What Do They Want With Me?

Yesterday I discovered that I am being followed on Twitter by foreignoffice (the Foreign and Commonwealth Office) of the U.K..

They follow 14,966 other people too, many with Pope Visit "twibbons".

They follow Father Tim Finigan (The Hermeneutic of Continuity blog here).

Have I said something they don't like? Most certainly I have.

Should I be worried, or should I ask my doctor for anti-paranoia pills?

Hmmmmm!

Catholic Education? Don't Be Daft, Lad

On the necesity of a Catholic Education – the Importance of the early years.

When I was six, my grandfather, a fine man in his way, a Mancunian, who had dragged himself up (his words) from being a colliery shunter to the dignity of a suit and a civil service job, told me that there was no Father Christmas.

“But he brings me presents,” I countered.

“Don’t be so daft, lad! Your Mam and Grandma and I put them in your room while you’re asleep. Father Christmas is a fairy tale – like God. God was invented by the ruling class to keep the lower class in order. You can’t believe all that rubbish.”

And so, I became a terrified agnostic and remained so until I was thirteen, unable to sleep at night for fear of a me-less universe, lying awake in the dark trying to imagine non-existence, until I was saved by GKC’s Father Brown.

Enough of me.

But is this what Catholics want for their children?

To expose them, at an age when they’re unarmed in their Faith, to the fully-armed secularism of the government, keeping the lower orders under control by destroying dissent to its inclusive doctrines?

To leave them in the sweetshop of multicultural education, where all beliefs and none are equal, so long as they leave God out of it?

To expose them to a supposedly Catholic education, and have them told by a Catholic teacher to roll condoms onto hockey sticks?

To have them told by a Catholic catechist that the Body and Blood of Christ are a joyful meeting, party, and meal, just like Diwali or Eid ul Fatr etc, etc?

And all this without any armoury, except what the family can provide, to defend what they want to and ought to believe.

Because this is what they will get, from the Catholic Education Service of England and Wales.

Happy with that?

Religious Intolerance - HUH!

(Thanks to Love in the Ruins for the lead to this story.)

So Dorota Rabczewska, a young Polish singer, will be prosecuted in Poland for insulting religious feeling. Please note, 'religious feeling', and not 'the Catholic Church'.

She said, silly girl, that the Bible was written by drunks and people who liked herbal cigarettes.

If this is not insulting, what is?

If I chose, as a resident in Poland, to insult the religious feelings of Catholics, Jews, Muslims (Tatars have been here for over 600 years) or Protestants, I would, rightly, face the same treatment.

I am a Catholic. If someone came into my house and insulted my God, my Church, my Saints, or my Scriptures, I would, as my strength permitted, ....you can use your imagination.

Have a nice day!

Faith Schools - A View

What are they for?

They exist to provide education within the religious framework prescribed by the trustees or some similar body. This may be Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, or whatever. The ethos of the school will reflect its religious affiliation, as will the religious instruction or education given.


Are they successful at it?

My daughters attended an independent Catholic convent school, run by the I.B.V.M., an order of nuns. The headmistress was a nun as were some of the teachers. One daughter removed herself when her class were told to roll condoms onto hockey sticks. The other just refused to take part. We were told that we had to remember that there were many non-Catholics amongst the pupils. The daughter who walked out enrolled at the local grammar school, where she found more Catholics, teachers and pupils. Maybe they are good at it, but not always.


Are they a good thing or a bad thing?

Secularists: No, they promote superstition and irrational belief, and inhibit social cohesion. Or as O’Neill asserts in spiked-on-line, they are so incompetent at religious education as to be harmless , I guess like the village idiot at the “Ball of Kerriemuir”.

Religious parents: If they deliver education in the appropriate religious framework, as they should, yes. In my experience, not always. When successful, they provide a caring environment, rigorous teaching, and an atmosphere which promotes the development of pupils’ faith. The Catholic sixth form college in Poland where I teach is an excellent example.

Ambitious parents: Very good. The teachers and pupils are ‘nicer’ and the discipline better. For this reason there is a rush to enroll in church congregations in time to get children’s names down on ‘the list’ for popular church schools.

Pupils: I don’t know. According to O’Neill, they fail to impart belief. My children were not happy at the watered-down Catholicism they were exposed to, and we had to spend a lot of time at home presenting Catholic teaching in accordance with the Catechism, and explaining how and why the school had got it wrong. This was not surprising, bearing in mind the abysmal level of catechesis in the UK then and now.


