Portsmouth Roman Catholic

O  Mother I was walking past a stable and I saw A tiny little baby in a little bed of straw The mother turned and smiled at me so how could I pass them by I thought that I would cheer the child or sing a lullaby The baby was so beautiful, I tried so hard to please But then I felt a surge of love  and fell upon my knee And I just knelt in wonder as I heard the Angels sing May peace on earth be with you child for this is Christ your KIng. And then some shepherds came inside for they had heard the song They said he was the saviour they had waited for so long I did not understand the things that they were speaking of I just kept looking in those eyes that filled me with such love The mother`s name was Mary and she kissed me on the cheek "It`s little children just like you my little boy will seek" And then she lifted up the child and filled me with such joy As in my tiny little arms she placed her little baby boy

We must hold as of the faith, that out of the Apostolic Roman Church there is no salvation; that she is the only ark of safety, and whosoever is not in her perishes in the deluge; we must also, on the other hand, recognize with certainty that those who are invincible in ignorance of the true religion are not guilty for this in the eyes of the Lord. And who would presume to mark out the limits of this ignorance according to the character and diversity of peoples, countries, minds and the rest?" These were the words of Pope Pius IX in 1854. The reason he commented on this doctrine was that modernists were making inroads into and teaching salvation for all. Again at the Council of Florence there were very stern warnings that outside of the Church there was no salvation but this was again when the French King was threatening to withdraw the French Church from union with Rome. There is a large number of Popes who have commented often angrily at the heretics and it is understandab

Cardinal Heenan on his return from Vatican II told the priests of his parish how devotion to Mary if abolished would lead to the lessening of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. This mirrored a "those who deny the mother end up by denying the son" saying which I often heard. The attack on the Blessed Sacrament and the real presence was swift and appalling from peoplw who still pretended they were honest. It started with the First Communion classes. Children were no longer taught anything about the Real Presence with the sad excuse that they were too young to understand. Then the tabernacles were removed from the altar with the simple straight forward lie that their presence was liturgically incorrect. This left the priest and the people without the presence of Jesus so an old doctrine was twisted to serve the purpose- the community became the Body of Christ. An honest person would ask but what about transubstantiation, well this was just dropped. Suddenly all sorts of th

Some years ago I visited a neighbouring parish to hear a talk on the History of the Bible. The speaker was one of the well paid diocesan bureaucrats. She started off by telling us how Cathoics had been forbidden to read the bible until of course Vatican II. I pointed out that this was not true and roused derision on all sides. There were people of my age present in the Church but colluded in this lie by their silence. She went on to talk about `them`. They did this, they did that, they decided the Canon, et. I asked someone to ask who she was referring to by `they` since I was out of favour, but nobody bothered. As I said in my title the whole thing was a scam and this scam was being played out in parishes where only those who had moved on to this kind of thing were given any power. The Catholic church was blasted for keeping the people in ignorance and in my parish to prove the point they invited a Protestant Minister to talk to poor ignorant Catholics. Great prophets were t

I was baptised in 1937 into theCommunity of St Columba, Maryhill, Glasgow. Of course in those days we used the word parish but I am not sure that changing words actually changes reality. In those days where people lived was pretty static so it was the Church my Father had attended and his Father, my mother and his mother. I immediately knew it was somewhere quite special because when I entered before or after Mass or when there was no liturgy, the place was silent. It was explained to me that in that tent like object altar was the real presence of Jesus in the host and we should not disturb the people who were praying to Him. Sometimes I was taken from school to the Church to pray to and later adore Jesus in the host now displayed on the altar where it was surrounded by candles not only on the altar but in the sanctuary itself. It was an awesome sight for young people. To believe in the Real Presence presented no difficulty it was just something we grew up with. Then there was t

What happened was exactly what happened at the Synod on Marriage a few weeks ago - dishonesty. Those reviewing what was said completely distorted the Fathers views. A committee which would destroy Catholic Education and bring it into line with ecumenism was set up and the purge began. A trusting Cardinal Heenan appointed Father Hubert Richards to run Corpus Christi College in Westminster and teachers and administrators were sent from all over England to be betrayed by this priest. Since the Devil was in charge it became a place of scandal with nuns and priest forsaking their vocations to marry. Indeed Hubert Richards himself ran off with a nun. Cardinal Heenan who was as trusting as the lay people eventually acted and closed the College but the damage had been done and teaching the catholic faith in Catholic schools became a thing of the past. In colleges and seminaries the new ideology was embraced and God help any of the faithful who quoted the Bible or the Catechism. They wer

