Fr John's Dream

We have lost the Climate Change war. Suddenly, we know. We cannot reclaim lost opportunity but we can prepare for what is coming and learn how to cope. Human intelligence is immense. We shall learn to adapt. China (28%) and the USA (23%) – 51% between them! - are the great polluters, more than the rest of the world put together. The UK is responsible for 1% (Wales for .001%). We must create a new world order and part of that will be seeing each other again. We must. Our inter-national relationships are of great value and we must redevelop them. The alternative is to simply shield and shrivel inside our own countries. We must reach out.

Last week I emailed our friends where we have been on our happy and blessed pilgrimages. Sad replies: “We are longing to welcome you back,” was the common theme of their replies. Life has been very difficult for them all. Few pilgrims and tourists, little income, bleak prospects. Stefano in Rome has used all his savings in order to keep the staff in employment on a minimum wage; our Rome hotel and favourite restaurant have barely survived; only half of the hotel in Stresa is open and the staff have urged Simona to tell Padre Giovanni and his friends (the nicest group, they call us) to come and visit again; Giampaolo and Francesco and the little bus and taxi company are surviving but they long for a genuine income . . . . so I give you my dreams for 2022 and 2023.

“Dreaming with the Lord, Rebuilding our Friendships, Loving and Re-shaping our World with Reverence, Putting People First”
2022 :   February – Pilgrimage to Rome; Early May – 5 days in Lourdes; Late June – Montecatini in Tuscany (4 days) visiting Florence (2 days) and Pisa, then 3 days in Assisi; August - Lake Maggiore and Stresa in Northern Italy; November - Pilgrimage to Rome.
2023 : February  – Pilgrimage to Malta; May  - Padua and Venice; August  - Lake Maggiore and Stresa in Northern Italy; Late September (Surprise) - British Columbia and the Canadian Rockies, visiting the missions where Fr John was so happy; November – Pilgrimage to Rome.

It’s a DREAM that I would the Lord to bless to become a vision. We must move and be moved. That’s how God has made us, needing each other, none of us self-sufficient. One world, no longer first or second or third worlds. We must plan for higher sea and river levels, bring populations to live on higher ground; we must learn to deal with weather extremes, develop more skilful agricultural methods, explore engineering and manufacturing improvements. A new world, shaped with greater care, mutual understanding and respect and reverence for all peoples.

When I was a young man, television was a box in the corner with panel games and the news; mobile phones were a possibility but would never catch on; the average age in this country was less than seventy for a man, a little more for lady; a job was normally yours for life unless you decided to change; Christian Europe had twice torn itself apart with war; the Catholic Church in Germany and Italy had ignored the horrifying persecution of the Jews but protected its churches and schools; Baptism in this country promised a place in heaven and a Catholic school; Catholics were forbidden to pray with other Christians without permission; there was religious control of timid minds, but the people were breaking free; the Popes spoke of the sanctity of the life of the child in the womb (yes, always a child!) but strangely, without any human reasoning as the Papal Commission unanimously agreed, told married couples how to express their love; the world was divided in a Cold War between East and West.

God’s call is always to love. We are planning a Catechism written by our children. “Tell me about God, Creation, the Human Family”, and “God is Love” is the sub-title. Love will save the world – God’s love in Creation, Christ’s love in his teaching and death and resurrection, and our human love. We learn (so slowly) that we belong together and are not enemies or rivals. We see the hatred of the Taliban, Boko-haram, Isis, Genocide butchers, nationalists, war-mongers – but the voices we want to listen to are of Malala, St Oscar Romero, Franz Jägerstätter, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela – God’s prophets of hope and healing.

It's been a busy week but here is the last item . . . The only Catholic weekly paper in this country is The Tablet. It is good. We have lost the Catholic Universe and the Times, The Catholic Herald has become a monthly magazine, so at the popular level we have nothing. We should do something about it.

I have contacted two fine Catholic journalists to ask them to write a weekly summary of Catholic news. We shall host it on the St Joseph’s and Watermead websites and the Catholic Men’s Society of Great Britain on their home and society sites. It will be freely downloadable around the country. More. Years ago the Sunday Observer carried a brilliant one-page summary of the week’s world news on its final page. A lady named Katherine Whitehorne was its editor. I used that page week and after week for a Current Affairs course I was teaching and the students were fascinated: a full glimpse of world news each week.

Can we do it for our Catholic community? How best, we shall discover together. I spoke to John Clawson, the very good editor of our own Nottingham diocesan newspaper and we would then hope to print every month those four weekly sheets as a newspaper for those who do not use the internet.

“Pensare in Grande”  meaning ‘think big’ was a motto of Antonio Rosmini, the founder of the religious institute to which I belong. Tom Concannon, Alison’s father, and co-founder of the Watermead Apostolate, had his education limited by a chronic health condition, but had as his motive “Think Big”. He published seven historical novels and was working on his biography when he died suddenly. Doreen, his wife, completed the book. We shall “Pensare in Grande” with Tom and Antonio.

Fr John