Portsmouth Roman Catholic

By Andrew Parrish Pewsitter.com Dec. 30th, 2016 ROME (katolisches.info) – The painful tension of doubt grows stronger with each day that Pope Francis refuses to answer the questions posed by the “Four Cardinals” regarding His Holiness’ statement on marriage,  Amoris Laetitia . The doubt itself has metastasized dramatically since the  “dubia” letter ’s release two months ago. As Church hierarchy continues to publicly declare allegiance with one or the other side, giving strength to the impression of a fractured Church, the unnecessary viciousness of Papal confidants’ rebukes to the Four, strange rumors of a Pope “boiling with rage,” a “police-state Vatican atmosphere,” and Francis apparently declaring he will “go down in history as the divider of the Church,” have all led to rapidly increasing fear and concern in this bizarre and twisting story. Most puzzling of all, to those desperately trying to preserve the benefit of the doubt, is the Pope’s continued silence. It is ...

Even as I write this babies are being cut to pieces in the same way that Herod killed the innocent in Bethlehem.  And these babies like the Bethlehem ones are being killed for the same reason - they pose a threat.   In my younger days I worked hard in the Life movement.  I marched on the streets, wore my pro-life badge and for 4 years running i collected money at every Mass in my parish and a neighbouring one.  I gave out those little stick on Flowers of SPUC to almost everyone and only in one occasion did a feminist rebuke me although others were not quite happy and its soon ended.   "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth..." we say every Sunday.  As a Catholic I fervently believe what I say and that that little being in the womb was created by God.  Although there are Catholics who disagree thank God they are still not in the majority although they do well to silence the Church.   Again just like my argument on divorc...

Back in the 70's and 80's when the Adult Faith was discovered and conscience justified bad manners one of the subjects I heard discussed was the Holy Family  Apparently they were not real family models.  Apparently without sex Joseph and Mary were not quite what a husband and wife should be.     So they lived an unnatural life.   Well that was the Liberal extreme I suppose.  But equally I remember when one of those first Nativity stories was shown on TV where Mary was presented as young girl with the hopes and dreams of other young girls, and talked about marriage to Joseph as other young girls did, then this was also frowned on. Mary is often thought of as a serious person.   We assume she just spent her time at home and to the other girls in Nazareth she was probably the little prude who never came to play, to laugh, or to tell stories.  She was too busy being holy.   But what was Mary really like?   Was she an athletic girl who coul...

When I wrote recently about the Pope I was responding to people in the Vatican like Cardinal Kasper who now see the question that Divorce and Remarried people can receive Holy Communion as now settled and he now wants people of other Faiths to receive in the Catholic Church. There are others like Cardinal Marx and Cardinal Schonborn who share his opinion. I never attacked the Pope openly but advised that he cannot sit back and allow the Church to be split on this issue or  the Church will cease to exist. I put forward as my defence Jesus Christ himself in Matthew 19. My opponents, and I have them, should be guided by either the scriptures or the Church. immediately after the discourse on Divorce and Remarriage people brought children to Jesus and the disciples tried to stop them coming but Jesus said "Let the children come for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs" What did he mean? He had just told people many of them who would be divorced and remarried u...

WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH? Let me make one serious point, there is a vast difference between following the mercy of Jesus and following the natural goodness of human nature. The latter may seem to be good and kind but it often lacks the vision of the whole situation. In the Catholic Church today we have priests and bishops consumed with this natural goodness and believe in the easy solution of just allowing people to do what they want they are doing their pastoral work. The latest on Amores Laetitia is that bishops in Atlantic Canada are now proposing to give the last rites to those who have decided to commit suicide or euthanasia. Yes they are, they claim, following the spirit of Pope Francis in the document. No use trying to tell them that actually by giving the last rites you are making euthanasia something desirable and pre[judging the position of God, they are actually behaving like God. But heck it is only these bishops other bishops have their points of v...

