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uphold the primacy of ecclesiastical authority and defend orthodoxy and also truly pastoral many of his fiery opinions could be found in the appropriately named orthodox journal milner moved the church away from dependence on the great catholic families and looked towards the victory of ultramontanism later in the nineteenth century this is bishop thomas walsh 1777 1849 who was moved to london in the last year of his life with the expectation that he would become the first archbishop of westminster after the restoration of the hierarchy he died and wiseman filled his shoes as bishop in the midlands what marked walsh out was the grandeur of his vision and his openness towards new forces within the catholic community such as the oxford converts and the gothis revival at his death in 1849 the tablet observed that it is to his episcopacy that posterity will trace the great development of ecclesiastical architecture which forms so distinctive a feature in the history of our period a keen supporter of pugin walsh oversaw the opening of a number of churches and institutions that were gems of the gothic revival the future cathedrals of birmingham st chad s and nottingham new oscott the trappist monastery at mount st bernard s the glorious churches at cheadle and derby and the religious houses of hanley ratcliffe and aston many of these ambitious projects were made possible through the patronage of john talbot sixteenth earl of shrewsbury and ambrose phillips de lisle walsh s vision for oscott was to make it a centre of catholic life and scholarship that would provide a home for many of the converts pugin was given the task of decorating and furnishing the chapel using ornaments executed by ancient artists in the days of faith but torn by heretical and revolutionary violence from their original positions in the noble churches of france and belgium and restoring the ample and dignified vestments which were anciently used in this land walsh bought an impressive library that had been made available in rome and appointed converts like george spencer to high positions labels diary history posted by fr nicholas at 10 23 am 3 comments sunday 25 january 2009 burns night and haggis since publishing on 2009 anniversaries earlier this month i keep coming across more today for example is not only the conversion of st paul but burns night and indeed the 250th anniversary of the poet s birth to mark this we had some delicious haggis at sunday lunch in the presbytery eating haggis reminded me of the small part it played in the conversion of our first parish priest here at kingsland fr william lockhart a disciple of newman and rosmini while he was a student at exeter college oxford in the early 1840s he attended the annual scotch dinner for st andrew s day held in the union rooms it was a happy evening of whisky jacobite songs toasts to archbishop laud and bonnie prince charlie and a menu of oyster soup haggis and cockie leeky afterwards lockhart walked round the parks with a friend to sober up and declared i am in a state now in which i might be drawn into any wickedness the following morning he went to see dr sewell at exeter and asked to confess the previous night s excesses sewell refused and offered him a dose of epsom salts instead of absolution lockhart later commenting i came away from that ass at once i asked my father for bread and he gave me a stone i asked for fish he gave me a scorpion not long afterwards he joined newman at littlemore and soon converted to rome one of the main issues being the forgiveness of post baptismal sins to celebrate today s anniversary here is what i consider to be one of the finest sights and sounds in these fair isles labels lockhart posted by fr nicholas at 3 16 pm 0 comments new books alumni of the venerable english college rome in recent years have been rather prolific in publishing books in the last week or so two of my classmates have produced interesting titles fr gerard skinner parish priest of northolt and south harrow and co author of the english cardinals has arranged an anthology of benedict xvi s teachings on the sacred priesthood entitled priests of jesus christ it is published by the ever excellent family publications and will be essential reading for priests seminarians and anyone considering a priestly vocation as well as those who want to learn more about the role of the priesthood in the church fr richard whinder a southwark priest who occasionally appears on the blogosphere has written a useful cts pamphlet the extraordinary form of the mass explained containing a short commentary on the mass of the ages a history of its development across the centuries and an explanation of summorum pontificum priced at only 1 95 i m sure it will help those who are either discovering the usus antiquior or are confused by recent events labels books posted by fr nicholas at 7 59 am 0 comments saturday 24 january 2009 ecumenical fruits good news about the