I do not yet feel called to abandon the unreformed baroque ambience of S Thomas's and my Tridentine Missal in order to spend my declining years in the lay state enduring whatever parodies of Christian worship go on in some RC parish churches. Not to mention the sermons. Yes, I know what conclusions some will draw from that.

The Pope's almost manic ecumenical work with the Orthodox, his inter-religious dialogue, his reconciliation of Traditionalist groups, of talks with groups of "Catholic" [I would be happier without the ""] Anglicans are all about strengthening the position of those who believe God is "knowable".

The German vice -- philosophy -- has firmly fixed the idea of a distinction between content and form in the minds of very diverse people. According to this doctrine, the content and form can be separated from one another. What it regards as the authentic reality it calls the content: abstraction, the theoretical abstract. By contrast, it regards bodies of flesh and blood, physical and tangible structures, as mere form, expendable and shadowy images. The idea is that those who occupy themselves with this external form remain at the peripheral level, the level of accidents, whereas those who go beyond the form reach the realm of eternal abstractions and so attain the light of truth. In this view, forms have become something arbitrary... Anyone who perceives the form and takes it seriously is in danger of being deceived. This is the trouble with the aesthete. He looks for truth in the wrong place, that is, in the realm of what can be seen, and he looks for it with the wrong (and forbidden!) means, that is, with his senses, taste, experience and intellect. This philosophical rebellion against everything self-evident has given birth to the basic attitude of our generation, namely, an all-pervading distrust of every kind of beauty and perfection. Nowadays, the most withering condemnation is to say that something is 'merely beautiful'.

- unite all the Continuing Anglican Churches and only then negotiate with Rome for some mutual recognition and intercommunion plan,

- do what the TAC has done, independently of other continuing Churches, and ask for corporate reunion and Rome's guidance for the exact canonical form and "mechanics".

"How many winds of doctrine have we known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of the thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - flung from one extreme to another: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism and so forth. Every day new sects spring up, and what St Paul says about human deception and the trickery that strives to entice people into error (cf. Eph 4: 14) comes true.

Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be "tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine", seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires.

We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism. An "adult" faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceipt from truth.

We must develop this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith - only faith - that creates unity and is fulfilled in love."

"The Church draws its sustenance from the root of that good olive tree, the people of Israel, onto which have been grafted the wild olive branches of the Gentiles (cf. Rom 11: 17-24). From the earliest days of Christianity, our identity and every aspect of our life and worship have been intimately bound up with the ancient religion of our fathers in faith.

The two-thousand-year history of the relationship between Judaism and the Church has passed through many different phases, some of them painful to recall. Now that we are able to meet in a spirit of reconciliation, we must not allow past difficulties to hold us back from extending to one another the hand of friendship. Indeed, what family is there that has not been troubled by tensions of one kind or another? The Second Vatican Council’s Declaration Nostra Aetate marked a milestone in the journey towards reconciliation, and clearly outlined the principles that have governed the Church’s approach to Christian-Jewish relations ever since. The Church is profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism and to continue to build good and lasting relations between our two communities. If there is one particular image which encapsulates this commitment, it is the moment when my beloved predecessor Pope John Paul II stood at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, pleading for God’s forgiveness after all the injustice that the Jewish people have had to suffer. I now make his prayer my own: "God of our fathers, you chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name to the Nations: we are deeply saddened by the behaviour of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant" (26 March 2000).

The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Shoah was a crime against God and against humanity. This should be clear to everyone, especially to those standing in the tradition of the Holy Scriptures, according to which every human being is created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26-27). It is beyond question that any denial or minimization of this terrible crime is intolerable and altogether unacceptable. Recently, in a public audience, I reaffirmed that the Shoah must be "a warning for all against forgetfulness, denial or reductionism, because violence committed against one single human being is violence against all" (January 28, 2009).

This terrible chapter in our history must never be forgotten. Remembrance — it is rightly said — is memoria futuri, a warning to us for the future, and a summons to strive for reconciliation. To remember is to do everything in our power to prevent any recurrence of such a catastrophe within the human family by building bridges of lasting friendship. It is my fervent prayer that the memory of this appalling crime will strengthen our determination to heal the wounds that for too long have sullied relations between Christians and Jews. It is my heartfelt desire that the friendship we now enjoy will grow ever stronger, so that the Church’s irrevocable commitment to respectful and harmonious relations with the people of the Covenant will bear fruit in abundance.

Benedict XVI"

• it can work miracles or at least go some way towards solving each person’s problems, usually sickness or some spiritual trouble attributed to demons – and this brings us into the world of quacks and charlatans running healing & exorcism shops, often for fees,
• a strong sense of identity, usually nationality – and this brings us into the world of politics, ethnical communities, fundamentalism, cultural isolation and conspiracy theories,
• the personal charisma of the priest or preacher – and this brings us into the world of personality cults, all too often,
• it can offer the beauty of the liturgy and Christian culture in the closed world of a contemplative monastery, where people can attend services in the abbey church and seek spiritual direction from the monks.

