Canon Law-1917-2017 Part 1

21 Tuesday Nov 2017

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So far there has not been much notice taken of one of this year’s centenaries. Pope Francis of course mentioned it, stressing its positive value. Like the Bible , it is, of course not so much a book as a bookshelf, and it has always reminded us of those wonderful Newnes handbooks produced for every car ever heard of, in the days when normal human beings could service their own car, with instructions for everything from repairing the car cigarette lighter upwards,.
We are not cynical on this blog- now just imagine if we really were. Moreover, all we’re saying about conspiracy theories is that they can’t all be wrong. OK? But we are saying that given the enormous value of Canon Law to our bishops, both as an administrative instrument and and a removal of the necessity for thinking, we must ask one question,. Do they not want the general public to realise that Canon Law as it stands dates only back to 1917 ? Hell, we’ve got members not much younger than that. Is it possible that there are Catholics who believe it was put together on the Sunday after Pentecost in the upper room by the Apostles ? In passing, it is interesting how often the word ‘apostolic’ is misused. Wasn’t the word often used to describe Papal Delegates ? Maybe this is why Archbishop Mennini did not reply to Feed The Flock’s registered letter- I mean were there stamps and postmen then ? Sorry.
Ray Bradbury, in his short story ‘A Sound Of Thunder’, describing how a Tyrannus Rex is killed, mentiones how this process took quite a while, parts of it still clicking and whirring for possibly hours later. You may think it fanciful’ although we quite like the idea, to compare this to the slow death of the First Vatican Council before Vatican 2. Clicking and whirring , we put it to you, still goes on in two particular areas as the movement towards confining the provision of the Eucharist in general to the Tridentine priesthood grows stronger.
Two of the obstacles to this from Canon Law are of course the insistence on celibacy and the ban on general absolution. This blog has many reference to the celibacy thing and many wonderful quotations from clerics about its value to them which we hope you constantly refer to and enjoy, especially the parts about it being invaluable for the Church’s possession of so many buildings in the 12th century which are now mere heaps of ruins all over Europe.
The other obstacle is General Absolution, and the necessity of having sins forgiven twice by the recipient. We cannot hope to reach the heights of textual exegesis no doubt attained in our seminaries- remember them? –but we simply cannot find in the Gospels any reference to this at the Last Supper. It must be mentioned here, keeping in mind the number of convicted paedophile priests allowed to return to parish work, and therefore to hear confessions, that this may be an explanation of the moribund nature of the Sacrament of Reconciliation., another of course being a calcification of the Humane Vitae thing. But that is not for us to comment on just now.
What is really quite remarkable is the attachment of some priests to the actual process of giving absolution. We don’t imagine that this comes up much in conversation with priests, for those of us who undertake this, but the invaluable internet certainly tells us how they feel about it. The emphasis is very frequently on how wonderful an experience this is for the priest, one of them pointing out that he would rather hear confessions than provide the Eucharist. Google ‘general absolution’ and you’ll find them.
Lacking years of theological education we may do, but to be quite blunt, we do not think that providing wonderful experiences for priests is what the Sacrament of Reconciliation is for . And if the bizarre insistence of Canon Law on auricular confession of already forgiven sins is taking people away from the Eucharist, then Canon Law is acting against the Eucharistic imperative at the Last Supper.

Celibacy? It’s Alive !

12 Sunday Nov 2017

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Until today, we thought there were no more laughs to be gained from necessity of being celibate to bring the Eucharist to the Flock as Christ told us. And we are including the contribution made by the Bishop of Shrewsbury, already mentioned. In all charity, we’re not going to mention this priest’s name, or the website it’s in. We don’t make these things up, as you will know, If only we had to ! But it’s worth a laugh .
As we all know, it is beginning to be recognised what a stupid thing it was to make celibacy compulsory in the 12th century, to prevent the priest’s family from selling off the church buildings once he died. It should have taken only a century or so’s thought to find some other way. Instead it’s been going on since then, with who knows what damage to the Church. Like, say, the Reformation for starters?
Anyway, God bless him, he’s doing his best.
He says that the debate on married clergy ‘often focuses on pragmatic questions , it usually ignores the rich theological reasons behind the celibate priesthood’. If there has ever been the slightest doubt about celibacy being an obstacle in providing the Eucharist, we would say that that is so pragmatic a question it takes us right back to the Last Supper. Even after a minute or two’s thought, we have to admit that this is a point which has to put the Incarnation in question. Just a thought.
‘Jesus Christ Himself never married, and there’s something about imitating the life our Lord in full that is very attractive’ he tells us. I think we have to wonder how far making the lives of priests in the 21st century attractive is part of the Gospel message . It is certainly not mentioned at the Last Supper.
We have often felt that the Tridentine priesthood likes to give itself a pat n the back for celibacy, but his next remark takes this point of view unbelievably far into the next world. Ready?
‘Christ himself said that no one would be married or given in marriage in heaven and therefore celibacy is a sign of the beatific vision’ (name of priest) pointed out.
We recovered only briefly from paroxsysms of laughter, to fall into them again at the phrase ‘pointed out’. ‘Married life will pass away when we behold God face to face and become part of the bridal church’ (name) added. ‘The celibate is more of a direct symbol of that ‘
As we used to say when we were young, ‘Waow!’
It’s quite sad, all this. All we can do is pray for people who still think making sure that world gets the Eucharist is less important than getting it from unmarried men.

