De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Cardinal Müller recently responded to some questions from Catholic World Report about his recent “ Manifesto of Faith” and reaction to it, as well as leadership in the Church, loss of faith in the Church, clericalism, and the Vatican Summit on sexual abuse. It is well worth a read here . Müller is one of a very few cardinals who has had the courage to stand up for Christ and the Church. I find this deeply heartening - there is hope!! What I find deeply disheartening is those who have uncritically (publicly at least) accepted Pope Francis and promote his direction where they once were happy to promote Pope Benedict XVI's direction. Most obviously, this draws me back to 1 Corinthians 3   where St. Paul speaks of ' men of the flesh' (3:1); immature Christians who possess the Spirit but are enslaved to worldly ways of thinking. The 'jealousy and strife' (3:3) exhibited in Corinth was proof that many of them were spiritual infants. Real Christian maturity pr...

Back in June, Fr Martin Boland, the Dean of Brentwood Cathedral, gave a lecture on the modern period as part of a diocesan centenary series. The thesis presented in this talk was The Spirit of the Second Vatican Council has been the guiding force in the life and structures of the Diocese of Brentwood over the past thirty five years . Although I found the content impeccably worded, it provides an excellent example of the "VII as rupture" school of thought. The section on the Liturgy is particularly telling. I recognise as Dean, he could hardly say much else. Yet there is a fundamental dissonance between the picture of the post-conciliar Church he paints and the reality. It left me wondering whether he really thinks like this or if he was told to say it? Fr Martin begins like this: Vatican II eschewed the forms and language of previous councils, and chose to find a more pastoral key to communicate its meaning. I would characterise this as the Second Vatican Council, the ...

From Catholic Memes, too good not to share: “I remember, when I used go to Germany in the 1980s and ’90s, that I was asked to give interviews and I always knew the questions in advance. They concerned the ordination of women, contraception, abortion and other such constantly recurring problems. If we let ourselves be drawn into these discussions, the Church is then identified with certain commandments or prohibitions; we give the impression that we are moralists with a few somewhat antiquated convictions, and not even a hint of the true greatness of the faith appears. I therefore consider it essential always to highlight the greatness of our faith – a commitment from which we must not allow such situations to divert us. ” – Address of his Holiness Benedict XVI, Thursday, 9 November 2006.

Last week my Parish Priest took a brief break and we had a retired local priest stand in at daily Mass. I don't make Mass every day- though I wish I did- work makes it difficult. But I have made a commitment to attend every Tuesday. As regular readers will know, I was away last Tuesday, travelling back from Ireland , but it was reported back to me (by my mum) that the stand in priest (who is generally a good old chap and preaches solidly at every Mass he says) spoke in his homily about the use of Latin and Vatican II (a little sense of creeping dread gripped my stomach as soon as I heard that). Basically, I was told that he said, in the context of the year of faith, that the re-introduction of Latin into the liturgy is going backwards and we have to go forwards. That is what Vatican II was all about. This brought to mind Father Tim Finnigan's recent blog post Laity! For heaven's sake don't read the texts of Vatican II  which is a rather amusing look at the way prev...

This long, self indulgent post is inspired by a conversation I had a number of weeks ago on Twitter with a self-confessed atheist.  I started writing this at Easter: I thought, at this time, just after the  annual celebration of the most sacred Triduum of the crucified, buried and risen Lord; the liturgical, theological and spiritual centre of the Church's life and the culmination of the entire liturgical year, it would be worth reflecting a little on liturgy. What is Liturgy?   Within the Roman Catholic Tradition, liturgy designates the public worship (that is, prayer) of the Church which takes place in communion with the local bishop according to the norms approved by the Roman See. To call it public designates it an activity of an assembly of believers visibly gathered. The word 'liturgy' derives from the Greek leitourgia, a word compounded from  laos  (people) and  ergon  (work). When studying my B.A. Divinity at Maryvale , I fo...