Happy New Year to All Readers

Here in England, the Bishops of England and Wales have altered the Church's calendar as if to suggest that honouring the Christ Child was apparently so good the first time, the wise men came back for another go three days before, just like Our Lord enjoyed ascending into Heaven so much the first time He decided to go up again on the nearest prior Sunday.

As you can see, I'm working on the Little Book of Pope Insults song, entitled 'The Self-Absorbed Promethan Neo-Pelagians' about a fictional future 'purge' of the Catholic Church of its most foul members, according to the unique outlook of Pope Francis. I think the lyrics - composed with a little artistic license, are generally faithful to the book - which, in turn, is generally faithful to the homilies, interviews and speeches.

When I get a little more time I'll record the song for those who can endure my ditties. It all seems a little puerile and the Christmas season gave me some time to be rather than to blog. It is sad, but there is a tinge of inevitability about the growing list, of which Ches of the Sensible Bond is the latest, of bloggers deciding to call it a day. The task of Catholic bloggers to evangelise on the internet is made so much harder when the centre of the Church's media presence in the world seems to have decided to move into reverse gear, threatening to overturn those hitherto untouchable and established truths concerning the Salvation of the human race in Christ that previous generations, along with most of us alive today, had taken for granted.

Nevertheless, the battle for the soul of the Church and the battle for souls continues with or without us. How apt it was, how terrifyingly apt it was, that the recent desecration of a statue of Our Blessed Lady in the US should see a Satanist dress as a Bishop mock and desecrate the Mother of God. Perhaps, even through His enemies, the Lord can speak to His Church of the terrible crisis of our times, which can only be remedied with the kind of awe and fear of the Lord, wonder and humble veneration that the wise men gave to the Christ Child, when falling to their knees they worshipped the Saviour of the World, the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.

Today, that which is sacred to all previous generations is being trampled on most violently within the Church. We must pray that respect for the sacred returns swiftly to the Church of Christ, from the bottom up, and from the top down. Sadly, as Nicolas Bellord makes clear in his recent analysis of the Synod, at the Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma, reverence for the sacred - which concerns both faith and worship - is under attack within the Church's walls. Nicolas's enlightening and incisive analysis of the final text of the Relatio Synodi is welcome to those of us who after the drama of the Synod itself, cannot yet even bring ourselves to read the book. Nicolas's analysis is in three parts as follows:

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

On behalf of the Guild of Blessed Titus, thank you, Nicolas, for your fine work.

May God be with all Catholic writers, bloggers, columnists, journalists and those who use the internet to proclaim our glorious faith this year. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary be for all afflicted in the current crisis the refuge in which we find peace, consolation and hope that dispels the dread with which we are now so familiar.

Please, no more light shows. I have probably chosen the wrong year to give up cigarettes but may the Lord be praised for e-fags. Nevertheless, Come, Lord Jesus!