Views of Derry

St Eugene's Cathedral where we had Mass this morning celebrated by the Bishop, Seamus Hegarty:

The walls of the city:

The view from the walls, overlooking the Bogside and the Catholic Cathedral:

And down at the Bogside:

I was a youngster of 11 years of age when 'The Troubles' broke out and Bernadette Devlin (pictured above on the murals) led the civil rights marches. Being of an Irish family, I was imbued with the ideals of Republicanism and we naturally took the side of the civil rights movement. The movement led, as we know, to terrible acts of terrorism by people claiming to act in the name of Catholics or Protestants. It was fascinating to visit the site of tensions but where there is now peace.

A young Catholic man who works in the hotel where I am staying said how the past is now very much the past. He has friends, both Catholic and Protestant. No one today wants a return to those times of violence.

Two Scottish Bishops' excellent pre-election pastoral letters

H/T to the Sisters of the Gospel of Life for this one.

Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow points out the problem of finding a party that Catholics can support and asks the people of his diocese to vote for the candidate, not the party. He writes:

no mainstream party is ready to uphold the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death. None wants to stand up unambiguously for the marriage-based family as the essential building brick of society which cannot be put on a par with civil partnerships. None appears to consider the rights of conscience as paramount.

No manifesto distinguishes properly between inclusivity and uniformity. This key concept impacts on the right of parents to choose faith schools as well as the right to expect that a child, if adopted, is adopted in line with the principles of the Church to which they belong. No manifesto explicitly defends the rights of the terminally ill against those who would advocate euthanasia. None would seem to support full and proper funding for hospice care and palliative medicine.

We might look in vain for manifestos addressing other moral issues of concern to us …concern about the immorality of the use or threatened use of weapons of mass destruction, such as Trident; concern about the unfair treatment of refugees; concern about the assumed role sometimes exercised by the press in condemning people and institutions without a right of defence; concern that citizens should be able to depend upon honesty and integrity among politicians, bankers and media barons; concern that on issues of conscience, party members should be free to vote according to their religious beliefs, free from unjust pressure.

Our task is made all the harder because it is virtually impossible to distinguish one party from another in respect of many of these key moral issues. In these circumstances my advice is to set aside party political considerations and to recognise, where you can, the integrity of individual candidates and vote according to your belief that they can be trusted in those matters which our faith tells us are the most fundamental of all.

Bishop Tartaglia speaks of the civilisation of love:

* The civilization of love upholds the sacredness of life from conception to natural death: abortion, assisted suicide and euthanasia are against the common good of society and do not contribute to a civilization of love.
* The civilization of love upholds the fundamental human rights of every person, not least the right to life, to freedom of conscience and to freedom of religion.
* It acknowledges that marriage and the family are the foundation of the human project: the common good is not served by policies which make the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman just one possible form of the basic social unit. It recognizes the sanctity of human sexuality and that God has reserved to marriage the acts of love proper to husband and wife.
* The civilisation of love also promotes a moral and ethical conduct of the economy such that the creation of wealth serves the integral development of the person, of society and of the common good of peoples and nations. This calls for some kind of regulation of financial practices in order to discourage the greed and reckless speculation which contributed to the present recession and its damaging effects on peoples’ lives and wellbeing.
* The civilization of love upholds and defends the dignity and equality of every human person, while celebrating in a special way the rich and profound complementarity of man and woman.
* The civilization of love is one in which there is peace among nations. It strives for an end to war and conflict. It seeks to remove weapons of mass destructions from the face of the earth.
* It strives for the eradication of injustice, poverty and disease in all its forms throughout the world.
* It puts the good of human beings at the heart of its commitment to the integrity of the created world and to the protection of the environment.
* In a word, the civilization of love recognises that the God whom we encounter in the person of Jesus Christ is the source, good and goal of the entire human project.

Bishop Tartaglia condemns the heavy-handed use of equality legislation which has, in fact, inhibtied the freedom of Catholics and other Christians:

Let your candidates know that these rights have been under threat in modern-day Britain from a heavy-handed use of equality legislation which claims to sit in judgement upon Church doctrines which have guided Christian belief and practice for centuries. This same legislation tends to inhibit Christians and faith groups from freely expressing and acting upon their own religious and moral convictions.

