We are now over six weeks on from my last words of wisdom (who’s kidding?) and I have been busy looking at all the feedback forms from contented Pax pilgrims who have been returning from journeys which have taken them to places as far apart as Walsingham and Petra. We always put in a section asking what the high and low points of their pilgrimage were, if any. One of the most amusing highlights that I can recount from a pilgrim who has just returned was: “Getting away from the kids and the dog for a little while!”

Now, here is an invitation to all our friends (and enemies to if we have any!). We are helping to organise two great classical concerts next week featuring the best young performers from USA and UK. The first is at the Town Hall Birmingham on Monday 25^th June at 7:30pm where the Orange County High School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra & Choir will be joined by the Birmingham Junior Conservatoire Chamber Choir & Orchestra. Amongst the works they will perform are be the Bernstein Chichester Psalms, and Dvorak Te Deum. Tickets for the concert can purchased from the Town Hall box office 01213450643 or www.THSH.co.uk . The young American musicians then come to London where they will be joined by Tiffin School Boys Choir, the Phoenix Chorale of Cambridge and the Thames Youth Choir and Orchestra for a concert at Westminster Central Hall on Saturday 30^th June at 7:30pm. The programme will be more or less the same as the Birmingham concert with the addition of the London Premier of a new work by the young composer Tansy Davies, Streamlines. I would ask as many of our friends in the London area to come along since, out of the proceeds of the concert, a donation will be made to The Passage, that wonderful charity to help the homeless in London that was set up by St Basil Hume (who says he isn’t one?) over 30 years ago. Tickets can be bought by phoning 020 7492 1500 or online at www.theatrepeople.com .

Finally, a warm (if not wet) welcome to Fr Joseph Johnson and his group of pilgrims from the Cathedral of St Paul Minneapolis, who are in the middle of a pilgrimage around England that has taken in Canterbury, Walsingham, York, the Shrine of Blessed John Henry Newman at Birmingham, and will end with a boat ride up the Thames from Westminster to the Tower of London recreating the last journey of St Thomas More whose feast day falls this Friday 22^nd June.

Philip Dean

Managing Director

Today is the 1st May and rain is falling. But they tell us that we are in a state of drought. I seem to remember that the so-called environment agency said exactly the same thing last year, and the heavens then opened. Perhaps they are manned by Prince Charles whose increasingly far-fetched pronouncements about the state of the Earth are as way out as those of the environment agency. Never mind, the sun is forecast to come out in 2 weeks time! My second moan today is about the perception of hotel single supplements by some travellers. We are sometimes accused of penalising single travellers who claim that hotels do not charge for single occupancy of a room. Well, here is a little arithmetical exercise. At present I am looking at the prices quoted to me by a hotel in Portugal. The double room is quoted at the sterling equivalent of £60 per night. This cost will be shared by the two occupants of the room making the price per person £30 per night. The single room is quoted at the sterling equivalent of £50 per night to be paid by the occupant. So, what I would like you to do is to work out from that, what is the extra cost is per night for the single occupant of a room to pay compared to the occupant of a shared double room. Answers on a postcard to the Managing Director at Pax Travel. If you are a single traveller, and are the first to give me the correct answer, I will refund 50% of your next single occupancy or supplement (or whatever you care to call it), the next time you book with us. Actually, sometimes we do not pass on the entire extra cost that single travellers have to pay because we have sympathy with the fact that they may not wish to share a room. However, I think it is about time that we nailed the misconception that it is the Tour Operator that charges for this service rather than the hotel.

Anyway, the good news is that on our fascinating tour of Lesser Known Rome led by Fr Richard Duffield this September, there is no single supplement, because almost all of the rooms are singles! You can find out the details of this tour by accessing the Featured Tour section of our website.

