Damian Thompson

The crisis surrounding the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School in West London is turning into an absolute PR disaster for the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, whose Left-wing educational officials have packed the board of governors in order to stop the Vaughan favouring the children of committed practising Catholics. The Vaughan Parents’ Action Group is planning a candlelit vigil during the next governors’ meeting at the school at 6.15pm on February 2. I’m told that pupils from the school – whose terrific musical reputation will go down the plughole once it’s a bog-standard comprehensive – are planning to sing hymns and play instruments in support of the parents’ group. Its website is here. It’s in urgent need of funds.

There’s a complicated legal action to reverse the packing of the governors, but what the parents’ group can’t do… Read More

Bishop Andrew Burnham, now an Ordinariate priest (Photo: James Bradley)

A leading evangelical Anglican commentator has asked the question on the lips of many Catholics. Yes, we understand that some members of the Church of England are hurt by the setting up of the Ordinariate, but do its bishops have to be quite so ungenerous to departing Anglicans, huffily refusing them to allow them to share church buildings?

The writer is Andrew Carey, who understandably dislikes me because I was mean to his father when he was Archbishop of Canterbury. (On reflection, I did go over the top, but that was before the hesitant +George Cantuar unexpectedly metamorphised into sensible and courageous Lord Carey of Clifton.) Anyway, here is what Andrew says in the Church of England Newspaper (H/T: Anglican Mainstream),… Read More

Slate is right, for once

There’s one typographical atrocity that drives me nuts.  And it’s the one I’ve just committed. I’m raising the subject because the most-read article on Slate at the moment is a denunciation of double spaces after “periods”, as Americans call them, by Farhad Manjoo. He writes:
Every modern typographer agrees on the one-space rule. It’s one of the canonical rules of the profession, in the same way that waiters know that the salad fork goes to the left of the dinner fork and fashion designers know to put men’s shirt buttons on the right and women’s on the left. Every major style guide—including the Modern Language Association Style Manual and the Chicago Manual of Style—prescribes a single space after a period. (The Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association, used widely in… Read More

Fr Seed: the soul and life of the party

Last night I attended a lovely Mass at Farm Street to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the ordination of my dear friend Fr Michael Seed. He’s always cropping up in the papers as a “celebrity priest”, but that’s not the side of him I know. I think of Michael first and foremost as a priest who has shown the most extraordinary kindness to my family. He has his critics, and sometimes it’s hard to separate the loveable parts of him from the fallible – but what a refreshing change he makes from the platitude merchants of the Magic Circle. Which, by the way, was a term coined by him, not me. Anyway, many congratulations on your silver jubilee, Michael – and, as they… Read More

Ely Place: the perfect location for the Ordinariate?

At the first Mass of Fr Andrew Burnham at the Oxford Oratory on Sunday, the great Dominican theologian Fr Aidan Nichols described the Ordinariate as “nothing less than the reconfiguring of Anglicanism by union with the Petrine centre and its criteria of orthodoxy”.

That is a sweepingly ambitious statement of the Ordinariate’s purpose – and it might have seemed over the top had it not been for the extraordinary scenes at Westminster Cathedral the day before, when Archbishop Vincent Nichols ordained the former Anglican bishops of Fulham, Ebbsfleet and Richborough. Rather to the surprise of some commentators, the Bishops of England and Wales really seem to have lined up behind the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Has there been some arm-twisting by the… Read More

The three ex-bishops face the congregation as Catholic priests (Photo: AFP)

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, under the patronage of Blessed John Henry Newman, was set up by decree of the Vatican today as three former Anglican bishops were ordained Catholic priests to lead their flocks to Rome – and one of them, Fr Keith Newton, was appointed the Ordinary. I’m sorry if that seems a rather convoluted sentence, but I’m trying to convey how many extraordinary things have been accomplished simultaneously. At a service in Westminster Cathedral, a new form of “corporate reunion” – the words used by the Holy See – was established that offers Anglicans who wish to become Catholics everything they could reasonably ask for, and more than they expected. To start with,… Read More

John Paul II: to be beatified on May 1 (Photo: AP)

The Vatican has announced that, following confirmation of a miracle, the late Pope John Paul II will be beatified on May 1. What better candidate could there be? This was a man of boundless moral conviction, to whom non-Catholics as well as Catholics should pay tribute for the way he hacked away at the foundations of Communism. He was a formidable scholar and – in some ways most impressive of all – as brave as a lion in carrying out his duties while in the grip of a paralysing disease.

But… several Catholics have told me that beatifying a Pope a mere six years after his death gives the impression that the process is being “helped along” a little too… Read More

Sarah Palin (Photo: Getty)

Sarah Palin was subjected to grossly unfair attacks by liberals after the Tucson shootings. Her reaction? To accuse them of “blood libel”. This raises two possibilities.

1. She’s so ignorant that she doesn’t know that “blood libel” refers to the myth that Jews drink the blood of sacrificed children.

2. She does know what it means, and blurted it out anyway.

Either way, I can’t help thinking of Barry Goldwater’s slogan when he ran for president in 1964: “In your heart, you know he’s right.” To which the LBJ campaign responded: “In your guts, you know he’s nuts.”

Paul Kanjorski (Photo: AP)

Hat-tip to Tim Montgomerie for what he suggests is “the best example of the Left’s disgusting hypocrisy on the Tucson tragedy”. Here’s former Congressman Paul Kanjorski writing – where else? – in the New York Times:
We all lose an element of freedom when security considerations distance public officials from the people. Therefore, it is incumbent on all Americans to create an atmosphere of civility and respect in which political discourse can flow freely, without fear of violent confrontation.
And here’s the same politician talking about Florida Republican Rick Scott, who went on to win the gubernatorial race:
“That Scott down there that’s running for governor of Florida,” Mr Kanjorski said. “Instead of running for governor of Florida, they ought to have him and shoot him. Put him against the wall and shoot him…. Read More

Over at the great Fr Z’s blog, readers are being asked whether they like the “sign of peace” – the moment during the Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass when you’re expected to turn to you neighbours and family members and shake hands while saying: “Peace be with you”. There are lots of things traditionalists don’t like about the New Rite – and this is pretty near the top of the list, judging by the responses to Fr Zuhlsdorf’s question. This was my favourite comment:
I tolerate it, but dread it intensely. I never understood why the priest’s greeting (“Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum.”) and our response (“Et cum spiritu tuo.”) doesn’t seem to be enough for most parishes? Our parish is comprised of mostly older people. For many of them, Mass on Sunday is their “outing” for the week and their only… Read More