A useful resource.

Just about three pages to go to finish Unfaithful Music. It seems to have taken forever but it is 670 pages long and theres quite a lot about American musicians I`ve never heard of which was hard going. It has yielded a few more Catholic bits and pieces but the most useful came with his mention of his baptism (p.83) which he says was in church of the Holy Cross in Birkenhead. he adds:

The church then was a brand-new building of a modern design. Today it`s defunct and sits behind a roll shutter to deter vandals. The priests have all left town.

So I googled Holy Cross Birkenhead and found a link on the Taking Stock website which was hitherto unknown to me. Holy Cross Birkenhead is indeed an exciting modern design. How sad it is now redundant.

Holy Cross Birkenhead

However there are still priests in Birkenhead one of whom I see is a contemporary of mine in canon law at the Greg, Fr Nick Kern. Nevertheless the Taking Stock website was well worth finding as it lists every Catholic church in England and Wales with pictures and a description. There are quite a few churches in this diocese I`ve never been in so I enjoyed looking them up.

Unfaithful Music was most interesting in its telling the story of EC`s relationship with his father and the account of his father`s death was very moving. Also there were insights into some of his lyrics I`ve never understood.

Now on to Mgr McReavy and Vatican II. I`ve looked at the introduction and learning that Vatican II was the most important event in the church since 1054 made me think this might not be the book for me but my good friend Fr Cooper tells me that it is unputdownable once you get started so I look forward to it. I hope I`ll understand better what it was all about....