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Vol. III, No. 5 — April 13,
2005 — University of St Andrews
 Photo: Edinburgh Student
EDINBURGH PROTEST: Students at the
University of Edinburgh unveiled a massive banner saying ‘No arms to
China’ during lunchtime on March 10. The banner was protesting recent
proposals by France and Germany to end the European Union embargo on
sales of arms to the Communist China.
T O W N Starbucks to Open Shop on Market Street Garden of Delights or Harbinger of Doom?
A
BRANCH of the American coffee chain Strabucks is to open in the former
location of the John Smith and Co. bookshop on North Street.
[continue]
W O R L D John Paul II Passes Away in Vatican Saved the Church from the Modern World. POPE
John Paul II died at 1937 GMT on the evening of Saturday, April 7 in
his apartment in the Apostolic Palace. He was eighty-five years old,
and reigned as Supreme Pontiff for the last twenty-six, elected in the
unexpected second conclave of 1978.
[continue]
B R I T A I N Oxford Paper Faces Mass
Resignation
Staff Protests Lack of Editorial
Independence
THE
entire staff of the Oxford Student
has resigned en masse to protest the firing of the newspaper’s two
editors, Mr. Tom Rayner and Miss Anna Maybank. Oxford Student Services
Limited (OSSL, a subsidiary of the Oxford University Students Union)
which owns the newspaper, sacked the two over disputes regarding the
Drama editor, Mr. Tom Littler. [continue]W O R L D Communists Arrest Bishop
and Priests as Condolences are Sent to Vatican
Bishop Yao Liang, Fr. Zhao Kexun and Fr.
Wang Jinling Are Seized in Week Before Death of Pope
THREE
Chinese Catholic clergymen who refuse to join the official state-run
catholic church were arrested in the week previous to John Paul II’s
death. Father Zhao Kexun was arrested on March 30, Bishop Yao
Liang on March 31, and Fr. Wang Jinling on April 1. Bishop Yao is the
auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Xiwanzi in the Hebei province, and
both he and Fr. Wang are in their early eighties. [continue]U N I V E R S I T Y Plantinga Starts His
Gifford Lectures
Philosopher Adopts ‘Conflict or Concord’ as
Theme of Lecture Series
THE
famous philosopher of religion, Professor Alvin Plantinga of the
University of Notre Dame, began the 2005 Gifford Lectures yesterday
when he gave his first talk on the subject ‘Evolution and Design.’
Plantinga is well known around the intellectual world as perhaps the
foremost philosophical proponent of Christianity, especially his free
will defence in response to John Mackie’s logical argument on the
problem of evil as well as his use of ontological argument using modal
logic. [continue]F E A T U R E S
D R I N K I N G H O L E S The Search for the Perfect Martini Our
own James T. Branda scoured
St Andrews for the best martini. The results might surprise you. [read]
 A
FEW YEARS AGO, the city fathers of Liverpool decided, in their no
doubt infinite wisdom, to dub its airport John Lennon International, or
some-thing as equally appealing to Japanese music fans. Now, I shalln’t
commit the cardinal sin of besmirching that fine city on the banks of
the Mersey, but I will say that the cities of Bonn and Cologne made a
better choice when they opted to name their air transport hub after
Konrad Adenauer, the father of the modern German nation. [read]
A R C H I T E C T U R E / P R O P E R T Y Westminster's Best-Kept Secrets The
wheels have come full circle: an interesting array of Georgian
masterpieces in Westminster are being converted back into family
houses, writes Nicholas Vincent.
[read]
F A S H I O N Summer Fashion Notes Let us take a moment to reflect on some of this summer's trends in the world of fashion, writes Abigail Hesser. [read] P A R L I A M E N T H A L L This House Would Privatise the University of St Andrews Members
of the Union Debating Society assembled in Lower Parliament Hall on
Wednesday the 23rd of February 2005 to debate the motion “This House
Would Privatise the University of St Andrews”. The highlight of the
evening, and speaking first for the Proposition, was Professor Anthony
O’Hear, the Weston Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Buckingham. Professor O’Hear attacked state meddling in the realm of
higher education, claiming that the State saw three main purposes to
higher education: social engineering, wealth creation, and the “mass
certification of the largely ineducable.” [only
in print edition]
S T U D E N T P O L I T I C S Bad Eggs? Our
Student Union representatives oppose high fees with one hand and
support them with the other, David
Vinton argues.
[only
in print edition]
S O C I A L R E P O R T Strathtyrum Fête Declared Best Ambassadors Ball Ever THIS
year’s Ambassadors’ Ball has been acclaimed as the most successful to
date by organisers and attendées alike. The event, marked by a
slight tropical theme, was held in a series of marquees on the
Strathtyrum estate just outside of town.
[only
in print edition]
E D I T O R I
A L / O P I N I O N
L
E A D E R
The Accusers Must Be Vanquished Two
days after the death of the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, Terry
Eagleton seemed a lone voice of criticism. He wrote in the Guardian:
‘the greatest crime of his papacy … was the grotesque irony by which
the Vatican condemned – as a “culture of death” – condoms, which might
have saved countless Catholics in the developing world from an
agonising AIDS death. The Pope goes to his eternal reward with those
deaths on his hands.’ This article, the most eloquent false narrative
one could ask for, represents how Marxists in the media are now seeking
to control the judgement of history. In the days following the pope’s
death the usual critics mainly mixed broad praise with only muted
insinuations. But now the lies are spreading with the speed and potency
of a computer virus.
[continue]
L E T T E R S T O T H E E D I T O R Whither the Constabulary? From
Mr. Eliot Wilson, MA, MLitt of the Reformation Studies Institute, and a
certain 'Marat J.P. Robespierre' of Sous-de-Nîmes, France. [read]
Letters to the Editor should be sent to: themitre@gmail.com. C O M M E N T A Silver Lining to Death of the National Party by
ANDREW K.B. CUSACK
It
was only just recently announced that the National Party of South
Africa – or the ‘New National Party’ as it sought to rebrand itself in
recent years – officially abolished itself. This news was applauded by
some, derided by others, but was a surprise to no one. [read]
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O N T E N T S Home About Archives Literary Review On the Mitre: "Its frenetic tone is amusing in a relentless, unpitying way that reminds me of 'Vile Bodies'." Fr.
John Emerson
Regional Superior, FSSP |