Date: 2010-08-21 04:26 pm (UTC)
Dear Fr Yakov,

The name is Michael and, as a sub-deacon, I am not 'Father'.

Your reference to nomenklatura rang an uncomfortable bell, as in a more despondent moment I recently described my going up to Cambridge in 1967 as 'being given a place at the nomenklatura's university with no chance of being taken into the nomenklatura'.
(The reason I got there at all was that as an 11-year old I won a state scholarship to an elite secondary school in London, from which the top 15% automatically went to Oxford or Cambridge.)

If I understand things right, the 'establishment' I refer to (as it was around 1970) was perhaps closer to the post-Soviet (is this what you mean by neo-Soviet?) nomenklatura, where, apart from the right connections, it is useful to have a brain. If I understand right, in the Soviet nomenklatura this was less necessary....

The situation in England has changed considerably since then, not least because since about 1980 people can again earn lots of money fairly honestly.


No, a recusant is a term for someone who remained Roman Catholic in England when Catholicism was outlawed - mainly aristocrats who were allowed to keep Catholic priests on their estates. One of these aristocratic families has the same surname as me, so in better Catholic circles they used to discreetly inquire 'Are you one of....'

I hope though that none of this destroys your love for Chadwick. That would be desecration.

Incidentally, to find the film on You Tube that I refer to, google 'You Tube Owen Chadwick' and you well get to it.


In Christo, Michael
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