Fr Ray Blake's Blog

An Impious Sale by Ramsgate Monks

2012-01-31T18:48:00.013Z

Fr Mildew reports that the former monks of Ramsgate who have now relocated to the former Franciscan Friary at Chilworth are selling off at public auction some truly beautiful objects. Fr Mildew raises concern about selling chalices which have been consecrated for sacred worship, as if the act of consecration meant nothing, fortunately the reliquaries on sale appear empty.

Though I wish the monks well, I hate to say this but this seems to be an impious sale that I like Fr Clifton find very distressing. The catalogue can be seen here. I only hope and pray that these sacred objects are bought and restored to the holy use for which they were intended. However their fate is more likely to become part of some decorative scheme or possibly even to be used for a sacrilegious purpose, auctions are like that.

What was it that Pope said about those things considered holy by previous generations?

St Benedict says monks should sell things a little cheaper than market prices. I am sure that if the monks are happy with the estimated figures, which seem surprising low these holy objects could be sold by private sale to clergy who would use them well and guarantee their continued sacred use. I would be willing to do it for them.

Many of the objects were donated in memory of loved ones, there is a ciborium with an inscription asking for prayers for a young pilot killed presumably in the Battle of Britain and lots of other things which were never intended for sale but as offerings at the altar for the souls of the departed. I just hope the Abbot has permission from the donors descendants for their disposal.

It appears disrespectful to their memory.

The monastery can be contacted here, I think. I have of course sent them a link to this post, perhaps in charity you might contact the monks too.
I am sure they are good men but just being foolish and obviously ill advised.
I have heard on the grapevine Farnborough Abbey are interesting in acquiring as many of these items as possible, "too keep them in the monastic family".

Fr Mildew's post:

"I have raised the question of whether the monks had a right to do so and the legalities the Diocese will look into. However, and whatever the case, I deplore the fact that these effects were not offered to the diocese before departure of the monks. You can see these effects and the catalogue of which they are a section by going to the auction web site. www.dominicwinter.co.uk and following the links to the auction of art and antiques 8th and 9th Feb. Now whatever else transpires they have no right to sell by auction two important chalices which are consecrated objects. There is an ADVERT for the sale in todays "Daily Telegraph" which illustrates two items. One is a "recusant chalice " (in fact it is one of two chalices in the sale). Now judging by the picture it is certainly an old chalice but cannot be a true recusant chalice. These were small chalices which could be unscrewed into two pieces for easy transportation by the missioners who travelled the country whilst persecution of Catholics was strong. The valuation is £3ooo.oo to £5000.00 which might be OK as a valuation if it is a recusant chalice but is a false figure for the chalice based on age alone. However this begs the question...A chalice is a consecrated object and should not be sold at all, only handed on. To sell consecrated objects is simony and against Canon Law.
There are several other items including a pair of Altar Candelabra by Hardman. The Abbey was built by AW Pugin who used Hardman's for all necessary silver work and ornamentation in Churchs designed by AW P.
I will endeavour to find out if the monks have right of ownership...but the chalices should be withdrawn anyway."

Missio Metropolis: Liverpool

2012-01-31T08:51:00.000Z

Catholic Commentary reports that the Archdiocese of Liverpool has been chosen to take part in a programme this Lent called Missio Metropolis, which will be evaluated to inform the forthcoming Synod of Bishops dedicated to the theme of the "new evangelisation".

If you look at the Bishop's Conference website's description of what is going to happen, there isn't actually a great deal, except the Archbishop is doing what I presume he always does, he's presiding at the Liturgy and preaching.

The other 12 European dioceses where this is happening are Barcelona, Budapest, Dublin, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Mechelen-Bruxelles, Paris, Turin, Vienna, Warsaw and Zagreb, all of which have cathedrals in the heart of the main city of their diocese, presumably the difference this year is that the role of the bishop teaching in his diocese will be given a little more advertising and given a little more importance.

They Won't Leave the Pope's House

2012-01-30T18:07:00.001Z

I thought you might enjoy this, the Pope releases doves, from Sunday's Angelus but "they won't leave the Pope's house", he says and chuckles. I have same problem with pigeons at times.

Celibacy

2012-01-29T21:25:00.000Z

A much respected Irish missionary has recently spoken of clerical celibacy coming to an end, it seems to be a popular Irish thing to suggest. The mess that the Church in Ireland is in doesn't quite give authority to the voice of of those who dissent from the Tradition of the West.

Over the past forty years celibacy has been talked down by so many bishops and clergy, "that which previous generations considered holy ..." now by many is simply an embarrassment, even identified as a cause of our problems.

Today's (OF) second reading reminds us of the dynamic nature of celibacy, it is about wholehearted commitment to Christ, having no other concern but him. The celibacy recommended by Paul presumably because he has as its model the celibacy of Jesus Christ himself. The Greeks take clerical beards as being an icon of Christ, in the West we have regarded celibacy in the same way, it is an icon of that longing for God at the heart of the relationship of the Son for the Father, it is profoundly Trinitarian, in that it can only be lived in the Power of the Holy Spirit.

Our problems with understanding celibacy seems very much linked to our problems in understanding asceticism today, it simply isn't part of current Christian spirituality, but then neither is any form of heroism, it is part of a feminisation of the Church.

Married priests both of the East and those recent additions in the West from Anglicanism and Episcopalianism etc do a good job, they function well, though those with young families are often torn between family and church but with the priesthood we are speaking, I would hope, about more than function, we are concerned about "being", what a man is, what he signifies, what desires are in the depths of his being, in his very entrails.

When Jesus speaks about those who choose celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom, always he holds up a hope of an eternal reward. With celibacy in practice, there is a dynamic of incompleteness and longing. in Christian celibacy that can only be satisfied by God. There is voluntary woundedness, even a desire for the continued wounding of the Cross that is incomprehensible to the world and secularised church that speaks of holiness as wholeness and finds death to self as folly and a stumbling block. The desk and grey suit, professionalism, smoothness and the corporate sense do not sit well with celibacy.

I find it fascinating that our Eastern bishops whenever celibacy is raised in a Synod, as happened at the Synod on the Eucharist, are the first to defend it and to regard it as the great treasure of the Western Church, a treasure they recognise and we do not. The Eastern experience comes from something lived, where there are both married and celibate clergy, though even in the East, though all bishops and the higher clergy are in theory "monks" most have never gone through a novitiate of any kind, they are above all those who have chosen celibacy, whereas those who are married, have chosen the lesser part.

Maynooth Closing a Few Doors

2012-01-28T16:43:00.000Z

There has been grumbling in Ireland and even in NCR because the trustees of Ireland's only seminary outside Rome, Maynooth is trying to seperate living accomodation of those studying for the priesthood from the students of the secular university that now occupy buildings that were formerly entirely given over to priestly formation.
Shane sent me a link to an article of 1978 talking about the folly of a seminary that in so many respects had become a secular college.
If one wants social workers then students to a secular institution, if you want men totally dedicated to Christ, to prayer, to the spritual life, to asceticism, to the the study of the person and ways of Jesus Christ then they have to spend time with him, to come away and live apart.
The NCR article by Eugene Cullen Kennedy seems to demonstrate the secularism that many would want their clergy to take on.
Whether a few doors and a seperate dining hall are enough to save Maynooth we will learn later this year when the Holy Sees report on the Irish Church is made public.

Rage and Wrath

2012-01-27T18:34:00.002Z

I've already said how interested I am in the growing public anger with President Obama of the US bishops
Below is an extract from a speech by Bishop David A. Zubik of the Diocese of Pittsburg

Kathleen Sebelius and through her, the Obama administration, have said “To Hell with You” to the Catholic faithful of the United States. •To Hell with your religious beliefs,
•To Hell with your religious liberty,
•To Hell with your freedom of conscience.
We’ll give you a year, they are saying, and then you have to knuckle under. As Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops responded, “in effect, the president is saying that we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.”

In Fance Christians have been on the streets:

In England characteristicly we tend to discuss things in London Clubs or Westminster committee rooms, perhaps we are too enamoured by the Establishment to openly confront it, as happened over adoption agencies. Though, over one scrap a decade or two ago a auxilliary bishop did say to me, "Well, the Government should always knows we could close our schools". I think he was an exception, he is now deceased.

A question: how militant can we legitimately get?

Change and Revival in all around I see

2012-01-25T21:50:00.002Z

The Church in 2008

The Church at Christmas Midnight Mass

This is how the Church was the week before Christmas, it shows the lighting brackets.

One of things that seems to be popular is our 10.30 Sunday Mass which we have started celebrating ad orientem, the numbers have gone up quite noticeably

We were talking about Candlemas earlier today and watching this old video, everything seems to have improved, not just the Church but our serving, our choir, everything - except my singing.
Incidently, have a Candlemas Missa Cantata, with procession, this year, at 7.30pm. I think this video was taken the year the roads were impassable with snow - say a prayer for this years.

We were talking about Candlemas earlier today and watching this old video, everything seems to have improved, not just the Church but our serving, our choir, everything (except my singing).

Obama Unites US Church

2012-01-25T14:48:00.001Z

President Obama has most probably done the Catholic Church in the US a great favour by forcing it into a position where it has had to unite to oppose his healthcare proposals. Though Archbishop Nichols might be oblivious to "what is down the road", his American brothers are only too aware. It is the removal of the Catholic Church from the public forum, the severe limiting of its service of the community and probably it itself having to lay off tens of thousands of its lay employees to avoid having to go against conscience and pay for contraception or sterilisation.
In England such concerns would be expressed behind closed doors, normally ending up with the Church conceding to the Governments position, in the US the Bishops have used the media coverage to explain to the public the Church's teaching, here we are less robust and our people suffer doctrinal confusion.
The Wall Street Journal has this to say:

Less predictable—and far more interesting—has been the heat from the Catholic left, including many who have in the past given the president vital cover. In a post for the left-leaning National Catholic Reporter, Michael Sean Winters minces few words. Under the headline "J'ACCUSE," he rightly takes the president to the woodshed for the politics of the decision, for the substance, and for how "shamefully" it treats "those Catholics who went out on a limb" for him.

The message Mr. Obama is sending, says Mr. Winters, is "that there is no room in this great country of ours for the institutions our Church has built over the years to be Catholic in ways that are important to us."

Mr. Winters is not alone. The liberal Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles, blogged that he "cannot imagine a more direct and frontal attack on freedom of conscience"—and he urged people to fight it. Another liberal favorite, Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla., has raised the specter of "civil disobedience" and vowed that he will drop coverage for diocesan workers rather than comply. They are joined in their expressions of discontent by the leaders of Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities, which alone employs 70,000 people.

thanks to Luke Coppen
Comments: are welcome but make sure they are sensible, my tolerance of the madcap, or raving has reached its limit!

CAFOD against Boris' Island

2012-01-24T13:00:00.002Z

My attention was drawn to a letter in the Telegraph from CAFOD and Christian Aid. Why is the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development involved in in ecological lobbying about a distinctly London issue?

SIR - A new hub airport in the Thames Estuary would be a disaster for the environment, and, as a result, for people and wildlife in this country and globally. What's more, there is no clear support for this airport from the British aviation industry. We know this because similar proposals have been considered by previous governments on at least three occasions, and each time they've been thrown out If anything, the case for Boris Island will only look worse this time round, because action on climate change is needed more urgently than ever. Aviation is already responsible for more than a fifth of the UK transport sector's greenhouse gas emissions, and an airport accommodating 180 million passengers each year, as proposed by Boris Johnson, would be much larger than any airport in operation in the world today. Such a scheme would effectively be the death knell for the Government's promise to be the greenest ever, and would undermine its ability to show international climate leadership. That's why we will be opposing it every step of the way.

Paul Brannen, Christian Aid
Neil Thorns, Cafod
Martin Harper, RSPB
Craig Bennet, Friends of the Earth
and 10 others; see telegraph.co.uk

Telegraph Letters Sat 21 Jan 2012, Eric Hester seems to sum up my own thoughts.

SIR - It is not surprising that a letter disagreeing with a Thames Estuary airport as "a disaster for the environment" is signed by representatives of Friends of the Earth and the RSPB. It is surprising that it is also signed by representatives of Christian Aid and the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development. If Christian charities that collect money to help people in poor parts of the world know nothing about the subject, it seems odd to sign a public letter. If they allow staff to spend time studying the facts about the airport, how can they can justify using them in this way rather than in the ways for which people donate money - helping the world's poor? Eric Hester
Bolton, Lancashire

An airport in the Thames estuary might indeed be environmentally damaging but there other agencies which have a role in pointing this out like the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Friends of the Earth, or Green Peace even the Green Party but the involvement of the Catholic Church of England and Wales' fund for overseas development seems to stretching their mandate more than a little.
It raises the issue, yet again, as to whether CAFOD is opposing Boris' Island simply because CAFOD allies itself with British left-wing politics.

Kikoists

2012-01-23T21:35:00.000Z

I am a little confused about the "Kikoists", the Neo-Catechetical Way; has the Pope approved of their rites or not, or rather are they obedient to the calls that their celebrations of the Mass are integrated into parish life or are private exclusive affairs and are they celebrated according to the liturgical books of the Church?

I know they have been given special permission to have the sign of peace before the Offertory and to have short introductions to the readings. What they do not have is permission to do is to receive the Body of Christ sitting, to use tables instead of consecrated altars, to appoint their own ministers to teach during the Liturgy.

There is a lot more that is concerning about them, their tendency to break away from the mainstream Church, to regard themselves in a sense as being some kind of "pure" Catholics and the rest of us as being in need of conversion, not so much to Christ but there own brand of the faith and the teaching of their own leaders.

To me they seem to be modern day Montanists, appointing their own ministers who have power above and beyond the heirarchy of the Church, they have their own rites and edit Catholic theology according to their own lights, they seem to have their own catechism too, not for them the Catechism of the Catholic Church but the writings of their own "prophets".

St Agnes the Child Martyr

2012-01-21T15:35:00.000Z

I find the little skull of St Agnes in her church in Piazza Navona very moving because it is so obviously the skull of a small child.

Saint Ambrose says:

Today is the birthday of a virgin; let us imitate her purity. It is the birthday of a martyr; let us offer ourselves in sacrifice. It is the birthday of St Agnes, who is said to have suffered martyrdom at the age of twelve. There was little or no room in that small body for a wound. Yet she shows no fear of the blood-stained hands of her executioners. She offers her whole body to be put to the sword by fierce soldiers. She is too young to know of death, yet she is ready to face it. Dragged against her will to the altars, she stretches out her hands to the Lord in the midst of the flames, making the triumphant sign of Christ the victor on the altars of sacrilege. She puts her neck and hands in iron chains, but no chain can hold fast her tiny limbs. In the midst of tears, she sheds no tears herself. She stood still, she prayed, she offered her neck. You could see fear in the eyes of the executioner, as if he were the one condemned. His right hand trembled, his face grew pale as he saw the girl's peril, while she had no fear for herself. One victim, but a double martydom, to modesty and to religion; St Agnes preserved her virginity and gained a martyr's crown."

The age of the child martyr is not dead in Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, in China and East Asia children suffer and die for the Catholic faith.

