"Existential Tourist!"

"These people wander through life like existential tourists, without a goal and without taking God’s promises seriously. But those who wander around are lying to themselves, because they say 'Yes, I walk.' But no, you don't walk, you just wander...'Simply wanderers..but the Lord tells us to keep going. He tells us to take the right path and to not wander around aimlessly.”

- Pope Francis

You can read the Rome Reports version or the Vatican Radio version in which the Holy Father's fascinating homily is not quoted even once. Why is our Holy Father so unquotable?

Just for a moment there, I thought the Pope had given up insults for Lent. I haven't given up documenting them. The interesting thing of course is that St Francis of Assisi and his mendicant friars spent a great deal of time, keeping the commandments and wandering around urging people to love God, repent and keep the commandments. I understand that it is really important that we never lose sight of our status as sinners, to recognise our sins and to repent of them, to overcome them with the power of God's grace through prayer and the Sacraments, but I thought that keeping the commandments were, for Jesus Christ, important too. After all, it was He who said, "If you love me, keep my commandments."

Is His Holiness suggesting that to try to keep the commandments with God's grace is an impediment to the Christian life? Rome Reports summarises the Pope's words as following, without giving us the actual words...

But there are many Christians whose hope is weak and while they believe and follow the commandments, they have come to a standstill in their spiritual lives.

And I don't doubt that I, a sinner, am one of them. God knows I'm not St John of the Cross, neither do I consider myself to be flying up the spiritual ladder this Lent. That said, breaking the Ten Commandments would, I would posit, be bad...right? No Pope would want to encourage that.

Is this another encouragement to us all to go to Confession? I do worry slightly that, while no description of God can tell the full story, we are receiving a two, or even one dimensional vision of God from His Holiness that doesn't do justice to Him. God is Merciful, but also Just. God is Loving but is also Truth. We can't be 'pastry shop Christians' and say God is only Merciful to everyone but the mafia.

Who is His Holiness thinking of here? How can someone so non-judgmental see into the hearts of so many Christian existential tourists? Has His Holiness the gift of reading souls en masse? Someone help me out here. In the mind of His Holiness there seem to be so many, many Christians who are like this or like that and they are bad Christians. It must be so wonderful, Your Holiness, not to be like them...sorry...me.

Catholic MP Rent Boy "Scandal"

So a man can have sex with another man, a man can even 'marry' another man but for a man to pay money to another man for sex is a 'terrible scandal'.

Welcome to modern Britain where nothing makes sense anymore.

I guess some gays are just not the marrying kind. Mr Menzies voted for same-sex marriage.

"I am a Catholic and religious freedoms are very important to me, as is my religion, but so too are equality and tolerance," said he.

Perhaps I'm a 'man born blind' or something, but I can't see how two men having sex with a financial transaction before it takes place is any more scandalous than two men having sex with no financial transaction taking place. After all, it could be that in the latter case one man always buys the drinks. Who knows, perhaps a 'rent boy' relationship could be the beginning of a beautiful 'marriage'?

"Shocking!"..."O my giddy aunt!"..."Whatever next?"

I know that prostitution is illegal and exploitative therefore its immoral. So that's why he's resigning, but don't worry, Mr Menzies, George Soros is working on that one. One of these years your friend will be a 'sex worker' with full entitlement to a private pension and membership of the company gym.

I'm not casting the first stone, of course, what with my big gay history. There but for the grace of God, go I. I'm just musing on a country gone insane. You can just imagine gay 'married' couples sitting at home reading the Sunday newspaper in the conservatory saying, "Tut-tut...well I never...what is the world coming to?"

Say a prayer for Mr Menzies.

Do Watch Bishop Egan's Lenten Message

With apologies to Mick Hucknell.

Mea culpa!

Congratulations to George Soros and His Friends

I awoke this morning and decided I should try and look for a job. "Laurence, are you feeling okay?!" I hear you cry. Anyway, I've worked out that if I am to make changes in my life - like getting a job or career - it might serve me not to live in a sea-side resort with no jobs and to go and live somewhere were there are jobs. It's taken me 37 years to work that out, so I hope employers don't look at my blog. To be frank, I'm not the sharpest tool in the box. They do, by the way. Employers do search your name on Google.

Anyway, in my job search on 'Indeed.co.uk' I decided to refine my search to 'Jobs in London'. I saw a couple of nice gardening jobs and opportunities teaching offenders in prisons, so I got a couple of 'leads'. Then, however, I stumbled across an opportunity for an Administrative Assistant for Open Society Foundations. Open Society Foundations is the secular arm of multi-billionaire philanthropist and renowned rapist of stock markets, George Soros. Mr Soros ploughs his not inconsiderable wealth into creating more 'open societies'. An open society, says Mr Soros, is better than a 'closed society', which is a bit like saying shopping is easier and better when Sainsbury's is open, rather than closed.

Same-sex wedding in Brighton

Under 'issues' he promotes on his swish website, multi-billionaire speculator, philanthropist and open society creator, George Soros, who is surely one of the G8, sorry, G7, in terms of the World's most influential men, along with other super-rich financial elite confreres, such as the Rockefellers, Morgans and the Rothschilds, is, of course, LGBTI issues, under the general theme of 'rights and justice'. The 'I' in LGBTI, in case you were wondering, stands for 'Intersex', rather than 'Inquiring'.

To hear Bono, a baptised, if misguided millionaire Catholic, praising Mr Soros is a bit gross, leading me to believe that at some point one of the most irritating men in pop (and let's face it, there are quite a few, Mick Hucknall) really did sell his immortal soul to the Devil for worldly prestige, power, status, money, fame as well as the enduring conviction that is okay to wear wraparound sunglasses both indoors and outdoors. I guess that's just one of the unofficial 'rites' of the music industry.

As well as prizing open societies to accept Mr Soros's version of 'human rights' and 'justice', thus encouraging every nation to become Sorosland, with a notable special current focus on Ukraine, Mr Soros also funds Catholics for Choice and other notable forces on the 'Catholic Left'. And here we are wondering how The Tablet manages to keep afloat. Quite plainly, George Soros forms part of a global elite of very rich financial mystics whose renowned ethics always - consistently - fund the Culture of Death that the Catholic Church used to oppose vigorously from top down, sorry, opposes.

