... or, remembering the days when I was young enough to qualify for World Youth Day. Except that they hadn't been invented then.
I am undertaking a big clean/cull of the bookshelves and office at the moment. A lot is being thrown out, though I must admit to having a little pile of "things to scan before throwing away". This afternoon I came across a type script - yes, from a typewriter, not from a printer - of a homily preached at the chaplaincy of Oxford University on 27th May 1979.
The Church and the World.
Official Sermon of Fr George Pell at the Catholic Chaplaincy, Oxford, 27th May 1979.
In choosing a single sentence to summarise the homily, I am not doing justice to the balance of the whole and to the underlying analysis of the situation of the Church and of the world, but here goes:
What I am saying is that we are in a battle situation, and that the wholesale dismantling of the Catholic tradition is pastorally disastrous.
Fr George Pell was an Australian priest, staying at Campion Hall in Oxford for a year of studies. A number of us running the Oxford University Newman Society at the time got to know him - I think he gave a talk to the society at one point. We were what one might describe as "being on the same wavelength".
Now, I wonder what happened to Fr Pell after his return to Australia?
1 comment:
Oh yes, I remember that sermon - and our unabashed enthusiasm afterwards!
It would be really good if you could post the text. You might want to send an email to Cardinal Pell's office to check first - would be one way of saying "Hello" to him as well.
Post a Comment