Abortion ads on your TV

2012-01-21T08:52:00.003Z

And now along with loo roll and breakfast cereal the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) are to allow abortionists to advertise tearing a child limb from limb in its mother's womb on television and radio.
“BCAP noted that such organisations offer legally available services and, if they comply with other rules in the BCAP Code, there is nothing to prevent them from advertising their services like other currently allowed (post-conception advice services) PCAS, in a responsible manner which does not mislead, harm or offend audiences.”

So if you are offended - complain complain complain! Under previous rules, only one advert concerning abortions, by the charity Marie Stopes International, has ever been aired on UK screens. The advert, in 2010, attracted more than 4,500 complaints.

Reading Faithful

2012-01-20T18:37:00.001Z

Do other parish priests have to put up with a faithful who read books AND church documents?
All I insist on from Clare our Director of Music and Andrew our Master of Ceremomies is that we do what we what the liturgical books tell us to do.
This is what appears on my choir's blog, entitled Should We sing the Gradual?

Switching from the Responsorial Psalm to the Gradual could be deemed controversial in many parishes. Despite the stipulation that the chant of the Graduale should be the first choice in the Novus Ordo, and the Responsorial Psalm is the second, our liturgical books give the Responsorial Psalm as the only option.

Crusades

2012-01-20T12:09:00.001Z

Fr Lucie-Smith recommended it and I think it is pretty good, you can watch Crusades on iplayer for the next few days.
Thomas Asbridge tries to address the violence of the Crusades in this new series, for the BBC, it seems to be relatively objective, not the normal Christians: bad, Muslims: good, that I have come to expect.
Asbridge in this first programme identifies the high devotion that inspired the First Crusade, and the reasons that the ideal soon fell into barbaric bloodshed.

Belate Happy Birthday Georg

2012-01-20T09:08:00.001Z

The Pope's brother Georg was 88 last Sunday.
I am intrigued by these fraternal telephone conversations, has brother Georg been suggesting his own bishop as Prefect of the CDF?
The word "Englishman" caught my attention here,

Wordlessness and the Microphone

2012-01-19T07:00:00.001Z

I might be a little dyslexic or just plain stupid but I can read a chapter or two of scripture time and time again and still not understand it. It happens with the Office of Readings, a passage carefully selected by some liturgist for my edification, and get to the end and wonder: what was the point of that?
It is words, words, words. We can be lost in sea of them.

Tonight we had Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament followed by Benediction, it is Old Rite, opens with O Salutaris, ends with Adoremus, it is the same every week, in part because I am too lazy to choose hymns every week and to avoid a scripture reading which would necessary if we used the New Rite properly. I have aversion to doing the Church's rites improperly.

What I like about Exposition is that it is wordless, "God looks at us and we look at God". It is that simple.

Benediction is reasonable simple too, God is there, we kneel before him, burn incense before him, pray to him, receive his blessing. He is the centre, we are supplicants. If you want a statement of Catholic faith. either we are idolatrous bread-worshippers or else that which appears bread is God himself. It is simple. It is iconic. It teaches in a very clear tableau form.

The same with traditional Mass, priest ascends to the altar to offer bread and wine before the people, again a simple tableau. Time and again he turns to the people to remind them the Lord is with them.
It is simple!

At a deeper level, the priest offers the Eternal Son the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, down the ages he mutters, "Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, Qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, Per omnia saecula saeculorum" or something similar.

Words and actions together reinforce the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith: the Incarnation and the Trinity. Other doctrines are certainly there but it is these two that are focussed on with lazer like precision. It is the simplicity of it find captivating.

In many ways the rites that developed under the influence of the Liturgical Movement in the 1920s and 30s and reached their fruition in the Bugnini reforms of the1960s and 70s though having the elegance of line of the Art Deco and functionalism of 1950s Utilitarianism seem to have a scatter gun approach.

I am sure that the biggest influence on liturgy in the 20th century was the microphone, bringing with it the assumption that once words can be heard, they can be understood. It should be remembered that Liturgical revision took place in the "radio age", one suspects by men who thought hearing or listening was the answer to all the Church's difficulties. The problem is that when everything can be heard, all is heard but then everything tends to becomes noise, there is no focus no discrimination.
The understanding that words are not all is perhaps a good reason for the more complex verbal structures of the new translation of the Roman Missal and why so many younger priests are exploring rites where words are not the be all and end all.

In Silence

2012-01-17T21:54:00.000Z

St Anthony of Egypt heard the words, "If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor—you will have riches in heaven. Then come and follow me".
He did, he sold practically everything.
The next day he heard,“Do not be anxious about tomorrow". He then gave away the little of his property he kept for necessities and then spent fifteen years of his life in solitude, in combat with demons, slowly purifying his heart, only after this does he then go into the desert to live in absolute solitude in union with God.
What fascinates me about the story is the comparative ease with which St Anthony divests himself of the things of the world but the internal battle is so lengthy and only accomplished by much effort and suffering on his part, then begins Anthony's life of union with God, he then spends 20 years in solitude and ascetic union with God.
Only then does Anthony emerge to teach the spiritual life to those who formed a community around his cell.

I love the honest realism of the Egyptian saints; St Anthony reminds us that the spiritual life is not easy, that those who teach it should be rooted in asceticism and union with God.

I wonder if we say too much, too soon, when silence might be better.

Mother Riccarda on TV

2012-01-17T01:10:00.000Z

Mother Riccarda got a slot on the news today, there is an old shot of the church interior and a short interview with Gerry Silverstone.
My thanks to the Diocese of Shrewsbury's press officer for the information.

Ordinariate Anniversary and a Triumph

2012-01-16T23:40:00.001Z

My congratulations to the the Ordinariate on it first anniversary. Mgr Newton writes poignantly in a Pastoral Letter:

What of the future? We face it with faith and hope, committing it to the Lord. There is a constant stream of men and women being received into the full communion of the Catholic Church through the Ordinariate, we expect several new groups to be received at Easter and we are preparing for a number of ordinations to the priesthood around Pentecost. In addition several young men are exploring the possibility of ordination within the Ordinariate. This is all extremely encouraging but could be a strain on our limited financial resources. I ask you to be generous in your financial stewardship; not simply making your financial contributions in response to needs but in response to God’s overwhelming generosity to us in Christ “who though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” 2 Cor 8:9. If we all do this we will be able to prepare for the future with confidence.

One of the more interesting elements of the anniversary was the Oxford University Latin Sermon preached in the University Church by (Fr) John Hunwicke, the former Vicar of St Thomas' Oxford who is still patiently waiting to hear if he is to be ordained as a Catholic priest of the Ordinariate.
Fr Z pipped me the post on this one, you can find JH's sermon, in Latin, and a paraphrase of which this is an excerpt on WDTRS.

The walls around us heard Newman’s ‘silver voice’ gathering in great herds of young men. As an Anglican, he worked for unity in writings such as Tract 90; but his voice was not the only one to do this. Edward Bouverie Pusey, most learned man of his age, author of an Eirenicon, preached a University sermon on the Eucharist, crammed with quotations from the Greek Fathers, which led to his suspension, for two years, from preaching before the University! A Bampton Lecturer, Eric Mascall, mathematician as well as theologian, defended Catholic truth and wrote of the unity of the Eastern and Western Churches. Such men exemplified Archbishop Michael Ramsey’s description of the Anglican theological method as “Divinity done within the sound of church bells”! These and men like them may have died as Anglicans, but they are such as Aidan Nichols, a Roman Catholic theologian, had in mind when he coined the felicitous phrase “separated doctors of the Catholic Church”.

It is a great sadness for me and for many both inside the Ordinariate and outside that John Hunwicke preached this sermon as a layman, with permission of Monsignor Newton. It is a sign of the openness to the Ordinariate and of respect for him personally that John Hunwicke was chosen by the University to preach the Latin Sermon this Year. This really should have been considered a small triumph for the Ordinariate but instead has been passed over with scarcely a word.
For many on both sides of the Atlantic and both sides of the Tiber JH embodies and articulates the "patrimony" not just of Anglicanism but more particularly of the Oxford Movement, not just in his erudition and knowledge of the Classics and the Greek and Latin Fathers but his ability to express their thought in a quintessentially English manner. For those who count themselves as the tattered, not yet swimming, remnant of the Oxford Movement his non-ordination, one of only two, is a source of anxiety which seems to suggest that the sons of Pusey are not quite welcome in the Catholic Church as the Pope might have suggested and the Church in England has not quite assimilated Newman's legacy.

Class: Complexity and Abstraction

2012-01-16T13:15:00.000Z

I was rather taken aback by a comment on post a few days ago about what the Church has to say and how it says it to the "working classes".
In post Thatcherite Britain I am not sure what the "working class" means anymore. I know most parishes seem to have less plumber's and hod carrier's mates than IT specialists and on the whole, financially, even in these times, at the moment at least people seem to be better off and what is more, more people receive tertiary education than when I was ordained.

It is true the cloth cap and the headscarf are no longer a feature of our churches. Perhaps more noticeable are the absence of young people and men, we appear to have lost them. Another absence seems to be that of catechesis, those who stay do not seem to understand our faith.
There seems to be a growing gulf between what the theological elite (of either complexion) believe and what the man (or woman) in the pew believes. Survey after survey shows those in the pew do not believe what those in the sanctuary believe or are supposed to believe.
It strikes me again and again that the faith has become increasingly more complicated and most people are lost in its complexity and find the Churches teaching complicated and quite unrelated to real life.

Fr Bede Rowe doesn't speak about "complexity" but about "abstraction".

Modern theology moves this into a representational symbolism, which is not accessible, except to those in the know. If you like it is a kind of modern gnosticism. I know, of course, that symbolism has been used in Christian art and architecture for centuries, but only as something which gives an obvious picture an extra depth. In accord with classical Biblical interpretation, you should not just have hidden interpretation, or mystical interpretation, but also a plain meaning. One can go deeper if one has the time and the inclination, but one should also be able to stay on the surface.
A picture of the Annunciation can be filled with any number of hidden references that one is able to 'read' if one knows the key - symbols of virginity, of the presence of the Holy Spirit, of the crucifixion and death of the Son who is about to exist in her womb... but if it is not recognisably the Annunciation, then these other symbols only have meaning for the smug club who understands such things.
This is what I hate, anything that transforms our religion into a smug club for those who have the time (and education) to 'read' the hidden things.

Perhaps one of our chief difficulties is the failure to give clear teaching or to make a practice of teaching in a way that is ambiguous.
I can't help wondering whether we teach too much, that we have a scatter gun approach today, that we are saying too much and using far too many words. "Words, words, words" could be an accusation against today's Church and churchmen.

Mothers Riccarda's Cause Moves On

2012-01-16T00:12:00.000Z

I was pleased to announce progress in Mother Riccarda's cause, at Mass yesterday especially as I was announcing that this year is the 150th anniversay of the opening of the nave of the Church (more on that later).

From the Telegraph, by Simon Caldwell

A file on Mother Riccarda Beauchamp Hambrough has been sent to the Vatican to be studied by historians and theologians.
Her cause for sainthood was opened in July 2010 by the Diocese of Rome along with that of Sister Katherine Flanagan, marking the first phase of the investigations.
In a significant development, the causes of both women have together been sent to the Holy See’s Congregation of Causes for Sainthood, marking a significant, but early, step forward in the long road to becoming saints.
If it is concluded that the pair lived lives of “heroic virtue”, the Pope will declare the London-born nuns to be “Venerable” and the search will begin for two miracles to first declare them Blessed and then saints.
Both nuns belonged to a revived order of Bridgettine sisters nicknamed “the hot cross bun nuns” because of the distinctive crosses covering the tops of their wimples.
Mother Riccarda helped to save the lives of about 60 Jews by hiding them from the Nazis in her Rome convent, the Casa di Santa Brigida.
She born in 1887 and was baptised in St Mary Magdalene’s Church, Brighton, at the age of four years after her parents converted to the Catholic faith.
Yesterday Father Ray Blake, the parish priest of St Mary’s welcomed the progress of her cause. “I think it is fantastic,” he said.
“Here is Brighton we are following her cause with great enthusiasm and see her very much as our local saint.
“When I tell people at Mass that that her cause is going forward I’m sure that they will be overjoyed.”
While Mother Riccarda spent most of her life in Rome, eventually becoming the head of the order, Sister Katherine was at the forefront of efforts to open Bridgettine convents around the world some 400 years after the Reformation nearly wiped out the order.
Judith Whitehead, a niece of Sister Katherine, said she was astonished that the first phase had concluded so quickly.
“I am surprised that it has moved to the next stage in my lifetime,” said Mrs Whitehead, 73, of Shaftesbury, Dorset, who had given evidence to the initial inquiry.
“I thought that the progression of looking into her life would take about 10 years,” she said.
“It is amazing to have someone in your family who was so revered by everybody … the Bridgettines obviously think that she is going to become a saint.”
Father Simon Henry, the parish priest of St Gregory’s Church, Earlsfield, south London, where Sister Katherine was baptised, said: “To have a possible saint from the parish is wonderful.”
Born Florence Catherine in Clerkenwell in 1892, Sister Katherine trained as a dressmaker before she left the family home for Rome at 19 years with the aim of becoming a nun.
She went on to become the first prioress of new convents in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire; Lugano, Switzerland; and Vadstena, Sweden - where she died in 1941.
A year after Sister Katherine joined, the future Mother Riccarda - born Madaleina Catherine - also journeyed to Rome.
Because of her talent and intelligence she soon became deputy of the Order, called the Most Holy Saviour of St Bridget, and remained at the mother house in the Italian capital.
When the Nazis took control in Rome in 1943, and began to round up the Jews of Rome for deportation to Auschwitz, Mother Riccarda risked her own life by smuggling fugitives into her convent.
Some Jews who gave evidence to the initial inquiry spoke of Mother Riccarda's kindness, saying they nicknamed her “Mama”.
She died in Rome in 1966 at the age of 79 years.

Concepts of Benedict XVI

2012-01-12T15:28:00.000Z

I read before Christmas that the Pope was more than a little indifferent to some artist who was fussing about a portrait. The artist reminded the Pope "A picture is worth a thousand words". The Holy Father replied, "Ah, but a single concept is worth a thousand pictures".

What are the key concepts Benedict XVI has been proposing? What are the ideas will endure from this Papacy and become his legacy?

The uniqueness of Jesus Christ is the first and foremost concept. It is The Big Idea. We see this most notably in the document he issued in 2000 as Prefect of the CDF Dominus Jesus.

In many ways the work he had done as a young priest during the Council in preparing the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum already set the foundations of Dominus Jesus. Dei Verbum took into account modern biblical criticism, which from the second half of the 19th century had struck at the very heart of the trustworthiness of Revelation and reduced active faith to a mere somewhat sceptical assent or often non-assent to doctrinal propositions, it is Modernism and its slightly more sophisticated sister Liberal Relativist. It is defeating this that is Benedict's life work and legacy.

A crucial part of Dominus Jesus is not only the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and the trustworthiness of Revelation but also of the uniqueness and trustworthiness of the Catholic Church. his emphasis on reading the Second Vatican Council in terms of the continuity underpins this and for all the fuss made about Summorum Pontificum its prime purpose is to underline the continuity of the Church.