It was 1942 when I first started my Catholic School. A thin little chap I was terrified. But I soon settled in with the help of a very nice teacher called Miss Harkins. I was on he bright side so I picked up reading and writing very quickly. At 12 o`clock every day we would stop and say the Angelus and for the next half hour we would have our religious lesson. I loved hearing about Jesus and Mary, the lives of the saints, and we were taken through the stories of the bible. We also had the penny catechism and we learned to repeat the answers. In later life I was to be thankful for this since in difficulties the wisdom of the catechism comes back to my mind. One such occasion happened to my wife. We had a boy with learning difficulties who had to be removed into care. My wife suffered much and one day cried out in despair "Why did God allow him to be born? The answer came to her `To Know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him forever in the ne

In the seventies some very clever scholars and `experts` came into the Church. They introduced us to the Church of Ideals rather than Doctrine We no longer needed to view the teachings of Jesus Christ as being important and those who thought they were were just rigid people who saw only black and white but did not grasp that the `new` living expereince meant that there were `greys`. Those who lived in the past and took the rigid omments of Jesus in Scripture too seriously became the real enemies of Christianity and of course enemies of Progess, so they began to build their own Progressive Church,Of courxe the idea of Truth became embarrassing so they began to sneer at those who still thought Jesuus meant it when He said to Pilate that he had come to bear witness to the Truth. Like Pilate their response today is to sneer and say "What is Truth Unfortunately the English bishops loved this new `popular` Church. How much easier it is to say `no problem` when someone comes with a

Well there I was out there in Winklebury, Basingstoke, delivering my UKIP leaflets when my mobile rang. "Come home Dad, you are all over the Guardian and UKIP wants to speak to you. Imagine that, little me all over the Guardian (it turned out to be just the Guardian website). I found the website at home and there I found my Catholic Blog Catholic Rights being quoted. It quoted me accurately on its first charge that anyone who did not fear Islam was a fool in relation to Islamaphobia but then I was talking about the universal picture and how Christians are facing martyrdom by Islamist militants and suffering just as Christians in the early church. What the Guardian was trying to do was slant the story into a local setting where our Moslem neighbours were going to rise up against us. They were trying to paint me as anti-Moslem. To this I had the perfect answer. When the soldier Lee Rigby was killed in London the very next morning I sent an e-mail to the Hasingstoke Mosque

What is the point of bringing people together for Bible Study?  Is it to show off our scholarship, showing how the Jews borrowed some ideas from other cultures at the time, such as a snake appearing in the Garden of Eden because the goddess Kaila had a snake and the Jews had no ideas of their own or stories of snakes.   Was the flood a myth as we can prove from other cultures of the time since they also spoke about a flood?   Did Joshua really bring down the walls of Jericho with a trumpet or should we perhaps look for a natural solution?  This all comes from what was called in the 80`s the HIstorical-Critical method of study which as it worked its way through the Bible eventually to dismissed the miraculous in the feeding of the five thousand with loafs and fishes as everyone sharing their sandwiches.   Is this really feeding us poor non academics the Word of God?   Why do we study Genesis?  Is it just so that we can compare our story of Creation with everyone else? But Genesis is n

It was St Augustine who while he was living a life of sin saw the Church as a contradiction of his way of life.  While sex and sin abounded the members of that Church remained unsullied by adultery and divorce.   They were faithful to the teachings of Christ.   Today when it comes to that text where Jesus speaks about divorce and remarriage how many priests find themselves now murmur things about Catholics being broken and fragmented as though this was some excuse they were giving to God for the unfaithfulness of his people.   As I watched young Catholic girls growing up and becoming single mothers through divorce or just sex outside marriage it broke my heart.   Would that one had only asked "Is this a people living the Gospel?"   There is no subject on which Christ was more outspoken yet that Church of Augustine no longer exists because its members no longer see that `living the word of Christ` not just following  our own subjectyive image of Christ is what loving God reall