Must We Have Old Priests Where is it written?

07 Tuesday Nov 2017

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After a pause caused by house selling , we hasten back to assure you that the person holding a card with an offensive comment about the Pope at a darts competition in Glasgow which was on television is not immediately identifiable. It’s just a kind of local thing , and not just the kind of anti-Francis stuff which is so brilliantly described in the current edition of La Croix International, which we have just discovered on the net, and can strongly recommend . We’re quite used to this here , and can now almost see it as a kind of folk festival.
The man of the moment is again Bishop Krautler of Brazil. Now retired as bishop, he is still as active as ever , motivated by the simple fact that 90% of his former flock cannot receive the Eucharist , because of the shortage of Tridentine priests. This interest does not make him unique among bishops- the bishops in Indonesia, for instance, have been complaining about this for years- but it certainly makes him an unusual figure among the rest of the bishops world-wide who were asked to present possible schemes for the ordination of parishioners to ensure that the Flock receives the Eucharist In other words, he is still trying to do something about it. Yes, about making sure that people receive the Eucharist , as Christ asked.
He reminds us of Bishop Fritz Lobinger of South Africa, who some years ago suggested that priests be ordained from parishes without seminary education, for the simple purpose of providing the Eucharist. We had not come across Bishop Lobinger before we started this blog . All we say is- well there you are now. It’s not just us. We are prepared to accept that it is not just great minds which think alike, but anybody with common sense.
In one version of his recent statements , however, there has been attached to his comments, the idea of viri probati . We doubt if he meant by this the idea that the ordination of some elderly parishioner in place of some elderly Tridentine priest is going to lead to a storming of our churches by age-obsessed teenagers .
We know teenagers. You know teenagers. If it didn’t happen last Thursday, and it wasn’t on their phones, it could not have happened. This is not a criticism , we hasten to add, all of us having teenage relations. It’s a thing they’re stuck with . It’s the intellectual equivalent of the Black Death. But apart from that, they are always going to have to live with the cultural phenomenon that has made, is making, and will continue to make the Tridentine priest a possible or previous or future paedophile. It is a cultural fact, happening, event. Or milestone
What is this viri probati nonsense all about? We have an idea, but it’s not for this blog. Away back when , before television, priests were ordained all over the world usually on the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul . Thousands of them ! And they were all about 25! Yes, 25! Young men, and warmly welcomed despite that dreadful handicap of being young and living in the present century and with at least a rough idea of what life was about for teenagers, despite their seminary education.
Why not now? Why not ordain in a parish a taxi driver or a newsagent or a supermarket assistant manager, somebody they know who can bring them the Eucharist without all the horrendous baggage of association with the paedophile scandals and their cover up ?
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Et Tu Bergoglio?(if accurately quoted)

