Please remember Christine Ackers in your prayers.
Christine was the Latin Mass Society Diocesan Representative in Lancaster Diocese for many years until her recent retirement from the post.
She died today, after receiving Our Lord from Canon Shield.
Requiem aeternam dona ei Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei.
Requiescat in pace.
Amen.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
The Bumper Beachcomber
In the comments on the review of Hilaire Belloc, Left Footer confessed to having forgotten about J B Morton. Once I had recovered from the shock - both of the sin and of its confession on my blog - I reflected awhile.
Surely, I thought, Beachcomber is part of the Catholic air we breath. But maybe not: it may even be that some younger Catholics have never heard of him, and older ones, like Left Footer, have forgotten him.
This site is dedicated to reviewing Catholic books, and Beachcomber was certainly Catholic in every sense of the word. A friend of Belloc, he was a writer of extraordinary wit, and nothing was above or beneath his humour.
Beachcomber was the name of the newspaper column he wrote for many years. It consisted of many short pieces, including one-liners, as well as some extraordinary soap operas of his own devising. He created a recurrent cast of characters who, once met, will live in your mind for ever.
This collection, by Richard Ingrams, includes many wonderful passages, and to give a flavour, I shall quote some favourites. But even as I write that, I am aware of the danger: I could be here at my keyboard all night, copying the book out line by line in flagrant breach of copyright, even allowing for the licence extended to reviewers. Every line is a favourite: and as with Wodehouse, to criticise Beachcomber is simply the act, not only of a cad, but a presumptuous and ignorant cad, at that.
Nonetheless, in case you have not encountered his unique genius (and as a gentle, and I hope enjoyable, reminder to Left Footer, by way of thanks for prompting this review) here are a couple (and I will constrain myself to two) of personal favourites.
The Concert (round by round)
Round 1: Singer and orchestra advanced from their corners. Orchestra led with a bang. Singer replied with a piercing scream to the ears, followed by a series of strong nerve-jabs. Singer's round.
[You'll have to buy the book to find out about rounds 2 & 3...]
Round lV: Superb lightning rush by orchestra swept singer to the floor. Singer, though struggling to rise, counted out. Orchestra declared the winner.
--
Which reminds me that when Napoleon saw the Roman amphitheatre at Verona, empty and silent, he said 'Tiers, idle tiers' - speaking of course in French.
Prodnose: Then where's the joke?
Myself: Étages, oisifs étages.
Prodnose: But what is the joke? What exactly is the point of it all?
Myself: You must find that out for yourself.
Prodnose: Then there really is a joke in it?
Myself: Oh, yes.
Prodnose: Thank you. I will read the thing more carefully.
Myself: That's right. I should.
--
But they don't catch the thing at all... Prodnose is funny partly because he is one of the cast who recur at irregular and unpredictable intervals throughout Beachcomber's work: others include Lady Cabstanleigh, Dr Strabismus (whom God preserve) of Utrecht, the Filthistan trio, Captain Foulenough, and, of course, the Red Bearded Dwarfs, along with Mr Justice Cocklecarrot who has to deal with their incessant and inimitable litigation.
OK, I'll allow myself one more quotation:
Fourth Dwarf: We have a bicycle, too, and that has no tail
Fifth Dwarf: It's a guinea-bicycle.
Sixth Dwarf: The handlebars are made of lard, as a precaution.
Cocklecarrot (savagely): Against what?
Chorus of Dwarfs: Burglary, sire.
So if you don't know Beachcomber already, there is a huge treat in store. If you do, but the memory is faded, the treat may be even greater (aren't old friends even more rewarding than new, once one reaches a certain age...?) Either way, this book, or indeed any other collection of the great man's works comes highly recommended.
Hilaire Belloc
This is a fascinating introduction to Belloc, who is perhaps undeservedly less revered and less read than his friend and collaborator Chesterton. I know a little of Belloc's writing but knew almost nothing about his life.
In his day, Belloc's reputation was immense, and Karl Schmude's introduction starts by quoting Mons. Ronald Knox's panegyric, before suggesting the reasons for the decline in Belloc's influence and reputation.
However, the book proper begins by placing Belloc in his context: that of a European Catholic; and not in the sense of a citizen of Europe, but more than that: a citizen of Christendom; and not only a citizen of Christendom as he found it in his lifetime, but historic Christendom, rooted in tradition and alive through the ages in Europe. Belloc is credited with breaking the siege of English-speaking Catholicism that was still the dominant mood in the post-Emancipation England, challenging a whig interpretation of history, and laying the foundations for the accommodation that subsequently prevailed (and is only now being seriously challenged) when Catholics could engage in public debate and at least be listened to with respect and tolerance.
From the perspective of those brought up in that accommodation, Schmude concedes, it is easy to see Belloc as too aggressive, too intolerant: but that is to read history backwards. Without his assertion of Catholic identity and tradition, we might never have reached that accommodation at all.
