Sunday, August 12, 2007

Folly or Avarice at Westminster Cathedral?


I am feeling a bit negative at the moment, so forgive me, I am so annoyed about Bishop Budd's preface to that book published by the Bishops of England and Wales.



Westminster Cathedral after hosting the launch for Jeffrey Archer's so-called Gospel of Judas, and then Taverner's 99 Beautiful Names. There is another debacle which Mullier Fortis draws attention to. She has been been reading Carpe Canum. Westminster Cathedral has been used for a sequel to " the film Elizabeth is due out later this year. It will be screened in Canada in September, and over here some time after that. Elizabeth was bad enough: the myths about "good" Queen Bess were perpetuated and a whole bunch of lies about the Catholic Church (including the presentation of a Jesuit priest as a murderous assassin) were presented as absolute fact. The sequel, called The Golden Age, promises to be even worse: it continues with the idea that the Catholic martyrs of the Reformation period were all bloodthirsty murderers, and asserts that the Armada was bringing the Spanish Inquisition along with it (with the implication that this would be a bad thing...)


And now for the rub: they couldn't use the Escorial (not entirely sure why... perhaps the Spanish felt rather more strongly about the lies being perpetuated by the film) so they needed to find a suitable "stand-in." And yes, they picked Westminster Cathedral..." [Mulier Fortis]


I presume the Cardinal and his Auxiliaries Bishops would have been consulted about the use of the Cathedral for this film. It is a sad reflection on them that the "Mother Church" of our nation should be used to perpetuate anti-Catholic myth and sully the name of those glorious martyrs of the faith. If we are not concerned about Truth what is our purpose?
Following on from the Cathedral being used for the performance of the 99 Beautiful Names and the presentation of the Gospel of Judas one is left to ask: to what ends will the Cathedral authorities not stoop to for their thirty pieces of silver?

Is it folly or avarice that drives them?

8 comments:

JARay said...

My God!
I am absolutely appalled!
I can think of nothing worse than this treachery.
I have been saying to myself that the only thing that I can do is to write directly to the Pope.
My fears are that such a letter will be sidelined.
I confess to having little confidence in writing to those who have been already suggested.
I will not opine in public why I feel this way.
I have already asked Almighty God to lead me along the right path.
In te spero Domine.

JARay

gemoftheocean said...

I keep hoping St John Fisher gets up and walks out. Maybe some knucklehead will take it as a "sign." Ever since I've heard from Damian Thompson re: the 99 names fiasco, they have been on my you-know-what list.

Granted, it's easy for me living in the US to have vowed:
NEVER TO SET FOOT IN THE PLACE AGAIN
unless
1) apologies are issued to the Catholic faithful from the top
or
2) All people in charge of the place are deceased or reassigned

And if the later of the latter, than THOSE places are on the watch list.

There's more than one Catholic house of worship in London, so I can easily give the Cathedral a miss.

And you're right. Elizabeth creeped me out too with all their bald lies.

Karen H.

Fr Ray Blake said...

Karen, I think St John Southworth's relics are preseved in the cathedral.

gemoftheocean said...

You're right! [See, Fisher got up and walked out a long time ago. ;-D ]

Anonymous said...

My post on the Cathedral website has received no reply:
You seem quite sanguine about the myth of killer priests being perpetuated and perhaps a new generation discovering the 'killer priests'. Could you, in your position, not do something to inform the public at large of this untruth?

Sharon

WhiteStoneNameSeeker said...

I've sent a message to the blog and I'm in the process of writing letters-about the book.

TTony over at the MUNIMUNT ROOM has some good letter outlines to help people like me who never know how to phrase these things.

I'm quickly turning into the Catholic version of 'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' ;)

Anonymous said...

Westminster Cathedral costs a fortune to run. Donations and collections hardly pay for it. The answer is for Catholics to dig deeper into their pockets but few seem willing to do so. That's why Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral charge admittance. Would you prefer this to happen in the cathedral? Somehow I think the answer would be no.

Fr Ray Blake said...

Ms M-O'C,
I woud prefer it to fall down around the Cardinal's and Administrator's ears than that money should be raised by something which is contrary to the faith.
Baisc Principle: Evil may not be done to achieve a Good.

Perpetuating falsehoods, even historical ones is contrary top our faith.

May be as much effort could be put into evangelisation as is put into this type of fundraising!

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