Rejoice - Christ is in Command!

Torch of The Faith News on Sunday 02 August 2015 - 09:25:31 | by admin

We cannot recommend highly enough the practice of frequent Confession in these times. We pray that God would grant all of our readers a good confessor, who can also provide some spiritual direction and guidance.

Regular reception of the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion, combined with daily praying of the Rosary, can keep each of us as open as possible to receiving Christ's grace and life.

It is so easy in these times to look only into the dark depths of the storm engulfing and inundating the Church and society. The devil and his demons seem to have infested so many places in our times, that Catholics can sometimes experience temptations to doubt, fear and even despair. Any Catholics who are truly faithful will be getting hammered in some way in these times. Many readers know this at first hand.  

Receiving the sacraments devotedly keeps Catholics close to Our Blessed Lord and gives them renewed strength. As such, they can become ever more open to the fact that, whatever evil is being permitted in these times, Jesus Christ remains in charge, above all things. He will, ultimately, draw a greater good from whatever evil is permitted on this earth.

By His grace, Christ gives us to see that He is above the present darkness, Kingly in His ineffable light. Indeed, He is light itself.

An earthly analogy, might be when an aircraft penetrates a storm-filled sky and enters into the beauty of glorious sunshine. Above the storm clouds is a whole realm of majestic brightness and tranquility.

It is Christ's grace in the sacraments which enables Catholics to keep faith in the existence of this reality. Whilst being aware of the storm and its dangers, we must not make it the centre of our spiritual life. Jesus Christ must always be our focus.

It is a good practice to spend some time each day thanking and praising God for the many gifts and graces He has bestowed on us. The fact that one knows Him and does one's best to love Him, in times such as these, is itself a real sign of His kindness and paternal care.

We offer for Sunday contemplation - and indeed consolation - the words which we normally post up on New Year's Day. They come from CCC 668, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Jesus Christ is the Lord of the cosmos and of history. In Him, human history and indeed all creation are 'set forth' and transcendently fulfilled.

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Group Captain Leonard Cheshire - A Man Made Good by Grace

Torch of The Faith News on Friday 31 July 2015 - 11:04:42 | by admin

Friday, 31st July: On this very day and date in 1992, Group Captain Leonard Cheshire suffered a heart attack and quietly passed from this life. That he was a great man needs no introduction: the Indian President Jawaharal Nehru once described him as the greatest man that he had met since Gandi. What interests us here is that Cheshire was also a good man. And how did he become so? By receiving Christ's life through the sacraments of the Catholic Church.

Hearing his name today, many Britons would, perhaps, think of the 'Leonard Cheshire Disability' charity, which provides ongoing support to people throughout the world. A lesser number might recall that he was married to that other great philanthropist, Baroness Sue Ryder. Older folks and history buffs could probably tell you that Cheshire, a highly decorated RAF pilot in Bomber Command, had led the celebrated 617 Dambusters Squadron during World War II; and that he was present aboard one of the American B-29s over Nagasaki, as the official observer for Great Britain.

Less people are aware that both Cheshire and Ryder became converts to the Catholic Faith.

Although something that Leonard Cheshire said in his final days sounds worryingly Teilhardian - and, amongst the works of St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila and St. Ignatius of Loyola, there was a copy of Teilhard's book found in Cheshire's private library  - we should like today to draw from two important and totally orthodox things that he said regarding his own conversion to the Catholic Faith.

Both of these things relate to hugely important matters in our own times.

1). The first relates to the disciplines and the moral teachings of the Catholic Church.

During his days in Bomber Command, Cheshire emerged as a courageous leader and pilot. He eventually flew the light-weight De Havilland Mosquito as part of a select Pathfinder team, chosen to mark targets at low-level with bright coloured flares, in order to guide in the waves of RAF bombers and increase their accuracy over a target. During the war, Cheshire took part in 101 operations and was awarded the VC, DSO and Two Bars, plus the DFC.

The De Havilland Mosquito: Constructed from wood to be super fast, manoeuverable and versatile.

After the war, when Cheshire was first contemplating converting to the Catholic Faith, he went to see his vicar for advice. The vicar suggested to him that, if he joined the Catholic Church, he would never be able to think for himself again. This initially frightened the independent and strong-minded Leonard. 

However, he began to think: ''I am a pilot. I spent my life training to be a pilot. I love freedom - flying anywhere about the sky. But I thought: suppose I decided to forget all the rules about flying and decided to think entirely for myself? I would soon find myself on the ground... Now God has made rules to help us to travel through life: He has also given us a Church. We should expect our liberty to be curtailed in some way by God's rules; but within the limits of God's Law and Revelation there is still plenty of room for liberty of thought, just as there is room for the exercise of freedom whilst still observing the rules of flying... To say that the Catholic Church does not allow her members to think for themselves is, then, one of those objections which, on examination, are seen to carry no weight at all.''

2). The second relates to the issue of the knowledge and love of God.

Regular readers will recall that, in a recent article, entitled 'Having the Strawberries and the Cream', we critiqued a tweet by Fr. Marc Lyden-Smith, which had suggested that love rather than doctrine was important in relation to Jesus. What he said was: ''The faith that Jesus expects is not an acceptance of religious doctrines. It is rather an act of total trust and surrender.''

