AUNTIE JOANNA ON TOUR...
But first, a beautiful First Holy Communion celebration at Brompton Oratory - we were invited because the younger son of close friends was among the young Communicants. Lovely music(Oratory Junior Choir), and it was moving to go up up to the Communion rail past the rows of white-clad children...afterwards, a vast crowd spilled into the Oratory Garden, where tables were laden with food and wine provided by the parents, and there was much talking and meeting of old friends, while the children were photographed and videoed and the girls smirked in their dresses and veils and wreaths of flowers and, with the boys, ran about and shouted and made a noise...the E. family are very delightful and we have had so many happy celebrations with them, beginning with the baptism of their oldest - who is my godson. It was his birthday the next day, so I gave him his present (a torch which doesn't need batteries, successful present, recommended - I bought it at the National Trust shop at the Blewcoat School just off Victoria Street).
On to Euston to catch the train to Preston. On the way I read Denis and Valerie Riches' joint autobiography Built on Love, (Family Publications, King St Jericho, Oxford) which I warmly recommend. It tells the story of how they met and married, and their travels, life with their children and so on, and then goes on to describe the great work they have done in campaigning in defence of marriage and family values, through Family and Youth Concern and, latterly, Family Publications.Among the various adventures were a number of events and meetings in which I shared, and it all brought back many memories...
And so to the home of the A. family in a beautiful part of Lancashire. Mugs of tea in the large pleasant kitchen, and sitting talking to L., catching up on lots of news...last time Jamie and I were here, the children were young and now the older ones are teenagers, eldest daughter in the middle of "A" levels etc etc...where do the years go?
4 comments:
I was delighted to see that you came to Preston - my home town. I hope your talk at Fernyhalgh went well, just a shame I couldn't make it due to parish committments.
Please pray for the Church in Preston, once a great bastion of Catholicism which has had a catastrophic collapse of the faith in recent years.
fr paul harrison
First Holy Communion for us. I suppose one advantage of the new transferrable feasts regime is that Corpus Christi is on Sunday, so Dad's can come.
Only one year of children were making their first Holy Communion, and the result was a packed church. In other words, for most the first Holy Communion will also be the last.
What have we done wrong? If people didn't like the Church they wouldn't want to send their children to the schools.
'If people didn't like the Church they wouldn't want to send their children to the schools.'
Writing as a former Catholic schoolteacher, I think this puts a charitable construction on a severe and growing problem. The clue to non-practicing Catholics wanting to send their children to Catholic schools does not lie in the Faith but in a nasty expression of tribal Catholicism. Tribal Catholicism is inimical to faith and one of the biggest obstacles to evangelism. It has nothing to do with belief or conviction but is entirely concerned with social identity. Many priests will tell you of families where members have not practiced for generations but do everything possible to wheedle baptism as a passport to a Catholic school. They are ruthless about it and it often means that children from practicing Catholic families don't get a chance, especially if they are newcomers to a district. One of the first shocks I had was when I was teaching about Easter and I was told by other members of staff that the majority of children in my class would not even be taken to Mass at the climax of the liturgical year. With a bit of luck you might find a token presence at the Midnight Mass at Christmas, but even that is fading. If ever there are school Masses the behaviour of the children, especially in secondary schools, is usually atrocious. Bullying of practicing children by their peers is rampant. Tribal Catholicism is the reality that many of us have to live with, especially in former strongly Catholic towns like Preston.
I have to concur with anonymous. I went to quite a prestigious Catholic girls' school and had to put up with years of bullying on account of being a practising Catholic, not just from pupils but from viciously anti-Catholic teachers. And I was supposed to be grateful that it wasn't like 'the bad old days when it was all so nasty.' I'm not sure it is even tribal Catholicism at work, it seems to be based on the idea that Catholic schools have higher academic standards and are more likely to get children into good universities.
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