The mega church in America fills its pews by using modern commercial methods, selling, making the client feel good. They talk about being seeker-sensitive. The trouble with this is when the glitz peels away, does the neophyte have a deep faith and devotion to God ? In many cases, the commitment is too shallow and made too easy. Here in Europe, priests trying to bring people to church are associated with salesmen looking for paying customers. This idea associates evangelism with working for the interest of the priest / minister himself and the institution he works for. Church buildings are expensive to maintain. It creates a bad image.

I have no talent for this kind of thing, and I am very happy that this is so. Catholic Christianity means too much for me than to go peddling it on the streets like clockwork toys. I will certainly not open an exorcism & healing boutique. The ministry of an exorcist - a real one - is extremely dangerous and hard on the exorcist. A healing comes once in a while, either through a supernatural miracle or through some kind of magnetism. I have imposed hands on sick people, praying for their healing, and occasionally something imperceptible happens. If it does, it's God's work, not mine. I have often seen dramatic consequences to giving the Unction of the Sick! But, this is not enough. I am not a healer or an exorcist, as I feel that I do not have the required spiritual gifts.

I have often thought of promoting the ethnical spirit among English people living in France, rather like Greeks in England or Turks living in European countries like Germany. But, it doesn't work. The English are too individualistic and we tend to care more for our houses and gardens than our social life. That is a shame, but there it is. I am likely to have more French people coming to Mass than my occasional English couples missing their parish church they had in England, just like they miss their fish and chips. Nevertheless, I do get some very genuine people !

I have learned a certain amount from the so-called emerging church movement. The theory is to separate Christianity from all its traditional ecclesiastical trappings and take the Gospel to the people where they live and work. Evangelisation is through the medium of people knowing each other and making friends, a kind of spiritual Facebook. Sounds good, but the liturgical and sacramental dimension of Christianity tends to be negated. This we cannot accept. Perhaps there are two kinds of Christianity, doing it the emerging church way, and then offering the sacramental - liturgical life when people are ready for it. But all that needs a meduim through which to work. Social and charitable organisations in France are very careful about religious communities and cults using them and riding piggyback. It doesn't work here. Hospitals have their own chaplains, and anyone else can only go to visit a given patient who has explicitly asked for a visit.

Churches tend to feed on hard times and misery, as these are the times when man is no longer self-sufficient and turns to God. Isn't is a pity that we seem not to need God when we are happy and joyful !

What is helpful is to belong to a Church that people trust and identify with. Here in France, it is the Roman Catholic Church, and a sizable minority belong to the Huguenot Eglise Réformée de France. The TAC will do better in communion with Rome - for our very credibility, and we should perhaps be ready to go outside our own communities and help in the parishes and chaplaincies. That might create a lump in some people's throats, but the question is always valid - why are we priests? The Church is dying in Europe, and the traditionalists are such a tiny minority, even those recognised by Rome.

Even in the official Church, the trust of some has been betrayed. Trust is also acquired only with great difficulty. A burned child dreads the fire. People naturally suspect anything that isn't the Roman Catholic Church, and even then, there is the paedophile priest scandal, and now, Bishop Williamson with his asinine denials of the Holocaust, challenging the faith of the simple.

Frankly, in many places, the signs of the times no longer call for missionary work in the western world. The Church is no longer strong enough or even respected. The times call us to retreat and re-examine our own commitment and strength of belief. We have noticed that the parishes (at least outside the metropolitan cities) are empty, but monasteries with an authentic spiritual life are full. These are places where liturgical beauty and holiness are found.

I am a married secular priest, and the monastic way is not my way. I just carry on as a priest, even if no one is at Mass. I make myself available for “any good work” and occasionally have a funeral or a wedding to celebrate. I no longer care about being a “spare part” to act when the usual "official" priest or minister is not available. Here in Europe, we can only evangelise in depth on a small scale, through friendship and knowing people personally, and being trusted.

Some of us are already in the catacombs, not from immediate fear of persecution, but simply because people are no longer Christians. They are post-Christians. No amount of talk will change that – but holiness and beauty might...

Jansenism and Catholic identity

With a hearty biretta tip to Arturo Vasquez. This good Mexican living in California, former SSPX seminarian and Eastern Rite simply professed monk often writes very thought-provoking articles about 'natural' Catholicism, and even some aspects of popular religion that are shocking to Anglo-Saxons and objectively of questionable orthodoxy.

Why do I put the word Jansenism in the title of this posting - as I did only two days ago ? Is this subject becoming an obsession ? The Jansenists were not merely miserable and sad puritans, encouraging us never to receive Holy Communion on account of our sins and unworthiness - but sought a noble dimension to Catholicism based on the pristine standards of the early Church, as the Jansenists perceived them. What was crude in the minds of the Protestant Reformers was refined in the ideas of the Jansenists. When I was at university, I was quite a fan of Fr. Louis Bouyer, and still find his theology captivating. I have read his book Liturgical Piety, a product of the post-war liturgical movement and pastoralism. His great work on the Church is awesome, as are his shorter works on Christian gnosis (as in Clement of Alexandria and Origen, not the heretical groups of the time) and his research into the Holy Wisdom, also of gnostic and Orthodox inspired theology.

