A recent statistic, obviously from 2019, showed a Mass attendance in Lanarkshire of 19%. But this is just for Sunday Mass. It seems to be the case generally that it’s a different story where baptisms, first communions and confirmations are concerned. Moreover, large numbers of those present go to Communion in numbers which do not relate to those who receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The conclusion here is that Catholics are very well aware of the values of the world that their children live in, are anxious to give them the spiritual insulation of the Sacraments but withdraw the hem of their garments from the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church as the means of providing them.

Who first called them Bouncy Catholics I don’t know, but some Irish priests has had the impertinence to do a little dance of rage about them on the internet, a bouncy castle being found, as we all know, to be a feature of many First Communion celebrations. As if the greatest day in a child’s life should not be made as memorable as possible, even if a bouncy castle appears. A much more powerful and sad nickname might be Catacomb Catholics. The Irish priesthood, one would imagine, already has much more important things to worry about, as we will see below.

The Apostolic Succession is how we describe the transmission of the powers given to the Apostles by Christ Himself to the Church down the centuries to us and into future centuries. Bishops are here to provide a visible or concrete way of doing this, and therefore they decide who are to be bishops, and in turn they decide who are to be ordained to provide the Sacraments. It makes sense. Are there any alternative methods? But there is a problem. If a bishop blows a fuse in some way, he can be expelled from the Church as an organisation. But the other bishops can’t then say “Yah,,Boo,Hiss- he’s not a bishop any more.” But he is, and if they do they are denying the Apostolic Succession. You can’t unbishop a bishop. Or unpriest those he ordains as priests. Or unsacrament their sacraments. This has caused a great deal of mitre-scratching over the years. Already an Irish priest has got himself consecrated as a bishop. Therefore he’s a bishop, whatever the Curia monsignors say. In China, it’s a very real problem, with some bishops apparently being as willing to sing “TheRed Flag” as “Faith of our Fathers”.Apparently, the same kind of thing may have happened in Brazil .It’s a bit like playing golf and ignoring the Royal and Ancient. But it’s still golf. The word “schismatic” is then thrown about freely, but who cares? The Flock just wants the Sacraments.

All this nonsense could have been stopped if the Roman Rite allowed lay people, validly, ordained, to say Mass. After all, they did so for about a thousand years. If you look at our archives, you’ll see that this blog tried to push this for years. But now we’re rather ashamed of that. It’s too late now. All we’ve been doing, quite unconsciously, is advocating artificial respiration for a section or “Rite” of the Church which produced so many paedophile priests and covered this up.

What can we do? As you may or may not know, the Church has 23 sections other than the Roman Rite section. Pope St John Paul II knew. Pope Francis knows. Each started a new section, in 201o and 2015 respectively. What is to keep Pope Francis from adding as many new sections as we need, to run alongside the 24 ? I wish I knew.

Imagine your own parish, as part of the Atlantic Rite, comprising England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, run by a bishop who belongs to one of the religious orders- and STJPII consecrated many of them. Say 5 or 10 parishioners are elected and validly ordained to say Mass, and provide most other Sacraments. Just that. No confession- just General Absolution, sermons provided by the orders by e-mail. Some will say- you know who they are!- that we can’t have a taxi driver or a joiner or the assistant manager at Tesco’s saying Mass. Why not? It ‘s the Apostolic Succession.

I don’t know about you, but if I take a turn in the kitchen and am lying on the floor looking up at the handles on the oven, waiting for the duty Ordained Celebrant, who might be the joiner, I’m not going to say “Stop! He may not be familiar with the works of St Thomas Aquinas or St Jerome !” I’m going to be saying “Some of you see if he’s coming down the street.”

You know it makes sense.