As well as funding the gigantic, global gay marriage campaign, campaigning for and funding access to abortion (focusing presently on Poland and Eastern Europe), and artificial contraception, the Open Society Foundation is currently championing the legalisation of drugs and prostitution - not using Mr Soros's wealth to help them out of the sex trade, no, heaven forbid - but drawing attention to their plight and stigma and their right to be called sex workers. Why? Because, you know, if people can be 'sex workers' instead of prostitutes, even I might be capable of finding full-time employment and being called a 'sex worker' accords dignity to your role. One understands what is 'essential' in this job specification, but do I have what is 'desirable'? Presumably, if Mr Putin is sincere in his Christian beliefs, he will by now realise just who he is up against in the struggle to become true victor of the 'new world order'.

It goes without saying that today England and Wales will be celebrating the first 'gay weddings'. May I suggest that those who will today be dragging the name of marriage through the mud give a word of thanks to George Soros and his to Open Society Foundation, without whose mighty influence, so attested to by the rich, powerful and ridiculous celebrities and rock stars of this world, it would perhaps never have happened. Without David Rockefeller and George Soros among the ranks of those supporting, funding and propagandising for it, much like the advent of the pill, legalised abortion and 'women's liberation' of the 1960s, your sham marriages taking place today would doubtless never have occurred, because until your masters had mentioned it, you would scarcely have thought of something so patently absurd.

With his terrible financial and political social muscle, Mr Soros and his exceedingly rich friends have spawned a monster, a veritable dragon if you will. Only with the influence of men such as Soros could the British media be turned over to something so fawning, unquestioning and docile to the perverted and unruly will of a global elite whose only driving motive is power, control over the populace, the destruction of the family and the creation of frankly satanic empire in which whole peoples are deluded into thinking their 'rights' built on nothing but shifting sands - are actually given to them by the State.

George Soros and his ilk have indeed opened up British society, European society and American society to cast off its Christian heritage, deny God, murder its young, embrace sodomy, kill its infirm and contribute to what, history attests, is the collapse of civilization through its own internal contradictions. You simply cannot build a nation without protecting the family and marriage. You can thank David Cameron and the UK Government if you want, but remember, neither he nor they work for you. By now you should have realised at least that. Follow the money. Money buys power and influence in the corridors of power. If you don't have money, or power, or influence, your opinion of same sex marriage has nothing to do with the law and why it was created. All that was necessary was that you would stay silent while 1-2% roared.

Why are there three lions on the English flag? They should be changed to pussy cats. Let all Catholics and men and women of good will take the banner of the Cross to this ailing nation, confront the evils of our day and in charity, continue to spread the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Though I see little point in protesting at register offices the same-sex 'marriages' in Brighton and beyond, we must pray and witness to the truth about marriage, life and human sexuality. Careful now! Down with this sort of thing!

Same-Sex Marriage is Simply Red

If I had been on Question Time, I would have asked the question:

"What the **** is the guy from Simply Red doing on Question Time!?"

I'd have also asked the question:

"Diane Abbott maintains she has campaigned for gay marriage for 'all her political life'. How can this be when the campaign for gay marriage in the UK started as recently as 2010, with complete disinterest from the 'gay community' until well after that year?"

And finally...

"If Mick Hucknell is such a big campaigner for guys doing it with guys, then why are two guys falling in love absent from any of his music videos based on lyrics about romantic love?"

Same-sex marriage, let's face it is the ultimate oxymoron, straight out of some dystopic future novel in which truth is supplanted by falsehood under the guise of 'love' and 'freedom', only to be supported with vast reams of State-led propaganda that makes those who naturally recoil from it too afraid to speak out.

It's a well-known campaign tactic for the left, who seek to destroy the family unit and replace it with fidelity to the State. Ironic, therefore, it is, that one guy supporting it on Question Time was from a band called 'Simply Red'.

Caroline Farrow on Question Time

Do watch Caroline Farrow's brave and concerted defence of traditional marriage against its redefinition by the UK Government. It is 40.00 mins in.

Well done to her for standing up for marriage and the teaching of the Church.

You can read Caroline's account of her evening at Question Time here.

News just in. After her performance on Question Time, Caroline will be on ITV News, I believe, at 6pm and 10pm tonight.

Benjamin Creme on Pope Francis

This is from Share International's gnostic - scrub that - occult website, which predicts the emergence of a new 'World Teacher' called Maitreya.

I know that readers would say, as I would say, 'Benjamin Creme would say that, because he's basically a loon'. However, it is worthwhile just for the record to note that he said it.

Q. Do you know if Pope Francis is being impressed or inspired by a Master in his various speeches against greed, the powerful economic powers of the world, and against the pure form of capitalism that still is so attractive to many rich sections of society?

A. He is inspired by Maitreya.

Whatever this individual really thinks of the Catholic Church and its Pope - and you can bet its not particularly nice - that little response means that one of the World's most public apologists for, and worshippers of Lucifer, says, 'Pope Francis: Keep on going as you are. You're doing a grand job.'

Has Pope Francis heard of Maitreya? Doubt it. But more than one or two websites out there on the peripheries propose that Mr Creme is not mad, just bad, and that he is the forerunner for the Antichrist when he makes his appearance on the world's stage, proposing some solution to the injustice, hunger and disease in the world.

Pope Francis is attracting some interesting admirers. Someone should tell Pope Francis that leading occultist, Benjamin Creme, admirer of Crowley, Blavetskey, Pike, La Vey and all those famous apologists for Lucifer, who claims to commune with various 'spirits' and who believes he is a mouthpiece for a new age messiah, publicly suggests that His Holiness is being inspired by someone that both Catholics and non-Catholics suggest will be the Antichrist.

Perhaps, having just met with President Obama, His Holiness will have had a good training day in how to deal with the perfectly possessed but methinks Benjamin Creme may not have said such a thing of Pope Francis's predecessor(s)!

Benedict XVI: The 'Dead Pope' Not Dead Enough for the Liberals

I've been thinking some about that comment from Mr Mickens, just trying to get inside his head a little and little about it makes sense. It makes about as much sense as Elena Curti's latest effort. Supposedly, the liberal dissenting crowd from The Tablet are head over heels that Francis is Pope and Benedict XVI is not. Benedict XVI's status is curious in as much as he is kind of like a dead Pope who is alive. I hope that doesn't sound disrespectful, but its kind of how it is.

He is a Pope Emeritus who is not reigning, who laid down the keys and passed them onto another, handing over to another to the governance of the Church he felt was no longer within his physical and spiritual power to govern.

In terms of the Papacy, Benedict XVI is dead even though he is alive. He no longer sits upon the Throne of Peter. He no longer exercises authority. He cannot issue motu proprios. Another has taken his place who, it appears, is more to The Tablet's liking, or, at least, more easily presented as such, especially if Vatican Radio is anything to go by.

