Crosses, habits and cassocks

Nadia Eweida’s little cross seems to have won against British Airways. One of my parishioners said she had sympathy for BA. She said she didn’t like seeing the cross worn as jewellery, in the manner of Mrs Beckham. I suggested that the hijab, turban and Sikh bangles could equally be worn as a fashion accessory or a cultural rather than a faith symbol. It was only when Christians started wearing the cross or crucifix that we might actually reclaim it from the fashionistas.
One of the problems we Christians have is that we are invisible; no-one knows we are part of society and therefore it is so easy for secularists to simply discount us. Although Christians who practice every Sunday form only 5% of the population, great swathes of the population claim to actually be Christian.
Willie Walsh, the BA chief executive, said criticism of BA as being anti-Christian had been misplaced and unjustified. I am sure he is right and the truth of the matter is that BA just forgot they had Christians working for them, or thought that crosses were nothing other than jewellery. I am sure it is a case of “out of sight, out of mind”. The post-Christian society myth lives.
Society in general tends to dismiss Christians, I heard one comedian on the wireless said, “If you insult a Christian the worst they are likely to do is ban you from a jumble sale.” It is our nature to turn the other cheek. It was only the rabidly militant that protest over something like Gerry Springer: The Opera’s rather horrid portrayal of Jesus as a spoilt homosexual, or pictures of crucifixes in urine; we have got used to insults and being the butt of jokes. Yet Christians, Catholics especially, were so active in the “Drop the Debt” campaign and they were listened to. Bishops and priests gave a clear lead and people took to the streets. The letters to MPs over our schools taking 25% of non-Catholics did change the Minister’s mind.

Political issues are one thing, it is the person and action of Christ we need to make visible.
Maybe, just maybe if we were a little more visible we might begin to be seen as having a place in society and not just us but the Lord himself. Brighton is full of Coptic Christians, many have the cross tattooed on their hands, obviously they are Christian. They are not afraid to have icons and crucifixes up in there shops or even to name them after saints, many of Brighton’s taxi drivers are Coptic, they have crosses or images of the Mother of God in their cars.
An easy form of evangelisation is to wear a Christian symbol, if you are bad it will be seen as a fashion accessory, if you are kind people might just connect your actions with the symbol.
As a child I remember seeing nuns in the street in habits and priests from the local Catholic school in cassocks, even as a three or four year old it had an impact on me. It is interesting congregation of nun’s with habits tend to grow and those with a medallion or broach are dying out.
On the rare occasions I wear a cassock in the street, rather than just a piece of plastic in what a rather reactionary parishioner describes as the “waiters ubiquitous black shirt”, I tend to behave differently, I am not as shy as I normally am, I am more inclined to talk to people. The reaction of people to me is strange. Muslims look horrified and give me a wide berth. People who live on the street come up and want to chat, not to beg but to talk, often about faith. Slavs, Poles come up and ask if I am really a Catholic priest and ask about Mass times, the location of the Church and so forth, and I subsequently see them at Mass. If I am in a queue or waiting for a bus then other people find an excuse to talk, often about their spiritual lives, quite frequently, if they are Catholics about how they can return to the Church. I know habited nuns who have the same experience.
I was allowed to try my vocation as monk for a while, I had to make a long train journey, the only clothes I had were my habit, someone who had been lapsed for years, thirty or forty, started to talk me about confession, if the train was less crowded I would have heard her confession and presumably brought her back.
Maybe you should wear a cross and I ought to wear cassock on the streets, this is something to my shame, the reason I don’t is the reaction of my fellow priests.

Pope plans recruitment drive among disaffected Anglicans

Timesonline Christopher Morgan
THE POPE, who is this week meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury, is drawing up plans to welcome disaffected Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church.
Pope Benedict XVI is keen to reach out to conservative Anglicans who have been antagonised by their church’s stance on women priests and homosexuality. Senior Vatican figures are understood to have drawn up a dossier on the most effective means of attracting disenchanted Anglicans.

