The Catenian Association Defends Traditional Marriage

Did you know that the Catenian Association was represented last night in a meeting in central London, called "to discuss how Catholics and others should oppose the Government's proposed same-sex marriage legislation"?  Many organisations, mostly Catholic, were represented at this meeting which was convened and chaired by the Chairman of the Catholic Union, Jamie Bogle (husband of Joanna).

You can read more over at "A Reluctant Sinner", who writes, "Without going into the details of what was discussed, it's fair to say that last night's meeting was extremely fruitful. Those present managed to lay some important foundations for a Catholic campaign to preserve the traditional and natural definition of marriage. Each representative was given the opportunity to share his or her views about the current proposed legislation, and all present were also encouraged to offer ideas as to how the Catholic – and wider – community should go about defending the current definition of marriage."

Have you signed the Coalition for Marriage petition yet?  If not, please do add your own voice in support of traditional marriage and family life, and do so; the petition can be found here.  C4M also has useful guidance for writing to your MP on the issue at the same link.

President's Charity 2012-13

With Bro Edek's term as Crawley Circle President due to commence this week, we thought you might appreciate some information about this year's President's Charity.

We will be supporting Just Different.  This is a charity set up in 2008 by Toby Hewson, a young man suffering from cerebral palsy, to educate children and young people about the world of disability and thus promote positive social attitudes towards disabled people.  Just Different take interactive workshops on disability - written, produced and presented by disabled people - into mainstream schools.  One of Horsham's Catholic primary schools, St John's, recently enjoyed one of their workshops which was very well received.

Toby Hewson, Just Different's founder

Bro Edek and I have found from our experience with our daughter Aila that out of the many challenges facing disabled people, one of the most crippling can be the fear of whether other people will be able to relate to them.  Will those they meet be able to see past the wheelchair to the "ordinary" person within?  How will this affect their working relationships?  How easy will it be to make friends?  Unfortunately their fears are not always unfounded, but this isn't necessarily because people bear ill-will towards them or are prejudiced.  Often it is because of simple misunderstanding which means that others aren't quite sure what to do, say or expect.

By working with young people, Just Different is tackling this problem at grass roots level.  A generation of youngsters growing up today with an understanding and appreciation of disabled people will lead to a truly inclusive society tomorrow.

Just Different offer their workshops free of formal charge, although they ask a suggested donation from the schools they visit.  They are keen to keep things on this basis and avoid charging large fees which many might find unaffordable, thus restricting access to their life-changing message.  However they need financial support - to, in their own words, "pay for the recruitment and training of disabled presenters, the travel costs associated with reaching the schools, workshop equipment and workshop development, so that we can bring about the changes we feel so passionately about."  They are therefore seeking voluntary forms of financial giving to support their costs.

Bro Edek and I also feel passionately about the aims and values of this charity and hope you will too.  To read more about them, visit www.justdifferent.org.

"We see a world in which difference is always valued. The earlier children and young people begin to learn about disability, the more likely they are to just accept it as a normal part of the world they live in for the rest of their lives. JustDifferent workshops demonstrate to children and young people that disabled people can achieve, participate and lead normal lives."

The Just Different team: "We may look or appear different
on the outside, but we are all the same on the inside".

A job well done

Good job,boys!

I'm sure everyone is dying to know how they did, so... I'm pleased to report that Bro President Mike and Bro Vice-President Edek did sterling work with the coffee and bacon this morning at our "cobs, cakes and cards" breakfast sale at St John's! 

Thank you very much, Brothers, for your hard work; particularly to Bro Mike for giving up a long, sunny Sunday morning to help us.  It is very much appreciated.  Thank you too to everyone who supported the event.  Nearly £300 was raised for Aila's Fund.

Let the Presidents take your order

Bro Mike has put in long years of
parish service in this capacity

This coming Sunday morning (22 April), why not save your appetite for a delicious bacon and egg breakfast at St John's RC Church, Horsham?  We will be serving bacon (and/or egg) rolls and coffee in the church hall after 9am Mass.  There will also be a cake sale and handcrafted greetings cards to purchase.  All proceeds will be going to "Aila's Fund".

Bro Edek's bacon is cooked...
don't worry, it tastes second to none

The catering will be headed up by Bro President Mike as Coffee Maker In Chief (thank you, Bro Mike) and Bro Vice-President Edek as Head Bacon Chef.  Both men have many years of experience and expertise in their roles, so if you're around, please do come along and let them serve you up a tasty treat!

Happy Easter!

A little early, but in anticipation of tonight's Easter Vigil & First Mass of the Resurrection, may I take this opportunity to wish all Catenians (and indeed all readers of this blog) a Very Happy Easter!

The BBC News website carries a report today that Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, will in his Easter Sunday sermon urge his flock to "wear proudly a symbol of the Cross of Christ" each day of their lives.  This, of course, comes in the wake of controversy over whether Christians should be permitted to wear a cross in the workplace, with two British Airways employees taking the issue to the European Court of Human Rights.

