Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Hull Faith Forum

Yesterday I travelled to Hull to give a talk to the Faith Forum there at the invitation of Fr William Massie. I spoke about the evangelisation of pagan culture in the Roman empire. A vast topic and I really wanted to talk about Prudentius but this needed some background on the whole Christian/pagan literary relationship. Fr Massie whom I have known since my time in 1990 at the English College works flat out to get a Faith Forum up and running. Previously he had one in York and now he has moved to Hull it takes place there in a Catholic pastoral centre. It was impressive to meet young, committed, intelligent Catholics who want the authentic Catholic faith. I was slightly taken aback by the front row which was filled with 12 year old boys and wondered what they would make of my talk but it was good to see they considered it worth coming to. There was a good number of adults there too and a lively question and answer session. I was happy to revisit some of the material of my PhD and find an opportunity to talk about it.

My approach has always been to introduce traditional Catholic liturgy and hope this will arouse interest in all things Catholic but Fr Massie has sought to give the teaching first and finds that from that an interest in traditional liturgy follows even though the Faith Movement has no policy on matters liturgical. It would be very good to have something similar on Tyneside but while I like much of what the Faith Movement does I`ve never felt knowledgeable enough about its central idea regarding faith and the importance of evolution to take an active part. We did have a series of random talks on aspects of the faith last Lent at Forest Hall and I have been intending to start a series of talks again on a monthly basis but so far have not managed to do so. I have a number of speakers available and can now call them talks for the cluster of parishes, so I must try and get something started.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If it's any consollation, I don't really get the whole evolution Faith thing. But without Faith and the Faith priests I doubt I'd still be Catholic (esp Fr Stephen Boyle). I don't think you find good young Catholics and a good atmosphere in which to ask questions and get a sound answer in many other places than the Faith forums etc.

Fr Michael Brown said...

Joee, I couldn`t agree more about the Faith Movement. They have many wonderful priests and can motivate young people into becoming serious Catholics. It gives me pause for thought as to whether I`ve ot the emphasis all wrong but while I suppport the Faith Movement I don`t really think I could belong there as a member.

Anonymous said...

I noted a reference to your Prudentius dissertation on Worldcat, and with a little hunting was able to find your intersting blog. A colleague and I are working on commentary on the Psychomachia--he's the Prudentian, I'm more of a classical Latin poetry type. I'm looking forward to reading my way through the Contra Symm. Is there any way to get a copy of your diss.? Can it be ordered through UMI microfilms or the like? Thanks,
--Chris Francese (Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, USA)