Talk on the Martyrs

The Hull Faith Forum starts up again this Monday (June 1). I think the series title is something along the lines of "Inspiration for young Catholics today".

I have the pleasure of giving the first talk on how the Martyrs of England and Wales inspire the young. It's pretty daunting as I've never given a full talk before - I've only ever done 10/15 minute seminars at youth events. I'm planning to explore the stories of four English Martyrs and explain the numerous ways they can help young people in their journey of faith today. I'm writing the talk out for the benefit of bloggers to read so I'll post it on or after the night.

I don't have a full itinerary for the whole series as yet but when I do I'll post the details. The talks are at the Endsleigh Centre, Beverley Road, Hull and start at 7.30pm.

Blessed Peter Wright

Last Tuesday I went from Kettering to Thrapston for a Mass to celebrate the feastday of Blessed Peter Wright. Blessed Peter, a Jesuit priest, was from the village of Slipton in Northamptonshire. He was hanged and quartered on May 17, 1651. The Mass was at St Paul the Apostle RC Church which has a shrine dedicated to Blessed Peter. It was celebrated by Father Brian Leatherland, with Canon John Koenig (parish priest at St Edward's, Kettering) concelebrating.

Blessed Peter is one of the 85 Martyrs of England and Wales. It seems he was from a Recusant family, despite earlier accounts that said he was from a Protestant background. For ten years he worked in a solicitor's office in Thrapston. Enlisting in the English army in the Low Countries, he deserted after just one month. In 1629 he entered the Jesuit novitiate at and after studying philosophy and then theology at Liege he was ordained a priest there in 1636. One of his first appointments was as an army chaplain to Colonel Sir Henry Gage's English regiment in the service of Spain.

Wright returned to England with Gage in 1644. He administered the sacraments to Gage on his death bed on January 11 1645. After this Wright became the marquess's chaplain in his London house, and was seized there pursuivants who burst in on Candlemas day, February 2, 1651. He was put to trial at the Old Bailey less than two years Charles I had been put on trial there and subsequently executed. Gage's brother, Thomas, a former Dominican priest turned informer, gave evidence against him. Wright was convicted of being a Catholic priest. A crowd of more than 20,000 came to watch his martyrdom at Tyburn, an indication of how popular he was.

At the end of the Mass last Tuesday, a fascinating talk was given by former teacher Jerome Betts on the Catholic family of Elwes at Great Billing in Northamptonshire. Mr Betts has also written an interestingly shaped book on Blessed Peter which I bought for the special offer of £5.

It was great to discover another glorious martyr of that period and to join in the veneration of him with his native people.

Obama's nauseating Notre Dame visit

It was billed as a controversial visit. The most pro-abortion politician welcomed and given an honoury degree by a Catholic university. It was clear that Notre Dame wasn't going to back down and withdraw the invitation despite opposition from Catholics up and down the United States. But surely this couldn't go ahead without some degree of opposition by students and/or staff? If that's too much to ask, surely he would be made to feel uncomfortable by something?

In the end, the only sounds of sense came from a solitary student at the "Commencement" ceremony who stood up and heckled the President a few moments into his speech which, in large parts, made you want to vomit. The chap shouted "Abortion is Murder" before being led off by security. And the response? Booing from hundreds of students and the chanting of "Notre Dame". It was sickening to watch.

Several times, most in the hall arose to give the president a standing ovation throughout various parts of his speech. Yes, some did clap when the Church's teaching on the sanctity of human life was mentioned by university president Father John I. Jenkins. Yes, they did clap when President Obama said, "Let's work together to reduce the number of abortions and unwanted pregnancies", "Let's make adoption more available" and "Let's provide care and support for women who do carry their children to term". But, in a sense, this was confirmation that the audience had been spun by a crafty politician into thinking this "dialogue" business between those who oppose and are in favour of abortion is the way forward. They had been caught up in the mass hysteria of seeing their president who came promising change. In reality, the change he has brought is to condemn potentially millions of innocent and defenceless lives by opening the floodgates to destructive embryo research, for instance.

The most distressing pictures of all were those showing how protesters were dealt with by the police over the weekend for trespassing ont the university's land (I think?). I nearly wept at the sight of the disgusting way police arrested the elderly and frail Father Norman Weslin (in his 80s) by plasticuffing him and taking him away on a sheet. The media palmed these protesters off as "not students", "outsiders" and "representing the views of a minority of Catholics".