Impressed with Oratory

2012-01-11T23:31:00.000Z

I was very impressed with this, it is from the London Oratory's 18-35 Group

GOD AND SHAKESPEARE:
Vice, virtue, damnation and redemption in early modern drama
by
Linzy Brady - an academic from Sydney University. She will look at the influence of medieval drama and the Bible on Shakespeare’s work. Do put this date in your diary. As usual sandwiches & drinks afterwards. Do come if aged 18-35.

I know young people don't want pap, or anything that rhymes with it. I just wish we could provide things like this in the provinces.

Brick by brick Summorum Pontificum

2012-01-10T19:04:00.000Z

Every year we have a Mission Appeal, I always like to hear about how the Church is growing but often the priests who come to preach have a certain idiosyncratic way of offering the Sublime Sacrifice. I mean in the past I have had priests who don't know how to vest, who have wanted to celebrate Mass with just a stole or wear the stole over the chasuble and have odd gestures (like, heaven forfend, extending their hand at the Dominus Vobiscum before the Gospel).

Today we had a letter arranging the annual Mission Appeal, so in what will be five years on from Summorum Pontificum, with the Roman Rite celebrated in two usages, and us having a weekly Sunday Mass, I told my secretary that we needed a priest who could celebrate our 9.00pm Mass in the Usus Antiquior.

And..., I was delighted and surprised the answer was, "No problem".
Well done African Missions Appeal!

What to do about bad homilies or priests who aren't Christ

2012-01-09T22:41:00.000Z

I hope I don't preach bad homilies but who knows. I must admit there are some homilies which I think aren't brilliant, some which rely more on form than substance.
I am more concerned with other areas of priestly failure, like saving souls. I think this bit of advice applies to all who realise that most bishops and priests who fall short of Christ the High Priest.
It is from the blog of the High and Mighty Fr Z, may he blog forever.

A reader writes asking about “bad homilies”:
Every once in a while, you get a real clunker, one that isn’t just theologically weak, but turns what should be a feast into over microwaved junk. What is the proper response?
You want to know what to do?
Get down on your knees and pray for the priest who gave it.
Fast.
Do penance for his intention.
Be happy you have a priest when many – many – don’t.
That is what you do.
And if there is some occasion to offer him positive encouragement, do so, with a cordial aspect and kindness.
And consider kissing the hand of the priest who consecrates the Eucharist, forgives your sins, and with anointing imparts even remission of temporal punishment due to sin when you are about to die.
After that, you want to know what to do?
Get down on your knees and pray for more priests. Pray for all priests and bishops and seminarians too. Pray for young men to answer a vocation to the priesthood.
Fast more.
Do more penance for these men and for vocations.
And remember how happy you are to have a priest when many – many – don’t.
That’s what you do.

2012-01-09T18:02:00.000Z

More good things from Lancaster, Bishop Michael Campbell's diocese. They are promoting Confession by ensuring every Wednesday from 7pm to 8pm churches are open for Confession - simple ideas but they always tend to be the best.

Some things from the diocesan website:

The special invitation to experience Christ’s love through the Sacrament of Reconciliation is a major new initiative of Bishop Michael Campbell OSA. The Light is on For You! initiative highlights the importance of this sacrament in the life of Catholics and increases its availability, hoping that every Catholic will visit this source of God’s mercy and healing love.

This Lent, all Catholic churches in the Diocese of Lancaster will be open on Wednesday evenings, 7:00 p.m.—8:00 p.m. for confession and quiet prayer. Here are some resources to help you and the parishes of the Diocese on this journey:

RESOURCES:Practical Suggestions Examination of Conscience for Married Couples Examination of Conscience for Religious & Priests Examination of Teenagers & Young People Reconciliation Guide for Children Lancaster Colour Poster Lancaster Black & White Poster Lancaster Flyer Parish Bulletin Announcements Sample Prayers of the Faithful Bishop Campbell's Letter to Priests of the Parishes Bishop Campbell's Letter to the Schools & Colleges of the Diocese

Pope Praises Green/Left Policies

2012-01-09T15:55:00.000Z

The Pope seems to have cut new ground today in his New Years address to the Diplomatic Corps by praising the October decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union banning the commercial patenting of embryonic stem cells and commending a resolution adopted in the same month by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe condemning prenatal selection on the basis of sex.

Both these resolutions were put forward by a coalition Socialist and Green politicians. Increasingly the Holy Father has been talking in terms of human ecology, of respect for the environment and generally taking up the green cause in order to speak of the sanctity of human life and of natural law.

Unlike our own British political parties, of both right or left, whose only real policies seem to be about reducing everyone to a customer or consumer, where market forces are left to run riot and the only "big" political idea, again for right and left, seems to be "equalities", there is a maturity amongst some European Socialists which tends to see the Common Good and Catholic Social Teaching as the guiding principle.

Michael Merrick has an interesting examination of the decline of British Catholic Socialism that is worth reading, Like what he says about the need to read Humanae Vitae along with Rerum Novarum.

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

2012-01-08T16:28:00.002Z

Gold is about shining and light.
It is incorruptable, it does not change or corrode.
It is of great value.
It is about royalty, in many ancient cultures it was reserved to kings and gods
It is connected to anointing, a crown marks the place where a king is anointed.

Frankincense is about worship.
It is sweet smoke symbolising prayer and oblation.
It was used domestically but primarily to honour gods.
"Frank" here meaning pure, not "French", of course.

Myrrh is a sweet resin, that could be burnt as incense but was often mixed with oil as a perfume or medium for annointing.
It was used to mummify bodies in ancient Egypt, it was taken to Jesus' tomb by the women.
Myrrhon is the Byzantine equivalent of Chrism.
Its presentation to Jesus is presumably a reference to His being the Anointed One. the Messias or Christ and to his immortality and regality.

The Star: rather than a comet or any other mysterious star could it be the sun, heralding a new age, like "the Dawn from on high"? Is this a reference to "ad orientem" worship?

Russian Asceticism

2012-01-06T15:41:00.001Z

I was rather struck by this picture on the always interesting Fr Simon Henry's blog, it is a Russian Bishop taking part in the Epiphany Baptismal rites, in which Orthodox renew their baptism in remembrance of Christ's glory being shown forth at his baptism.
In many places where Holy Communion is rarely received or even attendance at Sunday Liturgy is lacking this "renewal" becomes an annual marker of being Orthodox. In some parts in is a pleasant dip or sprinkling in Russia a rather fearsome an act of asceticism, reminiscent of the martyrs of Sebaste who were left to perish on a frozen lake. There are more photograph's here.

There is something manly about plunging into an icy pool in the middle of winter, I have been trying to think of Western parallels, apart from rigourous Lenten fasting or all night vigils, I can only think of St Patrick's Purgatory in Ireland or the blood and chains of certain unreformed remote Spanish or Italian Holy Week celebrations.
Coptic Orthodox men in Brighton seem to love to shame me by telling me of the vast numbers of fast days in their calendar and Muslims of their Ramadam austerities, there seems to be something about austerity, even physical pain that is attractive to men in the service of God.

Two Way Street

2012-01-06T01:02:00.000Z

"They could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it" Lumen Gentium 14

With lots of Anglicans, and now with the setting up of the American Ordinariate, Episcopalians are becoming Catholics, many Anglicans are telling us "It is two way street, it goes both ways, just as many Catholics are joining us".
It is true, many Catholics are indeed embracing Anglicanism which indeed for Catholics who believe what Holy Church teaches about herself is indeed truly sad.
I have know Catholic priests who have Anglicans in all instances but one because they wanted to marry, the one instance was because he wanted a boyfriend.
Ultimately anyone who leaves the Church does so because he no longer believes what she teaches to be true.
Maybe it is a lack of honesty for some people not to leave.

Thanks to some American friends, there are some interest stories here of converts from the Church.

Heating's off but look at St Augustines

2012-01-05T19:09:00.000Z

At the moment the heating is off in my church and house, I'm shivering gently. I am sure it is minor and the sweet Mother of God will deal with it through a competent heating engineer. It is not just my church I'm concerned about, in fact our problems are small fry compared to St Augustine's Ramsgate.

There is a good article in the Telegraph on St Augustines.

Music of the American Baroque

2012-01-04T14:14:00.004Z

This might be a load of nonsense bringing these two ideas together but it is an excuse for beautiful music, so here goes. Is there a connection?

I was talking to one of our students recently she showed me a picture on her phone of her siblings they were all under 18 and where all playing orchestral stringed instrument, the littlest one had a half sized cello, they part of El Sistema, the remarkable Venuzuelan musical education system, that seems change poor children into orchestral musicians. The youth orchestra makes an incredible impact wherever it plays.

Sandro Magister has a fascinating piece on the music of the Reductions, the Jesuit Missions in Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia. If you like Baroque music then have a search on Youtube for the music of Domenico Zipoli and Martin Schmid, European Jesuits working in South America.

It opens up all sorts of question about how evangelisation took place and can take place today.

This last piece is a favourite of mine, a Magnificat by Hernando Franco working in Mexico, I like the gentle move from chant to polyphony.
Whilst you are listening, we really do need a few more good singers here - see what you can persuade Our Lady and the Wise Men to do for the space of a Magnificat - God is good.

The pictures here are quite interesting

Here is someone playing reconstructions of pre-Columbian Mayan flutes - interesting sounds - some are quite horrific looking instruments - the skulls and heads, I mean.

Latin that I will never use

2012-01-03T13:23:00.003Z

Have a look at this video, if you dare.
It is very interesting that even in contemporary liturgical textiles there seems to be a craving for a "continuity" even if that continuity is expressed in discontinuity.
I think this is a feature for this blog here.
Yet even Slabbinck are going Roman, times and seasons, times and season, but then then there is this.

But they are based in ...Belgium.

Marriage: Mend it don't end it

2012-01-03T12:04:00.000Z

High Court Judge and former family lawyer, Sir Paul Coleridge wants to halt the "appalling and costly impact of family breakdown" and said people are looking to "recycle" partners instead of trying to fix their marriages.
read more

Bubble, bubble at the Tablet

2011-12-31T13:32:00.002Z

Someone from the Tablet phoned me before Christmas to tell me about some special offer, if only I would sell it at the back of the Church. My short answer is always, "Only if you change the editorial policy." "How?", "Control Robert Mickens".

The mists of rumour surrounding the Tablet resemble the steam from the weird sisters cauldron. A few months ago there were rumours that there might be a change of editor, a name from Jonathan Cape was being suggested. I don't know if some of the Tablet Trustees are beginning to realise that Mrs Pepinster's style really is offensive to younger and mainstream Catholics, or if it was just something put round by disgruntled former Tablet writers. There were rumours of Archbishop Nichols, no great friend of the Tablet, complaining and insisting on change at a Tablet lunch and producing a slew of letters and emails critical of the editorial policy, primarily its continual carping and negativity towards the Pope. Slowly, slowly younger parish priests are finding the Tablet has no place at the back of their Church.

Recently one of the sisters Ms Curti interviewed Mgr Andrew Wadsworth of ICEL revealing a lack of journalistic research and ignorance that was just embarrassing.

Another sister, Abigail Frymann, The Tablet's "Online Editor" has a piece on the "Tablet Blog" in which she disparages the Ordinariate, complains about Westminster Cathedral being cold for the Ordinations of Mgr Newton et al and then whines about Ordinariate after a whole year only having 60 clergy and a 1000 laypeople, I think that is pretty good going actually. She then for some reason spends the rest of her piece banging on about the Australian TAC, not Anglican, not English, bishop John Hepworth. She forgets that the future of Hepworth was made quite clear at the promulgation of Anglicanorum Coetibus: that it was impossible for him to be ordained as a Catholic priest. It is just shoddy spiteful journalism and all under the heading "Ordinariate: floundering on the rocks?" Listen to the cauldron being stirred.

It reminded me of the other weird sister, Ma "P" herself complaining about the former Anglican bishop's wives hats and coats at the ordination! It was just bitchy.

As well, in this weeks Tablet, Greymalkin Mickens considers future papabili, you can hear him purring with delight at the prospect of the Holy Father's ill health, sickness or death, read Deacon Nick to remind you of the background.

One of my hopes for the coming year is someone reforms the Tablet, I don't want it destroyed, just something done about its bitchiness!

Peripheral Catholics

2011-12-30T18:06:00.000Z

Some time ago I had dinner with a wealthy "Orthodox" Eastern European couple, I was told he was a Russia "Mafioso". She was his fourth or fifth wife. They were married in some civil ceremony. He was quite open, even proud, about his extra marital conquests. They disagreed with me fundamentally about abortion, they couldn't understand life without contraception. They attended the Divine Liturgy very occasionally: funerals mainly, neither had received communion since they were children, she probably not since her baptism. When they are dying they will probably want the rites of the Church. She seemed to be into spiritualism and New Age spirituality. I'm not sure they had much of a sense of the uniqueness of Christ. He more than satiated my appetite me with stories of corrupt Orthodox clergy but he was very proud of having paid an enormous sum for the restoration of the iconastasis in the church in the town where his mother was buried, he'd also endowed an Orthodox school, "though the Bishop and his brother took a 20% cut, I got them down from 30%, ha!" I was more than pleased once the meal was ended to be able to escape to conversation with other guests.

I don't think they were exceptions as Orthodox, they were both baptised as Orthodox and had a sense of being "culturally" Orthodox, they had their own morality and their own theology too, they were vaguely anti-clerical in that they expected the clergy to be human and they were superstitious too. They were almost independent of the Church and yet they had a relationship with the Church, albeit a peripheral relationship.

On the whole they were like the majority of Catholics, certainly of a previous age, who were both attached and detached from the Church; let us call them a "peripheral" Catholics.
If they were Irish, Archbishop Martin might suggest they came to a mature judgement about whether they remained in the Church or left. If they were American their gift, because they were "pro-abort", would certainly raise an eyebrow in many quarters. If they were English we might be a little sniffey about them not being evangelised and, if they requested sacraments for themselves or their children, attempt to do some evangelisation. Indeed they would probably consider themselves lapsed, or "post-Catholic", they would certainly, I suspect feel less comfortable within Church today than they might have done a century ago.

I think there are several factors that make being a "peripheral" Catholic, more difficult today, in the last century the Church has changed.

The Church's increased forceful moral teaching, concerning abortion, sex and sexuality is certainly one factor, coupled with the expectation that everyone should receive Holy Communion has brought a sharp divide between those who can keep the Church's teaching and those who can't. I wonder if this is reason for the loss of so many of the young.
Another factor is the vernacularisation and simplification of the liturgy: now you have to speak, before you could remain silent; now you have to understand, before you could remain in the mystery of ignorance.

The problem is that "peripheral" Catholics could always be encouraged to advance a little further into the Church, their increased loss means that invariably they now become antagonistic towards the Church of their forefathers.

St Thomas

2011-12-29T17:18:00.004Z

To be clothed in Christ, to bear his suffering and passion, to show Christ and him alone to the world this is what a bishop or priest is about, this is why I rather delight in offering the Most Holy Sacrifice in this vestment, clothed in the scarlet of the blood of Christ.

I am glad the New Missal restores this day to a Feast, we need to be reminded of the need for Martyrdom, St Thomas is the Patron of English secular clergy.

O God, who gave the Martyr Saint Thomas Becket the courage to give up his life for the sake of justice, grant, through his intercession, that, renouncing our life for the sake of Christ in this world, we may find it in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Apparently, formerly the breviary said:

"Calumniators informed the king that the bishop was agitating against him and the peace of the realm; and the king retorted that with one such priest he could not live in peace.