I saw sweet Jesus kneeling in the Garden I saw the tears that glistened on his face I heard him ask the Father for my pardon And that of all this sinful human race I watched the angry crowd of men surround him "Is this the one we seek" their voices hiss I heard my own voice answer "Yes, we`ve found hm" I watched myself betray him with a kiss I saw what pain he suffered as they scourged him With every stroke his eyes were dimmed with tears He did not cry for mercy as they urged him For every stroke atoned for sinful years And as he stood there suffering this violence I pleaded with the soldiers "Set him free" But suddenly my voice was lost i silence I saw the soldier scourging him was me. A purple cloak of shame the soldiers lent him And vowed that they would give this King a crown They gathered thorns to torture and torment him Which deep into his skull they hammered down I saw the blood pour out like gushing rivers His head became a

Way back in the years before Vatican II people in the Church understood the word `Evangelization`.   They would immediatley translate it to the `Lay Apostolate` and organisations such as the Legion of Mary, the Catholic Evidence Guild, the Society of St Vincent de Paul, the Knights of St Columba, and the many religious orders that flourished at home and abroad.   After Vatican II, when the Spirit of Vatican II had wiped these out completely or reduced them to almost ineffective numbers the word Evangelisation was still there and the word became familiar and people talked about it a great deal but what they actually meant became rather obscure.   Still "Let us Evangelise" when expressed at a meeting can raise the spirit and warm applause - but its meaning?   It is rather like `Power to the People`, it just seems the right thing to say and has a sort of meaning.   As Father Ray Blake was saying in his blog since we all believe in universal salvation and nobody goes to hell the

One of the great claims of those with the Spirit of Vatican II was about the nasty pre-vatican Roman Catholics who thought they were the only ones who went to heaven and that others, especially Protestants were bound for Hell.   I notice in the latest Portsmouth People one regular conributor returning to this theme, we behaved as though they did not exist.    The facts are that I and thousands of others had Protestant friends who believed that the only people going to Hell were the Roman Catholics.   I am no saying though that there were not nasty Roman Catholics, they are still around but they were not following the mind of the church which had recognised that Protestants who followed a right conscience and sought God in their way had what was calle `The Baptism of Desire`.  This was to be put into doctrinal form at Vatican II.    But it really is time we acknowledged that whatever prejudice was on our side was returned with interest by the other.   Indeed it was not so long ago that

One of the things that caused me to stop the Catholic Rights blog was the sudden realisation that the Church had indeed moved on and the speed was breathtaking.   There was no need for me anymore to `pontificate` to the world so I now have a modest blog with an interest coming only from the Diocese of Portsmouth.  I am now content with a readership of an average of 20 people a day instead of 400.   I used to come from Church and Church meetings in almost despair as more and more Catholic teachings and practices were sneered at, but now I find myself actually praising more and more and worrying less and less.  My hour has passed.   Who would ever have thought even up to ten years ago that we would have a Latin Mass celebrated monthly in St Joseph`s.   It was just a nonsense to think this could be, considering the opposition.  But where did this change come from?  The answer is surprising and it is something I have touched on before - the young people.     At one of the Latin Masses I as

 On Sunday I was listening to the BBC news.  It mentioned that the Queen will soon be visiting the Pope.  True enough, a good news story.   However it felt it almost compulsory to put the Catholic Church in a bad light by pointing out that this church opposed Abortion and Gay Marriage.   But now we know that it intends to produce a programme prior to her visit which asks if the Catholic church can ever move forward.   I suppose if it follows the example the BBC sets the answer will be never.   Judge not that you be not judged.   Perhaps it should look at the widespread abuse of young girls, the suffering of children in divorces, the heroic single parents who struggle for their children rather than having them killed in the womb, the increase of HIV/Aids among young gays and the STD`s among the sexually liberated , they would have plenty to talk about.

Over a week ago on St Patricks Day we sang "Hail, Glorious St Patrick".  The Hymn Book we sang from was inspired by the Spirit of Vatican II and having no more `triumphalism` in the Church.  For those no acquainted with this Spirit the message was that silly Catholics just stood or knelt at Mass doing nothing before Vatican II, and held triumphalist processions to Our Lady or the Blessed Sacrament which had to be stamped out.   The war against inequalit`y and triumphalism even reached the hymn books.  The feminists searched feverishly for anything which left women out and so in make me a channel of  your peace we sing "In  giving to all that we receive" and not `all men"   They could have written `mankind` but the  the war was on inequality and the mention of men.   "I`ll sing a Hymn to Mary" changed the last two lines "When wicked men blaspheme thee, I love and bless thy name.  I must confess that before the Spirit of Vatican II I never quite un

