St Anthony of Padua

I am writing this in an internet cafe in Rome. I just popped in for five minutes to check for an urgent e-mail message, and the heavens have opened. So clearly God wants me to stay here a bit longer.

While staying in Venice, I took the half-hour or so trip by train to Padua, and got bus number 8 from the train station to a bus stop around the corner from what they call Basilica del Santo. They started to build it only a few years after St Anthony died.



When you walk in the door, his tomb is about halfway along on the left side. It is extremely ornate, and, we would say, highly decorated. His tomb doubles as an altar, with about six steps leading up to it so Mass can be said there, presumably on special occasions.

Visitors remain on "ground level" and can walk behind. At the back, there is a section of stone wall which is the actual wall of the tomb itself, and pilgrims place their hand(s) on the stone imporing the intercession of the Saint.

But all around the tomb, people have placed written messages, and, especially moving, pictures and photos of people; family, loved ones, maybe even themselves. There were even two photos of cars which clearly had been involved in accidents.

Did the occupants survive and they came to give thanks to St Anthony for saving them, or did they fail to survive and the grieving ones come to implore his help in conducting their souls to God? It doesn't say. We can only speculate.

Lots of pictures of babies, and especially wedding photos.

There is also a 30-minute or so audio/visual exhibition of the life of St Anthony, and a well-stocked souvenir and book shop.

You can also see the tongue of St Anthony in a separate reliquary. There is a confession chapel, similar, though slightly smaller, to the one at Lourdes.

I got Mass at 1700. Overall, I have to say everything is done in good taste.

In Rome. . .

Yesterday, I arrived in Rome, and in the afternoon I went to the Vatican. The first thing I wanted to do was to get a ticket for the General Audience on Wednesday (success!) and then I went to pay tribute to the late John Paul II.

Just before departure, I finished reading George Weigel's large biography of the man, and it made me realise actually how little I really knew about him. Or at least how much about him and his life and work that I either didn't know, or more accurately, didn't fully understand.

I made my way to the northern side of St Peter's Square and went through a metal detector. Then followed the crowd up the steps, and the path divides into three lines, one for entry to the Basilica, one to queue up for entry to the dome, and the third for the papal tombs.

On my previous visit (in 1998) I remember accessing the papal tombs from inside the Basilica, the staircase to the right of the baldachino. But now I entered through a door in the courtyard to the right of the basilica itself.

Along a corridor, and then out into the tombs area, which now looked familiar. On the right I saw the resting place of Paul VI, next on the left is John Paul I, and then on the right a slightly unusual one, if you'll pardon the expression: Queen Christina of Sweden, who was a convert.

Soon after that, on the right, is the last resting place of Joannes Paulus II, with the dates of his pontificate written on stone beneath his name. The queue was long, but moved quickly, as people briefly crossed themselves or genuflected. About eight feet back from the tomb, was a rope, behind which there were about four or five nuns on their knees. Other laypeople were kneeling as well.

In the corner of my eye, I noticed that the couple in front of me had handed their rosary beads and medals to one of the gentleman staff, and he had placed them on the tombstone, so I took out my own beads and gave them to him, and he did likewise, hoping that when I pray my Rosary, the late Holy Father will be praying with me and for me.

Understandably, the gentlemen on duty were keen to allow the line to move quickly and give as many people as possible a chance to pay homage. A recorded message over the speaker reminds everybody that this is a sacred place, and asks for silence.

Ever gone to a place like this and felt irritated about long queues? Me too (see post below about Venice and St Mark's Basilica). So from now on I will try, in this scenario, to imagine that such people are really my brothers and sisters in Christ, and they are going in to pray for me.

On this occasion, I was actually hoping in advance that the queue would be long, as a tribute to the man.

The beauty really is that this is not just a once-in-a-lifetime event. I know I will have other opportunities to come and visit his last resting place and say thank you.

But is it his last resting place? John XXIII was buried down in that area, but now he has been moved upstairs to the main basilica itself.

I got 1700 Mass at the altar under St Peter's Chair.

Today, visited Santa Maria Maggiore and got 12 noon Mass in St John Lateran. Also visited Santa Susanna, the church run by the American Paulists, which has 1800 weekday Mass which I will probably get some day this week. On Friday, from 1pm, they have a used book sale so I might pick up something good there.

One thing changed since my last visit is the introduction of the faster bus number 40, with fewer stops, from Termini Station to Piazza Pia, which is the square just on the west side of the Tiber at the beginning of Via della Conciliazione.

More Italy to follow. Watch this blog.

