New PM and Cabinet reshuffle

As you know, we have a new Prime Minister. Don't expect him to be any better than the last one. In fact, expect him to undermine the sanctity of human life still further.

Tony Blair has led us into a moral and ethical abyss where abortions have risen, girls can get the abortifacient morning after pill in schools without parental knowledge, scientists can manipulate young human embryos to their hearts content, euthanasia by omission is now legal, same sex civil partnerships are now legal and where Catholic adoption agencies will no longer be able to opt out of putting children in the care of a homosexual couple.

Prime Minister Brown has voted no less than 16 times for anti-life measures - three times for abortion up to birth, including for disabled babies; twice for abortion on demand in early pregnancy; once to extend the Abortion Act to Northern Ireland; once for selective foeticide in multiple pregnancies; once to facilitate the RU486 chemical abortion pill; once to suppress information about abortions on disabled babies; and seven times for other pro-abortion positions. He also voted five times to promote destructive embryo experimentation.

Whilst chancellor, Mr Brown launched the International Finance Facility to raise money for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which the Labour government interprets as including a universal human right to abortion on demand.

Incidentally, the Pope recently spoke favourably about these goals. No doubt that some of them are good things, but the pro-abortion element is clear. In 2005, an advisory committee to the then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, said sexual and reproductive health is a key to achieving the MDGs. For the UN (although opposed by the Holy See and the United States (amongst other noble countries), the term "sexual and reproductive rights" reeks of the provision of abortion. In addition, the Millennium Project Report states that "ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health ... is essential to the attainment of many". I trust that the Holy Father is aware of this.

In terms of the new cabinet, Alan Johnson's appointment as Secretary of State for Health is highly concerning. Shortly after election as Member of Parliament for Kingston-upon-Hull and Hessle (neighbouring constituency to me), he signed two early day motions (EDMs) - one defending "woman's right to choose" and another condemning "restrictive abortion laws". In 2000, he voted in favour of destructive stem cell research on cloned embryonic children. And in 2004, Mr Johnson voted against pro-life amendments (including one by Iain Duncan Smith) to the Mental Capacity Act, which legalised euthanasia by omission.

But on the plus side, thank God Ruth Kelly has been appointed to the seemingly non-controversial post of Transport Secretary. As well as proudly being the minister responsible for the Sexual Orientation Regulations legislation, she also recently appointed the vehemently pro-abortion Baroness Gould as chair of the Women’s National Commission (WNC). Things should be ok for now, unless she decides to close sections of the M1 to allow a gay pride march through...

Floods - 2

After Mass tonight there was only one thing being talked about - the floods. Our parish (in terms of geography, at least) seems to have escaped the worst of the troubles (in terms of flooded properties). But the neighbouring parish, St Mary Queen of Martyrs (with whom we share a priest, Fr John Bane), seems to have been hit badly.

St Mary's incorporates Bransholme (one of the biggest council estates in Europe) and Kingswood (a new development which is about 10 years old). Lots of parishioners and their families have been devastated with flooding. Kingswood is where my sister and brother-in-law live. As I said earlier in the week, their house was badly flooded. It finally drained away by Thursday, allowing the insurance and clean-up procedures to begin. As well as damaged electrical appliances and sodden carpets, there are lots of ants and maggots about. So they are set to be staying at our place for some time yet.

Luckily, Lee's car got away with minimal damage, so he's been back out driving instructing. And after a couple of days away, Kate (a ward sister) is back at work at Castle Hill hospital.

In terms of the overall picture, most of the water levels have lowered but there are still parts of Hull under water. Nearby market town of Hedon and Burstwick village could have massive problems if the Burstwick drain bursts its banks. And there's more heavy rain on the way tomorrow...

Please continue to pray for the people affected and the weather situation.

Floods

So today the national attention turns to Sheffield - and rightly so. It's really sad to see my university city struggling to come to terms with a month's rainfall in a day.

Yesterday in Hull was fascinating but horrific at the same time. A man died when his legs got trapped down a manhole. For three hours, he was neck height in water. But the emergency services couldn't get him out in time before he died.

In terms of the floods generally, I've never seen anything like it in 22 years of living in the city. This was the view outside my bedroom window late afternoon yesterday:

Woodleigh Drive was like a flowing river but luckily no houses were flooded. Not so lucky for my sister and brother-in-law, who's house in Kingswood is still flooded this morning. They had to spend the night here last night.

I went out on my bike to take pictures and video and got completely soaked from head to toe. But it was good fun. Here's a selection of the photos.