The recruitment drive is a potential embarrassment for Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is travelling to Italy for his meeting with the Pope.
It is understood that Fr Joseph Augustine di Noia, undersecretary of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the most powerful of the Vatican’s departments, has led a team analysing the current schism in the Anglican world.
The ordination of the openly gay priest Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003 caused outrage among some Anglicans. It threatened to cause a split in the church, which has 70m members worldwide.
In America, some of the 2.5m Anglicans have already left the church and become Catholics. In some cases, entire parishes have “defected”, but they have been allowed to continue with some of their Anglican traditions and prayers.
John Myers, the Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, who has been involved in supporting former Anglicans who have converted to Catholicism, has been helping di Noia with his recruitment dossier. He travelled to Rome last month to suggest ways of appealing to Anglicans.
The Pope’s enthusiasm for bringing traditional Anglicans into the fold was expressed powerfully three years ago when as Cardinal Ratzinger he sent greetings to a group of conservative churchmen meeting in Texas in protest at the election of Robinson.
Williams was involved in a controversy last week when it was reported that he had suggested the church might reconsider the issue of women priests. He insisted he had been misquoted.
While the Pope is keen to welcome any conservative Anglicans, he is also keen to forge good relations with Williams. “The Vatican will do nothing to undermine Williams at such a precarious moment in Anglican history,” one source said.
Despite the friendly overtures, the Pope believes the Anglican Church faces a difficult future.

Graham Leonard, the former Bishop of London and now a Roman Catholic monsignor, said: “The Pope’s view is that theologically Anglicanism has no guts in it.”

All Saints Eve

The doorbell rang. “Trick or treat?” yelled two little seven year olds dressed as witches. I feigned horror at their ugliness, I think I might have said something about them being smelly, adding various little insults, rather enjoying myself. “What’s the trick?” I asked.
“We will put a spell on you.” They said.
I said, “I’ll sprinkle you with Holy Water and you’ll disappear.”
“We will come back as ghosts and haunt you”, they said.
I didn’t say, “Well if that is want you want then you will go to hell for all eternity.” I was tempted, but then I thought “child protection”. So I just said, “That can’t happen because I will pray for your soul”.
Anyhow I eventually went and found two plastic Rosaries, I think they thought they were necklaces, we said a Hail Mary and they left saying something about sweets or money.
I, being a party pooper, phoned their mum, who lives around the corner to ask if she thought they would be safe door knocking after dark.

Hallow’een is a pretty new phenomena in the South East of England, one of those vulgar North American bits of culture. A friend of mine disapproves of it so much he organises a party where children and helpers come as saints and angels. It is perhaps another sign of the disappearance of religion, I am sure that those who do “Hallows even” know very little or nothing about “All Hallows day”.

My home schooling American friends, live in an area where Halloween is big, preparation for it seems to go on for weeks, they use it to talk about the intercession of the saints, the power of Christ to overcome evil, the use of Holy Water. Rob jnr apparently had a plan to fill his super seismic mega water pistol with Holy Water and “blast those evil kids”, a bit over the top, maybe a bit American, in England we might worried. Instead his parents suggest that what the family might do is put statues and pictures of the saints in all the windows with candles around them. The children paint pictures of their patron saints on tracing paper to put up as stained glass. The pumpkin lantern, rather than having a ghoulish face has crosses cut in it and will stay throughout November for the Holy Souls, for their friends who come calling there are Miraculous Medals on tasteful cords, and apple bobbing, which has a bit of baptismal catechesis and there are cruciform cookies.

