AN OUTSIDE VIEW

Nuförtiden måste jag vara försiktig med vad jag utsätter min mage för; det kan sluta med att jag inte kan äta något mer än riskakor och en burk makrill i tomatsås som jag tar med mig som reserv, utifall den mat som jag blir erbjuden är opassande. Jag var där av förhindrad att närvara under påvens besök i Malmö. Den katolska mässan i Malmö skänkte mig mycket eftertanke. De som kunde närvara talade om en riktigt härlig upplevelse. Detta trots att mässan hölls utomhus på Malmös fotbollsstadion, vilket bara i sig är opassande under november månader. Planering av mässan var nästan en sista minutens chansning, eftersom syftet med påvens besök ursprungligen var Svenska Kyrkans firande av Reformations 500 års-jubileum. För att delta i mässan hade Göteborgs city katoliker behövt avresa från Göteborg kl 03.30 för att kunna närvara vid dess start kl 09.30. Påven firade nödvändigtvis på latin. Av detta skäl kunde det inte misslyckas. Tv kommentatorerna var utmärkta och gav en detaljerad förkla...

Every so often I have had a scrap with organists and choir leaders who insist on making us sing Gregorian chant from scores in modern notation. Our choir was once invited to sing in a broadcast concert from the Brighton Festival. The scores, of familiar music, were handed out, but we found them confusing, and asked for them in Gregorian notation that we were used to, with the groups of notes shown by signs called neumes (upper line). These were gladly provided, but the concert director expressed surprise that anyone was still using them. Sometimes the dispute gets acrimonious. One choir director poked fun at the idea that anyone should even raise the matter, and said it was a fuss about nothing. To her credit, she later became convinced, started to go on courses at Solemnes and is now an Associate of the Schola Gregoriana of Cambrige. The situation is particularly entrenched here in Sweden, paradoxically, because church musicians are well-qualified; there is an abundance of ta...

Bishop William Kenney, the Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham and former assistant bishop in Sweden, has been making statements about the practicability of inter-communion between Catholics and the Swedish Lutheran church. I am no expert on these matters, to put it mildly, but I have always assumed that when one receives communion, one does so on the clear understanding that one accepts the teaching of the Catholic church on the subject ie that, as the Council of Trent declared "in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, are contained truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ; but saith that He is only therein as in a sign, or in figure, or virtue"  Trent further added that anyone who "saith, that, in the sacred and holy sacrament of the Eucharist, the substance of the bread and wine remains conjointly with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and deniet...

Catholic music is, like Jewish music, written for a text in a sacred language. It is typically melismatic, and modal ie not in the major or minor keys; the latter correspond respectively to the Ionian and Aeolian modes, about which Plato had pronounced and unflattering views. Following the Reformation, a body of music was produced with the specific intention of being NOT-Catholic. These are hymns written for vernacular texts, in a major or minor key, and it is not melismatic but has, typically, one note per syllable. It has a completely different effect on the listener. It arises from a different spirituality. Bach's church music, such as the cantatas, compilations of cantatas, and organ pieces incorporates Lutheran hymn tunes such as Wachet auf, Eine feste burg (used in Mendelsson's Reformation symphony), Nun danket alle Gott , etc. There is, of course Bach the B-Minor Mass, but it would be extremely unusual to use that setting liturgically. Mixing music bas...

I have to be careful what I commit myself to these days; I can end up having nothing to eat apart from the rice cakes and tinned mackerel which I keep with me as a standby in case the food on offer is unsuitable. Consequently I was unable to attend the Pope's visit to Malmö. The Catholic Mass at Malmö was an afterthought. The original plans for the visit did not include anything much for the Swedish Catholics, since the visit was to commemorate 500 years of the Reformation. The Mass was held out of doors in a football stadium, which was unsuitable for an event in Sweden in November. It also involved leaving at 03.30 for a start at 09.30. From one point of view, the liturgy, however, being substantially in Latin, really could not be faulted. The commentator was excellent and gave a detailed explanation for what non-Catholics might find difficult to understand, cued by a co-broadcaster to put the questions to her. The choice of music was, in part, entirely suitable and familiar...