As a kind of attempted justification for the visit, Father Jenkins quoted Gaudium et Spes: “Respect and love ought to be extended also to those who think or act differently than we do in social, political and even religious matters. In fact, the more deeply we come to understand their ways of thinking through such courtesy and love, the more easily will we be able to enter into dialogue with them.” Father, I think that's a bit different to parading one of the most anti-life political leaders in history around your Catholic University, presenting him with an honoury degree and then allowing him to give a dose of his dangerous manipulation to your graduates.

Let's go through Obama's speech and pick out some points to comment (in red) on. These were my honest reactions when watching it live:

"Your class has come of age at a moment of great consequence for our nation and the world – a rare inflection point in history where the size and scope of the challenges before us require that we remake our world to renew its promise; that we align our deepest values and commitments to the demands of a new age." Such as aborting unborn children every day?

"We must seek peace at a time when there are those who will stop at nothing to do us harm, and when weapons in the hands of a few can destroy the many." Like the implements of the doctors that kill the innocent life in the womb, perhaps?

"The strong too often dominate the weak..." Indeed, like scientists manipulating tiny human embryos?

"And so, for all our technology and scientific advances, we see around the globe violence (like abortion) and want and strife that would seem sadly familiar to those in ancient times."

"For if there is one law that we can be most certain of, it is the law that binds people of all faiths and no faith together. It is no coincidence that it exists in Christianity and Judaism; in Islam and Hinduism; in Buddhism and humanism. It is, of course, the Golden Rule – the call to treat one another as we wish to be treated." Does that include the unborn?

"Remember that each of us, endowed with the dignity possessed by all children of God..." Surely a genetically new and genetically complete human being just conceived is a child of God and therefore should be protected at the very early stages of life?

I could go on but I won't.

Mr Obama's solution is this - for pro and anti-abortionists "to join hands in common effort" and work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by reducing unintended pregnancies. The problem is, Mr President, it is your policies that will lead to more abortions and unwanted pregnancies. Your health budget proposals include abolishing funding for abstinence-only programmes which will lead to more promiscuity and unintended pregnancies because the young will be fooled into thinking contraception will "protect" them.

All in all it was quite astonishing to watch these proceedings unfold on Sunday. How a Catholic university can welcome with open arms such a dangerous and powerful man who appears to despise the fundamental teachings of the Church is beyond me.

EU Parliament Elections

Today at my Hull home we received polling cards for the European Parliamentary election on June 4.

For Catholic/pro-life people the voting system for this poll is somewhat controversial. Issues like abortion, embryo research and population control for the main parties are generally considered as conscience issues and not matters subject to party policy. But the election is done by proportional representation, a party list system.

Whereas in a general election you vote for a particular candidate and the person with the most votes wins, in this election you vote for a party and that party decides who gets a seat for them if they get enough of a proportion of the votes. In a general election you can ask your constituency candidates for their views and how they would vote on life issues in the House of Commons and base your vote on this information. But, in the list system, you don't know how many seats a party is going to get. So, if the person first on the list is strongly pro-life but the second is a complete rotter, the Catholic/Chrisitian/pro-life voter is left in a dilemma.

In the last election I contacted candidates close to the top of the list of several parties either by email or by phone. The problem was that some of the answers to questions were less than clear and were quite clearly dodgy. "I would like to see a more restrictive abortion law", is a quote you'll often get fobbed off with.

There are some parties that may have official policies on these issues, which would ease the problem of who to vote for in conscience. Without trying to influence the way anyone votes, it's interesting to note that the Christian Party is fielding candidates in the elections. Although I can't find their manifesto on their website, it's quite clear the party itself is against abortion and hopefully adopts a pro-life position on other issues. There are also a few names familiar to me that are involved in the pro-life movement on their lists.

Less clear is new party Libertas' approach. The "pan European movement dedicated to creating a new, democratic and open European Union" is headed up by Declan Ganley, the man who led the "no" vote in the Lisbon treaty referendum in Ireland. Mr Ganley is understood to have used anti-abortion activists to campaign in the referendum but, on the other hand, is said to have personally chosen Eline Van den Broek who is pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia to top his list in the Netherlands, according to one report. It seems that Libertas' position is by no means clear.

However Catholics vote, it's clear that the life issues are crucial in this election as in any other. One look at John Smeaton's blog uncovers a whole load of instances where the EU is endangering the lives of the innocent through abortion, embryo research and that old (dangerous) chestnut of "sexual and reproductive rights" provision.

24

O dear - another year gone! As one friend put it in an affectionate text message this morning - Happy Birthday Grandad! Only another one to go before the quarter century...

As readers will know, May 7 is also the feastday of St John of Beverley. Click here to see previous posts about him. I'm in Hull for a few days off and this evening I'll be making a trip over to Beverley for Mass. During today I think I'll go for a pub lunch.