Schools and Families

I received a letter from our bishop and an email from a former parishioner. The letter, was actually from our diocesan education department on the Bishop's behalf urging the clergy to get people to write to their MPs about the threat to our Catholic schools, the government are proposing that “faith schools” open their doors to 25% non-faith pupils. I joked on Sunday that it would be the first time ever I would be asked to write letters in which parents would want me to say, “I have never seen this child in Church."
The email was an announcement that Helen and Rob have just had their sixth child. Helen and Rob are madly in love, a bit trad, he is a stone mason/sculpture, she was a teacher. They are both committed to home schooling, they are Americans. I rang them this afternoon, Rob jnr. was put on the phone and immediately starting telling me about the baby and how he had just learnt the corporal works of mercy, quoting from the Baltimore catechism, then Beth his sister started telling me about what she was learning for first Confession which she makes this year and her excitement about first Communion, and her new “chapel veil” and, and, and ………, a whole lot of other Catholic stuff. These kids know their faith, more than that the love it. Rob jnr, aged ten wants to be a priest. His parent’s pray for it. Oh, the new baby? He is called Benedict, the previous one Joanna-Paula, the one before Josef, yes, after you know who.

I don’t know an English family like them. Home schooling is a very American thing, maybe it goes with self-reliance and the frontier spirit. It makes real the words of the baptismal rite in the blessing of the father, “You and your wife will be the first teachers of this child in the ways of faith, may you also be the best of teachers”.
When criticism is made of the high rate of lapsation or non-practice of our school children, the answer nowadays is generally that parents are the first teachers of their children in the ways of faith. Fair enough, then I think we need to ask the crucial question, which can’t concisely answer, “what is the purpose of our schools?”
I have a friend with three sons, two he sent to different Catholic schools, they lapsed, the youngest he sent to a non-Catholic school is the only one who takes faith seriously.
Our schools are on hiding to nothing if we continue to neglect the proper formation of the family.

There was actually time when the Catholic faith was passed on without schools, by the family, through practice, through stories of the lives of the saints, through the liturgy and devotions.
Without strong Catholic families we will never have good Catholic schools, nor even a strong Catholic community.

Rejecting teaching precludes receiving Communion, US bishops' draft says

Who can be admitted to Holy Communion is one of the issues that the US bishops are asking this autumn, Nancy Frazier O'Brien summarises a paper up for discussion. I understand that it is something our own Bishops are being urged to discuss again.

Catholic News Service

A Catholic who "knowingly and obstinately" rejects "the defined doctrines of the church" or its "definitive teaching on moral issues" should refrain from receiving Communion, according to a document that will come before the U.S. bishops at their Nov. 13-16 fall general meeting in Baltimore.

The document, "'Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper': On Preparing to Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist," requires the approval of two-thirds of the members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for passage.

In an introduction, Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., chairman of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, said the draft document was the result of a proposal to the bishops in November 2004 by Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, N.J., for a statement on how Catholics should prepare to receive the Eucharist.

"He envisaged this document as applying to Catholic faithful, not just to politicians or those in public life," Bishop Serratelli said. Archbishop Myers' request came after a presidential campaign in which some bishops had criticized the Democratic candidate, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, and said he and other Catholic politicians who supported abortion should be refused Communion under canon law.

But a footnote to the draft says that it is not intended "to provide specific guidelines" to the provision in canon law that says that Catholics "obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin" should not be allowed to receive Communion."

In order to receive holy Communion we must be in communion with God and with the church," the document says. "If we are no longer in a state of grace because of mortal sin, we are seriously obliged to refrain from receiving holy Communion. "Among examples of such sin, the document cites "committing deliberate hatred of others, sexual abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult, or physical or verbal abuse toward one's family members or fellow workers, causing grave physical or psychological harm; murder, abortion or euthanasia.