Patristic theology is incredibly inspiring to an Anglican like myself, as it is to theologians like the present Pope and his mentors like Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988). This was the kind of high theology to which I was exposed as a student at Fribourg University in the late 1980's. You will understand that I would not criticise Bouyer lightly or blame him for the worst excesses of the Liturgical Movement.

Indeed, in The Decomposition of Catholicism, published in 1968, Bouyer's cynicism positively drips when he compares and constrasts the excesses of both the hermeneutic of rupture (the progressives or whatever you would like to call them) and immobilist traditionalism. On reading this book, I rather saw him as promoting an Anglican-like via media. We should notice how Bouyer showed his admiration for Anglicanism, our English liturgy and Office, and our Caroline Divines as well as the Oxford Movement. Himself, he was a convert from Lutheranism to Roman Catholicism and was a priest of the French Oratory.

Bouyer was highly critical of the Baroque liturgy, which he perceived as a secularising movement in 17th and 18th century Catholicism. Unlike Guéranger in 19th century France, he was quite keen about the early liturgical meanderings of the Jansenists and the movement around the Synod of Pistoia, which promoted liturgical reforms similar in spirit to those following Vatican II - sober and bare churches and altars, the vernacular in the liturgy, and expanded lectionary, etc. There was a reaction away from popular devotion to the Blessed Sacrament in favour of a religious expression more based on both learning and asceticism.

In a way, Bouyer revived many of the ideas associated with the pseudo-synod of Pistoia held in the late 18th century. Many theologians of Bouyer’s generation, as Arturo Vasquez observes, began to see the rest of the Church as closet pagans; ignorant of Scripture and Patristic thought, they saw little difference between Catholic popular devotion and the ancient fertility cults of Demeter. The "Jansenists" of the 20th century sought transparency, sobriety, and intellectualism - the religion of the Logos.

Many traditionalists ascribed the late liturgical movement of the 1960's, that of Bugnini, to Protestant-inspired ecumenism. A more critical approach would rather see the influence of Jansenism. However, unlike 18th century Jansenism, the Catholic liturgy in the 1960's and 70's took on an iconoclastic element, leading to its taking on characteristics similar to the Protestantism of American mega churches. There was a distinct turn from the Jansenist-inspired liturgical movement to cheap grace and secularisation in a concern for relevance to modernity. It looks to me as though Benedict XVI sees the Church's future in a kind of "moderate Jansenism" (without the actual heresies) - a Church with fewer members but of a higher standard of theological orthodoxy, morality and piety. Perhaps only this vision will allow reunion with the Orthodox, traditional Anglicans and traditionalist Roman Catholics - and a witness to the world. The Redemption did not come cheap to Jesus - he paid for it on the Cross !

I find this dialectic playing between the two main characteristics of Continuing Anglicanism, between classical Anglicanism and Anglo Papalism as the two tendencies have come to be called. So-called classical Anglicanism calls more upon the heritage of the 17th century Caroline Divines and the early Oxford Movement, basing its liturgical piety on the Book of Common Prayer. This tendency is expounded by Fr. Robert Hart in the Continuum blog. Anglo Papalism calls more upon the late medieval English heritage and post-Tridentine Roman Catholicism, including the classical Roman liturgy in English. I would rather favour a moderate position between the two and take the late medieval model with some of the ideas of the Reformation, like the use of the vernacular and moderate restraint in matters of popular religion.

The experience of contemporary Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism show the need for the sense of the sacred and identity. We need to recover the idea that some things are untouchable… to be preserved intact at any price. It is crucial to restore the sense of awe and wonder to dispel the horrendous spiritual disease of indifferentism. As I said in an earlier article this month, we need to rediscover the fear of the transcendent God so that we can discern the love of the immanent Lord who created us in his image.

A thought-provoking article, and I hope my contribution has added to its value and insight.

February 11th - Feria - Votive Mass of Our Lady in commemoration of the Apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes

• An Orthodox Rabbi in charge of 1,000 Rabbis defends the Pope and traditional Catholicism.

• Outside link - The Body of the Church, why the Pope Had to Do What He Did.

"The pendulum needs to swing back. I trust we shall never again see such scenes as the sacrilegious irreverence which the television cameras picked up at Communion time within the Inauguration of the Petrine Ministry of Benedict XVI. Indeed, I wonder if those great Circus Eucharists outside S Peter's are a good idea anyway.We seem to have come a terribly long way from the disciplina arcani of early Christendom. Perhaps it is no surprise that the Faithful have been robbed of their sense of wonder".

Try several African Countries, India, Pakistan, South America, Torres Strait, Japan as well as the obvious Commonwealth countries of the UK including England, Ireland, Canada, Australia & New Zealand!. English is the 7th of the spoken languages in the TAC.

Why the obsession with numbers? Do you still accept that there are 77 million in the Anglican Communion? What matters is not how many are in the TAC but will the request of the TAC enable unity without absorption between the Holy See and orthodox Anglicans to occur in such a way as to allow many traditional Anglicans currently outside the TAC to become part of a new structure. Surely this is worth praying for?