Legionaries of Christ - encouragement and renewal

VIS carries news of the results of the work of the visitators to the Legionaries of Christ. Pope Benedict has assured the Legionaries that

their vocation, which originates in Christ's call and is driven by the ideal of being witnesses of His love to the world, is a genuine gift from God, a treasure for the Church, and the indestructible foundation upon which each of them can build their own future and that of the Legion.

This is a good light in which to read the whole report.

Pope Benedict: the Shroud of Turin reveals 'the mystery of Holy Saturday'

Pope Benedict made the following remarks after venerating the Shroud of Turin yesterday (translation provided by Zenit):

Dear Friends,

This is a moment that I have been waiting for for quite some time. I have found myself before the sacred Shroud on another occasion but this time I am experiencing this pilgrimage and this pause with particular intensity: perhaps because the years make me more sensitive to the message of this extraordinary icon; perhaps, and I would say above all, because I am here as Successor of Peter, and I carry in my heart the whole Church, indeed, all of humanity. I thank God for the gift of this pilgrimage, and also for the opportunity to share with you a brief meditation, which was suggested to me by the title of this solemn exhibition: “The Mystery of Holy Saturday.” One could say that the Shroud is the icon of this mystery, the icon of Holy Saturday. It is in fact a winding sheet, which covered the corpse of a man who was crucified, corresponding to everything that the Gospels say of Jesus, who was crucified about noon and died at about 3 in the afternoon.

Once evening came, since it was Parasceve, the eve of the solemn Sabbath of Passover, Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy and influential member of the Sanhedrin, courageously asked Pontius Pilate to be able to bury Jesus in his new tomb, that he had made in the rock not far from Golgotha. Having received the permission, he bought linen and, taking the body of Jesus down from the cross, wrapped him in the linen and put him in that tomb (cf. Mark 15:42-46). This is what is related by the Gospel of St. Matthew and the other evangelists. From that moment, Jesus remained in the sepulcher until the dawn of the day after the Sabbath, and the Shroud of Turin offers us the image of how his body was stretched out in the tomb during that time, which was brief chronologically (about a day and a half), but was immense, infinite in its value and its meaning.

Holy Saturday is the day of God’s concealment, as one reads in an ancient homily: “What happened? Today there is great silence upon the earth, great silence and solitude. Great silence because the King sleeps … God died in the flesh and descended to make the kingdom of hell (‘gli inferi’) tremble” (“Homily on Holy Saturday,” PG 43, 439). In the Creed we confess that Jesus Christ “was crucified under Pontius Pilate, died and was buried; he descended into hell (‘negli inferi’), and the third day he rose again from the dead.”

Dear brothers and sisters, in our time, especially after having passed through the last century, humanity has become especially sensitive to the mystery of Holy Saturday. God’s concealment is part of the spirituality of contemporary man, in an existential manner, almost unconscious, as an emptiness that continues to expand in the heart. At the end of the 18th century, Nietzsche wrote: “God is dead! And we have killed him!” This celebrated expression, if we consider it carefully, is taken almost word for word from the Christian tradition, we often repeat it in the Via Crucis, perhaps not fully realizing what we are saying. After the two World Wars, the concentration camps, the gulags, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, our epoch has become in ever great measure a Holy Saturday: the darkness of this day questions all those who ask about life, it questions us believers in a special way. We too have something to do with this darkness.

And nevertheless, the death of the Son of God, of Jesus of Nazareth, has an opposite aspect, totally positive; it is a font of consolation and hope. And this makes me think that the sacred Shroud acts as a “photographic” document, with a “positive” and a “negative.” And in effect, this is exactly how it is: The most obscure mystery of faith is at the same time the most luminous sign of a hope without limits. Holy Saturday is the “no man’s land” between death and resurrection, but into this “no man’s land” has entered the One, the Only One, who has crossed it with the signs of his passion for man: “Passio Christi. Passio hominis.” And the Shroud speaks to us precisely of that moment; it witnesses precisely to the unique and unrepeatable interval in the history of humanity and the universe, in which God, in Jesus Christ, shared not only our dying, but also our remaining in death. The most radical solidarity. In that “time-beyond-time” Jesus Christ “descended into hell” (“agli inferi”) What does this expression mean? It means that God, made man, went to the point of entering into the extreme and absolute solitude of man, where no ray of love enters, where there is total abandonment without any word of comfort: “hell” (“gli inferi”). Jesus Christ, remaining in death, has gone beyond the gates of this ultimate solitude to lead us too to go beyond it with him.