"Other "serious violations of the law of love of God and of neighbor" listed in the draft include swearing a false oath, missing Mass on Sundays or holy days without a serious reason, "acting in serious disobedience against proper authority," sexual activity "outside the bonds of a valid marriage," stealing, slander or involvement with pornography.The document criticized those who "give selective assent to the teachings of the church. "But Catholics who have "honest doubt and confusion" about some church teachings "are welcome to partake of holy Communion, as long as they are prayerfully and honestly striving to understand the truth of what the church professes and are taking appropriate steps to resolve their confusion and doubt," the draft says."If someone who is Catholic were knowingly and obstinately to reject the defined doctrines of the church, or knowingly and obstinately to repudiate her definitive teaching on moral issues, however, he or she would seriously diminish his or her communion with the church," it adds. "Reception of holy Communion in such a situation would not accord with the nature of the eucharistic celebration, so he or she should refrain."If a person who "is publicly known to have committed serious sin or to have rejected definitive church teaching and is not yet reconciled with the church" receives Communion, it could be "a cause of scandal for others," giving "further reason" for the person to refrain, the bishops said.

The document says Catholics should get ready to receive Communion through both "remote preparation" -- prayer, Scripture reading, frequent confession and other steps -- and "proximate preparation."The bishops said elements of proximate preparation include maintaining "reverent silence" before Mass begins; refraining from food and drink for an hour before receiving Communion; dressing "in a modest and tasteful manner" at Mass; listening attentively to the Scripture readings and homily; and actively participating in the Mass "with our whole hearts and minds and bodies."The bishops also urged Catholics to make "a reverent bow of the head" before receiving Communion.

"If we perform these simple actions, we will enter more profoundly into the eucharistic celebration, receive the Eucharist more worthily, and thus obtain more fully the grace of communion with the risen Lord Jesus and with one another," the document says.

The draft also includes two appendices explaining church teaching on when non-Catholics can receive Communion in a Catholic church and when Catholics are permitted to take Communion at a non-Catholic service.

"When participating as guests in worship services in other Christian communities, Catholics are encouraged to join the community in the shared responses and in the singing of hymns," the document says. "It would be inappropriate, however, for Catholics to take communion in other Christian communities."The document also reminds Catholics who join in non-Catholic services on a Sunday that "the obligation to participate at a Catholic Mass still remains."ration, receive the Eucharist more worthily, and thus obtain more fully the grace of communion with the risen Lord Jesus and with one another," the document says.

In search of anonymity

An addition to the previous post.

When I was an assistant priest in St Leonards on Sea, there was another priest, who used to welcome penitents at the confessional shake their hands warmly enquire about their health, ask their names, all designed to put them at their ease.
One day a woman came into the the Church wearing a motorcycle helmet with the visor down. The priest stood at the confessional door, greeted her warmly, shook her hand and invited to remove the helmet, she refused saying she wanted to have her right to anonymity preserved.
From then on the priest stayed inside the confessional behind the grill.

I must say when I go to confession I want three things, to be able to confess my sins without interruption, to receive a penance and absolution. Confession is not about counselling, nor even about spiritual direction. It is simply about receiving forgiveness. Sometimes it is about confessing the same old sin over and over again, and receiving the same old forgiveness over and over again.

Same old sinner: same old God, same old sin: same old forgiveness.

There is one thing I want from a confessor, which is that he should make me want to come back and seek God's forgiveness again and again. The thing that puts me off is a long sermon, even if it is encouraging, just want to just confess and go, which is I think, what most penitents want.

Today's visitor

I had a rather disturbed young man come to visit me today; he told me he was possessed. As we spoke, well he spoke, he made himself more and more excited telling me about the voices he was hearing and the fantasies they were causing him to have. I just listened and nodded.

I had thought I shouldn’t let him in but it was raining. About half an hour into our conversation he told me about how he threatening to “cut" a priest who refused to give him money when he had gone to confession. I told him I thought that was a wicked thing to have threatened and I would never give him money in the confessional. Eventually, I couldn’t stop yawning; he was speaking but not really saying anything. The only thing I could think of doing was to get my beads out, he stopped talking and looked at me and seemed about to explode in anger. I thought about what he said about threatening the priest. I suggested we said the Rosary. I’ve started doing that more and more lately, I am no good at making up my own prayers, except, “Have mercy, Lord”. He didn’t know how to say the Rosary, though he was wearing one and had been to a Catholic school. I told him how.
The rhythmical repetition seemed to quieten him. After the third mystery, I told him we would stop and he left quiet as a lamb.