One of the things I learned from correspondence with a gay counselor was that there was a minority of gays who were upset at the promiscuous lives of the majority of gays leading to HIV/AIDS and STD`s being endemic in the Homosexual community.  This is why even as late as last year  n American and British Health Services still forbade Blood Donors from the gay community.   Certainly this minority will take advantage of joining in Marriage and in the words of Pope Francis "Who am I to judge you, nevertheless the Church has a right to its teachings".   So there will be an initial uptake of Gay Marriages from such people but perhaps also joined from others who will take it up as a political weapon to attack the Catholic Church.   If the Church holds its nerve and continues to believe that the wisdom of Jesus is greater than ours, we will see this through.   Marriage for gays will gradually fall in number since it is against the promiscuous nature of that Community. You may reme

We had a wonderful Mass this morning on the great feast of the Annunciation.   There were children from the secondary school present and for the first time in 50 years I heard a priest in my parish asking the children to speak to Mary.  It was yet another pointer to the great recovery the Church is making since the Spirit of Vatican II.    The blot was the mistranslation of the Gospel, brought in by the modernists who controlled the new reading for Mass and who seemed to have had an aversion for words like `soul` and `grace`.   So, we had "Hail, highly favoured...." instead of "Hail, full of Grace...... "  The understanding of Grace in the context does not lend the word in any way to be translated  as favoured.   I once had correspondence with a young Protestant girl on our Lady and she was adamant that we worshipped her.   Thank God her Protestant bible had not been tampered with and I was able to take her to Luke and the Annunciation and ask her why the Angel call

Bishop Egan spoke out on the teachings of Christ and his Church on the question of Marriage, Abortion, and receiving Holy Communion.   He believes those at odds with the Church on these questions should not receive Holy Communion which is a gift rather than a right.   Again those who love Jesus and can bend their knee before his presence in the Sacred Species will have no difficulty.  Those who `follow their conscience`, "Nobody is going to tell me" and those who are too educated to listen to immature people will continue to ignore him, ensure the people know as little as possible about what he said and ensure that in the RCIA they control in the parishes nothing Catholic is even hinted at.    But they were never interested enough in the young people to observe what is happening and that their days of bullying are coming to an end.  

The Pastoral Letter for Lent from Bishop Egan was a wonderful example of how a shepherd should lead his sheep.  It contained all the teachings of Christ and His Church and yet again brought to our attention the Catechism.  He mentions mortal sin and venial sin and how the former could lead us to hell.  For those who read the Bible seriously this is just the straight forward teachings of Jesus, for others though it represents a `turning back the clock`, and unfortunately they still run many of the parishes having been given power to dictate by former bureaucrats and members of the clergy.  But am I in conflict with Bishop Egan here when he reminds us also that the social media including bloggers can be guilty of destroying the reputation of their neighbours?   It is sad that the media world has picked up on the blogger point made by our bishop since at the moment a Deacon called Nick Donnelly who ran a blog   `Protect the  Pope` has been asked by his bishop to stop blogging.   So Bishop

.....does the Tablet try to report and respect the truth or does it just massage facts to support its own agenda?"  I commented on a recent post about an English Bishop who was questioning the Church on sexuality.   There were actually two bishops reported to be questioning the Church.  Turns out that my source was The Tablet and the words quoted first in this post was the angry bishops response.   The Tablet is read in many catholic parishes by those who want the Church to move forward so that they can believe what they like and do what they like.   Those who read it do so because they believe they are `mature`.  They see nothing divine in the Catholic Church but only an institution that they can change according to their tastes and by creating elitism in parishes of those who `have moved forward` they control what they call the traditions and practices of that parish.   Elite groups meet to discuss `the way forward` and ordinary Catholics are expected to honour the maturity of t

According to one compassionate Bishop the trouble with Jesus was that He had not Anthropological nor Psychologica insights.  So with this great difficulty he preached a lot of nonsense.   But single mothers, abortions, divorce and re-marriage, young people setting up home together outside marriage are all part of our `living experience` and justifies a new morality which the people demand.  Single mothers enjoy their state in life, divorced mothers are over the moon as they look forward to their next encounter, and although four out of five co-habitations end in bitterness it was a wonderful living experience.  And let us not rule out what a benefit abortion has become for so many young Catholics.  But there I go again totally lacking in the compassion of the new Xtians.   "But", the bishop cries "we need to give them pastoral care".  There is hardly a family that has not been affected by the true `life experience` of their divorced siblings, and the trouble is that