Certainly there should be faith schools, because parents want them for their children, and the family, whatever its religion, or none, as the primal unit of society, has rights over and above those of social engineers. However it is arguable that there should be fewer, catering for only genuine practicing believers of reasonably long standing, and employing teachers of the relevant religious persuasion. They should not be admitting children of non-believer parents who simply want something better than the local comprehensive. Those parents should be agitating for better state schools.

If a faith school has no faith, and is imparting no faith, it is fraudulent and should close, or cease to receive public funding.

Put up, or close down.

Drinking and Staying Sober in Poland

An enthusiastic young doctor I met at a wedding in Oxford told me he believed that the UK medical profession now understood why Poles are so healthy.

“It’s the vodka they drink. They drink it for breakfast, mid-morning break, lunch, dinner, supper - all the time.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, you live in Poland. Don’t you?”

“They put it down to the polar bear steaks they eat. They hunt them in the forests around Lublin.”

No, Poles don’t drink non-stop, or eat bears, but they do enjoy alcohol, and they know how to handle it. They say they are so healthy because they eat an enormous amount of cabbage, raw, cooked, pickled, and fermented. Old Polish joke: "Why are Poles so good? Because Satan hates cabbage."

They also ferment cucumbers. Wonderful! Fermentation leads us on to drinking in Poland

Polish beer is a bit like lager, only sharper in taste. All the brands are good.

Vodka, about 40% alcohol, is the staple of the Polish party, and it is not unusual for someone to drink half a litre in an evening, and yet not be perceptively drunk: more friendly, sometimes more religious, but never in my five years’ experience, aggressive or incapable. A taxi home is a must, as people staggering in the street are routinely arrested, given a cell for the night, followed by an excellent breakfast, and a bill for one night’s rent.

Spiritus, about 95-97% alcohol is added to fruit juice or maybe cola, but is not something to drink on its own. It’s very good for cleaning car windscreens.

Bimber is the Polish equivalent of poteen, distilled at home – it’s illegal to make more of it than for your personal use. The strength varies from high to astronomical. Treat it with care.

Nalewka is vodka or spiritus or bimber which has been used to marinate fruit – often cherries. Delicious, but be wary.

Fermented cabbage and cucumbers? Not joking. Duck’s blood soup? Wonderful.

Decency Is Not Enough

A German woman told me, some 40 years ago, that before the war, her parents who were teachers living in Berlin, witnessed a riot during which a policeman had his eye deliberately gouged out by a communist. As soon as it was safe to leave their flat, they went to the local Nazi party offices and enrolled.

As someone said, “No one is more dangerous than a decent person with a sense of outrage”.

I smell danger now. England long ago ceased to be a religious country, but most of its population, until fairly recently, retained ideas of decency. As Harold Macmillan famously said, “Without religion, there is only decency. Decency is good, but it is not enough.”

Decency is vulnerable to the false idea of “fair play”.Think of the noble stupidity of the English allowing the heathen Danes to cross the causeway at Maldon. Think of the legislation since 1967 which has so undermined morals and decency: it has all appealed to that same decency.

Ending “back street” abortions – what decent person wants a woman to die in a botched abortion?

Legalising homosexual acts – what decent person wants otherwise law-abiding people subjected to blackmail, arrest, shame, and so on?

Lowering the age of homosexual consent to 16 – what decent person (well I for one) wants to deny anyone over that age of consent the right to be truly himself/herself? (or deny the right of elderly homosexual roués to enjoy sex with teenagers?)

Outlawing “hate speech” – no decent person would speak hatefully of another.

God forbid!

Err…Who?

So, the appeal to decency has resulted in:

Horrible and painful death for the unborn,

Aggressive homosexualism, and the teaching even in Catholic schools that homosexual acts are “acceptable”,

The corruption of minds and hearts,

The curtailment of free speech, so that religions are barred from stating their conscientious opposition to certain types of behaviour,

A vigorous and lucrative sex industry.

We can either go along with this, as the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales and their Education Service seem to be doing, or we, too, can get aggressive and draw lines in the sand.

Civil disobedience is preferable to outright violence, and certainly preferable to a new Hitler, riding on the backs of the outraged.