Hearing the royal displeasure, several godless courtiers agreed to do their sovereign a favor by assassinating Thomas. Secretly they traveled to Canterbury and fell upon the bishop while he was attending Vespers. His priests rushed to his aid and tried to bar the church door; Thomas opened it himself with these words: The house of God may not be defended like a fortress. I gladly face death for the Church of God. Then to the soldiers: I command it in the Name of God: No harm may be done to any of mine. Thereupon he cast himself on his knees, commended his flock and himself to God, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to St. Denis and other holy patrons of his church, and with the same heroic courage with which he had withstood the king's laws, he bowed his holy head to the sacrilegious sword on December 29, 1170."

Here is BBC documentary on Becket's Martyrdom courtesy of Gloria TV

Church Cleaning in Bethlehem

2011-12-28T18:24:00.000Z

video
Greeks and Armenians fight in the sanctuary: is this a brawl, muscular Christianity or just two factions convinced they are right.
Such outbreaks in the Holy Land are not unusual.

When are Christians allowed to defend their rights?

Renovations at St Mary Magdalen

2011-12-26T00:44:00.007Z

The Church in 2008
In the 1970s the altar was cut from the reredos, shortened and placed on the communion step, an "apron" was added to give space in front of the altar. For weddings and funerals several benches had to be removed.
The pulpit was lowered and one side was removed and destroyed.
The font was moved onto the sanctuary.
All the stone work in the church was painted white which quickly turned grey; capitals etc were painted with metallic paint.
The "linoleum" dates from 1950/60
The lighting system was installed c1988 as a temporary measure.

2009
The sanctuary was restored to its original dimensions,
the font removed,
the benches and floor sanded and re-varnished.

2010

A new lighting system was installed

the radiators were also moved to widen the central aisle

much of the paint has been stripped from the stone in the nave

2011 Midnight Mass
a stone floor was installed on the sanctuary in Dec 22nd, 2011

Baptistery completed 23rd Dec 2011 (almost completed - a hardwood surround needs to be inserted between the floorboards and the stone floor)

We are indebted to our architect Deirdre Waddington.

A postcards of the church c1890
Note the narrowness of the aisle, the apparent absence of lighting apart from candles in the sanctuary and the height of the original pulpit, which will be restored as an ambo.

God Cares

2011-12-25T13:43:00.002Z

homily notes
"Verbum Caro factum est"
"The Word became flesh"

Catholics are fleshy creatures, because our God is fleshy, we believe in a God who takes on our flesh, who becomes in-car-nate - enfleshed. "Caro" also gives us the words "care" and "caritas" or charity.

Our God cares deeply about us, he isn't vague and fluffy, certainly not a disinterested God, in many ways we are adverse to what the many today call "spiritual", at the In in a sense God leaves the spiritual world in the Incarnation and enters the world of the flesh.

In the OT God cares, almost fusses, about even the curtain and curtain rings in the tent of meeting. He cares about how the Jews worship, what food the Jews eat or don't eat, about how they dress or wear their beards, who they make alliances with etc. etc. What is the purpose of these rules and commandment? At the very least it is to demonstrate God cares.

So too for us, God cares - He cares about how we treat the man on the street, in the shop doorway. He cares about us - the greatest trick of atheists and heretics -ultimately of the devil - is to make us think God is distant, he doesn't care - about anything - least of all us. Isn't that the great cry of despair of so many people today? "No-one cares whether I live or die!" The answer of Christmas, of the Catholic Church is God cares infinitely - God is Caring.

Secular Liberal society, even some who pretend they are within the Church, the Body of Christ, will say it makes no difference to God whether we kill the unborn or not, whether we uses or don't use artificial contraception, whether we are part of his Church or not, whether we are baptised or not, whether we come to Mass or not, or whether we accept his Church's teaching or not, or whether we receive his body, his true flesh, in a state of Grace or not. Or for that matter whether we desire others should be part of his Church.

To the God who cares, the God who becomes care, "caro", all these matter infinitely, as we matter infinitely to him, as we are called to care infinitely.
My thanks to Fr Simon Henry for this video which was the basis for my Christmas sermon.

Te Deum Laudamus

2011-12-24T22:49:00.000Z

A useful prayer for the Octave!

And so... A Happy and Blessed Christmas

2011-12-24T21:54:00.002Z

Our first Mass of Christmas began at 9.30pm, the next is Midnight, then the TLM at 9am, then 10.30am and finally 12.30pm; the first and the last Masses are celebrated by the Polish chaplaincy.
This the first time in four years we haven't had work going on in the Church over Christmas. The stonemasons finished the sanctuary and baptistery floors yesterday and some of our good weekday Mass goers were polishing and dusting this morning.
The wonderful news is we haven't any money to do anything else for a while - God is good!

A Happy and Blessed Christmas

When I'm Eighty-Five

2011-12-24T14:27:00.000Z

There has been talk about the Pope's health, his use of that movable platform in St Peter's, the possibility he has lost the sight in one eye and so forth.

I'm over a quarter of a decade younger than him; after the Midnight, Dawn and the Day Masses I just want to sleep; if I had to celebrate Mass in a vast basilica which was also broadcast to millions I would want to sleep for a week rather than then have to get up and have to address the city and the world.

When I am 85..., well I know 35 year olds who find getting up exhausting!

I just admire that incredible 85 year olds stamina.

Lord bless Benedict with strength. Amen.

Harmony at Parsonage Farm

2011-12-23T01:12:00.002Z

As a sort of Christmas card one of my parishioners, Rupert, a student who is at university in Brighton sent me this video of his family in the 1970's, there were 14 children.

Joe the 18 year old cellist in the programme, is Rupert's father, 40 years on he has 10 children of his own, and the musical tradition continues to the present generation, some of his sons, Rupert's brothers, occasionally come and sing at Mass here.

The video, made by Harlech TV speaks of a gentler time. For me the star of the show is the rather wise and sensible mother, Molly, who along with her husband Roger is now dead. I pray she has now attained her ultimate goal, Heaven.

An Anonymous Letter

2011-12-20T23:17:00.002Z

Gosh, I got a really dreadful letter today, anonymous of course, complaining about everything; basically saying I was creating a schismatic sect as a priest, and as a human being I was a monster. It was copied to various people of course.

The reason is that I put a note in the newsletter last week saying that we were going to experiment by saying Mass ad orientem, that is only at one of our weekend Masses.

I had been saying all our Masses for over the last month in this way because the new marble floor on the sanctuary was being laid, the altar had to be moved into the nave and there was no room to stand behind it.

Having experienced it, the problem is that many of our people developed a liking for it. I received several letters and emails from parishioners and various requests in person asking that we should do it, the main reason seemed to be that it made Mass more prayerful.

Admittedly last year I had encouraged people in the parish to read "Spirit of the Liturgy" and "Turning Towards the Lord" and many of them have read both.

There were lots of other complaints in the letter about vestments, candlesticks, liturgical language, everything basically, oh and my Latin pronunciation, though my Greek (Kyrie Eleison, I presume) came in for a real pounding. I showed it to one of my parishioners and she described it as "hate mail".

Certainly the letter was about ad orientem celebration but more so about enrichment of the liturgy and about those things the Pope has been encouraging in the liturgy but of course for many every word, every action of his is seen as retrogressive or even an abandonment of the Council. There is bitterness out there.

And yes, feel pretty hurt by it.

Tesco: Evil Christians

2011-12-20T08:53:00.002Z

Christians are “evil” if they resist the redefinition of marriage to allow for same-sex marriage, the Head of Research and Development at Tesco.com has said.
The company has already faced criticism for dumping its support for the Cancer Research ‘Race for Life’ and sponsoring London’s gay pride festival.

The “evil Christians” comment was made by Nick Lansley, Head of Research and Development for the Tesco website. read more

The Chief Executive, Philip Clarke, can be contacted here. Tell him you are not shopping at Tesco anymore.

Spiritual Vessel

2011-12-18T22:10:00.002Z

David could not build the Temple of the Lord, although he was the Lord's Chosen One, he was a sinner, "a man of blood", an adulterer who had stolen Bathsheba and had Uriah killed, and he killed his own people too.

A sinner could not build a house for the Lord, lest the House itself was poisoned by sin. It is Solomon who chose wisdom rather than wealth or power who builds the Lord's House, though he himself loses God's favour after the Temple is built.

The Temple is a type of Mary, who is uncontaminated by sin, she is also the Spritual Vessel, the Vessel of Honor, Singular Vessel of Devotion, Tower of Ivory, House of Gold, Ark of the Covenant. She contains Grace himself. She is full of Grace, highly favoured, the Blessed amongst women, the Lord is with Her. She is the Immaculate Conception, the House which the Lord himself has built, there is no stain of sin within her.
She was chosen before all time, and from the first moment of her being was free from all sin, so that she might contain the Body, Blood, Humanity and Divinity of Jesus Christ.

Mary is the fitting Spritual Vessel, the Vessel of Honor, Singular Vessel of Devotion, Tower of Ivory, House of Gold, Ark of the Covenant to contain her Son, she alone.

The Body, Blood, Soul, Humanity and Divinity of Jesus Christ which we are given us in Holy Communion is not some lesser Body, Blood, Humanity and Divinity of Jesus Christ than she carried, it is the same unchanging Christ. Hence St Paul tell's to examine ourselves before receiving Holy Communion, lest we eat and drink our own condemnation.
Mary is our model, she alone was worthy to contain Jesus Christ, we at least must be free of all serious sin and must have a real hatred of sin to be receive Christ. The Grace she receives is entirely God's gift.

Cameron doing religion

2011-12-17T16:56:00.000Z

I've been trying to figure out what the Prime Minister meant in his recent speech.

"I claim no religious authority whatsoever," except as Prime Minister he appoints CofE bishops he said. "I am a committed, but I have to say vaguely practising, that seems to be where most English people are at Church of England Christian, who will stand up for the values and principles of my faith like introducing the law that equates marriage between persons of the same sex with, err, marriage but who is full of doubts. Like many (I am) constantly grappling with the difficult questions when it comes to some of the big theological issues." For many members of our society "religion" is based on a few remembered or half remembered phrases or stories or on feelings, on a half seen image of Christ, whose divinity is questionable, who have serious doubts about fundamental doctrines, such as the Resurrection but there is a desire to believe.

Describing the King James Bible as "a high point of the English language" with "arresting phrases that move, challenge and inspire", Mr Cameron said it had helped bind Britain together. He sees religion (re-ligere to bind together), set of common myths that somehow form the basis of our national culture.

"We are a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so," he said. But how does he define Christianity? "The Bible has helped to give Britain a set of values and morals which make Britain what it is today. Values and morals we should actively stand up and defend. Is he upholding the traditional Tory notion that Christianity is really about "values": honesty, integrity, charity, respect for law and order, neighbourliness? It is really the "Big Society". The alternative of moral neutrality Relativism and Individualism, the fragmentation of society? should not be an option. You can't fight something with nothing. A bit vague. If we don't stand for something, we can't stand against anything." But what are we against and what are we for?

But Mr Cameron, who was attacked over the summer by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams for pushing through "radical" policies "for which no one voted" took the opportunity to have a gentle dig back.

"I have never really understood the argument some people make about the church not getting involved in politics," he said. "To me, Christianity, faith, religion, the church and the Bible are all inherently involved in politics because so many political questions are moral questions. So I don't think we should be shy or frightened of this.

Now let's wait for the Sunday papers to have a few rabid atheists chewing tis over.

2011-12-16T21:41:00.000Z

If you didn't see this 12 minute video at Fr Z's a few days ago it is well worth watching, there are English subtitles. It is the story of one small group of martyrs from the Spanish Civil War of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
There are some odd liturgical things and the brutality of what really happened is cleaned up, a bit, presumably for a family audience. They are ordinary men called to extraordinary heroism.

Martyrs of Spain, pray for us in our need.

Ordinariate: Bricks and Mortar essential to Patrimony

2011-12-15T18:09:00.001Z

I have been intrigued by Damian Thompson's piece on the Ordinariate, I have certainly been wondering about that illusive church and why the Nuncio should use the word "meticulous" to describe the bishops implementation of Anglicanorum Coetibus and why despite what the Apostolic Constitution says the English and Welsh bishops seem to have a veto on ordinations. "When the Archbishop of Westminster came to talk to us", said a friend who is part of Allen Hall formation group, "he thanked Dr Wang for arranging the very speedy Formation prior to ordination, and (tellingly) added "I don't think we'll let it happen so quickly in future". I am not sure that is what Anglicanorum Coetibus says.
I checked out Damian's story with another Ordinariate friend and received this email, emphasis is mine:

DT is right, of course, but to a point. It's unfair to suggest (as he does I think) that the Ordinariate leadership are holding this up - it's very difficult to ask for something when you have no money! That said, everyone I've spoken to about it seems to be of the mind that we must have churches soon, and I agree. These will not only ensure that the fragile Ordinariate Groups have a secure base and a future, but form a significant part of our fundraising initiatives. If people see that we have buildings to support, to beautify, and to establish our distinctive ecclesial life, they will respond. It's hard to get people to 'buy into' a project which, thus far, has been more on paper than anything else. They will also form important centres for evangelisation - one of the key aspects of Anglican pastoral practice is the subsequent evangelisation of those who come forward for occasional offices (baptisms, marriage, funerals, etc). If we are constantly referring such people to the Parish Priest of the church we live out of, that will never take off.

I am of the mind that we should take every single church building offered to us and make something of it whilst we're still on the crest of the wave.

We also need to ensure that Anglican clergy who approach the Ordinariate without groups are not encouraged not disappear to the diocese (unless, of course, that's what they really want). If Bishop X offers a church somewhere, we'll need clergy to go and plant it - at the moment almost all of the Ordinariate priests are looking after groups.

The slowness of the arrival of the Ordinariate liturgy is perhaps another factor but it is a Church building, a home, making the Ordinariate bricks and mortar that seems key. Bricks and mortar are essential to the patrimony.

Volunteers, volunteers

2011-12-14T12:04:00.000Z

We have had no end of people ringing up to volunteer to help feed the poor on Christmas day, including a TV cook. The rest of the year, when the rain is coming in off the English channel and you can barely stand, is a different story.

Is this about a growing solidarity with the poor or just a desire to feel good?
There used to be that TV advert about a dog being not just for Christmas.

We have moved on

2011-12-13T17:23:00.000Z

I am still not feeling well so I to missed a clergy gathering to discuss the legacy of Vatican II.
I am a Catholic, I not a Concilliarist. I occassionally take a cheap shot at Orthodox friends by accusing them of being trapped by the Spirit of Ephesus II. My problem with Councils is the whole "the Spirit of " business. The Spirit of any Council is not its teaching, perhaps only now are we getting to grips with the "Spirit of Trent". The difficulty with Vatican II is that its teaching wasn't contained in a few short memorable canons which defined the faith but in dense and sometimes contradictory documents, written within the highly nuanced obscure philosophical terms of the period. In order to unlock its richness one has to understand that philosophy. At the same time Vatican II happened within the Spirit of Vatican I, with its highly ultramontane and authoritarian concept of the Curia. As someone once said of the Council Fathers, "You have to remember some of these men were the friends of Salazar and Franco, the majority were not imprisoned under Hitler and Mussolini", I think he meant they were compliant.

