Portsmouth Roman Catholic

In Politics I was in my youth a Socialist.   Later in life I became a Conservative and more recent joined the United Kingdom Independence Party.    One of my sons calls me a right winger and according to all the pigeon holing that goes on and puts people in their place to be criticised I suppose I am.  But the thing is I believe in Nationalisation of the Railways, in Nationalisation of the Energy Companies, and in Nationalisation of Water Companies.   I also believe that 50 per cent of the houses built should be social housing.   So in many ways I am very left of the mythical Centre of politics and in many ways very right of the mythical Centre.   Perhaps it is because each and every issue is different to me and I am not drawn in to one side by ideology. In Church matters I find myself very much the same.   OK, I bash the Spirit of Vatican II and all the bad things that have happened since  but I an not overcritical to the extent that I am against every change.   I kneel for Communio

In an 'important speech a few days ago the Prime Minister David Cameron spoke about measures to curb Muslim extremism.    He wanted Muslims to feel part of Britain and British 'Values'. British values are something we are to be proud of according to Cameron and values that all immigrants should embrace.    Really? In America Planned Parenthood has just been caught selling organs from unborn babies that come through the partial birth abortion procedure.   You know how that works the baby is allowed out of the womb and then strangled or perhaps left gasping for air until it finally dies.   That we have men and women doctors proud of what they do in this area is I suppose British values which we must embrace, for if we do not we are denying a woman her right to kill her baby, so sorry Foetus, and her right is a human right, just as important as any other right of any other group.   We do not of course let the public see the abortion procedure in case there is some misunders

A theme I have written on before, marriage, became very personal the other day.   My granddaughter came in to show me how well she had done at her school concert.   She had sung a solo and played her violin.  She is also a member of the local cheerleading group.   We are forever praising her for her achievements.   My granddaughter has her two original parents who give her everything she needs.   She also has two sets of grandparents who adore her and she has never had to go to a nursery or care minder in her life.   Watching on was a friend she had brought with her.  She did none of these things my granddaughter did.   Her parents were divorced.  She does not see my granddaughter or the friends she had very much now since she floats between her father's house and her mother's.   I tried to take an interest in her but there was no subject in school she particularly liked and she has nothing to occupy her outside of school.    What a contrast in the two girls but nobody really c

I was watching a TV programme on Aids in South Africa.   The gist was that they were warning young girls against Aids infection from sugar daddies.  Not once in the whole programme were condoms mentioned or the girls advised to use them.   Indeed condoma are no longer mentioned in regard to HIV/Aids.  It reminded me of this article I had read some time ago.                                                                                                                                                                  " If you've watched any of the mainstream news coverage of the Catholic Church in the past month, you've heard several charges repeated over and over: The Church needs to ordain women to address the vocation shortage... the Church needs to change its attitude on contraception and abortion to better accommodate modern realities... the Church needs to moderate its stance on homosexual behavior to be more inclusive... the Church needs to drop its claim to contain

My last post was questioning an article in the Tablet, an English publication for those who are 'enlightened'.   On the internet I have come across their website and found another one of those enlightened articles.  This time the Pope Emeritus Benedict had come from an award ceremony where he was honoured by the University of Cracow, and explained that he liked Mozart music because it was pure and European and does not have its equal in any other culture.  He also stated that this music brought people in touch with the divine.. That was his opinion and it is one I share and many others will share, some may disagree but that is always the case and they have a right to disagree and we can talk and appreciate our points of view.   But the Tablet, which caters for people who are better than the rest of us went into overdrive.   Suddenly there were attacks on the Pope Emeritus for daring to say this.   A great musician, a FEMINIST, or course, described this statement as mysogony, in

I picked up a copy of the Tablet in Church this morning, not to buy, but just look through.  After a few article headlines I came to the Letters page and found there a letter from a former Bishop.   Since we share the same birthday and he is just a year older than me I feel that I am not disrespectful in taking him to task. The bishop was talking about married priests.   It had the usual slogans.  It was inevitable, it is the mind of the Church, etc, and he mentioned he had during his ministry had some connection with the movement for married priests. I remember when he was bishop how we had heard from the altar from some clergy that it was all going to happen.  Indeed the bishop himself set up pastoral areas to warn us that we had to be prepared for only two priests working in those areas and sharing the Churches, unless of course we had married priests. In my own parish the magazine we had at the time published an article on the need for married priests, and reminding us that marr