1) You are a peasant, farmer, or small tradesman.

2) You spend your whole life in an area no bigger than 8 square kilometres.

3) “Society” is a village or settlement of 30 to 800 people. You have a vague conception of Christendom, and that somewhere there is an emperor and a Pope. You’re concerned about your local lord (who could also be your bishop), but have no sense of belonging to a “nation”as we understand it.

4) You live very close to the cycles and rhythms of nature. Technology does not insulate you from the natural order of things.

5) The focus of your life is your family — not just your spouse and children, but your parents, siblings, grand-parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews, etc.

6) You struggle with all your might to maintain a subsistence living for your family — and sometimes fail, because of famine, oppressive taxation, soldiers riding through your field, etc.

7) You know many arts and crafts. There is no distinction between mechanical and fine arts. You make things that work, and look pretty.

8) You have no formal education. You are illiterate. You participate in no mass-consumption ideologies produced by journalists and pundits. Unlike the friars at the universities, you do not think in terms of systematic abstractions.

9) You have a powerful oral memory. You have a strong imagination. There is no “entertainment industry” — no iPods, no Internet, no radio, no movies, no Netflix. You and your family and friends entertain yourselves with your own songs, dances, and stories.

10) You have buried most of your children.

Question:

How will Christ be real and present in the life of such a person? Hint: It will bear very little resemblance to a theologian at a university, or a modern blogger.

There was an article by Georges Menant in Paris Match (23^rd November 1963) about the Ngô family:

To Diem went the power, to Nhu the police, to his wife the corruption and the deals, to Luyen diplomacy and Can the traffic in rice. Religion was the domain of Thuc, the Archbishop, with his vast landholdings and personal residences surrounded by anti-aircraft batteries. But the Cardinal's hat was not the extent of Thuc's ambition. Monsignor Thuc intended to become Pope. Nothing less.

A French hard-line traditionalist priest by the name of Fr Noël Barbara said in his defence:

Archbishop Ngô-dinh-Thuc appeared to us as a poor, simple, but good person. He did not seem to have understood the crisis the Church had faced subsequent to Vatican II. Also, perhaps he was unwilling to see that some individuals were imposing on his goodness. Beyond this, he gave us the impression that matters of licitness were not very important for him.

There are schismatic movements that split from their parent Churches - the SSPX because of the new Mass and certain teachings of Vatican II, Continuing Anglicans because of doctrinal liberalism, banal liturgies, the ordination of women, etc. The Vatican is usually prepared to talk with such communities in the interests of Christian unity. Extremely rarely, a reconciliation and canonical regularisation happen, as with the Brazilian community of Bishop Rangel and groups of priests leaving the SSPX.

Archbishop Ngô-Dinh-Thuc never succeeded in building up any kind of organisation, without which his grievances would never be heard. Palmar de Troya turned out to be a clowns' opera, and he was thoroughly discredited, as were Mathew and Vilatte. Sometimes, a cleric will realise how wrong he has been to associate with this kind of scene, and one can only hope he will find mercy and spiritual peace from being able to serve as a humble priest in some ecclesial communion with real parishes and lay faithful.

It is too early to know whether Bishop Williamson will go down this road or seek to found a single-issue church, whether it be on the basis of conspiracy theories, extreme right-wing politics or denying the existence of gas chambers in the hell-on-earth that was Auschwitz. In my humble opinion, he would look such a fool !

We will see...

February 8th - Septuagesima - A little reflection on the Williamson crisis

And so it goes on, Bishop Williamson will not recant his views, asking people to prove the opposite. Excuse me, mate, the onus of proof is on those who deny or "reduce" the Holocaust. There's plenty of proof of the Holocaust, gas chambers and all. See http://www.nizkor.org/. Now we learn that he is still in his functions as seminary rector in Argentina.

Some crackpot neo-nazi group came up with the cynical statement : "The real purpose of holocaust revisionism is to make National Socialism an acceptable political alternative again". My grandfather fought against Nazism and got locked up in an Oflag officers' camp for his trouble. I will too if I have to !

The only way out of this I see - I'm waiting for more news - is that the Pope simply says to the SSPX : That's it, you had your chance and you've blown it. Individual applications for reconciliation / regularisation are to be addressed to the Ecclesia Dei Commission.

Alternatively, either the Pope has to go back on the demand of the Secretariat of State saying that +Williamson has to recant - and that will be it for the Church in Europe. Or, the SSPX must get rid of Williamson to go ahead with the good resolution it has already expressed of opposing Holocaust revisionism and entering into a dialogue about the interpretation of Vatican II.

The big problem is that Williamson is likely to start consecrating bishops and creating his own sect like Archbishops Ngo-Dinh-Thuc and Milingo. The gamble may have to be taken - how many people will be attracted to or taken in by such a thing ?

Excellent documentary in French

This is an excellent documentary with extremely well-chosen participants, and a fair interview with a priest of the Society of St. Pius X. I hope you understand enough French to appreciate it.