Why do we sing hymns at Mass? The practice has become almost universal during the past 50 years, following the introduction of the vernacular in the liturgy. There is, in reality, no necessity for them in a Catholic Mass, since the parts that are meant for the people to sing are the  Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus  and  Agnus Dei , which together make up what is known as the Ordinary of the Mass. Add in the Pater Noster and responses and we have enough singing for any congregation. In English speaking countries, there were at first no musical settings for the text of the Ordinary, which was recited in a normal speech tone. In order to provide some music, hymns were inserted as replacements for the Introit, Offertory and Communion antiphons (that part of the Mass known as the Proper), plus a Recessional hymn. Thus evolved the notorious "Hymn Sandwich". Here in Sweden the situation was better as there was a long tradition of Gregorian Chant in the vernacular. It was a...

Biretta and Roman chasuble The burkini ban, now overturned by the French high court, has been presented as being just about clothing. This is disingenuous. A clergyman's collar, a monk's habit or a Sikh's turban are items which announce the wearer's entire philosophy and life principles. The Catholic priest who processes into Mass wearing a biretta and Roman chasuble is making a bold statement about his understanding of the theology of the Catholic faith in general and the Mass in particular. The teenager with well-off  parents who chooses to wear ripped jeans is also saying something, Likewise the burkini. Clothing is never just clothing. There is a sign system at work here. Clothes have meanings. They are a declaration of allegiance to something or other.

" The burkini ban ruling is a start, but France has more issues to deal with. The nation has still not found a way to ensure its Muslim population are equal citizens of the republic ". Article by Natalie Nougayrède . She has excelled herself this time. As it is obvious what sort of comments this would have elicited, the embargo on comments was only to be expected. However, I would think that the number of people who agree with her is small and dwindling. Since the Guardian depends on its web site for revenue, articles like this are useless as click-bait. How much longer can it continue?

Aditya Chakrabortty, who often writes perceptively, has gone off the rails with his piece today (closed to comments) on the threat to Britain's foreign aid budget posed by the new Conservative minister responsible, Priti Patel, who, he says is about to trash "our proud record on aid". The fallacy behind this aid is the concept of "world poverty". The world is not poor. There is enough for everyone. Poverty itself is a world-wide phenomenon. There are poor people in rich countries too. Not only are they are the ones to bear the brunt of the taxation which pays for the third world aid; the tax system in the "rich countries" is the prime cause of their poverty. There are also rich people in the "poor" countries. These are the owning classes. A handful of families own almost the whole of Pakistan. Concentration of land ownership remains an issue in much of Central and South America. In the nature of things, the benefits of the aid flow into...

I am not particularly interested in Will Hutton's views on anything. He has contributed nothing useful to his specialist field, economics. His latest piece, on the burkini ban  - some local authorities in France have, controversially, banned its use on beaches - is also of no interest to me in itself. However, what is of interest is the fact that the Guardian, having initially said that the article would be available for comments on its website "later in the morning", later decided not to accept comments at all. It does not take much imagination to predict what kind of comments would have been made, nor that many, if not most of them, would have been deleted by the moderators. But that being the case, why did the editors ever even contemplate accepting comments? One wonders too, whether Hutton would have agreed to write an article which was closed to comments? Or why he has even stepped into this febrile subject area at all?

A Vatican announcement says that   "The joint Lutheran-Catholic ecumenical commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation on 31 October in Lund, Sweden will consist of two parts. It will begin with a liturgy in Lund Cathedral and continue with a public event at Malmö Arena that will be open to wider participation. "The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and Roman Catholic Church joint event will highlight the 50 years of continuous ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Lutherans and the joint gifts of this collaboration. "The Catholic-Lutheran commemoration of 500 years of the Reformation is structured around the themes of thanksgiving, repentance and commitment to common witness. The aim is to express the gifts of the Reformation and ask forgiveness for division perpetuated by Christians from the two traditions." I am not sure I want to be there. For a start, I suspect the music will be horrid; second, especially in Malmö, there is likely to be mor...

