We were asked recently if we were ‘still battering the bishops’, obviously by someone who completely misunderstands this blog. Now for a start, if this odd expression were our purpose , there would be no doubt about it, we assure you. We simply try to help to make it clear what our bishops are saying at the end of 2015.
At the plenary meeting of the English and Welsh bishops in November, a motion put forward by Bishop Seamus Cunningham of Hexham and Newcastle on behalf of the Council of Priests in his diocese to ordain married men as priests was rejected. Bishop Cunningham agreed that this would allow the faithful ‘not to be starved of the Sacraments , especially the Eucharist’, but pointed out that many of the bishops felt that the priesthood and celibacy were a symbol of an interior dedication to Christ and were intimately linked. He added that ‘any separation of them as a norm of the Church would change the nature of how we see the priesthood.’
To summarise that objectively for the busy reader, without , we hope giving offence, or ‘bishop battering’, the bishops of England and Wales are more interested in their image than in providing the Eucharist.
We hope that this will clear us of charges of ‘bishop battering’. Such a site would have said, ’The bishops of England and Wales aren’t too worried about what was said at the Last Supper, or what this Pope says either.’ We hope this will clear up any misunderstanding. We would be interested , however, in googling a ‘bishop battering’ site . If you know one, please get in touch.