Getting Rid of Adultery

If we get rid of adultery as part of the redifinition of marriage then of course politicians like John Major, David Mellor, Nicholas Soames, Chris Huhne, Robin Cook, Tim Yeo, Geoffrey Archer would have had no reason to be embarassed.
Another effect is that when a Catholic headteacher runs of with the caretaker, leaving spouse and children, it is going to be difficult to demand their resignation or just to sack them. At the moment Catholic teachers and other employees have a morality clause in their contract ensuring that they are in fact Catholic.
Recently the CES and Bishop's Conference issued Christ at the Centre: Why the Church Provides Catholic Schools, a defense of Catholic schools and also a setting forth of guidelines, whether these will be enforceable if marriage is redefined will be another matter.

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Terra Incognita

“Legislating for the right for people of the same sex to marry is like legalising male breastfeeding.” said Archbishop Cordileone in the Catholic Herald. I have been trying to think of some image that illustrates the law being used to make the impossible possible. The best I could come up with is Cameron as Canute turning the sea back at his command. I am not the most imaginative of people, I simply can't imagine the impossible.
Some Italian medieval author has a special place in Hell for those who change the meaning of language, to the point where it becomes meaningless - he is actually writing about monks and musicians who obscure liturgical texts by embellishments - but the result is the same language is stripped of its meaning.

One of things that fascinates me about Cordileone and the radically orthodox bishops that are being appointed under Pope Benedict is that they are able to be imaginative, and radically counter-cultural - at least as far as contemporary culture is concerned. Another example would the new Bishop of Cloyne who took on the bankers in his first public address, Bishop Egan calling for a return to, and reappraisal of Humanae Vitae would be yet another example. Again and again Pope Benedict draws out from the Christian storehouse things both old and new his theology is exciting.

Jeremiah 6:16 says, "Thus says the LORD: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls."" It is really what Christian orthodoxy is about but there is also sense in which there is "cultural orthodoxy" and a culture being at ease with itself. The bright new worlds that are presented by theological and social engineers are entirely new unmapped paths, the green grass invariably turns out to be poisoned. It is simply uncharted territory, it is a land with no compass either a moral compass or any other.

Hence Cordileone can end his interview by saying, “All our detractors can do is call us names,” he says.... “Big deal if they shout at us or throw insults!” They shout and insult because they have no deep contrary arguments, what they want to put forward is without logic or reason, it is purely about fluffy feelings, advertising slogans and policies made on the hoof.

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Shattering the Foundation Stones

Self-loathing is a worrying thing. When people suddenly find themselves beating their breast, not so much because a past wrong or present regret comes to mind but simply because they are hate themselves then there is problem.

When bishops or priests publicly profess their detestation of the immediate past it is obvious the Church has a problem. One of good things the Holy Father has tried to deal with with Summorum Pontificum was to reconcile today with yesterday so there might be a tomorrow. The words, "what earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful". These words by themelves cut us from the Pol Pot "year zero" mentallity, that seemed to suggest the Church had recreated itself around AD 1970. One of the most damaging things to spirituality and theology of the Church was to cut itself off from its history. By doing so the Church opened itself to all kinds of madness, falsity and novelty for novelty's sake.

The commandment "honour your mother and father" is followed by the statement "and you shall live long in the land" means, presumably, something about fideity to that which has given birth to you so that you may have a secure future. We have experienced the disaster in the Church when that which sustained our parents and their parents has been treated with contempt.

Today in our society we are expereincing the same thing the Church went through in the latter half of the twentieth century, the gay "marriage" issue is just one example. There is an amnesia at best, perhaps something more sinister that seems to want to strip our culture of its Christian rootedness. England has probably not been Christian since the 16th century but it has used Christian metaphors and concepts to express its sense of being and to say something about what it considers "good". It gave a language that we could some how agree giving expression to common aspirations and virtues. We imade God in our own image and likeness and identified him as an Englishman so that we could express metaphysical realities in a narrative form, understandable by all in our society..

"Being a Christian", as one public school headmaster said, "was really being an English gentlemen" (forget . mystical union with Christ, or radical discipleship, we are speaking here of Englishness). With a more  or less commonly agreed  understanding of the Christian narrative the lessons of self-sacrifice, of the obligations of the wealthy to the poor, of marital fidelity, of obedience to authority could be easily be illustrated and communicated.

In much of media debate over the redifinition of marriage, the hatred of the Christian concepts seem almost palpable. The redefinition of marriage strikes at one of the foundation stones our of society and the rejection of the Christian narrative at another.

One definition of "religion" is "to bind together" both the Christian narrative and marriage are elements that have bound us together. In a time when economic and therefore politically instability seem be looming on the horizon, the rejection of both of these seems a very wreckles and dangerous thing. At such times in history societies go in search of strong leadership, on this Holocaust Memorial Day we need to remember how easy it is for apparently peaceful societies to become vicious and murderous, think of Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda. When government becomes the arbiter of what is right and wrong the positivist totalitarian regimes of the first half of the 20th century seem to be breathing on our necks again.

Interestingly when the Church realised the mess it had got itelf into it looked to the strong leadership of JPII and Benedict XVI, these are benign leaders, I do not think secular leaders are likely to be quite so benign.

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Redemptorist General Urges Irish Province to be Catholic!

Not just Fr Flannery but the whole Irish Redemptorist Province were more than ambiguous in their support of the Magisterium, in fact their support of Flannery identified them as part of the problem, not part of the solution.

