About me and mine...

Moira née McCarrick - daughter of Charles Stanislaus McCarrick, God rest his soul, and Rita née Ahern. Born in London, I have lived in France, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda but now live in Hertfordshire, UK. I was married to Paul Hendrickx - subsequently annulled - and have four children. I returned to the Catholic faith in 1994 after a decade away.

From 1996 I ran the website www.catholic.uk.com, and the Regina Coeli Email List, when there were few such UK based resources. Sadly, running the site was vying with domestic needs, and I had to let it die.  I will ... one day ... get it back up on line again.

I've organised local Catholic Family Days since 1996 - originally with the National Association of Catholic Families - and still largely based on their model.Our most regular date is our Epiphany Party - which started out at my home in '96, branched out to various parish halls, and has more recently taken root at the Villa Scalabrini! We missed only one - last year - when both my parents were suffering heart problems.

I homeschooled from 1996 until 2010 - although at various points throughout one or more of them attended local schools. The last time I had all of them being educated at home was 2005. I was a member of the shortlived Catholic HomeSchooling Network (CHSN) which fizzled out, mostly I suspect, due to lack of a common vision (difficult when every homeschooling family is as unique as every individual soul!) and possibly because the natural leaders were too humble to take on a formal, long-term leadership role.

Feeling a pull to both the New Mass and the Traditional - it became my 'mission' through Catholic Family Days to strive to offer something we could all participate in, with Sacramental content where possible (Confession, Benediction, blessings and devotions appropriate to a particular feast, etc.) and catechesis or a talk by a priest, religious or lay Catholic speaker- and I am delighted to note that we now have a lovely group of families including those who attend the Traditional Rite, those who attend the New Mass, some who lean to Charismatic Renewal - and many more.  We used to have Mass when possible - but as the events are always on Sundays, we don't now, as most families are involved in their respective parishes or groups. Also, while all would attend the Mass if it was Traditional Rite - some would not come along if we were having a New Mass - and I felt it better for all of us not to broach this division.  More unites us than divides us - and we do need each other! See my Apostolate Page

I hate the job of asking priests to find a space in their busy Sunday schedules to come to our Family Days, and have avoided bishops at all costs. Last year I finally dared managed to get the agreement of Bishop Longley to come to one of our family days and adress us ... but then he was made Archbishop of Birmingham, and had to cancel!!!

For a brief period in 2002-04 I stepped into Francis Phillips' shoes - or tried - and was editor of the NACF quarterly newspaper 'Catholic Family' - sadly no longer in print. I loved this 'job' but was greedy. To my thinking, there was no other UK Catholic paper in existence at the time (I used to read the Catholic Times and the Catholic Herald - but don't any more - and even then didn't consider them reliably Catholic!) - and I wanted the Catholic Family to grow into the vacuum. I wasn't conscious of this goal at the time - but looking back I can see that that's where I was going. Naturally one editor cannot achieve this alone (I had loads of support - a layout manager, the editorial board and the president) but each edition was my baby! I spent hours and hours, too many late, late nights, and stole family time to work away on The Paper until, naturally - I burnt out! And handed the whole project over to a better man for the job. (A woman actually, far more capable than I.)

My father died this year (2010) on St. Patrick's day, aged 92, at home as he wished. He used the penny catechism to teach us our faith as children - which was just as well, because the schools weren't doing what he thought they were doing in that line! He had a Sligo sense of humour - which we found out over the years is totally alien and often beyond comprehension to anyone from anywhere else! He had a great academic education in a pre-seminary school, in the 1920s and 30s which taught him more than I ever learnt about the Love of God - and he decried the current notion that 'old-fashioned' religious education was all Hellfire and 'Thou shall nots'. Over the last two or three decades, he became a devotee of the Marian Movement of Priests, and had a well-thumbed copy of  'The Imitation of Christ' since I was a child. He had a wealth of knowledge, and in recent times studied in depth the origin and growth of the Illuminati, Freemasonry and it's tentacles reaching into the New Age Movement, One World Order and so on. He was an expert on this particular subject. He introduced me to Deirdre Manifold's books - fascinating - which not only opened my eyes to the message of Fatima - but also revived and re-enlivened my interest in history.

Since childhood, I always thought of him, and my mother, as deeply devout - but they both claimed that they had little devotion at all until their retirement.  I suppose it's relative!! It is true to say that since the mid eighties when Dad retired, their faith has been not only central, but the primary focus of their lives- to the benefit of all the family.

I haven't often followed in his footsteps, but if I ever do - let it be in meeting death.  As a cousin of mine put it, he was preparing for that moment for the last 20 years.


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