A 'Modern' Church

A newly built Catholic Church in Donaucity, Vienna, a developing part of the city.

Isn't it beautiful!? Yes, now this reflects the Glory of God and His Saints! This reflects the modern Church! This is the kind of Catholic Church that is really 'hip' and has changed with the times! Is it just me or does it look like it has actually been made from black recycling bins? Good Lord, have mercy on the architect! No wonder the Austrian Bishops are having problems accepting the Benedictine reforms! I don't know...Church? Morgue? Stylish 21st century shipping cargo port? Your guess is as good as mine.

I guess this kind of somes up Cherie Blair's desire to see the Church updated and modernised. Tony Blair himself was into modernisation. He modernised the whole Labour party remember. 'Modernisation' was the process whereby the Labour party dropped any policies that Labour party members held dear in order to get elected.

Likewise, 'modernisation' for the Church would mean dropping any Articles of Faith which those faithful to the Magisterium hold dear, which ultimately would most likely result in denying the Divinity of Christ, encouraging everyone to contracept in order to avoid ghastly children because of 'overpopulation' and the inconvenience they bring to those who harbour ambitions of high-flying public careers, condoms available in a little basket in the Confessional, now used as an in-church laundry room, as the Priest maintains there is no such thing as sin, round the clock table tennis where the Altar used to be and a different Mass each day for the gay community, the lesbian community, the transgender community, the foot fetish community and the rambling community. The one thing that strikes me about '-alities' and '-isms' within the Church is that they divide the Body of Christ rather than unite it. We're all sinners and all sinners are welcome.

The Church, in Her Infallible Teaching, Her liturgy, Her music and Her buildings was never meant to reflect the World! It was always meant to reflect the Heavenly City and the Glory of God! The Church shouldn't reflect us - it should reflect God and His Angels and Saints. If in any way it reflects us, then it should reflect what we should be, or what by adoption into the life of sanctifying grace we we are called to be! Saints! The fact that the majority of the World is seemingly intent on going to Hell in a handcart should not alter one jot of the Church's vision for man's true happiness - Union with God in Heaven!

The Church needs to move with the times? Oh yes, of course it does...I mean, the times are so great aren't they!? What are the times? Society is dominated by an ideology governed by the cult of the body, the celebrity and the self. Vulnerable human life is seen as worthless and thrown in the bin whether it be the unborn or the beggars on the streets. Whole hosts of us are enslaved by our passions and 21st century man and woman is more self-destructive now than possibly ever in human history. It is an age of unbridled lust, adultery, idolatry, divorce, murder and societal breakdown. The UK, Europe and the US are fast becoming one gigantic Babylonian monolyth. If ever there was a time when the Church had to modernise and get with the times this is the time, isn't it!?

I'm still incensed by the programme, having watched it. It was worse than I had at first imagined. When a disaffected lapsed Catholic lady was telling her that she felt the Church turned its back on women when it started telling women it might not be such a good and noble thing to have an abortion she just nodded her head and smiled. Even if privately Cherie doesn't agree with the teaching she could have said, "Well, the Church says that because it says we really shouldn't kill our own children." The only conclusion we can draw is that she thinks the Church in Her teaching on abortion is a set back for women's lib. As for how fantastic Chrisitianity is in the US and able to connect with people it is, I have a friend in the US who is Catholic who described the US as a "pagan state", much like the UK. This was seen recently when 'Christian' America voted in President Obama and gave him carte blanche to tear up swathes of the Bill of Rights (only a matter of time) and rip up any legislative protection for the unborn. According to Cherie, Obama's rise to power was a victory for Christianity. Well, it might have been a victory for Cherie's brand of Christianity...

When people tell the Church to modernise, especially if they are Catholics, it is always worth reminding them that if Pope Benedict XVI, now gloriously reigning, were to change Church teaching on the correct gender specification for the Priesthood, contraception, abortion, teaching on human sexuality and even, for that matter, shelve the Motu Proprio on the Tridentine Mass, he might possibly make himself the most popular Pope in history, but he and the souls he would bring into error would most likely be damned for all eternity. Secondly, it is worth reminding them that being the bearer of the Deposit of Faith, rather than the architect of it, he does not have the power to alter Church teaching on gender eligibility for the Priesthood or the Magisterium as a whole.

Here's how we used to do it...Ohh, I don't know...maybe the modern one would look better in magenta. No, the traditional, gothic one wins but only by several thousand country miles.