At the time, we demonstrated that both were necessary: The more one knows of God, the more one has the opportunity to love Him; and the more one loves Him, the more one desires to know Him. And so on. Knowledge and love are not opposed; both are necessary.

A couple of days ago, we discovered a written source relating to the time when Cheshire was about to join the Catholic Church, at Christmas 1948. Some Anglican friends, thinking that Catholicism's high view of the Church was spiritually dangerous, tried to suggest to Leonard that loving God and neighbour was all that mattered. How much they sound like the post-Modernists who are trying to play pastoral practice against doctrine within the Church today!

Cheshire's answer to his friends is as valid now as it was back then. He wrote: ''True enough, love is all that matters. But one cannot love what one does not know... To argue that it does not much matter what one believes about God , as long as one loves Him, is not love at all, it is to destroy the very foundation upon which love can exist. No love without knowledge; no knowledge without certainty of truth; no certainty of truth without infallibility; no infallibility unless the Church be Divinely founded and Divinely maintained.''

These two quotes remind us of the profound unity between the doctrine of the Church and Her pastoral practice. Other writings of Cheshire from that time demonstrate that the truth, authority and unity of the Church were all key aspects that helped to convert him. Through his faithful reception of the sacraments throughout the rest of his life, grace built upon Cheshire's nature and enabled him to accomplish so much towards the work of peace, reconciliation and support for those living with disabilities.

During a memorial Mass, offered in Westminster Cathedral on 25th September 1992, the late Cardinal Basil Hume listed Cheshire's qualities during the homily. He then added: ''But there was something else. It was simply this. He had allowed God into his life and this transformed him. He had said ''Yes'' to God, not half-heartedly, not with reluctance but, characteristically, in a manner which was total and even radical.''

On this anniversary of Group Captain Leonard Cheshire's death, we pray for the repose of his soul and ask the Holy Spirit for the grace to say a total and radical ''Yes'' to God in our own lives. 

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The Roar of the Crowd

Torch of The Faith News on Friday 31 July 2015 - 09:28:50 | by admin

It is as disturbing as it is revealing to observe the global uproar about Cecil the Lion, whilst a universal blind eye is being turned to the leaked videos about Planned Parenthood.

Yesterday, a 4th video apparently featured a lab worker sifting through a heart, a stomach, a kidney and a pair of legs from an aborted baby; and suddenly announcing: ''It's another boy!''

The video also contains more evidence of Planned Parenthood staff dealing in body parts. Medical Director Dr. Savite Ginde is seen to say: ''I think a per-item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it.''

The Vox Cantoris blog has today posted an extremely disturbing video of an abortionist playing with a tiny baby that has just been aborted. 

After some discernment, Vox has posted this film in light of General Dwight D. Einsenhower's demand that the Nazi deathcamps were to be fully exposed in order to avoid future denial.

We have not watched the video ourselves and recommend extreme caution to those who are easily distressed or to women suffering after abortion. By the way, we do provide a link, on our ''Links'' page, to Rachel's Vineyard, for any women needing healing, help and loving support after an abortion.

In spite of the viral spread of these kinds of videos on-line, the mainstream media have diverted attention with a massive focus on the killing of Cecil the Lion.

Both LifeSiteNews and The New American report that Cecil the Lion has rated higher in mainstream news than the information about Planned Parenthood's baby holocaust.

Indeed, LifeSiteNews pointed out that the main channels dedicated more time in one single day to the lion story than they did to the Planned Parenthood revelations during a whole two-week period. And it seems that ABC, NBC and CBS all censored the videos at the behest of Planned Parenthood!

As celebrities throughout the West jump on the populist bandwagon, to condemn the killing of Cecil the Lion as something 'mental', we can only repeat what we said at the outset: This global uproar about the killing of a lion at a time when such videos have been leaked to the world is as disturbing as it is revealing.

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Cardinal William Baum - Requiescat in Pace

Torch of The Faith News on Thursday 30 July 2015 - 17:20:46 | by admin

Of your charity, please pray for the repose of the soul of Cardinal William Baum, who has passed from this life at the age of 88. The late cardinal's funeral Mass and burial will take place tomorrow in Washington D.C.

Catholics everywhere can thank Cardinal Baum for his important role in the formation of St. John Paul II's constitution on Catholic higher education, Ex corde Ecclesiae.

This document was developed as an authorative rebuttal by the Church, to the infamous dissent from Humanae Vitae; which had emerged in such a large-scale, organized and public manner from the troublesome 'Land O' Lakes' conference in Wisconsin, during the summer of 1967.

Ex corde Ecclesiae furnished faithful professors, faculties and institutions with an authorative and orthodox template for the preservation of truly Catholic education and identity. Although many Catholic institutions have fallen away into outright post-Modernism, a number have worked to implement Ex corde Ecclesiae. Some examples include: Aquinas College; Ave Maria University; Christendom College; Franciscan University of Steubenville; and the John Paul II Institute. Indeed, university president, Fr. Sean O. Sheridan, TOR, will host a symposium on the theme of Embracing the Gift of Ex corde Ecclesiae to Challenge the Culture, at Franciscan University this coming September. 

