Portsmouth Roman Catholic

 When I began writing this blog, like many Catholics I was very reliant on a 'sola scriptura' approach to Christianity.   I did learn at school that the Church did not rely just on the Bible but something called 'Tradition', which distinguished it from the Protestant Churches.    It had something to do with the Early Church and what the early Church taught.   That is why when the modernists entered the Church attacking the Mass, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and even the teachings of Christ on sin, most Catholics did not have the knowledge to stand against them.    If they said the Mass was a simple meal that Our Lord celebrated on Holy Thursday, we could not contradict since we knew nothing of Ignatius of Antioch or Pope Clement.    And when they started teaching our schoolchildren safe sex and involving them with the rest of the young people of this country in the sexual revolution, we knew little of the early Church and Hippolytus and St Justin.    We were igno

 About 100 years after the birth of Jesus a man was born in Samaria to the north of Jerusalem who was not a Christian but someone who called himself a philosopher or a seeker of truth.   He studied many manuscripts and travelled around until he was met by an old man who told him of Christianity and Jesus Christ.   Justin found the Christian sect and studied what they had to say and eventually became a Christian.   He began to write and was caught up in a pagan description of Christians who were described as atheists who indulged in incest and cannibalism.  Atheists was used by the pagans to describe anyone who did not worship their Gods, but incest and cannibalism - what was that about? It was said that Christians met at secret meetings where there was a 'love feast' between brothers and sisters, and where they consumed the flesh and blood of a man called Christus.   Justin felt compelled to answer this nonsense and began first to attack the pagan position.     He blasted the i

 Hippolytus lived in the late 2nd and early 3rd century in Rome.   While there he wrote the Apostolic Tradition, so perhaps traditionalists, or people calling the Church back to its core message was always part of the Church.    He wrote other works but the Apostolic Tradition gives us an insight into how ordinary Christians understood the Faith, and it is amazing just how much of the liturgy of the early Church is maintained today, and yet on the teachings of Christ just how unfaithful so many in the Church of today are as bishops, priests, and lay experts ignore sin, and have destroyed the lives of so many of our young, who grow up without faith and without hope, living unhappy and insecure lives. I am going to start with initiation of candidates into the Church.   The candidates were taught by lay catechists, who in their own lives lived as Christ had taught them and were people who could set an example.    Those Christians who brought them forward had to show that they were good pe

 When I spoke recently on the chances of catching the Covid virus from a surface I was wrong when I said that the Godman study was the only one.   Many studies recently have filled the pages of the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal. some did work on catching it from a door handle which had been used many times, but another concentrated on the traffic light of a city where thousands would push the button every day.   The Science today that the chances vary from 1 in 10,000 to 5 in 10,000 is well established.    However when the virus broke out in February 2020, there were laboratory tests carried out on surfaces  Several found the virus lived for two or three days, and one carried out by the World Health Organisation quoted a figure of 5 days.   But medical people protested that these tests carried out in laboratories used samples that did not reflect real life, and those that were carried out in real life were soon accepted. Now for the tricky part.   If what I am saying is true, why

 I came to the Portsmouth Diocese in 1979 when I was newly married and I raised a family here. Great things were happening in the Church at the time. The Charismatic Movement was very strong in my parish and I willingly participated, and I was carried along with what was called `The Spirit of Vatican II`. I was probably too immature at the time to distinguish between Vatican II and what was called the `Spirit of Vatican II` but a number of things began to happen that shocked, and like all those who discover the difference, I became angry. The first thing was when I went to a rehearsal of the Charismatic Choir. I thought it was meeting in the Church, but when I arrived I found the parish priest sitting on the altar on his own waiting for someone to arrive so that he could say Mass.    I remained so that Mass could be said, but I asked myself why this particular form of the Charismatic Movement thought their choir was more important than the Mass? I then began to take a serious look at w

I have just discovered that this blog I started in 2018, has been joined to a blog I started such as long time ago.   I do not know why but I have been entertained by what I wrote.    It will take a long time to get back to the beginning of this first blog.   Here is one post.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  The latest edition of the Portsmouth People has a very curious letter from someone who had attended a meeting somewhere and at the meeting had had a row with the speaker. Apparently he contradicted the speaker on matters of the Catholic Faith. The speaker was so annoyed for she was one who had had difficulties with some of the Church's teaching and was now happy that Vatican II had given her this 'New' Church where she could exercise `her conscience`.  So she has the Church she wa