Not reigning, yet still keeping Mickens awake at night?

Why is this not enough for one such as Bobby Mickens? Even in 'victory' he is unhappy and frustrated that a frail and elderly man who governed the Church with wisdom and prudence (if not Bobby's kind of wisdom or Bobby's kind of prudence) is breathing the same air as him.

It would be naive to think that Bobby is alone in his death-wish for the 'dead Pope' still living even though 'Francis rules ok'. Obviously, the individual with whom he was discussing the matter with agreed with him and these two are doubtless not alone in their view. That's the frightening thing. They won't be happy, presumably, until he is gone, dead, to his eternal reward and his memory can be slowly, or even rapidly, erased. It seems to me, just from that comment, that there exists a very real, frightening and arguably diabolical hatred for Benedict XVI that existed within and without of the Vatican before his election, during his pontificate and even after his resignation.

Benedict XVI is not the Pope anymore. So, why isn't Bobby Mickens happy? Even when Francis does or says controversial things, Benedict XVI keeps silent. Does he see an ailing, elderly man dressed in white as some real and present danger, a threat to the new Church of the Brotherhood of Man that Bobby seeks to will, in union with his Vaticanista chums, into being?

Leperous Courtier?

Human Resources

The Tablet Publishing Company Ltd.

Registered in England No. 311249
1 King Street Cloisters

Clifton Walk
London

W6 0GY

25 March 2014

Feast of the Annunciation

(...and of Robert Micken's Suspension from The Tablet)

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing following news that you are possibly recruiting for a new Rome correspondent for your edgy Catholic magazine. Allow me to introduce myself...

Seriously though, we shouldn't leap for joy that a man's career has taken a light battering today following a vile Facebook conversation in which he seemed to wish death upon the Pope Emeritus, describing the latter as 'The Rat'.

No doubt Bobby will dust himself down after this setback and reassume his role for The Tablet soon enough. That said, I suppose even among Vatican circles who didn't have too much time for Benedict XVI, Bobby's Vaticanista reputation might have something of the 'leprous courtier' about it after this.

Too bad. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy...All this and a day off Lent too. Isn't the Mother of God good to us! May God and Our Lady protect and defend both Pope Francis and the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

Well done to Damian Thompson for spotting what certainly appears to be Mr Micken's repulsive death-wish upon Benedict XVI. He's probably not alone in his desire, but even Vaticanistas, I am sure, appreciate discretion. Perhaps in his time of 'prayerful reflection', Mr Mickens would do well to consider his own mortality, as well as that of no longer reigning Popes...

At times I've been bemused, confused and critical of Pope Francis, but I must say I don't wish death on even my worst enemy - and that person obviously isn't the Pope of Rome or his predecessor because, you know...I'm a Catholic! 

You can quote me on that!

Aborted Unborn Incinerated, Energy Used to Heat Hospitals

This news is shocking, macabre, disgusting, evil and inhuman. It is enough to make anyone, observing Lent or not, lose their appetite.

The Daily Mail reports...

'Thousands of miscarried and aborted babies have been incinerated by NHS hospitals without their mothers’ knowledge, an investigation has found.

The government was forced to ban the practice after it emerged that 15,500 foetal remains have been incinerated by 27 trusts over the last two years alone.

The bodies are being burned as ‘clinical waste’, while at two trusts they were put into ‘waste-to-energy’ furnaces which generate power for hospitals.

One devastated mother who suffered a miscarriage was told her child would be ‘incinerated with the rest of the day’s waste’.'

What a sick country. When will we wake up? Addenbrooke's Hospital, among others, has admitted, following a Channel 4 investigation for Dispatches, to incinerating the human remains of aborted and miscarried foetuses along with garbage, the energy produced being used to heat the hospital.

The Telegraph has reported the story and surely more mass media reports will follow. The Holocaust comparisons were already acutely valid and apt, with the denial of the humanity of the unwanted unborn a widely accepted myth, but now that the NHS has been found to be burning the remains as 'medical waste' to heat hospitals, the comparison with the Nazi regime's industrial mass murder program becomes more intensely vivid. These are themes taken up by Tim Stanley on his blog for the same publication. It is, frankly, staggering that there are only around 200 comments on his piece.

Like The Telegraph, the BBC has reported this story (which should by rights be top of the bill in terms of 'news') in the 'Health' section of the website. Yes, it happened in a hospital. Yes, the hospital is ran by the NHS, but come on. If this story concerns 'health' it concerns the diseased soul of a nation that once fought against Hitler only to discover, in the aftermath of Hitler's defeat, the horror of death camps built for those whose humanity was robbed, along with their dignity, during the Holocaust. Abortion is not a matter of 'health' but morality. Tomorrow this story should be front page news. Will The Guardian bite?

There will, one suspects, be some sort of 'public investigation' into the depravity of what has been taking place under the watchful eye of the NHS, much like there was an 'investigation' into the 'gendercide' media report by The Telegraph.

There certainly should be a very tangible public outcry, but one fears that the abortion mills have been so widely used that the guilt of the crime may keep the mouths of those who support abortion and have procured abortions, silent, and indeed complicit in the Government's likely refusal to address the growing scandal of abortion in the United Kingdom.

With Hollywood blockbuster, Noah, being released soon, perhaps as time goes on in an age that spurns these little ones and burns them for energy, we get more of an idea as to why the Almighty decided to cleanse the Earth in such a 'radical' way.

Pray for an end to abortion and for this barbaric nation, so steeped in the blood of the innocent unborn, so deaf to their cries, that even when these little corpses are incinerated along with waste to heat hospitals, its citizens, like those in Germany who refused to acknowledge the destruction of Jewry taking place in their midst, look away and cast away, like the victims of this heinous and sickening industry, yesterday's news.

Matthew Shellhorn Concert for the Stations of the Cross

St George's Cathedral in Southwalk will host in concert a performance of Stations by Irish composer Ian Wilson. The piece is a monumental solo piano work inspired by the Stations of the Cross devotion.

There is further information, including a short film produced during recording, here. 

His Grace the Archbishop of Birmingham has agreed to be present and to give a meditation as part of the event.This will be a wonderful opportunity for him to meet the faithful of the Archdiocese of Southwalk.

Admission is, I believe, free, so let Matthew Shellhorn know if you are interested in coming so that he can put you on the guest list. 

This looks like a rather beautiful meditation for Lent so if you are in the area, give Matthew Shellhorn an email. A Facebook group for the Stations has been set up which can be joined here.