Cardinal Baum also served on the commission which developed the Catechism of the Catholic Church. He explained: ''We live in a world of flux. We are buffeted by winds of change in doctrines and ideologies. We need very much a sure Catholic guide to what the Church believes, teaches and transmits.''

In his final months, His Eminence was cared for by the Little Sisters of the Poor. May he rest in the Peace of Christ. Amen.     

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Please Pray for the Success of the 5th Annual GK Chesterton Walking Pilgrimage Today

Torch of The Faith News on Thursday 30 July 2015 - 11:26:06 | by admin

It is hard to believe that it is already the time of year for the annual GK Chesterton Walking Pilgrimage in London. Today's date marks the anniversary of Chesterton's conversion to the Catholic Faith in 1922. Just a couple of days after the 2013 walking pilgrimage, Bishop Peter Doyle appointed a priest to look after the possibility of opening up a cause for GK Chesterton to be Beatified.

Stuart and the other walkers have already set off on this year's walk from St. George's C of E in Aubrey Walk, London, at 8am this morning. This is the old church where Chesterton was baptized as a baby. The walking pilgrimage is now en route to a Traditional High Mass at 1.30pm at Our Lady of Lourdes church in Uxbridge.

After Holy Mass, the walkers will eat their packed lunches before heading off to Beaconsfield, where Chesterton lived, converted, died and is buried. The walk will conclude with a prayer for GK's Beatification at his graveside.

The total distance of the walk is about 27 miles and Stuart is asking sponsors to donate towards the splendid work of Good Counsel Network. A Just Giving page has been established to facilitate this.

As today marks the anniversary of Chesterton's conversion, Stuart and the other walkers will be praying for people to be converted; and also for those who are sick at this time. He invites supporters to pray the following prayer:-

God our Father, Thou didst fill the life of Thy servant Gilbert Keith Chesterton with a sense of wonder and joy, and gave him a faith which was the foundation of his ceaseless work, a charity towards all men, particularly his opponents, and a hope which sprang from his lifelong gratitude for the gift of human life. May his innocence and his laughter, his constancy in fighting for the Christian faith in a world losing belief, his lifelong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his love for all men, especially for the poor, bring cheerfulness to those in despair, conviction and warmth to lukewarm believers and the knowledge of God to those without faith. We beg Thee to grant the favours we ask through his intercession, the end of abortion in this country and especially for (mention your intention here) so that his holiness may be recognized by all and the Church may proclaim him Blessed. We ask this through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

In these times when there is so much ideological warfare against the Church, perhaps we could all do well to learn from the great GKC. It is always striking to see that, even in the midst of apologetic, debate, and even polemic against the likes of the atheistic George Bernard Shaw, Chesterton was able to love, respect and even to befriend his opponents. It recalls his line that angels can fly, because they take themselves lightly. Chesterton had grasped that fundamental mystery of the primacy of God's grace in all things. 

Regular doses of Chesterton's writings can be a healthy and humorous antidote to spiritual pride; that subtle and dangerous temptation for the orthodox Traditionalist Catholic. 

That Stuart - another convert who, like Chesterton, has done much for the Church - shares something of the Chestertonian mirth, may be witnessed by his wearing of one of those trendy, red Che T-shirts...

Che-sterton that is!!!

Please pray for the walkers today and give as much to Good Counsel Network as you possibly can!

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The Scale of Abortion in Post-Modern Britain - SPUC's Infographic Tells It How It Is

Torch of The Faith News on Wednesday 29 July 2015 - 13:07:58 | by admin

SPUC has sent out this infographic which clearly depicts the frightful scale of abortion in post-modern Britain (based on the very similar abortion figures from 2013).

The latest Government figures, which were released in June, report that 190,092 innocent babies were killed by 'legal' abortion in England and Wales during 2014.

In Scotland, a further 11,475 babies were destroyed.

This means that the 2014 abortion total for England, Scotland and Wales combined was 201,567.

The British Abortion Act has now led to the slaughter of over 8,300,000 babies in the wombs of their mothers.

And, let us not forget, these figures do not take into account the newly conceived babies killed by abortifacient pills and devices, the thousands destroyed during the IVF process, or those split apart by subsequent embryo experimentation.

Although the most recent figures, since the infographic's 202,577, have thankfully dropped by 1,010 babies during the year - that is around three little babies each day - SPUC explains that the 2014 abortion rate, of 15.9 abortions per thousand resident women, is actually DOUBLE what it was in 1970. This basically means that the prospects for a baby to survive in the womb in contemporary Britain are twice as bad as they were back then.

We cannot help but think that this is the kind of clear and expressive infographic, and associated data, which should be highlighted during the annual Day for Life.

If we see this information and do nothing to spread it, or to help save the lives of babies through supporting true pro-life work, then we are no better than those who turned a blind eye to the mass-extermination in places like Auschwitz. It is 70 years this year since that death-camp was liberated. The question we must each face is: What have we learned?     

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''Detroit turned out to be Heaven... It also turned out to be Hell'' (Marvin Gaye) - Please Pray to Our Lady!

Torch of The Faith News on Tuesday 28 July 2015 - 13:03:12 | by admin

Time was when this was the kind of metal sculpture drawing the crowds in downtown Detroit. At its peak, the sprawling 'motor-city' was home to nearly 2-million people, as the automobile and armaments industries crafted and churned out vast quantities of metal and machinery.