The Orthodox understand Councils by how they are taken up by the Church - something akin to Newman's understanding of sensus fidelium. We do that of course but we also have the singular role of Peter's successor in interpretation and identification of the Magisterium. The Council happened we have moved on, we moved on to the great documents of Paul VI: Humanae Vitae, the Credo of the People of God , Populorum Progressio, Indulgentiarium Doctrina etc. and the Encyclicals of JPII and Benedict XVI, including the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Indeed the last half century has been an attempt by successive Popes to clarify the teaching of the Council.

The Tabet blog, which I have just discovered, is bashing Bishop Davies for saying that faith has not been passed on in recent generations. Sr Gemma Simmonds of Heythrop says in gushing terms. "The greatest gift to our time is the enduring legacy of the Council [VII], the most authoritative gathering of the Church on earth." I would like to debate with her what she meant by "authoritative".

She then goes on to deny a principle teaching of the Council, that the liturgy "is the source and summit of the Church's life", by saying, "Going to Mass on Sunday is certainly a way to express and nourish faith, but it is not the fullness of faith, which is something that has to be lived in the context of the ordinary in solidarity with all that is good and true and beautiful in our world." I tend to agree with someone who comments on this post and reminds Sister that in Jesus Christ we encounter the fullness of faith.

For me Sister and the commenter who speaks disdainfully of "the Institutional Church", as if Christ found a Church without Apostolic leadership, seem to encapsulate a way of understand VII that praises it as concept yet denies its teaching.

Upset and Betrayed

2011-12-11T20:46:00.000Z

"I am upset, I feel betrayed", said one of parishioners today, let's call him Peter. He would describe himself as "gay" but would say he was Catholic first. His lifelong partner, Paul, died two or three years ago, they were both converts, they shared a house, said their prayers together and lived a chaste and holy life.

What Peter was upset about was that they had both, as loyal sons of the Church, decided not to have a civil partnership because they understood the 2003 CDF document “Consideration Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons”, as condemning them. They had also taken into account the English bishops statement of 2004 that such partnerships “do not promote the common good and we therefore strongly oppose them”.

Although they had made wills that left property to one another, what Paul hadn't done was to ensure that Peter was named as his next of kin. Paul had a stroke and was unable to communicate, he eventually went into a protracted comma and died. His sister who was actually his next of kin hated Peter and excluded him from any involvement in Paul's care. "She wouldn't even let me near him when died and rather than a Catholic funeral she insisted on a humanist one, just to spite, Paul would have hated it", Peter said.

Both Peter and Paul were Catholic before anything else they reacted strongly to any suggestion that their relationship might be considered sexual. Peter found the words of Archbishop Nichols, a volte face “Same-sex partnerships are not marriage because they have no root in a sexual relationship which marriage does,” he said, “and that’s the distinction that I think it’s important for us to understand, that marriage is built on the sexual partnership between a man and a woman which is open to children, to their nurture and education.” "If only I had known that four years ago we would have been spared the misery we both went through", Peter said.

When priests like me, or other bloggers, criticise Archbishop Nichols for changing the Bishop's Conference teaching on same-sex partnerships and bring confusion we are not being "mischievous" as he suggests, we are showing concern for men like Peter and Paul.

...

Now, I must get round to making a will, as things stand at the moment my brother, my next of kin, isn't a Catholic, I am not sure he will know what do with vestments or chalices or my little collection of icons or my rather Catholic books and other possessions if he ends up by inheriting everything. What I am more concerned with is what he might do with me, if I should become like Paul. I don't want to end up on the Liverpool Care Pathway or in a nursing home without the sacraments. When I get round to it I intend to leave everything to a couple of priest friends, my executors, to dispose of everything, one of them has done the same naming me as his executor.

Now being practical according to the Archbishop same sex partnerships are devoid of sexual implications therefore I wonder if I have a duty to propose a civil partnership with one of my executors, so everything surrounding my death and dying becomes his responsibility. I wonder, doesn't every priest have a duty to do this?

Yes, I am being mischievous but it sort of makes sense, and yes I know one of parishioners has already made the suggestion.

p.s. Paul was not the real name of "Peter's" friend.

Look what I've got

2011-12-10T09:26:00.003Z

I've got 'flu, which is why I haven't been posting much this week.

I also have some very kind and at times generous parishioners.
Can someone tell me about this leaf from the Office of the Dead of a fifteenth (?) century Book of Hours which was given me recently. "Given" in the sense of "here is brown envelope, get yourself something".

The blue cassocks of the clergy suggest it is English. The strawberries are about fecundity, I am not sure what the blue flowers are. Notice the face of the corpse is uncovered and the bones of the previous occupant are exhumed, presumably to be put into common bone pit (or did we have charnel houses in England?).

The rest of the Psalm "Dilexi" is on the reverse.

Nicholas: not so nuanced

2011-12-06T19:13:00.003Z

This is my icon of St Nicholas, it is 19th cent. Russian.

The roundels recall the legend that St Nicholas was imprisoned for beating up Arius, pulling his beard and punching him in the mouth. He heard the great heresiarch speak and couldn't bear hearing his blasphemies, he pulled his beard and punching him in the mouth. The Emperor Constantine was horrified that he should break the peace of the Council and had him deposed.

During the night Christ himself accompanied by his mother appeared to him and asked, "Why are you here?" he answered, "Because I love you, Lord". Christ gave him back the Gospels, the symbol of his teaching authority and his mother the omophorion (the eastern pallium) the symbol of his sacramental authority.

I love St Nicholas because he was so clear in his teaching, the other bishops sat around discussing subtleties and nuances. Holy Nicholas went to the heart of the matter recognising Arius as the enemy of Christ and his Church and indeed the whole of creation and risked all by attacking him.

Holy Nicholas, Bishop of Christ, pray for me a sinner.

Intercede for all the bishops and priests,

that they may recognise Christ and proclaim His Truth for the Salvation of the World.

Make them fearless in denouncing error and the contamination of heresy.

Give them courage, even in the face of the Princes of this World,

to risk all for love of Christ,

the True Bishop and High Priest, the Judge of Souls who will come in Glory.

Lord Jesus give us holy priests and even holier bishops.

Archbishop Peter Amigo

2011-12-04T20:53:00.000Z

I just found this video clip of Archbishop Amigo's funeral (pronounced Ameego not as at commentator pronounces).
He was Bishop of Southwark for the first half of the 20th century. He was apparently terrifying but a great friend of the poor and much loved.
Fr Michael Clifton's life of him "Amigo, friend of the poor: Bishop of Southwark, 1904-1949" can be found here. Fr Clifton is also Fr Mildew.

Propers and Hymns

2011-12-03T13:52:00.000Z

I found this video over on Paulinus' blog: we don't have this problem with our "young lady", she always sings the "Entance Chant" or as we call it the Introit.
It is so easy as a priest to live in a liturgical bubble, but really does anyone still sing hymns instead of the Proper Chants? We occassionally sing hymns and then the chant but never a hymn as a substitute for the Liturgical texts - such wickedness.
My experience is that it would be the young women correcting the older man about liturgical abuses.

New Thinking

2011-12-01T15:38:00.000Z

Sandro Magister refers to some recent episcopal appointments to illustrate some comments in a recent interview with Cardinal Marc Ouelliet, the Prefect for the Congregation of Bishops. Ouelliet says:

"Today, especially in the context of our secularized societies, we need bishops who are the first evangelizers, and not mere administrators of dioceses. Who are capable of proclaiming the Gospel. Who are not only theologically faithful to the magisterium and the pope, but are also capable of expounding and, if need be, of defending the faith publicly."

I wonder if there really is a trend to appoint defenders and proclaimers of the Gospel instead of the nuanced political diplomats that seem to have been appointed since the Secretariat of State replaced the old Holy Office under its newer incarnation of the CDF as the final arbiter of episcopal appointments.

Cardinal Levada wishes to retire this month, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone turned 75 at the end of 2009, replacing both the head of the CDF and the Secretary of State could offer a real change gear in 2112. Perhaps the strange appoint of Msgr Charles Brown, from the CDF rather than the Secretariat of State, as Nuncio to Ireland could be an indication of some new Vatican thinking.

What is evident is that the Council for the New Evangelisation is being increasingly highlighted and yet quite what its purpose is still seems very vague, it seems to be a bit of a dark horse. The Church is supposed to be "evangelical by its very nature", how the Secretariate of State quite fits into this vision obviously needs further development. The Ostpolitik of Cardinal Casaroli or even relationship with States in the glory days of JPII and Cardinal Sodano are rapidly waning. The weakening of the Church at grass roots level diminishes the Church's political clout internationally.

Under Cardinal Levada the CDF has been responsible for some quite remarkable moves, the setting up of the Anglican Ordinariate, the negotiations with the SSPX are but two examples, it is now much more than the Papal watch dog. The CDF since Dominus Jesus (2000) has become much more about teaching, rather simply bashing heretics.

Vespers for St Andrew

2011-12-01T00:36:00.001Z

Vespers for St Andrew's Day on Radio 3 was from Brompton Oratory, very, very beautiful, a lot of Victoria, listen here.
thanks to NLM

Archbishop Backs Equality

2011-11-29T20:14:00.000Z

The Archbisop of Westminster said at a recent press following the Bishop bi-annual meeting:

We would want to emphasise that civil partnerships actually provide a structure in which people of the same sex who want a lifelong relationship [and] a lifelong partnership can find their place and protection and legal provision,
............
As a Church we are very committed to the notion of equality so that people are treated the same across all the activities of life. The Church holds great store by the value of commitment in relationships and undertakings that people give. Stability in society depends upon the reliability of commitments that people give. That might be in offering to do a job but especially in their relationships with one another. Equality and commitment are both very important and we fully support them.
..........

He did go on to say, "equality and commitment do not amount to marriage".

As is pointed out here, "The bishops conference position on civil partnerships appears to have shifted from 2003 when it told the Government that civil unions would not promote the common good and we therefore strongly oppose them".
It appears that the 2003 CDF document Legal Recognition of Homosexual Unions only applies to Marriage, itself not "civil partnerships. I had obviously misunderstood as the bishops once did.

Ostrov - The Island

2011-11-29T13:26:00.002Z

I like Russian cinema, Ostrov The Island is one of my favourite films. It is beautifully filmed.
It is about a holy fool, with a past, There is a lot about prayer and penance, faith and dying, and the tensions and joys of monastic life, human weakness and divine strength.

Most importantly it is about holiness.
It can be found here, sorry it is on You tube.

Hitler's Law Still Persecutes

2011-11-27T08:00:00.000Z

We have an organisation, Brighton Voices in Exile which works for asylum seekers and exiles working out of my presbytery's basement. I am amused at times by the shock of Afghani or Sudanese exiles who get the wrong door and meet a cassocked Catholic priest.

Recently a family that is a little different from most has started coming here to Mass. They are in exile from their native home country because they want to educate their child themselves, they are German. If they stayed at home, the parents would be put in prison and their child probably separated from them forever. The cause is the law introduced by Hitler, and still persecuting parents, which placed the eduction of children in the hands of the state, taking away from parents the right and duty to be the "primary educators" of their children.

Last year a US court granted asylum to a German family who wanted to "home school".

Bishop Davies on the Holocaust

2011-11-26T11:47:00.000Z

The wise Bishop Mark Davies recently spoke in a synagogue on Holocaust Memorial Day. I am not going to quote from it, it is all worth reading.
He reminds his hearers of Pope Benedict's words about learning frrom history and about ideologies that seek to destroy and eradicate God himself.

More Work

2011-11-25T18:01:00.002Z

Over the las few weeks we have been celebrating Mass and everything else in the nave. The altar has been moved so the new sanctuary floor can be laid. The pulpit has been dismantled and has been cleaned of its grey paint and a massive tower has been next to the altar so more paint can be cleaned from upper walls.

Here is a picture looking down the work which has been done during the week.

Look at what was done to the altar in the 70s, it was simply hacked away from the wall the decorative front was put against wall - badly and the end of the mensa was lopped off and placed under the tabernacle. The mensa was placed on some ghastly legs and place on the old communion step, just behind where it is in the first picture and between the two pillars at the bottom of the second picture.

Traditionally an altar should be rooted to the rock, now, a permanent altar is simply one that is for some reason unmoveable. When it is finally put back in place, it will be unmovable solely by its weight and the fact it is fixed to the floor, which is less than ideal but is the best that can be done.

The last picture is Rado who has been paint removing with a passing angel on top of the tower - too high for me, I don't do heights well.

The last picture is Rado with angels - on top of the tower.

Contrasts

2011-11-24T18:16:00.001Z

AW Pugin produced a manifesto "Contrasts" he compared his modern and industrial age with that of the "age of faith" and found the former decidedly lacking.

This morning one of my parishioners said he didn't believe in "human rights", I think it was a bit of a throw away remark but I am beginning to wonder whether a culture that promotes our "rights" make us selfish, the "age of faith", which is really feudalism, placed everyone under an obligation and imposed duties on them, to serve and to ensure harmony within society.

With the elderly being left in their own filth or to go hungry, with a winter of strikes looming, with economic meltdown we are facing, it seems the strong and the wealthy can indeed exercise their rights whilst the weak are trampled upon.

I am not sure it was ever true, but Pugin's vision was one where man was conscious of his intimate connection with the sacred. At its heart was man as as worshipping God or as we might say today "as a liturgical person". For him that was a radical alternative to his society. It was also a Christian alternative to the visions of Bentham or Marx and Engels or any of the other constructors of new worlds of the 19th century. It raised man up from meanness conveying an idea of "Glory" rather mere utilitarianism - see the last of these illustrations, "The Public Conduit" both serve the same purpose of conveying water to the thirsty but the East Cheap Conduit is a celebration of so much more than merely making water available.

A friend hates the Fr Z catch phrase, "save the liturgy, save the world" but actually the liturgy, learning to acknowledge God and our obligation to him, is salvific, it places us in context, it changes the whole balance of society, it makes us human.

Pushkin the Oratory Cat

2011-11-24T08:27:00.002Z

Cats: I know people who are besotted but me: they make me sneeze. However Pushkin the Birmingham Oratory cat has, apparently, produced a book: Pushkin the Pontifical Puss: Tails of an Oratory Cat.

For insights, from a cats point of view, into Birmingham Oratory life, extracts can be read here.