The London stabbing earlier this week was carried out by a Norwegian teenager was described by neighbours as a polite and pleasant boy. This is what the Guardian had to say, and note that he is referred to only as a "suspect" who "might" have been responsible, even though he was caught in the act. "The teenager who allegedly killed an American woman and wounded five others in a stabbing spree in central London was a polite and pleasant boy who rarely got into trouble, according to neighbours. Zakaria Bulhan, 19, a Norwegian of Somali descent who has been identified as the suspect in the attack in Russell Square on Wednesday night, lived with his mother, 42, his younger brother, 16, and his sister, 24, in a flat in south London. "Neighbours described him as a polite teenager as reports also emerged that he had wanted to harm himself. He allegedly launched the knife attack shortly after 10.30pm on Wednesday, killing 64-year-old Darlene Horton and inju...

Police are describing a yesterday's knife murder in London as having a mental health factor. The same thing has been said of recent incidents in France and Germany. The trouble with writing off those who perpetrate these attacks as having mental health issues is that people will keep their distance from anyone who looks as if they might be a Muslim. This stirs up racism and makes matters worse than if the authorities were honest and open about these Jihadi incidents.One also has to wonder what is the reason for the striking correlation between Islam and mental illness? Worse still, it encourages politicians to regard these terrorist attacks as isolated happenings and so they do not take the action that is needed. At this point the situation may just still be containable. If left for much longer it will not be. Communal violence verging on civil war will then erupt. There is a limit to what people will tolerate.

Another report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation saying that poverty is a bad thing. It is ironic that the JR Foundation gets its funds from the system that causes the poverty in the first place. The perpetuation of the problem gives its officers a secure livelihood with a vested interest in the problem remaining unsolved. They would not want poverty eradicated. It would put them out of a job, and what needs to be done would dry up the source of most of the JRF funds. This would explain why JRF has never supported any organisation whose aim has been to deal with the problem at source. All it does is to supply an endless source of information for the "concerned" to wring their hands over: the raw material for the virtue signallers.

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep. Saul entirely approved of the killing.

I posted this last October, and drew the matter to the attention of the Bishop. Unfortunately nothing has been done. Following yesterday's events, I am re-posting the article. Recent events have focussed attention on the need for security in places where people gather. So far, there have been incidents involving lone individuals, but organised activity is also a possibility; last week, in a quiet suburb of Gothenburg, a restaurant owned by an Assyrian Christian was sprayed with ISIS slogans – “Convert or die”, “Caliphate is here” and the Arabic “N” (ن) symbol applied to Christian property in places which have been taken over by ISIS. There have been incidents in the recent past which might have been prevented by basic security, including Hisingen fire of 1996 which resulted in 63 deaths, and an attack by a nude swordsman on a church in South London in 1999. Catholic churches are at risk because they are well attended, especially those which host congregations membership from Syri...

Last week Nice, now Bavaria.

Our parish priest has introduced a Tridentine Mass on one weekday evening a week. Printed sheets with the readings and Proper, and translations, are available at the back of the church. People study them as the Mass is being said; one hopes the congregation can actually follow the Mass, but even if they are not, the people are studying the texts. Having them on paper prevents minds from wandering. There is a focussed and intensely still atmosphere and presence. An added benefit is that people are not struggling to hear the readers - which can be difficult as not all of them read clearly and the acoustics of the building are difficult, despite the efforts that have been made to improve the public address system. Some of the celebrations are of little-known saints. The priest has taken advantage of the opportunity this provides to refer to them in a brief sermon. Obscure saints have their value - it is easier for ordinary people to relate to them than to the big name ones. It is a ...