07 Thursday Sep 2017

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Pope Francis is quoted a lot. Possibly therefore he is misquoted a lot. We’re prepared to give him all kinds of leeway. If he’s asked a long question and says ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ , did he necessarily have time to examine the question carefully? We know, we know, we’re on his side.
In March he was extensively quoted on the subject of ‘viri probati’, or ‘approved men’, a concept dreamt up by Emeritus Pope Benedict for keeping control of ordained laymen. Worse still, he was quoted as actually saying’older viri probati’.We have searched the internet diligently , and there are only some references to ‘older’ when this quote is mentioned. So who knows? But just in case, we propose with all due deference and respect, and certainly more than we would give to StJP2or EPBen to lay about us.
If you have and have always had a full-time job in the Vatican, and you are in your late seventies or eighties, we have to put it to you that you have never had anyone say to you ‘Do you know what the hell you’re talking about ?’ (Add being a Jesuit Provincial to Pope Francis’s case). Go quite far down the pecking order and add old Mgr X or old canon XXX (yes him!) in Glasgow. Has it ever happened ? Or have just always confused the clergyman with his function?
Anyway, another time for that, but we have to put the question, fearlessly as ever, to Pope Francis.
‘Probati’? Approved? Approved by whom? We prefer to speak only of the Church in Scotland, beginning with, of course, Cardinal O’Brien , and working our way down the list of pederasts, mistress-keepers and embezzlers who have disfigured its work in recent years. But we will not do so, even if only because this PC is on its last legs. They were all approved. We know nothing personally of , say, the Church in the USA other than what we see in Oscar –winning films, or in Australia /from what we read in best sellers like Thomas Keneally’s latest. We wish we had a German correspondent.
Effective and efficient approval, we will say, has not been a gift given those in the Church whose business, even after six years or so in a seminary, is assessing candidates for the priesthood. A parish is a community, sometimes far flung, sometimes in a city. To regard it simply as a collection of faces beyond the altar rails is a mistake.
The suggestion that a parish would select , among those whom it would choose as being worthy of being Ordained Celebrants , those who are unworthy is a slap in the face to any parish, a vibrant and infinitely complex network of family and social relationships , and frequently uncharitably so assessed. Would any parish choose for election a sexual adventurer, a pederast or an embezzler to represent it? And if some chancer should escape scrutiny, we must remember that 8.5% of the Apostles betrayed Christ Himself.
Approved forsooth, the latter word being one we have always wanted to use.
We are reluctant to believe that Pope Francis said’elderly’.This is where we have to ask even Pope Francis if he knows what he is talking about. It is also a criticism of celibacy, and its failure to provide a life lived among the young.
We find a succession of rhetorical questions incredibly irritating We will simply make a series of statements . If you disagree, you know where we are. We remind you that the average age of members of To Feed The Flock is 80 plus.
Teenagers think anybody over 21 is middle-aged. The expression ’coffin-dodgers’ is widespread, and applicable to anyone over 40. ‘Elderly’ is commonly considered a euphemism for Alzheimer’s. Those between 30 and 40, who have fought the good fight and are still church-going, don’t really know what life is like in 2017. A 70 year old is a dodderer, be he lay or clergyman. Older people have let the Church become what it is today,without challenging Cardinal O’Brien and his like. If an old man can relate to Christ and his teaching, therefore how can he relate to life as a Catholic adolescent? Those who remember Stephen Fry must ask-what would he have said?
All of these ideas help to keep the third lost generation from the Eucharist.
Elderly? Come, come, Pope Francis, if you actually said this.

Why Can’t We All Get The Eucharist?

13 Sunday Aug 2017

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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?

What Do They Know Of Catholics In Real Life , In 2017?