Fr James Daley was the first priest to return to Basingstoke since the Reformation.  He bought 4  Burgess Road and the plot of land the Holy Ghost now occupies.   It it told how when he was turning the first sod with his parishioners for the first Catholic Church about 120 men from the town came to stop them.    Fr Daley took off his jacket and confronted them.  "If you want to stop this you will have to deal with me first" he shouted.   He was a well built man over six feet tall  There began a dialogue and eventually the crowd was so won over that when many left to walk back down Chappel HIll others stopped to help with the digging.  A truly ecumencal occasion.

Protect the Pope is a blog run by Deacon Nick Donnelly of the diocese of Lancaster.   His bishop has asked him to pause for a period of prayer and reflection and this has caused a fury among many faithful Catholics and their grounds is that nobody has asked the members of A Call for Action, a left over group from `The Spirit of Vatican II` who still think they can bully and sneer in order to bring their changes into the Church, to stop for a period of prayer and reflection.   There is no doubt that his exposure of the activities of these people was not welcomed by them and since they still have the support of the majority of the bishops who grew up believing they would soon have a independent English Church, it is not surprising that a conspiracy theory has evolved.   But I think Bishop Campbell of Lancaster is doing the right thing.  I have been sounding off for years against the Spirit of Vatican II and how it destroyed the young people of the Portsmouth Diocese.  I am free to speak

In his book `The Making of Basingstoke `Eric Stokes writes "Henry VIII`s break with RomBut e appears to have had little impact on the religious life of the people of Basingstoke.  In August 1938, Thomas Cromwell, Lord Privy Seal, ordered Lord Sandys to have an `idolatrous` image removed from St Michael`s AlChurch.   It was to be transported to London pending its destruction.  Although the offending figure was one that appeared to have been greatly venerated by the people there is no record of anything untoward having happened to disturb the life of the ordinary citizen".   Well that is perfectly straight forward isn`t it?  Well there was the hanging, drawing and quartering of Blessed Hugh Farringdon and his monks in Reading.  You bet that when the Catholic priest was reoed the poor people were helpless to do or say anything.  But let us stop fighting the Reformation again.  Basingstoke is now in the same position   as Walsingham was when a barn caused a curious lady to find

When Cardinal Heenan returned from Vatican II, he gave a talk to his diocesan priests on how devotion to Mary had been attacked by certain Bishops, especially the German bishops who had gone into ecumenism shortly after the war since they had a new relationship with Protestants after the persecution by Hitler. Th. ere had been a schema on Mary prepared or discussion but it was thrown out since the shouts arose "This will put the Ecumenical Movement back ten years".  The Bishops of the rest of the world knew little about ecumenism in this form and were not prepared for such an onslaught on Catholic truth  The Germans won the day.   Bishop Heenan then went on to ask  his priests not to lose devotion to Mary since this devotion truly leads to a love of Jesus especially in the Blessed Sacrament.   Already however the knives were poised behind his back and when Corpus Christi College opened it became a place of revolution and not just revolution but scandal as nuns and priests los

.In America they are selling the words of Pope Francis on T-shirts.  .Who Am I To Judge.  These are the words that endeared him to the world.  Hans Kung, the National Catholic Reporter, and every Liberal in their dying agonies cried out "O yes,  he is one of us".  The Spirit of Vatican II was alive and well again as the Reformers danced around proclaiming the Pope instead of shouting "We do not need him"  But as all things with the Spirit of Vatican II there seems to be some `misunderstanding`.  What the Pope actually said was "Who am I to  judge YOU, but the Church has a right to its teachings"  In fact the Pope was stating what is a crucial point of Catholic teaching that although someone is doing wrong we have no right to judge them, only God knows their heart.  The atheist hge was talking to admitted his replies were sometimes not quite what the Pope said and so I a positive that no Pope would say the Church has a right to its `opiniions`.  But the Spi

