We mentioned last week the problems which the ordinary Catholic can meet daily in the bizarre and mysterious hothouse religious atmosphere of 21st century Scotland. We have considerable respect for our fellow Christians , whether or not they would wish it of course. Given the propensity of many of our ministers of religion , it is only natural that ‘paedo ‘ is now apparently an accepted anti-Catholic insult. This at least makes a kind of sense, since it has superseded ‘Fenian’, a reference to an outdated Irish political movement, notable only really for its tendency to use pubs as strategic planning centres.
We repeat our view that anti-Catholicism still exists in 2017 only because of the psychological phenomenon known colloquially as ‘kick the cat’, explicable against a background of extensive immigration frequently with an alien and intense religious infrastructure ,adverse comment on which, should it exist, of course, is actually illegal. .
Last week we highlighted the problems of the ordinary Catholic at work and possibly on his way home from it. But that in a sense is only a detail. What about when he or she actually gets home, to a young or teenage family ?
Here we have once more to comment briefly on celibacy, that church regulation, with no doctrinal significance, which was founded to prevent the families of married clergymen a thousand years ago from selling off church buildings , the ruins of which in 2017 dot Europe. From the Pope downwards, excluding possibly St. Pope John Paul II’s relationship , however chaste, with another man’s wife which may have just given him an inkling , the average Catholic priest knows nothing about the family life of a married Catholic. This cannot be emphasised enough, although if we are given the strength, we will give our best to do so, we assure you.
No matter how saintly the Tridentine priest, he knows nothing about being the father of a family. To avoid the possibility of misunderstanding, we repeat that the word is ‘Nothing. ‘
The only thing that the average Catholic father of a teenage family can be sure of is the message of Christ. He has had twenty years or so of avoiding the gaze of his young family when a paedophile priest appears , as is practically universal in the middle of a TV drama. But he will have done his best, as the fathers of Catholic families do, to ensure that his family has been baptised , confirmed and received the Eucharist . These occasions will have been marked, always, by a church service, and continue to be so, although ridiculed as being ‘bouncy castle Catholicism’. Although why the reception of the Eucharist should not be welcomed and made a landmark in the life of the child even if a bouncy castle is involved is entirely a matter of conscience for those who object.
Christ in the Eucharist is still the centre of their lives, and they show this by making It the centre of their very difficult attempts to carry on their loyalty – and affection- to Him.
It is a simple matter of fact that at no time in the history of the entire world has it been more possible for any section of the community to be under more pressure than the Catholic teenager.
The Augustine legacy of sexuality as evil, although a natural biological impulse , is meaningless to the world of social media in which they live. And how can we expect them to make sense of this, , without any guidance from spiritual leadership enmeshed in the Augustine nonsense ?
Obviously, there is money in sex, and every possible method of making this is utilised in making it .
How the parent of a young Catholic family can make a distinction between this constant and attractive input of informative data and living a life as Christ wished us to is as near as impossible .
And yet they do their best , despite the apparent inability of their priests to join them.
A recent investigation into the WWI history of one of our grandparents, in the Royal Irish Rifles, revealed the regimental motto of ‘Quis Separabit ?’ a motto beloved of many Irish groups, misused often for political reasons.
Its validity is none the less unaffected. It means ‘Who Shall Divide Us From the Love of Christ ? ‘
Those who run To Feed The Flock, like those who run countless other blogs and websites throughout the world, have attended Holy Thursday services, accept that the purpose of the Incarnation was to provide the world with the ultimate gift, that of the Eucharist, which would transform our lives and the world itself with all its blazing implications.
Unfortunately providing the Eucharist has been for a thousand years or so largely in the hands of a section of the Church, celibate, over-stuffed with theology and supported by a parish, and bizarrely reluctant to extend providing the Eucharist to others, although nowadays largely defunct, and unwilling to do so. And worse still, thanks to paedophily and its cover ups, not being listened to at all. The question of ‘Quis Separabit ?’ is being answered daily.
Why cannot our bishops extend the provision of the Eucharist to parishioners all over the world ? Why cannot the bishops of Scotland accept the invitation of our Pope Francis to discuss this ?
Why, when the smoke clears away, do they condone our separation from the love of Christ?