerged that the Prime Minister had received Holy Communion from the Polish-born pontiff at a private service for the Blair family in the Vatican.

Mrs Blair, who is a devout Catholic, had an unexpected meeting with Pope Benedict last year when she was on a speaking engagement in Rome.

In 1996 Cardinal Basil Hume, the late Archbishop of Westminster, asked that the Prime Minister – a member of the Church of England – cease taking Communion at his wife’s London church in Islington.

Mr Blair is not believed to have received the sacrament in British Catholic churches since then. However, he is understood to have taken the Eucharist during holidays in Italy where an Anglican church was not easily available.

Appeal of the Pope for those kidnapped throughout the world, including Catholic priests

The Pope recalled in particular some priests kidnapped in Columbia. On the feast of Corpus Christi he underlined the value of Eucharistic adoration, which should be proposed especially to young people, in a world that is too “noisy and distracted.”

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – News of the kidnapping of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi, PIME, which took place this morning in the south of the Philippines, has been spreading in Italy and in the world. Precisely at this moment the Pope, in his Angelus address, launched an appeal on behalf of the numerous “persons, among whom are also Catholic priests, who are held hostage for various reasons in different parts of the world.” Benedict XVI added: “I carry all of them in my heart, and I keep all of them in my prayers,” referring in particular to some distressing cases in Columbia. The Pope went on to say: “I appeal with sorrow to the agents of these deplorable acts, hoping that they will become aware of the evil they have done and be willing to restore to the embraces of their loved ones those that they are holding prisoners. I entrust the victims to the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of all men.”

Prior to this appeal the Pope had talked about Corpus Christi, today’s feast. “Today’s solemnity of Corpus Christi,” Benedict XVI said, “which was celebrated last Thursday in the Vatican and in other countries, invites us to contemplate the supreme Mystery of our faith: the Most Holy Eucharist, the Real Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the altar. Every time that the priest renews the Eucharistic Sacrifice, in the prayer of consecration he repeats: ‘This is my body…this is my blood.’ He lends his voice, his hands, and his heart to Christ, who wanted to remain with us in order to be the beating heart of the Church. But even after the Celebration of the Divine Mysteries the Lord Jesus remains present in the tabernacle. For this reason praise is rendered to Him especially through Eucharistic Adoration, as I sought to remind everyone in the recent Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum caritatis (see nos. 66-69) following the Synod on this topic. In fact, there is an intrinsic connection between celebration and adoration. The Holy Mass is in itself already the greatest act of adoration on the part of the Church. ‘No one eats this flesh,’ St. Augustine wrote, ‘unless he has first adored it’ (Com. on Psalms 98,9; CCL XXXIX, 1385). Adoration apart from the Holy Mass prolongs and intensifies what has taken place in the liturgical celebration, and makes it possible to receive Christ in a real and profound way.” The Pope underlined the importance of Eucharistic Adoration, above all as a witness to the Real Presence of Jesus, but also as a rediscovery and strengthening of a personal relationship with the Lord.

The Pope then went on to add: “I would like to take the opportunity that today’s solemnity offers me to strongly urge Pastors and all the faithful to practice Eucharistic Adoration. I would like to express my appreciation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life, as well as the confraternities and associations, who dedicate themselves to Eucharist Adoration in a special way: they are a reminder for everyone of the centrality of Christ in our life as individuals and as Church. It gives me joy to recognize that young people are discovering the beauty of Adoration, whether personally or as a community. I invite priests to encourage youth groups along this line, while taking care to guide them so that the forms of Adoration by the community are appropriate and dignified, with sufficient time for silence and for listening to the Word of God. In today’s world, so often noisy and distracted, it is more important than ever to recover the capacity for interior silence and recollection: Eucharistic Adoration permits us to do so not only in relation to the ‘I’ but also in company with that ‘You’ full of love who is Jesus Christ, ‘God with us.’”

Today is Corpus Christi

Another Sunday that has become a feast day, I wish the Bishop's had bothered to read the Holy Father's book, Spirit of the Liturgy, in which he writes about the sanctification of time. In the Bible the sun and moon and stars are made to mark feasts, not the feast to fit in with calendar, it is a reminder that man is part of the cosmos. Their Lordships seem almost to want to make religion a one in seven, Sundays only experience. This is incredible damaging to the sense of religion breaking in to our ordinary time. I find it of interest that the statistics for weekday attendance at Mass are never officially recorded anywhere in the England and Wales.

I do regret the disconnection with Corpus Christi and Holy Thursday and therefore Thursday as being the day if the Eucharist, another act of desacralisation.

On a parish level it is sad that our school has another excuse to get on with the ordinary life of the school rather than come to Mass. I find it incredibly sad, as the majority of our children are never brought to Mass on Sundays, and now we have lost two opportunies of giving them the experience of Mass this term. It is noticeable that the less they come to Mass, the less well behaved they are in Church, it becomes, here at least, another step to the secularisation of our parish school.

...And yes, I have asked that they should come to Mass during the week.

I have wanted to organise a Corpus Christi procession, epecially in the light of the recent Roman documents, it is impossible on a Sunday, the streets are crowded with shoppers, the Polish community have Mass immediately after our main Mass. In the past we have had Exposition all day on Corpus Christi, again that has become much more difficult on a Sunday.

It is all a bit like champagne and caviar every Sunday now, I am a bit sick of it, it ceases to be special, three great feasts all in a row. I really am looking forward to a simple ordinary Sunday next week. The following week it is back to the champagne and caviar with First Communion Sunday, then in this diocese, more, on what should be the 12th Sunday it is the Dedication of the Cathedral.

I find it amazing that so little, possibly no consultation took place to change the calendar with these Holy Days, no catechetical material was issued, or any real explanation given, and yet when it comes to changing the words of consecration from "for all" to "for many", we have to be catechised, the same with the new Mass texts, but a few years ago with the change from "for all men" to "for all", nothing was said. Interesting?

Bush Meets Pope

Another Caption Competition?

Euharistic Procession Brings Cabinet Resignations

Saturno tip to the Muniment Room

Next year marks the centenary of a Eucharistic procession which was banned and which led to the resignations of two Cabinet ministers in the United Kngdom.

The occasion was the International Eucharistic Congress which was held in London from 9th to 13th September 1908 at the invitation of the Archbishop of Westminster, Archbishop Bourne.

It was the first Engllish speaking International Congress of the Eucharist in an English speaking country. More importantly, it was the first time that a legate of the Pope (Cardinal Vincent Vannutelli) had been in England since the Reformation. At that time, London was the centre of a huge Empire and the holding of such an event in such a location was obviously important.

At the time it was regarded as the greatest religious triumph of its generation. More than three hundred and fifty years had elapsed since a legate from the pope had been seen in England. With him were six other cardinals, fourteen archbishops, seventy bishops and a host of priests. No such gathering of ecclesiastics had ever been seen outside of Rome in modern times, and English Catholics prepared to make it locally even more memorable ............

read more at Idle Speculations

Idle Speculations is a fascinating blog, I have just added a permanent link. Check it out, lots of interesting Corpus Christi stuff.