Catholicism Gains Prominent Convert In Great Britain
In honor of Christmas, we won’t use this space to question the pope’s decision that women can’t be priests. It remains a puzzle to us, especially when you realize the priests aren’t getting any younger and there are very few young priests anywhere, so why not … Well, we promised, no criticizing the pope today. Instead, we’ll pass on this interesting information faxed to us by loyal reader (and loyal pope fan) Andy Kelly of Spokane. He sent us an article he read in World Press magazine about the resurgence of Catholicism in Great Britain.
It read in part: “Roman Catholicism is becoming quite fashionable, especially since the decision of the Anglican Church to ordain women to the priesthood. … Many British women are impressed with the church’s stand against abortion, contraception, divorce, sex outside of marriage.
“The latest of prominent Britons to convert is Elizabeth Hurley, the noted actress, who began wearing a crucifix upon learning of her boyfriend’s (Hugh Grant’s) indiscretions in Hollywood. Despite having been raised as a Protestant, she was so impressed by the pope in a private audience with him that she decided to convert.”
A small treasure: Florida ScottMaxwell wrote “The Measure of my Days” when she was in her 80s. The playwright and Jungian analyst collected her thoughts on growing older. It’s relevant today, even though it was first published in 1968. As a Christmas greeting, we’ll give you a sampling of her wisdom.
On personal growth: “I still have the vices that I have known and struggled with - well it seems like since birth. Many of them are modified, but not much. I am over critical, egocentric and vulnerable. I know my faults so well that I pay them small heed. They are stronger than I am. They are me.”
On favorite books: “One of the pleasures of age is reading books long forgotten, with only the enlargement they once brought remembered.”
On mother love: “A mother’s love for her children, even her inability to let them be, is because she is under a painful law that the life that passed through her must be brought to fruition. No matter how old a mother is she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.”
On time: “Age is a desert of time - hours, days, weeks, years perhaps - with little to do. So one has ample time to face everything one has had, been, done; gather them all in: the things that came from outside and those from inside. We have time at last to make them truly ours.”
On life: “I often say to people: You have neat tight expectations of what life ought to give you, but you won’t get it. That isn’t what life does. Life does not accommodate you; it shatters you. It is meant to, and it couldn’t do it better. Every seed destroys its container or else there would be no fruition.”
, DataTimes MEMO: Common Ground is written on alternating weeks by Rebecca Nappi and Dan Webster. Write to them in care of The Spokesman-Review, Features Department, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-1615. Or fax, (509) 459-5098.