This was my brother-in-law's car at his house. The water is still waist height in this cul-de-sac. Lee is a driving instructor. Depending on what damage there is to the car, he could be off (and therefore loose money) for a couple of weeks.

The worse I saw on my travels of east Hull was Chapman Street, just down from one of the many bridges over the River Hull.

Here, someone gets towed away.

And on the Branshomle estate (below), whole streets were under water. The next street down from here had a fire engine pumping water out through large pipes from the street, across the main road, and sprinkling out onto a large field.

The main roads seemed to be alright - that is until you got to a roundabout.

Apparently it's still chaos traffic wise today.

And here's our local Catholic primary school's playground:

It's St Mary Queen of Martyrs school where I went as a kid and where my mum and auntie still work. It's still closed today and probably tomorrow.

Even the Hull Faith Forum, due to take place last night, had to be cancelled. We hope to put it on tonight instead as the speakers, Annemarie and Danny Holmes, have come all the way from Northern Ireland. But there are no guarantees...

I'll keep you posted on that and the ongoing situation up here.

Visit to birthplace of St John Fisher

As East Yorkshire people, we are very proud that St John Fisher is one of ours. He was born in Beverley in 1469 and, yesterday, myself, the Lovingit family and Phil Cunnah went on a mini pilgrimage to his birthplace on his feastday.

I drove there in my car after Mass at St Charles in the centre of Hull. It's about eight miles. We had lunch at a nice little pub next door to St John of Beverley RC Church. (Note that St John of Beverley was an 8th century Benedictine bishop of Hexham and later of York).

We then went to St Mary's Church (left), founded in 1120, which was likely to have been attended by a young John Fisher and might even have been where he was baptised.

His father, Robert, was buried there in 1477. The guides said he was buried "before the crucifix". We couldn't work out what this meant - before the crucifix was erected? In front of the crucifix? But we could only find a small crucifix above the altar anyway.

We did, however, find a little plaque to him:

We then went on to Beverley Minster. It doesn't have any specific connection to St John Fisher but I'm sure he would have stepped foot in their during his childhood. A monastery on the site was founded by St John of Beverley in the 8th century. The present building was completed in 1425, just over 40 years before John Fisher was born.

Here is where St John of Beverley is buried:

Car Blessing

At the beginning of the week, I finally got the required documents through to drive my first ever car. My Auntie very kindly offered us her R reg Rover Metro for free, as she wanted to get rid of it. My driving is still a bit rusty as I've not driven since passing my test in December. But I'm sure I'll get used to it.

After Mass at St Joseph's on Tuesday evening, Fr William Massie blessed the car in Latin and sprinkled holy water both inside it and over the engine. So I'm sure St Christopher will be with me in earnest as I travel.

You can watch the blessing on my youtube page.

Talk: The Mass

On Sunday, I was asked at short notice to give a 15 minute talk on the Mass to an excellent youth group we have in Hull every other week.

I was a pretty wide subject, but I decided to give some brief personal reflections.

I said that my love of the Mass intensified after doing a "modern day saint" school project. Even though she wasn't "modern day", I got away with doing St Margaret Clitherow. I came to realise that, because she and others were brutally killed for protecting the right for Mass to be celebrated in this country, it was much more than a meal with Jesus.

I said that going to Mass is a completely natural thing for Catholics to do. It is the source and summit of the Christian life, where everything that we do as Christians flows from. The universe was created for the celebration of Mass and it is the place where we come closest to Christ on earth. Christ left us an everlasting gift, the gift of his very self.

At the last supper, Jesus didn't say "This might be" or "This signifies" or "This represents", he said "This is" my Body. It means that the Eucharist is Jesus Himself, body, blood, soul and divinity.

I then went on to elaborate on three phrases which are common in the Mass.

Firstly - "Earth unites with Heaven" (in several prefaces) - tells us that we are not just gathering with the people in attendance at that particular Mass, we are united those in Heaven and on earth. We are closest to our deceased friends and family and to the saints when at Mass.

Secondly - "Almighty God we pray that you angel may take this sacrifice to your altar in heaven. Then as we receive from this altar the sacred body and blood of your Son, let us be filled with every grace and blessing." - This reminds us that the Mass is the sacrifice of Christ. When the Host is elevated at the consecration, we are actually there at Calvary with St John and Our Lady. The Mass is therefore the same at Calvary, except the manner of the offering is changed from being bloody to unbloody.

Thirdly - "In union with the whole Church" (often used in prefaces) - Indicates that Mass is being offered for the whole Catholic Church universally, in union with the Pope, Bishops, clergy and laity.