In recent decades, the collapse of Detroit's automotive industry, and of the city's infrastructure and social order, has been dramatic enough to gain the decaying metropolis the nickname 'Carpocalypse'. Whilst the city has successfully filed for bankruptcy, and the crime rate continues to soar to record levels, the population has dropped to around 700,000. Photographs of Detroit's abandoned churches, houses and factories have become a genre all of their own.

Please pray the Holy Michael Prayer before reading further.

Nothing could illustrate the demise of Detroit, and of America by association, more clearly than the unveiling of an 8.5-ft statue of the Devil; in the guise of the Baphomet, adorned with a pentagram, sat on a throne, and flanked by two young and adoring children, in the city on Sunday evening. (We will not show the actual images of the evil statue here). Although attendance at the 'event' would have cost $25 per head - $75 for those who wanted to have their photograph taken sitting on the lap of the devil - several hundred people queued up to attend. Mainstream media are suggesting that around 700 attended the event.  

It was Sunday, the Day of Christ's Resurrection, and also the eve of the feast of St. Anne, the patroness of Detroit.

The 'Satanic Temple' described the event as ''the largest public satanic ceremony in history'' and as a ''night of chaos, noise and debauchery.''

A Traditional Latin Mass, followed by a Holy Hour of Reparation, were held at Detroit's historical St. Joseph's Church to counter the event and to pray for the city.

We hear that a group from Church Militant TV also tried to counter the event by driving a large statue of Holy Michael the Archangel, mounted on the back of a pick-up truck, around the venue and praying the Rosary through a microphone. A witness from this team managed to infiltrate the event - surely a spiritually and physically dangerous thing to do - and stated that the venue contained an upside-down cross and that participants were committing homosexual acts before the vile statue.

This news comes in a period when many commentators are describing America's decline in terms of a new Babylon.

Last year there was that terrible Black Mass in Oklahoma.

Recent headlines suggest that Planned Parenthood are not only selling body parts from aborted babies, but perhaps making $23 million, per annum, from this evil practice. Those two videos of frighteningly cold-hearted Planned Parenthood employees, being caught out making murderous deals in restaurants, have recently gone viral; and revealed to the world even more of the darkness of that whole global empire of impurity and mass-baby-slaughter.

Then there is the recent SCOTUS 'decision' forcing homosexual 'marriage' on the whole country; the revelation that Iowa and Illinois will be bringing in graphic homosexuality 'education' into public schools this autumn; the ongoing state persecution of Catholic institutions, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, who do not want to take part in the evil aspects of the HHS Mandate; the man who is suing Zondervan Publishing for printing Bibles which still contain the injunctions against homosexual practices; and the announcement that the Boy Scouts in America will soon be allowing homosexual leaders.

Cadillac Ranch: 10 classic Caddys up-ended in a clay field near Amarillo, Texas - a symbol of American decadence and decline.

There are some Catholics trying to dismiss Sunday's events in Detroit as just some immature humanists trying to prove a point. Instead of Cadillacs, such people are burying their heads in the sand. In reality, the public acceptance and even worship of the devil should be waking up all people to the grave state, and stage in history, that our society has now entered into.

Remember that bi-centennial talk which, the then, Cardinal Karol Wotyla gave in America in 1976? He stated: ''We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of American society, or wide circles of the Christian community, realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel... We must be prepared to undergo great trials, in the not-too-distant future; trials that will require us to be ready to give up even our lives, and a total gift of self to Christ and for Christ.'' 

On the very day that the evil travesty took place in Detroit, the Archdiocese of New York was closing down dozens of churches, including some beautiful and historical gems, due to falling Mass-attendance and revenues. This gives an existential symbol of the fact that the Church is in retreat on important fronts, whilst evil is being allowed to advance. Many are wondering: Will Pope Francis speak on any of these things when he visits the US in a few weeks? A man, described as a life-long Catholic, phoned into Rush Limbaugh's show a few days ago and wondered why Pope Francis was speaking up so much about the environment, whilst seeming to be so silent about the Planned Parenthood revelations.

We know that evil will not, in the end, have the final word. In the short term, as evil flourishes in many places, we must draw close to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to Our Blessed Lady.

The final victory will assuredly be theirs: We know from Sacred Scripture and Tradition that Our Lady will ultimately crush the head of the serpent. May God give all of us the grace to never forget this beautiful truth.

Here is a prayer to help readers each day. It was given an indulgence by Pope St. Pius X in 1908.

Remedy against the ''Spirit of Darkness'' and the forces of hate and fear.

August Queen of the Heavens, sovereign Mistress of the Angels, You who from the beginning received from God the power and the mission to crush the head of Satan, we humbly ask You to send Your holy Legions so that under Your command and by Your power, they may pursue the demons and combat them everywhere, suppress their boldness and drive them back into the abyss.

Who is like God?

O good and tender Mother, You will always be our love and our hope!

O divine Mother, send the Holy Angels to defend me and to drive far away from me the cruel enemy.

Holy Angels and Archangels, defend us and guard us.

Amen.

