In Glasgow’s Vocations drive, Archbishop Tartaglia (Tablet October 30) refers to his sense of surprise and delight from working as a priest. His Vocations Director, Fr Ross Campbell, refers to ‘the joy and privilege’ of the priesthood, and elsewhere says ‘the Eucharist animates our ministry as priests and sustains us in our pastoral service’. In vocations mode, the Archbishop of Tuam (Tablet, October 30) states that ‘celibacy allows the priest to give himself to Christ with an undivided heart’ We must, of course, acclaim such spiritual aspirations, but what inevitably emerges , one has to say, are their personal and restricted nature.
What is needed in the world in 2015 is a quite unrestricted and universal method of providing the Eucharist. The Glasgow Vocations Drive uses a documentary called ‘Do This in Memory of Me ‘. To attempt to revive the Tridentine priesthood , although the Archdiocese does not specify if that is all it is aiming at , is to try to recreate what today is obviously a failed method of providing the Eucharist, although vocations to the religious orders are more important than ever.
Bishops all over the world seem unwilling to look at other possibilities for providing the Eucharist, the reasons for which we propose to analyse quite soon with the greatest respect, of course. Where possible, of course.
We are only one of the many websites which do our best to keep suggesting the obvious alternative. We –To Feed The Flock- have been described as being ‘ ahead of our time ‘, like our fellow bloggers.
A local idiom, positively plangent with irony, is ‘That will be right ‘.which indicates the opposite in terms sometimes in less sophisticated circles as a direct preface to physical violence . As a sophisticated circle, we reply with thanks to the magnificent George Gershwin : ‘They all laughed at Christopher Columbus, when he said the world was round.’ So there.

Nor are we afraid of a ‘Titanic’ cliché. Not the ‘rearranging the deckchairs ’ one, brilliant though it is. We would simply add our own to those who attempt to meet the spiritual hunger of the world , in particular the present and future spiritual hunger of China, the world’s greatest power , by reviving the Tridentine priesthood . You are washing and scrubbing the decks of the ‘Titanic’ as the iceberg crunches through its vitals, and the last lifeboats are being lowered.

And as for the Archbishop of Tuam…..oh come on, Your Grace !