Good Counsel Network & 40 Days for Life

40 Days for Life, the peaceful, prayerful pro-life campaign is running from March 5 to April 13. Good Counsel Network are asking for men, especially, to join volunteers praying and keeping vigil outside the Marie Stopes International West London Centre in Ealing. The clinic, in a twist of horrific irony, used to be a Christian Home of Spiritual Healing, as indicated by the plaque of St Michael below the Marie Stopes sign.

Following the success of the closure of a BPAS abortion clinic in Bedford Square, a campaign 'Ending Abortion in Ealing' hopes through prayer and witness to the sanctity of human life to see the same fate happen to the Marie Stopes clinic.

As it happens, Monday 24th March, today has been set aside by GCN as a National Day of Prayer and Fasting for Life, upon the Vigil of the Annunciation.

On the Feast of the Annunciation, a first class feast no less, of course we are expected to party as if, in the midst of a desert, Moses has just shown us the miraculous rock that will parch the thirst of the weary. Where would we be without Our Blessed Lady?! Today, however, the Good Counsel Network asks us, for the love of God and Our Lady to unite our penances and prayers with the unborn and vulnerable mothers, who are at risk from the cruel and barbaric practice of abortion.

You can donate, also, to the GCN, here, if you wish, as part of your Lenten almsgiving or if you are in the London region, or happen to be passing by, why not pray with those keeping vigil who long for an end to abortion and euthanasia.

Mafia Issue Public Statement in Response to Pope Francis

In fairness he is right. A little bit of manners goes a long way with these people. Seriously, like many readers, I have mafia connections and they all say the same. They like a bit of protocol.

Thanks, too, to Joe Bratelli of Sicilly for acknowledging receipt of my 'Pope-Hell-warning card'. I know how bad the post can be in your part of the world. Thanks too, for the horse's head I found in my bed this morning. You guys crack me up with your violent pranks! Thanks for that, Joe. It served as a salutary reminder to me to say that I should have added to the card a small note to mention that even though this is what Pope Francis said, its not really his or my place to judge.

God bless, Joe and see you in the summer. No hard feelings, right?

While we digest news that a massive cocaine seizure has taken place en route to the Vatican (in Lent????!!!) let's watch that Baptism scene in The Godfather once more...in Latin.

The Hermeneutic of Revolution...

...or rupture, appears to be the light in which this Rome Reports advertised documentary presents the Second Vatican Council. Benedict XVI saw the Second Vatican Council in terms of a 'hermeneutic of continuity'. Language is important. It sends out a signal. A Vatican documentary painting Vatican II as a revolution within the Church is, well, interesting, no?

Francis Reads Riot Act to the Impious, Heretics, Dissenters, Schismatics and all Unrepentant Sinners

Okay, just to the mafia. But then they do say there's a certain 'mafia' in the Church.

Taken out of the homily, its a rather good quote because it could apply to any sinner, 

or, indeed every unrepentant mortal sinner.

I'm printing it out and giving it to all my mafia friends.

Cardinal Dolan: Have We Lost Lent?

From Cardinal Dolan's blog...

'I admire how our Jewish neighbors take their “high holy days” in the fall so seriously, especially the days of penance, fasting, and contrition . . .

Our Islamic neighbors fast all day and deepen their prayers for a month at Ramadan . . .

And here, my Catholic people write me for a “dispensation” on one of the six measly Fridays we’re asked to abstain from meat (big sacrifice these days!), if they even bother with the dispensation at all.

Am I being too gloomy here? You know me well enough to realize I’m hardly puritanical or a crab. All I’m asking is: have we lost Lent? Is it all now nostalgia, a museum piece, in the attics of our souls, as we tell our kids and grandkids how Lent “used-to-be”?

Lent didn’t just used to be . . . it’s needed now more than ever!

Let me ask you, is there anything different at all in your life, in the rhythm of your family and home, in your parish, this Lent?

Is it too late to get it back?'

To which the answer, of course, is no. As Bishop Malcolm McMahon has made clear, nothing in the Catholic tradition of Faith is irretrievable. How wonderful it will be to see a Bishop in Liverpool be generous in the provision of the Mass of Ages. It would seem that the new Auxillary appointment at Birmingham agrees, thanks be to God!

Promoting popular devotions, the Traditional Latin Mass, the promotion of regular Confession, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, encouraging the Faithful to take Lent seriously and to fast, pray and give alms - these are all ways in which Bishops, Priests, Cardinals and Popes, indeed, can embolden the people of God in our mission to save souls and to become Saints. Who knows? Perhaps our Lenten penances and prayers for Holy Mother Church are assisting in what, God willing, could bring renewal and growth to the Church in England and Wales. However these exciting appointments have come about, PrayTell are not, it appears, too happy.

The New Website for St Mary Magdalen Church

...is very good!

Support an honest priest

Sign, if you wish, this petition calling for the removal of the suspension of a priest who exposed bullying by a homosexual club in seminaries during his time training to be a priest.

"Without Justice, What is the State but a Band of Robbers?"

The UK Government is rather frightening at the moment. Having decided to take on the God-like status of re-defining marriage and looking into taking on the God-like status of 'helping you to end your life' (the power to kill citizens), as well as storing up human embryos for experimentation and 'fertility treatment', now one Telegraph blogger has spotted the Government's sneaky plan to take to itself the power to dip into your bank account and take what HMRC has decided you owe in tax, without your consent. Going by the comments on the blog post, this policy, which was not formally announced, but was instead discovered by those going through the Budget 2014 with a fine comb, isn't going to be a popular move...

"Politics must be a striving for justice, and hence it has to establish the fundamental preconditions for peace. Naturally a politician will seek success, without which he would have no opportunity for effective political action at all. Yet success is subordinated to the criterion of justice, to the will to do what is right, and to the understanding of what is right. Success can also be seductive and thus can open up the path towards the falsification of what is right, towards the destruction of justice. “Without justice – what else is the State but a great band of robbers?”, as Saint Augustine once said. We Germans know from our own experience that these words are no empty spectre.

We have seen how power became divorced from right, how power opposed right and crushed it, so that the State became an instrument for destroying right – a highly organized band of robbers, capable of threatening the whole world and driving it to the edge of the abyss. To serve right and to fight against the dominion of wrong is and remains the fundamental task of the politician. At a moment in history when man has acquired previously inconceivable power, this task takes on a particular urgency. Man can destroy the world. He can manipulate himself. He can, so to speak, make human beings and he can deny them their humanity. How do we recognize what is right? How can we discern between good and evil, between what is truly right and what may appear right? Even now, Solomon’s request remains the decisive issue facing politicians and politics today."

