As an Englishman, and an English Catholic, I am constantly irked (to say the least) by the outrageous bias exhibited in my native land against the Faith of the English Martyrs. Indeed this very site is full of good and justifiable venting against the anti-Catholic bigotry of modern-day England, not just by me but by other contributors to the site, particularly Dena Hunt. In order to continue this noble tradition of venting our spleen against modern England’s bigotry, I’m pasting below the the reaction to such bigotry of someone who sent me an e-mail yesterday. Here is the relevant part of the e-mail:
Mark and I borrowed from the library an 8-part series on “The Tower” (of London of course). Fascinating series, but I was SO irked at the bias against Catholicism throughout. I kept wondering what Catholics in Britain must think about this–I’d be in a constant state of annoyance.
For instance, they made a big deal about Queen Elizabeth being imprisoned in the Tower for 4 whole months in her youth, while making very little of all the Catholic priests who were imprisoned and tortured. The only one they spoke of specifically was John Gerard in regard to his escape–and there was no question of framing it as being unfortunate that he was imprisoned in the first place.
By the way the current curator there kept pooh-poohing the reputation for it being called “The Bloody Tower” because hardly anyone was tortured or executed there and only one woman was racked during the reign of Henry VIII–well how many does it take to qualify for the title? And in the last episode they said they only imprisoned Catholics because of the danger they posed to Her Majesty. Grrr…
Oh, and the Governor of the Tower was showing off an elaborate plaque in his residence that talks about the triumph over all those nasty perfidious Catholics. He admits that in this day and age what it says could be considered prejudiced. Ya think? I asked Mark if the White House would continue to keep something on prominent display if it lauded black slavery. Don’t you think it would be packed away in the archives?
The contemporary anti-Catholicism in England is but the mutant Grendel offspring of revisionist history, expressed nowadays not in the rabid nationalism that was its natural mother, but in the activism of the Church-hating homosexualist agenda, copycatted by “liberals” and liberal wannabes. And copycats don’t much care about the motives of the cats they copy.
A few trips to England in recent years revealed some things I’d not known before about the English. I just hadn’t noticed. It was, I came to understand, my love for the language and literature that had bordered me on anglophilia, so I’d had no real occasion to notice. For one thing, England is a nation of Fans, celebrity-conscious to an almost pathological point, subject to the blind loyalty and the mob mentality that fandom incurs.
In researching historical background for a novel set in the Elizabethan period, I reached heights of “spleen-venting” I didn’t know existed. But, as that which goes west far enough always winds up east, so anger must eventually become pity. Outrage becomes understanding: One hates most those one has wronged. There is not much in life that brings more pain than guilt. But worse, the more one attempts to deflect it, the more guilt one incurs. And England has been deflecting for centuries.
One watches the situation now in fear for the Holy Father during his visit, and then also in profound empathy for the other side of that relationship–almost wanting to say: oh, please stop–stop hurting yourself. The empire for which you sold your soul is dust, and every new stone you throw only causes you to bleed the more.
Saint Philip Howard
From a family of great renown-
Second only to the crown.
A catholic martyr-
From the highest strata.
Distinguished service in battle.
His ancestral home; Arundel Castle.
The heir to all that wealth and power…
So very very privileged,
To die alone in the Tower.
I thought the episiode of the the joke memo-‘an ideal Pope visit would include…’ The facetious suggestions-the Pope should open an abortion clinic etc…. That was greeted with NO OUTRAGE here at all. None of the party leaders commented, there was hardly anything about it at all.
It just revealed how brutalised, desensitized the vast bulk of English people have become.
I am typing this in a College. All round there are advetisements for ‘abortion services’. Up and to my right another poster-‘Some people are gay, get over it’.
I came back to England over a year ago. it really feels like a God-forsaken waste land.
Morality has collapsed.
I really fear for the Holy Father’s visit.
John Fisher was the only Bishop who held out against Henry. That really says a lot about the state of the Church at the time.
Mind you I’m not threatened with being HD &Q.
Another thing-we do celebrate Henry the Eighth here. I mean we celebrate not only his grossness in terms of his eating habits, but the grossness of his behaviour is allied to it. That’s what being British means see-loud, proud, boorish. It’s never challenged.