The comments in the combox are mixed but, predictably, some are positively hostile towards Christianity.  Some writers feel that by wearing a cross or crucifix, we are trying to show that we think we're somehow "better" than everyone else and that we are going to get to heaven whilst the masses are not; others rebuke Christians for being preoccupied about their right to wear a symbol whilst not behaving in a way that demonstrates love and compassion to others; some have a very basic misunderstanding of the foundational truths of our faith. 

I don't often wear a crucifix but this is for reasons of vanity (another necklace matches my outfit better!) or forgetfulness/laziness in the morning.  I think it's a good thing to do, but it does pose a challenge to us, i.e. that we conform our lives to the symbol we are wearing...  Well, I suggested a challenge to us all after the Incoming Presidents' evening in Worthing and another at the beginning of Holy Week, so why not a third challenge for Easter!  Let's wear a cross with pride, but above all let's make sure that in everything we do and say, our lives are a real witness of our belief in the Risen Christ and of the love and grace He makes available to all people - and that we know sufficient about the teachings of our faith to be able to enlighten others (the Catholic faith is actually very reasonable). 

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7)

All readers will be glad to reflect that Mark and Lucy are expected back from Australia soon. I'm sure that your blog editor will then keep a stern eye on me so that I don't have a chance to think up any more "Catenian challenges"....!

Happy Easter, again. Surrexit Christus, alleluia!

A Catenian "challenge" for Holy Week!

As we enter Holy Week, here is the Editorial of today's pro-life newsletter in St John's parish, Horsham.  I reproduce it here as a meditation because I think com-passion (i.e. "suffering with") is something that Catenians do, and should do, very well.  It can be seen for example in their concern for the widows of their Circles and in their fundraising efforts.  As such, Catenians are doing their bit towards building a worldview that sees the answer to suffering as the effort to walk with those who are treading their own Way of the Cross and, by bearing their burdens with them in lots of big and little ways, make them feel life is still worth living even in the midst of pain and incapacity.

"The Catenians.  Strengthening [all] life through friendship and faith."  We're doing well I think, but we can always do more!

* * * * * * * *

Holy Week... Jesus enters Jerusalem for the final days of His life, when, for our sakes, He will voluntarily shoulder a Cross as heavy as all the sins that ever were and ever will be committed, and will submit to suffering unto death.  Foolishness indeed to the world in general, as St Paul points out in 1 Corinthians, but to Christians “the power of God” – a pathway to blessings beyond imagination.

It is no different today.  Our society sees suffering as the evil to be avoided.  Death itself is preferable to it.  Not death arrived at through a process of seeing suffering through to the bitter end as Jesus did, but as an alternative, swallowed down quickly as a pill or potion or administered by lethal injection.  What happiness can there be when suffering makes its appearance on the scene?  What meaning and value can we find to our lives if they contain pain or severe physical limitations?

Seen through this perspective, euthanasia (or the abortion of a disabled foetus) becomes the compassionate – the only compassionate – option to offer the severely incapacitated.  The Catholic viewpoint, that we have no right to take our own or anyone else’s life whatever the circumstances, is seen as meaningless if not downright cruel.  Try to talk about the positive value of suffering and you are likely to be rhetorically stoned for, firstly, condemning someone to bear their pain no matter what and then for adding insult to injury by telling them suffering is good for their soul...

In fact this is the great message of Easter; that we will all find crosses, great or small, in our lives but that through faith in Christ those crosses – the things we most fear in life like pain, illness, paralysis - can be transformed into blessings.  What then is left to for us to be afraid of?  Encouraging someone to “hang on in there” is neither cruel nor pious nonsense because God “will not let you be put to the test beyond your strength but with any trial will also provide a way out by enabling you to put up with it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).  Where suffering abounds, grace abounds all the more, to slightly adapt the words of St Paul.

This isn’t an easy concept, especially as you probably have to walk some dark roads yourself before you can testify to the hidden light to be found there.  Such witnesses can be found.  Alison Davies is a sufferer from spina bifida who herself passed through a stage of wanting to die; now she works to promote a positive view of disability through No Less Human, a branch of SPUC.  Chelsea Zimmerman was paralysed from the chest down in a car accident whilst still a teenager; she is passionately pro-life and writes an inspirational blog, Reflections of a Paralytic.  Alison and Chelsea are witnesses to the light, people who have made – and are making – a difficult journey and learning along the way to value life all the more.  There are others like them, finding blessings and meaning blossoming like those hardy wild flowers one sees obstinately thriving between the rails of train lines or on rock faces.

Every flower must receive water and nourishment from somewhere, however.  As we meditate on what Holy Week can tell us about suffering and grace, can we also respond to the challenge it gives us?  Like Simon of Cyrene, Veronica and the women of Jerusalem, do we have hearts big enough to help shoulder the crosses of those who suffer so terribly -  showing them what comfort we can, weeping with them when the pain feels too much and, well, just loving them?  True compassion will always try to offer a reason to live, not a way to die.

*Perhaps it should be mentioned that this editorial is discussing unavoidable suffering.  Of course it is our duty to alleviate suffering and seek a cure wherever possible; but not at the price of deliberately taking a life.