Anyway, we expect to hear such stuff from Terence. The thing that caught my eye was the title bar of 'Queering the Church'. It's blog description is thus: 'Towards a reality based theology'. Does that sound a little odd? I think it does. The idea of a theology based in reality is pretty good if we accept what the Church teaches about reality - that there exists a supernatural reality which requires faith - faith, in particular, in what the Church teaches and professes concerning God. It got me thinking about how and why it is that Tina Beattie can swan around telling everyone she is a theologian while holding onto views which are diametrically opposed to the Faith as expressed by the Magisterium, through the Catechism of the Church.
If a theologian dispenses with any notion that the Church has been given authority by Christ to 'teach all nations' all that Christ has taught His Apostles, and that Successors to the Apostles are those who, when people listen to them, or hear them, hear Our Lord, and if that same theologian dispenses with any notion that the Holy Spirit, sent upon the Church in the Upper Room, leads the Church into 'all truth', then, I suppose that that theologian can invent a 'reality based theology'. All that theologian needs to do, having dispensed with any notion that the Church is Holy and Apostolic and One and Catholic, is to survey what manner of lifestyles and ideas are present in the World and to accept them as new and more popular teachings. All you have to do to accept a 'reality based theology' is to be an heretic or perhaps an atheist who believes there is no supernatural reality at all. No God, no devil, no sin, no Salvation.
The 'reality based theology' espoused by Beattie, or the contributors at 'Queering the Church', means discarding the Sacred Tradition of the Church and Her teaching Authority received from Christ and inventing a new set of teachings based on the 'reality' in which we, as human beings in the 21st century world, find ourselves.
It does, however, get worse. Those who espouse a 'reality based theology' appear to be very influential and powerful in the Church in the United Kingdom. For yet more evidence concerning this, see James MacMillan's latest blogpost for The Telegraph in which he highlights the domination of a now discredited institution by individual Catholics who form a team of BBC cafeteria Catholics (they literally meet in the BBC cafe, I guess), many of whom are on the board of the Tablet Trust and who dominate the Church's public persona and message through the media. It really does make you wonder who was driving the BBC's rabid anti-Catholicism during the Papal visit, doesn't it? Perhaps those people, while defaming the Holy Father on the issue of the Church's abuse crisis really did know that the BBC had its own horrendous abuse scandal in the cupboard, in the form of Jimmy Savile and others.
1,250 people have so far signed the 'Jubilee Declaration on Church Authority' advertised by 'Queering the Church' in which, incredibly, people are asked to campaign to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on pressing issues in order to radically alter the papacy and 'change the Church' in ways which, we can assume, reflect more modern beliefs concerning sin and salvation. That might not be a lot of people among whom are, apparently, eminent 'Professors' (though I admit I can't find Tina's name there) but the fact that a group who consistently seek to undermine the Pope and the real teaching of the Church on a range of matter and who act as something of a subversive force within the Church are working hand in hand with the BBC Tablet operatives to discredit real Catholicism in order place their own shoddy replacement in its place is a pretty awful indictment of the BBC, an institution now so up to its neck in toxic sewage that Lord Patten's rescue mission could see him falling in as well.
They say it only takes a few people to pull off a conspiracy. Well, the BBC and The Tablet are obviously two ideologically anti-Catholic institutions so in bed with one another that its no wonder they have both ended up with a different idea of what constitutes a marriage and that they may even desire the definition itself to be altered. The real hypocrisy of it is that those campaigning for a 'changing Church' want more 'transparency' within the Church (something we can all agree is a good thing, but exactly what do they mean?), but then, shine a light on their friendships, acquaintances, funding and connections and they presumably, run a country mile. The average man and woman might not care whether the BBC is wrapped round the finger of a group of dissident Catholics campaigning for the upending of the Catholic Church, but your average woman and man in the pew Catholic deserves to know.
Tabula delenda est
Hans Küng has signed the Jubilee Declaration. Nuff said. But it is really kind and considerate of these people to alert everybody to their views. Now we know whose books not to read and whose courses not to attend. However, judging by their photographs most of them may not be publishing for very much longer. Go and have a look: most of them men are either grey-haired or bald. It might not be too long before they are off to the great Spirit of Vatican 2 in the sky. However, they seem to be having some problems as, when I clicked on [See our chapter on the Pope’s ‘infallibility’] I got a message saying ‘page not found’. Maybe the internet did not like the implied doubt about the Pope’s infallibility.
ReplyDeletePeople like Terry Weldon are incapable of leaving the Church they are just so wet. Ditto Timothy Radcliffe, Tina Beattie et al. It seems to be the defining characteristic of a liberal that they have about as much get up and go as a stick of celery. Heresy used to be so much simpler; at least the heretic set up by themselves and just left. Those were the days!
ReplyDeleteDespite Tina's claims to orthodoxy on matters of doctrine I don't believe her. I reckon she's hetrodox on at least three points:
- The magisterium (she keeps referring to something called the 'official magisterium')
- The Church (she keeps referring to something she calls the 'Catholic communion')
- The papacy (she avoids discussion and never mentions it as one of her 'core doctrines')
Quite apart from that I don't think she knows what the supernatural life is.