~ Pope Benedict XVI in his 2011 address to the German Bundestag

I find it interesting that, having left a quote from St Augustine and a quote from Pope Benedict XVI's address to the German Bundestag, my comment on The Telegraph blog article has been met with 51 'likes'. Who would have thought Catholic theology could be so popular! Perhaps the wisdom of Benedict XVI will be appreciated now that he is no longer on the Throne of St Peter. Let's face it, the media never really gave the world 'the real Benedict'.

Wise and Faithful Steward

There are some lovely prayers to St Joseph here.

Something for your Sidebars

If you are a Catholic blogger, feel free to put this in your sidebar.

Michael Voris Responds on Popewars: Do you Pass the Holiness Test?

"I am praying to be the next Pope and then, finally, FINALLY, Michael Voris will get off my case!"

I don't know whether Michael Voris has seen this blogpost, or he has himself received emails from people saying similar things to the piece I wrote, but Mr Voris maintains that, unlike a senior ranking Successor to the Apostles, the Successor of St Peter is in a league of his own (a view which strikes me as a little ultramontane) and as such is beyond criticism and above reproach.

Apparently, you can only make even respectful critical observations of His Holiness if you are St Catherine of Siena or think you might be a 'Saint in the making'. Did any of the Saints consider themselves to be incredibly holy Saints in the making? I think it was St Francis of Assisi who considered himself, in the light of God's infinite goodness, to be the worst criminal on the face of the Earth. Someone, find me a man with a horrendous pus-oozing injury!

You can analyse the script of Mr Voris's presentation here. Go through it with a fine comb, why not, because Mr Voris has touched on something that is really quite important. If the Holy Father fluffs up, can the faithful say, 'Holy Father, with the greatest of respect, we think you've fluffed up, there'?

Personally, as a Catholic loyal to the Church and to the Supreme Pontiff, I'm not looking for Michael Voris to "go for" the Pope and I wouldn't ask anyone to do so. I only responded with a blogpost because Mr Voris maintained that you cannot, shouldn't and were endangering countless souls if you pointed out that the Holy Father had said something distinctly un-Catholic that could possibly, wait for it, endanger countless souls.

At one point in the latest presentation, entitled 'The Pope IS Different' - an episode of the Vortex made only because 'THIS Pope IS Different' - Mr Voris says the following...

"But it is precisely because he [the Pope] IS different, that his case must be treated differently –because to OPENLY and PUBLICLY go after the Pope is perceived as going after the Church Herself."

~ Michael Voris, 17 March 2014

As well as making the frightening statement that the Pope is 'the Head of the Church', thereby omitting the important truth that Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church - the Pope is His Vicar on Earth and visible Head - read: not God Almighty - Michael does not, unfortunately, address any potential issues that may arise should any Pope, either presently or in the future, be seen to say things or perform actions that, to the impartial observer, suggest the one going after the Church Herself to be the Pope himself, with total freedom and without criticism and all because the Pope 'can do whatever he likes'. I'm no canon lawyer, but I'm sure that Canon Law was always intended to apply to Popes as well.

For example, Michael makes the statement, correctly, that Peter enjoys primacy or has 'pre-eminence above all others' in the Church. He does not say what a Catholic can say or cannot say, if, say, Peter doesn't want to enjoy primacy and makes statements to the effect that he would like to 'distribute' his primacy to the Bishops Conferences in a mysterious 'conversion of the papacy' while handing to a collection of largely heterodox bishops, 'doctrinal authority'.

Like I say, I would never urge a speaker of such renowned Catholic fidelity as Mr Voris, or indeed anyone to launch a tirade against the Pope - any Pope. That said, a Church Militant CIA report on the suppression of the Franciscans of the Immaculate would, I am sure, be well worth watching. It is a shame their cause is being overlooked by Mr Voris because 'first they came for the FFI...then...'

Loyal Catholic and Pope Francis critic, the late Mario Palmaro, for the repose of whose soul we should earnestly pray, not that long before his death, received a phone call from His Holiness who, in fact, stated that he “understood that the critics had been moved by love for the Pope”. Even the Supreme Pontiff himself, then, suggests that love for the Pope, love for the Papacy, love for Christ and love for His Church do not preclude respectful criticism of the Holy Father.

May God bless the Holy Father, His Holiness Pope Francis, and we who are in His Holiness's paternal spiritual care with wisdom, prudence, justice, fortitude and courage. We should pray for Michael Voris too, you know, because while liberal prelates herald the coming of Francis as a 'new springtime' for the Church, the future in terms of the freedom of Catholic bloggers and presumably speakers who defend the Magisterium to continue their mission online in the New Evangelisation, looks, all of a sudden, by no means certain.

If the proverbial hits the fan at the Synod and it 'all comes back to the Pope', will 'faithful Catholics' really be saying, "Well, I feel deeply uncomfortable with the results of the Synod, but I'm sorry, I'm simply not holy enough to offer any commentary on this unprecedented apostasy egged on by the Pope. Anyway, back to Cardinal Dolan, you'll never guess what he's gone and said now...."? The duty to defend the Church and to uphold the dignity of the Papacy falls, surely, upon all the Faithful.

I leave you, readers, in the capable hands of the one and only Michael Voris.

'After the Second Vatican Council, the impression arose that the pope really could do anything in liturgical matters, especially if he were acting on the mandate of an ecumenical council. Eventually, the idea of the given-ness of the liturgy, the fact that one cannot do with it what one will, faded from the public consciousness of the West. In fact, the First Vatican Council had in no way defined the pope as an absolute monarch. On the contrary, it presented him as the guarantor of obedience to the revealed Word. The pope's authority is bound to the Tradition of faith, and that also applies to the liturgy. It is not 'manufactured' by the authorities. Even the pope can only be a humble servant of its lawful development and abiding integrity and identity.'

~ Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liurgy

"Who is going to save our Church? Do not look to the priests. Do not look to the Bishops. It’s up to you, the laity, to remind our priests to be priests and our Bishops to be Bishops."

~ Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Happy St Patrick's Day

Historical research has, as yet, yielded no evidence that the saintly Bishop drank Guinness.

So why not drink something else?

'Operation Shock and Awe' to Accomplish Liberal Hegemony over the Church?

A while has passed now since Deacon Nick Donnelly's excellent Protect the Pope blog came under censure.

Recently, it has been confirmed that the Bishop of Lancaster, we assume due to a number of 'complaints' from certain quarters, felt compelled to ask Deacon Nick Donnelly to refrain from his involvement on Protect the Pope - a hugely successful and very widely read blog - in order to take some time out, the completion of which is not specified, to 'prayerfully reflect'.

