Friday, February 04, 2011
Bishop Bashing
Gloria TV carried the above newsreel; see the first two items.
Both Bishops are met with heckling in the case of the French Bishop because he intended to move a popular parish priest. The Orthodox bishop, I couldn't catch his name, but he introduces readings in the demotic modern Greek, and the people cry out "Excellency, not in the demotic!"
But somehow it is unthinkable that an Orthodox would do the things the French Catholic Bishop of Evereux did. Apparently he attended an ordination of women, but I am told did not lay hands on them, in the Anglican Cathedral of Salisbury, where apparently he is a Canon. He has also demanded his priests read the Koran during Mass.
Why is there a difference? Why would an Orthodox bishop be disciplined, even deposed for acting in a similar way? The obvious reason is the hermeneutic of rupture in discipline and catechesis but there is in the East a sense of all being subject to fraternal correction, a sense of interdepedancy of bishop, clergy anf laity, and a common sense of Tradition, which elects bishops and deals heresy locally, whereas in the West there is only an appeal to Rome, and if Rome reacts at all it is simply with at worst a stiff letter.
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13 comments:
So much for the Second Vatican Council doing away with clericalism.
I cannot quite imagine an Orthodox Bishop being involved in things such as the Roman Catholic Bishop of Evereux is alleged to have done, still less imagine what the reaction of his people would be.
But I bet it would involve pitchforks and torches.
Too bad horsewhipping has gone out of fashion.
Come on, this is rather silly and petty. A complete diversion. Tell us about your soup kitchen and all the other wonderful things you do in your parish.
How confused that French bishop is - he obliged the priests of his diocese to read out parts of the Koran before the Gospel during the week of prayer for Christian unity... Now in which universe has the Koran anything to do with Christian unity?!
A previous bishop of Evreux did get the sack at the instance of the French hierarchy. Perhaps that miasma in the Channel that seems to affect our south coast Bishops is now affecting litoral bishops on the other side?
Nicolas Bellord
So telling us about a French bishop who comes to this country to attend the supposed ordination of women priests in a schismatic church is "silly and petty"? I find the conduct of the Bishop utterly scandalous and something that should be publicised loud and clear. It was a very public act on the part of the Bishop and presumably he did this in order to make a very clear statement. Did he, as a matter of courtesy, ask the local Bishop for permission to do this and if so what was the local Bishop's response?
As to the soup kitchen perhaps Father prefers modesty in his giving?
Nicolas Bellord
I wonder if he ordered them to read what the Koran says Christians believe about the Blessed Trinity? However there have been many odd bishops, even odd Popes. If it could be said of the Apostles "they forsook him and fled"(Mt 26 56)should we really be surprised at their successors?
Isn't it unlawful for a bishop to instruct that the Koran is read at Mass?
Readers might be interested in the site, in French,
http://thiberville-soutien-abbe-michel.hautetfort.com/
One bit there is a radio interview in which the bishop explains that the decision to move Fr Michel was not connected to the way he celebrated Mass. He hints at a financial angle but refuses to be drawn.
It is, as the bishop says, a sad story.
I may have misheard the presenter, but I thought she said "demonic".
Shold 31019 appears to believe that a priest's no 1 role is to organise soup runs. No, that's collateral to the love of Christ, the primary role.
And when any bishop flouts his responsibility and his church in such a way it is the cause of grest scandal.
The Catholic Church is not a mish-mash of personal whims. You believe in and follow its precepts or you don't. And if you don't you've no business calling yourself a Catholic, still less a bishop.
And you have substituted reality with shadows on the wall of your personal cave.
Thanks to Peter for referring us to the website for the support of this priest. The radio interview with the Bishop is very interesting. He says that his reasons for dismissing the parish priest have nothing to do with the liturgy or his traditionalist Catholicism but to do with other matters which he will not specify. He talks of the "truth" but will not disclose what that "truth" is other than to say it is do with financial matters where the priest has allowed himself to fall into the hands of a few parishioners who have withheld money from the Diocese. I think the Bishop has closed the parish and has directed that the money from collections should be paid to a neighbouring parish. The association for the closed parish have in fact, so they claim, paid the money direct to the Diocese last summer and want to do the same again as at the close of last year and have asked to meet the Diocesan finance officer. It looks as though the Diocese accepted the money last Summer but it is not clear whether it is accepting the money at this year's end. The Bishop seems to be sticking to his direction that the money be paid to the neighbouring parish.
So the Bishop does seem to be sticking to the position that the only reason, that he is prepared to disclose, for dismissing the parish priest is this financial irregularity. This begs the question of why the parishioners are insisting on paying the money direct to the Diocese. Is it because the Bishop had dismissed the Parish Priest? In which case his attitude seems a bit disingenuous to me.
Nicolas Bellord
I went to Everux as a young man in the early 60's.I was trying to hitch a plane going to Frankfurt.
It was a market day with all those wonderful Normandy cheeses and oysters.
I went into what I thought might be the Cathedral and was very impressed with the devotion of the people to Our Lady.Very French.
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