There is one thing in all this that provokes my thought. Traditionalists often accuse Vatican II for its perceived hermeneutic* of rupture. They are quick to point out that there is a logical contradiction between the teaching of Pope Pius IX in the 1860's and Vatican II on questions of religious freedom. We do have to consider that Pius IX's teaching was in many ways a rupture with the Church's former ways and teaching, because Pius IX was having to deal with the aftermath of the French Revolution and the effects of anti-Catholic liberalism. Between the bloodest days of the Terreur, when the guillotine was working overtime, and the mid-nineteenth century, the Church fought for her life - and it is understandable that she had to be on the defensive. But, many of the Pope's decisions (for example to condemn the doctrine of human rights and liberties) - which did not involve the Church's dogmatic teaching - are no longer relevant, or are relevant only by way of analogy, in another historical context - ours in the 21st century.

The Church has had to change course many times in her history. The Council of Trent introduced a new hermeneutic based on her policy of damage control and decision to proceed with reforms, caused by the Protestant revolt, and before that, a considerable amount of ignorance and corruption in the clergy. The understanding of Tradition in the mind of Pope Benedict XVI is not the static notion of the Tridentine Fathers, but the dynamic development of man's assimilation of Revealed Truth. Here, Cardinal Newman's famous theory is canonised in the Catholic Church's official theological thought. There is organic development, but there have also been ruptures and jerks in the Church's history that are difficult to justify. The Society of Saint Pius X is appealing to the Church of the mid 19th century as it battled with the aftermath of the French Revolution and the Enlightenment. Time is a continuum - but things do change in 150 years! Appealing to an earlier time, perhaps only to the 17th or 18th centuries might enable the SSPX and the Rome of Benedict XVI to find more common ground for fruitful discussion and agreement.

Thus, I see here the key to Anglican identity, as a hermeneutic of continuity of the medieval English Church, especially in her spirituality, liturgy and ecclesiology. Had there been no Reformation, the English Church would have probably turned out very similar to the Church in northern France, the Low Countries and Germany. Northern Catholicism, even within the Roman Catholic Church, is very different in spirit to its Latin and Eastern European counterparts. It is a question of culture. After the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic institution was quick to condemn everything English as heretical or at least suspect. That mentality has remained in the minds of many Roman Catholics. Anglican identity is thus a Northern Catholicism that can be understood by many northern French and German Catholics. We are less given to exuberant devotional practices, but our spirituality is formed in the monastic tradition - and thus we are much more liturgically-based than those who, for example, consider the Rosary and novenas as more important than the Choir Office! However, we would not denigrate popular devotions.

Post Reformation Anglican history was marked by its hermeneutic of rupture and its hermeneutic of continuity, using Benedict XVI's expression for the contemporary Catholic Church to describe a historical situation, so that we can better understand it. The hermeneutic of continuity, represented by the Caroline Divines, the Oxford Movement and the Ritualists in particular, ensured the organic continuity and survival of Catholicism in an ecclesiastical and political institution that was dominated by the Protestant hermeneutic of rupture. Thus, not everything about Anglicanism is to be rejected, any more than contemporary Catholicism in another historical context. At the same time, the hermeneutic of rupture did influence us and left us with certain practices from which much good has been derived - for example the abolition of compulsory celibacy and a married clergy as the general norm.

Similarly, Rome is assimilating aspects of the hermeneutic of rupture, like the new form of the liturgy (yes that caused so much spiritual unrest in the days of the "clown masses" and other serious abuses in the 1970's and 80's) to "reform the reform" and bring in a hermeneutic of continuity. That is exactly what Anglicans were doing in the 17th and 19th centuries!

That alone would give a good reason for Benedict XVI to be interested in re-assimilating the hermeneutic of continuity in Anglicanism into the universality of the Roman Catholic Church.

* Hermeneutics are simply the science of interpretation, how to understand a written or spoken text or a given situation.

February 7th - Our Lady's Saturday - Goodbye to the Alleluia

Tomorrow is Septuagesima, and the Alleluia is no longer uttered in church until the Easter Vigil. The Office of today is ended : Let us bless the Lord. Alleluia, alleluia. R. Thanks be to God. Alleluia, alleluia.

The Story lives on

TAC Close to Full Union with Rome - from Overheard in the Sacristy. Article posted on 5th February. The "source" is given as "a senior figure in the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church of England". The English Catholic Herald is also running this story.

"The meeting took place in October that year at the Marian shrine of Walsingham in Norfolk, where TAC bishops placed the Catechism on the altar of the Catholic shrine". Really? I was present at the meeting, and it took place at Saint Agatha's church in Portsmouth. Given this little inaccuracy, there may be others. Take the article with a big pinch of salt.

No other comment from me.

February 6th - Saint Vedast and Amand, Confessors and Bishops - Sarum Lectionary

I have just finished compiling a lectionary in English (the Prayer Book and the King James Bible as sources) for use with the published translations of the Sarum Missal* - which are printed without the Scripture readings. It is in MS Word format and can be downloaded from here. Alternatively, you can download the text version and do your own page setup.

* Frederick E. Warren (trans.), The Sarum Missal in English, 2 vols., London 1911. A. Harford Pearson, The Sarum Missal in English, London 1868.