Thoughts on Music

2011-11-22T15:01:00.000Z

Happy St Cecelia's Day
A few thoughts on music.
We Catholics, we use music differently than Protestants or at least we should. For us music is supposed to soothe and quieten the soul to contemplate God; for Protestants it supposed to rouse the emotions. Catholic music, at least within the Sacred Liturgy is about prayer and communion with God: Protestant music is much more allied to preaching and the proclamation of faith.
Catholic music is, as the General Instruction tells us, above all Gregorian Chant and Polyphony, other music isn't proscribed but the model is music to quieten the soul rather than excite it.
Some of our choir have become pretty proficient at chant; Clare our Director of Music goes off to St Cecelia's, Ryde with a little group of women to do a master classes with their choirmistress, she's been invited to teach a few other parishes about chant. In a world where trivial candyfloss is regarded as the equivalent of chant, the trouble is that we are regarded as odd, "You do things differently at St Mary Magdalen". As far as I know we are one of the few parishes for miles around that use chant: so much for the General Instruction!
At our one sung Mass (Ordinary Form) we try to avoid the hymn sandwich, we do have a hymn to begin with, then the Introit during the incensation, we alternate the Responsorial Psalm with the Gradual, at the Offertory we can have the chant from the Graduale, a motet or a hymn, at Commununion we always tend to have Proper chant but also a devotional hymn, or motet. The recessional is often a hymn, a bit of community singing.
I am not sure that most of our congregation understand why we use chant, despite the occassional bit of catechesis, in the inner city our congregation changes so quickly. For most people chant is just a bit of peace and contemplation whilst something else is going on or a musical lacoona. We have tried the English chant, written for the new Missal translations, to me they sound faux and are difficult to sing. Latin is easier though understanding the text, despite producing handouts, is difficult.
As one of my priest neighbours says, "Sunday Mass tends to be a bit of a bear garden", at least compared to quiet weekday Mass. The problem is of course prayer, though I am not quite sure how you teach two, three, four or five year olds about prayer and worship, perhaps in "Children's Liturgy" rather than "colouring in" they ought to be listening to recordings of chant and taught to pray.

Just asking

2011-11-22T01:05:00.000Z

The Christian Institute carries a report on the lobbying campaign of the Scottish bishops against the redefinition of marriage. 14,000 cards have been sent to the Scottish Government, so far and I suppose that Scottish Catholics have had the concerns of their Pastors made clear to them.

Umm, what is being done England and Wales? I don't want to cause trouble, I am just asking, I thought it might be important for children, for the family, for society, that sort of thing.

At the House of Lords

2011-11-21T23:54:00.000Z

It is not every day off I spend taking wine with the great and good in the Palace of Westminster, today was an exception. My name tag, which I think was produced by the House of Lords, said that I was a "Catholic Affairs Commentator"; posh name for a blogger.

The occasion was a reception for the Friend's of St Augustine s Church, Ramsgate. A.W. Pugin's wonderful church and home, he paid for himself, it is place he chose to buried, it was supposed to be a show place for his vision of the Neo-Gothic. It fittingly took place in one of the Pugin decorated rooms of the House of Lords.

It was served by the Benedictines but two years ago they handed it back to the diocese. It seems as if it was possibly likely to become derelict, there were leaks in the roof, the electricity supply was condemned, the heating system had stopped working. A lot seems to have been put right but the architect was talking about rot in the timbers, the roof needs to be taken of to treat it, ironwork is rusting and damaging the stone, placing in jeopardy the glorious stained glass. There is tremendous amount of work to be done which should cost in the region of a million pounds.
Have a look at the Friends of St Augustine's website, we are in need and many of you have been generous to St Mary Magdalen's but St Augustine's is so important to Catholic architecture throughout the world I really do urge you to go the donate button.
The parish site is interesting too, they offer both forms of the Roman Rite.

Pope to Children on the Holy Eucharist

2011-11-19T19:39:00.000Z

Pope Benedict would have been a wonderful Grandfather, today he spoke very simply to a group of young children in Benin.

God our Father has gathered us around his Son and our brother, Jesus Christ, who is present in the host consecrated during the Mass. This is a great mystery before which we worship and we believe. Jesus, who loves us very much, is truly present in the tabernacles of all the churches around the world, in the tabernacles of the churches in your neighbourhoods and in your parishes. I ask you to visit him often to tell him of your love for him.
Some of you have already made your First Holy Communion, and others are preparing for it. The day of my First Holy Communion was one of the most beautiful days of my life. It is the same for you, isn’t it? And why is that? It’s not only because of our nice clothes or the gifts we receive, nor even because of the parties! It is above all because, that day, we receive Jesus in the Eucharist for the first time! When I receive Communion, Jesus comes to live in me. I should welcome him with love and listen closely to him. In the depths of my heart, I can tell him, for example: “Jesus, I know that you love me. Give me your love so that I can love you in return and love others with your love. I give you all my joys, my troubles and my future.” Do not hesitate, dear children, to speak of Jesus to others. He is a treasure whom you should share generously. Throughout the history of the Church, the love of Jesus has filled countless Christians, and even young people like yourselves, with courage and strength. In this way, Saint Kizito, a Ugandan boy, was put to death because he wanted to live according to the baptism which he had just received. Kizito prayed. He realized that God is not only important, but that he is everything.
What, then, is prayer? It is a cry of love directed to God our Father, with the will to imitate Jesus our brother. Jesus often went off by himself to pray. Like Jesus, I too can find a calm place to pray where I can quietly stand before a Cross or a holy picture in order to speak to Jesus and to listen to him. I can also use the Gospels. That way, I keep within my heart a passage which has touched me and which will guide me throughout the day. To stay with Jesus like this for a little while lets him fill me with his love, light and life! This love, which I receive in prayer, calls me in turn to give it to my parents, to my friends, to everyone with whom I live, even with those who do not like me, and those whom I do not appreciate enough. Dear young people, Jesus loves you. Ask your parents to pray with you! Sometimes you may even have to push them a little. But do not hesitate to do so. God is that important!
May the Virgin Mary, his Mother, teach you to love more and more through prayer, forgiveness and charity. I entrust you to her, together with your families and teachers. Look! I have this rosary in my pocket. The rosary is like a tool that we can use to pray. It is easy to pray the rosary. Maybe you know how already; if not, ask your parents to help you to learn how. At the end of this meeting, each one of you will receive a rosary. When you hold it in your hands, you can pray for the Pope, for the Church and for every important intention. And now, before I bless you all with great affection, let us pray together a Hail Mary for children throughout the world, especially for those who are sick, who are hungry and in places of war.
Let us pray together: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Some more

2011-11-19T17:42:00.001Z

One of my parishioners has written a song. I don't know if it will be heard on Chant Cafe or appear on New Liturgical Movements or even Rorate Caeli.
It raises lots of questions, why do intelligent young men, even with guitars, love the "Mass of Ages"? Why do they sit round a talk about vocations to the priesthood or living according to the Church's teaching? Why are they eager to share their faith?
What does the Traditional Mass do to them?

New Translations and Ecumenism

2011-11-19T16:49:00.000Z

There is a rather interesting extract from Dr Chartres the Anglican Bishop of London on the new translations of the Roman Missal, for those of us who know of many Anglicans who use both the Roman Missal and Lectionary, his words may seem a little hard, especially for those who have claimed they are "Catholics" but in the CofE.
The great Peter Amigo, Archbishop of Southwark for the first half of the 20th Century met a High Anglican on a street who said, "I am an Anglican but I consider myself a validly ordained Catholic priest and I accept you as my real and legitimate bishop". The Bishop replied, "In that case I suspend you. Good day!"

The Pope has recently issued an invitation to Anglicans to move into full communion with the See of Rome in the Ordinariate where it is possible to enjoy the “Anglican patrimony” as full members of the Roman Catholic Church. Three priests in the Diocese have taken this step. They have followed their consciences.

For those who remain there can be no logic in the claim to be offering the Eucharist in communion with the Roman Church which the adoption of the new rites would imply. In these rites there is not only a prayer for the Pope but the expression of a communion with him; a communion Pope Benedict XVI would certainly repudiate.

At the same time rather than building on the hard won convergence of liturgical texts, the new Roman rite varies considerably from its predecessor and thus from Common Worship as well. The rationale for the changes is that the revised texts represent a more faithful translation of the Latin originals and are a return to more traditional language.

Priests and parishes which do adopt the new rites – with their marked divergences from the ELLC texts and in the altered circumstances created by the Pope’s invitation to Anglicans to join the Ordinariate – are making a clear statement of their disassociation not only from the Church of England but from the Roman Communion as well. This is a pastoral unkindness to the laity and a serious canonical matter. The clergy involved have sworn oaths of canonical obedience as well as making their Declaration of Assent. I urge them not to create further disunity by adopting the new rites.

There will be no persecution and no creation of ritual martyrs but at the same time there will be no opportunity to claim that the Bishop’s directions have been unclear. All the bishops of the Diocese when visiting parishes will celebrate according to the rites of the Church of England allowing for permitted local variations under Canon B5.

The Pope on His Friend

2011-11-19T00:03:00.000Z

The Pope on his friendship with Cardinal Gantin in Benin, first on the plane.

I saw Cardinal Gantin for the first time at my ordination as Archbishop of Munich in 1976 [sic -- it was 1977]. He had come become one of his former students was a disciple of mine. That had been the beginning of a friendship between us, without our having met. On that important day of my episcopal ordination, it was beautiful for me to meet this young African bishop full of faith, full of joy and courage. Then, we worked together a great deal, above all when he was the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and then in the College of Cardinals. I always marveled at his deep and practical intelligence, his sense of discernment, to not trip over beautiful ideological phrases but to grasp what’s essential and what doesn’t make sense. He also had a true sense of humor which was very beautiful. Above all, he was a man of deep faith and prayer. All this made Cardinal Gantin not just a friend, but an example. He was a great African Catholic bishop, and I’m truly happy now that I’m able to pray at his tomb and to feel his closeness, his great faith, which will always make him an example for me and a friend.

Then during the welcoming ceremony.

There exists a third reason [I have come here] which is more personal and more emotive. I have long held in high esteem a son of this country, His Eminence Cardinal Bernardin Gantin. For many years, we both worked, each according to his proper competence, labouring in the same vineyard. We both happily assisted my predecessor, Blessed John Paul II, in the exercise of his Petrine ministry. We had many occasions to meet, to engage in profound discussions and to pray together. Cardinal Gantin won the respect and the affection of many. So it seemed right that I should come to his country of origin, to pray before his tomb, and to thank Benin for having given the Church such a distinguished son.

John Allen also has speaks about another great Benin bishop Archbishop Isidore de Sousa

Ratzinger and Gantin

2011-11-18T10:48:00.000Z

One of the things that the Pope will do in the visit to Benin is to visit the grave of Bernardin Cardinal Gantin. Rocco Palmo has an interesting account of their collaboration.

An Experiment - Sunday EF Mass at 9am

2011-11-18T09:40:00.001Z

I have been celebrating a Sunday Mass in the Extraordinary form on the third Sunday at 7pm, after Ordinary Form Mass at 6pm. Following "requests from the faithful", for an experimental period, initially, from the first Sunday of Advent until the Sunday before the beginning of Lent, I will celebrate the Extraordinary Form of Mass at 9am every Sunday (it will be Low Mass - maybe some Catholic family might come and sing polyphony which would be very nice if God could arrange that).

The problem is if I am ill or on holiday there will be no-one in the local area to say Mass in my place.

In marketing terms it is another of our USPs, (unique selling points).

Death of Catholic England

2011-11-17T18:05:00.000Z

This day is the anniversary of the death of Reginald Cardinal Pole, the last of the Plantagenets, the last of the line of Augustine, the last Archbishop of Canterbury.
On same day Queen Mary died and thus died Catholic England!

Pray for their souls

Strong Families Equal Strong Economies

2011-11-16T18:06:00.000Z

When the 7 billionth child was born at the beginning of the month the BBC actually allowed a few people to say that in Europe we were facing a demographic winter, and that in Africa and Asia the numbers surviving childhood are quickly sinking to below replacement level.
Francis Phillips in the Herald argues Bishops should stop worrying about decline and start encouraging couples to be open to life.
In the threatened coming economic Apocalypse, if pensions and other forms of social support fail won't ther family grow in importance?

(Romereports.com) Solutions to the world's economic worries are being presented in all shapes and sizes. But one area which is often overlooked and plays a critical role in development is the family. An economic forum was held in Rome to examine the role of the family on the economy. Brad Wilcox is the director of the National Marriage Project. He says that societies and economies will flourish if children are raised in a healthy family setting.

Bradley Wilcox
Director, “National Marriage Project” (USA)
“We know that kids are more likely to get the human and the social capital that they need to flourish both in life and the market when they're raised by intact, married parents.”

Groups like the National Marriage Project study different ways in which governments associate with the family.

Some countries have public policies that specifically promote family life. Finland for instance offers a 'child credit' that families can spend in ways they see best fit to raise their children. This often means one parent is able to take more time to spend at home with their children.

Policies like those in Finland is something the National Marriage Project is trying to promote everywhere.

Bradley Wilcox
Director, “National Marriage Project” (USA)
“What we've talked about today really is that the family plays a crucial role in providing and sort of cultivating the future workers, consumers, and tax payers of the modern world. And the family is often neglected in the consideration of the economy of the welfare of business.”

The studies presented at this “Meeting on the Family” suggest it's in a country's long term interest to promote the family unit.

The group is not only suggesting public policy. They also promote steps that can be taken by private businesses such as maternity leave and benefits associated with raising a family.

Unique for a Reason

2011-11-15T18:58:00.000Z

The US Bishops have produce a website Marriage: Unique for a Reason, check it out.

Any honest consideration of marriage must think about children, the hope of our future. For millennia, people of every generation and of every culture have understood that the marriage of a man and a woman is the central pro-child social institution and the rock of the natural family. Marriage has never been about the relationship of just any two adults. Marriage brings together a man and a woman who unite as husband and wife to form a unique relationship open to welcoming and caring for new life. As the union of husband and wife, marriage is a union open from within to the blessing of fruitfulness. Children are born “from the very heart” of marriage, from the mutual self-giving between husband and wife (CCC, no. 2366). They are the “supreme gift” of marriage and its “ultimate crown” (GS, nos. 50, 48).

There is new video Made for Each Other: Sexual difference is essential to marriage

Living Justly

2011-11-13T21:33:00.001Z

All Christians should be concerned about Justice, about living justly, about doing what is right. It is truly scandalous when the Church of the Living God is seen to be less than just.

Recently I was shown a ranting mad letter from a Bishop to one of his priests, which basically said, "I cannot be bothered to read what you have written or to listen to what you have to say or to investigate what you are accused of but whatever it was it was wrong and hate filled", it actually wasn't, it was a gentle argument trying to explain the faith.

I rather welcome the recent judgement that the relationship of priests to their bishops is like that of employer to employee, simply because it might bring some justice into a situation which is often quiet unjust and sometimes, as an American friend suggested, more akin to master and helot.

Those with power in the Church are often a law unto themselves, especially when they turn their back on the Church's Canon Law and basic Christian principles. In Germany a scandal broke revealing the Bishops own a publishing house which sold pornography, lay people had been questioning it for years and getting no satisfaction.

In Ireland physical and sexual abuse of minors and the vulnerable were bad enough but the Church being seen as bullying, lying and self serving has really damaged its credibility in society and amongst its members. The same vices were seen in the fiasco over the Cardinal Vaughan school in which again the Church was seen as bullying, cruel and not exactly truthful: it took the intervention of Secretary of State for Education to end the farce in favour of the Vaughan parents.

Fr Tim comments on a another school situation, in which the Church, in this case under the guise of the Head Teacher and Governors seem to be again using bullying tactics against a group of parents who are criticising the Religious Education of their children. The parents seem to be taking seriously their role as the "first and best of teachers" of their children in the ways of faith. The parents handed out leaflets some distance from the school, the Head Teacher had the police harass them, someone at the school apparently making an allegation of assault, which the police later decided not to pursue. The parents put up a website, the Head Teacher wrote to parents saying logging on to it would infect their computers.