The gift of the Priesthood

I caught his eye and he caught mine, though only for a split-second. I could see that he was elderly, I guess at least seventy. The seat beside him was free, and for a moment I was going to sit there; but then I noticed his magnifying glass and his breviary, so I decided to walk on to the rear end of the boat and let him say his Office in privacy.

This was a vaporetto boat, the 1530 service from Burano to Torcello; on Venice's public transport system, this is as far north as you can go. Today fewer than 100 people live on Torcello, but about a thousand years ago, Torcello was in fact the first part of Venice to be settled, and had, at one time, a population of up to 20,000.

Because of its relative remoteness and extremity, I wanted to visit Torcello; but I also intended to go to Mass at 4.30 pm. I assumed this would be in the byzantine Basilica. So the thought crossed my mind that he would be the celebrant.

The Byzantine influence on Venice is clear when you see St Mark's Basilica in the city proper, but also the fact that the Archbishop is not called Archbishop, but Patriarch.

The ferry made its five-minute trip, and arrived at Torcello pier, and I walked along the footpath. There are a few restaurants along the way. Getting to the Basilica took about ten minutes, so I first went into Santa Fosca church, beside the Basilica. Then I quickly went to the entrance of the Basilica, and prepared to pay the entry fee to the Basilica, as well as the Campanile.

I asked the young lady working there "Santa Messe, quatro mezzo" in my poor Italian. But she told me that it would actually be at four, and in Santa Fosca. It was nearly four now, so in I went and sat down. There were about a dozen to fifteen people in Santa Fosca church, mainly tourists, and I felt a bit embarrassed that the priest would come and say Mass to a possible one-person congregation. Then I saw him, with his bag in hand, as he went into a door to the right of the altar.

A young man came out with an ID around his neck indicating that he clearly worked there, and started to set up the altar, light the candles, and bring out the water and wine. At four, he came out robed in white vestments. I turned around, and saw that there were two ladies in the rear seat. Santa Fosca is quite a small church.

Also at four, the bells of the Basilica campanile began to ring, which would last nearly ten minutes. I could see the priest, with magnifying glass in right hand, often looking up from his lectionary to the door. The thought crossed my mind that he was probably expecting some "tourist" to walk in the front door and take a photo of the ceremony.

The young man served Mass and did the readings, and I tried to do the responses as best I could, either in English or what little Italian I have managed to learn.

When the time came for Holy Communion, I was ready to make my move; the priest consumed the host and drank from the chalice. But he made no move, and no attempt to distribute the Sacrament to the (very small) congregation.

Looking back, my opinion is that with the numbers of tourists who pass in and out, it has probably happened that people who are not Catholics have been receiving Communion. So better safe than sorry.

But it all reminded me of the gift to us of the Priesthood.

La Serenissima

Sorry I haven't posted anything for a while, but things were a bit hectic as I had to get things in Dublin sorted out before going on holidays.

And now, I am typing this in an internet place in the city of Venice, Queen of the Adriatic. Try not to be too jealous.

Spent about twenty minutes queueing up to get into St Mark's Basilica, only to discover afterwards that there's a separate entrance if going to Mass, which is usually celebrated in a side chapel. This entrance is on the north side of the Basilica. Also paid visits to San Salvador, San Giorgio, the Gesuiti, and Mass this evening in SS Apostoli. Mass yesterday evening at the Scalzi church, the one nearest the rail station.

One handy thing: all the churches in Venice have a poster, printed by the Archdiocese, which gives all the Mass times around the city.

Earlier this week, a few nice days in Cortina d'Ampezzo, which has a wonderful Baroque-era church. Worth remembering that, up to Italy's entry into the War in 1915, Cortina was actually in the Austro-Hungarian empire.

More Italy to come. Ciao for now!

I love animals. . .

. . . boiled, fried, baked or roasted! Any way you like!!


Seriously, though I do not condone cruelty to animals, I do not believe that animals are equal to humans. Unlike some.

Thanks to reader David Martosko for the tip-off.

Soothsayer story

At the moment, my television set is tuned to EWTN and Johnette Benkovic and guests discussing the New Age movement, something which, I am glad to say, I have had virtually no involvement. So I have no personal stories to tell!

Except one "close encounter" I nearly had with one of Ireland's better-known fortune tellers/soothsayers/psychic guides/con artists (tick as appropriate!).

It happened several years ago, in December, and it was a lunch-time party for Christmas. In the place I worked at the time, the nature of the work was such that we could not all go out for one meal together, but the Christmas party had to be split into two halves, so one half of the office could have a (rushed) social event together, while the other half did the work. Then the following day, the roles were reversed.