The title is an important one.  Modernists present themselves as intelligent people who have moved on, who have matured in the faith, and have rejected the childish nature of the traditional Catholics.   How far is this the truth?   Let me give an example.  There are in the Church today many 'scholars; writing books and if the book contains some novelty then the writers are hailed as prophets and are invited to spread their ideas here, there, and everywhere.   I went to one of these scholars' meetings and he came out with the astonishing idea that it was not the priest that changed the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ but the Holy Spirit.   This was seen as an astonishing revelation by the audience.  What!  Was he  saying that when the priest says 'This is My Body' the host does not actually change by his power but the power of the Holy Spirit!  Yes, he is.   And the gullible fools almost applauded.      Risking the anger of the intelligent people I aske

For those who lived through the days of the Spirit of Vatican II when Christ was introduced as a some kind of social worker only interested in helping the poor, and what kind of a life we lived was of little interest to Him as long as we carried out His social policy, the question that those who remained faithful have asked time and again is why bishops, priests, and dogmatic lay people destroyed our Church    The trouble with the Spirit people is that they believe the poor are there to help them live the faith.   Doctrine becomes an obsolete word, indeed a word they sneer at, and it is only love between person and person that matters.   The teachings of Christ on Marriage and Adultery are also obsolete in that they no longer, they claim, apply to our time and they mutter something about the 'living experience'    Caught up in their 'living experience' they decided that Vatican II had changed the Church to their way of thinking and the 'ignorant' and ' gulli

Since the seventies I have been saddened by the number of young people who have been suffering quietly from the rejection of a parent.   Single parent children come in two groups; the single mother who has been used, abused, and abandoned with a child or children and God knows how hard these mothers struggle to give their children the love that is missing.   I remember one 16 year old who had once visited the Church and met me at Adoration returning to pray and tell me that she had just found who her father was and his telephone number.  She had phoned but was met by abusive language and told that he wanted nothing to do with her.  These children feel the loss of a Father and grow up unable often to make lasting relationships.  The Divorced mother also has children with great difficulties, since they often blame themselves for the marriage breakup and feel the absent parent did not like them.    I have spoken to many of these lonely children and tried in the eighties, nineties, and ear

Monsinor Vincenzio Paglia is the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family.   He is a man of mercy.  One would expect honesty and integrity from such a man but not so.  Speaking of an American gathering of the family he was asked about gay couples by journalists, he answered, not doubt triumphantly, that in the spirit of the recent 'Instrumentum Laboris' gay couple would be very welcome.    It just so happens that the Instrumentum Laboris says absolutely nothing about gay marriage.   So what is the Monsignor doing in stating this untruth.    He and his fellow dissidents no doubt what to push it at the Synod and there is no better way to do this than mislead honest and trusting Catholics.   And is the Monsignor merciful.   If we turn to what Jesus said in Mark 10 then today Jesus is to worth listening to as far as the Monsignor is concerned.   He showed no mercy he just stood and insulted the Jews among whom many would have been divorced and went alway feeling judged an

There is good news today for the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.   A Father Volpi, now deceased, had the order disbanded and its assets seized with the approval of the Vatican some time ago.   There was a case about six months ago when the family of the religious superior took Father volpi to court.   At a reconciliation meeting before the trial Fr Volpi to stop the court action agreed that he would confess to being mistaken so that the trial would not take place.   Bloggers around the world found the story and their comments were so unsavoury to Fr Volpi that he decided to withdraw his agreement.   This meant the trial would go ahead but between times Fr Volpi died.   A court in Avellino has decided there was o wrong done and has ordered the property returned.   Of course, this raises many questions about the kind of people who are now running the Vatican and it no longer is a question we can avoid out of humble respect.    A Bishop Toso has now intervened from the Vatican on the