If Not Mass, Then Mats

Wales has been constitutionally secular since 1920, but then what is now Northern Ireland has been since 1871, so make of that what you will. If pupils at Sea View Community Primary School were marked down for misspelling "Quran" or "mosque", then so they should have been. Reform UK types and we Old Leftists are on the same page when it comes to insisting on correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.  And even if Councillor Francesca O'Brien of Mumbles was not taught to fast as a child, then either her near ancestors or her husband's, if not both, will have been.

We need to re-learn structured daily prayer, setting aside one day in seven, fasting, almsgiving, pilgrimage, the global community of faith as the primary focus of personal allegiance and locus of personal identity, the lesser outward and greater inward struggle, the need for a comprehensive and coherent critique of both capitalism and Marxism, the coherence between faith and reason, and a consequent integrated view of art and science. The answer to the challenge of the Sunna is Sacred Tradition. The answer to the challenge of the Imamate is the Petrine Office. The answer to the challenge of Sufism is our own tradition of mysticism and monasticism. Liberal Catholics will be the last to see the point.

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