We went to a Chinese restaurant in Dublin city centre, a few minutes walk from the workplace.

About half-way through our dinner, the door opened, and in walked a man with a face familiar from television, and a face familiar from newspaper advertisements for his premium-rate fortune-telling phone lines where he (allegedly) will tell you, basically, how to live your life (though I have never, ever rung one of them, hence my use of the word "allegedly"). He also charges you a "nice" fee for the privilege. But because it goes on your phone bill, which you get several weeks later, this is what's known as the Buy Now, Pay Later syndrome. So you don't fully realise that you are spending your own money.

At this time, the place was full with several office groups, including us, having a pre-Christmas party. The gentleman came in, looked around, and soon was approached by one of the staff; they had a conversation, which we couldn't hear, and then he turned around and walked out the door again.

The place was full so he had to go somewhere else for lunch.

We all recognised him, and said to ourselves: "there's (name inserted here)". And then, after a pause for a few seconds, a thought crossed our minds . . .


. . .didn't he KNOW that the place was full??


That was several years ago; he doesn't appear on television very often nowadays (or rather, I don't see him on the box because I've better things to do!) but you can still ring up his premium-rate phone line. For anybody who does, I will make a prediction, which I am confident is far more accurate than any he will make:

Your Future Says: You Will Receive A Large Phone Bill.

Presumably, if he wasn't making a profit he wouldn't stay in the business, nor would his many competitors; so business must be fairly good. Frankly, my verdict is that anyone who rings one of these so-called psychic phone lines deserves to get ripped off.

The universality of the Church

Another site linking to here (grateful thanks) is from Gen X Revert; and this post emphasises that the word "catholic" means "universal".

It reminded me of the scenes on TV last week from Cologne.

So, anybody know when is World Middle-Aged Day?

So what would YOU do with €115 million?

Well, I guess I would now have enough money to have my own stud farm and string of racehorses. Hey, I might even buy Ballydoyle!!

I would be able to buy some nice presents for some special people; donate a nice sum to two parishes - the parish where I live, and the parish where I grew up, both of which are doing some building/restoration work at the moment; buy a nice new car (BMW probably?).

Short term, I would probably do nothing; just put in into the bank and wait a couple of months while doing some research and making investment decisions.

Will it change my life? To an extent, yes, and that is ultimately why lotteries exist and what they trade on. And before you ask, No, I do not play the Euro Millions or the Lotto or any of the scratch card games. The odds are bad value!

But what would I do about all the begging letters?

Simple - I would just keep sending them!

I've Been Certified!

This evening, there was a brown envelope from the Government in my letterbox.

It contained a legal document with my name and address on it.

It is a Certificate of Professional Competence issued by the Department of Transport.

If I ever wanted to have my own Road Transport business, I require three things: Good Repute (i.e. clean slate over the past five years from a long list of offences), Financial Standing, and Professional Competence. I now have number three.

I got this because I passed the examination I did in June. Thanks for all the prayers and advice and help I got along the way.

This Certificate is permanent.

So I don't have to do the exam again. The next exam is in September - instead I will be on holidays!

VOTF in Ireland

Each week, the back page of The Irish Catholic has a column titled "Notebook", which is basically a guest column.

This week, the Notebook is written by Sean O'Conaill. At the bottom, the paper states that Sean O'Conaill is Co-ordinator of Voice of the Faithful (Ireland).

He begins with a quote from Lumen Gentium. Basically, he calls for more accountability from bishops. "That is why our bishops also need to be more accountable in our Church - to restore their own authority and to deny the Church's enemies the gibe that our leaders are more likely to hide from the light than to lead us toward it. We laity too are accountable."

He continues: "Founded in Boston in 2002, following revelations of the disastrous reassignment of abusive priests by the archdiocese, Voice of the Faithful emerged out of the protest of committed laity - readers, eucharistic ministers, parents - determined to preserve their faith for their children. Very many were proudly Irish.

"Determined that this catastrophe should be the last of its kind, VOTF agreed the banner slogan "Keep the Faith: Change the Church". It agreed also three main goals: to support victims of child sex abuse by clergy; to support all priests of integrity; to work for Church structures that would prevent the Church from harming itself again. . .

"VOTF has also taken the position that to fund the leadership of the Church without demanding accountability from it is irresponsible - it encourages unaccountability and secrecy and therefore guarantees scandal. . .

"We Irish faithful also need to raise our voices in secular Ireland in celebration of what our Church has given us. My Catholic faith is by far my most important possession."

He concludes: "In the months ahead we plan to hold public meetings in Ireland to promote this programme. In the meantime www.votf.org will tell you more. The site includes a sign-up membership form - totally free of charge."

