Portsmouth Roman Catholic

An advisor to a Christian charity CAFOD (Catholic Association for Overseas Development), Tina Beattie, has recently signed a letter to the Polish Bishops whose country is currently introducing legislation that would completely protect the right to life of unborn children. In the letter she argues against the equal right to life of all members of the human family, and in favour of “early, safe and legal” abortion for disabled babies. Professor Tina Beattie, based at the University of Roehampton, is a member of the Theological Reference Group of CAFOD and has informed their policy several times. As well as her role in CAFOD, she is a contributor and theological advisor to the Christian magazine,  The Tablet . Her support for abortion, and particularly for babies with disabilities, is disgraceful. Anyone who recognises the right to life of all human beings regardless of their age or ability should not accept such a position from someone who claims to be a Christian theologian. ...

Bishop Egan wrote a very interesting letter last week which should have turned up in local Churches. Strange indeed then that in many parishes it was not available.  I get the feeling that if he had spoken about the divorced and remarried and the question of communion in a sympathetic way,  that is to just follow conscience and ignore Jesus, it would have been more welcome.   As it was the Bishop went into the other parts of the document talking about the psychology of children who are the victims, and even daring to say when someone enters an irregular marriage part of the guilt may lie with others.   No, not those nice people who do so much for the poor.  Who  talk about love all the time.  Not them surely. In this 'The Church is about me and my Needs' age who gives a damn about the young people without parents,    Who gives a damn about the young person growing up hurt and deprived who because of this can never make a relationship last. ...

There is a model of the new Liberal Church going around in this Diocese and it is being hailed as a great success.   The Model is getting every parishioner involved in the Parish in such tasks as 'Eucharist Ministers", Catechists, Readers, this committee, and that committee, almost anything you can think of.  And of course it does not matter really what you believe for you have built up respect for one another's  opinions.  As far as the Gospel is concerned everyone can believe what they like and the priest will always be there in support.   Many therefore 'move on' from Catholic teachings which become rules and abstract principles for those who are stuck in the old model of Church, usually the uneducated.    But it is good psychology, make the people feel important, make it the people's Church.   The trouble is it does not work.   It does not attract the young because they want a challenge in their lives outside the Church, they want to be a...

In a former post I was concerned with the meeting of ACTA priests in the diocese and the fact that a liberal bishop whose views were different from the present Bishop was coming to undermine him, and let us not kid ourselves that is exactly what he intended.  Indeed the undermining of the present bishop is growing into a vicious campaign. Although Pope Francis is not quite the apple of my eye the use of him by these reformers is shameful.     I was listening to a sermon on Sunday when the above names were put into the minds of the parishioners as though they were the cream of orthodoxy which they most certainly are not.   As I predicted also, whatever the exhortation the Pope gave if it were orthodox it would still be twisted in some way into a liberal victory.   This was proved when the priest in his sermon quoted Schonborn.   Apparently Schonborn had claimed that when dealing with divorced and remarried people he asked five questions about their former...

 I thought I would simply share this letter, written to The Times by Dominican Fr Timothy Radcliffe. Fr Timothy writes: Sir, Cristina Odone is disappointed that the Pope, in his recent document, has not been bolder and allowed the divorced and remarried to take communion. But he has done something far bolder than changing the rules. He invites us to go beyond understanding the moral life primarily as obedience to rules. He quotes St Thomas Aquinas , who maintained that the more closely we look at the complexities of people's lives, the less we can rely just on abstract principles. We are to have a dynamic understand of holiness, "the pedagogy of grace", whereby every one of us, whatever our situation, may be more integrated into the life of the Church. None of us - the divorced and married or gay people - are excluded. "No one can be condemned for ever, because that is not the logic of the gospel ." Father Timothy Radcliffe OP, Blackfriars, St Giles, Ox...

In the few days since the Vatican’s release of  Amoris Laetitia , there has been talk of footnote 351 being a “smoking gun” that endorses communion for the divorced and remarried who lack an annulment. In the text preceding this note, Pope Francis observes that, while certain individuals may be objectively in sin, they may not be fully culpable. This is nothing new; the Church has long taught that mortal sin requires the presence of three criteria: grave matter, full knowledge and freedom of the will ( CCC 1857 ). So the pope is saying that, though grave matter is always present in an irregular union, the other two criteria may not be. In such cases, the pope says, the Church can not merely state a rule as though it were “a stone to throw.” Rather, it must be a source of help for the couple to “grow in the life of grace.” And then he adds this footnote: In  certain cases  [emphasis added], this can include the help of the sacraments. Hence, “I want to remind pries...

Cardinal Burke Knocks the Armchair Critics of Amoris Laetitia April 11, 2016  by  Fr. Dwight Longenecker In  this article  for the National Catholic Register Cardinal Burke sets out exactly what the pope’s exhortation is, what it attempts to do and how it should be received. He says clearly that those who set themselves up as critics of the Holy Father and the exhortation are wrong and are causing scandal. The behavior of the Catholic fundamentalists over the weekend has been scandalous. Some who believe themselves to be such good Catholics have used vile and obscene language about the Pope, trumpeted their prognostications of doom and gloom and in doing so have declared themselves not to be the best Catholics of all, but the worst. Cardinal Burke is right to say they have caused scandal because their self righteous, ignorant and arrogant writings have caused others to stumble, lose faith in the church and to question the authority of the Holy Father a...

