The Bishop's Weekly Column from the Parish Bulletin

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

CATHOLIC CHURCH

Seeing's Believing

October 12th, 2009

Keystone Cops - Abbott and Costello style ?

The following conversation takes place in the 1960 play A Man for All Seasons between Sir Thomas More and the Duke of Norfolk his friend. Henry VIII is seeking a divorce from Queen Catherine of Aragon so that he might marry his mistress Anne Boleyn. The Church in England has by this point in the play severed its ties with Rome and become the "Church of England". More has resigned as Chancellor of England and everywhere the pressure is on to accept the King's plans for the country. Spies are on the look-out for any dissenters from the King's plan.

MORE: (...) But what matters to me is not whether it's true or not but that I believe it to be true, or rather not that I believe it, but that I believe it...I trust I make myself obscure?

NORFOLK: Perfectly !

(...)

MORE: (looks at him: takes him aside: lowered voice): Have I your word, that what we say here is between us and has no existence beyond these walls?

NORFOLK (impatient): Very well.

MORE: (almost whispering): And if the King should command you to repeat what I have said?

NORFOLK: I should keep my word to you!

MORE: Than what has become of your oath of obedience to the King?

NORFOLK: (indignant): You lay traps for me!

MORE: (now grown calm): No, I show you the times.

A Man for All Seasons - A Play of Sir Thomas More, Robert Bolt, Heinemann, London, 1961, p 53

"I show you the times." Ah, yes ! Well my last three columns set quite a lot of people talking. Not a few were buzzing with questions. One fellow even thought I had lost my mind (and well he might!). His son asked me yesterday who I thought would win the Oscars this year after my column "A Night at the 'Oscars'". I playfully suggested that he would after I earlier informed him that I wasn't thinking of those Oscars.

My statement in the column about the "Listening Post(s)" that my conversations were being relayed to different parties also resonated with quite a number of people (as I intended they should) but it is about the "Post" itself that I want to write about again today.

Yesterday evening I drove Sister Mary Michaela over to her parents for half an hour. After I drop her off I go shopping sometimes or just drive around the block back to the rectory. We left later than usual, it was almost getting dark. Now I believe I told you that after the Cold War came to an "end" the West were lulled into a false sense of security and began to dismantle their defenses. Well that is what I witnessed for myself, you will remember, with the removal of the air raid siren on the local railway station.

In a move redolent of an Abbott and Costello routine, a partial dismantling of a different kind took place last night in a procedure so comical I stood watching and laughing. Needless to say Abbott and Costello thought my merriment unwarranted especially since they had tried to hide the dismantling under the cover of darkness. I got the distinct impression a few choice words were expressed as I, not a silent spectator, saw the whole thing. Will there be "Peace in the Valley" one day ? Well as they say: seeing's believing !

+TF