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Showing posts with the label apathy

ROT

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This is an article written by Roderick Blyth on 15 September 2010 and constitutes what he describes as a damascene moment for him. It is particularly pertinent today I think because it demonstrates where, precisely, the rot has set in and in doing so demonstrates that Pope Benedict XVI knew where it was and had a strategy to deal with it (through the catechism and his beautiful exposition of Jesus, for example).   ''On 9 September 2010 a BBC journalist called Mark Dowd presented an interesting survey of the different voices within the Catholic Church in Britain. In a passage dealing with the attitudes of the young, Mr.Dowd visited St.Benedict's Catholic School in Derby, and questioned two teenage students, shortly to form part of a delegation of young people who were to met the Pope, and then Father Joe Wheat, the Director of Youth Services in the Nottinghamshire Diocese.   'Here is the text of the interviews copied down as accurately as I could record them: 'Dowd: ...

Architects of Apathy

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If you ever wondered why Catholicism, once the faith of British intellectual elites like Newman, Tolkien, Belloc, Chesterton and Muggeridge, became something so hated and maligned in our culture, you only have to look at the silent "teachers", our bishops and British Catholics with a platform like Catherine Pepinster.  Pepinster was the first female editor of The Tablet in the newspaper's 176-year history. In 2017 she published the book The Keys and the Kingdom: The British and the Papacy from John Paul II to Francis . Pepinster would be the first to admit she has problems with some areas of Church teaching, and The Tablet has long been a forum for such discussions to take place. Although I personally welcome such discussions (I see them as the place where evangelisation takes place in the present cultural milieu), I do feel it is essential that we are properly informed about the issues. I would argue that while The Tablet has been a place where this has been discussed...