The referendum campaign was appalling on both sides. Speculations were presented as solid predictions by both sides. The race card was played by both sides. In the end, most of us, on both sides, had no option than to vote on gut feeling. The neglected working class in the neglected regions turned out in sufficient numbers to upset the prosperous metropolitan elite. Democracy produced the result that supporters of democracy did not want, thereby demonstrating, amongst other things, that democracy is not an ultimate value. The Bremainers have now cried foul and demand a re-run. There is no guarantee that it would produce a different result. The result has also given rise to racist and anti-foreigner feelings and verbal abuse. It will probably get worse. There is a nasty side to the English white working class which has always been an embarrassment to the left wing intellectuals who have patronised it and expected it to vote them into power. That it has come to surface is an ugly d...

A friend of mine is currently working temporarily at a home for elderly disabled people, run by a local authority near Gothenburg. Most of them have had strokes and are also suffering from dementia. Three times a week I get a telephone call about what a stressful day she has had. The home is understaffed, with six care staff for 35 residents. Her colleagues seem not to care. The patients' calls for help can go unheeded for an hour or more. Care is inadequate. They don't even get enough water. They are allowed to lie in their own excrement for hours before they are changed. It does not help that most of the residents almost never receive a visit from their children. Having to work in such an institution is stressful, especially if one cares about the patients, wants to do the best for them and is actively prevented from doing so. If dogs were kept in conditions like that, those responsible would be prosecuted for cruelty.

The advocates of democracy, not liking the result, are now petitioning for a new referendum. This is a game that could go on indefinitely.

The Bremain party are having a whinge today. The Brexiters, they claim, were stupid, xenophobes, racists, Little Englanders and old fogeys. Democracy is only good when the people vote the way you want them to.

SMILE at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget. For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet. There is many a fat farmer that drinks less cheerfully, There is many a free French peasant who is richer and sadder than we. There are no folk in the whole world so helpless or so wise. There is hunger in our bellies, there is laughter in our eyes; You laugh at us and love us, both mugs and eyes are wet: Only you do not know us. For we have not spoken yet. We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet, Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street. It may be we shall rise the last as Frenchmen rose the first, It may be we are meant to mark with our riot and our rest God's scorn for all men governing. It may be beer is best. But we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet. Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget. These are the first and last verses. The ones in the middle are rambling and frankly, rep...

Islands of yellow in a sea of blue. The metropolitan prosperous surrounded by the left-behind rest. Areas with good infrastructure embedded in tracts with poor roads and run-down railways. The yellows will benefit from HS2. Everyone else gets nothing. It is a map of the economic failure of the past seventy years. By removing some of the obstacles to the necessary reforms, Brexit might help to turn things round, but it will still take a lot of imagination, intelligence and hard work. Whether the British have what it takes is another question.

I am sure George Soros (or should it be Tsures - צאָרעס, the word means "misery") has everyone's interests at heart when he urges people to vote Remain, but how many other people appreciate that? Soros warns that " The Brexit crash will make you all poorer .". Wouldn't politicians and other commentators who are so widely mistrusted do better to keep quiet if they want people to do what they say? Or do they not even realise that they are not trusted. Anyway, here is the link to his piece , but you will not be allowed to comment. However, his reasoning is interesting, since by implication he suggests that Brexit would remedy some of the long standing weaknesses of the British economy. First, he predicts a fall in house prices, a bubble value if ever there was one. Second, he refers to the drying-up of capital inflows - which have been a major factor in the large-scale purchase of UK real estate by foreign "investors", particularly residential pro...

This famous signature tune tune was written twenty five years before it was chosen for the BBC's longest-running radio soap, The Archers. This is the story . The music was picked at random by the producer, whose budget would not stretch to paying a composer to write something specially. What would the programme be without it? A couple of weeks ago I wrote an blog piece about why the Introit should be sung . The Introit music is the signature tune for the Mass, and sets the theme for the day. Unlike the Archers' tune, the music was composed with the aim of setting precisely the right mood for the theme.

That is not exactly news but this time it is because of a "shameful silence". The author writes "The Orlando killings would have been a perfect opportunity for the church to condemn the deep-rooted prejudice in our midst" . Because of its timing, it is only today that the first opportunity would have arisen to pray for the victims at a Sunday Mass. I would be surprised if prayers were not offered at Masses on the following day. Only a couple of days before, I was at a Mass where the sermon was on just this point - it is a lie to accuse the Catholic church of being anti-gay.