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Day for Life 2015 - More Woolly than an Aran Sweater?

Torch of The Faith News on Sunday 26 July 2015 - 13:45:46 | by admin

The Catholic parishes throughout England and Wales hold their annual Day for Life collection today. Sad to say, it looks like this has been yet another missed opportunity to promote the Culture of Life with clarity and vigour.

This time last year we posted an article called Day for Life 2014 - Another Year, Same Fluff to express our ongoing disappointment.

We spoke then of the fact that, as long ago as 1995, Evangelium Vitae called for a Day for Life to be celebrated, on an annual basis, by the Catholic Church in every country. In paragraph EV 85, the primary purpose for this celebration was established in the following terms: ''To foster in individual consciences, in families, in the Church and in civil society a recognition of the meaning and value of human life at every stage and in every condition.'' The encyclical specified that particular attention, ''should be drawn to the seriousness of abortion and euthanasia, without neglecting other aspects of life which from time to time deserve to be given careful consideration, as occasion and circumstances demand.''

Last year, we recalled with heavy hearts that, although an abortion holocaust was raging throughout Britain, and the threat of euthanasia was gradually taking hold, it took until around 2003 for the Bishops of England and Wales to develop an annual Day for Life. And we lamented the fact that, even then, the initial content had been so vague.

Last summer, we also lamented the fact that, on the whole, things had not improved too much with time. Indeed, something of a nadir was reached during the summer of the Olympic Games with Day for Life 2012's diluted message about health and happiness.

That summer, William Oddie was prompted to pen an article in the Catholic Herald; in which he wondered aloud why the bishops in these isles always seemed to go out of their way to undermine the papal vision for the Church. Mr Oddie suggested that their lacklustre approach to the Day for Life was, ''perhaps the most grotesque and cynical example of this phenomenon.'' He concluded that, up until then, the annual Day for Life in Britain had been about anything but what the, then, Holy Father had requested in Evangelium Vitae.

2015 - Continuing the lacklustre tradition?

At first glance, this year's glossy literature seemed to have a lot more going for it. In an age when the elderly and vulnerable are so ignored, neglected and undervalued, it is encouraging to see a positive picture of Pope Francis giving a blessing to an older lady on the front page of the leaflets for this year.

And turning over, it is also good to see a quote from Pope Francis announcing, in large coloured-type at the head of the page, ''How great a lie... to make people think that lives affected by grave illness are not worth living!''

We think, though, that the problem starts once the small type is studied in more detail. The leaflet provides a scenario about 'Kathleen... a much-loved grandmother', who collapses with a sudden stroke. The lady is anointed and doctors talk of possible brain damage.

The leaflet then goes on to affirm that every life is loved by God and that it is wrong to hasten or bring about death.

In a following paragraph, the leaflet states that there is no obligation to pursue medical treatment when this no longer has any effect or, indeed, harms the patient, or where the risks or burdens of the treatment may outweigh any likely benefits.

The leaflet then suggests that difficult and important decisions need to be faced with others - such as spouses, siblings, extended family and ''experts''.

The concluding paragraph suggests two questions as guides in a situation: ''Is this decision loving life?'' and ''Is this decision accepting the inevitablity of death?'' A link to the website is then offered for more detailed guidance.

Some Thoughts...

It is fair to say that the website does provide further information. 

However:-

1. We must ask how it can be that a leaflet dealing with ''Cherishing Life - Accepting Death'' makes absolutely no reference to the looming threat of euthanasia, from the Marris Bill, which is presently moving through the Commons.

2. In light of this, why is Day for Life 2015 not being used to promote and organize a robust defence of the elderly and vulnerable from this looming threat of euthanasia in this country, instead of this, at best, generalistic message?

3. Although the Day for Life website makes clear that food and water are basic needs which should not be removed, this is not explained at all in the glossy leaflets. As there is so much confusion over this issue in the present culture, we suggest that this is a dangerous omission.

4. The leaflet talks about making ''difficult and important decisions'' with ''experts and family members''; what if such persons are not informed about, or do not hold to, the ethical teachings of the Catholic Church?

5. Given the growing cultural acceptance of euthanasia - and the lack of a clear description of euthanasia or any articulation of a clear and developed defence against it in the leaflet - is there not a danger that some people might see this leaflet as giving a mixed message. Might they even mistakenly interpret the leaflet's concluding questions (''Is the decision loving life?/Is the decision accepting the inevitability of death?'') in a relativistic manner? Shouldn't the question ''Is this decision honouring God and the 10 Commandments?'' be paramount?

6. Given that the literature must have cost a lot of money, can it be described as an effective use of funds to produce vast quantities of such lacklustre materials when the Culture of Death is gaining ground all around us; with a specific threat even in the Commons at this time?

7. Given that some Catholic lay people, some Protestants and some other people of good will, are organizing a clear defence against the Marris Bill, how does this year's literature bear an effective witness to the True Faith from the Hierarchy?

8. Given the subject matter, why is there no reference to pro-life support groups like the Patients' First Network? 

In light of Mum's serious stroke last summer, this is all very close to home for us. We find that this year's leaflet is gravely lacking in terms of pastoral support, in terms of a clear defence of life in general; and against the imminent Marris Bill in particular.