The Anglicans (Canterbury) in the smelly brown stuff too, even more so than Rome and the SSPX

Disintegrating Anglican Communion to call in professional mediators from Damian Thompson's blog

Just a small quote:

Is this the first example in history of a Church calling in professional mediators? I rather think it might be. And who will they be? I should be careful what I say, given what a hash the Vatican has just made of mediating with the SSPX, but that dispute is on a very small scale compared to this hydra-headed schism. The Primates say this one "cannot be rushed". Well, you can bet it won't be, once the professionals are involved. Someone is going to make a lot of money out of this "mediation".

Richard Williamson : Out of Office AutoReply: I am out of the office until further notice. For all urgent matters concerning mediation and reconciliation please contact Monsignor Fellay c/o Ecône, Switzerland. Have a nice day!

The mind boggles...

February 5th - Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr - Short-sighted traditionalists

And they go on, and on, and on, just like the gutter press. I am constantly amazed how people are unable to reason and come to rational conclusions! Perhaps I am one of an unusual elite because I have a smattering of philosophy, epistemology and logic - and think about things. I am not always well-informed - and thus I can be drawn into wrong thinking or error, and it can be tempting to draw conclusions before having all the evidence and facts. But now, I see rather clearly about this situation of Tweedledum and Tweedledee - two opposing political forms of fundamentalism and ideology - liberalism and extreme traditionalism.

Well the traditionalists continue in this vein:

How is it that a bishop can be condemned for his private opinions when many bishops in the Church are teaching heresies against the doctrines of the Faith? The Holocaust is being made a "super-dogma" and this is unfair. Everything is questioned in this age of ecumenism, but this question remains a "dogma" (for political reasons). Now the Pope has undone the excommunications, he should regularise the SSPX bishops without any conditions and right now. Bishop Williamson defends the Catholic faith, and this is all that counts. To hell with all the rest...

I italicise the previous paragraph because it is a précis of what some traditionalists are saying or at least implying. It is not my opinion.

Now imagine if the Pope did that. The Church "converts" to the position of the SSPX and returns to pre-war positions regarding the Jewish people. The Holocaust is effaced, and with it the memory of the victims, Jewish and non-Jewish. Hitler was a "good guy" - - - usque ad nauseam. The Church as an institution would be flattened, and few other than SSPX people and other extremists will be remotely interested in Catholicism. Even moderate traditionalists could not face living in such a vision of a Church. But relax, the vision of Benedict XVI is something else, something much more healthy and Christian. This Pope knows this is a trap and will not be led astray!

The real issue is that the Catholic Church has learned from the bloody 20th century and believes that the Gospel will be better preached through example and kindess than through force and constraint. What is really important in this one is that it is Bishop Williamson who opened his trap and poured out his stuff, not only in the sacristy at Zeitzkofen seminary, but everywhere else, and for years and decades. The Pope will not be forced to do otherwise but to uphold the content of Nostra Aetate of Vatican II and our respect for the Jewish people - even if we have not yet shown that tenacious and courageous people enough holiness and kindness to convince them of the truth of the Messiah.

That is why the Secretariat of State requires this English irregular bishop (he might be a Roman Catholic but canonically he is not a cleric, or at best a suspended cleric) to recant his opinions publicly before he can be admitted as a bishop. Being a bishop is having authority and influence, and his status as a bishop is engaged every time he expresses his "private" opinions. This requirement by Rome is right and just.

This is so obvious to me. The Vatican is right to defend the reputation of the Church and the Episcopate. Having been forced into a corner, or to the foot of the wall as the French say, the only thing that matters is damage control. Methinks the regularisation process for the SSPX will be very lengthy, and the Vatican can think not just in centuries but in millenia if they think that is appropriate! The SSPX is asking for it! The documents of Vatican II are lengthy, when you want to go through them sentence by sentence. And then, there are the Acta, which will take more than a lifetime. Perhaps some of those guys in the SSPX will benefit from a dialogue with real theologians!

I have the inkling that it will be much easier to find a solution for the TAC bishops, our Orders, our married priests and our eventual canonical solution long before the SSPX get anywhere near exercising a ministry in the name of the Roman Catholic Church. Now, time for me to calm down and get back to a translation I am doing for a firm that specialises in electrical equipment...

More about the stiff upper lip...

It has been in my experience that the only response to negative criticism is to ignore it, lower your head and to move forward regardless. Do that, do what is right, and you will be respected for it. Give in to the flak, and you're finished. It was always people like Reagan and Thatcher who had the stoutness of heart to withstand media attacks and "carry on" regardless. Those who are concerned for their media image fail, but it is impossible to please everybody.

I believe the Pope is aware that condemnation by the "mainstream media" is an indication that he is taking the right course. We can almost be tempted to remember the crackly old recording of Winston Churchill: We will fight them on the beaches, we will fight them in the trenches... I think Benedict XVI, just one year older than my father, is made of the same stuff as those who fought for freedom in the darkest years of the 20th century. But this is a battle on another level, against evil itself.

Keep praying and offering those Masses and Communions for the Pope!