Philip Dean

Managing Director

After two months hibernating, I can report that spring has finally arrived. It has been a long winter, but the green shoots of recovery are finally emerging. Catholics and non-Catholics still desire to go on pilgrimage, and are asking us to take them to holy places all over the world. The Holy Land of Israel, Palestine and Jordan is still the most popular place of pilgrimage, and by visiting the lands of Christ and of the Old Testament prophets, we are able to engage with Palestinian Christians and Muslims, and with our Jewish friends. We all go back to Abraham, our common point of agreement together with our belief in monotheism. Our secular society does not like us, and thinks that when we state that marriage is by definition between a man and a woman, we are being anti-progressive, and backward-looking. Actually, our Muslim, Jewish and Sikh friends agree with us. That is a much stronger coalition than the cobbled-together unit running UK PLC. We DO matter, and are a very sizeable coalition, Christians, Jews, Muslims and Sikhs, so our message to Cameron and Clegg is: disregard us at your peril. We have votes too!

Philip Dean

No, I haven’t been away for the last month, but have just been very busy, with a host of new requests from friends of Pax Travel old and new. Especially greetings to, Fr. Joseph, the Rector of the Catholic Cathedral of St. Paul, Minnesota whom we will be welcoming with a group of parishioners to these shores in June, making a pilgrimage via Canterbury and Walsingham to York, to the Shrine of Blessed John Henry Newman in Birmingham, and ending with a boat trip on the Thames to the Tower of London on the Feast of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More on 22^nd June. This pilgrimage will be sandwiched between the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee on 4^th June, and, of course the Olympics at the end of July.

It promises to be a great year, where, hopefully, we will confound the prophets of doom and gloom and overcome the darkness of recession.

My sincere prayers and best wishes go out to my Christian and Muslim friends in Nigeria, who are being so cruelly attacked, by agents of the Devil, calling themselves Boko Haram. And many people deny that Satan is still powerful! I appeal to prominent believers of both of the great religions of Christianity and Islam to jointly condemn this cruel, wanton violence. And I wish the President of Nigeria good luck in his mammoth task!

First of all, I would like to extend my very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to all readers of my blog. I hope that over the next fortnight you will be able to relax with family and friends and reflect on the past year, which has seen both despair and optimism in varying degrees and differing circumstances. For me the glass is always half full, not half empty. How can I be an organiser of Christian Pilgrimages and not be optimistic? I would ask all of you to share your Christian thoughts with our friends who are less fortunate than we are, whether they are living on the outskirts of Bethlehem, being crushed by the Israeli wall, or even my friends in Tel Aviv (Yes, I do have good friends in Israel as well as in Palestine). Pilgrimage organisers have to be bridge builders between communities, however unlikely the chances of rapprochement with each other. How otherwise could South Africa and Northern Ireland have even renounced violence, and chosen the path to peace. A special thought to our friends in Syria. What a tragedy! However, hope springs eternal, and I’m sure all my fellow pilgrimage operators will agree. Oh, and a very happy Christmas to them too!

Philip Dean.

Great news! Our new brochure, Pax Travel: Journey’s of Faith 2012, is now with us, and last weekend we were able to send out copies to those of you who had so requested. Many thanks to our youthful helpers, Christopher, Roberto and Chelsea ably marshalled by our own Ludo Smith. There are some wonderful pilgrimages in the brochure and I cannot even begin to advise on which are my favourite! What I would say is that if you want to join Canon Christopher Tuckwell, in the steps of St. Boniface to Germany, ending with a stay in Dresden, the “Florence of the Elbe” next July, then book up soon since early indications are that this will fill up very quickly and we are limiting it to 36 people. Bookings are also coming in for our Pro-Life pilgrimage to Lourdes next September led by Bishop John Rawsthorne. If you haven’t yet got a copy of the brochure, then you can download it from our website.

This month marks my 40^th Anniversary in the travel business. I am sure youngsters like John Tangney and Alistair McCabe will be rushing to their telephones to send their congratulations! My first Holy Land pilgrimage was in 1977, which resulted in my setting up Pax Travel in January 1978. But more of that after Christmas which I gather is just round the corner!

There has been so much doom and gloom about the world and especially the European economic situation, but that does not seem to have stopped you from booking up to go on pilgrimage. I cannot think of a better way of spending your holiday money than doing this. That is what you have been telling me in your feedback forms after you have returned from one of our trips. I look forward to welcoming you to one of our 2012 tours. Perhaps we can then find time to pray for all those pusillanimous politicians and investment bankers who got us into this mess in the first place.

