I was still worrying in the night about bills and lack of any political influence when by chance I happened on the funeral mass in Westminster Cathedral of Father Alan James Fudge, the parish priest of the Catholic Church on Ogle Street. To be honest, I did not know him but he was obviously a marvellous man. The Cathedral was packed with two-thousand people.

Here was a simple parish priest. He had no money, no “power”, no influence, except on the many, many people he went and helped. A true Curé d’Ars. Apparently he was a marvellous preacher, but also a much loved confessor who, like the Curé d’Ars, spent hours listening to and advising people, so for him he avoided all debt save love.