"It is natural to the Germans to make a row"

St. Edmund Campion, martyred 1581 AD

"In condemning us, you condemn all your own ancestors, all our ancient bishops and kings, all that was once the glory of England — the island of saints, and the most devoted child of the See of Peter."

The following is taken from a letter of Evelyn Waugh to the Editor of the Catholic Herald, dated Aug 7, 1964:

"The distinction between Catholicism and Romanita has already been stressed in the American journal Commonweal.  Of course it is possible to have Faith without Romanita and to have Romanita without the Faith, but as a matter of recorded history the two have kept very close."

"Finally, a word about liturgy.  It is natural to the Germans to make a row.  The torchlit, vociferous assemblies of the Hitler Youth expressed a national passion.  It is well that this should be canalized into the life of the Church.  But it is essentially un-English.  We seek no "Sieg Heils".  We pray in silence.  "Participation" in the Mass does not mean hearing our own voices.  Only He knows who is "participating" at Mass."

Elizabethan martyrs, pray for us.