06 Sunday Aug 2017

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Being a Catholic in Glasgow is not easy. Historically, Catholics are either of Irish or Highland descent, with an exotic Italian component. All three elements immigrated to the city with nothing, and were , rightly, suspected of working for less than the locals, although little notice has ever been taken of the local employers who welcomed them for working for less. Their religion has traditionally therefore been used as an excuse for hostility , although this situation is now almost 200 years old. There may also be a racial component, Irish and Highlanders being easily lumped together as being different from Scottish Lowlanders. The religious element, despite the almost abandonment of Scottish Protestantism in churchgoing terms , still seems to be the most important. When we moved to a block of flats, our religious affiliation was apparently of importance, in 1995, to at least one of the other tenants, and one which was investigated immediately.
This, obviously, is inexplicable, and one of the great mysteries of life in Scotland. The annual- or more frequent-folk processions celebrating the defeating of Catholic forces in a battle in Ulster, although this was also celebrated by the contemporary Pope plays a small but irritating part in this, and one which the Church of Scotland – and ordinary Protestantism- distances itself from.
Well,Catholics are different. Apparently nowadays red-headed children are persecuted in the playground, They are different, after all. It is now illegal in 2017 to show any kind of discrimination towards immigrants, many of whom, in so many ways, are very different indeed from the indigenous population of West Central Scotland. We assure you that we are wary of anything approaching paranoia , suggesting perhaps that the existing hostility towards Catholics is what the psychologists would call displacement, towards some of our more recent immigrants. Who knows? It is perhaps the greatest mystery of life in Scotland today.
Many Glaswegians live in housing schemes, consisting of tenement buildings of three storeys, entered by a common entry, or ‘close’, and live literally on top of each other. Given the mysterious antipathy towards Catholics which we have mentioned , a normal social life can be maintained, but with difficulty if a preponderance – or even one- of the neighbours shares this antipathy.
At work, the Catholic will find himself an object of curiosity. The days of well-known firms being unwilling to employ Catholics seem to be over. But in the work environment, it is not difficult to imagine being ‘different’ as still a problem , sometimes as mere curiosity, and other times as the mysterious hostility we have mentioned. Why should this exist among fellow workers?
Quite justifiably, in West Central Scotland, given what can nowadays only be called the pretensions of their leaders, like Cardinal O’Brien and the other priests , especially those tried and found guilty of pederasty , Catholics can have a hard row to hoe, both at work and at home in their tenement flats , and on a daily basis, and with no hope of this ever changing .
We have to ask when are the Bishops of Scotland, leaders of their flock , ever going to do something about this?
We are reluctant to suggest that they are reluctant to offend in some way the Vatican Civil Service or Curia . In our humility, we are reluctant to imagine that the possibility of mere earthly promotion within the Church can in any way affect their thinking, however unlikely that this can ever be ,given the general condition of the Church in Scotland. Another Cardinal O’Brien- forget it !
A new and radical approach to bringing Christ and the Eucharist to Scotland , as opposed to sitting and watching the present slow disintegration of Church governance is long overdue.
And yet this week we have yet another priest accused of behaviour unbecoming a priest ,or rather the kind of behaviour which priests claim to personify.
The ordinary Catholic must think of the snide comment of a neighbour passing in the close, or the apparently merely curious query of a workmate, or even the very barbed comment of a workmate.
And having to experience that , or its possibility, every day.

We’ve Got Those Old Gospel Blues Again

23 Sunday Jul 2017

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It was announced recently that 12 men were to be ordained, in Scotland, a twenty
year old high. Bishop Keenan of Paisley expressed considerable delight at this, commenting :
“There is a huge amount to be done to restore to Scotland the Christian strength whose absence lies at the heart of so many of our recent and perplexing anxieties and there is a sense that God is raising up such leaders for this task of our times.”
1. First, we must congratulate with deep respect those ordained as Tridentine priests at the present time. Prince Charles once expressed his bafflement at what love might be ; whatever ‘vocation’ may be, they certainly have it. Although there are taxi drivers newsagents and shop managers perhaps also with the vocation to bring the Eucharist to their parishes, but are not allowed to do so. But later.
2. To be really critical, we would have to know exactly- and we mean exactly- what Bishop Keenan said. If he has a sense perhaps that this restoration of Christian strength could be done in any way at all through the media, he can forget it. Even the meanest reporter nowadays has some kind of academic degree. If mustard is to be cut, a theology degree from a seminary won’t do it. In any case, the media is vermiculate with would-be opinion shapers, from professional Socialists to the real thing. A religious line? Oh, come on. Perhaps Bishop Keenan does not realise why ‘Father Ted’ was invented, and is constantly repeated.
3. Perhaps the most interesting part of Bishop Keenan’s statement is:’ there is a sense that God is raising up such leaders for this task of our times’
We saw the first TV Christmas advert last week, and we will soon see advertised Christmas cakes absolutely packed with luscious goodies. We must say we felt the Bishop’s remark produced similar vibes , for anyone at all critical about the Tridentine priesthood..Every now and then we feel we have to assure our readers that there is not a vestige on this website – nor will there ever be- of the kind of anti-clericalism to be found in Socialism, Communism or the rest. We will merely refer you to the next paragraph.
4. The technical difficulty of religious leaders being allowed to lead publicly is the least significant feature of what we have read as Bishop Keenan’s comments. The most tragic is his apparent belief that anyone who has lost ’Christian strength’ will listen to it being advocated, especially in Scotland.
The previous sentence has not been framed for dramatic effect. It is one of the twin beliefs on which this blog is based, the other being bafflement as to why the Tridentine clergy will not let anyone else provide the Eucharist , by definition Christ’s gift of ‘Christian strength’
5.. Bishop Keenan speaks as a bishop in Scotland.. We’ll be concise.
(a) Cardinal O’Brien and sexual adventurism. Nuff said.
(b) the See of Argyle and the Isles. Nuff said.
(c) special commission to deal with clerical paedophily. Nuff said
(d) a church court to punish a clerical whistle blower, and his parishioners forbidden to pray for him by his successor ,according to the local borad sheet.
6. But that’s just Scotland. , a mere footnote in the history of why the Flock , and in particular those who have had to leave it, is not really going to listen to the Tridentine priesthood. Assuming there will be those to write it- and read-it- the demise of the Tridentine priesthood will figure in cultural history alongside the ‘Titanic’ , possibly the greatest phenomenon of the present era .(We’ll keep the symbolism for another blog, if you don’t mind, despite the temptation to define Bishop Keenan as ordering new deckchairs. No, we’ll leave it. )
As we can all see, our culture today is a media culture. And where in it is the Tridentine priest?
(a).he and his cover-ups are the subject of an Oscar winning film
(b) in literature, best selling author Thomas Keneally- and no doubt others- have written novels about it.
(c) most significant of all, on TV the Tridentine priest is up there with the zombie – or even beyond- as the Ultimate Villain. Find a TV series, be it crime or soap with a Tridentine priest, and you will find a paedophile. In the more genteel series, he may have run away with someone’s husband :, in the most genteel, usually produced in the Seventies, just with someone’s wife.
Television programmes are now sold all over the world in umpteen languages, and in all of them , one way or another, the Tridentine priest is quite clearly one of a group who has let the side down. As a human being in 2017, his contribution to civilisation is considered to be not much better than the drug dealer. And there are many similarities. That this is a tragedy for the Church, created to provide the Eucharist for its flock , is obvious. We cannot forget the personal tragedy for the thousands of ordinary selfless and dutiful priests, who have given their live s to the Church, and are lumped willy-nilly along with the perverts, and have to live daily with this.
6. Our point is this. Bishop Keenan seems to see a future for the Tridentine priesthood.
To Feed The Flock thinks that there is no future for it. In other words, there is no future for the only method accepted by the leaders of the Church , other than the religious orders, for the provision of the Eucharist. We know our constant references to the Gospels must be boring , but Christ did say :’Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.’. We’re not theological students, but we have read the Gospels many times , and we can’t find any reference to their provision being the exclusive province of celibate who have studied theology for six years and are supported by a parish. We can’t ! We’ve looked over and over !
Why cannot the extension of ordination to parishioners throughout the world be accepted, or even discussed by the bishops, as Pope Francis has asked?

