While it is true to say that we don't really know what Heaven is like, it is hard to imagine that English martyrs such as St John Fisher, St Margaret Clitherow and St Thomas More, as well as Blessed John Henry Newman, have not been 24-hour party people over the past few days, as party poppers stream across Heaven, while Our Lady of Walsingham looks on in loving approval. That party has been reflected in the great joy of the Faithful on Earth, still in awe, both at the inspired ecumenical master stroke of Pope Benedict XVI and the surprisingly enthusiastic response from disaffected formerly-flying Anglican bishops and nuns who have flown the nest to roost in the One True Church.
Unfortunatley, Tina is 'saddened', because the stunning news of the Ordination of three men, Father Burnham, Father Broadhurst and Father Newton, as they follow in Blessed John Henry Newman's footsteps, while leaving behind them a Church of England writhing in acrimonious disharmony and without a paddle with which to steer up that insalubrious creek, doesn't reflect her feminist-marxist-theology-is-like-any-social-science world view. But hey, it isn't just Tina who is upset and so our hearts must go out to the entire editorial team and readership of The Tablet as well as Jo Siedlecka of Independent Catholic News, who also voices her approval, sorry, dissent, on Tina's blog, because the 'silent majority' of the Church are all thinking the 'same thing' about women priests, celibate clergy and the other 'marginal musings' that Tina's self-promoting blog promulgates every time she puts finger to keyboard and woe to the Church, because their voices are not being heeded. It all starts to make me wonder who was calling the shots in Heaven; the Lord God of Hosts or the Devil and his fallen angels, who, for a time, must have thought themselves some kind of 'silent majority' and campaigned for Heaven to be more demo(n)cratic.
On the Ordination of the married, formerly Anglican bishops to the Priesthood, Josephine Siedlecka writes, "I'm not sure this makes Christianity look any more comprehensible or attractive." Well, Jo, I'm not sure feminism, socialism, Marxism, liberalism or any other -ism but Catholicism makes Christianity look more comprehensible or attractive. It has to be said, looking at the Church of England, that the more -isms are embraced in a Church, the less it looks like a Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ and the more likely it is to become less attractive and less comprehensible over time, a truth to which I am quite sure these new Priests will testify.
I understand that '90% of the British population don't go to Church' and that it concerns you. But did the Lord promise the Church some kind of enduring popularity with British society, or, indeed, any society? What would be the point in the whole British population coming to Church if they all understood the Catholic Faith along the same feminist-marxist-liberal-humanist-getting-close-to-atheist nexus that some Catholics appear to, were catechised to believe in the same 'marginal musings' as Tina does, and never knew nothing of Our Blessed Lord's merciful love for poor sinners and the Salvation of God to be found within our Holy Mother the Church? What would that profit their souls? Thankfully, those being received under the Ordinariate have been receiving sound teaching in the form of Evangelium, a truly excellent tool for catechesis. Things bode well...Deo gratias!
 |
| Sorry, love, the Lord called men to be Priests |
Tina, Jo and various campaigners within the Church, along with those Priests, Bishops, and Religious who privately egg them on to dissent against the Magisterium, had better get used to the events that took place on Saturday, because it looks very much like those events will not be all that rare. I sincerely hope and pray that one day you will join us in praying for the conversion of England, once called Our Lady's Dowry, without bitterness and weepy, gin-soaked disappointment that the Church is not ran along the lines of your local Borough Council. Thanks be to God! For sure, 'equality' needs to be addressed within the Church. It needs to be put in a fire-proof envelope and addressed to the circle of Hell from whence it came. There is no 'equality' in Heaven. The Devil and all his fallen angels will tell you the same if you meet them in the next life. I pray none of us do.
Long live Pope Benedict XVI, now reigning gloriously! Say a prayer for the party poopers...
4 comments:
Congratulations on an excellent demolition job on our Tina's latest whinge.
Perhaps we should club together and buy her a train-set.
Laurence what an uncharitable attack. I welcomed our new converts but expressed concern that this development will not help evangelise the 90 per cent who do not go to church and will not understand what has happened.
You said it doesn't matter that 90 per cent have no faith but I think it does. I believe as Christians we all have a duty to evangelise all the time. Not preaching of course but through our actions. As St Francis said 'sometimes we have to use words'.
To an outsider, what had happened is one denomination converting to another. rather than squabble amongst ourselves over this don't you think we need to gently explain to non Christians what this us about.
We are not a private club . I feel sad especially at Christmas and Easter when I am with my friends and neighbours and realise that they don't share my faith.
'I welcomed our new converts but expressed concern that this development will not help evangelise the 90 per cent who do not go to church and will not understand what has happened.'
Well, how do you receive three men into the Catholic Church who used to be Anglican Bishops and 'spin' that into an evangelical mission? 90% of Britons may not have faith, but still, it is surely something to rejoice over when Anglican nuns and Anglican Bishops come over, isn't it?
At the end of the day, we are happy for the Church, because the Church has, if anything, three new priests, we are happy for the priests, because they are now in full communion with the Successor of St. Peter, and we are happy, surely, that this may lead to more Anglicans disaffected with the Anglican Church to leave the sinking ship and join the Barque of Peter.
The only Catholics who are not happy with what has happened are those Catholics who believe the work of ecumenism is all about incessant dialogue, back-slapping, tea and Victoria sponge and that the Anglican Faith and the Catholic Faith are 'more or less the same so let's celebrate our faiths'. It isn't and they aren't.
It's about embracing other denominations as brothers but stating quite firmly that the Catholic Church is the one established by Our Lord Himself, that the Anglican Church, rather than the Catholic Church is the one in schism and telling people, charitably, that Anglican orders are not valid while asking if they'd consider taking up an Ordinariate - which, ultimately, is the message of Pope Benedict XVI.
“I welcomed our new converts BUT expressed concern that this development will not help evangelise the 90 per cent who do not go to church and will not understand what has happened.”
Yes. Or, I welcomed little Tom Cobley into the Church the other day when he was baptised BUT I expressed concern that this development will not help evangelise the 90 per cent who do not go to church and will not understand what has happened.
Or, I received absolution from the priest when I went to confession BUT expressed concern that this development will not help evangelise the 90 per cent who do not go to church and will not understand what has happened.
What is the point of welcoming something and then expressing concern that it may not achieve something else altogether?
If the point had been that the setting up of the ordinariate somehow or other was thought to hinder the evangelisation of the 90% who do not go to church then there might be some point in the concern but presumably no one is suggesting that. So want we are left with is a “but” which has no meaning whatsoever. And, who knows where the Spirit may move as a consequence of the setting up of the Ordinariate?
Post a Comment