”It is of immense regret that some structures or processes of dialogue have not yet been found in the Church, which have a greater capacity to engage with challenging voices from among God’s people, while respecting the key responsibility and central role of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”

I have been wary of the English Redemptorists too ever since I purchased a publication for the parish which had an advertisement promoting the ordination of women, needless to say we trashed the lot and complained to the Superior General, I am not sure we got a very satisfactory result. However now the Superior General, the Canadian Fr Michael Brehl, has issued a statement outlining the history of the the difficulties with Flannery.

 “In January, 2012, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith raised concerns about some of the writings of Fr. Flannery which were ambiguous regarding fundamental areas of Catholic doctrine, including the priesthood, the nature of the Church, and the Eucharist,” Brehl writes. The priest “was instructed to undertake a period of prayer and theological reflection to clarify his positions on these matters. During this sabbatical period, he was instructed not to grant interviews or make public statements, and to withdraw from active involvement in the leadership of the ACP, especially since the priesthood was one of the matters on which he was asked to clarify his position. He was also instructed to withdraw from active priestly ministry during this period of prayer and reflection.”

According to Gianni Valente in his statement, Fr. Brehl “earnestly” urged his confrere “to renew the efforts to find an agreed solution to the concerns raised by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the faith.” Finally, he invited his “Redemptorist confreres of the Irish Province to join with [him] in praying and working together in the spirit of St Alphonsus to maintain and strengthen our communion with the Universal Church.”

As I keep saying, "It is important to recognize dissent for what it is, and not to mistake it for a mature contribution to a balanced and wide-ranging debate." Pope Benedict to the Bishops of England Wales. 10th Feb. 2010.

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Fake Video

Well of course I recognised it as a fake, but I was amused that this went viral and quite a few quite respectable blogs carried this video of JPII pracicing his baseball skills before a Mass somewhere in a US baseball stadium, they have now mostly been taken down.
The clues are obvious, white shoes - not red, or the reddish brown worn by JPII, Signor Gamerrelli would never produce a cassock and fascia like that.
As for the habits of the assistants, what order are they?
The informality and lack of defference too seem quite out of place.
Who can spot any other signs?

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Good News: Irish Domicans

 I have found out a little more about the background to the Fr Broder's sacking from the Limerick Biblical Institute. Apparently he had been doing his own thing for years, hinting and sowing doubt, chipping away at the faith of his students, the type of think that has been happening in Catholic institutions for years but it was only when he published his book that he clearly stated his disbelief in the divinity of Christ and the historicity of scripture.

It was the Irish Dominicans themselves who decided his views where unacceptable and he should not to continue teaching under their auspices  It was the kids who did it, the power base has shifted, the younger Dominicans are taking control and simply expecting orthodoxy and questioning its absence.

If you are looking for something good in Ireland then take a look at the Dominicanss There are 16 young men in the studenate and 6 very sound and orthodox young men in the novitiate. Orthtodoxy attracts orthodoxy, where there is real teaching there is groeth

Pray for Fr Broder to receive the gift of faith, pray for the Irish Dominicans.

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Another Irish heretic and a rant against heresy and heretics

And yet another Irish priest has been disciplined for heresy, this time he has been sacked from teaching at the Dominican Biblical Institute in Limerick but this time it appears to by the Dominicans themselves. Fr Thomas Father Brodie has questioned the existence of Jesus since the Seventies but has only made his views public in a recent book.

I have been wondering what was actually happening about the renewal of the Irish Church promised in the Pope 2010 letter, the process is much slower than might have been hoped. There doesn't appear to be any radical amalgamation of dioceses, just the appointment of a new Nuncio and a slow appointing of orthodox bishops. There is supposed be a "Mission" to the Irish clergy - the bishops, priests and religious. I am sure this will happen but there seems little point if there is an "anti-Church" within the Church arguing against Orthodoxy and undermining all that might be done. Before anything else there must be a purification, a clear proclamation of Catholic Truth.

Any Renewal, or even Evangelisation, is impossible if there is a lack of clarity about what the essential message of the Church of Christ is actually proclaiming. The ambiguity of post-Vatican II Catholicism's "religious freedom" has done incredible damage, to the point of treating heresy as partner in dialogue rather than a serious violence to the Faith of the Church, revealed down the Ages by the Holy Spirit. I quite understand why Abp Lefebvre was concened about religious liberty, though I wonder if his followers through opposition to Peter are falling into it. Their arguements for dissidence are beginning to sound like those of the Irish dissident ACP!

Heresy is an attack on Truth,

I am convinced that heresy is the sin against the Holy Spirit that cannot be forgiven. It is after all the Holy Spirit who leads us into Truth. It is Holy Spirit that co-authors scripture, that keeps the Chuch free from error and validates Her sacraments. He underwrites the Church's teaching authority. He both draws men to Christ and opens their hearts to him. Heresy is a denial of all the Holy Spirit does. Tolleration of heresy leaves us orphans who are incapable of crying out "Abba, Father". It strikes at the very heart of Christian unity. It undermines Faith obviously, but it also undermines Hope and Charity because it obscures the person of Christ.

No wonder the Holy Father said to our Bishops, "It is important to recognize dissent for what it is, and not to mistake it for a mature contribution to a balanced and wide-ranging debate."
Heresy and heretics are the enemies of Christ and we really must pray for the Grace to recognise them for what they are and to learn to hate them for the terrible damage they do to the Church's ability to make Christ knowable. They are our enemy and the enemies of the Church. We can be tolerant of any sin because with the truth of Christ we can recognise it but heresy tends to make truth obscure to the point where good becomes evil and evil becomes good.

Mary scourge of heretics, pray for us.

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