At Mass, we are at the stable in Bethlehem, with the tiny, helpless, vulnerable child Christ truly present in the small host. As well as that, we are also present at the ultimate wedding feast of the Lamb, the unbreakable marriage between Christ the bridegroom and the Church, his bride.

The Mass, therefore, is Jesus Himself.

I ended with an encouragement to go to Mass as often as they are able.

What does the Church say about sex and loving?

Last Monday, the summer session of the Hull Faith Forum started.

Fr David Barrett, Chaplain to the Bishop of Northampton, came up to kick the series off with the Church's teaching on sex and loving. Fr Barrett is an excellent speaker, particularly good at simplifying concepts which at first seem complicated. Here is my summary of what he said:

Sex and our sexuality is made by God and is therefore good. He then quoted the Book of Genesis. "For the man himself, there was not found a helpmate fit for him. So the Lord God made him fall into a deep sleep and while he slept God took out one of his ribs and closed it up with flesh. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he formed into a woman and brought her to the man... Therefore man leaves its father and its mother and cleaves to his wife and they become one flesh."

"It's not saying that the woman is a spare rib," Fr Barrett said to titters. He said that man was incomplete without a woman. The man and the woman were made for each other. No one can live in isolation.

We are not just physical but also spiritual beings. We are you unique from the animals.

Psychologists say women tend to be in touch with themselves. They are better at relationships and have a better intuition in these things than men. Psychologists tend to be better and building and making decisions in a much more abstract sense. These factors effect the way we relate to each other. A married couple look for different things in their relationship. The relationship needs an environment in which to live.

We are saying that the natural environment for a sexual relationship is marriage. Biologically speaking, sex is designed to make babies. But that's not the whole story about sex. There's the emotional and spiritual level as well. We relate to people and love them as complete beings - their physical, emotional and spiritual sides. To love someone, you've got to keep the three legs together. Sex is made for children and children do need a suitable environment to grow up in. We need to know where we are from in order to understand who we are now. Sex should involve loving, it's not just a physical thing.

When a couple say their marriage vows, they say: "I'm going to give myself completely to you and not hold anything back." Love is about saying "you're so fantastic I want to give myself to you completely. From now on, you are number 1 for me". Love does not have an end.

Sex should reflect that language of loving - holding nothing back. And that's why sex should only take place in marriage. It should reflect and embody it. It's about being open to children, loving correctly and using your body in a sensible and generous way, not just using each other for pleasure. That's one of the reasons why the church doesn't like artificial contraception - that's saying - "I give myself completely, but I'm going to hold back my fertility".

Afterwards, we went to the pub as usual to catch up and discuss the topic further.

Incidentally, I have got a decent digital recording of this talk and hopefully of all of them to come. I can send you a copy of them for a small price of a CD and p&p. Let me know in the comments section if you are interested and I can arrange to send them to your address. I haven't worked out how to upload audio files onto the net as yet. Advise welcome.

Today, Bernie Smith, Director of Precious Life in Northern Ireland, is arriving in Hull in preparation for her talk tomorrow night: Is abortion always wrong?

1970 Rite Latin Mass

This evening I cycled seven miles across the city to St Joseph's, west Hull. I had high hopes of a treat in store. Father William Massie had been taking about saying a New Rite Latin Mass on a Wednesday once a month and put it on his parish bulletin at the weekend. When I arrived, Fr had just taken a final decision that he would celebrate Mass in Latin. This is really unprecedented for Hull. I really don't know the last time a such Mass was celebrated here.

Just before Mass, he explained why he was introducing it. Interestingly, it was mainly because of requests from young people. He said he always thought it was important for people to get to grips with the Mass in Latin as we were Latin Rite Catholics and it was the language of the Church. Then when Pope Benedict strongly encouraged the use of Latin in his recent Apostolic Exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis, he decided to go through with it.

How glorious it was! I couldn't stop grinning all the way through. We were all very rusty (or, in some cases, a complete beginner) at the prayers and responses (which Fr had put on a sheet with Latin and English alongside each other), but that didn't matter. It's such a rare occasion for me to enjoy Mass in the universal language of the Church. For me, it's simply beautiful, authentic and enhances the significance of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Those of you who live in London don't know how lucky you are with several Latin Mass options available.

Hopefully the monthly Mass will take off and more parishes will follow the recommendation of the Pope.

Even Leona, the adorable daughter of Lovingit, was enthusiastic about learning Latin afterwards:

Ruth Kelly appoints FPA chair as head of Women's National Commission

Ruth Kelly is in a difficult situation. She's in a senior government position currently with responsibilities for Communities, but has had to compromise (or, indeed go against) her Church's teaching by legalising the Sexual Orientation Regulations.