Poor boy, there are lots and lots like him in Brighton, not possessed, though they think they are but often quiet obsessed by evil; drugs and the street lifestyle tend to exacerbate it.

I also think I must get rid of the option of face to face confession or at least put in a grill of some sort, there is a little one so people can confess anonymously but then you can walk beyond it and there is no barrier, just a chair facing mine.
I hear confessions everyday here after the weekday Mass, sometimes it can be a little frightening, I can escape from my side but sometimes, actually not very often I do get very frightened.
Maybe there is no better way for a priest to die than in the confessional, though one wouldn’t want that sin on the hands of a penitent.
I do think that I hear better confessions from people who use the anonymous option. It also helps me to forget what the penitent has said, if I do not see the sinner. Sometimes one has to pray hard for the gift of forgetfulness, not a priestly gift to be despised.

The problem with getting rid of the face-to-face option is it gives a sign of being reactionary and denying people some thing.

Rosay Crusade: Sermon

An extract from Fr Tim Finegan's sermon at the Rosary Crusade yesterday, there are some interesting comments on a post below that might be of interest to anyone who looks at Hermeneutic of Continuity, where the whole sermon is available.
"I have been told before, and I expect some of you have, that we should not be frightened of change.

No, my dear people, we should not be frightened of change. We must labour unceasingly to bring about change. We must change from being a Church where the confessionals are empty to a Church where the balm of divine mercy is sought and received regularly. We must change from being a Church where the prophetic teaching of Humanae Vitae is glossed over in silence to a Church where the sanctity of life and the truth of Christian marriage are known, recognised and lived. We must change from a Church where the sacred liturgy is reduced to a shabby form of entertainment to a Church where the solemn and reverent conduct of the rites takes us out of ourselves and into the realm of the divine.
And let us pray indeed that our beloved Holy Father, Pope Benedict will indeed use his supreme apostolic authority to grant that freedom which will inaugurate a genuine renewal of liturgical life in the Church."

Findings of the International Theological Commission

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – The concept of Limbo is "neither essential nor necessary” and can be dropped “without compromising the faith” as a place for the souls of unbaptised children.
The members of the commission, do not intend any “break from the great tradition of the faith”, but only avoid “the use of images and metaphors that do not adequately account for the richness of the message of hope that is given to us in Jesus Christ”.

The conclusions reached by the commission, which is only a consultative body, will be more thoroughly explained in a future paper. In the meantime, the highlights were presented by the newly-appointed bishop of Chieti-Vasto, theologian Bruno Forte, to the I Media news agency.
The issue does not involve changing the doctrine of original sin, the archbishop said. “Original Sin is a reality that really marks the fragility of the human condition,” he noted. And baptism is necessary to remove its stain.

But in the case of children who are not baptised, through no fault of their own, “then it would seem that the saving power of Christ ought to prevail over the power of sin,” he explained. What is more, the concept of Limbo has never been formally defined in Catholic teaching, but is more of a “theological creation”. In fact, in 1984, then-Cardinal Ratzinger expressed his own “purely personal” belief that the concept of Limbo had outlived its pastoral value.

The archbishop stressed that the International Theological Commission is not introducing any change in Catholic doctrine, and said he hoped that his statements will “reassure those who are worried about a discontinuity” in teaching.

Indeed the essential doctrinal points that led theologians to posit the existence of Limbo will still be clearly upheld in the forthcoming paper, Mgr Forte said. The Commission hopes to present those points with greater clarity “without compromising the faith of the Church in any way”.

By the way the Pope in his homily to the Commission, said not one word about Limbo, contrary to what has been flashed across the media, in fact he spoke about the need for a theologian to search for and speak about the Truth.