Totalitarian England

A nurse in an English hospital lovingly tended to an elderly patient and then offered to pray with her. The patient said "no thank you" but was not offended. The nurse did not insist and respected the patient's choice. Now this nurse faces losing her job and being struck off the nurse's register. Read about it in the Daily Telegraph. Leave your name and a comment to support Mrs. Petrie.

STOP PRESS : Deo gratias! Mrs. Petrie has won her appeal and is reinstated as a nurse. See this article. Perhaps the turning point - the new perestroika and glasnost - has arrived in Old Blighty too !

This one's priceless !

Bus slogan generator - compose your own!

Soothing words and stiff upper lips

The very model of British restraint and the stiff upper lip. I can't think of anything better at this time with all these goings-on !

February 4th - Feria - The SSPX thought it was going to get a free ride !

To the very people who were getting triumphalistic and preaching to us Anglicans about our "invalid" Orders and individual "conversion", go figure !

The Vatican Secretariat of State has just issued a note (unofficial English translation and original in Italian). In it, the SSPX was not right all along, and has no lesson to teach the Holy See about being Catholic. Did they really think Benedict XVI would take the whole Church back to 1864 just to please them ? They must accept the Council and all the Popes. Bishop Williamson will not be admitted as a Roman Catholic bishop unless he publicly retracts his outrageous sayings about the Nazi death camps. This is great news.

Remember what I said about liberals squealing like stuck pigs in the slaughterhouse and the traditionalists gloating ? Now, the intégristes are getting a taste of it. In other words, you don't mess with the Pope and get away with it !

Now begins the long process of talks between the SSPX and Rome, before which nothing will change. Of course, unlike the meagre Pastoral Provision for a few American former Episcopalian parishes, there is plenty of provision for Tridentine priests and faithful as there has been for the last twenty years : priestly institutes and fraternities, monasteries, chapels and personal parishes, all celebrating the old form of the Roman Rite and recognised by Rome. No one is suggesting to people without bread that they can eat cake. Anyone able to travel to a chapel of the SSPX can make another choice and go to a church recognised by a Bishop in communion with Rome. They have nothing to give up in their "individual conversion". The only ones who lose out are the four bishops, and, even for them, reconciliation is only a word away - they quit the SSPX and go by Rome's conditions. They can be sure at least of being accepted as priests, even Bishop Williamson if he repents and retracts his offensive sayings. If the SSPX is accepted, it will probably have to be re-named and its constitutions would have to be revised. And one German Bishop (Regensburg) has expressed his conviction according to which none of the four has the aptitude for the Episcopate.

Perhaps I could say that most of the Roman Episcopate does not have that aptitude either !!! But, my opinion is neither here nor there.

I don't think it will be any easier for us TAC Anglicans, but at least we are honest, we accept the doctrines and dogmas contained in the modern Roman catechism (which include the teachings of Vatican II and the post-Conciliar Popes) and we honour the memory of the six million (or more) Jewish people, and the millions of non-Jewish people also, who were tortured and done to death by the Nazis. Another consoling thing to think of is that we are dealing with moderate Catholics and not with those who would revive the Sodalitium Pianum * or Torquemada's Spanish Inquisition !

* A fuller explanation of this early 20th century group is found here in French. It includes an important short work written by Msgr François Ducaud-Bourget, who in 1977 led the group of traditionalists that occupied the Parisian church of Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet.

In reference to A Plot against the Pope ? a little further down this page, would it not be interesting if it were proven that the Pope was taken for a ride by --- the SSPX ! What we do know is that Bishop Williamson has been known for several years as a conspiracy theorist, got into trouble with the Canadian authorities some years ago for holocaust-denial, and everyone acts surprised. As far as I am concerned, the entire SSPX is infected, but is no different from bourgeois European Catholicism before World War II (cf. the Dreyfus Affair). Why else would the Society of Saint Pius X be called anything else, when their model and inspiration was in place in the 1900's ?

It's not about the liturgy or Catholic doctrine. This is about the revival of European anti-Liberalism and the philosophy that helped to make fascism possible. And America too is not entirely free of this stuff !

We just need to wait a few days or weeks to find out if it was a plot of the left or the right...

Vatican Politics. "You're not John Wayne, you're the Pope" - "Knock, knock!"

This film from the John Paul II era is utter anti-religious hogwash, but sometimes we need to see the funny side. As the Cardinal Camerlengo said at the conclave - No wonder no one goes to church any more !

What would happen if Christianity died ?

Pope Benedict XVI is pushed to abdicate. The conclave elects a middle-of-the-road nonentity from South America. Roman Catholicism becomes irrelevant. Orthodoxy stays in Russia and takes no interest in missionary work in western Europe. Islam slowly succombs to the influence of secularism, atheism and materialism. The few remaining Jewish people leave Europe. The Protestants modernise themselves out of existence. This is the most pessimistic scenario possible.

I had the idea of writing this little blurb on reading What's so great about Christianity?. It is thought-provoking. So, we have a totally secular and atheistic western world. Atheists like Dawkins and Sam Harris thought it would be utopia. Let us imagine this world.