Jesus never promised happiness.  He told his followers to take up their cross and follow Him.   One of the Crosses he gave us to carry was to live the life he wanted us to live in a society which opposed us living it.  Marriage is one very good example.  I watched a video recently on Humanae Vitae and the audience was talking about the right of married couples and the difficulty of living `the Rhythm Method`.  The first objection I had was that Humanae Vitae warned of the dangers of a contraceptive mentality among all catholics INCLUDING YOUNG PEOPLE  and Natural Family Planning moved on a long time ago from the imperfect Rhythm Method.   In Humanae Vitae catholics were warned  that marriages would increasingly fail.   There are now many parishes which can go through a whoe year with no couples wanting marriage.   Young people just live together.   The enemies within, priests and bishops, used this to start teaching error about following conscience.  Pope Francis has realised the serio

I was surprised recently when the now Cardinal Nichols explained that the matter of reception of Holy Communion by the Divorced and Remarried was not a black and white issue since we had to keep in mind that the Commandments of Jesus Christ had to be weighed against His Compassion.   He was of course speaking for this Compassionate Church he and his fellow bishopwhat s built up in England over the past fifty year where people were freed like the Protestants before the from rules and regulations so that people could do wrong in faith and morals with no guilt or sense of sin like those hell ridden Catholic of the Pre-VNIcatican era.   Many of course welcomed such a compassionate set up but what happened was that the young looked at the Church and were appalled at what they saw was hypocricy.  I will give Cardinal Nichols the benefit of the doubt and say he was sincere but surely he cannot believe that wholesale abandoning of Christ`s teachings on Divorce and sexual morals made the Church

I havejust read an interesting account of the response of Archbishop Nichos to a John Cornwell on the subject of Confession. Cornwell a well known novelist claims that he was the victim of child abuse in the Confessional and is calling for an end to childhood confessions. Archbishop Nichols ignores this and instead cals for an examination of the decline of Confession. I know that at Westminster Cathedral there is always confession for those who wish and have indeed gone to Confession there. But again what happened to Confession in the Portsmouth. Now here there is a Uriah Heap approach to the subject. In order to consolidate the Revolution in the seventies stories were circulated about how Catholics children were filled with the fear of Hell, grew up guilt ridden, and God was seen as a fearsome avenger. Confession was indeed for those who let sin upset them. Traditionally for decades there was the Saturday morning Mass followed by Conession and this was well attended but he ref

I have met so many people in the Portsmouth Diocese who `follow their conscience` that there does hot seem to have been any need for Jesus Christ and his teachings, and I am still puzzled as to where Jesus actually fits in. I have been at meetings where Cardinal Newman was quoted as a defence for those who were undermining the Catholic Faith. I remember someone quoting Jesus Christ on Divorce and Remarriage and being told not to be judgemental. The point is of course that if you are following your conscience you really need to try to block out the evidence thay you are really not following your conscience but rather justifying your lack of belief. What I found objectionable was the way that they dragged Cardinal Newman into their deceit. I have not found the article but I did have to heart boasts about he championed the right to conscience. The story goes that at a dinner with Anglicans he did not drink to the Pope but to conscience. This meant that as a Catholic he always put his

The latest edition of the Portsmouth People has a very curious letter from someone who had attended a meeting somewhere and at the meeting someone had had a row with the speaker. Apparently he contradicted the speaker on matters of the Catholic Faith. The person was so annoyed for she was one who had had difficulties with some of the Churchs teaching and was happy that Vatican II had given her this new Church where she could exercise `her consicience`. So she has the Church she wants but what she failed to grasp is that her Church was not the Church the dissenter wanted. It would be wonderful to go along with the idea that everyone loves` one another so there is not need to quarrel. The trouble is that we can only have one kind of Church, built on one Faith, which surpresses the Faith of other people. Call me a traditional then and let me practice my Faith in the Portsmouth Diocese. "But we give you your freedom" will come the cry, We are tolerant of all Faiths, we are e

I came to the Portsmouth Diocese in 1979 when I was newly married and I raised a family here. Great things were happening in the Church at the time. The Charismatic Movement was very strong in my parish and I willingly participated and I was carried along with what was called `The Spirit of Vatican II`. I was probably too immature at the time to distinguish between Vatican II and what was called the `Spirit of Vatican II` but a number of things began to happen that shocked, and like all those who discover the difference I became angry. The first thing was when I went to a rehearsal of the Charisatic Choir. I thought it was meeting in the Church but when I arrived I found the parish priest sitting on the altar on his own waiting for someohne to arrive so that he could say Mass. I remained so that Mass could be said but I asked myself why this particular form of the Charismatic Movement thought their choir was more important than the Mass? I then began to take a serious look at w