We have all at times felt a frightening sensation of abandonment, and that which makes us most afraid of death is precisely this [abandonment]; just as when as children we were afraid to be alone in the dark and only the presence of a person who loves us could reassure us. So, it is exactly this that happened in Holy Saturday: In the kingdom of death there resounded the voice of God. The unthinkable happened: that Love penetrated “into hell” (“negli inferi”): that in the most extreme darkness of the most absolute human solitude we can hear a voice that calls us and find a hand that takes us and leads us out. The human being lives by the fact that he is loved and can love; and if love even has penetrated into the realm of death, then life has also arrived there. In the hour of extreme solitude we will never be alone: “Passio Christi. Passio hominis.”

This is the mystery of Holy Saturday! It is from there, from the darkness of the death of the Son of God, that the light of a new hope has shone: the light of the Resurrection. And it seems to me that looking upon this cloth with the eyes of faith one perceives something of this light. In effect, the Shroud was immersed in that profound darkness, but it is luminous at the same time; and I think that if thousands and thousands of people come to see it -- without counting those who contemplate copies of it -- it is because in it they do not see only darkness, but also light; not so much the defeat of life and love but rather victory, victory of life over death, of love over hatred; they indeed see the death of Jesus, but glimpse his resurrection [too]; in the heart of death there now beats life, inasmuch as love lives there. This is the power of the Shroud: from the countenance of this “Man of sorrows,” who takes upon himself man’s passion of every time and every place, even our passion, our suffering, our difficulties, our sins -- “Passio Christi. Passio hominis” -- from this moment there emanates a solemn majesty, a paradoxical lordship. This face, these hands and these feet, this side, this whole body speaks, it is itself a word that we can hear in silence. How does the Shroud speak? It speaks with blood, and blood is life! The Shroud is an icon written in blood; the blood of a man who has been scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified and wounded in his right side. Every trace of blood speaks of love and of life. Especially that large mark near the side, made by blood and water that poured copiously from a great wound caused by a Roman spear, that blood and that water speak of life. It is like a spring that speaks in silence, and we can hear it, we can listen to it, in the silence of Holy Saturday.

Dear friends, let us praise the Lord always for his faithful and merciful love. Departing from this holy place, we carry in our eyes the image of the Shroud, we carry in our heart this word of love, and we praise God with a life full of faith, of love and of charity.

Thank you.

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

CIEL-UK Annual High Mass and One-day Conference. London, England

I have received the following which I am happy to pass on to readers:

