General Audience with Pope Benedict XVI

Wed 18 Feb 2009:  Pope Benedict arrives for the general audience in St Peter's Square

When we had previously attended general audiences - once with Pope John Paul II and twice with Pope Benedict XVI - they were held indoors in the Pope Paul VI audience hall.  The audience we attended on Wednesday 18 February 2009 was outdoors in St Peter's Square.  It was the last time we were present at a general audience.   

18 Feb 2009:  Waiting for Pope Benedict to arrive

18 Feb 2009:  Still waiting....

It turned quite cold in the afternoon as we continued our sight seeing, visiting among other places the Trevi fountain and the Pantheon.

Ali with my mum and me at the Trevi fountain

Inside the Pantheon

The Vatican Museums

17 Feb 2009:  Visiting the Vatican museums

The highlight of 17 February 2009 was visiting the Vatican museums, including the Sistine chapel where Popes are elected.  I assume that taking photos inside the chapel itself was not allowed as I haven't got any. 

Ancient Roman artefacts

Ali and Bridie Harte overlooking the Vatican Gardens

Inside one of the Raphael Rooms with his painting of
the Disputation of the Holy Sacrament

Still in Rome

16 Feb 2009:  St John Lateran

Our sightseeing on 16 Feb 2009 included a visit to the Basilica of St John in the Lateran, which is the Pope's Cathedral.  Ali had always particularly liked its cloister, built in the early 13th century.

Ali with Bridie Harte in the Lateran cloister

The Lateran cloister

Ali and my mum outside the Lateran basilica

Same scene from a different angle

Next to the Lateran basilica is the Sanctuary of the Holy Stairs - the Scala Sancta.  According to tradition, these are the stairs leading up to the praetorium of Pontius Pilate, which Jesus climbed prior to the trial which led to his Passion and death.  They were taken to Rome by St Helena, the mother of Constantine, in the 4th century.

With the Scala Sancta sanctuary in the background

Having now seen three of the four major basilicas of Rome (St Peter's, St Paul's Outside-the-Walls, and St John's in the Lateran) we went on to see the fourth - St Mary Major's.

The Basilica of St Major

16 Feb 2009:  Ali and mum at St Mary Major's

Ali's last visit to Rome

15 Feb 2009:  Ali with my mum and me in St Peter's Square

I recently mentioned Ali's first visit to Rome in 1993.  We subsequently went together in June 2005, and then for a few days in February of 2007 and 2008, to attend the annual symposium of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Our final visit together to Rome was in February 2009.  Though the reason for our visit was mainly to attend the Pontifical Academy for Life symposium, as in previous years, we arrived a few days earlier, taking my mum, Bridie, with us.  My mum, who shared the same birthday as Ali  (8th January) had just turned 80 and this was a special trip  - it was her first and only visit to Rome.

After arriving on the evening of Saturday 14 Feb, we made our way to St Peter's Basilica on the Sunday morning for Mass, and then to the Piazza for the Angelus with Pope Benedict.

14 Feb 2009:  The Angelus with Pope Benedict XVI

14 Feb 2009:  A large gathering for the Angelus

Afternoon sight-seeing included Circus Maximus and generally driving around Rome, before heading on to the Basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls.  A special Jubilee Year of St Paul was being held in 2009 to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of the Apostle's birth, so there was an additional reason for visiting.

Circus Maximus

St Paul's Outside-the-Walls

Ali and mum at St Paul's Outside-the-Walls

Baby Ali - giving thanks for her birth

Baby Ali with her grandmother

When Ali was born, 64 years ago today on 8 January 1955, who would have known what lay ahead for her?  Who would have known what an inspiring life she would lead and how many lives she would touch?

Just to be born nowadays is an achievement, with one in five babies not being allowed to see the light of day because "choice" is rated higher than human life itself.  For babies born with spina bifida the prejudice is so great that 90% are aborted.  After Ali became aware, in the early 1980s, of the great injustice towards unborn children, she spent the rest of her life defending their right to life.

After Ali's death I came across a short video on YouTube, taken from a TV programme in the Republic of Ireland, broadcast on 25 August 1983, shortly before the September 1983 referendum that brought constitutional protection to unborn children.  Ali does not speak in the YouTube excerpt and I do not know if she spoke in the programme itself. It would have been one of Ali's first appearances on television, if not her first.  She makes a couple of brief appearances in the audience after 1 minute 40 seconds.

25 August 1983: Abortion Referendum TV debate in Eire

Ali would have been dismayed by the Irish referendum result last year that removed constitutional protection for unborn children, and by the law subsequently passed that came into effect just one week ago on 1st January 2019.  The new law allows abortion on demand in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and indicates a range of grounds for abortion at any time during pregnancy (as does the UK law).

