Ploughman's Lunch

From the desk of Fr. Frank
Sunday, October 29, 2006

In past years the World Ploughing Championships in Carlow has passed me by.  What drew my attention to it this year wasn’t the fact that it was won by a 17 year old Scotsman, Andrew Mitchell from Angus, but rather an e-mail received in the weeks before from a freelance journalist in the Netherlands who was coming to report on the ploughing championships for a Dutch agricultural magazine, and who wanted to visit the shrine of Blessed Charles while he was here.  And so on 28th September Guus Queisen, from Sittard, arrived at Mount Argus and was given the guided tour of the shrine, museum, exhibition, monastery, room and cemetery.  He was particularly delighted to see the name Luyten on the genealogy in the museum.  This was Fr. Charles’s mother’s maiden name.  Guus’s great grandfather was Remigius Luyten, a first cousin of Fr. Charles, and Guus had named his own son Remy Carolus, after both his great grandfather and Fr. Charles, having him baptised in the Chapel of Fr. Charles in Munstergeleen.  Guus had also attended the Beatification of Fr. Charles in Rome.

After the tour, during which Guus took many photographs, we shared a bite of lunch together and he asked me many questions which I did my best to answer.  I presumed this was just general chit-chat.  What I didn’t expect was that, on 14th October, I would occupy a full page spread, photograph taken in Fr, Charles’s room, interview and all, in the Dagblad de Limburger, (which I presume means the Daily Limburger), a newspaper sent on to me by Guus for my perusal.  However, the article being in Dutch, which is double-Dutch to me, I haven’t a clue what I’m meant to have said.  (Editor's Note: The headline for the article is loosely translated as, "All of Ireland waits with confidence on the canonisation of Father Charles.")

The following week we had a visit from a group of 42 people from Holland touring pilgrimage sites in Ireland and the U.K. who wanted to make a visit to the Shrine of Fr. Charles the highlight of their trip.  Amongst them was a diocesan priest who was pastor of a Church that used to be in the care of the Passionists, and a Redemptorist priest who had come especially to give thanks for the miraculous cure of his brother, which he had no hesitation whatsoever in attributing to the intercession of Blessed Charles.  They celebrated Mass and they sang, they visited the room and they sang, they went into the cemetery and they sang.  The only words I could make out were Mount Argus, and so I presume they had their own song to Fr. Charles which they belted out with great gusto.  Both they and my earlier visitor, Guus, pointed out that on the cross on the old grave Fr. Charles’s surname is spelt Houban, instead of the more common Houben.  Not a lot of people know that (as Michael Caine used to say)!

So it would seem that in the Netherlands, as here in Ireland, devotion to Fr. Charles is alive and well.  As we prepare to celebrate the Feast of All Saints, won’t it be wonderful if, as expected, Fr. Charles is amongst those canonised saints whom we celebrate this time next year?  Let’s keep praying for that intention.