De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

A new post on Rorate caeli from Abp. Héctor Agüer, Emeritus of La Plata, Buenos Aires and written on November 28, 2023 asks why Pope Francis appears to "hate good priests"? He states: Several priests who follow the teachings of Pope Francis with attention have expressed to me their dismay and sorrow because they have recorded how often His Holiness denigrates priests. He has called them “bitter (cod-faced), spinsters, sacramental clerks, ambitious, gossipers, climbers…,” and other denigrating epithets. A lack of justice and charity. [Mark says: I have heard this from quite a number of clergy directly: what comfort, what encouragement do you ever hear from the Holy Father for those workers in the Vineyard? Not much! What works best? Constantly attacking those who you are responsible for leading or constantly building them up and encouraging them?]. There are thousands of priests in the world; among them there are some to whom some of the epithets that Francis’ accusations acc...

This is a picture of me outside Saint John Cantius Church in North Carpenter Street, Chicago with Fr. Ryan Brady. Brady has been ordained for just 2 years but that after discerning the priesthood for a long period of time. He joined the Seminary then left and worked in Catholic charities, before discerning the truth of his vocation and returning to finish his studies and was ordained on May 19th, 2021 at the 12:30 pm Mass celebrated by Cardinal Blase Cupich. His first Mass at St. Christina parish on the Southside took place on May 23rd, 2021.  We were introduced to Fr. Brady at another beautiful Chicago Church: St Mary of the Angels  and we were all struck by his charisma and also his knowledge and obvious love of Chicago, as well as, most importantly, the city's Catholic history and character. Something we had not really anticipated at all before arriving. Fr. Brady was one of a number of inspirational young priests we met. He demonstrated a deep knowledge and love of the pe...

The Rev. Dr. Michael Halsall is the Director of Curriculum Development at Allen Hall Seminary, Westminster and a Priest in the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. This means he knows a bit about what it means to be a priest and what it takes to form young men for the priesthood. It also means he knows the ground: he knows what is going on currently in the Church with regard to vocations and priestly formation. He gave a most excellent homily for Good Shepherd Sunday (last Sunday) which I thought I would share with you here: The earliest known image that we have of Jesus, is of a man carrying a sheep over his shoulders, with another sheep standing/following close by. He is dressed very roughly, with a leather jerkin and sandals; no robe, no hat or ring of office. The image was found in the Catacombs which lie just outside the city of Rome, where Christians chose to be buried when it was unsafe to bury bodies in the city during the plague seasons. In our technical, digitally mesmerisi...

The Church in Korea, which is currently benefitting from bountiful priestly vocations, has been further enriched with 20 new priests. Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, Archbishop of Seoul, Ordained 20 new priests on February 5th. The ceremony was attended by large numbers of the faithful, so much so that the celebration had to be held in the huge hall of the Olympic Park in Seoul. The local Church reported that the Archdiocese of Seoul celebrates an Ordination Mass every year, with an average of 30 new priests ordained. Over the past 20 years, Ordinations in Seoul have always been higher than twenty priests a year. The statistics of the last three years are: 21 new priests in 2013; 36 in 2014; 25 in 2015. The ordination Mass takes its theme from Cardinal Yeom’s pastoral Letter, just published, entitled "Teachings of the Church: the compass of the new evangelisation" (GREAT TITLE!!), while the verse reference chosen is "How beautiful is your love ". The wealth...

Perhaps this is the perfect antidote to my last post . 10 priests from the diocese of Arundel & Brighton, UK, speak of their JOY in priesthood as part of the diocesan Golden Jubilee celebrations. Their love for the priesthood is moving and inspiring. Particularly of note is what they have to say about the importance of Confession, both the humbling experience of hearing Confession and the way in which this leads them to their own Confession. This is the metanoia which is at the heart of the Gospel and which we seem to be missing from much of our experience of faith these days. This Greek word is associated with the English word "repentance", but in psychological terms, relates to the process of experiencing a "break down" and subsequent, positive psychological re-building or "healing". When we hear the Good News of Jesus, we "change our minds" and recognise our own need for healing. This awakening to our need for grace drives us to examine...

It is so confusing for our children these days as the gay agenda moves forward with unstoppable momentum and screaming "bigot!" as loud as possible at anyone who dares raise a voice of concern or disagreement. This strikes me particularly at the moment with the "Gay Marriage" thing being debated in Ireland as Bruvver Eccles alludes to here . The desperate reality strikes me as I lead forty young people in my parish toward Confirmation. Just their understanding of relationships reveals a quite shocking breakdown in any concept of what constitutes Marriage, let alone Catholic teaching; and these are good, normal, Catholic kids. The plight of our children can only be made worse because the source of clear teaching on these matters, The Church, seems, in places, rather at odds with itself. Sadly, some priests prevaricate on this issue which can ultimately achieve nothing else but to lead their flocks into confusion and dismay. Or they say nothing, which leads par...

That Vocations to the Priesthood are in crisis is an internationally accepted reality. I don't think it is rocket science to work out why either. To be a Catholic today is to be attacked by Catholics. I think Pope Benedict XVI went a long way to sorting this out, by making the essentials of the faith clear and that led many who felt disenfranchised in a community which no longer practised what it preached to feel part of the Church once more. However I do think the fundamental malaise remains and that is that many don't like other Catholics who take their faith seriously, some priests as well as lay people! As Father Alexander Lucie-Smith points out in The Catholic Herald today: "People who oppose Catholic teaching from within the Catholic Church, particularly from within the institutional Church, always feel a huge amount of pain when challenged, and are never reticent about sharing it. They usually ignore, however, the pain they cause to ordinary believing ...

Lou & I really did have the most splendid weekend. I actually had a rather splendid week, with our year six leaver's Mass on Monday night, a meeting on Tuesday night which afforded the opportunity for a cheeky Nando's (which I will never pass up), and then a day at Berry Bros & Rudd's Wine School on Thursday with my brother-in-law to learn all about Spanish wine (which was, I have to say, absolutely excellent, and very enjoyable). On Friday however, we were fortunate enough to be invited to attend the Priestly Ordination of Stefan Kaminski, bestowed by Archbishop Vincent Nichols, with Mgr Keith Newton, and a host of other clergy, at Our Lady of Victories , Kensington High Street. The Church was looking magnificent, the reredos having been recently renovated, it provided a fitting setting for such a special occasion. I met Stefan's mum about eight years ago, when we started a degree course at Maryvale  together. Stefan had just started studying for the pri...