Ches at The Sensible Bond has some interesting thoughts on the astonishing development while Fr Tim Finigan of The Hermeneutic of Continuity has rightly drawn his reader's attention to what seems to indicate the application of a rather grotesque set of double standards at work in the modern Church with regard to who is free to communicate in the Church of the 21st century and who has their freedom to communicate restricted.

Of course, unlike many Catholics present in both the mass media and courting their readers through the new media, Nick Donnelly was and remains 100% in agreement with all that the Church teaches, giving assent to the Magisterium and teaching quite masterfully it to others online.

Others who do the precise opposite of this, who through writing and public speaking seek to undermine the Catholic Church in Her teaching enjoy considerable freedom, tolerance and even promotion in England and Wales. As Fr Tim has noted and dutifully explained, the level of promotion that dissent to the Church's Magisterium is so inexplicably high, that the website of the very Bishop who has suppressed Nick Donnelly promotes The Tablet in its 'Latest News' section.

While The Tablet is fully able to communicate Catholic news in an objective manner, the dissenting opinions of its editorial team are by now the stuff of legend. There has been some commentary suggesting that the Bishop has asked Nick Donnelly to cease from blogging for an undetermined amount of time because he has received complaints. It is well-known that Deacon Nick's work in revealing the collusion of priests and bishops in England and Wales with ACTA - a dissenting group of Catholics who seek to change Church teaching on sexual morality, priestly celibacy and the ordination of women - will have made him some powerful enemies.

 The Diocese of Lancaster's website on 15 March 2014

For a Bishop's website to be promoting The Tablet, an international weekly vehicle for dissent, is disappointing in itself, but the actual article that the Diocese of Lancaster promotes in its 'Latest News' section contains the following passage on two Bishops, one in Wales, one in England, who have 'broken ranks' with the Bishops' Conference on issues that will be discussed at the upcoming Synod on the Family...

'Two bishops of England and Wales have broken ranks with their confreres with one calling for developments in church teaching on human sexuality and the other criticising the collective decision not to publish the findings of a Vatican survey.

The Bishop of Middlesbrough, Terence Drainey, called for a “radical re-examination of human sexuality” that could lead to a development in church teaching in areas such as contraception, homosexuality, divorce and remarriage and cohabitation and the role of women in the Church.  

Bishop Tom Burns of Menevia says that in the interests of transparency the bishops should publish the findings of a Vatican survey which asked questions on cohabitation, contraception and same-sex marriage. In an article for The Tablet, Bishop Burns notes “the height and depth and width of the intense pleas made by God’s people for urgent attention to their pastoral needs”.'

I highlight the word 'development' since it would appear that to 'develop' Catholic teaching in a particularly unpopular area of Catholic teaching is established liberal code for the undermining or abandoning of the teaching itself. If that is not the case, then why do such liberals never actually say what this 'development' would look like in practice? Liberals writing for The Tablet are constantly calling for 'development' of the Church's teaching on sexual matters. It is now the raison d'etre of The Tablet. Of course, it is scandalous that The Tablet's writing staff should undermine, in writing, the Church's teaching in any area and campaign for 'radical reform' of teachings that are inerrant and form part of the Church's infallible Magisterium. Yet it is even more scandalous that an article highlighting coded episcopal dissent from this Magisterium should appear on Bishop Campbell's 'newsfeed' on his website. The promotion of the article, in the wake of Fr Tim Finigan's blog post, appears now to have dropped down and off the 'Latest News Section' but can be viewed here.

The papal nuncio, the CDF and English and Welsh Bishops will have, I am certain, received numerous complaints through telephone, email and post concerning those teaching heterodox views in their Dioceses, numbered among whom are the writing team of The Tablet itself, which, despite its near constant undermining of Church teaching on a weekly basis, is for sale in every Cathedral and the vast majority of parishes in the United Kingdom.

Yet, as far as I am aware, no bishop, and certainly not Bishop Campbell has thought to urge The Tablet to show fidelity to the Church's Magisterium and the Bishops Conference of England and Wales continues to protect and support this weekly journal, granting immunity to those who obviously dissent from the Church's teachings.

In the light of Deacon Nick Donnelly's censuring by his bishop for airing views that are so obviously in total agreement with the Church's actual teachings, regularly referencing the Catechism of the Catholic Church in his posts, how can a bishop such as Bishop Michael Campbell not consider The Tablet's weekly criticism of the Church's teachings on sexual morality and other areas a cause for grave concern and an issue on which he and his brother bishops should take action as a matter of urgency? For they cannot say they have not received ample messages of complaint!

Press regulation: At least they had a public inquiry...

There is one rule for Deacon Nick Donnelly, it would seem, and another rule entirely for those who dissent from the Magisterium he heroically sought on his blog to uphold, defend and proclaim, along with the protection of the Guardian of the Deposit of Faith, His Holiness Pope Francis.

Have these two bishops highlighted by The Tablet really 'broken ranks' with their brother bishops? Or are the Bishops Conference seriously considering breaking ranks with Our Lord Jesus Christ? If Bishops are considering apostasy today, I pray that they will 'prayerfully reflect' on just what that means for them in Eternity.

We should all 'prayerfully reflect' on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ and what it cost Him to obtain for us our redemption and to purchase for us the gift of Salvation that we can so easily reject. A little Lenten reflection on the bloodied Corpse that was laid in the arms of Our Lady, Mother of the Church, might help the Bishops, and all of us, to 'develop' our relationship with God and 'deepen' our love for Jesus Christ. For without love for Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Blessed Mother, all of us, not just laity, but priests, bishops and yes, even popes are in danger of losing Him forever and forever sounds like an awfully long time. We know when the season of Lent ends and the season of Easter begins, but there is no such stopwatch in either Heaven or Hell.

BPAS Job Advert: Surely this is in breach of Equality Law

Tuesday 10.30 to 16.00

Working as part of the team at our unit in Brighton you will complete administrative and client support tasks within the unit in accordance with bpas' policies, procedures and quality standards.

The successful candidate will have at least 4 GCSE’s or the equivalent. Administrative experience with face to face client contact would be beneficial.

More importantly you will be non-judgmental, a team player and be able to maintain strict confidentiality.

All applicants must be pro-choice.

Please note that speculative CV's are not accepted and further details of this post can be downloaded below, alternatively please contact 0207 061 3385 or email recruitment@bpas.org

The closing date for completed applications is Friday 21st March 2014 and completed applications should be returned to:

bpas - Human Resources
etc

Countdown to Easter Widget

What a wonderful time of grace this is...

