Portsmouth Roman Catholic

 As we come out of lockdown, those of a Marxist view are talking about building a new society, a society where there would be no more poverty and inequality, and of course the rich would pay their fair share, and everything would be wonderful since everyone would conform to what the Government laid down.   to help individual freedom, babies would continue to be killed in their woman and called, and called nothing of course, since a human being in the womb does not exist.   Marriage would continue to be allowed, but individual freedom within marriage would be applauded as a personal right.   "No hard feelings, dear"     The harm done to children by this in their material and emotional development will continue to be ignored. There is little hope for the children of today as they grow up in a society which ignores their personal feelings.    But can they turn to anyone?    And when children even from the natural family find themselves in situations where boys sexually abuse the

 I was very pleasantly surprised this morning when I turned on BBC News and found that there was now an interest in young boys raping young girls in schools.    Apparently someone had put up a site and hundreds of young girls, one as young as 9, had replied that they were raped at school by the boys.   A Conservative MP, who was a member of the Government Education Committee said that Police were investigating over 1,000 such allegations.   The Leader of the Opposition Keith Stammer came on to say that, among many things, there had to be a change of culture.    Why were young boys turning up at school with the idea that they could use girls. Now anyone who has followed my blog will know I have touched on this subject many times.   There are many girls who do not complain and give into the boys, believing it is the grown up thing to do.   After all we see it on soaps on TV, two people meet and within minutes they are sleeping together, so it is not a youth culture but a culture in socie

 One of the teachings of the Church is found in the Apostles Creed when we say we believe in the Communion of Saints.    We are saying we believe that all Catholics are united not only here on earth where we see them visibly present, but they are still part of the Church when they die and are in heaven or in purgatory, indeed they are still part of our community, and are caring for us as much as they did on earth. OK, we offer Masses for their souls and do all we can, especially for our family members, to ensure they are in heaven, where they will look down on us with gratitude.    We may turn to the many people the Church has declared saints and ask for their intercession but there is one thing we often miss.    Our dear departed in Heaven are also saints and those in purgatory, who are already rejoicing in their coming salvation, are also wanting us to be in heaven, or at least be there with them, and since God has not deserted them they can pray to Him, just as we pray for them.    

 This morning I was listening to a discussion on TV about assaults on women.   It followed the murder of a young woman on her way home to Brixton after visiting a friend.   She had disappeared and was later found dead.   A policeman was responsible.    The discussion was frantic.   It was all about better punishment to prevent women being attacked, the idea that women need more power in society, and the idea that men should be put under curfew at a certain hour so that women are safe in the streets.     A following discussion was on the collapse of religion, and it was pointed out that religion did nothing to help the poor in society but was a rather inward looking institution.    The sad thing was that there was no one in that studio to defend the Churches.    It was rather one sided.  Now I am a Catholic and have been alive long enough to see the attacks on Catholicism grow both outside the Church and inside.     But one thing I have noticed is that there is still a St Vincent de Pau

 " Atheists say there is no evidence of any god, that science has shown that matter and force are eternal, that the earth was not created from nothing". I copied and pasted the above from something I read which was written by someone whom I am afraid was not vert logical, and merely was caught up in a rant against religion in general and the Christian Church in particular.  Nevertheless it is worth examining what he said, since so many young people are being caught up in this illogicality, and I am afraid he has overstated his case to the extent that even atheistic scientists would disagree with him. First of all what is a scientist?    I once went into a botanical garden when I was very young.    I saw a beautiful rose and I asked how such a beautiful flower grew.    "It grows from a seed" came the reply.   "Yes, but how does the seed change into a flower?" I asked.   She told me about the roots taking food from the earth and the sun causing photosynthesi

 Now the death of a woman walking alone at night, being attacked and raped is something that brings anger and outrage.   Yes, it could have been my wife, or my daughter, and we feel suddenly very vulnerable.   But blaming the law and abusing men by telling them they should be off the streets by six o'clock is not rational and indeed an insult to the majority of men. There is no doubt that young girls and women are used and abused in our present society more than ever in the country's history.   The idea however that we can regulate human nature by law, by prohibitions, and shouting in the street, is as very poor one.   We must be open to valid criticism of ourselves as a society and any contribution we make to ensuring these tragedies go on and on.    So let me start with this criticism, it has never been easier for a man to have sex with a woman than it is today.   Schools teach what they call 'safe sex' and pretend that they are doing a good job.    But sex separated

 The recent attack and murder of a young lady on her way home was as very brutal affair, but the reaction from the secular state in damning all men and suggesting they should be put off the streets at 6 pm shows how little they understand about the good in people and the evil in people and how little they understand about morality and doing what is right against doing what is wrong.   Animal behaviour is predictable but human behaviour is not, for unlike the animal humans can make a choice as to how they behave in any situation, will they act to satisfy themselves, and whether it brings harm to someone else does not matter.   These choices as regards sexual behaviour now abound in our society.    How easy it is for men to find sexual satisfaction since the sex revolution, and the teaching in schools on safe sex and the right to say no.   Such things are applauded by society, yet the more experts we have teaching this, the worse the problem becomes.    Young people should be taught boun

 As someone of Irish Origin, whose ancestors came to this country to earn money to feed themselves and their families, I have a sympathy with the struggles of the Black Community.    Yes from my own experience I can relate to intolerance and injustice.    Lodgings and seaside resorts carried the notice 'No blacks, no Irish, no dogs'.   But there was not the bitter fighting as there had once been in places like Liverpool, where the bosses  in the docks, paid low wages as the English and the Irish dockers fought one another for jobs.   What is happening with the Black Community is the very same as my Irish ancestors faced.    Jobs were being taken away from the native population and there was resentment. However let me be clear on this.   The English working class had nothing to do with the treatment of the Irish in Ireland.   Yes there was large amounts of money being made in the growing and transferring of corn to mainland Britain, but the profits were not shared with the worki

 One of the greatest pains I felt in my life, was when I offered myself as a Catechist for the confirmation of children in their early teens.    I was only allowed to be a catechist because they found it difficult to say no to me, but after one year I was not invited to the catechist meetings.    My presence and my faith were unwelcome.     It was not that I started quarrelling with anyone, no, it was just that I 'had not moved on'.    But what made me sad was that many of those coming forward, otherwise decent young people, admitted they were only there because their parents had insisted.   Negative comments were made about the parents by the catechist, but of course nothing was said about the Catholic Schools, which more than any other party had turned the pupils against their parents and the Church.    When my boys were small and at the Catholic Primary School, the parents were invited one Saturday morning to hear about the new Catechism they were introducing.   It was intro

 I started up my blog and was determined after prayer to write a blog on the responsibilities of being a Catholic.    I went to Amazon first however and remembered there was a recent film advertised on Fatima.    So I typed in Fatima.   Up came a recent film called Fatima and I downloaded it.    Fatima is the place where in 1917 Our Lady either appeared to three children, the oldest being 10, or she did not appear and these children were the greatest swindlers in the world, conjuring up illusions and magic to a crowd of over 70,000 people.    I prefer the first explanation since the second one is rather absurd.      The event in question was how on the 13th October when people came to see a miracle that had been previously announced, they saw the sun dance in the sky then fall to earth, and when the crowd were screaming the sun stopped falling, and went back to its place,    Meanwhile the soaking over overnight rain on the soil, which had been turned into mud suddenly dried up.   There