Shorn Canary and the Police

I arrived In Poland In July 2005, armed with a copy of some phrase-book-guide, perhaps the “Rough Guide” - I don’t remember. What I do remember is the advice it gave about dealings with the Polish police – don’t smile, don’t laugh, don’t try to be friendly. If you do, you could get into serious trouble.
Having registered my presence and address in Poland at the local town hall, I thought I had done everything necessary. A few days later, two very polite, friendly, policemen called at my house. Could they talk to me? Just routine.

Of course.

I made them coffee, and they asked to see my UK passport and Polish papers. Then the questions.

Why are you living in Poland?

I work here.

Is Poland as nice as England?

Nicer.

Are you English?

No, British. I’m a Celt, part Scottish, part Irish, part Welsh, and a little English.

Shorn canary!

I beg your pardon?

Shorn canary – Scottish actor – James Bond. Are you like him?

Sean Connery – yes, he’s Scottish/Irish.

And what do you think of Polish women?

Very beautiful. I now say, “Very Catholic”.

Satisfied, they left, after enquiring about the cost of English lessons.

A few days later, driving on a lonely local road, a police car came towards me. Its blue light started flashing and there was a quick blip from the siren. I stopped. The police car stopped.

“Please, what have I done?”

“Shorn canary!” from the two policeman, and big grins.

Love Poland.

Loathsome Mantras

Loathsome Mantras – You Always Hear Them When You Haven’t Got a Gun

Two wrongs don’t make a right
Usually heard in conversations about capital punishment, this begs the questions:
Is the death penalty actually in itself, wrong?
Is it just to spend money (which could house the poor) on keeping a murderer in gaol?
Is capital punishment not a signal of the perception of murder as abhorrent?
Is it a bad thing to show criminals how angry we are?

It takes all sorts to make a world
Oh really? Hitler, Stalin, Henry VIII, Herod?

Bigot
Someone who believes that two diametrically opposed assertions cannot both be true. Makes sense to me.

Fundamentalist
Someone who believes as strongly as, but differently from someone else.


Extremist
Someone whose strongly held beliefs, usually religious, impinge on every aspect of their life. Admirable. If their beliefs are different from mine and threaten to impinge on my life, a Crusade is called for.

Vodka - Not Just Spirit, But Spiritual

When you go to a party at someone's house in Poland, you take presents: flowers for the wife, and vodka for the husband. The wife will probably drop a little curtsey as you hand her the flowers, and the husband smile beatifically, kiss the bottle, and chortle. The Poles are mostly naturally ceremonious and civilised, regardless of class.

The first party I went to in Poland was in someone's flat - I forget whose - and followed what I was later to learn was the usual pattern, excellent food and what then seemed a staggering quantity of vodka.

After about 2 or 3 hours, and half a litre, I went out on to the balcony to cool off. The other men all followed me, leaving the ladies to make coffee.

A young man asked me, "Do you love God, Chris?"

Before I had time to reply, he continued, "I don't. He's too big to love. But I love Jesus, and Our Pope (John Paul), and the Saints, of course."

In England, this would have been an extraordinary conversational gambit at a party of "professional people", and in very bad taste. The miscreant would have been starved of further invitations. In Poland, as the vodka flows, that's how people talk, about God, history, politics, poetry.

Vodka is not just spirituous, it's spiritual.

Cogidubnus, a Proud Briton, Fishbourne, West Sussex

Written 20 years ago for my children, after a visit to Fishbourne Palace. Any merit it has is purely sentimental. To the tune of "Oh my name is Macnamara - I'm the leader of the band".


O my name is Cogidubnus. I'm the leader of the Celts,
An I'm a more important Celt than anybody else.
My palace is the largest and the finest in the road,
And when the Governor comes to tea I'm the proudest man in woad.

WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT IF........YOUR SUGGESTIONS PLEASE

WOULDN’T IT BE GREAT IF……..PLEASE ADD YOUR OWN

Dissident Catholics cleared off and joined the Unitarians, or whatever

Richard Dawkins just shut up

Pope Benedict XVI had not backed down over his quotation from Paleologus about the irreconcilability of Islam with Catholicism

Catholic clergy stopped being so bloody polite and called a spade a spade

The Tablet either became Catholic or went bankrupt

The Church officially recognized the Catholic victories at Lepanto, Vienna, and the Vistula, and stopped playing down the triumph of good over evil, especially as such triumph is so rare

The Commmon Good, Part II

The "common good" is a fine and noble concept, but as used by those whose idea of "good" is opposed to ours, it is an empty slogan, and of no weight.

Another phrase, not so easily hijacked by the enemy, is needed.

For they are the enemy.