As Fr Tim says, it isn't just this school, "I have heard many similar stories from other Catholic schools and colleges though usually those who complain do not wish to be in the public eye". I would suggest it is broader than educational establishments. It touches religious houses, pastoral organisations, dioceses. A careful reading of the Carlile Report on the Ealing Abbey scandals would seem to suggest that the Abbey placed itself beyond scrutiny and criticism living in its own self created bubble.

Fr Tim quotes some one commenting or pro-euthanasia and pornography shown to children by the Bonus Pastor school, who says, "I am a Catholic and teacher in a secular school within a 5 mile radius of Bonus Pastor. We would not countenance showing this material in school - no school with Muslim pupils would allow it, without at least warning the parents and allowing them to opt out. Ironic, isn't it?" Injustices or simply bad behaviour tolerated in the Church and its institutions are not tolerated in wider society, the closed shop mentality, the obfuscation, the lack of scrutiny of the Church can tend to damage it seriously, placing the institutions members above the sacred message, to the point where institution appears to exist disjointed from Christ and his Gospel.

It is very easy for the Church to exist solely to cling to power, to become yet another corporation or institution, perhaps particularly in age of relativism and particularly now when we are forced to employ so many "professionals" there is an even greater danger.

Death to the World

2011-11-11T00:12:00.002Z

During a telephone call tonight I told an Orthodox friend one of my predecessors used to mutter, "they cry out for bread and we give them candy-floss". He told me about this rather radical Orthodox monastic evangelical initiative which I remember hearing about in the 1990s, here is Wiki link: a "zine" is a "fanzine" by the way.

Death to the World was started by monks and nuns from the St Herman of Alaska Monastery in Platina, California, as a medium of evangelism to teens involved in the punk subculture by monastics who were ex-punks. A founding member was Justin Marler who, soon after recording Volume One with seminal doom metal band Sleep in 1991, left for seven years of monastic life while Sleep went on to become metal icons.

Originally, the monastics planned to submit an article about Fr. Seraphim Rose to the magazine Maximum RocknRoll. They later decided to try to place an ad for their monastery, but were only rudely rejected, being told that the magazine "only [ran] ads for music and zines". This inspired them to begin a zine.
The first issue was printed in the December of ’94 featuring a monk holding a skull on cover. The hand-drawn bold letters across the top read “DEATH TO THE WORLD, The Last True Rebellion” and the back cover held the caption: “they hated me without a cause.” ... The first issue, decorated with ancient icons and lives of martyrs inside, was advertised in Maximum RocknRoll and brought letters from all around the world.
The 'zine continued to be published and distributed at punks shows and underground hangouts. It was estimated that at one time, there were 50,000 in circulation. The monastics put out 12 issues in all, after which they continued distributing the 'zine but didn't publish new issues.
Eight years later, the zine was revived by convert members of Saint Barnabas Antiochian Orthodox Church in Costa Mesa, California. New issues are submitted to the St Herman monks for editing and revision, and are released quarterly.
The zine had a considerable impact on counter culture youth during the mid to late 90s, which caught the attention of mainstream press, and quickly led to the release of Justin Marler's first book in 1997, Youth of the Apocalypse, (co-authored with a fellow monastic).

I wonder if something similar is needed today?
I just read there are major cutbacks in once Catholic Preston.

Possible Presents

2011-11-10T19:48:00.000Z

My birthday is coming up and here are a few things I would be quite pleased to have.

Yes you are right, I am not quite serious but there is a sale coming up in Paris of works from the collection the Marquet de Vasselot, some are breathtakingly beautiful, with astronomical estimates.

Deus Providebit

2011-11-10T18:15:00.000Z

What has happened to all those wonderful stories about nuns throwing a handful of miraculous medals over a wall and a week later finding someone had left the property to the convent in will?
Are children no longer rescued whilst hanging from a tree root over a precipice by a mysterious stranger who reminds them to thank their guardian angels then disappears?
Are scapular wearing soldiers still less likely to be killed by the enemy?
Do poor families who give their last six penny piece to St Anthony for the even poorer no longer get postal orders from an long lost aunt in the last post?
As it is the feast of St Leo, do cities under threat from the Hun no longer gather for prayer whilst their bishop sets out on his ass to speak to the enemy, no longer find them gone in the morning?

A few stories, I've been told:
"I made sure the novices were outside the door saying the Litany of Loretto whilst I rang round trying to get a few planes to bring food to the refugees, each litany yielded yet another aeroplane, we stopped after six, it was time for Vespers".

"I made a Novena to get into Oxford, on the eighth I had a refusal, and on the ninth I got an acceptance from Exeter, the first day there I met Claire we have been happily married for forty years, I knew God had a plan."

"We ran out of food, we prayed that God would provide and didn't a fishmongers van breakdown right opposite the convent, and didn't the man ask if we wouldn't mind filling our freezer, we eat salmon all that Lent".

"We began a Mission, people were praying before the Blessed Sacrament, I went to visit a house, the woman who answered the door said, "But Father we decided not call you, who told you John was dying? No-one had, either it was co-incidence or the Lord sent me".

We no longer tell these stories, is it we find them all a little superstitious or is it we longer believe God intervenes directly in our lives or have we just lost faith and trust?

Not Shepherds but Employees

2011-11-09T12:09:00.000Z

Yesterday the High Court has ruled the Roman Catholic Church can be held liable for the wrongdoings of its priests. In effect it says priests are employed by a diocese.

Fr Mildew says

Status of the clergy in civil law BBC Radio 4 carried an announcement of a court that effectively considers that all clergy in a diocese are counted as employees of the diocese. In canon law this is not the case, the clergy are self employed (or employed by God ?) The case refers to a lady claiming abuse by a priest now dead, who (presumably) failing to get compensation, applied for a ruling on whether she could sue the diocese as the person responsible for the actions of that priest and received an affirmative reply. This would of course open the door for other similar cases to apply if insufficient compensation was offered. What I would like to know however is whether such a judgement making us employees, would mean we could at least in theory sue the diocese in the case of possible wrongful dismissal, (or even receiving insufficient remuneration !) At present in some but not all dioceses, priests obtain an income from Christmas and Easter Offerings plus Mass stipends and stole fees for marriages, funerals etc. All that is of course taxable. If we were to be employed persons, presumably the diocese would in all cases have to pay a salary ? Perhaps some canonist might like to respond ?

There are lots of other implications of being an employee: pensions, trade unions, minimum wages, working hours, legislation regarding promotion, discrimination... the mind boggles.
But then is every Catholic an employee of the Church?

Dying Breed

2011-11-08T16:14:00.000Z

I had lunch with a priest sometime ago, he had been ordained almost 50 years. I asked him if he had enjoyed being a priest, he replied, "I did, I don't now", he moaned about all the administration he had to do. I asked if he would encourage a young man to become a priest, "Certainly not", was his abrupt answer. Fr X is a good priest, he teaches the faith, he is loved by his parishioners and loves them, he is wise and much respected by his fellow priests. He is not a liberal, nor is he a conservative.

I think in many ways he is like many priests, conscious of being a dying breed, likely not to be replaced when he finally retires or dies. What he has built up in his parish over twenty years is likely to be swept away when he dies or retires. I am not sure if he is depressed but like many priests he seemed to lack hope, or a vision for the future. Many priests are conscious of having the baton handed on to them but are not sure whether they will pass it on to anyone.

I think Fr X is not an exception. One of the things that impressed me about Bishop Davies at the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy Colloquium, some had asked a question that should have resulted in criticism of some priests, the Bishop began by saying, "All priests are good!" Obviously he wasn't oblivious to the fact that some priests are plainly not so, there are some priests in prison, some who are great sinners, or heretics, or whatever but it was a delight to hear a bishop suggest it was good just being a priest and all priests are fundamentally good.

So often one gets the impression that bishops see priests a potential problems. One older sick priest said to me of his own bishop, "he sees me as problem and looks forward to me being dead" or another priest, "he is happy to forget I exist until I am dead, then I'll be problem until he replaces me". Death seems to be on the mind many older priests. The relationship between bishops and priests is often far from the vision of Vatican II; that of father and son or Chief Shepherd and Co-workers.

Over the next few years in many dioceses in Europe, the Church is going to see a substantial reduction in the number of priests, most bishops see this as a management problem; managing decline as well as possible. Some have even got in experts to help people "cope with change". It might be common sense to some but to me it seems to be a lack of hope.

Vatican II is often called the Council of the Bishop. It saw a dramatic shift in the understanding of the theology of ministry from "priesthood" to "episkope" oversight. In its crudest interpretation it is a shift from grace to management. One of the reasons for the Year for Priests was about renewing a theology of priesthood, again and again Pope Benedict speaks of the priesthood as belonging and being centred on Christ, serving Christ. Individual priests might be bad, sad or mad but being a priest is good, celebrating the sacraments is good, preaching the Catholic Faith is good.

The sadness that many priests, including Fr X seem to have a loss of hope, it can only be restored when we realise Christ is the answer rather than clever strategies. I don't know what Christ would have done about the crisis that the lack of priests is going to bring about but the Cure D'Ars would have thrown himself on his knees before the Lord, Charles Borromeo would have ordered penance, fasts and processions. Prayer, penance, fasting; child like dependence on Christ have always been the Saints answer to Church's problems. Problems seem to start when we see the Church as ours rather than His.

Of course some bishops and priests would see the reduced number of clergy as an opportunity for lay leadership.

Ambrosian Evangelium Illustrations

2011-11-06T20:06:00.000Z

These are illustrations for the new controversial Ambrosian Evangelium (thanks - is that the right word - to Rorate).

Is this Catholic or post-Catholic art?

Tyranicide

2011-11-05T21:16:00.001Z

Guy Fawkes was obviously a politically motivated extremist who wanted to bring about carnage, like all Englishmen I am horrified by him but I also have a certain admiration for him. Every Englishman has a secret wish to blow up Parliament, obviously without hurting anyone. Fawkes is both hero and villain. He symbolises direct action for an oppressed minority, no wonder so many protesters were wearing Guy Fawkes masks outside St Paul's.
The authors of the Gunpowder plot would have seen themselves as tyranicides, seeing King James as both a usurper and an oppressor. Though most Catholic theologians were of the grin and bear it school as far as tyrants are concerned, the Council of Constance (1415) had taught:

"Any vassal or subject can lawfully and meritoriously kill, and ought to kill, any tyrant. He may even, for this purpose, avail himself of ambushes, and wily expressions of affection or of adulation, notwithstanding any oath or pact imposed upon him by the tyrant, and without waiting for the sentence or order of any judge." (Session XV)

At a time when so many Catholics throughout Europe were oppressed or even outlawed the perennial Catholic question, "how far can you go?" had come to the fore. A small number of Jesuits at the time of the plot, like Juan Mariana defended, though with many restrictions and precautions, the disposition and killing of a tyrant. In 1610, five years after the Gunpowder Plot, the Jesuit General forbade any teaching or counsel in private or public, that tyranicide was acceptable.

Today the same question, how far can you go? is to the fore again, perhaps influenced by South American Liberation Theologians. It is not the assassination of a tyrant but questions as to whether it legitimate to destroy an offensive work of art or to disrupt a theatre performance.

Warning
Stupid me! thanks to those who made comments, what I put forward as the teaching of Constance, was actually condemned by it!!!

On the Barricades

2011-11-05T16:13:00.000Z

The Irish government have "for economic reasons" closed its embassy to the Holy See, of course the Blair government proposed to do the same thing, substituting a Vatican desk in the Embassy to Italy. Fr John Corrigan suggests that many other governments might well follow Ireland's lead and that the Church's real authority comes from the voter in the pew.
Fr John is right of course but the problem is that in Europe after 40 years of the liberal ascendancy most Catholics are unsure of what the Church teaches, and what of it they accept, most especially on moral issues. Even amongst the clergy not only is there ignorance but out and out descent, a quarter of the Irish clergy have signed up to the agenda of Association of Catholic Priests, these are hardly the men who would run to the barricades to defend marriage, or the place of the child in society, or even the person of Jesus Christ, or even the poor, at least not under the Church's banner.
The weakness of the faith in the pew means that at an international level the Church is weak but it is not just in weakness the parish, it appears that on a national level we have substituted access for influence. Catholic leaders hobnobbing with ministers is never a good substitute fo the real threat of a loss of votes or much better voters understanding what the Church teaches and being able and willing to articulate it.

An Authentic Celebration According to the Roman Missal

2011-11-03T18:13:00.000Z

New Liturgical Movements has a set of photographs of the priestly ordination of Father Edward van den Bergh, a priest of the London Oratory, who was ordained to the priesthood this past October 22nd by Archbishop Vincent Nichols. There are more photographs here.

Archbishop Nichols was the celebrant, the Ordination was celebrated in the Ordinary Form in Latin and strictly according to the Roman Missal, that is with the clergy facing the same direction as the priest, according to the rubrics.

Monsignor Andrew Wadsworth, following his talk at the Colloquium of Catholic Clergy UK, mentioned that one of the larger Episcopal Conferences, presumably Nigeria or the US, wanted to remove the six places in the Missal where it says, "the priest turns to the people and says". He said he had to remind the bishops that ICEL was there to translate the Roman Missal not to change the Latin "typical" edition of the Missal. At the Colloquium Mass was con-celebrated ad apsidem, the altars at the Oratory school all face "east".

Looking at the photographs it strikes me that the London Oratories interpretation of Roman Missal is more authentic than what happens in most parishes or cathedrals. Rubrics aren't a suggestion, they are the law of the Church, which most of us tend to flout, or "interpret", "turns to the people" can't be seen as a metaphorical "turn" which really means "looking at" or "having eye contact with".

The rubric that says "the altar should be freestanding, so that Mass can be celebrated facing the people, which is always desirable." The "desirability" is not the facing the people but the altar being freestanding.

It was good to see the Archbishop celebrating Mass celebrating facing "east", but isn't it about time he started doing it in his own cathedral. It was such a good idea of his to get rid of the temporary portable secondary altar, perhaps now with the new translations it is time for a more authentic interpretation of the Missal.

Here, we have more building work on the sanctuary, a new floor is being laid, the altar has been moved into the nave and there is no room for the priest to stand behind the altar. I am not sure anyone at all minds.

My congratulations to Fr van der Berg on his ordination to the Sacred Priesthood - ad multos annos.

Fourth Commandment

2011-11-02T18:03:00.000Z

The fourth commandment: Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

The Commemoration of the Faithful depart is an indication of our "rootedness", remembering our own history, our family, those who have gone before us. The fourth commandment ends with the promise of being "long in the land", when we forget our dead we risk loosing our own place in the world.

OCCCUPY... err, Heaven!

2011-11-02T17:46:00.000Z

I am not good at the "What would Jesus do?"
The more one knows him the more unpredictable his actions are, I know he would not do what I would expect hi9m to do, if he did he wouldn't be God, just an interesting historical ethical teacher, which he isn't.