Note this is not the full article. The excerpts have been chosen by myself.

The paper prints a logo as part of the article: an outline of a church steeple, with the words "The Laity Speak: Accountability Now" and underneath that "A Convocation of Catholic Laity".

So I went in and had a quick look at the VOTF website, but I did not "Sign Up". I couldn't help seeing the page called "VOTF Positions" stating, among other things, that VOTF accepts the teaching authority of the Church, and that VOTF does not seek the ordination of women, ending of the celibacy rule, etc, etc, and does not ally itself to any particular lobby group.

Now, I have seen no evidence of VOTF activity in Dublin. Anything I have read about VOTF over the last couple of years does not paint a good picture.

But the fact that The Irish Catholic gives half of the back page to this piece is interesting. True, this is just a personal column, and not an editorial. I must also add that the paper still is, as it always has been, owned by individual Catholic laypeople (actually his name is Otto Herschans) and not directly owned or controlled by the Hierarchy or any diocese or bishop.

I'll post more here, if anything happens.

London 2012 - and 2005!

Yesterday, in London, they were celebrating. Today, they are in shock, and tomorrow they will mourn.

Would the bombs have gone off if the Olympics had been awarded to another city? But that is pure conjecture on my part.

I still can't honestly see the mentality why anyone would want to plan and carry out such deeds. And some of the victims could be devout Moslems.

May God grant the dead eternal rest and peace in His kingdom.

And the hardest prayer of them all is: Father, forgive them; for they know not what they are doing.

Appeal for information!

Does anybody know how do I get to one of the Wednesday General Papal Audiences? Do I have to reserve in advance? Do I need tickets? How much to they cost, etc, etc? Also, if I was planning to be in Rome on a certain Wednesday, how do I know whether or not BXVI will be having a General Audience, and not way somewhere?

Any help will be gratefully received.

The Glorious Triviality

I admit I hadn't fully noticed. I know there was a lot on my mind the last few weeks with the exam and work and everything, but the other day I looked through the Racing Post and noticed that the leading trainer in prize-money in Britain so far this season is the Master of Ballydoyle himself, Aidan O'Brien.

Just for the record, he (so far) has won nine races from fifty runs, a strike rate of 18%; and total prize-money of £1,031,022.

Currently second is Michael Bell, with £993,317. Obviously, Motivator is responsible for most of that, and Bell could be top of the table after the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown next Saturday.

Incidentally, Aidan's largest earners this season so far are:

Virginia Waters, £221,448;
Footstepsinthesand, £185,600;
Yeats, £145,000;
Ace, £77,000;
Gypsy King, £68,950;
Ad Valorem, £49,500;
Oratorio, £40,750;
Indigo Cat, £35,240;
Wolfe Tone, £31,990;
Mona Lisa, £29,532;
All Too Beautiful, £29,000.

Unfortunately, neither Footstepsinthesand nor Gypsy King will be running any more races for the Ballydoyle/Coolmore team. But I have a hunch that Ace could be the main standard bearer for Ballydoyle in Group 1 races for the rest of the season.

But if you look at bare statistics, do they mean that John Oxx is the leading Irish trainer? So far in Britain this season, his record is two runs, two victories, both at Royal Ascot at York (Azamour and Beautyandthebeast), for a total of £232,000 in prize-money and a 100% strike rate. So does that mean he's a better trainer than Aidan? Answers on a postcard!

P.S. I must acknowledge the Racing Post for statistics.

Thanks to everybody who helped

. . . and the saga of my examination is over - at least until I get the results.

By the way, the examination was for a Certificate of Professional Competence. See here for details.

You will have to go to the sidebar, and click Education/Training, and then click the link for Certificate of Professional Competence.

There are two papers, morning and afternoon. I must score a total of 60% average, but I must get minimum 55% in each paper. A certain amount of "compensation" is allowed, but you must score 55%.

If you fail, you do the exam again; but depending on the actual results, you might only have to repeat one paper.

Thanks to a lot of people in work who gave me useful advice. Thanks also to those who remembered me in their prayers.

I am very confident, but it will take about six weeks before I get the results.

Two weeks break

On Friday June 10th I will be sitting an examination. In order to concentrate on studies, I have decided I will not be doing anything with the blog until after it's all finished.

Please remember me in your prayers, especially on that date.

Watch out - priest impersonator about!

From Catholic Ireland:

A Dublin diocesan priest has gone public to expose a scam in which a con artist is masquerading as him in order to get money out of other unsuspecting priests.
Fr Tom Stack, well known for his writing in the Irish Catholic, spoke on RTE’s Morning Ireland yesterday about a scam that has been going on intermittently for some time.