CIEL-UK (Centre for International Study of the Liturgy) is holding the Annual and One-day Conference this year on Saturday, 29 May. As was the case last year, the venue for Mass is the London Oratory, 232 Brompton Road, Kensington, London, SW7 2RP. We are most grateful to Fr. Ignatius, the London Oratory Provost, in allowing use of the superb Oratory Church again this year. The celebrant will be the Very Rev. Richard Duffield, Cong. Orat., M.A. (Oxon) and John Henry Newman Distinguished Fellow, the Provost of the Birmingham Oratory.
The Mass will be a High Mass starting at 11 am. Of course, the rite will be that of the “Old Mass”, according to the Missale Romanum of 1962. In a departure from previous Annual Masses (which it is hoped will prove to be popular) Mass will be sung in plainchant, facilitating the participation of the congregation in song. It is also hoped to include a motet composed by James MacMillan. Once again the choir will be directed by Patrick Russill, Director of Music at the London Oratory. Patrick will be known to many Friends, but those who do not know about him will be interested to learn more.
We are most fortunate that the Head of Choral Conducting, Royal Academy of Music and Chief Examiner, Royal College of Organists, who was invited in 1987 by the Royal Academy of Music to found Britain’s first conservatoire church music department, supports our Annual Mass. The conservatoire was further developed in 1997 to provide the first UK specialist postgraduate choral direction course in the United Kingdom. This course now attracts students from around the world. Patrick is in demand as a visiting teacher at major European conservatoires and has been Visiting Professor of Choral Direction at the Leipzig Hochschule für Musik und Theater since 2000. He made his Royal Festival Hall organ recital debut in 1986 and has since played in Europe, Asia and throughout the UK.
His scholarly writing includes important articles on early Tudor liturgical organ music, Howells’s Latin church music and Dupré’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin of 1920. He was Musical Editor of the acclaimed Catholic Hymn Book (1998) and contributed the chapter on Catholic Germany to The Cambridge Companion to the Organ (1999). In 1993 Patrick was made an Honorary Patron of the Herbert Howells Society in recognition of his research and rediscovery of the early Latin music of Herbert Howells written for Westminster Cathedral. He is an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music and an Honorary Fellow of both the Guild of Church Musicians and the Royal College of Organists – the highest accolade of each institution.
Patrick believes this Mass will be an exceptional musical and liturgical event. The Conference will take place in the afternoon in St Wilfrid's Hall at the Oratory at 2.30 pm. Entry will be £5.
Our principal speaker at the Conference is Dr James MacMillan CBE, who will present a lecture on Liturgical Music pre- and post-Vatican II. This renowned Catholic Scottish musician, a classical composer and conductor, was born at Kilwinning, in North Ayrshire on 16 July 1959. He studied musical composition at the University of Edinburgh as well as Durham University and gained his PhD in 1987. After lecturing in music at Manchester University he returned to Scotland, composing prolifically to become Associate Composer with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
His first work to attract attention was The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the Proms in 1990 which gained great acclaim and brought more high-profile commissions, including a percussion concerto for fellow Scot Evelyn Glennie entitled “Veni, Veni, Emmanuel” in 1992, which has become his most performed work. He was also asked by Mstislav Rostropovich to compose a cello concerto, which was premiered by Rostropovich himself in 1997.
Not confining himself to classical music, he has worked occasionally with the folk band The Whistlebinkies, for whom he set and performed the William Soutar poem, "Tryst".
His Catholic faith has inspired many of his sacred works; for example, Magnificat (1999) and several Masses, which inspired a was uniquely marked by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in early 2005, with music entitled “From Darkness into Light”.
Scottish traditional music has also had a profound musical influence and is frequently discernible in his works. When the Scottish Parliament was reconvened in 1999 after 292 years, a fanfare composed by MacMillan accompanied the Queen into the chamber.
Amongst his many accomplishments and interests are his patronage of St Mary's Music School in Edinburgh and the London Oratory School Schola Cantorum. He was awarded the CBE in 2004. Married to his childhood sweetheart Lynne Frew, they have two daughters and a son.
As well as celebrating holy Mass, Father Duffield is now Actor (postulator) of the Cause of John Henry Cardinal Newman and he is our second speaker. Most will know the beatification of Cardinal Newman is expected during the Holy Father’s visit to the UK next September. Fr Duffield will make a short address on the status of Cardinal Newman’s cause. Fr Duffield took up his new post as Provost of the Birmingham Oratory in early February.
The afternoon will conclude with Solemn Benediction in the Little Oratory, followed by a reception in the Little Oratory. Nicole Hall’s “Granny” books will be offered for sale by Peter Hall at this time. Nicole was the foundress of CIEL-UK.

Flyer for 2010 Annual Pontifical High Mass Conference_2

Tomorrow to Northern Ireland

I'll be off to Derry, Northern Ireland, for the annual conference of the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Back on Friday.

Annual crowning of Our Lady

We always crown our statue of Our Lady after the morning Mass on the first Sunday in May and hold a procession outside the church. However, due to very inclement weather, we had a shortened procession for the children which went out one door of the church and back in through another but remaining under the cover of our cloistered path. Our paparazza Maureen A was on hand and took a couple of snaps:

This year, for the first time, the crown was made of real flowers and will be renewed regularly during May. Grateful thanks to the Shamoon family for arranging this with a local florist.