I've been fascinated by the shenanigans at St Paul's and the rather inarticulate ramblings of some of the CofE's leading thinkers. One of my erstwhile parishioners quoted this gobbet by ex-Canon Chancellor Giles Fraser, a BBC favourite, “I think that, in a sense what the camp does is that it challenges the church with the problem of the Incarnation – that you have God, who is grand and almighty, [who] gets born in a stable, in a tent. You know, St Paul was a tent maker. I mean, if you looked around and you tried to recreate where Jesus would be born – for me, I could imagine Jesus being born in the camp.”

What seems to be happening at St Paul's is an attempt to neither upset bankers or protestors, what we can say Jesus would have done would be to offend both groups, at the end of the day both groups would have shouted, "Crucify him", because his Kingdom is not of this world. Virtue is often found in the moderation of the via media but Christianity is always the third way, the Narrow Way.

What Christ is concerned about is our relationship with God, "rendering unto God the the things which belong to God". When Christianity starts getting too involved with Caesar it always comes of second best, just think of the Church here and its involvement with the previous government. As salt, as yeast, as light the Church has a great deal to say and perhaps having spent 2,000 years meditating on death, judgement, heaven and hellwe know what is important. To both bankers and protestors we have a most singular message: Jesus.

Fr Stephen Langridge suggests that Jesus "[h]aving already pitched his tent among us, I suspect he would be continue to call men and women to repentance. However, I think we know what St Paul would do. When he went into the Areopagus St Paul didn't say to those present, "I stand with you". He latched onto something they could relate to and used it to proclaim Christ. That's the model of the first evangelisation of Europe and I suspect it will need to be the model of the New Evangelisation as well."

Evangelisation is about listening but it is also about having something to say. The Anglicans (and Catholics) seem so anxious to listen but like Paul having heard, Christians have something to say. Our message isn't about ending greed, multinationals or world hunger, it is about occupying heaven and saving souls.

Heart of St John Vianney to visit England

2011-11-01T12:55:00.000Z

The excellent Bishop Mark Davies has arranged for the relics of St John Vianney to visit his diocese in early July 2012.

The heart of St John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, is to be brought to the Diocese of Shrewsbury next summer.
The three intentions of the four-day visit of the relic of the Cure of Ars in early July 2012 are to provide an occasion of prayer for the renewal of the ministerial priesthood in the diocese, to inspire new and generous vocations, and to spur the renewal of the missions and life of all parishes in the diocese.
The relic will be accompanied by the Rt Rev. Guy Bagnard, Bishop of Belley-Ars, France, and two priests of his diocese, and will be taken to a number of locations to provide opportunities for its veneration by priests and laity and as an invitation to prayer. A programme will be announced at a later date.
The visit is being arranged following a request by the Rt Rev. Mark Davies, the Bishop of Shrewsbury, to Bishop Bagnard when they met in September during a visit of the young Shrewsbury clergy to Ars, where three seminarians for the Shrewsbury Diocese are also in training. Bishop Bagnard later wrote to Bishop Davies to confirm that it would be possible to transport the heart of the saint to England.

Bishop Davies said: “I am delighted we can welcome this relic of St John Vianney to England. The Scriptures speak of the saints as those ‘witnesses’ who encourage us in our faith. This visible reminder of the heart of a simple and extraordinary pastor will encourage us to look to that love and truth found at the heart of the Catholic priesthood, for St John Vianney said simply: ‘The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.’
“This will be an invitation for everyone to pray for the renewal of the ministerial priesthood in our time, a renewed sense of mission in our parishes and for new and generous vocations for the future.”

Write in Praise of Good Priests

2011-10-31T08:47:00.003Z

In the comments on the last post "Hughie" pointed out that a number of Scottish dioceses are going to become vacant soon, the same is true in England. What should one do? Write!
Write to the Congregation of Bishops

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Palazzo delle Congregazioni, Piazza Pio XII, 10-00193 Roma,

Write to the Nuncio

The Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, 54 Parkside, Wimbledon London SW19 5NE

Write in praise of good and faithful priests. The Holy See is always pleased to hear of men who would make good bishops. The one complaint I hear from priests in Roman dicasteries is that they hear too little from Britain.
Before and after and whilst you write pray, pray for holy priest and even holier bishops.

Some thoughts on faith

2011-10-29T11:28:00.002+01:00

Reflecting on Bishop Davies words on Faith at the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy - he reminded us that Kiko Arguello had the unnerving habit of asking bishops, "Do you believe?" - it struck me that faith is infectious. It is caught, not taught, actually it is taught too but people need to see it and to have an example of it. That is why the heroic example of the saints has always been important. I am quite convinced that "Does he believe, does he live by faith?" should be the main question asked about any potential bishop.

We can ascent to propositions: I believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit but as St James reminds us faith without works is dead. Belief should make difference in our lives, it was belief in God that led Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees, it was belief that caused Mary to visit Elizabeth, it was belief that sent the Apostles out to evangelise and to draw men and women into the Church. As Bishop Davies reminded us it was faith in the sacraments that led the Cure d'Ars to spend hours before the Blessed Sacrament and in the Confessional and the faith he showed that transformed the faithless town of Ars into the place where the Cure heard the confessions of an estimated quarter of the population of Francee.

The liberalism or relativism of the 70s tended to destroy, be contemptuous of or even ridicule faith, replacing it with cunning plans, projects and schemes, and eventually when these failed to yield fruit, apathy. What has always impressed me is that Gospel is always, from the beginning, passed on by individuals, often within the context of the apparent mess of Divine Providence.

We can talk as much as we like but faith and its fruit: evangelisation, is the result of "heart speaking to heart".
Bishop Davies reminded us of St Charles Borromeo going into a church and finding the Blessed Sacrament mouldering in a tabernacle with the door hanging off. St Charles knelt before it, he continued kneeling in prayer, eventually others started to join him, he continued to kneel, he knelt through the night, eventually the whole parish came, even the Parish Priest and knelt with him until he celebrated Mass and restored the Lord. Not a word was said, said Bishop Davies, no condemnation, just this act of faith.

The subtext of the Bishops speech was, do we live by faith?

See Fr Simon Henry's report too.

Confraternity of Catholic Clergy: the joy of Bishop Davies

2011-10-29T00:05:00.001+01:00

I'm just back from the first Colloquium of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, at the Oratory School in Reading, it was brilliant. About half the 120 members of the CCC managed to turn up.
Mgr Andrew Wadsworth (Director of ICEL) gave a fascinating address on the new translations, revealing some of the backgound and Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett of the Australian Conference of Catholic Clergy interrupted his return journey from the Australian ad Limina visit to be with us, he had lots of encouraging things to say.
But it was Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury who almost had us, well, in tears, actually. He spoke about faith, responding to God's goodness in faith, about priests living according to faith, about prayer and penance, about basic Catholic truths. There was nothing new that he had to say, just a bishop with evident faith, imbued with scriptures, with the lives of the saints. It was wonderful to hear an English bishop so obviously aware of his own weakness and deficiencies and yet so obviously full of Catholic faith and a sense of joy in the Lord and joy in the sacred priesthood, it was infectious.
Several times during his talk I felt tears welling up, other hard bitten priests said they felt same.
The whole two days were incredible, there was lots of time for prayer and lots of time for friendship. I came away with a tremendous sense of hope, especially if Bishop Davies is the type of Bishop who will be appointed in the future but it was the clergy too who gave me a sense of hope, young religious, and priests who have been ordained a few years as well as the old and retired; three priests from my diocese, priests from all over the country, all deeply committed to the Church and the Magisterium. I came away thinking how fortunate I am to be a priest today.
Most of the blogging clergy were there so there should be other accounts and even pictures.
Have a look at Fr Sam's pictures and read Fr Tim's account.

Look what arrived in the post

2011-10-26T23:16:00.000+01:00

The New Missal arrived just before Benediction this evening.

I order all three, the Altar Missal and the smaller version for the priest's chair and an even smaller one for the sacristy.

They are pretty, the smallest is without illustrations, they seem, for a mass produced book they are reasonable well bound.
At first sight the lay out has bit to be desired, even so I am just glad they have finally been produced, though I won't have the chance to look through them properly. Tomorrow I'm off the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy Colloquium in Reading until Friday evening.

Are Witches Catholic?

2011-10-26T22:36:00.000+01:00

I met a wiccan witch recently -it is Brighton- she was with a lady who no longer comes here to Mass. This lady disagreed with me about who was "Catholic", she would say the witch was, though not in "full communion". The lady stopped coming here when I refused to sell the Tablet at the back of the Church.

Her problem all hangs around a broad interpretation of Lumen Gentium 8, popular in the 1970s and especially fed by a simplification of Rhanner's doctrine of the "anonymous Christian"

Speaking of the Church of Jesus Christ, Lumen Gentium 8 says, "this Church, constituted and organized as a society in this present, world, subsists in (subsistit in) the Catholic Church, governed by the Successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although (licet) many elements of sanctification and truth can be found outside her structure; such elements, as gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ, impel towards Catholic unity".

This lady would say that wiccan witches (they are not Satanists but into potions and "spells") do good, pray for peace, are "green", are into world peace, and therefore have elements, as gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ. Since the 1970 the Church has been rowing back on these "elements of sanctification and truth".

For example the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in a Notification on the book "Church: Charism and Power" by Fr. Leonardo Boff said, " . . . the Council chose the word subsistit precisely in order to make it clear that there exists a single 'subsistence' of the true Church, while outside her visible structure only elementa ecclesiae exist, which — as elements of the Church — tend and lead toward the Catholic Church".

As Prefect of the Congregation Joseph Ratzinger issued, in 2000, Dominus Jesus, in which he drew a distinction between the Church that is the Catholic Church and Churches such as the Orthodox Church which have a undisputedly validly ordained epicopacy and Ecclessial Communities such as Anglicanism, which do not have validly ordained bishops or priest or even the Salvation Army which has no sacraments at all but do have the scriptures, though little of the Tradition to interpret them correctly.

Pre-Dominus Jesus ecumenism seemed to want to broaden the scope of what a Christian was, seeing elements of Christianity everywhere, in Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, even tribal religions or witchcraft, that seemed to be at the root of previous Assisi events. After Dominus Jesus elementa ecclesiae tend to be seen in more precise terms, that can be seen in terms of "the hermeneutic of continuity",

Protest the ...

2011-10-25T12:50:00.000+01:00

Catholics have always protested. The blood of the martyrs reminds us we do not quite belong to the rest of mankind, that we are subversive. Indeed more extreme Liberation theologians might suggest the prime purpose of a Christian is to subvert the State. A more classical position might be to follow the example of Fathers like St Ambrose who chastened Emperors or St Thomas Becket or St John Fisher who opposed kings, and suffered the consequences. The Catholic Church in China suffers because the State sees it as subversive and not just on its "one child" policy.

Secular society is also having its protests, the gathering number in the City or on Wall Street are expressing an anger, generally inarticulate and unfocussed, placards say they are against greed, poverty, injustice, hunger, global warming and for peace, honesty, integrity, transparency, fair dealing. In society generally there is a disillusionment with organisations: trade unions; political parties etc are losing membership in the same way as any Church. Personalised cafeteria politics are mirrored in personalised cafeteria religion. Perhaps an economic change will bring about a reversal of this.

The Church militant today is the Church protesting, somehow I suspect a major part of the New Evangelisation will be about "protest", challenging the values that actually sit uncomfortably within our culture and psyche, those things which are contrary to the Natural Law. The hard cases are difficult to argue against but fundamental ideas of human dignity, the right to life, to human dignity and to what the Pope continually now refers to as "human ecology" are going to become more easily assimulated and will become increasingly so.

"Protesting against" is where contemporary politics is at: most people tend to vote against political parties rather than for them, politicians lose elections not win them.

As Christians we define ourselves by those things we affirm: I believe in God etc. We have become reticent about those things we reject: Do you reject Satan... and all his works etc, Thou shalt not ..., but these also defined Christianity. They also tend to challenge our society. The loss of definition by negation, have caused a loss of Catholic identity and for so many a loss of a lived morality. Hence Catholics are as likely as one else to abort, contracept, divorce or engage in pre-marital sex as anyone else. What we are for is nebulous, what we are against is tangible.

The French bishops called people on to the streets to protest an anti-Catholic play but for the most part Catholic protest is tied up with Life issues. Most protests by Catholics are ad intra: the disobedience of clergy in Austria and Ireland, the disobedience of bishops in Australia seem as ill defined as those of Wall Street or the City. In Ireland it seems most of the protesting clergy are simply finding a way of showing discomfort a poor leadership.

In England Catholics seem to be involved in protesting on specific issues: the demonstrations and legal tussles with the Archbishop of Westminster over the Cardinal Vaughan School or prayerfully protesting outside St Mary's Warwick Street over those Masses seem to identify an anger or at least dissatisfaction with our clerical leadership.

The French bishops got students and Action Francaise onto the streets: how do we harness protest? Can we teach the faith by denunciation and protest?

Burke in Manchester

2011-10-23T18:28:00.000+01:00

I have been looking for the transcript of Cardinal Raymond Burke's speech at Manchester University on 12th October online. I can't find it anywhere.
Fr Mildew quotes from a letter in an obscure magazine saying, "According however to the writer, they left in silence after his speech because of course, they had expected words of encouragement for changes and so called progress and got the complete opposite."
All I can find is a report from the Salford diocese's website:

Cardinal Burke focused on the need for Catholics to "reject a life of mediocrity" in the face of relativist, consequentialist and proportionalist views of thinking. The relativist says that we can act as we like since what is true for one person does not necessarily hold true for someone else. The relativist therefore denies a moral norm, a standard by which we can measure our behaviour. The consequentialist says that an action is right or wrong depending on the consequences that arise from it. The proportionalist says that we come to decisions about whether something is right or not based on a weighing-up of the supposed good or evil that might come out of an action.

These reduced visions of human behaviour are seriously detrimental to Catholic teaching and imperil the salvation of souls. The only solution is for us to take seriously the natural law, inscribed in the heart of every person. The natural law enables us to see what God is asking of us. Hence, for example, the natural law will hold that abortion, or contraception, or embryonic stem-cell research, is always wrong, whatever the perceived good coming from their implementation or use might be.

The spiritual ministrations of good priests and of consecrated people are vital in the Church, so that all people, young and old, might come to a knowledge and love of Christ.

ALL Mass video: yes, we used a bugia

2011-10-22T08:54:00.002+01:00

Here, from our choir's blog is the abridged, 3 minutes, video of last week's Mass for the Association of Latin Liturgy, celebrated by Mgr Andrew Burnham of the Ordinariate.

For us liturgical pedants: yes, we used a bugia. Its use has never abrogated. If you've got one, use it; at least if Mass celebrated by a Prelate.

Incidently the wooden floor in the sanctuary is soon to be paved with stone tiles, the next stage of our restoration work.

Conversation on a train

2011-10-21T09:31:00.000+01:00

An interesting conversation on a train the other day between a young university student who got on the train with some young Middle Eastern students. I don't know if the young man was Catholic or Orthodox, he looked southern Mediterranean.

Yes, I used to to Church every Sunday.
I don't believe in it now.
There followed a short discussion on different cultures and family celebrations, including Eid.
We have Christmas which is a bit like Eid.
We also have Easter.
What is that about?
Someone betrayed him, I think it was Jesus, so we burn some wood.
That's strange
Yeah, it is really weird isn't it?

A good priest would have stood up and catechised the whole carriage, I didn't. I didn't know how to.