Our parish’s stand against xenophobia
SIR – In a bold effort of defiance following incidents of hate crime and xenophobia in some parts of the country following the Brexit vote, our parish priest – Fr Julian Shurgold of Holy Family parish, Sutton Green – had asked that all parishioners turn up for Mass during the weekend of July 16-17 in their national dress. This was to show solidarity with victims of these awful crimes.It was wonderful to see the colourful turnout on these days and the message that we were putting out, namely that we are one.
This event followed the success of the international meal which our parish had organised a few weeks previously. So much is the interest in these international meals that our parish priest has decided to hold another such event on Sunday, September 25.
Should any parish affected by these hate crimes wish to take a leaf from our book, they are more than welcome to – and, in these difficult times, at no extra cost.
Yours faithfully,
Mervyn Maciel
Sutton, Surrey
Fatima’s urgency
SIR – Joanna Bogle (Comment, July 29) appears to imply that the message of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917 was simply a renewed call to the age-old discipline of personal prayer and penance and asks “so what’s new?” One does not have to be a “Fatimist” to wonder why Our Lady came with such a sense of urgency simply to deliver a “rather dull” message, and support it with the most publicly attested and visible miracle that arguably the world has ever seen.It is incontestable that her message was for the Church and for the world in that her Son is very much offended by our manifest sins. When the Church is sick, the world is more so. Deceit which causes any deflection from this uncomfortable message of Fatima certainly has a “sulphurous odour”.
The remedy that Our Lady offered us to avoid any chastisement was that Russia – specifically Russia – should be consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart by the Pope, in union with all the bishops. The obfuscation in some quarters concerning whether this event has taken place does not assist the faithful. In the confusion, we can agree that what we must do as loyal Catholics is to answer the call to personal prayer (of the rosary) and do penance.
We can also hope that by the end of 2017, we are not all made painfully aware which prophecies of Our Lady of Fatima are past and which today are still to come.
Yours faithfully,
Deacon John Wakeling
Nottingham
SIR – Joanna Bogle (July 29) commented on the essence of the message of Fatima. “It is the message at the core of our faith; a loving God who yearns to reach our hearts. It is about prayer and penance” – “It is time to stop being led astray and get on with the prayer and penance”.
There is a possibility that some are being led astray by the current state of the lack of definite information concerning Medjugorje. Many believe that there were real Marian apparitions there but many do not believe that.
The Vatican has carried out a detailed investigation into the veracity of the reported apparitions in Medjugorje. It would be of great benefit if the conclusions of the Vatican’s investigation could be made known.
Surely it is now time for some clarity about Medjugorje and the removal of the possibility that some Catholic people are being led astray.
Yours faithfully,
David J Murnaghan
By email
The EU isn’t evil
SIR – Criticism has often been expressed in your journal, most recently by Ann Farmer (Letter July 15), of the EU for having abandoned Christian ideals and become a champion of the secular society. This apparently has been the reason for many in the UK to vote to leave the EU.Whereas there is no doubt that the secular anti-Christian agenda has successfully invaded many aspects of life in the Western democracies, it seems to be a curious form of logic to conclude that the UK should leave the EU for that reason. Nowhere has the secular agenda been more successful than in the Palace of Westminster with, for example, its redefinition of marriage and the new laws on adoption. However, there is no suggestion that Christians should cease to participate in the parliamentary activities at Westminster as a form of protest against the legislation that is passed there.
Similarly, in the different UN bodies, the African and Asian countries are under intense pressure from Western governments to adopt Western sexual mores as a condition for receiving financial development aid, but there is no suggestion from any quarter that the UK should leave the United Nations and its different agencies for that reason. Christians should not walk away from these institutions where the secular view seems to predominate, but rather engage with them and be an effective witness to the truth of Christian principles.
To do otherwise must surely be to abandon the field to those who do not share our Christian faith.
Yours faithfully,
David Quinn
Paris
SIR – Ann Farmer asserts that the EU “has leaned on staunchly Catholic countries like Ireland, Poland and Malta to abandon strict anti-abortion laws” and that “new members must introduce ‘gender equality’ and abortion as a condition of entry to the ‘progressive club’”.
I don’t know the situation in Poland or Malta, but in the case of Ireland this statement is completely untrue. It is also untrue to state that prospective members must introduce abortion as a condition of entry.
Furthermore, it is completely untrue to suggest that a same-sex marriage bill introduced in Portugal in 2006 could be due to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Lisbon Treaty (Letter, July 22).
How could this possibly be the case when negotiations on the Lisbon Treaty only began in 2007 after the election of Sarkozy to the French presidency? After all, the treaty was his idea as a way of dealing with the situation created by the French and Dutch referenda rejecting the proposed European constitution. Moreover, the treaty did not come into effect until after its approval in the second Irish referendum on it in October 2009.
Incidentally, even today, most EU member states including Germany and Italy do not have same-sex marriage.
Yours faithfully,
Ed Kelly
St Helens, Merseyside