At the end of the week we received an e-mail from Christian Concern calling readers to urgently contact MPs and ask them to vote against the Marris Bill. The e-mail provided helpful links to the guidelines put together by Christian Medical Fellowship and by SPUC. As you know, we already highlighted SPUC's helpful leaflet and booklet earlier this week. Why can the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales not organize prayer vigils, information sharing, widespread lobbying, protests, and guidelines for writing to MPs as part of Day for Life? 

Sadly, Day for Life 2015 looks like Day for Life 2014, and too many other years before that, in being Another Year, Same Fluff. Indeed, this year looks more woolly than an aran sweater.

May God have mercy on us. 

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Aedificabuntur in te deserta saeculorum

Torch of The Faith News on Saturday 25 July 2015 - 12:13:03 | by admin

Over near Kidderminster, approximately 25 miles to the west of Baddesley Clinton, stands the splendid, red-brick structure of Harvington Hall. First constructed in the 1580's by Humphrey Pakington, this vast moated house contains the finest surviving series of priest-holes in all of England. At Harvington Hall, one may glimpse something of the true genius and skill of St. Nicholas Owen. Given the extent of the work involved, it seems a fair conjecture to say that the original designs for the central Great Staircase, and therefore the house itself, would have always contained the hiding places and the secret access points built into them. 

In any case, the construction of Harvington Hall provided St. Nicholas Owen with an opportunity to develop a sophisticated series of hides for priests, all centred around that Great Staircase. Although this staircase was moved to Coughton Court in 1910, during a time when Harvington had fallen into a sadly ruinous state, it was painstakingly recreated when Harvington Hall was restored to mint condition during the 20th-Century.

Today, the hall is owned and run by the Archdiocese of Birmingham. Visitors can enjoy a pleasant tea room, a decent shop and herb gardens recreated in the style of the Elizabethan era. The Latin motto in our title is taken from Isaiah 58; and graces the heraldic over-mantel in the fully-restored Great Chamber. It translates as, What was ancient and abandoned, you shall rebuild.

Here, then, is another marvellous day-trip destination for Catholics wishing to use their summer holidays to strengthen their faith, deepen their understanding and nourish their hope. And, as with Baddesley Clinton, Harvington's association with martyr-saints, makes it a place of pilgrimage and prayer. It is heartening to think that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was secretly offered here, right through the worst times of the Elizabethan persecution. The priests and people at Harvington helped to keep the flame of the One True Faith always burning in our island nation. Opportunities for pilgrim visitors to pray today are still enhanced by the lovely Small Chapel, painted around 1600 A.D. with red and white droplets to call to mind the Blood and Water of Christ's Passion, and by the restored Georgian-era chapel out in the grounds.

Though no-one was ever captured by pursuivant raiders at Harvington Hall - the hides obviously worked - the martyr-priest St. John Wall did live and minister here for several years and, of course, the priest-hides all bear the trademarks of the talented martyr St. Nicholas Owen. Prior to his own martyrdom in 1606, he was eventually captured by being starved out of one of his own hides over at Hindlip House. Sadly, Hindlip was demolished in 1815, but descriptions of the hides that had been incorporated there, show a striking similarity to those at Harvington. 

Cross-section drawings of the great Harvington Hall, reveal an ingenious series of hidden passageways, leading on to secret hiding places. Each of the hides is situated around the central structure of the Grand Staircase.

Within the stairs themselves is a lift-up step, which opens onto a small, hidden room within the staircase itself. As our picture reveals, Harvington today has a wax effigy placed there, to represent a hidden priest kneeling in prayer. Further up, in a smaller stairway, two treads can be hinged upwards to reveal a small triangular hide. In his informative book How We Built Britain (2007), David Dimbleby suggests that this hiding place could have contained jewels and some money. However, we think that the historian Alice Hogge may be rather closer to the mark, in her captivating narrative history God's Secret Agents (2005), when she conjectures that the books and equipment for Holy Mass may have been stored there.

The young - and the young at heart - would likely love the ingenious false-fireplace in the Marble Room. A layer of soot would fool most observers into accepting that this was just a regular brick fireplace. However, stairs up in the false chimney lead up to a hidden passageway in a maze of attics. There are two hides in the attics; one of which had a false wall, behind which a dozen or more adults could safely hide.

So well concealed were St. Nicholas Owen's hides that one of them was only discovered by accident in the late 1890's. Some boys, playing in the then-derelict hall stumbled against an upright wall-beam in Dr. Dodd's library. This suddenly pivoted upwards to reveal a further narrow hiding place of eight feet in length, five feet in height and three feet in width; a specially constructed wooden stool, too wide to have been pushed into the narrow space, had been assembled in situ to allow some rest for a weary priest-in-hiding!

The pivoting beam is behind and to the right of the red rope in this photograph. During the days of the Elizabethan persecution, there would have been book-cupboard doors where the rope is now and book shelves would have been affixed within the raised area. There is something of that truly Catholic quality of joyful mirth in the constructions at Harvington. Although the dangers the priests and recusant families faced were extremely serious, there is definitely something tongue-in-cheek about St. Nicholas Owen's work. The hides at Harvington call to mind the witticisms and kindnesses displayed by some of the English martyrs as they were led out to the scaffold: clear signs of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit. 