Limbo

When the Holy Father took possession of the Lateran Basilica, he said that it was not for the Pope to teach anything of his own but to pass on the Tradition of the Church. There has been a lot of tosh in the secular press about the Pope "changing" the teaching of the Church, or even abandoning a teaching, well that is not in the Pope's competence to do this. He is servant, not master of the Church, as Pope Benedict has continually pointed out. So it will be interesting to see his reaction to the work of the International Theological Commission who will report to him on "Limbo" today.

It therefor seems a bit cheap to suggest as Ruth Gledhill did in the Times that the Pope might be influenced to follow a Muslim line that all children go to Heaven, she should know one thing about Pope Benedict: he does not follow fashion.

The "Penny" Catechism, published by the CTS until recently taught that unbaptised children went to Limbo, so too the American Baltimore Catechism. The Pope's beloved Augustine taught that they went to Hell, where they endured punishment which was slightly less than everyone else's there. Peter Abelard seems to have "invented" Limbo, coming from the word for "edge" as in edge of Hell, a place of natural happiness, but out of sight of the Beatific Vision.

I don't think any Council has taught about Limbo, and has certainly not excommunicated those who do not believe in it, then I cannot think of anyone who has disputed it until recently. In the Orthodox Church the unbaptised either go to heaven or hell, depending on where or when, or to whom one addresses the question. Some might suggest that they go to the part of Hell that Christ emptied of the prophets and patriarchs at his "Descent into Hell" and because this event happened outside of time they are immediately redeemed, following them into Heaven.

I think the most the Pope can do is to say God is infinitely merciful, it is not His nature to create anything in order to condemn it or to destroy it, rather he intends that all creation should be saved. As far as the unbaptised are concerned, we must trust in his infinite mercy and love. The problem that we have in the West comes from Dante's image of heaven and hell that is graduated, all those circles, Scripture does not give us that, we are either in one or the other. Both Pope John-Paul II and the then Cardinal Ratzinger have suggested Limbo is simply theological speculation.

What he would not want to do is the encourage the delay or neglect of infant baptism.

There is a good article on BBC website

Ann Roberts: Catholic Woman of the Year

A small group of us are going up to town to the Catholic Woman of the Year Lunch at Marble Arch. Ann Roberts, one of our parishioners is being honoured. For the last 20 years Ann has been organising a small group of parishioners and others to feed the homeless on the sea front.

It is not too bad in summer except the numbers can rise to 50 or 60, but she is there in winter too, even when there is a gale and its raining as if there is a need for arks to be handed out along with sandwiches.

She doesn't drive, so somewhat diminutive Ann is a common feature humping huge bags, sandwiches for 60, down to the promenade from her home a couple miles away.

Unfortunately Ann can't come today, just after her nomination was announced she became seriously ill, we thought she might die, she was in in intensive care and is still recovering. Among the other women to be honoured is Abigail Witchalls, from a extra-ordinary catholic family in our diocese. Abigail, whilst pregnant was attacked by a madman, as she walked along a country lane with her small son, she was injured so badly that that she was paralysed. When it happened the family an she maintained a wonderful dignity on the media. There is a brother in law, Bruno who is going to be ordained a priest for our diocese later this year, one of those faithful young men who gives me great hope for the Church in our diocese.

I'll try and get some pictures.

Pray for Ann, and for Abigail, and for Bruno

A Victim of the Confessional

A true story: When I was first ordained, about twenty years ago my parish priest told me about how when he was first ordained he went on retreat to a convent he asked an old priest, who said mass for the nuns, and lived at the convent to hear his confession. The priest started to visibly sweat, saying "No, no, I never hear any one's confession, never, never ever!". When asked why he refused to answer and literally scurried away. My parish asked another priest why this man should behave so strangely.

He had been a chaplain or teacher at a school and had punished a small group of boys, who in order to get even, claimed that he had made improper suggestion to them in the confessional. They wrote to the Archbishop, who immediately suspended the priest from any public ministry, whatever, including saying Mass, the Archbishop kindly did no throw him onto the streets, but he was unable even to go to Holy Communion, or attend Mass in a public church or chapel. Because he was bound by the seal of confession, he was unable to defend himself or even offer any explanation, meekly he had to accept his punishment. It was over twenty years later one of the boys went to confession and told his confessor about the incident, he was told to write to the Archbishop and tell the full story, it was only then that this priest was allowed to say Mass.