Snippets From the Vatican

17 Monday Jul 2017

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There are 3 quite good Irish ‘leaving the chapel’ jokes, one with two men, two with two women

1. The PP is obviously suffering from Alzheimer’s: every sermon for years ,whatever the start, has moved to the parable of ‘A men went up to the temple to pray’. One man says to the other: ‘It was a dam bad day for this parish when that man went up to pray’
2. Two old biddies leaving a special service to pray for the canonisation of Blessed Martin Porres. One says to the other: ‘It’s just like the town council; once they’re in, they forget all about you’.
3. Possibly the same two, leaving the after a mission sermon on marriage : ‘I wish I knew as little about it as him’
We write shortly after the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul, a date on which all over the world many ordinations took place. These were not of seasoned veterans of a lifetime , battered , bloody but far from unbowed by the vagaries of our existence, eye narrowed with experience and its corollary caution, not cynical but constantly struggling to avoid being so. These were 25 year olds who had spent the previous 6 years insulated and isolated in a seminary. And we loved them! Parishioners fought to receive their blessing, a phenomenon which deserves actually another blog. Age meant nothing!
And looking at the Church just now, and at some of its cardinals in particular, we are reminded of the two old ladies and the sermon on marriage.
What does a 75 year plus cardinal k now about life as a young married Catholic with a young family ? What did they ever know about it?
Let’s look at the three cardinals making the news this month. Cardinal Sarah – of whom a little goes a long way, in our opinion- appears again. You’ll remember that he wants us to attend mass pointing in a particular point of the compass. Cardinal Tagle of the Philippines-`usually reasonably sensible- wants priests to stop beginning Mass by saying ‘Good morning’ to the congregation. To be fair, we get his point, but how many parishes in the Philippines are without priests?
And of course, there’s Cardinal Pell. We may be wrong here-perhaps someone can enlighten us- but was not Cardinal Pell a member of the ‘why can’t they just make a spiritual communion?’ school before Pope Francis was elected. We may be wrong; enlighten us. At any rate, we suggest looking at last week’s ‘Tablet’ and making up your mind about exactly what Cardinal Pell’s relationship to the Last Supper may be.
For some reason we have been distracted even as we type by the interesting concept of the collective noun. Is there one for clowns?
As the millions of disenchanted Catholics, especially those bringing up a young family- or those who can be bothered today- look on and wonder what the hell is happening, one asks what would be so bad about appointing to govern the Church cardinals who are in their thirties or maybe an occasional one in his twenties- you know, people in touch with everyday life?
But perhaps some day soon the Pope’s next cohort of new cardinals may be in their thirties. Remembering how we greeted the young priests, can this do any harm? You know, having the Church governed by people who actually live in 2017 ?
Organising a party is difficult. Organising a champagne party can be more difficult. Organising a champagne party on a world-wide scale might present problems, but what a night it would be!