While the new law specifically allows abortion at any time of gestation - i.e., right up until birth - for those babies who are expected (maybe rightly; maybe wrongly) to have a very short life after birth,  abortion campaigners claimed they were not promoting abortion more generally on grounds of disability.  It is, however, impossible to maintain that the right to life of disabled babies, as well as other babies,  has not been greatly undermined by the change in the law.

Mothers in Ireland expecting babies in difficult circumstances will come under pressure to abort - as happens in the UK.  Mothers expecting disabled babies will come under pressure - as in the UK.  May Ali's life be a witness and an encouragement, to mothers in the UK, Ireland and everywhere , to always be on the side of life.

Ali was born 12 years before the UK's Abortion Act was enacted.  In today's world, we have to be so very thankful that she had the opportunity even to be born.

Five years - Eternal life and the eternal city

Ali in Rome, August 1993

As I reflect on the five years since Ali entered eternal life on 3 December 2013,  my thoughts also turn to the eternal city, Rome, that we visited together for the first time, 20 years earlier, in August 1993.

On that occasion we had the joy and privilege of meeting Pope John Paul II after the weekly general audience of 18 August 1993.  As much as four years earlier - before she was even a Catholic - I had the conviction that Ali would one day be canonised a saint, and Pope John Paul II was clearly a living saint.  Since then John Paul has, of course, been canonised,  and God willing, one of his successors will canonise Ali in due course...

With St John Paul II in August 1993

Ali spoke (in Auckland, NZ, in Octoberr 2009) of "feeling pretty much on the margins of the church -  but given that our Saviour was the most marginalised of all, I know I couldn’t be in better company."   For most of her time as a Catholic she felt marginalised within if not excluded by the Church, which caused acute suffering. But she recognised that, no matter the human shortcomings of those within the Church (amongst whom she included herself with her own faults) the Church was the repository of truth where we receive the gifts for eternal life.  Three days before she died, on Saturday 30 November 2013,  Ali testified to her total acceptance of the Catholic faith.  Did she, I ask, fully accept the teachings of the Catholic Church?  "Yes."   Were there any teachings she did not accept?  "No."

When I first knew Ali she wasn't a Catholic, and even when she died many people were under the misapprehension that it was my influence that led to her becoming a Catholic.  This is far from being the case.  Although raised a Catholic,  I had been drifting away and it was Ali who brought me back to an understanding and practice of the faith.  

I first learned and prayed the rosary in 1989 at the age of 23.  Looking back, I am quite shocked that I could have reached that age with only a vague awareness of what the rosary was, and that I had never prayed it.  It was the non-Catholic Ali who taught it to me, and with whom I first prayed it.  

When we met St John Paul II he told us to "pray together,"  and it was the rosary which, above all other prayers, we would pray together.  Ali's words to me on the "perfect rosary" (from the year before we met the Pope) are particularly apt today as our thoughts turn to that momentous day of five years ago:

"I think that when I can say a perfect rosary, then I can die.  Of course, every time I say it, I try to say it perfectly, but however hard I try my mind always wanders on at least one Ave Maria, or I forget to look at Mama [Our Lady] the whole time.  When I can say it perfectly I will have perfectly learned everything this world can teach, and I could be perfectly with Mama and Jesus then.

A perfect rosary would be perfect reparation for the offences my sins have caused Mama's Immaculate Heart and Jesus' Sacred Heart, and then after that I would like to die.  I think maybe that should be the goal of all who want to spend eternity with Jesus and Mama in Heaven." (4 Sept 1992)

It is ordinarily required for at least five years to have passed after someone's death before their cause for canonisation can be considered.  While Ali was known and loved by many, much of what was truly extraordinary about her was hidden and known only to me.  Now that five years have passed since Ali entered eternal life, I am somewhat daunted by the task ahead of me, to do justice to her in presenting her extraordinary life.  I would appreciate prayers to help me to fulfill what I must do. And, please God, it won't be too long before Ali's portrait is unfurled in the eternal city, in front of St Peter's Basilica, when she too is declared among the saints.

At the Trevi fountain

Ali in St Peter's Square

Keeping in touch

Ali - 25 years ago - in March 1993

Ali was very good at keeping in touch with friends, whether by postal mail, email or by phone. Typically, while resting for an hour or so from about 6pm after work, she would catch up with friends. By contrast, I'm terrible at keeping in touch with friends, and I apologize to many of Ali's friends (and mine) with whom I have been out of contact for far too long.  Some days, however, it is fitting to make contact, even if only through this blog, and even if not much is said.