UK Catholic problems

Part of an article on Zenit
... A more detailed look at the situation of the Catholic Church came in another report, published this summer by the Pastoral Research Center. Over a three-decade period Mass attendance has declined by 40%, according to a summary of the report published in the Times newspaper on July 4. The report covered the period 1963-1991. Over the same period baptisms were halved, while marriages and confirmations plunged by 60%. As well, first Communions declined by 40% and the number of adult converts fell 55%. According to the Times, more recent figures, from 2004, show little improvement in the situation. Numbers going to Mass on a Sunday in 1991 in England and Wales stood at 1.3 million, declining to 960,000 in 2004. The Web site for the Catholic Church in England and Wales also publishes statistics that reveal similar trends. The number of diocesan clergy fell from 4,755 in 1981 to 3,765 in 2003. Religious-order clergy fell from 2,266 to 1,363 in the same period. The number of marriages in Catholic churches fell precipitously, from 29,337 in 1981 to 11,013 in 2003. The Web site estimated weekly Mass attendance at 915,497. Last April 10 the Telegraph newspaper published a detailed article on the situation of Catholic monasteries and convents. Citing official figures the article said that only a dozen people entered monasteries in 2004, thus continuing a decline that has persisted in recent decades. Vocations to monastic orders were 107 in 1982. By 1990 this had fallen to 52, and in 2000 only 20 entered. The total number of monks in England and Wales now stands at 1,345, many of them elderly. The situation of nuns is similar. In England and Wales their numbers stand at 1,150, and vocations continue to decline. In 1982, 100 women entered convents; by 2000 this fell to 22. In 2004 there were only seven vocations, with a slight increase to 13 in 2005. An increasing number of monasteries and convents are being sold due to the declining numbers, the Telegraph reported. In Scotland the situation is no better. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, archbishop and metropolitan of St. Andrew's and Edinburgh, has published a plan involving closing many parishes. According to a report June 11 in the newspaper Scotland on Sunday, the number of priests could halve in some areas due to parish amalgamations. The average age of priests in Scotland is now above 60 and the number of active priests in the Edinburgh Archdiocese is expected to fall from the current 63, to just 34 in a decade's time. Scotland now has just over 200,000 practicing Catholics, a decline of 20% compared with a decade ago. The Church of Scotland, commonly referred to as the Kirk, now has a bit over a half-million who attend services, down from 1.3 million in the 1960s.

I put an article on this blog about a report by the Spanish Bishops about doubts and errors, they had the courage to look at their own issues, the analysis they came up with was profoundly Christological. They realised that the central problem lay within the Church itself, because they themselves had failed to ensure that a clear image of Christ was taught by the Church in Spain.

The solution to our problems in the UK lies with our Bishops, and those who are appointed in the future. I am certain it isn't about "managing" certainly not managing decline. What would the great bishops of the past have done? St Charles Borromeo for one, would have ordered days of penance and prayer, turning the whole problem over to Christ. By doing this he would have given a sign of hope, above all that we trust in God, that we are a Christ centred community and that our very purpose is Christ.

What is happening at the moment, is managing for decline, that simply gives the sign that we are are anxious about our own future, thinking our structures have value in themselves, this is an act of gross pride. We have no right to survive as a Church unless at our very centre is Jesus Christ. What purpose is there except Him.