Let's remind ourselves daily how wonderful it is, by reminding ourselves how much longer of this wonderful time we have left.

Not that I'm a 'counting' Catholic or anything like that...

O Lord, with this Lenten time of grace and ascetic joy, Thou art spoiling us!

Michael Voris Condemns Popewars, War on Dolan continues....

This is a salutary video by Michael Voris on Popewars taking place within the Church. I take Michael Voris's point. Food for thought. Stop criticising Pope Francis everyone! But Cardinal Dolan's fair game...When I saw the title of one of Michael's latest videos I thought, 'Stop with the interviews'? This one must surely be about His Holiness!'

If Pope Francis died tomorrow and Cardinal Dolan was elected Pope, but Cardinal Dolan continued to say some things Cardinal Dolan's been saying, or does those kind of things Cardinal Dolan does, chortle-chortle, guffaw guffaw, does Cardinal Dolan automatically get a 'free pass' from Michael Voris? Just asking!

If there is a battle going on in the Church - and there is - I would have thought that it would be one that Mr Voris was keen on fighting, simply because it is centered upon the Pope, yes, but only because he is the Guardian of the Deposit of Faith. The battle between the 'left' and the 'right', which is really the heretics and schismatics Michael enjoys lambasting and the faithful Catholics, is about the Magisterium and essentially it is about Truth.

This battle is not really about the Pope but the Man in Whose place he stands as Vicar on Earth. It is about Jesus Christ. It is about the Magisterium that the Successor of St Peter guards with his life and what happens if guarding the Magisterium appears to be a low priority for a particular Pope at a time when it is most zealously opposed.

What troubles me about Voris's piece on the 'left and the right' is that everyone is to blame - those on the 'left' and those on the 'right' - everyone that is, but the personality at the centre of the confusion and the war that hinges on the Pope.

Meanwhile, if a Catholic remains silent when turmoil and tumult erupts following the latest Papal interview that suggests the Church could get along with same-sex civil unions, you've been a 'good and faithful Catholic', even though if a Cardinal or Bishop says the same, and you remain silent, you are 'siding with the enemy'.

If the Pope says something weird that appears to be in contradiction to the Magisterium and thus draws anger and confusion from Catholics, because it seems to be an obfuscation of the message of the Gospel, then why would Catholics who respectfully suggest the Pope, the Shepherd, has said something or done something that appears in contradiction to the Gospel be to blame for the loss of souls?

There is also some historical inaccuracy in Michael Voris's presentation. Martin Luther seemed concerned about corruption in the Church for a while, at the start but it turned out that his real war was on the Catholic Faith that he sought to 'reform' - hence his dogma that faith alone saved and decision to view himself, and not the Catholic Church, as the final arbiter of Sacred Scripture.

With all that said, now that Michael Voris has made me feel terrible for raising concerns about the direction of the pontificate of Pope Francis, if you are Catholic and are tempted to go to the SSPX, for the sake of your soul, do not leave, stay, offer up your sufferings and pray for Pope Francis and for the Lord's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Pope Francis and the Mystery of the Rosary

Gloria.tv today highlights the Catholic Herald strange story about Pope Francis and the Rosary from the dead priest's coffin. Who am I to judge?

Don't you just love her delivery?

Confession and Tina Beattie

Confession is the bridge across the Abyss

According to Protect the Pope, Tina Beattie has left a comment on The Tablet's blog post by Elena Curti on the Survey in preparation for the Synod. It really is quite shocking.

'Those of us who tried to answer the questionnaire honestly and in a way that might be helpful to the synod on the family are misrepresented by Edmund Adamus’s ‘reflection’.

Like most other Catholics I know, I respect the Church’s teaching on marriage and parenthood. I also know from experience that marriage and family life can induce agonies of guilt over our inevitable failures and shortcomings. However, I do not experience guilt over deciding in good conscience to use contraception to limit the number of children we had. I do not feel ashamed of my adult children for cohabiting with partners who have enriched our lives by their friendship. I do not feel compelled to pass negative judgement on the loving relationships of my gay friends. I am glad that some of my divorced Catholic friends have found joy in second marriages, and I want to share the sacraments with them. In other words, I’m like the vast majority of Catholics whose answers to the questionnaire have been made public.

I seek from the Church the formation I know I need most – formation that has to do with love and generosity of spirit, with faithfulness and integrity, with wisdom and discretion, with prayer and discernment. The list is long, but it does not include learning to regard contraception, premarital sex and homosexuality as intrinsically evil, nor does it include regarding divorced and remarried Catholics as people uniquely barred from the forgiveness offered by Christ in the sacraments.'

Pope Francis has, when speaking of the Sacrament of Confession, talked of the Christian 'virtue of shame'. Shame arises from guilt, or a convicted conscience, a sense that all is not well within the soul, a sense that I have sinned. Tina makes a public profession that she feels no guilt or shame over her use of artificial contraception to limit the number of children she and her husband had. Is that because Jesus has washed away her sin in the Sacrament of Penance when she went to confess her use of artificial contraception, or that she feels it is not a matter to bring to the Lord? Does she feel no shame for not passing on the Church's teaching in the area of sexual morality to her children, or explaining it to her friends?

The great irony is that because Tina Beattie is a 'practising Catholic' or, at least, a baptised member of the Church, that she presumes to know better than the Church about what is right or wrong, despite that the Church has outlived every empire since its foundation, while Tina has been on the face of the Earth quite a comparatively short while. Did Tina found the Catholic Church on Tina, 2,000 odd years ago? It is almost as if Tina feels that the Church, which for nearly 2,000 years has taught basically the same thing, is her creation, or her instrument, not God's Instrument of Salvation. Is Tina in possession of a Truth that eluded the Saints, Doctors, Fathers of the Church and, who knows, even Christ Himself?

A question for Tina: Why seek full and active membership of a Church that on the one hand you reject, because you cannot 'in good conscience' agree with Her teachings on sexual morality, but on the other hand seek 'formation' from. Why would you want 'formation' from a Church which is wrong and therefore unholy? You may as well seek 'formation' from a Buddhist monk in Thailand or a white witch in Dulwich.

Tips from Tina

Aside from various Gifts of the Holy Spirit, the list of things that Tina seeks assistance in her 'formation' is apparently long, yet she lists few of them. All she tells us is the things she does not want from her Church, which, conveniently enough, are those teachings that convict her of sin.

