Sing Something Simple

 

I attended a classical concert the other evening. The music, which has always been the great ‘pull’ for me was great, as any live performance of Vivaldi’s by four superb musicians is promised. But as I sat, before the concert began, I realised that I was gazing at the result of maybe forty-odd years of change within our Nations in one thing which used to be essential, but now is virtually non-existent. That ‘one thing’? Religion.

Many years ago, religion stood firmly in my life. Raised in a Catholic family, went to Catholic schools, was a regular Church attendee, we almost expected a fortnightly visit from one or more of our Parish priests, we knew them all by their first names; in other words, the whole shebang. But times and attitudes change, at least to those who retain an enquiring mind. I retained my religious activities for years, but  a mixture of scepticism and plain common sense made me question much of the works and workings of the Catholic Church.

The end came, for myself, in two body blows. I learned of the massive shame of sexual abuse by Catholic Priests against children, and the extent that these crimes, were both known about and silently tolerated by the Catholic Hierarchy both in GB&NI as well as America. I also reacted whilst listening to a sermon from our parish priest. I heard this man, who has never had to do a proper job in his entire life, tell the congregation as we neared a General Election, that we should all be voting ‘Labour’, as the Tories were close to a course of ruining the Nation. I stood up,  said my piece against the clown who dared to tell an Englishman how and who to vote for, and left that place, never to return.

But thats just me. So what was I looking at which indeed was a measure of the change, both on the Catholic and Church of England’s authority in Great Britain & Northern Ireland (GB&NI). The concert was held in the majestic main chapel of Ushaw Seminary College, where five Archbishops and a Cardinal, over some 150 years, came into the priesthood. By some reckoning, over 2,500 priests passed through those imposing buildings. But the Seminary itself closed in 2011, due to the lack of men prepared to enter the Catholic priesthood. This monumental series of buildings, which must have cost millions to build, now sells itself as a place for families to relax, as well as multifarious other activities.

The C of E, which is, to all extent the State Religion, fares not much better, and the Leadership, under the care of the former Archbishop Welby, is itself fractured by the constant push to accept homosexual marriage as ‘Acceptable’ to the Church Bishops and Laity.

So, apart from the Evangelical Churches favoured by some, what is the only religion which daily extends its sinister reach in every city and town in GB&NI? It is of course Islam. They tried to spread their ideology into the West before, and were successful in Spain for over two centuries before being thrown out: and the  naval engagement that took place on 7 October 1571 at the Battle of Lepanto when a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of Catholic states arranged by Pope Pius V, inflicted a major defeat on the fleet of the Ottoman Empire.

But now we see, due solely to the machinations of Tony Blair’s Labour Government’s loosening of immigration rules and visas, a Muslim population  of some 3 millions, with another 150,000 illegals also doing sweet fuck all and getting free lodgings, health care. Those Muezzin Calls will be creeping ever nearer, where once all that was heard was the sound of church bells ringing on a Sunday morning.