The comment, at which I burst out laughing, read...
'He's only an auxillary bishop - so hardly one at all really. He's certainly never going to get promoted.'
Where to begin with this appalling understanding of Catholicism?
St Catherine of Siena was only a nun.
St Therese of Lisieux was a Carmelite nun.
St Francis of Assisi was only a layman and then friar.
St Dominic was only a priest and preacher.
St Anthony of Padua was only a priest and friar.
St Athanasius was a Bishop. While heresy swept the Catholic Church like wildfire, among Bishops, he alone held out against Arianism and stood up for Christ. How many of the other Bishops of his day have their own feast days?
How much time have you got, 'Alison'? I haven't got all day, but I would need quite a few in order to list the highly influential Catholics who have changed the course of the Church despite being men and women of far lower rank than Pope.
Still, with a comment that reveals an understanding of the roles of the Pope and Cardinals to be about power, rather than service, it is good to see that liberals do not consider this Bishop to be a 'careerist'! I concede that being faithful to Christ and the Magisterium may not reward prelates with a 'promotion' in today's Church, but really, that comment stinks of clericalism.
10 comments:
Brilliant list; 'little' Catholics who became Big Saints!
Wonderful photo; 'illegal' in my neck of the dark side of the novus ordo woods. Tourists passing through make up a good number of the parishoners. A few weeks ago there was a scruffy looking young fella who approached the priest at Holy Communion - not the elderly lady in the T-shirt extraordinary. The guy locked his hands behind his back and had to do a sort of snake dance with the priest's hand before the priest admitted defeat and placed the Host on his tongue. It was one victory for the honour the Our Lord that did not pass me by.
She's probably right - one doesn't get "promoted" for holiness and bringing people to the truth of the Faith and of moral life in the perverted Church institutions of our day. I hope the comment was made with deep sorrow.
Always close one's eyes when about to receive. Don't look at the priest. It's best for concentrating on and showing reverence to Our Lord and avoids any human engagement at this most sacred moment. It also means a stubborn priest cannot attempt to intimidate or direct you into receiving Our Lord, in the hand or standing.
And let's not forget St Jean-Marie Vianney - the Cure of Ars.
According to A Concise Biographical Dictionary of The Saints his teacher at the presbytery 'found considerable difficulty in teaching him anything' and although he was a model seminarist 'he had no aptitude for learning.' He even referred to himself on one occasion as 'bete comme une oie' - 'silly as a goose.'
After ordination he was sent to the tiny parish of Ars - a village in the middle of nowhere to which thousands eventually flocked and in 1925 he was canonised. A great 'little Catholic' who became a great Saint.
People have very short memories! The current archbishops of Westminster and Birmingham were auxiliary bishops not so long ago- so no promotion?
One minor correction. I believe St. Catherine of Sienna was a lay person, although a third order Dominican.
One correction,
St Catherine of Siena was a lay person, although she was a Dominican tertiary.
Too self absorbed,-neo pelegian, fashion follower to ever be promoted ;)
@Lynda. That's some good advice. I never thought of it.
St Catherine of Siena was a member of the Order of Penance of St Dominic; as a celibate Dominican Tertiary she was permitted to wear the habit but not a scapular. She was emphatically not a Dominican Nun, as she was not enclosed or cloistered. BTW, another Dominican tertiary who was only an auxiliary... Bishop Fulton Sheen!
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