Schmude then takes us through his early life: a stint in the French artillery, a First in History at Oxford, his failure to be elected for a fellowship (which he always attributed to anti-Catholic prejudice) and his election to parliament as a Liberal MP in 1906. In his campaigning for the election, he had been warned that his Catholicism would be a serious handicap. His characteristic response was to begin his first address to a packed public meeting as follows:
"Gentlemen, I am a Catholic. As far as possible, I go to Mass every day. This [taking a rosary out of his pocket] is a rosary. As far as possible, I kneel down and tell these beads every day. If you reject me on account of my religion, I shall thank God that He has spared me the indignity of being your representative."Apparently this was met with initial astonishment and then thunderous applause. He was duly elected and served for five years, but was embittered by the collusion and corruption he witnessed and the lack of regard for democratic liberties. On leaving Parliament in 1910, he said:
"Perhaps they did not bribe me heavily enough, but in any case I am relieved to be quit of the dirtiest company it has ever been my misfortune to keep."However, his quitting Parliament in no way diminished his interest in, and commitment to, politics. In 1911 he published The Party System (co-written with G K Chesterton's brother, Cecil) and in 1912 The Servile State, a book George Orwell judged to be prophetic. Like Chesterton, he was convinced that both capitalism and socialism tended to the enslavement of humanity, and that the solution was distributism. These ideas were perhaps ahead of their time and it is interesting to note that a more recent incarnation of them (Small is Beautiful, by E F Schumacher) was greeted as a prophetic book on its publication in 1973! As well as his political writing, his historical works were very important in conveying a Cathlic world view.
But while all that was going on, he was living a life of personal tragedy. His beloved wife, Elodie, died in 1914 after eighteen years of marriage, and he never got over the loss. Hie eldest son was killed in action in the last year of the First World War, and his youngest died on active service in 1941.
Despite this theme of loss and bereavement, he was a man capable of great good cheer; and characteristically completely unapologetic for the fact. It is no coincidence that as well as Chesterton, he was close friends with J B Morton, known to posterity as Beachcomber.
Schmude next surveys the extraordinary breadth of Bellocs writing, which encompassed not only politics and history, but also verse, travel books, culture and sociology, and apologetics. All these were built on his great gifts of a facility with language and style (or more accurately, styles) and courageous intellectual honesty.
This is a well written, critical and appreciative introduction to Belloc: read it and you may, like me, find that the next step is to pull The Path to Rome (or even The Bad Child's Book of Beasts!) off the shelf, and re-encounter this extraordinary man.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Reading for Lent
If you are looking for a Catholic guide to Lent, this is a good place to start. Joanna Bogle takes us through Lent and Eastertide, stage by stage, commenting both on the spiritual significance of the feasts and seasons, and on many of the traditional practices, both spiritual and secular, that accompany them.
From Collop Monday and Shrove Tuesday right through to Whit Sunday, we are invited both to consider the profound significance of this holy season, and also to enjoy - and understand - the many traditions that have grown up surrounding it.
This is a particularly valuable book if you have children, as it is full of suggestions for family celebrations and observances that will bring the season alive; from celebrating Mardi gras with a party, by way of simnel cake for Mothering Sunday and Easter, to a Holy Spirit fruit salad with twelve fruits for Pentecost (fruits of the Spirit...).
That said, there were a few omissions and inaccuracies which annoyed me, pedant that I am. To talk of Laetare Sunday without mentioning that Laetare is the first word of the introit for the traditional Mass seems odd to me in a book on Catholic customs and traditions. To go on and say that it is the only Sunday of the year when rose vestments are worn is simply mistaken: Gaudete Sunday in Advent shares that honour.
However, if you are less grouchy than me (and I hope that you are) then you will enjoy this book, and almost certainly learn something you did not know about this season, or be reminded of something that you used to know as a child. And if it serves to help you create a more Catholic environment for your children year by year, that will be a job well done.
--
If you are as grouchy as me, or you are looking for something all together more substantial for your Lenten Reading, I recommend:
I have to confess that I have only just started this, so cannot in justice review it. However, I am confident it will be excellent: it is the collected sermons and addresses given by our Holy Father last Lent. Previous versions (see here for a review of one I have read) have been uniformly outstanding. So that's on my Lenten reading list.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Sophie Scholl and the White Rose
As once before (here) I feel obliged to declare an interest at the start of this review. One of the authors is my sister: whether that prejudices me positively, negatively or not at all is for you to judge.
I had known nothing about Sophie Scholl or the White Rose prior to reading this. Sophie Scholl was a young woman, who along with her brother and a few friends, ran the White Rose resistance movement in Nazi Germany during the war. The White Rose resisted primarily by producing leaflets and circulating them, trying to reawaken the moral consciences of their compatriots. They also wrote slogans on walls, to show that the Nazi domination of the German people was not complete. They paid for their resistance with their lives. Sophie was 21 when she was executed in February 1943; her brother Hans was 24.
This booklet starts by describing their hasty show trial and execution, and then goes back first to set the context, Hitler's Germany and their family background, and then to trace the development of the White Rose and the ideas behind it.
Both Sophie's father, Robert, and her older brother, Hans, were very influential in her life and thought, and both learned to detest Hitler and all he stood for. Hans was studying to be a medic, and in his circle of friends met many others who disliked the regime. Some started clandestine journals, and others circulated bishop von Galen's critical sermons in cheap copied form.
Hans got the idea of circulating leaflets calling for passive resistance to the Nazis; initially Sophie knew nothing of that, but was growing up and developing her thinking in parallel, through a variety of formative friendships and experiences.
When Sophie moved to Munich to start studying at the University, she discovered what Hans was doing so, and joined her efforts to his.
They produced six leaflets in total, distributing them to students and posting them to people whose names were chosen randomly from the telephone directory. Naturally, the Gestapo were quickly on the case, and when Hans and Sophie were spotted by a university porter distributing leaflets, their fate was sealed: as was that of their friend Christoph, as Hans had a handwritten draft of another leaflet, in Christoph's handwriting, when he was arrested.
Sophie's bravery during her interrogation even impressed her interrogator, but she refused to recant form her actions, and so went to her death. She is now rightly seen as a heroine in Germany, where over 190 schools are named after her.
This inspiring story is told clearly and simply, highlighting the developing Christian thinking that lay behind the White Rose. It is very well worth reading.
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