Yesterday, she made another move which increasingly indicates that her Catholic faith is separated from her politics. Ms Kelly appointed the chair of the Family Planning Association, Baroness Gould, as interim Chair for the Women's National Commission. The Labour peer is also chair of the All Party Parliamentary Pro-Choice Group and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care.

The Women’s National Commission (WNC) is an advisory body giving the views of women to Government. They represent women and women’s organisations in the UK to "ensure women’s views are taken into account by the Government and are heard in public debate". It is an it is umbrella organisation which is fully funded by government but able to comment freely on government policy. Baroness Gould will be in the job for 6 months until a permanent Chair is appointed.

According to its 2003 report, WNC's partner organisations include the National Abortion Campaign, Abortion Law Reform Association, Abortion Rights, Brook and PINK Parents UK (Lesbian Gay and Bisexual parents organisation). It's important to point out, however, that The Union Of Catholic Mothers, the Catholic Women's League and National Board of Catholic Women of England and Wales are also on the list.

Nevertheless, a Catholic government minister appointing one of, if not the most committed pro-choice politician is very concerning. Of course, we don't know how much (probably no) say Ruth Kelly had in the matter. But that it exactly the point. How can she possibly stay in that position as a committed Catholic and a member of Opus Dei when she is making, or forced to make, such ghastly appointments? May I remind her of a relevant passage in the Pope's recent Apostolic Exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis:

83) ...Worship pleasing to God can never be a purely private matter, without consequences for our relationships with others: it demands a public witness to our faith. Evidently, this is true for all the baptized, yet it is especially incumbent upon those who, by virtue of their social or political position, must make decisions regarding fundamental values, such as respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death, the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms. These values are not negotiable. Consequently, Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature. There is an objective connection here with the Eucharist (cf. 1 Cor 11:27-29).

Although we are not referring to a particular vote here, surely Ms Kelly's public endorsement of this vehemently pro-choice candidate seriously plunges into doubt her commitment to the Magesterium?

Yet again, calls from Catholics for her to resign may well be renewed.

Catholicism under attack

Much can and has been written on the brave comments by Cardinal Keith O'Brien (which I fully complement and support). I would like to focus on two brief points.

The reaction to it in some forms of the media, and by many commentators, has been vitriolic to say the least and has endorsed the now widely accepted notion across the Catholic community that most sections of the media are anti-Catholic, especially the BBC.

Granted that some genuinely sincere people take on board the Cardinal's comments about the Church's long-standing opposition to abortion but object to the language used. However, generally, opposition to the Cardinal and the wider Church has been intense. Some of the worst comments I saw today came on the Scotland on Sunday website:

"The Catholic church blackmailing people to get them to toe their line is nothing new, they have been doing it for hundreds of years. They need to put their own house in order first. As a Catholic I can't stand this bunch of sanctimonious gits."

And the classic:

"What right does any religion have to try and force its views on other people?"

The basic conclusion I take from this point of view is this - everyone has the right to freedom of speech - except Catholics.

But there are a few that are brilliant, not least, this one:

"If you believe in the RC faith you either obey the rules or leave. Don't make money whining about it, decide what you believe and then act on it. Clearly this writer does not accept what is taught - then leave the RC church and start your own. If you have positive proof you have a better way!"

And for anyone who's unsure about how much or how important it is that Catholics engage in political debate look no further than Deus Caritas Est:

28.a) The Church's social teaching argues on the basis of reason and natural law, namely, on the basis of what is in accord with the nature of every human being. It recognizes that it is not the Church's responsibility to make this teaching prevail in political life. Rather, the Church wishes to help form consciences in political life and to stimulate greater insight into the authentic requirements of justice as well as greater readiness to act accordingly, even when this might involve conflict with situations of personal interest... As a political task, this cannot be the Church's immediate responsibility. Yet, since it is also a most important human responsibility, the Church is duty-bound to offer, through the purification of reason and through ethical formation, her own specific contribution towards understanding the requirements of justice and achieving them politically.

The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice.

Finally, a couple of recommendations:

Actually read the homily in full: http://www.scmo.org/_titles/view.asp?id=515

The best interview I've heard so far on the issue (with Scottish Catholic Observer editor Harry Conroy): http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6700000/newsid_6707600/6707609.stm?bw=nb&mp=rm

Fr. David Grant (a good priest friend, PP in Bridlington) on Any Answers? (Fast forward to about 18:30): http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainframe.shtml?http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/anyquestions