Robin Meets the Pope

I am sitting on the terrace of Fisher House, which is the Catholic chaplaincy in the middle of Cambridge. I'm not a Catholic, for the record, but the good old 'Cathys' as they conventionally like to be called in these parts - specifically my friend Damian - have welcomed me into their peaceful quarters for a relaxed evening.

It's a grand old place for the Catholites,
With library, church and drunken nights,
The terrace is decked with flow'rs and lights,
And they've got free wifi, which is why I writes.

I confess (geddit?!) that what I know about Catholicisism comes only from the contents of my degree, so my knowledge may be a little behind the times. They seem to burn fewer people now, although Pope Francis recently did get to burn Donald Trump (zing!).

Other Memes are Available

Actually, studying early modern Catholicism  was one of the most enjoyable parts of my degree so far, because it quickly becomes apparent that most early modern Catholics were total legends. I was particularly interested in the journeys of Jesuit missionaries to the Far East, because thousands of missionaries in the middle of the second millennium travelled to China and Japan seeking to convert the locals (and by 1690 they had indeed converted about 200,000 Chinese!). The Jesuits in China had enormous success largely because of their willingness to adopt aspects of the local culture - or, as one Michele Ruggieri put it, 'to become Chinese in order to win China for Christ'. Matteo Ricci was the greatest proponent of this intriguing strategy, seeking to attract respect to the missionaries' cause by dressing in the clothing of Confucian scholars and even building churches in the style of Confucian discussion rooms! Their was, in fact, a big old controversy about how correct it was to translate Christian terms into Chinese, as well as on the compatibility of Chinese rites with Christianity. Catholicism has never been as universal as the name of the religion proclaims, but it was the first religion to be truly global in scope.

Jesuits in China!

Speaking of religion, the Conservative campaign to align with religious fundamentalists in Ireland continues apace. The DUP, for the record, have some pretty despicable views - anti-gay-marriage, anti-abortion, etc. - so it's a pretty shoddy state of affairs that the Tories are going to bed with them in order to keep afloat. I've written to my local MP about it actually, but he's pretty useless (especially on the sorts of social issues outlined above) and so I don't hold out much hope for that to have changed anything.

To take myself away from the world of high politics, I went off on a lovely walk to Grantchester with my old friend Charlie yesterday. Charlie has not yet made it into this blog I think, which is extraordinary, because he is in fact the tallest David-Bowie lookalike who has ever lived. He's one of my few and precious continuity points from school to now - A-level Maths together, in me old band together, and at Cambridge together too! He's a brilliant pal and we're turning this end-of-term Grantchester walk into something of a tradition. On the way back I also managed to run through some fields of wheat. I imagine the farmers weren't too happy about that - but no-one is ever perfectly behaved, are they (SATIRE SATIRE SATIRE)? I also realise now that we were literally there at ten to three, which means something if you've read the poem Grantchester and doesn't if you haven't, which means you should read the poem.

I can confirm that we did not have honey for tea.

Damian's stolen my computer so I have to stop. So long team!