Dinner last night at Pusey House, which is celebrating its 125th Birthday. Most of the great and the good of the Catholic Movement were there, including John Broadhurst, Bishop of Fulham who put the Movement together again after the disasters of the mid1990s, and Dr Geoffrey Kirk, the unremittingly hard-working Secretary of Forward in Faith whose erudition, tempered by a brilliantly satiric wit, has for so long enliverned our meetings and our journal New Directions.
And how lovely to have there the gentle and friendly figure of our best friend, Fr Aidan Nichols. I can't think of anyone who has done more for us than he has. He has been so generous - in terms of personal relationships; through his book The Panther and the Hind in which he sketched his picture of Orthodox Anglicanism Reunited to the Holy See: a dream which, if the Apostolic Constitution is allowed to do its work, will soon be more than a dream. I remember the first time I met him; when I read a paper on a subject that I knew very little about in great fear and trembling as to what such a formidable intellect might say about it. I need not have worried.
And there were the young together with the once-young who served as Head Sacristans or Directors of Music at PH. Very many of those present were, as you might suspect, already in Full Communion with the Holy See. It was good to be able to gossip about the progress within the RCC of the EF Mass. It is a subject on which the young seem very sound.
I wonder what future historians might say about the role of Pusey House in the restoration of the English RCC to orthopraxy.
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'And there were the young together with the once-young who served as Head Sacristans or Directors of Music at PH. Very many of those present were, as you might suspect, already in Full Communion with the Holy See. It was good to be able to gossip about the progress within the RCC of the EF Mass. It is a subject on which the young seem very sound.'
And the Dean of St Patrick's was there I believe.......did he denounce Benediction again?
I'm glad it was a excellent time. I would have loved to be there.
Sounds good... I met Fr Aidan when he was in Australia some years back, and was so impressed - he carried his great learning with such humility and sincerity, and was in every respect a "good egg", as I believe you English chaps like to say when offering praise!
Having just had the EF Mass (my monthly dose) for All Saints this morning, I am in excellent mood, and look forward to the fast-approaching day when we shall all be in Holy Church united, at the prayers of God's Mother, His Angels and His Saints. "This is the day which was made by the Lord: let us rejoice and be glad."
I wonder what the first Principal of Pusey House, Dr Gore, would have thought of present events. His treatment, as bishop, of the Benedictines of Caldey, might suggest that he would not have altogether approved.
I noted that Fr Aidan Nichols in the Catholic Herald this week was referring to the Holy Spirit as 'She'.
I was disappointed. Speculation about the gender of the Deity is futile. But there is a convention that has been used in English for centuries.
He seems to be pandering to the feminists. Does he also talk about Church History or Herstory?
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