sspx excommunications being remitted at the end of christian unity week there is still a long way to go and i m sure that members of the society will be divided over the path that lies ahead as it happens i spotted the cassocked figure of bishop fellay in the newsagents at fiumicino airport on monday as i was waiting for the plane and struggling to carry the bottles of digestivi i had just bought from duty free so i thought something might be in the air let us continue to pray for the unity of the church labels news posted by fr nicholas at 8 17 pm 1 comments friday 23 january 2009 a day in the castelli this time last week i was in the castelli the little towns in the alban hills just outside rome after a sublime lunch at monte porzio where the english college had a villa up until 1918 above you can see a view looking down to rome i popped into frascati the exterior of the cathedral below had been restored since my last visit respects were paid at the site of the original tomb of bonne prince charlie his young brother the cardinal duke of york was of course bishop of frascati between 1761 and 1803 although the body of charles iii was moved to st peter s in 1807 his praecordia is still near this monument there was also an amazing crib based on a piranesi print of the porto di ripetta on the tiber featuring the croatian church san girolamo degli schiavoni and to its right the little chapel of san gregorio dei muratori up until recently the hq of the fraternity of st peter in rome this view can no longer be seen due to subsequent town planning the actual nativity scene was tucked away in the corner in true roman style it was good to see cardinal henry stuart remembered in a special exhibition at the scuderie aldobrandini per l arte rather unimaginatively called la biblioteca del cardinale though the cardinal s library was only part of the exhibition s focus it s on until 15 february in case you re passing through rome there were many familiar portraits many of which i had only seen as illustrations in books and i was particularly pleased to buy a large well illustrated catalogue anyone interested in the cardinal king should get a copy before leaving frascati i popped over to cardinal stuart s former residence of la rocca it was here that the last of the stuarts died on 13 july 1807 labels jacobites roma eterna posted by fr nicholas at 2 03 pm 0 comments wednesday 21 january 2009 newman s cause i ve been asked to draw your attention to the new official website for the cause for the canonisation of johnhenry cardinal newman this includes a thought for the day from newman s writings biography history of the cause and regular news and features hopefully there will be some definitive good news soon labels blogs posted by fr nicholas at 5 18 pm 1 comments tuesday 20 january 2009 an ostrich at the vatican saturday was the feast of st anthony of egypt the desert father whose story was so memorably told by st athanasius in italy he is known as san antonio abate and is often depicted with animals especially a pig in more an italian than an egyptian setting here is a little shrine that was set up in the duomo of monte porzio he is amongst other things the protector of animals and patron of breeders allevatori which is why a whole menagerie of beasts gathered on the piazza san pietro to celebrate the festa organised by the aia associazione italiana allevatori here is the tent containing the animals with san pietro in the background can you spot the friendly face posing for my camera on the extreme right here is a close up now i ve seen many things at the vatican but i never thought i d bump into a struzzo or ostrich i wonder if its presence means that the holy see has commissioned a new set of flabelli ceremonial fans made from ostrich feathers there were also some chaps on horses making a rather charming sight a touch of the wild west on the via conciliazione you ll be pleased to know that all the animals were blessed by the archpriest of the basilica cardinal comastri after he had celebrated a mass for the feast nb why st anthony and the pig some suggest that the pig symbolised the devil which the saint defeated through his prayer penances and perseverance others that it reminds us of the hermit s simplicity and harmony with creation moreover the medieval hospital brothers of st anthony later incorporated into the knights of malta kept pigs quickly becoming the symbol of their patron labels papal rome posted by fr nicholas at 10 22 pm 0 comments papal angelus i received two e mails today from readers in germany and texas encouraging me to post after an absence of a few weeks i have indeed been rather apathetic in my blogging duties but in recent days it has been made difficult by my customary christmas holiday in rome at least my holiday snaps will provide a few posts in coming days it was good of course to see the papa at his weekly angelus i hadn t noticed before that the latin texts appear on the large tv screens in piazza san pietro