Fifteen men have been jailed for 168 years for "systematically" grooming and sexually abusing teenage girls in Halifax - with one man getting 25yrs. There have been similar cases in other parts of the country. This seems to be a trend. What lies behind it?

It is good to see the Catholic community flourishing in what is said to be the most secular country in the world. Skövde in the west of Sweden has a small Catholic congregation using a church quite recently converted from a an old church hall. It really is quite an attractive building. There is a very small pipe organ which has a lovely tone. The work has been done to a high standard However, the building would benefit from a re-ordering, with the altar re-positioned against the wall and the tabernacle immediately behind. The lop-sided position of the tabernacle (to the right of the sanctuary) is ugly and confusing. The tabernacle should be in the same position as the Ark is in a synagogue, where the Scrolls of the Law are the focus and given pride of place. The position of the tabernacle - indeed, the entire architecture of a church, is a theological statement. It would also be helpful if the pot plants were removed from the altar step so that communion could be received kneelin...

Yesterday's Gospel reading was Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 Beware of performing religious acts for people to see “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will re...

It is amazing the lengths the Bremainers are going to. This Guardian journalist has recruited the eighteenth-century painter Hogarth in support. Hogarth was making the point that Britain was dependent on the international economy, which it does. And the international economy does not stop at the borders of the EU. Another own-goal from a Bremainer. You have to wonder why they do it, because there are perfectly good arguments for remaining, which make it very difficult to come down on either side.

Like a lot of people, I have found it very difficult to make up my mind which way to vote at the referendum. A Brexit vote aligns one with the forces of xenophobia, illiberalism and worse. These attitudes are summed up in the rantings of the Daily Mail. A united Europe is a fine concept which has brought real benefits. A Brexit vote will trigger uncertainty. It will probably lead to the break-up of the EU and a possibly chaotic future. On the other hand, the economics of EU membership work against the UK for geographical reasons which have not had much of an airing in the debate, but are a factor in the grotesque maldistribution of population and commerce in the UK, which are ever more sucked towards London and the South East. However, that is not a deciding factor. I do not like the Daily Mail's rhetoric. But what came to mind this morning was a poem by G K Chesterton called "The Secret People". It has the refrain "SMILE at us, pay us, pass us; but do not qu...

So said the man's father after Omar Mateen killed 50 people at an Orlando gay club. Although details are still emerging, his father told NBC News that his son may been motivated by witnessing two men kissing in Miami a couple of months ago. “This has nothing to do with religion,” he told NBC, adding that the family had been unaware of his plans. This in an article "Queer Muslims exist – and we are in mourning too", in today's Guardian , in another attempt to distance from Islam terrorist actions committed by Muslims. It convinces nobody. No comments are allowed, naturally, not on this or any of the several other articles on this incident. You begin to wonder what this newspaper's game is, so determined is it to shield Islam from criticism. The effect is to destroy what remains of the Guardian's credibility. The misdeeds committed in obedience to the teachings of Islam are getting all religion a bad name. Christianity and Judaism promote can intolerant at...

This subject came up in a discussion last night, as part of someone's anti-Catholic diatribe. We need to be clear about this. The Crusaders behaved abominably. They were, however, a necessary response to four centuries of aggression, at the request of the Byzantines who were in the front line and needed help. They ultimately failed. Or perhaps the Crusades have never really ended. The westward spread of Islam was not checked until 1683 when the Ottomans were defeated when they besieged Vienna. The Ottomans were slowly driven back from most of the Balkans and Greece. However, the Christians of Asia Minor - the ancient communities of Armenians and Greeks, paid a terrible price at the beginning of the twentieth century, when three million died in the two genocides of 1915 and 1923, at the break-up of the Ottoman Empire and the foundation of the state of Turkey. We should no more condemn the Crusades than we should condemn the Second World War on account of some of the acts of the ...

It seems that it is not just transport projects that get messed up by civil servants. Defence procurement is another field of failure. Defence chiefs have told a House of Commons committee that the new £1bn class 45 destroyers are likely to suffer engine failure in warm waters .

