Update on the letter posted here just before Easter.

Having resurrected my blog (sorry, maybe not a particularly apt term given the Liturgical season in which we find ourselves!) to post what I felt was an important letter, I feel I ought to just give a brief update for the sake of my reader and anyone else who might have been on a desert island or in some other way out of touch with things recently.

The letter was published in the Catholic Herald online and you can read it and the full list of names here.  You can also read an update of the situation on Ben Trovato's blog here and here and here.

Both these sites are of course well worth checking regularly anyway for their excellent articles. Plus naturally all the other blogs listed who published the letter and joined the appeal for signatures.

Now, I have been moved to remember how on earth this blog works (it took me a little while to remember how to access certain settings etc.) who knows, maybe I might feel tempted to post the odd item on here in the future . . . ?

Changing public opinion . . .

The Holy Father's recent visit has, amongst many other positive things, helped people to see Pope Benedict as he really is and not as he is often portrayed by the sometimes negative press.

Definitely more Andrex Puppy than Rottweiler . . .

Chocolate you can eat during Lent . . . surely, that's not the point?

Thanks to Londiniensis on Twitter today for the 'heads up' on this article in today's Telegraph, and the link to this blog whose author makes some interesting comments about fasting in Lent.

Anyone who dips into my blog from time to time will know that just the mere mention of the word 'chocolate' makes my ears prick up! Naturally then, I was keen to investigate further.

A chocolate you can eat without getting fat ? . . . and it tastes like the real thing? - Surely, it's too good to be true! I skimmed the 'science bit' and gather that the new 'miracle product' consisits of nearly 2/3 water - no wonder then that the calories are drastically reduced.

But . . . and it's a big but as they say - Why do we fast in Lent? Not to lose weight, even if that is sometimes a beneficial side-effect (she says, hopefully :-)) Surely fasting in Lent is all about penance, discipline and self-denial.

Going without chocolate or some other favourite treat surely comes under the heading of abstinence rather than fasting, anyway, I would have said. Fasting, according to my understanding means managing with less food overall (once again incidentally, possibly resulting in weight loss, though of course this is not the aim.)

There should be some fruits of our fasting and abstinence however. Hopefully, by 'accompanying' Our Lord during his 40 days of fasting in the wilderness and experiencing, albeit in an infinitesimal way, some of the temptations that were placed before Him, it will help us to grow spiritually and generally be better people by the end of Lent. Here's hoping anway!

Got to dash now and iron my hair shirt!