   A particularly troubling example of misquotation of previous teaching is found in paragraph 298 which quotes the statement of Pope John Paul II, made in  Familiaris Consortio,  that there exist situations “where, for serious reasons, such as the children’s upbringing, a man and woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate.” However in  Amoris Laetitia  the second half of Pope John Paul II’s sentence, which states that such couples “take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples” ( Familiaris Consortio , No. 84),  is omitted. Furthermore, in the footnote to this misleading quotation, we read: In such situations, many people, knowing and accepting the possibility of living ‘as brothers and sisters’ which the Church offers them, point out that if certain expressions of intimacy are lacking, ‘it often happens that faithfulness is endangered and the good of the chil...

It is easy to turn to the corrupt Cardinals and bishops  in the Vatican at the time and blame them for imposing the Spirit of  Vatican II, which of course was correct and they did.   However this is not the whole story for there seems to be some sort of illogicality in those who condemned Vatican II itself.   In doing so they handed the game, set, and match to the Reformers. What future Catholics will be led to believe is that all the Catholic Bishops in the world came to Rome with the intention of changing the Church - they were all Reformers.    It is a nonsense but when people stand up and condemn Vatican II this is exactly what they are saying.   All the bishops of the world had become heretics. When I first read the documents, yes, there were translations which made me raise my eyebrows but none of them were actually denying the position of the Church and when fighting against the Reformers I have always used the documents to defend my positio...

CATHOLIC  WORLD  REPORT                                                                                                            3) He distinguishes (following John Paul II's  Familiaris Consortio ) between the different concepts of the “law of gradualness” (which he affirms,  AL  295), which is a step-by-step moral advance, and the “gradualness of the law,” meaning thereby that there are “different degrees or forms of precept in God's law for different individuals and situations” ( FC  34), which he says that he rejects. With respect to the law of gradualness, Francis urges us, in view of the undeniable challenges of our time, “to present marriage more as a dynamic path to p...

305. For this reason,  a pastor cannot feel that it is enough simply to apply moral laws to those living in “irregular” situations, as if they were stones to throw at people’s lives . This would bespeak the closed heart of one used to hiding behind the Church’s teachings, “sitting on the chair of Moses and judging at times with superiority and superficiality difficult cases and wounded families”.349 Along these same lines, the International Theological Commission has noted that  “natural law could not be presented as an already established set of rules that impose themselves a priori on the moral subject; rather, it is a source of objective inspiration for the deeply personal process of making decisions” .350 Because of forms of conditioning and mitigating factors,  it is possible that in an objective situation of sin – which may not be subjectively culpable, or fully such – a person can be living in God’s grace, can love and can also grow in the life of grace and ch...

I have just read  a couple of comments on the Synodal Exhortation by Pope Francis.  The major winner was of course the Holy Spirit guiding the Church in its infallibility on Faith and Morals and destroying the hopes of those who call themselves Liberal since they do not really believe in the Catholic Church.   As I said before I was alive when the encyclical Humanae Vitae was issued and although I knew doctrine would not change I found it almost miraculous when Pope Paul taught so wonderfully on the subject despite his weakness in allowing the Reformers around him to destroy the teachings of the bishops at Vatican II.  But the Holy Spirit is always there. Pope Francis was hailed as the greatest Liberal ever to become Pope.   I believe he saw his duty as Pope was to unite the church again and bring Liberals and Traditionalists together.  All he achieved was hostility on both sides.   In his exhortation he remained faithful to the teachings of the Chur...

I have been really surprised to read on some "Catholic" blogs that it would be wrong not to punish women who had an abortion.   Yes they put forward the logicality that the killing of a baby is murder and so the killer should face justice.    I am afraid however they show a marked ignorance of the circumstances of the mother that brings her to an abortion clinic. There are circumstances that can lead to a young girl to seek an abortion.   The first circumstance is her background.  The breakdown of marriage and the breakdown of love between a husband and wife can destroy the feeling of love and security in a child.   Many will grow up hungering for love and affection and on reaching puberty and beyond they often mistake the act of sex with a boy as being loved and are often  who is called 'easy game' to a boy.    They are disappointed and another boy takes his place.  They do not find love but end up pregnant.    So the first ...

"When we eat this bread and drink this cup are we not in communion with the body and blood of  Christ"  asked St Paul.   'In Communion' means joined to and we are not just eating and drinking in a celebration party, we are not just remembering his Passion but we are in Communion with it.  We are joined to it.  We are present at the Sacrifice.   And we offer through His command that Sacrifice again in an unbloody manner  on the altar.   But it is objected that Christ made one Sacrifice for all time so we cannot repeat it. If we turn to the book of Malachi 11:11 we find these words.  "From the rising of the sun until its setting my name is great among the Gentiles and everywhere there is offered sacrifice, a Spotess Victim.   Malachi was protesting against the priests of his time who were prone to keep the best of the animals for sacrifice and only sacrifice the ones that has some fault.   They also had a habit of divorcing their o...