Guy Fawkes Night

When I were a bairn, me and my sisters weren’t allowed to go out on bonfire night because of its anti-Catholic overtones and the demonisation of Guy Fawkes who was probably innocent but certainly a victim of torture by the British state. The anti-catholic stuff has largely receded to the background in favour of fireworks and sprinklers, and the anti-catholic origins of the festival are for most (one would hope) a historical curiosity.

It turns, however, that a place called Lewes still retains much of the anti-Catholic sentiment of Guy Fawkes Night, and tonight they will be displaying the traditional banners reading ‘No Popery’. Via Fr Tim Finigan and Fr Ray Blake comes news of Lewes’ own Parish Priest, one Fr Richard Biggerstaff, who is responding with his own catechetical campaign called ‘Know Popery’.