There seems last weekend to have been an assault on Cardinals and little people like me for daring to ask for clarity on the subject of the Divorce and Remarriage as taught in Amores Laetitia.   At the Synod we know that there all kinds of games going on where those who were appointed to talk to the media were misleading the media in what was actually happening.  There was actually little discussion the Synod members told us on the divorce and remarried yet in the media we could read that there was a cliff hanger of 50 to 50 on the subject.  But then that was just another example of the Spirit of Vatican II still alive and well in the Church.   It was not what the Bishops said it was what they meant to say.   For my part I read Amoris Laetitia with the knowledge that the contents were from the Synod of Bishops rather than the Pope himself.   Thee was of course not mention whatsoever about the divorced and remarried receiving Holy Communion.   What wa...

When I was 5 years old I went to a Catholic School.  It was the same school my parents had attended and even my grandparents had attended.  Communities in any part of the city of Glasgow never changed much and even the teachers did not live far from the school.  The teachers were all practicing Catholics who were completely devoted to the Catholic Faith indeed one of the reasons Catholic schools in Scotland could admit only Catholic children was that the half hour given every day to religion was taken off the summer holidays so that teachers and children always went back earlier than Protestant schools.  There is an awful lot of rubbish talked by the reformers about the Latin Mass.   People said the Rosary or just sat lost as the priest mumbled on in Latin which nobody understood.   T1!he fact is that we sang hymns at Mass and we also sang the parts the Mass that the congregation sings today.  At the Sanctus we sang Benedictus Qui vent in nominee Domin...

Apparently the 'scholastic' magazine the Tablet has been attacking Bishop Egan and the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate at Gosport.  There is a well written refutation of the accusations by  Ray Blake but I will put my thoughts around the subject of 'being forced to kneel for Communion' based on my personal experience.   I was at a meeting about a year ago when a lady from Gosport first raised the subject.  She complained that she was being 'forced to kneel for Communion' by the Friars and Bishop  Egan was behind it.   It turned out that she was a 'convert' and I do not know if she is the lady who was one of those making the complaint.   My past life flashed before me.   I remember the altar rails being pulled down in my parish since apparently this was the wish of Vatican II.  No kneeler was put in place for it was decided that everyone should stand and receive in the hand.  Was this the wish of the parishioners?  No, but  ...

In a past blog we looked at the prophecy of Malachi that there would be a pure sacrifice among gentile nations and how that prophecy has been fulfilled from the rising of the sun until its setting by Masses being offered up in every part of the world.  We noted how St Paul in Hebrews brought the offering of bread and wine by Melchizedek though not a Jew as proof that though Jesus was not of the tribe of Aaron he could in similar fashion be recognised by the people as a High Priest.   But why were sacrifices offered.   Was it to please God so that battles could be won, Israel coulee become powerful, or was it just a meaningless tradition.   At the very end of Machabees 2 and the last words of the Old Testament we find that Judas Machabees after a great battle gathered all the dead soldiers and  gave them burial.  He then sent offerings to Jerusalem so that their souls could be saved for as the writer said if there was not resurrection such a thing would have...

Lyndon Strong has been informed by the Diocese of Portsmouth (Bishop Philip) that he cannot apply for or take up the post of Head Teacher at St. Mary's RC School Gosport because of his personal circumstances Re-marriage. Mr Strong has been acting head at St. Mary's since Ms McIvor retired in 2015. He has enabled St. Mary's to express its catholicity, in a way that was never present before. He has created an atmosphere of love, kindness and a joy of learning, for both staff and children. He is an inspirational head teacher who has brought great stability to St. Mary's. This decision is a grave injustice to Mr Strong and will and will be detrimental for the  children who love and respect him. Another acting Head Teacher (already appointed by the Bishop) will be put in place  in January 2017. At no time was this discussed with the full Governing Body. THE PETITION LOOKS HONEST ENOUGH AND I AM SURE IT IS.   However what was meant by 'to express its Catho...