The Guardian has published a couple more articles against HS2, one by specialist rail commentator Christian Wolmar, and another today by journalist Simon Jenkins. The main arguments in favour will doubtless be wheeled out by the commentators: the need for capacity and the disruption caused by upgrading existing routes. HST itself will severely disrupt services to Euston during the construction period. Capacity can be increased at a fraction of the cost by a variety of measures, provided that it is accepted that the additional traffic will run at existing speeds. It is not generally known that the Midland main line is, or was, four track all the way from London to Trent Junction, between Nottingham and Derby. This is because the additional tracks are separate, having been added for coal trains which trundled down to Brent sidings, on the edge of London, from a collection point at Toton in Nottinghamshire, where the Midland Railway build a huge marshalling yard. Beyond Derby, the main l...

Dominus illuminatio mea. Today's introit, for the tenth Sunday of the year, was the first verse of Psalm 27, " The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? " It is also the motto of the University of Oxford and appears on the coat of arms. The Latin tune would take a couple of rehearsals to learn, but it is in mode 2, which is one of the easier psalm tones, which is an option if the choir does not have the time or skill to learn the music. It could even have been sung in the vernacular; this version of the psalm in Anglican chant would make a perfectly satisfactory start to the Mass. Unfortunately, it got replaced by a hymn on a different theme altogether. Does this matter? In the bigger scheme of things, possibly not, especially when there are parts of the world where it is not even safe to go to church. However, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal lays down guidelines on the subject. Replacing the Introit with a hymn is a last-choice op...

Last Wednesday afternoon, I spent a couple of hours working in a friend's garden. On Friday morning, ie about 36 hours later, I felt an itching sensation, scratched the area of skin and removed a particle which, on examination, turned out to be a tick. I noticed several other red inflamed areas nearby and took a shower. In the evening I felt the same thing in the groin area and removed another particle which was also a tick, and another again on my back which I never got to look at which might have been a tick, making between two and five tick bites in all. I went to the local emergency clinic this afternoon (Saturday) and asked the duty doctor for a prophylactic antibiotic. This is apparently against the guidelines which are to wait until a red patch is at least 5 cm across. The problem with this protocol is that in about 30% of borrelia infections (the tick-borne Lyme Disease) there is no characteristic red patch, so the most advantageous opportunity for treatment is then mi...

Ramadan starts next week. It occurs about eleven or twelve days earlier each year due to the lunar Islamic calendar. It is a peculiarly tough, indeed, cruel, fast, from dawn to sunset for a month. No water is allowed, so people get dehydrated. After sunset, the practice is to eat a very substantial meal, which means that they get a poor night's sleep as well. Many people will be fit for nothing next day, and certainly not for work. I would not want to be on a bus driven by someone who has been following this regime. This year it is particularly hard on Muslims in northern latitudes where the nights are short. There are divergent views on how this problem should be dealt with . If Islam was meant to be a religion for the whole of mankind as it claims to be, the curious thing is that this was not foreseen at the outset. Travellers in classical times had long visited the far northern latitudes and the greater seasonal variation in day length must have been well known even in Saudi A...

The main Linux desktops, KDE and Unity, seem to be getting heavier as time passes, with more and more added features. For a basic desktop or laptop, Cinnamon, LXDE and XFCE seem to be good enough, and make no demands on the hardware. My main setup is a bit more complex, as I have two screens and need to use different keyboard layouts at times. Unity and KDE handle this well enough but seem sluggish even on an i5 with 16G RAM. XFCE was troublesome and then proved difficult to remove completely. However, it worked nicely on an elderly PC with a core 2 and just 2G RAM. LXDE had issues with the keyboard layouts and wallpapers on two screens. Cinnamon seems to do the job without difficulty. It looks clean on the screen and runs fast. In future I shall probably install Cinnamon or Lubuntu (LXDE) to get a further few years' use from the old PCs that are available for nothing but are still good for a while. XFCE is a bit Mac-like and might suit people who are used to that style of sc...

