The Confusion Within.

I was thinking the other day of the Church I grew up in.  I loved that Church.  It was a community in every sense of the word, something the present Church in England is striving to be but failing miserably.   We knew all our Catholic neighbours and we spoke eagerly of what was happening in the Diocese, in Rome, and the many issues that came up which affected the Church.   Today many Catholics have to remain silent or they will be silenced and sadly although many call themselves Catholic they have dispensed with any belief in the Catholic Church and the Catholic Faith.   You are not free to talk to anyone about your faith since you do not know what side they are on and if they share you love of the Church or not.   This is the stark reality.   Of course, there are claims of 'open to all' and the 'loving community' but in practice this does not work out, a small minority are in charge of many parishes and will have things their way.   I have experienced this hypocrisy for 30 years the most recent occasion when Orthodox Catholic videos were shown.   I went along with others to deepen my faith only to hear it attacked and ridiculed by the 'open to all' and 'community minded'.    So we can forget the Community of Faith idea.    I wonder if I attended an RCIA meeting would I be allowed to talk about Mary, about the Saints, about the Authority of the Church based on Scripture, I very much doubt it.  It is not MY faith that will be taught.    Indeed the RCIA has turned more people away from the Church than into the Church because of its anti-catholic bias.   There will be no delving into the Catechism, no encyclicals, no reference to the teachings of the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium, instead they will be given carefully crafted scripture passages that make no mention of authority or the Catholic Faith.    The present Bishop has a task on his hands on the question of Evangelisation for as a man close to God that it must start by not looking outside the Church but by clearing up the confusion within.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Translation of Luke 1: 28 in the Latin Vulgate by St Jerome.

.......et ingressus angelus ad eam dixit have gratia plena Dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus..... If indeed we are to have a Year of the Bible and indeed praise St Jerome, as indeed he deserves to be praised, for translating the texts approved by the Church into Latin, the language of the Mass, then surely we should check what the Latin says according to St Jerome before we rush into translating into other languages.    In this case translating  from the Gospel of Luke, St Jerome wrote the above, which translates  "..and entering the angel said to her 'Hail full of grace the Lord is with you and blessed are you among women".   Now you do not have to be a scholar to realise that this means much more than 'highly favoured'.   So why I ask myself does the translation we read in our Catholic Church at the gospel read 'highly favoured' rather than 'full of grace'  Why is this important?   Because if she was born 'full of grace' t...
Read more

A Parish in Confusion.

  Dear Friends, With the COVID restrictions being eased this week, I am sending a special message to everyone in the Diocese, welcoming everyone back to Mass. Of course, the pandemic continues, so, we still need to be prudent and to take care in our churches and parishes: see the guidance the Diocese is offering. This last week, I was away, recharging the batteries and catching up on prayer and reading – but now back, all of a sudden there’s lots of news! There is news about Grandparents' Day next Sunday, about new regulations from the Holy Father on celebrations of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form and news from Bamenda. There are also a number of exciting invitations: to the Alton Day of Renewal, to an Ignatian Staycation, to the Fanning the Flame Summer Camp, and to the National Justice and Peace Network conference. There’s an Environmental Survey to complete and a new book to order. But this is above all a period of great joy, as we look forward to the ordinations in two weeke...
Read more

The meaning of 'virgo Immaculata'

Image
As you will see from the stained glass window the name given to the image is Virgo Immaculata.   Mary was the virgin who remained sinless and spotless.  Yes she would have been tempted by Satan, but as the image shows she kept close to God in prayer and all the wiles of Satan, the forbidden fruit he offered, depictdd by the apple, ended up stuck in his throat while the right foot of Mary crushed his head. "I will put enmity between Thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed", God tole the serpent in Genesis   Satan was no match for Jesus who was God made Man but he had overcome a mere mortal before in Eve, What a triumph it would have been to destroy she whom Jesus loved above al others - his mother.   But Mary kept close to Jesus and to God, the new Eve, and mother of the new children that the death of Jesus brought into being.    And as Revelations 12 tells us having failed to destroy the birth of Jesus Satan  went after her other chi...
Read more