The Catholic historian and journalist Paul Johnson was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list last week, for services to literature.
Mr Johnson’s many books include Pope John XXIII, The Quest for God: A Personal Pilgrimage and Jesus: A Biography from a Believer. He has met several popes, and presented a copy of his 600-page History of Christianity in Polish to St John Paul II.
Mr Johnson famously began on the left wing and moved firmly to the right; when challenged on this, he quoted the economist John Maynard Keynes: “When the facts change, I change my views. What do you do, sir?”
Mr Johnson wrote the Charterhouse column in the Catholic Herald from 2009 to 2012.
TV entertainers Ant and Dec were made OBEs for services to broadcasting and entertainment. Dec (Declan Donnelly) has said: “I go to Mass, not every Sunday. But I do still go and my faith is important to me.” He considered becoming a priest when he was younger; his older brother Dermot did, and officiated at Dec’s wedding last year at St Mary’s Cathedral, Newcastle, where he is dean. In 2010 Dec fulfilled a promise he had made to his brother when, with Ant, he opened a Catholic retreat for young people in the Hexham and Newcastle Diocese in Consett, Co Durham.
John Cornally, executive headteacher at Blessed Thomas Holford Catholic College, Altrincham, Cheshire, was awarded an OBE for services to education. The school is in the parish of St Vincent de Paul, Altrincham. The parish website says that “the headteacher does not want pupils to leave their religious teaching at the school gates. Pupils are encouraged to take their Catholicism into the community.”
The philosopher Roger Scruton was awarded a knighthood. Professor Scruton, a prolific author on many subjects including religion, was also the founder of the Salisbury Review.
Bishop: disabled people are being pushed to the margins
Society is losing the sense that children are a gift, not a problem, Bishop Mark O’Toole of Plymouth said at Lourdes on Monday.
Those who are physically or mentally sick are often pushed to the margins of our society, he said. He spoke about a couple who came to see him about the special needs provision in his diocese. The bishop recalled: “They have a daughter, called Linda, who is now in her 20s and has Down’s syndrome. They said that Linda has brought such happiness, such blessings in their family.”
They told him of their concern about the proposed NHS pre-natal testing which is being planned for pregnant women.
“The fears of Linda’s parents, and of so many others, is that this will ultimately mean that people like Linda will disappear from British society. It will simply become increasingly difficult for them to be born.
“Parents who are expecting a child who is diagnosed with Down’s syndrome or with other conditions will be encouraged by our society and by many professionals to look only at the difficulties of having such a child. They will not be told of the blessings that such a person can bring.”
Catholics flock to Ramsgate
Some 1,500 people attended events during the annual St Augustine’s Week festival of “history, devotion, and culture” in Ramsgate, Kent.
About 200 Catholics attended a mile-long procession from the coast at Pegwell Bay to St Augustine’s Cross, erected in 1884 to mark the saint’s landing in 587. Another 150 people joined an annual procession of the relic of St Augustine of Canterbury. The procession passed through the Holy Door of Mercy at the saint’s shrine.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.