 I cannot help but wonder if the recent Moto Proprio was indeed written by Pope Francis since his  illness has been reported, and how long was his illness going on.   The document, let us face it, was poorly constructed and had little or no hope of being implemented.   Things are very much different in the Church today than it was in the 1970's.    Those who celebrate the Latin Mass are very much organised and they have strong leadership in Cardinal Vigano and others we meet on EWTN, Church Militant, and other parts of the media.    When Pope Benedict retired he complained he was surrounded by 'filth' and it drove him also into illness.    Most Catholics do not take a great interest in the Vatican, believing it is full of good and holy men, and I believe they are better off not knowing of the irregularities of the Vatican Bank unfolded by Cardinal Pell.    They will not believe either the support given to pedophile priests and bishops in America, nor the gay parties that we

 When we study the history of the Early Church we find that from the very beginning the Apostles and those they appointed to follow them, celebrated what Christ had asked them to do at the Last Supper.   And as the Protestant Historian JND Kelly in his book Early Christian Doctrine stated.   "Eucharistic Teaching it should be understood from the outset was unquestioningly realistic i.e. the consecrated bread and wine were taken to be, and designated as the Saviour's Body and Blood.    (look  up my earlier blogs on Clement and Ignatius of Antioch).   Note the word consecrated, in other words they used the words of Jesus at the Last Supper.   This is called in the Acts of the Apostles 'The breaking of Bread'   I fail to understand why in the Catholic Church there should be any difficulty on this.   There is scores of early writings.    Now that first Mass was offered in the language of Jesus.   In Rome until about 180 AD most Masses were in Greek then they used more Lati

 There is the story of how Peter when he was leaving Rome, was met by Jesus.   Peter asked him "Where are you going, Lord?"    Jesus replied "I am going to Rome to be crucified".   Peter understood and returned to Rome, where he was crucified for Jesus.  It is a well known story that we all love.    But do we learn from it?    Would we turn back like Peter knowing that pain, torture, and execution awaited us?   Looking at the Church today which has been infected by people, bishops, priests, and laity, who do not follow the Jesus of the Gospels but a Jesus constructed by themselves who does not bother about obeying commandments, who does not bother about sin, who apparently could not care less that our children are using contraceptives, that they are indulging in sexual relationships, that so many are ending up single mothers causing unhappiness to their children, that men see women as bodies to be used rather than a person to be loved.   And did this new Jesus make

 Every time I go to Mass, Sunday and morning Mass on Tuesday and Thursday I have to take a yellow sticker and place it on the bench where I sit so that cleaners can come and sterilise the place where I was sitting.    It is a mass exercise after church with cleaners in place ready to do the work.   I am really thankful for them for doing the job.   However this work was done in the supposition that the Covid Virus had to be removed from surfaces to stop the infection spreading, and unless the Churches agreed they would not be allowed to open.  I remember the World Health Organisation some time last year tellling us that the covid only remained on a surface for 15 minutes,  but I cannot remember any discussion on TV or radio or the press, telling us anything about Covid on surfaces but without information I could not ask questions, and the obligation was just imposed.   Recently however I heard someone on TV saying that it had been discovered that the chance of catching infection from s

 Nature has blessed the world with many forms of life.   In order to keep the different species going, it has divided all the species into male and female, so that there would be offspring and the mamy life cycles would continue.   In the animal kingdom the male simply seeks to overpower and mate with the nearest female, making no decisions as to whether they please or do  not please,   It is called an animal instinct and the animals have no reason in the matter only the need to enjoy sexual activity.   One thing that animals share with human beings is the need to form a family, and having mated with a female the male then guards her through pregnancy and hunts and protects the offspring when they arrive.   It is the natural law and has been seen as such in every human society for thousands of years until Communism and Marx and Engles arrived who saw marriage as the enslavement of women.   What they introduced into society was sex without love and responsibility, and when pregnancy cam

 An unusual challenge to the law on Abortion came about last week when a young, married woman took forward a case to stop abortion on Handicapped babies in the womb after 24 weeks.   Notice that she was not stopping abortions but making the case that the 24 week limit should apply to all.   She was a woman who was happily married and was classed as Downs Syndrome herself.   She was having a full and enjoyable life and could find no reason why people like her should be downgraded by society,   I have worked with young men and women like her, yes they are not going to be among the star performers in education, but one thing that made me humble was that none of them ever showed the anger and aggression that we  so called 'normals' exhibit.   My job was wonderful because I was meeting people who appreciated everything I did for them, and that was not much, but I was made to feel important to them.      The Abortion Lobby representative then came onto the programme and started using