Dr. Dodd was actually the pseudonym of Fr. Hugh Tootell. He had lived at the hall and written a church history in this room during the 1700's.

Out in the grounds is the marvellous Elizabethan Malt House. The lower sandstone and upper brick/timber has been reconstructed to appear as it would have done in its heydey. The interior houses a restored 18th-Century malting kiln and now features modern educational resources.

There is also a restored Georgian-era chapel in the grounds of Harvington Hall. By that era, anti-Catholic persecution had almost died out in England, at least in its most virulent forms. Nevertheless, the chapel is camouflaged by two parallel walls, running at 10-ft in height between the chapel and the courtyard, to provide discreet access from any prying eyes in the surrounding fields.

If you are interested in knowing more about Harvington Hall, we recommend Rosie Martin's enchanting book My Lord and the Angel (1997).

As a small child, growing up in the early 1920's, Rosie wandered in to investigate the, then, largely derelict Harvington Hall. During her secret visit, she encountered the other-worldly Archbishop Edward Isley of Birmingham and his sister. As the venerable Archbishop was being addressed as ''My Lord'', Rosie initially thought that he must be God.

Her book recounts her life-long spiritual journey, including her childhood conversion and reception into the Catholic Church, in a manner which is at once down-to-earth and deeply mystical. The consistent theme at the centre of her experiences, and at the heart of her deepening understanding and spirituality, on into her old age, is always the sense of enchantment and encounter that she first received as a little girl in Harvington Hall.

Aedificabuntur in te deserta saeculorum - What was ancient and abandoned you shall rebuild.

It is a great motto for those working to preserve and hand on the True Faith in our own difficult times. The resurrection of Harvington from ruinous collapse can remind us of several important themes: Christ's own Glorious Resurrection; the restoration offered to each of us by Christ in the Sacraments; the unexpected re-flourishing of Catholicism in England, from the 1800's-1950's, when immigration, emancipation, the restoration of the hierarchy and an influx of thousands of converts, built upon the sure foundations which the heroic martyrs and recusant families had maintained; and finally, the Christian hope that we must cultivate for the glorious future return of the One True Faith. 

What wonderful lessons can be learned from a visit to Harvington Hall; and from the personalities connected with her deepest mysteries!

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Transit Gloria Mundi - Fides Catholica Manet

Torch of The Faith News on Friday 24 July 2015 - 13:09:09 | by admin

Angeline maintains a camouflaged look-out for pursuivants outside Baddesley Clinton!

Summer is upon us and many people are looking for quality venues for family day-trips. We thought that we would share some of the locations that we have found to be at once educational, inspirational and refreshing.

Today we are focusing on the moated manor-house of Baddesley Clinton, just north of Warwick. The Latin title of today's article is taken from the motto inscribed in the house's chapel. It translates as, Worldly glory is transitory, but the Catholic Faith endures. This alone would make Baddesley Clinton a great place for an educational day out for children. But there is so much more.

Every Englishman should be told about the history of Baddesley Clinton, because it symbolises the true heritage and inheritance that was denied to them during the hard years of the Elizabethan persecution of the Catholic Church.

Baddesley Clinton is today owned and maintained by the National Trust; so there is a restaurant, gift-shop, a house trail for younger visitors, plus pleasant gardens to stroll and let children release some steam. Parking is free and visiting NT members may receive the usual benefits. If you visit in the first week of August you will catch the annual Book Fair. One year, we obtained a heavily discounted copy of Cardinal Josef Mindszenty's Memoirs during this event!

And Baddesley Clinton manor is steeped in Catholic history.

During the 1400's, one of the first owners is reputed to have murdered the local Catholic priest in the house. He repented and did penance by extensively restoring the local parish church of St. Michael. In that era, Baddesley Clinton manor was fortified with gunports and a draw-bridge over the moat.

Through marriage, the house passed into the Ferrers family in 1517. As the 1590's began, Henry Ferrers leased the manor to two strongly Catholic recusants: Anne Vaux and her widowed sister Eleanor Brooksby. These were the days when the Elizabethan persecution had driven the Catholic Church underground by outlawing the Sacred Priesthood and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Priests who were discovered in the realm, together with those who sheltered them, could face torture and execution. By the end of Elizabeth's reign, 123 Catholic priests and over 60 lay people had been executed.

Clearly, Anne Vaux and Eleanor Brooksby were running huge risks when they began to shelter priests and allow the manor to be used as a venue for secret offerings of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

They were not the only ones.

Scattered at secret locations throughout the country were a number of Jesuit mission priests, under the leadership of Fr. Henry Garnet S.J. The dangers they faced made it necessary for them to endure long periods of isolation from their Jesuit brethren.

Once every two years, the Jesuits would come together for a clandestine conference. These meetings had both practical and spiritual aims. They provided a forum for the priests to discuss strategy, make future plans and share information and news. They also enabled the priests to make their own confessions, enjoy some priestly fraternity and receive ongoing formation in the Jesuit spirituality.

In the second week of October, 1591, Jesuit priests and seminarians converged on the isolated manor at Baddesley Clinton for one of these biannual conferences. The time was chosen to coincide with a political election in order to provide greater security; the leaders of the priest-hunters, known as pursuivants, would hopefully be engaged with other matters for a couple of weeks.

