I love reading Damian Thompson, and I was looking to find his comments on Sacramentum Caritatis on-line, I couldn't but I found the piece below.I carried a story by John Allen about the disgraceful reporting by the British press on issues relating to the Church. I remember once discussing it with another journalist, he said, "well to be honest, we try and find out what we can, but if there is no co-operation we have to guess." The headlines in much of the press might indicate others had similar difficulties to Damian and had to guess.
The BBC gave the impression it was a document about upholding celibacy, others about knocking gay civil unions, all the coverage was pretty ghastly.
As the very essence of the Church is about communicating we have a right to expect better, unless there is a very sinister plot going on, but from what Damian suggests they couldn't organise, err... , a plot in a brewery. It is amazing as the publication date of this document was known sometime ago. I think it is a pretty obvious demonstration of how important the Church in England Wales takes the publication of a significant document. Their employers should have a word.
"Not fit for purpose", comes to mind.
Below is a piece from Damian's blog site
The Pope's document is both major and magnificent
I'm writing this in the early evening, and the utterly, utterly useless press office for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales has not said a word about it.
Instead, the bishops' website is still telling me that "Lent is the 40-day period leading up to Easter". Really? I'm sitting in the newsroom of the Catholic Herald and my colleagues, not unreasonably, are totally fed up.
Nothing illustrates the dreadful sclerosis of the bishops' bureaucracy better than their bloody press office – or "communications network", as they have the nerve to call it.
The Pope's document, by the way, is a dazzling summary of Catholic teaching on the Eucharist - and a warning to clapped-out liberals that they need to improve the standards of worship. Oh, and Benedict wants more Latin in services.
Not what the Left-wing apparatchiks at the Bishop's Conference wanted to hear. Hence, presumably, no press release – something that Catholics might want to bear in mind next time the plate is passed round for "Communications Sunday".
13 comments:
Father, you always try to insist on charity on your own blog (!) but have no objection to it when it occurs on others. Damian Thompson is rarely known for this virtue,
I don't quite follow what you are saying in the first sentence.
I think Damian Thompson is out spoken, often waspish but rarely lacks charity. In this instance, I can understand his frustration. Charity might demand speaking out, especially if he feels the Church is being ill served by its servants.
I think that Damian Thompson's remarks were excellent and surely should be made. Like Fr Blake I cant make any sense of the first sentence in the comment by Anonymous
Thank goodness for people like Damien Thompson. I hope he will write something similar in this weekend's 'Catholic Herald'.
BTW - why is that people who appear to have axes to grind always hide behind the ubiqituous 'Anonymous' tag?
What Damian Thompson's article implies is that, ultimately, little notice will be taken of the new document by Eccleston Square or the Bishops at large. If you look at the people who form the Bishops of England and Wales's liturgical committee there is no chance that any improvements will be encouraged. I doubt if it will even reach deanery level. The best course is for individual parish priests to take their own initiative but, should they be opposed by factions in the parish that resent change, don't expect to be supported by your bishop.
"If you look at the people who form the Bishops of England and Wales's liturgical committee there is no chance that any improvements will be encouraged."
They just seem to be stuck in the past, but so is the whole Ecclesdon Square gang. Why don't Their Lordships do something?
They might have to do something if the people simply stopped donating.
For years I have refused to donate to collections organised by the national Conference for just about anything, particularly for 'Communications' and the like. When asked why I don't contribute, I politely explain and ask for evidence of what the money has been spent on. Nothing tangible to date. QED.
Rather than simply, 'pay' and 'obey', we should simply 'pray' - for our bishops and the abolition of Eccleston Sq and all its attendant costly beaurocracy.
Of course, the fact that Rome has issued a document in a defecive English translation will not help the orthodox to obey the Holy Father.
I think, considering the excitement that this document has caused in limited circles, we should remember that it is an Exhortation, not an Encylical, still less a Motu Proprio. Whether many bishops will exhort their clergy to take notice of it remains to be seen. My instinct is that it will gather dust. This is a pity as it is a good piece of work but it says nothing that has not already been said over and over again in earlier papal documents. More of the same, I am afraid. I can't help feeling that some of the great expectations that people have from the present papacy are as unrealistice as those expected by an earlier generation after Vatican II. They were disappointed then, we shall be disappointed now. The Church will lumber on.
I have just posted an update on this shocking story to my Telegraph blog. The Catholic Herald has now complained to the relevant Pontifical Commission about the English bishops' negligence.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ukcorrespondents/holysmoke/march07/silence.htm
Thank you for your kind comments, Father.
Ronald,
A lot of people lack my enthusiasm for Pope Benedict, there was a lot of anxiety by the French Bishops over a prospective document that migh allow the old Mass, alot of suspicion that he might ban the electric guitar, or dancing in the liturgy, or simply that he wanted to put the clock back. It is important that he claims the teaching of the last forty years as his own. What he has done is say, "I am at one with JPII, JPI, Paul VI, Vat II etc. let us now re-examine what has been taught and then we can move forward". Unlike JPII he actually does revisit his past speeches and sermons, He isn't afraid of saying, "As I said in my encyclical...", and curial officials are not afraid of quoting him.
The unity of the Church is his greatest concern, it colours everything, his desire reconcile the Lefebrvists is only surpassed by his desire to create more schism.
Ronald,
That should read, "his desire TO reconcile the Lefebrvists is only surpassed by his desire NOT to create more schism.
Gosh, I could have been dragged to Rome in chains.
How do you know that 'Anonymous' might not be the same person writing under several names and categories from pure devilment?
Comment from Cardinal Cormac has at last appeared on Westminster Diocese website (approx 3.00 pm today). He has been in Valladolid in Spain since last week with the 'Under Fives',(priests from the diocese ordained in the last five years) returning on Saturday. In charity one must give the benefit of the doubt that(1) he was unaware of the publication date of the exhortation (ii)he had no access to television, radio, the internet, email, fax machines, telephones, mobile phones (iii)he was on a silent retreat (iv)he had absolutely no prior knowledge of the content of the exhortation and so was unable to give a pre empted general approval (v) the contents were such a surprise he that it has taken him 3 days since his return to compose a suitable comment for the faithful of his diocese.
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