Portsmouth Roman Catholic

Among the points made by individual participants, the agency said, were: Church teaching and discipline are not immovable, but develop over time; “a second marriage can be an authentic union”; the indissolubility of marriage is an ideal or “utopia” to strive for; that God may be present in a stable and faithful homosexual union, but the union is not a marriage; that the Church must find a language that is less “blunt” or harsh to speak about people in situations that do not measure up to the Gospel ideal The above are comments from a German Bishops Conference regarding the forthcoming Synod on Marriage.  Do you recognise here men teaching with Authority? Let us turn to Jesus.  Crowds followed him of many different opinions.  Many who were divorced would no doubt have been affronted with what he said in Matthew 5:31.  "It was also said that whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce".  Well that is simple and ...

One of the funniest things about Gay Rights is that they are supported by heterosexuals whose record in the 'love and marriage' thing is very questionable.   Just look around at the women deserted by husbands and to be fair the husbands deserted by wives, the girls and women used and abused then left to be single mothers or have an abortion.   Just look at the billion dollar sex industry and the mounting cases of rape, historical and contemporary, the grooming of the young from care homes or by internet.  Just look at teenage pregnancies and teenage contribution to Sexually Transmitted Diseases.  If I then feel that all this 'But they love one another" is hypocritical in the extreme can I be blamed?  It is the worst case of patronisation I have ever come across.  One can almost hear the undertone "Ah, the poor little pets!"   I think there are many gays who resent it and in a way the gay activists resent it too, but if it helps them to an objective the...

Yesterday I went to Portsmouth Cathedral where relics of the parents of St Therese were brought to the diocese to be venerated.   Louis and Zelie Martin had already been beatified and in preparation for the Synod on Marriage they are both to be canonised.  I was a steward for most of the day and was astonished at the turn out.   There were queues to approach the casket which filled the morning and went into the afternoon.   There was a pause for a couple of hours though there was still many people praying and the queues began again in the evening.   I am sure that the turnout even surprised Bishop Egan, but at the Mass the wonderful work he has done was evident in the participation of the Catholic Schools in Portsmouth and even in the evening young people from the schools were turning up.   After 40 years of listening to the Faith being sneered at, and being marked out as uncharitable for daring to object, I felt that at last I was home again.    ...

Let me make an important point first.    There are ordinary gays getting on with their lives as best they can and they are the majority.  They are not interested in marriage nor making a fuss, they just want to be left in peace.   Then there are the Gay Activists who are driven by what can only be called hatred and like spoiled children they demand whatever they can get and care not a jot for whoever they hurt.    We have seen the case just today in Belfast.   A Gay Activist 'innocently' walks into a cake factory and asks for a cake with 'Support Gay Marriage' on it.   Of course he does not know the owners are Christian or he would have gone elsewhere.  Of course he would.     When he is refused he feels himself ' a lesser person' and demands justice.   He gets it.   The judge has no real alternative and gives a fine of £500 which is reasonable.   Take the other case in England a few years back.   A Christian cou...

Well Ireland will soon be going to the polls to say yes or no to Gay Marriage.    It is very sad that the land of saints and scholars should be making such a decision and no doubt the majority will say yes.  There is an Irish TV programme called Mrs Brown in which Mrs Brown has a gay son who has a boyfriend and in one programme they were to get married.   Unfortunately the boys are the epitome of what gays most certainly are not yet people believe that they are.   They are a little eccentric and not too bright in their relationship seeking only to find 'love'.   This likeable pair I suspect are what most of Ireland think gays are, and who would not give out their hearts to them.  But let us look more closely at the question. I will begin my turning to the Church and saying that in some way you are responsible.   When a person has an opposite sex attraction, it is not helpful to be the first to point the finger of condemnation at him.   The p...

O Mother, I am weary now,                                                                                                              Please take away this task, Just give me love and give me joy                                                                                                        And this one thing I ask                                         ...

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Fatima but we must keep hush in case we embarrass the good people who run many a parish.  Our Lady of Lourdes is for immature children but can be tolerated but Our Lady of Fatima!   What with all that talk about Hell and Sin and Repentance she definitely has no place in our New Church.   Well they do need our sympathy.   They have created their own Jesus since the one in the Gospel also talked about Hell, Sin, and Repentance but that was two thousand years ago and He would not get away with it today.   They would probably ask Him to leave as he entered their Church.    He is so negative. But they will await their judgement.  Meanwhile Ourt Lady will still be their Mother.   No appearance of Our Mother is so proven and beyond dispute as that at Fatima.   Lucy, Francesco, and Jacinta were small children who would fool no one if it had been a hoax.  But we do not have to ask them to verify their appar...

That beautiful hymn 'I'll sing a Hymn to Mary" was sung at my Parish Mass last Sunday.   Of course we sang a modern version if the words, well the congregation did, but when it came to where the original words 'When wicked men blaspheme Thee, I love and Bless thy name",  I with my loud voice drowned the soppy new words and sang these original lyrics.   Was I being triumphalist?  Apparently that was what Catholics did in the bad old days before the good and honest  people took away control of our Church because they had moved on and people like myself were stupid and backward.   "From henceforth all generations shall call me Blessed, for He that is mighty hath done great things to me and Holy is His Name:   This is what Mary said about herself in the Gospel of Luke.  "But she was only a peasant girl" said someone recently in dismissing the veneration of Mary in the Catholic church, a church in which she rules although dismissing nearly all of Catho...

I went to my local Alliance of Churches which was hosting the would be Parliamentary Candidates for my Constituency in a question time affair.   I remember the early years when yes, there were questions on Abortion and the killing of babies in the womb but such times are gone.    No questions came related to this topic.    In the Catholic Church in England about twenty years  ago in the Bishops guidance to voters there was the warning not to vote on single issues there was a storm of protest since it was obviously aimed at pro-lifers and the bishops have not mentioned the issue since even in their guidelines.   However as part of our 'new' and 'nice' Church there are many prelates and priests who still teach this as though it still came came from the Bishops.   Concern for these babies is no longer a part of the Catholic or Christian Faith and I even know members of a pro-life group who joined in order to 'give greater choice' to women. It has al...

he Green Party is “open” to the idea of three-person marriages, Natalie Bennett has said.  Ms Bennett said she was “open to further conversation and consultation” about the prospect of the state recognising polyamorous relationships.  She made the comments in conversation with PinkNews, the LGBT website.  Dr Redfern Jon Barrett, asked: “At present those in a ‘trio’ (a three-way relationship) are denied marriage equality, and as a result face a considerable amount of legal discrimination.  “As someone living with his two boyfriends in a stable long-term relationship, I would like to know what your stance is on polyamory rights. Is there room for Green support on group civil partnerships or marriages?”  Ms Bennett responded: “At present, we do not have a policy on civil partnerships involving more than two people.  “We are, uniquely in this country, a party whose policies are developed and voted for by our members.  “We have led...

It is a wonderful feeling to be a champion of a good cause.   To feel that we are warm and sensitive people fighting for justice.  And yes there is in every human being a loving heart created by God which draws us towards those in peril, those in danger, or those in suffering.   That generous spirit makes us contribute and even offer our services to the poor of the third world whose poverty is caused by lack of development, lack of food, impure water, and Governments that just don't care.  When we turn to Europe there is also a great cry about the neglect of the poor.    Parties attack the others for the poverty in the country, Churches condemn the poverty but since this poverty is not due to scarcity of resources, poor development, and a shortage of food the causes and type of poverty is quite different.   It arises from neglect and to find the source of this neglect everyone in Europe must first examine their own self interest.   I know many fam...