This weeks meeting of our Bishops at Hinsley Hall, Leeds seems to be a little more significant than most, there are rumours that a quite radical reform of the Conference structure might have been instigated, ordering it more to underlining a Catholic identity and evangelisation. I understand many of the Bishops themselves are tired of the so called "Magic Circle".
One thing, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales have re-established the Friday Penance of abstaining from meat on a Friday.
The law will come into force on Friday 16 September 2011, the First Anniversary of the State Visit by Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom in 2010.
Keep the Bishops in your prayers.
5 comments:
So as of September, we get a proper tranlation and Friday abstinence is compulsory - plus they might reinstate the days of obligation soon and extraordinary monsters are banished from the extraordinary form as well- all revealed on the same day.
I will of course, on the day, detest actually having to abstain and go to mass at 8PM after a long day at work, but nothing is achieved in life without you steeling yourself to do things that you don't want to do. I will also feel I will be able to look Muslims in the face again during Ramadam without feeling slightly unworthy.
Its nice to see that we appear to have got our Church back.
"Magic Circle"
The problem is that the MC are starting to struggle to find younger (and talented) clergy willing to act as enforcers. I imagine that was one of the factors behind the John Crowley mental breakdown. He being the archetype of the MC model.
Lets not kid ourselves however, there are still many middle-aged clergy around the UK who are willing to trash the Church. They haven't gone away just yet.
Hinsley Hall's a barn of a place, isn't it? I wonder how much the Diocese could get for it? Conversion of large, historic buildings to up-market apartments seems to be all the rage, so there may be developers who would jump at the opportunity. That, too, would be a sign of a move away from our Bishops' love of centralised bureaucracy and spending, which places a burden on the parishes and distracts from the Church's mission.
Fr Ray, can you help an Anglican who is surprised by the Friday abstinence rule. In a society where we get our protein from meat, fish, cheese and eggs, my wife and I have several meals a week without meat. there's no sacrifice involved, we do it by choice. So where is the spiritual value in choosing fish over meat on one particular day of the week? I'm not trying to be difficult, merely puzzled.
Father,
The importance is that is:
1 Uniting ourselves with an ancient Tradition,
2 Ecumenical, being at one with our Eastern brothers
3 Letting our faith mark our kitchen
4 Giving each Friday a Good Friday character
5 Not eating meat is a minimum, many Cathollcs around here, mark Friday's outside of Eastertide, by not eating at all, or just bread and water, try it!
Post a Comment