Troubling but Insightful Commentary on Vaughan School

The Noise of the Crusade has a thoughtful analysis of the Vaughan debacle which has been taken up by Offerimus Tibi Domine. For those of us, like me, who have been somewhat slow on the uptake of the plight of Vaughan parents, both are well worth reading.

Particularly troubling is this passage from Fr Simon Henry...

'There is a discernible trend to impute "clericalism" to those of the John Paul and Pope Benedict generation, to priests who have been convinced that orthodoxy is the only way for the Church to live up to the mission given it by Christ. There is a particularly nasty strain of this whereby priests who are considered "too" orthodox are accused of clericalism and a (completely spurious) link is made to the child abuse scandals and cover-ups.'

How on Earth can 'clericalism' be a charge levelled at the feet of those who hold fast to the Church's Magisterium and whose orientation is set steadfastly to the East? Was it traditional Catholic Priests and Bishops who held the reigns over the past 40 odd years, when the abuse was being covered up and committed? Is it they who impose, in a heavy handed manner, liturgical nightmares upon their congregations? Are they a great cause for scandal in the Church? Are they the ones who are most distant and who pretend to be deaf to the strikingly Christological theology of the Successor of St Peter, Pope Benedict XVI?

Catholic Voice: Austen Ivereigh

There indeed appears to be something of a battle over semantics going on within the Church, evidenced in recent times more blatantly by liberal Catholic journalists such as Austen Ivereigh and John Allen, in their often furious objection to and derision of the Catholic blogosphere. So it is then that Catholics who write in defence of the Pope and the Church's teaching are 'Taliban Catholics', but the comfortable, easy chair cafeteria Catholicism that ferociously rejects orthodoxy is somehow presented as a 'real' Catholicism espoused by good, nice Catholics of upstanding reputation and whose only desire is to serve the Church faithfully. Yet how very imperiously they often behave to those who are their brothers and sisters in Christ. I expect that to Austen Ivereigh, for example, the people who stood outside their school defending it from over-arching, bullying, finger prodding, 'clericalism' were just mad Catholic freaks who need to chill out and shut up. People like the Director of the SPUC, for instance, who are critical of what can only be described as compromises with evil taking place in areas of the Church are derided as loons. Last week, Ivereigh, writing in America magazine, lampooned Catholic bloggers as 'Jansenist' while talking of the need for a 'covenant of civility' in the Catholic online world...

'A better term, closer to Catholic home, would be "Jansenist", meaning the eighteenth-century French movement which provoked a major theological crisis in the late seventeenth century. One bishop referred to the Jansenists as "pure as angels and proud as devils" -- an apt description of certain defenders of Catholic orthodoxy who believe it's their job to "determine who's in and who's out", as Allen puts it.'

I don't know, in particular, at which bloggers Ivereigh is aiming, but that is a gross over-simplification of the activity of Catholic bloggers, both lay and clerical. Catholic bloggers tend to criticise dissent from the Magisterium when it rears its head. Is that such a crime? Nobody is claiming that they embody the Magisterium, that they are mirrors of perfection. At heart, Catholic bloggers defend Catholic Truth - the truth that saves, rescues and heals. How strange it is that these media figures are the ones well-established within the Church's media team, who benefit well from their status, who have access to the Catholic Hierarchy and who are loved by the liberal Catholic Establishment. The stage is theirs, and in a sense, they have it all 'sewn up' and yet one can definitely sense a growing unease within the liberal Establishment, a growing degree of discomfort at the vox fidei coming up from those on the ground, the voices of those who are not what the Holy Father has called 'professional Catholics' but Catholics who simply love the Faith and wish to defend it for seemingly no pecuniary reward.

I've been reading a splendid book about the 'Life and Times of St Dominic'. I was, until now, unaware that the first name accredited to the Dominicans was 'The Militia of Jesus Christ'. Such a strident and bold name, that connotes fighting for the Lord with the weapons of prayer, preaching and orthodoxy of belief would doubtless offend modern liberals, but not quite so much those who hold fast to the Church's Magisterium.

I think that one of the things that upsets liberals is that many Catholic bloggers can look back to the Middle Ages and see, amid the drama, gore, war, blood and battles against heresy, the zeal and love for Jesus Christ held by so many of our recognised, canonized Saints. These were the ones who fought with their words, speech, actions and prayer against the false dogmas of those who denied essential truths pertaining to the Faith. They stood up in defense of what is precious - the Gospel, the holy doctrines of the Church, fidelity to the Pope, love for Jesus Christ and hatred of sin. They fought and preached for the salvation of Souls. They were heroic. They were, in the case of Sts Dominic and Francis, prepared even to be voluntarily poor in order to do it. They were loved, but also feared and hated for speaking truth in charity. They, however, are the ones who are remembered by the Church today.