Travelling to the secret meeting was the talented Jesuit lay-brother St. Nicholas Owen. Known as ''Little John'', he had used his remarkable gifts for lateral thinking and carpentry to construct elaborate 'priest-holes' to hide Catholic priests in the houses of the faithful recusant families that remained dotted around England.

At Baddesley Clinton, St. Nicholas Owen had devised three hiding places: one small room accessed through a secret wooden panel in the moat room; another in a hidden ceiling space; and a third in a narrow sewage channel. This last hiding place ran under the entire length of the southwest wing of the house. It was accessed via a rope hung in a garderobe shaft, that was itself concealed within the thickness of a wall.

The dark sewage channel lacked access to fresh air and was lapped up to ankle-depth by water from the moat. Although it measured just four feet at the highest point, it was long enough to conceal up to a dozen crouching men.

At the conclusion of the conference on 14th October, 1591, some of the Jesuits saddled their horses and left after dinner. Source documents reveal that, early on the morning of 15th October, 1591, before the remaining priests could leave, the house was raided by pursuivant priest-hunters.

Fr. John Gerard S.J. wrote of this frightening raid: ''I was making my meditation. Father Southwell was beginning Mass and the rest were at prayer, when suddenly I heard a great uproar outside the main door. Then I heard a voice shouting and swearing at a servant who was refusing them entrance.''

Fr. Southwell quickly slipped out of his vestments, stripped the altar bare and joined the others in hiding their belongings. They turned their still-warm mattresses so that they would not seem to have been slept on. Whilst the anxious Eleanor Brooksby was hidden at the top of the house, Anne Vaux bought some time for everyone by standing on her rights as an aristocratic lady at the front door.

By the time the priest-hunters had entered and begun to violently ransack the house in their destructive haste, five Jesuit priests, two seminarians and up to three servants were hiding in the sewage channel beneath the house.

As their hearts raced, and the furious noise of beds being overturned, furniture being manhandled and wooden panels being beaten, echoed above their heads, the holy men must have wondered at the grim dangers the entire Jesuit mission then faced.

Some of the greatest names in Jesuit history had gathered at Baddesley Clinton for that conference. Henry Garnet, John Gerard, Robert Southwell, Edward Oldcorn, Thomas Lister, Richard Holtby and Nicholas Owen; these had all been present. If the raiders had discovered the Jesuits that morning, almost the entire network, which had taken years to establish and develop, would have been destroyed in just one single hour.

By God's grace, the pursuivants never did find the priests or seminarians that day. Anne Vaux calmly served them breakfast and someone paid them a bribe of twelve pieces of gold. Only after four hours had elapsed, could the men emerge from their hiding place. John Gerard later spoke of their experiences as being like those of Daniel in the den of the lions. Some Catholics in those days, as again in our own, thought that they were living through the last days of Daniel and the Apocalypse; when the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass would be abolished for a period of time.

Fr. Robert Southwell was eventually caught and tortured by the evil Mr. Richard Topcliffe. He was martyred in February, 1595. In 1606, following a brutal clampdown in the wake of the Gunpowder Plot, Fr. Edward Oldcorne, Fr. Henry Garnet and Nicholas Owen were all martyred. The gruesome practice of hanging, drawing and quartering, whilst the victim was still conscious, should make every person of good will examine the origins of English Protestantism - and thus of post-Protestant secularism in our own day. It is hard to deny Blessed Cardinal J.H. Newman's maxim that, ''to be deep in history, is to cease to be Protestant.''

As we said above, every Englishman should be told the Baddesley Clinton story, to help them to discover the true birth-right they have been denied. And what is this birthright? Nothing other than the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, founded by Jesus Christ for the salvation and sanctification of souls until the end of time. It was because the 'old religion', endowed with Christ's power to teach, save and make holy, had been abolished by falsehood and violence that Robert Southwell thought that, to be truly English, was to be a Catholic. It is the long-forgotten birthright of every Englishman.

Visitors to Baddesley Clinton today can view the famous priest-hole from the kitchen area of the house. So good was St. Nicholas Owen's work that one of the priest-holes was only discovered in 1935.

The raid at Baddesley Clinton marked a historical watershed in the Jesuit mission. During the actual days of that hidden conference, Queen Elizabeth I signed into law a new proclamation that further divided those who wished to be loyal to Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church and those seeking loyalty to the Queen. Although it was the sincere faith of the martyrs that, like their ancestors, they could be loyal subjects of both, the unjust law precluded such a peace in the culture. Pursuit and persecution of priests and their helpers intensified. It was now too dangerous for so many priests to meet together in one place in Elizabethan England.

For all of these reasons, Baddesley Clinton is not just a venue for a good day out. As well as being a place of educational value, inspiration and refreshment, it is, for all those who love the True Faith and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, a place of pilgrimage and prayer. The example and prayers of these martyr-priests might help us in the coming storms. They are good friends to have. May their witness encourage us as we traverse the difficult, and often lonely, waters of our own anti-Catholic times. 

Angeline finds the camouflage to be less effective at the south elevation of the moated manor house!

Martyrs of England - Pray for us!

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