Lent is a wonderful season to go to Confession, but how does the Lord Jesus help those who believe, 'in good conscience' that they have no real sin to confess, even after making a public declaration of their sins and how she has 'no regrets'? What Tina is really saying is that she has no sin because those things that the Church condemns by virtue of Her Magisterium, Tina dismisses as unwanted guidance from a Church which offers some kind of vague, new age spiritual wisdom that does not touch, Heaven forfend, on her good, unsullied conscience. We Catholics have hitherto understood that the Church informs our conscience, rather than our conscience informs the Church, but try telling that to Tina.

What does the Church have to offer Tina Beattie, if it is not Salvation from sin and the graces to live a holy, faithful Catholic life that are channelled to us with such gratuity through the Sacraments of the Lord and by prayer? Can the Church and her Lord help someone who has rejected Her Teaching, which is His? Someone like Cardinal Kasper of course, is a dream come true for Tina, because his words can quite easily be passed off as Beattieism.

Cardinal Kasper talks as if the Church can bridge the 'abyss' between the Church's teaching and the 'actual situation of people'. In every situation, the Church can offer to the penitent forgiveness, the opportunity to start again and spiritual guidance and advice to live a holy and faithful Catholic life leading to Salvation.

As Catholics we know we are sinners dependent on God's grace, goodness and mercy to be found through prayer and the Sacraments. For the impenitent, however, who do not desire Salvation, you can build a bridge across the abyss, but if they really want the Abyss, they want the Abyss. You can take a horse to water, the water of Salvation, but you cannot make it drink. At some point, those who govern the Church might think to mention that there are eternal consequences if we reject the Church's Teaching and believe and do our own thing.

Say a prayer for Tina that she will seek the 'formation' rooted in Truth that God can offer through His Church. Frightening, isn't it? Such women as Tina are in teaching positions, 'Catholic' magazines and on BBC Radio from time to time, being introduced as 'Catholics'.

'Like most other Catholics I know, I respect the Church’s teaching on marriage and parenthood.'

Tina, if you don't as a Catholic agree with the Church's teaching on marriage and parenthood and everything connected with them, then you don't respect it as a Catholic. You 'respect' it in that way atheists do...

"Well, you Catholics are entitled to your beliefs, fair enough, but I think you are crackers."

If I am a Catholic and give assent to all that the Church teaches to be true and revealed by God and Tina is a Catholic who does not give assent to all that the Church teaches to be true and revealed by God, are we both Catholics? If I am a Catholic who confesses my sins when I transgress the moral law taught by the Catholic Church, and Tina is a Catholic who thinks that moral law as taught is defective, then are we both Catholics?  If I as a Catholic try with God's help to live the Church's teaching in its fullness and Tina, as a Catholic, think its not worth it, are we both Catholic? Do we believe in the same God?

The Pope Suffered Sciatica in the First Months of His Pontificate

Is one explanation why His Holiness does not bow or genuflect before the Tabernacle, but does at those times when, in dealing with the public, it is necessary. I duly therefore apologise to His Holiness and to readers if, following medical advice, His Holiness does not genuflect or bow towards the Blessed Sacrament housed in the Tabernacle, but puts up with pain and discomfort for ordinary folk.

Rare Interview with Pope Emeritus Benedict

A new book on the life of Blessed Pope John Paul II contains a rare interview with Pope Emeritus Benedict.

Reflecting on Liberation Theology, Pope Emeritus Benedict said...

“Both in Europe and in North America, it was common opinion that it was a support to the poor and, therefore, that it was a cause that surely needed to be approved,” he explained.

However, “it was an error,” stated the retired pontiff, adding that, “Poverty and the poor were, without a doubt, set at the center of the Liberation Theology, yet in a very specific perspective...It was said that it was not a question of help or of reforms, but rather of the great upheaval from which a new world would spring.”

Observing how “the Christian faith was being used as a motor for this revolutionary movement, transforming it into a political force,” Benedict explained that “A falsification of the Christian faith needed to be opposed precisely for the sake of the poor and in favor of the service rendered to them.”

Drawing attention to John Paul II's experience with Marxism in Poland, which Benedict referred to as “the godmother of liberation theology,” the retired pontiff emphasized that it was “on the basis of his painful experience,” that made it “clear to him that it was necessary to fight that kind of ‘liberation.’”

Read the rest here. May God protect the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI.

The Priest who Genuflected Before the Tabernacle...

)

...and the Pope who didn't!

At 1.00 minute on Rome Reports.

People who don't genuflect before the Lord make Our Lady cry and that is a scientific fact!

Kasper the Friendly Ghost

Greetings Lenten people. Vatican Radio reports today on Cardinal Walter Kasper's new book, timed impeccably for the Synod on the Family entitled 'Gospel of the Family'.

Overcome by the temptation to blog and breaking my fast, may the Lord permit me to highlight comments made today by the friendly ghost or 'spirit' of Vatican II, Cardinal Kasper.  

Robert Mickens is, understandably, cock-a-hoop over the 'radical' direction of the Church under Francis, as is Hans Kung, and both appear delighted over the names of those who are close to the ear of Peter. So they should be. It would appear that from Bobby Micken's angle and from that of Hans Kung, everything is going according to 'plan'. There is no need, according to Hans Kung, for him to be a 'Pope critic' anymore. The truth, of course, is that Hans Kung didn't criticise the man in the Office of the Papacy, but the Office of the Papacy itself. He could always recognise the personal qualities of the Office-holder, but really wanted a Pope who would run down the Papacy, managing the Church as a Dalai Llama type figure-head, and establish a modern Church that was ashamed of Jesus Christ.

Pope Francis on Lenten retreat

If His Holiness Pope Francis came out tomorrow and laid down the law to dissenters on marriage, family, the Sacraments and the transmission of human life, Hans Kung would, I am confident, miraculously become a 'Pope critic' once more. What we have in Hans Kung, therefore, is not someone who 'loves the Pope' in the traditional understanding, but who is attracted to the cult of personality surrounding a Pope with a demonstrably 'new vision' of the Church that, so far, does not resonate greatly with that of his predecessors.

James Preece asks today whether this is going to be another 'Humanae Vitae moment' for the Church in which dissidents are disappointed. I've already expressed my pessimism on that matter and solemnly predict the Synod will be a momentous disaster of unprecedented proportions. I, for one, will not feel humiliated if I am wrong and the truth of Our Lord Jesus Christ prevails at the Synod. I will be overjoyed. But...



I think it was Alec Guinness who always maintained that the script for Star Wars always lacked a certain 'imagination'. Pray for the Pope and the Church's enemies.