Brilliant article on becoming a Catholic

I have just read this brilliant article which is as good as any on this issue that I have read:

http://catholicexchange.com/how-not-to-become-a-catholic/

As someone involved with the Travelling community over many years, I am used to those converted to one of the 'Gypsy churches' trying to give me a hard time and sending me Videos, DVDs and tapes of anti-Catholic diatribe.

One of my favourites included a pastor reading from the 'up to date Catholic Catechism' (it wasn't) to prove that we worshipped idols. The problem was that even the version he was reading clearly states that we cannot worship statues, etc. because "they have eyes, but they cannot see, ears but they cannot hear, lips but they cannot speaking, with their mouths...". I am sure you get the picture. The problem is that he ignored what it said and nobody challenged him, not least because most of them couldn't read.

He also tried to use it to prove that Catholics offered sacrifices despite them being replaced by the one sacrifice of Christ. Hilariously, he clearly read out the teaching that the Sacrifice of the Mass is the "one, unrepeatable Sacrifice of Christ" and then said "there you are, they say it themselves - they offer new sacrifices."

Bizarre but not as bizarre as once devout Catholics telling me that when they were Catholics they worshipped statues; when I enquired as to when they had done this, given the fact that, prior to conversion, they had argued that they had never done such a thing, I was met with silence.

The funniest book I received is called "Far from Rome and close to God" which purports to give accounts of former Catholic priests converting to their brand of Christianity. Read it and you find a mix of real conversions, made up stories, some rather kind men who are gracious about their former Catholic community, a priest who had been involved in astrology (not a Catholic thing at all), long dead pastors and, most tellingly, the account of a Roman Catholic Benedictine priest from Manchester who not only didn't leave but was a teacher at my old school and whose Requiem Mass in 1970 was celebrated by the Bishop as he was in good standing with the Church.

In the end, when it comes to the ranting, I learned what is described in one part of the article - I listen, have a cup of tea and, when people are ready to chat, we do.

France's use of Roma as a political tool brings up the stench of Vichy.

Today we read that France has begun the process of deporting 700 Roma - the first of many moves to remove European Union citizen's by force. This follows the forcible closure and destruction of 51 Roma sites by the French police. Another 250 have been targeted.

This is the 'measured' response of the embattled, corruption-tainted presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy. As his poll-rating tumbled he seized upon the incidence of a riot by Romanies involving an attack upon a police station following the killing of a Romany teenager.

The Roma have been offered 300 Euros to leave voluntarily - only 79 have taken up the offer. It puts me in mind of the money offered by BNP leader Nick Griffin to 'encourage' foreigners to leave Britain.

Let us not forget the history of the Romany people: pilloried, enslaved and persecuted throughout the centuries under regimes of all political flavours; it seems acceptable, even under a liberal democracy, to hate the Romany people. If you think I am exaggerating, replace the name of any other religious or ethnic group into any headline containing the words Gypsy, Roma, Romany, Traveller and see how comfortable it makes you feel.

Even worse - consider the fact that the Romany people were, along with the Jews, targeted for complete annihilation by the Nazis and somewhere around a million were slaughtered. No homeland for them after the war, no worldwide respect for their suffering, no abatement of the racism towards them.

We can try to comfort ourselves with the knowledge that France has form - look at the deportation of Jews from France during the war, not just by the occupied French, but also volunteered by the collaborationist government of Vichy France. However, you only have to look at some of the stories about Travellers our newspapers print (alongside the cartoons they use to illustrate them), the laws our government pass or the unsubtle campaigning of all political parties to recognise that we have no reason to feel comfortable with our own treatment of this much maligned community.

What the French government is doing is despicable; sadly, it is not surprising, We should be ashamed.