 Yesterday I was writing about the reservations even among Gays on the Transgender scene.   Why does it have to happen to me for this morning I read about a Catholic School in London where a book called 'The Boy in the Dress' teaching that cross dressing is healthy and not something to be ashamed of and was aimed at 8 - 12 year olds.   Now this is a very strange subject for a school to want to teach.    One parent got very angry and on protesting was banned from the school.     An American Organisation 'Church Militant' picked up the story.   The headmistress was angry that the parent had sought help and demanded she appear before the governors to decide whether her ban from the school should be upheld.  The headmistress of course could have easily banned the book, but she too was in her own head become a champion of human rights against the Catholic Church, for after all she was making her school a champion of 'inclusivity, diversity, and tolerance for all individu

 When I was very small I had a sister with a doll that opened its eyes when standing but when you lay it on your lap the eyes closed as though the doll was asleep.   Now I used to play with that doll.  Even worse I was friends with a little girl upstairs who took her doll for a walk in a little pram and I used to walk with her   I did not of course push the pram for in those days that is not what men did, but I would have liked to do so.  I was only 5.     Now what would be the reaction today if at that age I was playing with a doll.   Perhaps my mother would have started worrying that I was a girl caught in a boy's body.   And what if she had spotted me pushing the pram?    Perhaps I would have ended up by dear mother putting me  in a dress, called transgender, and sent to school.  She did not do so, and I ended up still as a man when I reached adulthood. But my story is wrong, although there are parents who are so wrapped up in their own sex views who have done just this to their

Yesterday I wrote about St Maria Goretti, whose forgiveness of the boy who raped and stabbed her to death was heroic and made her a saint.   This morning on TV  I watched a woman no less as heroic as Maria.   She was a Christian and a black woman whose two teenage daughters had been attacked by a white man because they were black.   He attacked them with a knife and brutally stabbed both of them to death.   Like Alessandro with Maria, he stabbed them numerous times in his frenzy.     The woman was complaining that her daughters assailants by being put into prison may become radicalised and come out even worse than he was before.     But her motives were not understood by her interviewer, she was not so concerned by future victims, though I am sure she was, she really really wanted this man to come out reformed.   The interviewer asked the Christian lady if she could ever forgive the murderer of her daughters and her reply was "I have already forgiven him.   If I was to give in to

  “I’m nearly 80 years old. I’m about to depart. Looking back at my past, I can see that in my early youth, I chose a bad path which led me to ruin myself. My behavior was influenced by print, mass-media and bad examples which are followed by the majority of young people without even thinking. And I did the same. I was not worried. There were a lot of generous and devoted people who surrounded me, but I paid no attention to them because a violent force blinded me and pushed me toward a wrong way of life. When I was 20 years-old, I committed a crime of passion. Now, that memory represents something horrible for me. Maria Goretti, now a Saint, was my good Angel, sent to me through Providence to guide and save me. I still have impressed upon my heart her words of rebuke and of pardon. She prayed for me, she interceded for her murderer. Thirty years of prison followed. If I had been of age, I would have spent all my life in prison. I accepted to be condemned because it was my own fault. Li

 There is a great controversy going on in America as to whether the President should be given Communion by a priest or should the priest refuse.    Biden is supporting Abortion until birth, and indeed it is not clear what birth means.  Is it at the moment of birth where doctors will be waiting to inject the baby, or is it foetus, with a deadly injection, or will there be a consultation and decision made in one, two, three, or even four hours, or perhaps a week or even more?    And will the decision to declare the baby or foetus a human being be delayed to await the outcome?   The whole thing seems to me to be a lust for blood.   Hitler had a policy of killing babies at birth if they had any impediment that interfered with the view that they were specimens of the new Arian race he was building.   The babies were rushed away and the mothers told they had died.    What a pitiful state the world is in when what was once a horror we are now being forced to accept.  At least Hitler had a mot

 I came down from Scotland to London in 1964   I found a room at Clapham Common near Clapham Junction and went to Mass in the local Church.    They were a very friendly people these English Catholics and soon I was making friends by the dozen.   I became friendly with a black South African family and was often invited round in the evening which I did not turn down since there was a young black South African girl I had befriended.    An older man turned a cellar in his house into a club for us young people and young people from all over the world came to that cellar, black, white, and all nationalities.    I became a parish visitor for the Church and our special visits were to the newly arrived West Indian families.   I really liked their music and care free attitude.    They had wonderful humour and I became Godfather to a little West Indian boy.    I remember one time on a coach outing to Brighton I sat beside a black girl from the Cameroons, I was the envy of the black boys on the co