Another Cardinal Offence

29 Monday May 2017

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What is it with these old churchmen?
‘It seems the Vatican- China deal is not proceeding . That’s good !’ This is not a statement from some battle-scarred old Stalinist commissar, veteran of the Long March you will be interested to know , but from Cardinal Zen. This belligerent 85 year old has intervened, and not for the first time, into the infinitely delicate and complex negotiations which may yet help to bring the Eucharist to the millions in China seeking spiritual sustenance. That is his contribution. It is difficult to follow exactly what his problem is , a constant difficulty with the older person .
Sometimes, if we understand him correctly, he seems to be against any kind of agreement with the Chinese Government seeing this as a betrayal in some way of those who were and still are being persecuted ,.The fact that they put themselves in this situation in the hope of ultimately bringing about the kind of agreement , and China back into the Church, he is moaning about seems to be too difficult for him to grasp. The ‘Catholic Herald’ however suggests another solution, and we quote: ‘What seems to rile the Cardinal most about the proposed deal is that he and other bishops from China have been left out of the discussion. ‘ We haven’t space , but a look in his Wikipedia might be instructive.
Interestingly, he was made a Cardinal by who else-no not him- but Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. And he has emerged once more from retirement, like the celebrated cuckoo from the clocks in his native Black Forest, to suggest with as much sense as the cuckoo , that we all stand by Cardinal Sarah, he who is so keen about which direction one looks when saying Mass. Our Latin is rusty, but it would have been nice to tell him that if the heat was so bad, why does he not stay permanently out of the kitchen. He would have understood the Latin , naturally. But why can’t he understand that he could simply be confusing people, and that nobody in 2017 really cares what he thinks ?
What happened to all the finger-wagging about humility, and accepting God’s will to which we have often been subjected so unnecessarily ? Do these not apply to these bothersome and infinitely tedious old men ? Retire them? Can we not sack them?

Theology and the Ya-Yah-Yi-Yah-Yah Approach

07 Sunday May 2017

Posted by in Religious

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The Hungry Forties were a long time ago. From the Highlands and Ireland many thousands came to Glasgow. There was certainly a slightly later visitor to my family who, pointed at the Anderston tenement, assumed we owned all of it and not just the room and kitchen. I’ve heard this was a common mistake, especially by those straight from black houses and mud cabins.
But some of us have done quite well. I’ve heard rumours there has been a Catholic doctor in Glasgow since then. And maybe even a Catholic lawyer ! It’s obviously a Loch Ness monster kind of thing but there’s a silly rumour going about that Highland and Irish Catholics have reached every academic height that can be reached, here and elsewhere , not to mention their commercial ability. No, really. People have said that !
If we can accept universal literacy and the rest of it for the poor Paddies and Cheuchters, why do we have to accept without saying something about the nonsense which has appeared in the Catholic Press re the numbers of Catholics attending Mass ?
It’s apparently a wonderful thing that there are or will be more Catholics than other denominations attending church. At a time when Islam is on the march, that’s irrelevant. The Incarnation, on which Christianity is based , is just an international sporting entity, and at the minute the Catholic Church is winning in terms of points, or goals, or strokes or cups or whatever the hell athletes are competing for nowadays.
To be logical , and I’m in alien territory here, when there’s only one Tridentine priest left and no ministers left, we’ve won?
I tried again this year to watch in its fullness ‘The Passion of the Christ’ by Mel Gibson, but could not do so. This brilliant film, I suggest, is probably as near as we will ever get to a spectator’s view of what the Passion and Death of Our Lord looked like. It is in its way a tribute to the Incarnation, and a very powerful one.
But in Catholic Glasgow, the blazing reality of the Incarnation is being reduced to whatever sporting gibberish’s adherents use to signify win or loss.
The Incarnation, in other words , is reduced to backcourt peever, or kickabout, or, God help us, the confrontations of professional sport
So there are more Catholics than Protestants now in church on Sundays . As we used to say in the James Dean era- waow!