Morning Ireland audio archive download page is here.

Happy St. Brendan's Day!

And best wishes to all Brendans throughout the world.

Don't worry - one day we will rule the world!!

Kudos to Fr. Ethan for his special greeting.

Vocations Report from Archdiocese of Dublin

A couple of weeks ago, at Mass, the parish priest gave us some information which I reproduce:

Approximately 650 priests hold appointments from the Archbishop of Dublin. (Note that the population of Catholics is just over a million.)

About a quarter of these priests belong to religious congregations or missionary societies; e.g., Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, Marists; etc.

One priest was ordained for Dublin in 2004 (Fr. Victor Fitzpatrick).

There will be no ordinations for Dublin in 2005; two seminarians entered in 1998, but, for one reason or another, left the seminary.

He said "We hope to have a number of ordinations to the priesthood next year", but he didn't say which number. (actually, zero is a number but I digress. . .)

Five seminarians were accepted into formation for the priesthood last Autumn.

The Archdiocese currently has twelve seminarians: five are currently studying philosophy, and seven are in theology. Eleven are in St Patrick's College, Maynooth; one is in the Irish College in Rome.

Who are they and where are they from originally? Well, they range in age from 19 to over 50, and like many large cities, Dublin has always had candidates from outside the Diocese; years ago this was because other dioceses had more students than they needed. Now it's mainly because the seminarians enter at an older age, and have already been studying or working in Dublin

The current students are from Donnybrook, Artane, Springfield, Hartstown, Rathmines, Saigon, Belfast, Newtownmountkennedy, Lagos, Waterford, Derry and Dungannon.

We also heard that fourteen men "have been in on-going discernment" with the Diocesan Vocations Centre, and a number of these have made a formal application to be accepted as seminarians.

He said that the number beginning formation this coming Autumn will be smaller than the five of last year.

The normal period of training is seven years; three years philosophy, three years theology, and one year on-the-job training.


The Diocese Vocations Director is Fr. Kevin Doran; read about him here. You may also notice that he is the long-lost, identical-twin-brother of Commander Ryker from Star Trek The Next Generation!! (OK, I made that bit up!)

Welcome to the Twenty-First Century!

A couple of years ago I said to myself that in 500 years time when people study the history of the Catholic Church in the 21st century, there will be special emphasis on two issues: one is the relationship with the Islamic world; second is the issue of the creation and protection of human life.

This week in Ireland, we had the latest round in a campaign which, frankly, has not yet got serious. The story is here, courtesy of the excellent Catholic Ireland website.

Here, when a Government sets up a Commission, or asks for a "study and report" about something, this is usually just a tactic to avoid making a decision. There is still a lot of water to go under the bridge this time.

My analysis of the UK General Election

For what it's worth, here are my reflections on political events in Great Britain and Northern Ireland over the past few days.

Points in no particular order of importance:

1. I am surprised that there has still been no real forward move made by the smaller parties, such as UKIP, Greens, etc. UKIP did well in the European Parliament elections, but it was noticeable that, overall, Europe was not a major issue in the election. The Green candidate came third in one of the Brighton constituencies, and the BNP increased their vote slightly. But overall, most of the power remains with the two-and-a-half party system, and there is no sign of this changing.

2. George Galloway, on the RESPECT ticket, did win Bethnal Green and Bow, but I interpret this as mainly an anti-war vote. In fact, the two major issues, in my opinion, were the war, and Tony Blair himself.

3. I stayed up watching BBC, SkyNews, and ITV News until about 0230, just after the Sedgefield result was announced. The anti-war Independent, Reg Keys, polled over 4,000 votes, which, frankly, is an excellent performance by an Independent.

4. But I missed the TV Moment of the Night. Here is a transcript. Absolutely Classic.

5. In the North, the meltdown of the Ulster Unionist Party is a reflection of the frustration which many Unionist voters feel about the Peace Process; but especially the fact that Sinn Féin continue to grow, even though the IRA have not renounced the armed struggle, let alone "decommission" the guns. The prospect of SF/IRA "negotiating" with Ian Paisley and the DUP sounds interesting; though not as interesting as the look on Paisley's face!!

6. Throughout his political career, Ian Paisley has been on the sidelines making plenty of noise. But now, at 79 years of age, he has REAL political responsibility. I think it will be the making, or breaking, of him.

7. Following on from point 5, and the growth of Sinn Féin on both sides of the Border, I wonder: do voters know that SF is the most pro-abortion party on the island?