Priest is horrified at body find

Angelika Kluk failed to turn up to work on Monday a Roman Catholic priest is "utterly shattered" that police looking for a missing woman have found a body in his Glasgow church.
Angelika Kluk, a 23-year-old Polish student, had been living at St Patrick's Church, where Father Gerry Nugent is the priest.

read more

The police are looking for a man who worked in the Church as a handyman. Nowadays, following the scandals of a priest in our diocese, who was a serial paederast, and who after a period of treatment was deemed by experts to be "safe", and therefore allowed to resume some pastoral work by our then bishop, now Cardinal, Cormac Murphy O'Connor everyone involved with Church life who might have contact with children or vulnerable adults has to have a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check. This includes not only those who work directly with children: catechists, teachers, scout leaders but also adult altar servers and choir members when children are included, the sacristan, extra-ordinary ministers of Holy Communion etc, etc, etc. In this parish, as in many inner city parishes, some of these people have very good reasons for keeping their past lives secret, not because of any criminal sexual predilection, the only alternative we have is that we limit contact with children and vulnerable adults, to our maim Sunday Mass. It means that our ministry to children and the young is limited, which does not necessarily serve inner city children well.

If the man suspected of this murder is indeed the perpetrator, then it causes us some real concern. First of all the young girl was not a "vulnerable adult" and secondly the man used an assumed identity, he would not be picked up in a CRB check. I can understand the real anguish of the priest involved in this case not just over the murder of an innocent girl, and the sacrilege involved but the whole protection issue.

In an inner city parish one has a constant change of people involved in parish life, these are often lonely and damaged people. One is fortunate if one can get the types of things that might be happening easily in a leafier area to happen in such a situation. Inner city parishes are often poorer than their rural counterparts, and so in many ways are more dependant on volunteers. I for my part sympathise with Fr Gerry Nugent, I can well see myself in the same situation, though one tries to eliminate risk, the inner city is a risky place, people in my parish are dying all the time of accidental overdoses, suicide, at the hands of others.

The truth of the matter is that there is no way in which one can keep one's parishioners safe, children are abused by stepfathers and parents, the elderly by their children and the vulnerable by other vulnerable people they meet, and those who society thinks are not vulnerable at all, as a Pastor one knows just how fragile they are.

Pray for all who are involved, pray for priests especially those in the innercity.

You Will Be My Witnesses

On the website of one the largest dioceses in the world, the Archdiocese of Milan (http://www.diocesi.milano.it), that Dionigi Card. Tettamanzi (whom many consider a frontrunner among the papabili), on 8 September, feast of the Nativity of Mary, has initiated a missionary-style program of conversion there parish by parish. His Eminence has issued for this purpose a major pastoral letter entitled "Mi Sarete Testimoni…You Will Be My Witnesses" (cf. Acts 1:8) outlining a three-year plan. In his homily for the feast of the Nativity of Mary, Card. Tettamanzi stressed the importance of assuring that celebration of Sunday Masses, especially, was characterized by a very highly quality so that people could truly experience an encounter with God and thus be more able to give themselves over to Him in obedience. In response to the problem of so many people being sacramentalized but not actually, interiorly evangelized, the Archbishop of Milan also stresses the frequent reception of the sacraments in a way that is lived. Moreover, he urges the presence of solid practicing Christians in every aspect of the life of society. We cannot opt out and we must bring something new and fresh to the world. In his presentation of his program Card. Tettamanzi seems to be making an integral connection between what we receive through Holy Mass and the graces that come from the other sacraments, and the mores and trends of society as a whole. As the one goes, so goes the other. His Eminence is also basically saying that what has been going on as a routine for a long time now is no longer adequate. He is shaking things up in Milan.

thanks to Fr Zulsdoprf

Cardinal Tettamanzi did extra-ordinary things in his former diocese of Genoa, considered by many to to be the most conservative in Italy, simply by encouraging Catholics to be Catholic. From what I understand he encouraged regular confession, daily Mass, traditional prayer especially in families or small groups and training orthodox catechists who are capable of challenging men and women to love the Gospel. His time there saw large numbers of ordinations and professions of women to religious life, as well as a growth in "new" movements. Above all his central message seemed to be, "Do what the Church tells you!".

In connection with that, read this.