[ Home ] [Pictures & Events] [Stella Maris] [Welsh
Mass] [Links] [History]
[Newsletter
Index] [This
Week's
Notices] [This
Week's
Prayers]
|
The Catholic Church in
Llandudno Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish Priest: Fr Antony Jones |
Dear Parishioner,
What a weekend was last weekend! It saw the death of Pat Kelly, the wedding of Jade Goody and the Oscars.
It is a social fact that In Britain, more than any other country in Europe, we focus on people with few human qualities and turn them into celebrities whom we then proceed to treat as gods come down to earth. It is an astonishing development, and it is closely connected with our rejection of God. I read recently that Wales is the most secularised, godless place on the entire continent of Europe. It has been man’s natural instinct, since man first appeared on the earth, to worship God. If we lose sight of the real One, we will create gods for ourselves; and this we presently do with our cult of the celebrity. And all we ultimately succeed in doing is debasing them as well as ourselves.
Men and women who were initially regarded as great were people who worshipped God and followed his law. They were acclaimed as saints and revered. People chose them by popular acclaim. There was no canonisation process for people like St David and St Winefred; the people just knew that they were great and they “raised them to the altar” as they used to say.
For most of recorded history, our great men and women have been people of learning, with the rare exception of some who sparked off a riot or some such quirk of history. These intelligent and scholarly people became leaders of society in one form or another and passed their learning on to the rising generation for the development of our human civilisation, for the progress of the arts and the sciences. Developing civilisation gave birth to great scientists, architects, poets, novelists, musicians. It was the same in the Church; many of the most famous saints were men and women of great learning, like St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas, St Teresa, who became known as Doctors of the Church. Without uprightness of life and a learning that enriched society, people were never regarded as great.
Now quality and uprightness of life are, apparently, of no consequence; learning is optional. Look at our footballers. They are treated as mini gods (and not so mini at times!), though many of them have a reputation for drinking and brawling and sexually loose living. Their brains seem to be almost entirely confined to their feet. Listen to German footballers speaking on the television; they speak better English than the English players! We make them celebrities; then we treat them like gods and like cattle at the same time. We buy them and sell them and barter over the price. The salaries they receive are obscene and immoral, an affront to God who always takes the side of the poor. They live in mansions, drive hugely expensive cars and live a life-style that leaves much to be desired. How can one justify such salaries and life-styles in a world where men, women and children are starving and, nearer to home, where people are losing their jobs and livelihoods because of the economic crisis? Yet little kids go round with their names on their football tops and look up to them as role models, and grown ups sit glued to their televisions watching them.
But back to that weekend, with Jade Goody getting married. I’m glad that her wedding was successful and wish her well in the frightful situation in which she finds herself. But isn’t she just the ultimate example of this cult of the celebrity? One will search in vain for uprightness of life or for learning in her case; her fame comes from taking part in Big Brother and behaving abominably there and racially too at times. Drunk on her first night in the House, she was heard to ask, “Rio de Janeiro, ain’t that a person?” With ever a keen eye for grabbing a quick buck, she even proposes to use her forthcoming death as an opportunity for financial gain. I ask you, is this the stuff of which real celebrities are made?
At least those celebrities who gathered in all their finery for the annual Oscar Ceremony do have some talent. But does their work justify all that red carpet stuff and all that razzmatazz? Is their contribution to society greater than that of the nurses who tend us in hospital or the teachers who educate our children? How in God’s Name have we got ourselves into this silly celebrity culture?
I’ll tell you who the real celebrities are—they are people like Pat Kelly, who died alone last week, a million miles away from the glare of the television camera. Hers was not the splendour and refinery of the beautiful people who frequent the Oscar Awards; nor the dexterity of those whose brains are anywhere but in their heads. Her mind was refined; her soul was pure; her life had taught her how to be a fully human human-being. Not for her the red carpet spread out by human hands, but by the One who alone has the right to spread it. He is against all that is lifted up in this world (read Isaiah chapter 2). He alone can make us celebrities and, in this respect, his thoughts are most certainly not our thoughts, nor his ways our ways.
God bless you,
Fr Antony Jones
Click MAP to locate
Llandudno
Catholic Church
Our Lady Star of
the Sea Home Page
