ON THE TABERNACLE

We have read the prayer of the Angel of Fatima  worshiping "the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ IN ALL THE TABERNACLES OP THE WORLD".   Yes, I remember when in every Church the Tabernacle containing the Body of Christ was in the centre of the altar in every Church so that people could kneel and adore Him.   In many Churches it is no longer there.  But why has it been pushed to the side or even into a separate room.   Even worse was when I visited a Cathedral where in the side Chapel the Tabernacle certainly was but there was no carpet to kneel on or bench to kneel on or even a seat to sit on.  If you wanted to praise God you had to kneel on a stone cold floor.    This is difficult for men bu impossible for women.  

Now you can study the documents of Vatican II.  You can study every post-conciliar document.  You can scan the encyclicals and utterances of all the Post -Conciliar Popes but you will find no justification for this change.    Yes, there was a directive for Cathedrals and places with constant visitors which would interrupt the faithful at prayer, something already in place, for the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in Westminster Cathedral was already there prior to Vatican II, but there was no direction to remove the Blessed Sacrament from the people in ordinary parishes.    And for that matter who gave the order for the altar rails to be removed and in some cases smashed to pieces.   It was certainly not Vatican II.   Yet both these things were done as a pretended outcome of Vatican II.  I was reading recently of a Catechist who was preparing First Holy Communicants and told them that they must not receive in the tongue like babies being fed, but to receive in the hand like an adult.   In the things of God I will always be a little child for Jesus said "Unless you become as little children you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven".  So those of a MATURE faith should beware.

The sad fact is that it was this mature faith which almost destroyed the Church.    A plain, ordinary, dull environment attracts no one to God.   A Church should reflect the Beauty of God.   Yes there are Protestant churches which are plain but their beauty lies in the Gospel music they sing.  Hymns that rouse our feelings and move our hearts.  We used to have beautiful music in the Catholic Church but these again had to make way for the 'mature faith'.

If a school is failing in the objectives it is meant to meet there will be voices raised  about the poor standards.   It could even be closed.    But why if a Catholic School fails to teach the Catholic Faith should this not be met with the same scrutiny.   I have been listening to the feeble excuse "They come back eventually" for about 50 years now while the number of Mass attenders went down and down.   The truth we must not utter is the 95% of Catholics schoolchildren are alienated from the Church not when the leave School but before they leave.  Yes, they are told of all the wonderful charities they can give to, but when Faith is taught with no conviction with the slogan "We propose, we do not impose" the children soon realise that the teachers are not convinced of the Faith they teach either.l   If you believe in the teachings of Christ you teach the teachings of Christ because that is what the parents who sent their children expect of the school.    I am not blaming the teachers for the Reformers knew that to destroy the Faith they would have to move into Catholic Schools and they did and misled many loyal teachers.   But the time has come for someone in an authoritative position in the Church to stand up and shout "It is all a mess"  Perhaps then someone will ask "Why?"