Philip Dean

Managing Director

Assisi was awesome last Thursday October 27^th, the day Pope Benedict arrived from Rome by special train for the day of prayer for World Peace accompanied by a trainload of leaders of the major world religions as well as a few non-believers. As Cardinal Peter Turkson said in his introductory remarks in the Basilica of S. Maria degli Angeli “We come from different religious traditions and from various parts of the world to renew and strengthen a quest for the truth that each of us out of our own traditions is ceaselessly committed to. We come also to bear witness to the great power of religion from God, and to renew a common commitment to building peace, to reconciling those in conflict and to bringing man back into harmony with creation”. Noble aims indeed! This belies the observation by Lucretius 200 years ago: “Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum”. No, said Dr. Muzadi, from the international conference of Islamic Scholars, it is not religion that is the problem. The problems arise from people of religions, with wrong interpretations of the “wholesomeness” of religion!

Rabbi David Rosen said that the sages of the Talmud teach us that not only is peace the name of God, but it is the essential prerequisite for redemption! David, please convince Benjamin Netanyahu and his hawkish coalition partners of this truth. For once, let him extend the hand of friendship to Ramallah and Gaza. Can’t be done? How about South Africa and Northern Ireland? Can’t be done or don’t want it to be done?

Back to Assisi; my “man of the match” was Archbishop Rowan Williams, who said that lasting peace begins when we see the neighbour as another self and so begin to understand how and why we must love our neighbour as we have loved ourselves! He went on to say that for the Christian, the heart of all this is the conviction that in Jesus of Nazareth God himself identifies with human nature, and thus with each and every human person!

I leave the final words to Pope Benedict:

“Violence never again,

War never again,

Terrorism never again,

In the name of God, may every religion

Bring upon the earth Justice and Peace, Forgiveness and Life, Love!”

After Assisi, Judith and I spent a wonderful two days in Siena, before flying home on Michael O’Leary’s magnificent flying machine from Perugia.

Back home, Pax Travel was delighted to welcome two good friends and colleagues, Alistair and Rosemary (McCabe travel) to Kentish Town earlier this week. Alistair McCabe set up McCabe pilgrimages many moons ago, and offices a superb selection of pilgrimages to manifold places. Pax Travel are currently not offering Egypt but McCabe are, and I have no hesitation in recommending them for Egyptian-based pilgrimage tours!

Last of all, a commercial for Pax! There are just a few places remaining on our “Christmas in Rome” tour from 22^nd – 27^th December. Why not look at our website for details?

Philip Dean

Monday 24^th October 2011

I am between visits to Assisi, and was privileged to be there for the Feast of St. Francis on 4^th October with a small but appreciative group of pilgrims. What a wonderful day to be in Assisi, with more than 10,000 people gathered in the old town for the festivities. I am off to Assisi once more this Wednesday, where Judith and I hope to be present at Pope Benedict’s celebration of Mass after his leadership of the Interfaith meeting, which marks the 25^th Anniversary of the initial meeting hosted by Pope John Paul II. What momentous events have happened between my two visits to Assisi.  On my first visit, on 3^rd October, I flew out on the same plane as members of the Kercher family, the only people who have come out of the aftermath of the murder of their much-loved daughter Meredith with any credit or dignity at all. Spare a thought also for the unfortunate Patrick Lumumba, slandered by Amanda Knox who served 3 years in jail for this offence, but now stand to earn a Queens ransom. Meanwhile, our prayers go out to the Kercher family and to Patrick who lost his job and his house in Perugia unjustly.

On to happier news! Congratulations to Archbishop Vincent Nichols for using his good offices to ensure peace at the Vaughan. At least they are happy now! Also, they have got Stubbings as head, whilst for Manchester United and Chelsea yesterday, it was drubbings all round!!  Still, I am sure that both those great teams will live to fight another day, whilst for Captain Paul, we wish you a very happy stay at the helm of the good ship Vaughan. Oh and please look after young Leo. Perhaps you will teach him a few Latin phrases!

