Joanna Bogle


Joanna Margaret Bogle, DSG is a British Roman Catholic writer and broadcaster based in London. Bogle married a barrister and convert to Catholicism. She has written for the Richmond Herald, the Surrey Comet, the Catholic Times, the Catholic Herald, and The National Catholic Register. Bogle has been described a firebrand, believes Christians are under attack in Britain and opposed the ordination of women priests. In 2013, she was awarded a papal honour and became a Dame of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great.

Biography

Bogle worked for the Richmond Herald and later the Surrey Comet newspapers after leaving school. She has written for the Catholic Times and the Catholic Herald. In 1996, Bogle was described by Catholic writer Peter Stanford as "a forceful, eloquent and youthful firebrand who has made it her business, with some success, to act as a counter-balance to Cristina Odone on the chat-show and soundbite circuit."
Bogle is a founder member of the Association for Catholic Women in England and contributes to The National Catholic Register. She is married to James Bogle, a barrister and convert to Catholicism. She has a degree in theology.
In 2013, she became a Dame of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great, a Papal merit award whose recipients are styled "DSG". The award is not connected to Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom. Bogle does not have a television but contributes to EWTN Global Catholic Network, a Catholic television and radio network "dedicated to the advancement of truth as defined by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, to serve the orthodox belief and teaching of the Church as proclaimed by the supreme Pontiff and his predecessors."
Her biography of 19th-century humanitarian Caroline Chisholm, The Emigrant's Friend, was published in 1993. A short biography, "Courage and Conviction" concerns Mother Riccarda Beauchamp Hambrough and Sister Katherine Flanagan, two British Bridgettine nuns who helped to hide 50 Jewish refugees in Rome during the Second World War.

Opinions

A conservative who believes the Catholic Church should advocate fundamental truths rather than liberal attitudes, Bogle has opposed the ordination of women priests. In 1999, Bogle opposed the recommendation of the Broadcasting Standards Commission to use BCE and CE in place of BC and AD. She was a member of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, and in 1987 was described as "Mary Whitehouse's second-in-command" by the London Daily News.
In 1998, she criticised the decision of the Church to honour Rupert Murdoch with a knighthood: "It sends out the message that you can make a living out of something – soft pornography – that is regarded by the Church as sinful, and yet you can be awarded for it. The Knighthood of St. Gregory is supposed to be about honour and chivalry and splendour. To give it to Murdoch is ridiculous and wrong."
She believes Catholics, and Christians generally, are under sustained assault in the UK and should assert themselves. In March 2009, Bogle participated in a debate on Channel 4 News with Dr Rachel Baggaley, head of Christian Action's HIV programme, and presenter Jon Snow, on the Church's policy towards AIDS in Africa. Snow described it as the fiercest debate in which he ever participated.

Publications

  • Celebrating Our Heritage
  • Who Lies Where?
  • Heart for Europe
  • Prayers from the Heart for the Feasts of the Year
  • Prayers from the Heart for Everyday Things
  • When the Summer Ended
  • Book of Feasts & Seasons
  • Caroline Chisholm: The Emigrant's Friend
  • Come on In, It's Awful
  • Does the Church Oppress Women?
  • Martyrs of Uganda
  • Engaged to be Married
  • Fr Werenfried – A Life
  • The First Croydon Airport 1915–1928: v. 1
  • Croydon Airport: From War to Peace
  • One Corner of London: A History of St. Bede's, Clapham Park
  • The Church in Nightingale Square
  • The Pope Benedict Code, Gracewing, 2006
  • A Yearbook of Seasons and Celebrations
  • St John Mary Vianney, the Cure of Ars: A Parish Priest for All the World
  • English Catholic Heroines
  • A Nun with a Difference: The Life and Letters of Sister Mary Alban FC
  • Lent and Easter: Catholic Customs and Traditions
  • Advent and Christmas: Catholic Customs and Traditions
  • ''Courage and Conviction. Pius XII, the Bridgettine Nuns, and the Rescue of Jews. Mother Riccarda Hambrough and Mother Katherine Flanagan''