Forgetting and Remembering in November

Yesterday I posted the comments from British publications about it being time to forgive and forget the Gunpowder plotters, especially Guy Fawkes, who is still burned in effigy. It does seem from the mainstream media reports in England that many don't know why they are celebrating with bonfires and fireworks--at least this story starts with the questions. It does seem silly to continue the celebrations on the Fifth of November if no one knows why. Clearly we can't forget the conflict and desperation that provoked the Gunpowder Plotters, who wanted the freedom to practice their Catholic faith and believed the only way to obtain that freedom was violence and power: murder the reigning monarch and take over the government.

November is the month for remembering. In the United States, we remember the living Veterans who have served our country on November 11 (Memorial Day is the holiday for remember those who died in the service and defense of the USA; Armed Forces Day is for celebrating current military service members). In the United Kingdom, November 11 is Remembrance Day to mark the end of WWI and signing of the Armistice--the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. In France and other Allied countries, it's Armistice Day.

On Thanksgiving Day in the USA we remember all the people and things we should be thankful for. We recall the history of our founding as colonies of England, the risks and dangers the colonists and pilgrims faced, and the freedom of religion and worship they sought.

Throughout the month of November, Catholics remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory. As Father Alexander Lucie-Smith comments in The Catholic Herald, this remembrance of the dead, praying for God's mercy on those who loved Him but are not ready to be with Him in Heaven, this Catholic doctrine and practice is comforting and charitable:

The Reformation was a revolt against many things, but one thing in particular, the doctrine of Purgatory. Henry VIII destroyed the monasteries, which were communities charged with praying for the dead; he also suppressed the chantries, which were endowments for secular clergy to pray for the dead. There are still chantry chapels in England, but these are places where no Masses are now sung. I find these empty chantries inexpressibly sad, and a poignant reminder of our national apostasy. In the nineteenth century several great Catholics tried to restore this tradition, such as AW Pugin. The greatest modern chantry in the land is that built over the tombs of the Emperor Napoleon III, the Empress Eugenie and the Prince Imperial, at Farnborough.**

In trying to eradicate the doctrine of Purgatory, the Protestant reformers took from ordinary people what must have been their greatest comfort. When someone dies, you can no longer do anything for them, and you may very well regret all the things you should have done but failed to do for them while they were alive. If you can pray for their soul, this means that you have the comfort of helping them after their death, which is a huge aid to those who mourn.

The other comfort about Purgatory is this. We have to be perfect to see God, and we know full well we are not. Purgatory means that we can be purified and purged after death, and thus come to see God. We cannot be sure of salvation, but we can be sure of the mercy of God.

**The former Emperor Louis Napoleon and Empress Eugenie (and their son the Prince Imperial who died in the Anglo-Zulu war, lived in exile in England after France lost the Franco-Prussian War. She had the mausoleum and monastery of St. Benedict's Abbey built, with monks from the Abbey of Solesmes in France. More info here.

Today particularly I am remembering my father who died five years ago this summer--today is his birthday. May he rest in the peace of Christ with all the souls of the faithful departed!

The Fifth of November: Is It Time to Forgive and Forget?

Britain Magazine reflects on the Fifth of November and the burning of the "Guy": is it time for forgive and forget?

The classic rhyme “Remember, remember the fifth of November” features one of the few dates that stick in the collective imagination from our school days. As the headmaster of Guy Fawkes’s old school in York has recently pointed out, the man found by guards underneath the Houses of Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder in early hours of 5 November 1605 is “a global brand. Most people with an appreciation of English culture know something about him.”

Arguing in the The Daily Telegraph that it is time for us to forgive St Peter’s School’s most famous alumnus and to stop burning effigies of the guy on bonfires, Leo Winkley suggests that the custom encourages religious intolerance.

There are some surprising twists to the familiar story of Guy Fawkes. For example, while James I was, in fact, the son of a famous Catholic, Mary, Queen of Scots, Fawkes was born in 1570 into a largely Protestant family (although his maternal grandparents were ‘recusant’ Catholics, who refused to attend Protestant services). However, Guy’s stepfather, Dionis Baynbrigge, whom his mother married after the death of his father in 1578, seems to have affected Fawkes’s convictions – Guy converted to Catholicism as a teenager – and thus the course of his life.

Guy and his fellow Catholic plotters were disappointed by James I’s lack of sympathy for their cause. After the long reign of Protestant Queen Elizabeth I, English Catholics were optimistic that the new king would herald change. During Elizabeth’s reign, and particularly after the Spanish Armada, Catholics had suffered persecution: they were forbidden to hear Mass and compelled to attend Anglican services, with steep fines for recusants who refused. However, despite positive signs at the beginning of James’s reign, the discovery of two small Catholic plots in 1603 and an ill-fated conference at Hampton Court in 1604 meant that by February that year the new king went as far as to announce his ‘utter detestation’ of Catholicism. Within days, all priests and Jesuits had been expelled and recusancy fines reintroduced.

Leo Winkley's comments in The Daily Telegraph include:

“Burning a Guy is likely to be seen as an expression of religious intolerance at worst or more likely, an inexplicable historical throwback,” he said. “Consider this: how would we explain it to a seven year old? If we're not comfortable explaining it, we shouldn't do it! Most people call it bonfire night. Time to move on and let the poor soul rest.”

Mr Winkley added: “He was hung, drawn and quartered. That was the full force of the law at his time.”

Fawkes, who with a group of English Catholics who planned to assassinates King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne, has become a symbol of dissent in recent years – his image adopted by activists who wear masks of his face to hide their identity.

Mr Winkley said Fawke’s legacy still had the power to divide.

“It’s debatable whether he was a freedom fighter or a terrorist. Those who argue he was a freedom fighter would say he grew up in a time when about one per cent of the population was openly Catholic and he was therefore part of a persecuted minority,” he said.

“On the other hand, nobody could approve of the act of trying to blow up the instrument of democracy. One can’t condone it even 400 or so years on. You could argue that he’s an icon of the complex and flawed nature of human beings.”

Sometimes the Pope is burned in effigy too; that practice should certainly cease!