The Bishop's Pastoral Letter

Today in our parish a wonderful pastoral letter by our bishop was read out.   Our Bishop Egan has brought something new to our Diocese, concern for the young and a realisation that few young people  have an interest in the Church because we have failed them.   When I and others first pointed out that young people were not coming to Church anymore we were dismissed with "O they come back later on" and it was useless to argue that it was 'later on' and they were not coming back.   There was that feeling that in our New Church everything had to be perfect since the catechesis programmes were organised by those with an 'adult faith'.   But now we have a Bishop who is not afraid to speak out, and in the Diocese of Portsmouth that takes a lot of nerve even for a Bishop.   

There was one thing the Bishop got wrong.  These young people do not lapse after Confirmation the majority have stopped going to Mass long before Confirmation.   I found this out many years ago when I tried to be a Confirmation Catechist.   My experience was interesting, none of the Catechists had any idea what the gifts of the Holy Spirit were.   They mumbled on and had papers on which was written Wisdom, Understanding, etc, but they had no knowledge of how they applied to the soul.  I would have loved to explain but was never given the chance.   It was at the time the School Inspectors closed down the Catholic Teachers Training College of La Sainte Union in Southampton and since I had attended a couple of their anti-Catholic sessions, the Feminists blamed me.  So I was dropped with scorn.

But how could I have explained the Gifts?  They are gifts of the soul given to us at those moments of evangelisation and I had experienced one of those moments.  As a parish visitor from Scotland working in Newcastle I was asked by a woman if I could speak to her husband about the Church.  He was a good man who went to Church with her on a Sunday although he was a Protestant.  With my partner we went to Church to pray about the visit that evening.   During our talk the woman started crying and I started explaining to the man about how much she wanted to share her Faith with him , how much marriage meant to her, with a maturity, knowledge, and authority I had never had in my life.   I was after all only 20.   But it was of course the Holy Spirit taking over for I would have been useless on my own.   The man became a Catholic.    It is what Jesus said to the disciples when he told them that in his name they would be brought before the Courts and Sanhedrins.  "Do not think up your defence beforehand" he told them, "It will be given to you at the time"   Yes, I had a successful mission but it was underpinned by my Faith and love of the Church.

Getting back to the Pastoral Letter, Bishop Egan says something very important when he notes that surveys show that many practicing Catholics, even leading parishioners are not sure God is personal, that they cab have a real friendship with God, or that serving God is more than a habit or a hobby.   At the moment I am learning about Our Lady of Fatima.   She appears to have given the children  a course on the basics of the Catholic Faith.  The firs thing she taught them was to love God.   She was so successful with the children that both Jacinta and Francesco talked about a fire within them whenever they prayed to God.   One prayer I now pray every day as often as I can is 'O My God I believe, I adore, I hope in you and I love you, and I ask pardon for those who will not believe nor adore nor hope in you, nor love you"  It is a prayer that will bring not just you closer to God, but many many others.

How I long to see the fire of the Catholic Faith burning In England again.  And how I long to see thousands of our young people carrying the torches.