I’m posting part of the text of an e-mail that I received today from a fellow English exile. His report of the anti-Catholic atmosphere in England comes as no surprise. Indeed, the rabid media hostility to the Holy Father’s forthcoming visit has plumbed new depths of meretricious mendacity. Here are my friend’s words from the “ravaged Shire”:
I am back in the ravaged Shire for my annual visit. Yesterday I had a few pints with GW, and a sausage butty in your honour, at The Cardinal pub behind Westminster Cathedral; G sends his best. Anti-Catholicism seems to be on the rise here, with a most unpleasant athmosphere being created for the Pope’s visit. The BBC has, quite literally, lost all credibility. I fear Fr. S’s worst visions of serious persecution beginning here may be true. God Bless! Fr. B.
The BBC’s outrageous bias is evident through any cursory perusal of BBC America’s “World News”. We are a long way from the days when the BBC boasted of its objectivity. This is, of course, the bitter fruit of relativism. If there’s no such thing as objective truth, why try to report it. All that’s left is the pursuit of an agenda, i.e. propaganda.
And while we await a new period of persecution in England, it is worth noting that today is the feast of Blessed Roger Dickenson and Companions, who were martyred on this day in 1591. Although these holy martyrs are entirely forgotten in England, we are sure that England is not forgotten in the prayers of these great Englishmen, who now reside in God’s eternal Presence. The more that England forgets these true English heroes, the more she is in need of thier prayers.
Understanding what the atmosphere is like in the UK, it will be interesting to see what kind of coverage the US provides. News media, in general, are like a pool of sharks when there is blood in the water. It takes so little to excite a frenzy.
For news reporters, one has little reason to hope. For the English themselves, I’d like to believe that they still have the capacity for shock, if not for violations against the holy, then at least for violations of (holier for them) common sense and decency. But one has to acknowledge that, historically, when it comes to popes, they tend to abandon even that.