I went to the choir weekend at Vadstena in 2012. There is another one this October, to which we (the choir) has been invited. After the previous weekend, I wrote this, " With a building like Vadstena Abbey Church available - though there are others too, such as Varnhem, there are great possibilities as long as the building's acoustics are respected. "The vespers could be those for the day, sung mostly in Latin from the Liber Usualis. Why Latin? Because, first, the language has simple open vowels; second, it is pretty close to what would have been sung when the building had just been completed; and third, but most importantly, it would be worth inviting a teacher or teachers to give instruction in the reading and performance of Gregorian chant, possibly a monk from Solemnes. On the Saturday evening, it would also be fitting to conclude with the sung Compline, like these French Benedictine monks, music which would be literally awesome in the Vadstena Abbey church. ...

26 May is the Feast of St Philip Neri so this is an appropriate time to ask why the Oratorian order is growing, against the general trend in the church; since 1993, when there were just the original two Oratory churches in London and Birmingham, Oratory congregations have taken over parishes in Oxford, Manchester, York, Cardiff and now Bournemouth. Following the announcement of the latter, the Catholic telephone published an interview with Dr Joseph Shaw of the Latin Mass Society about this significant development. The Oratory as an Institute is on the rise across the world from Australia to South Africa, from France to Wales, and from Kingston, Jamaica, to the United States. Why is this happening when most other religious orders are shrinking? Interview in the Catholic Herald.

4 women stabbed in London supermarket car park.  No comments allowed.

Today was Pentecost Sunday and we had all the ancient traditional music that goes with it - the Introit Spiritus Domini , the Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus, the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus and the Alleluia, Offertory and Communion verses sung from the Graduale Romanum . Nothing was left out. In this, we were very fortunate, as it is rare to find a Catholic parish where this happens. The music normally gets replaced by Protestant hymns or translations of the Catholic texts, which are generally a clumsy fit to the music. In the bigger scheme of things, where Christians are being murdered for no other reason than that they are Christians, this is a minor matter. On the other hand, the music of the liturgy helps to tell the narrative on which Christianity is founded. When the music is replaced with something else, the message becomes blurred. It runs deeper than that. Until 1970, Catholics would have been brought up with this music and it would have been imprinted in their memorie...

Is the Munich incident an instance of Sudden Jihad Syndrome? Does reading the book and saying the prayers lead to mental instability? Trying to make sense of the Koran demands, amongst other things, the performance of mental gymnastics amounting to the complete suspension of reason. Could this be part of the explanation?

Disraeli notwithstanding, Jews in Britain have traditionally supported the Labour party since its formation at the beginning of the twentieth century. This was to be expected, as most of the first and second generations of children of Jewish immigrants were working class, or in middle-class occupations such as teachers and in the public services. Although British Jews have assimilated, in many cases to the point of disappearance, and they have moved up in the economic hierarchy, their loyalty to Labour has continued. So what is behind the current wave of antisemitism in the Labour party? In part it is due to Israel's perceived mistreatment of the Palestinians, who are now seen as the underdogs and victims of Zionist oppression. Whilst the Israeli government has often made the wrong decisions and continues to do so, there is not a government in the world which would act very differently in the same situation; even so, it should not be beyond criticism. The supporter of the underdo...

Music can obviously not damage the brain in the way that a stroke or a blow to the head can. But the brain is a plastic organ - one might think of it as a self-wiring computer. This means that if the wiring is faulty, its function will be impaired and it will in fact be damaged. We know that emotions and feelings can be affected by sound. There is the notorious effect of being exposed to 7Hz, a frequency just below the threshold of hearing, matching the theta wave frequency recorded by electroencephalagrams (EEG); there is a lot of literature on this subject. It is a frequency that can easily be generated by playing low-frequency chords on the organ. Music was used as a form of torture  at Guantanamo Bay. Music torture has been common practice for the CIA ever since it began its "enhanced interrogation program" in the early 2000s. The process is designed to "create fear, disorient … and prolong capture shock" in prisoners. Sgt. Mark Hadsell, a member of the U.S...