Portsmouth Roman Catholic

 A friend of mine started reading about the Councils of Nicea and Trent.   He was so surprised at what he found that he put his findings on a post on Facebook.   He got so many positive responses from all over the world that he was shocked.   I told him that I had had discovered about two years books on the Early Fathers and my posts since then had had great interest from Catholics all over the world.    Now I have recently been criticising a non approach to evangelisation from those who were given the task to enable it.   What is missing in their work is the teaching of the Early Church.   Somehow they support the critics of the Church who claim that the Catholic Church made up all their teachings throughout the ages and misled the Christian people, so what must be done is to refute these teachings and put the laity in closer union with Christ.    The Church they claim is just an institution and can change its t...

 There were two items on this week's Portsmouth diocese E-newsletter.   One was the report on the survey called A Thousand Voices.    A very small number took part in this, and really it presented what one person thought against the opinions of another.   Indeed the whole exercise was based on contrary opinions which took us absolutely nowhere, and what positives we can take from it is a mystery. There was another report from the Department of Evangelisation.   It was a very positive document in that it discussed nothing of any relevance.   How is our failure in Catholic Schools coming along, well it covered it the way it has for forty years, it said nothing but apparently another catechism will be introduced which will land up in a corner of the staff room like other catechisms over that period.   But it gave out good news.   The young people want climate change tackled and so they were described as 'onside' wit...

 There are very down to earth things I believe about the relationship between Jesus and Mary.   I believe that Mary was the mother of Jesus and that Jesus loved her very much.   He loved her as a son loves a mother, and more there is no evidence to suggest that in Heaven his love for his mother is not still the same as it was on earth.  The role of Mary on earth was to take this 'Son of God' as a baby into her bosom, give birth to him, and as he grew help him in his daily life to mature and grow in wisdom.   He became after the incident in the Temple where Joseph and Mary eventually found him discussing scripture, 'subject to Joseph and Mary'. At the 'enlightenment' that came in the 70's I heard feminists speak of their hero Mary, but it was not the mother of Jesus they spoke of but for some reason Mary Magdalen.    In their ignorance they thought that Mary had a wonderful life and all she had to do was keep her mouth shut, and indeed al...