The Cafeteria or the Feeding Tube? The Catholic Dilemma?

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 Communion and receive on the tongue, I go to Confession, I say the Rosary, and I defend the Catholic Faith in any situation no matter how disliked it makes me, but on the other hand I do not see anything wrong with altar girls, with the Mass in English, though I defend the right of those who want the Latin Mass which I also enjoy.   When it comes to Outside the Church there is no Salvation, I very much question those who claim this means only Catholics can get to Heaven.  Yes I know Popes have ruled this to be true, though there are Popes like St Pius X who have said it is wrong to believe this.   I had never heard of this when growing up and was taught by my teachers the Baptism of Desire, yes souls outside the Church can receive the graces of the Church poured out at every Mass so yes, other faiths cannot get us to heaven.  

So you see I am neither wholly left or wholly right.   What I do is take each issue and examine it on its own merits and whether it benefits the Church.   But I am solidly behind the teachings of the Christ and His Church provided that teaching is part of the Deposit of Faith and is a matter of Faith and Morals.   Pope Francis cannot impose his encyclical on Climate Change on the Church because he is Pope for the Church has no authority in such matters and since I am not a feeding tube Catholic who accepts all that comes from Rome,  I reject this encyclical.   I do accept Humanae Vitae because this is a matter of morals that has been handed down to us in Tradition.      I will not refuse to shake hands with anyone if it is offered, for I am indicating in that person I shake hands with my love for all humanity, though it must be done in this spirit.  I do not believe in people running up and down the isles and wanting to shake hands with everyone, thus losing the meaning and interrupting the Mass.   Again there is nothing in Church law which forbids  me doing this.  So why should I refuse?   I grew up in the Traditional Mass and was taught the Mass at school and in Church be teachers leading myself and other children on a Sunday.   It was nonsense when they suggested we did not know what was happening and just practiced our private devotions, but we did sing hymns at the Latin Mass we did understand what Sanctus Sanctus Domine Deus Sabbath meant.    The trouble is that today children and former children of the past two generations never learned the  Mass in this way, and presenting them with a purely Latin Mass is self defeating.   So I have disagreements there with the so called right of the Church.   But there is something I will always condemn and that is the appalling anti-catholic Catechesis that were dumped on Catholic Children during the last fifty years.  The damage is so obvious that it takes a great deal of dishonesty to try justifying the programmes.