facilitating an actuosa participatio it was good to see a packed square despite it being a fairly quiet time for tourism in rome labels papal roma eterna posted by fr nicholas at 8 50 pm 2 comments sunday 4 january 2009 a defender of the faith rip fr tim has noted on his blog the sad news of the death at the age of 75 of david foster a tireless champion and teacher of the faith i feel i should pay tribute to him here i counted him as a friend and when we met i was never aware of the age gap between us he was young at heart and wore his learning lightly despite having quite firm views about the church and the world he never rammed them down your throat and loved to expand his knowledge he had a great love for chesterton and belloc sharing their appreciation of good old english pubs and passionately followed cricket and burnley fc he had offered to take me to a match which i regret not taking up i first met david in 1992 when i attended the international summer school for catholic youth that he founded this was and is held each july and comprised a series of lessons and talks on a wide range of subjects everything from thomistic theology to music from literature to greek all taught from the perspective of a catholic world view when i first went along at the age of 16 i wondered whether i would really enjoy it but i returned the subsequent two years and made many friends david s vision was a key influence in rekindling my interest in the church as a result my faith was strengthened and with it my sense of a priestly vocation there were about 30 or 40 students in my day and out of these two became secular priests and one a dominican nun in australia i owe david a lot and feel very privileged to have been asked to be the chief celebrant at his funeral on 13 january brentwood cathedral 1pm labels news posted by fr nicholas at 9 03 pm 2 comments thursday 1 january 2009 catholic anniversaries in 2009 two big catholic anniversaries with hertfordshire connections the martyrdom of st alban and the death of pope adrian iv formerly nicholas breakspear as usual roman miscellany begins the new year by noting some important anniversaries in 2009 that may be of interest to readers 9 january 1300th anniversary of the death of st adrian the only african archbishop of canterbury so far and centenary of the birth of fr patrick peyton the rosary priest 15 january centenary of the death of st arnold janssen founder of divine word missionaries 20 january 300th anniversary of the death of françois de la chaise sj confessor to louis xiv 3 february 100th birthday of simone weil philosopher and religious writer 21 april 900th anniversary of the death of st anselm archbishop of canterbury and doctor of the church 24 april 1300th anniversary of the death of st wilfrid bishop of york 17 march 200th birthday of ambrose phillipps de lisle convert and patron of pugin 31 may 200th anniversary of the death of josef haydn composer for many the anniversary of 2009 expect some interesting cd releases 11 june 500th anniversary of the marriage of henry viii and catherine of aragon 22 june possibly the 1800th anniversary of the martyrdom of england s proto martyr st alban different scholars give different dates 29 june 500th anniversary of the death of lady margaret beaufort mother of henry vii patron of the arts and learning and spiritual client of st john fisher 4 august 150th anniversary of the death of st john mary vianney patron of parish priests a jubilee in ars fifty years ago blessed john xxiii issued sacredotii nostri primordii for the centenary 18 august 450th anniversary of the death of pope paul iv carafa who had earlier been first general of the theatines 1 september 850th anniversary of the death of pope adrian iv breakspear the first and only english pope 18 october millennium of the destruction of the church of the holy sepulchre by caliph al hakim bi amr allah an event which contributed to the mounting of the crusades later in the century 25 november 400th birthday of henrietta maria catholic consort of charles i 25 december 450th anniversary of the election of pope pius iv medici uncle of st charles borromeo i m sure there are many more happy new year labels history posted by fr nicholas at 12 01 am 4 comments wednesday 24 december 2008 happy christmas how great the mystery and wondrous the sacred sign that beasts should look upon the lord lying lowly in the stall labels christmas posted by fr nicholas at 9 00 pm 0 comments saturday 13 december 2008 pugin s ramsgate on wednesday i popped down to the kentish coastal town of ramsgate my first port of call was the benedictine monastery which i used to visit regularly when my first cousin once removed dom stephen holford was alive in fact the last time i visited i had gingerly mentioned my possible priestly vocation to him it was the first time i had mentioned it to anyone that was about 13 years ago and quite a lot has happened since then it was good to be back the monks kindly invited me to lunch and...