Now on to even better things. At Pax Travel, we have nearly put to bed the finished version of our 2012 brochure. In about another 3 weeks, it will be available for public consumption. There are some really exciting new ideas that we are incorporating into next year’s program:

·         The Divine Art of Fra Angelico will be explored during a visit to Florence.

·         An exciting-looking pilgrimage in the steps of St. Boniface to Germany ending with a visit to Dresden, which will take place in July.

·         Of course we will be returning to Assisi for the Feast of St. Francis, which is where I came in!

For the rest of the contents of the brochure you will just have to wait and see.

Philip Dean

I’m usually a fan of Michael O’Leary, the feisty boss of Ryan Air. However, on this occasion I think he has well and truly lost it. I refer to his Ryan Air credit card which is organised by the incompetent Santander bank. When applying for the card, a requirement is that you are aged between 18-64 years of age. My legal friends assure me this contravenes several laws of the land and I have warned the feisty Irishman that he could be taken to court as a result of this meanwhile, to any of my silver-surfer friends clutching an application form for the Ryan Air credit card, my advice would be that on your next flight, flush the form down one of Mr O’Learys toilets before he starts charging for the privilege of using them. 

Having given the case for the prosecution I now leap to O’Learys defence. Most of what he does is progressive, useful to the travelling public and quite radical. He has brought many of the small towns of Italy, France, and Spain etc etc within the reach of everyone. On Monday next, I am flying to Perugia, and will then make the 20 minute drive to Assisi, where I shall stay for the feast of St. Francis together with a small Pax group. Before Ryan Air flew to Perugia, you had to fly to Rome or Pisa and make the three hour journey on the road to Assisi. So on balance, I congratulate Ryan Air, but please Michael cut the ageist crap!

Thank goodness for Cardinal Vaughan. I’ve been happy to give holiday jobs to sixth formers who are off to university and what a pleasure and privilege for me to have them working at Pax. They can spell, they are polite, and it only takes me ten minutes to explain things that would take students of St. Charles College 10 weeks to learn. I would suggest that, out of charity the highly-professionally run Vaughan could send a team round to St. Charles to show them how to run a school. No wonder that ex prime ministers make Vaughan the school of choice for their 11 year olds to go to!

I will give you a report of the Feast of St. Francis when I get back from Assisi.

Philip Dean

The Managing Director’s Blog – 1^st September

I am just back from two peaceful weeks in North Norfolk, not far from Wasingham, where Judith and I were able to get to mass at the Catholic  Parish Church and also to meet friends, such as the newly consecrated Anglican Bishop of Richborough, Norman Banks, who will be moving to live at St.Albans in January 2012. This will be Wasingham’s great loss.

The advantage of being a tour operator specialising in Christian Pilgrimages, is that we meet people from all branches of the tree of Christianity as practised in our country. We respect and work with Catholics, including members of the Ordinariate, members of the Church of England (All branches of the candlestick!), Methodists and Baptists. My parents were cradle Baptists, and converted to Catholicism after hearing the voice of the Great Dominican Preacher, Fr. Vincent McNab at Speakers Corner!

We are presently busy at Pax Travel. The wonderful young people are back from World Youth Day in Madrid, and apart from the unbearably hot weather, and getting soaked by the semi-tropical down pour at the all-night vigil with Pope Benedict, they seem to have had a very rewarding experience in Spain. My special thanks to Ericsson who masterminded the Pax organisation, and also to his two young assistants, Luis and Ross, both of whom rose to the occasion splendidly. Our friends in Aid to the Church in Need, are on pilgrimage to Ukraine next week, followed by the Friends of Guildford Cathedral, to Finland and Russia. Obviously nothing to Syria or Libya this year, but several to Rome and Assisi, the Holy land, Sicily, Iona, Brittany, Cordoba and Granada, Jordan, Santiago De Compostela and Fatima, ETC. ETC.

To anyone reading this (from any part of the world!) and who is thinking of organising a Pilgrimage next year, I say : Drop me a line, and I will be delighted to work with you!

Philip Dean