Portsmouth Roman Catholic

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be urgent  in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching.  For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate to themselves teachers to suit their own likings and turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.  As for you always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.        2Timothy 1-5 How is it that St Paul knew so much about modernists, feminists, and people who have moved on.   How did he know there would be people who would soak up everything that criticised the Catholic Church.  Their itching ears would listen to Rahner, Kung, Radcliffe, and anyone who would take them away from Catholic te...

So what really happened to the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.   The Order was apparently closed down by some kind of judicial Commissioner for the Vatican a Fr Volpi.    His reasons stated was that the property of the Order was being confiscated by the families of the Friars and Nuns or maybe just handed out.   So it was closed down for Corruption.    The Friars had no redress but their families had and the founder of the order belonged to the Minelli family who took the matter to an Italian Court.  In Italy they have a mediation service before the matter is referred to the Court at which both sides attended.  Fr Volpi apparently took some kind of guilt in the matter and admitted he had somehow got the facts wrong.   I do not think he admitted to lying but perhaps he did.   In any case a document was signed which settled the affair.   Or so we thought.  But I guess it was hoped that the matter would not be made public but...

I have just read another boring article from a Jesuit priest on the vision of Vatican II.   To say it is full of crap is an understatement.    I mean when you get down to examine what they say to defend their point of view there is nothing there.   Sweeping statements about the Vision of the Fathers which is nowhere in the documents and mention of the Spirit of Vatican II which I presume is where were get the vision from by reading what the documents meant to say rather than what they said.    We are carried along by his enthusiasm and told of course of the ground shaking contents of Gaudier et Spes although none of the contents are detailed,.  It is just that we should be swept along like him with enthusiasm and actually accepting that because he has mentioned the document then everything he says in contained in it.    Actually there is no ground breaking anything in Gaudier et Spes, yes I am making a sweeping statement but I am open to cont...

I referred to a priest of the Vatican in my last post a Fr Volpi.  Although my blog is a little fish in a vast ocean I have to apologise like many others for giving the story credibility.   It has been pointed out that the story had no foundation and a good priest has been libelled.   I will pray for him.

The Catholic world is still reeling at the injustice done to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.    Had  a family who were accused of obtaining property from the Order not gone to an Italian Court  a Fr Vosper representing some kind of judgemental tribunal in the Vatican would have got away with his treachery.    Indeed the humbled priest had to admit that he had lied in order to close down this traditional order.   There is indeed filth in the Vatican as Pope Benedict remarked and it seems impossible to be rid of them.    But what about Parish level.    How can people who have rejected the teachings of Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, and did so in the past by claiming Vatican II changed everything still believe that the phrase we have moved on gives them any credibility.   The phrase we have moved on given at a time when they were being presented with Catholic teaching, and their insistence that they know bes...

I have been criticising in the last few posts the state of Catechesis in my parish.   But this is not the whole story for there has been great advances in how the parish worships and indeed how it has restored an authentic Catholic Liturgy.   To some this would mean the Latin Mass but I do not believe that this Mass will ever again be the only Mass that Catholics attend.  The young Vatican II priests coming from the seminaries, and again I emphasise not the Spirit of Vatican II priests, are loyal to the Church in her teachings and are eager indeed to say the Mass in a humble and reverent way, but humility and reverence do not correspond only with a Mass said in Latin.    I am not in saying this trying to take away anything from this Mass, for I believe it is the Mass of the whole Church in which   we can all participate and be at one with whatever our nationality or culture.   Further the Latin Mass brings us back to the early Church and we celebrate M...

I was remarking in my past post that in the first document of Vatican II Lumen Gentium the subject of the hierarchical Church, the infallibility of the Pope, Mary and the saints were all covered.   Indeed in the 1970 s I remember seeing copies of the document in the growing dissident households.   It would appear though that they were never read and if they were it was in that great logic of the Spirit of Vatican II it is not what the document says but it is what it meant to say.   Well that is clear enough isn t it.   Of course that is how many of the reformers now read the Bible it was not so much what Jesus said it was the spirit of the age in which he said it.    So today the story of the woman taken in adultery should read  ...and Jesus said  Go and sin no more.  Then the woman replied  Master I can see  you are a very forgiving man so I will have to use my conscience here.  You see I really need the money.    So...

In the Gospel of John we read how many deserted Jesus when he spoke about the eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood.  Will you also go  he asked the disciples  Lord to who shall we go for you have the words of eternal life  came the reply.  Despite the confusions purposely created in the Church the vast majority of Catholics will never move on or doubt the Church that is the Body of Christ.   Sometimes I wonder if it is proper for me to comment on what was said at meetings I attend and put people in the frame so to speak.  Yet in my parish there is no alternative since faithful Catholics are spurned.     I have been on in previous posts about Catholicism by Fr Robert Barron.  It is not a doctrinal course so maybe I over react to what is missing.  It is simply a quick explanation of the Catholic Faith.    It would be wonderful to report that everyone who went to the meetings were keen to learn about the Church a...

Forty years ago the young people in the Catholic Church in England were betrayed.   The novelty around then was the Spirit of Vatican II.   Concentration in the Church was on groups of people who enjoyed the novelties and did not care much for the Catholic Faith.   Stories were spread about indoctrination in the Catholic Church, children being brainwashed in the fear of Hell, we should concentrate more on our conscience rather than the teachings of Christ.  Catholic practices such as processions in honour of Mary, to proclaim the wonder of the Blesserd Sacrament, reciting the Rosary and even saying the Angelus in schools was forbidden and bureaucrats from the diocese came to ensure the schools obeyed.    As St Paul had warned us the ravishing wolves had broken into the sheepfold and destroyed the truth.   Yes many cried LORD LORD but I suspect on the day of judgement Christ will not know these people.   Meanwhile the sufferings of the young were ...

Fr Robert Barron spent a long time preparing his series on Catholicism.   It is very spectacular in that it visits places all over the world and in doing this keeps your interest but I am becoming a little sceptical that this will in the end arouse any interest in the Catholic Faith.    I am now ready to attend another meeting and I hope it will be better than the two previous ones.    There was one on Mary which although it mentioned the Council of Ephesus wandered more into Marian Apparitions rather than the teachings of the Church on Mary.   Now nobody is required  to believe in apparitions and I would have liked to have heard more on the teachings of the Church on Mary, especially now that the brainwashing of the Spirit of Vatican II is ending and we are producing priests who are now truly Vatican II in their approach and their teachings.    I am coming to believe that evangelisation will only be possible in the Church if all people over ...