First of all, human life is cheap. Abortion on demand and euthanasia have reduced the population to a tenth of what it was. Panem et circenses - gladiator sports are revived and prove great fun for all. Criminals are put to death like in the old Roman empire by barbaric methods of execution. Torture is rehabilitated. Women and slaves do all the dirty work. Medicine is a luxury that is available to those who can afford it - those who can also afford a yacht and a villa in Monaco. And so forth....

Even mad Nietzsche admitted that the ideas that define western civilization are based on Christianity. Remove Christianity and the ideas fall. If Christianity goes, we will see the rise of something much worse than Hitler and the Nazis, but with the same theories : superior and inferior persons based on race, genetic perfection, etc. We can expect to see the return of eugenics and mass exterminations. Can you imagine Dr. Mengele with knowledge of modern biology and medicine ? It will be the end of human dignity. The idea of human equality cannot survive on a secular basis without religious belief.

Well, what do we want ?

A good Blog to follow

I recommend the traditionalist Roman Catholic blog Catholic Church Conservation which seems to go by a reasonable mainstream position (no conspiracy theories, sedevacantism, etc.). They are running some very good articles on the present crisis.

February 3rd - Saint Blaise, Bp & Mart. - O tempora o mores !

Oh the times! Oh the customs!, said Cicero in his first Oration against Catiline. Here's another great little article from Fr. Ray Blake. Compare this with Cardinal Kasper's words when he wanted to pour cold water on us Anglicans in November 2007 and tell us to go away and die -

We are on good terms with the Archbishop of Canterbury and as much as we can we are helping him to keep the Anglican community together. It's not our policy to bring that many Anglicans to Rome and I am not sure there are so many as you are speaking about. Of course, as a Catholic I am happy if one person joins our Catholic Church but I doubt such a big group is coming - I think there are still many questions to solve first.

Another take on the Vatican crisis by Sandro Magister, which seems less "conspiracy" and more common sense. Sometimes, there are real conspiracies - not figments of imaginations of people given to a certain psycholgical predisposition. Here is a criticism by Fr. Claude Barthe (French Catholic priest belonging to the Institute of the Good Shepherd) :

If you read Italian, it is worthwhile reading the blog of Paolo Rodani (Palazzo apostolico - Diario vaticano di Paolo Rodari), that denounces these manoeuvres :

- today, 4th February : "Attack against the Pope coming from the German front : Angela Merkel and Cardinal Karl Lehmann are demanding apologies from the Williamson case. The article explains that the Cardinal of Mainz is asking for the resignation of Cardinal Castrillon [Hoyos] and that Cardinal Kasper is distilling criticisms on the management errors in this affair of the lifting of the excommunications, mentioned very strangely by Sandro Magister...

- yesterday, 3rd February : "The Pope's secret file : Ratzinger smells a rat behind the Williamson affair".

What seems to be coming out of this is Curial opposition to the Pope exploiting the press and outside pressure, and perhaps an inside conspiracy. I have appreciated Fr. Barthe's writings for many years, and trust his judgement.

Fiddling while Rome burns

Fiddling while Rome burns - in Anglican Mainstream

This is not about Hans Küng or Roman Catholic liberals trying to use recent events to discredit the Pope. It is not even anything to do with the Eternal City. It is about a radical paradigm shift happening in front of our eyes as banks go bust, big business goes bust and the world seems to teeter on the brink of war between the Zionists and the Ayatollahs.

The greatest irony is that, for all Dr. Williams’ feigned alarm, it is the liberal sexual agenda that is the quintessence of Western imperialism. The pansexual movement could only thrive, albeit for a season, in a materially sated society, where formerly moral distinctions can be classed as lifestyle choices. In traditional societies traditional morals are the glue that sustains families and peoples. The sexual revolution imported from the West presupposes luxuries which have no counterpart in the Two Thirds World. Only a culture that can afford the luxury of narcissism can promote indiscriminate, sterile sexuality as a hallmark of justice.

Since 1988, Ratzinger has steadily worked to try and heal the breach with the SSPX. At his inauguration mass he announced that church unity would be his first priority. It was clear that he was talking primarily about the Lefebvrists and disaffected Traditional Anglicans wanting to rejoin communion with the Holy See. The latter group have submitted unconditionally to the Holy See and their bishops are planning to converge on Rome the week after Easter.

We now know - because he's said so - that Cardinal Walter Kasper, who's in charge of ecumenical affairs, was not told of the decree beforehand. No doubt the same is true of several other hostile members of the curia, including Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Congregation for Bishops, whose term expired on Friday. It seems Benedict didn't want to risk curial destabilising and a pre-emptive chorus of disapproval from the Italian rabbis, so he delivered a fait accompli.

'My Venerable Brothers, think well on it before you decide to take me as your next pope.' Lansing held up the sheet of paper on which the terms of the Bargain were written. 'I will not sign this Bargain.' He tore the paper in two. 'I will not observe the terms of this Bargain.' He ripped the two fragments into four. 'Because in this whole cosmos of man there can be no bargain, even a temporary one, between God and Mammon, between Jesus and Satan, between Good and Evil. I will admit no Keeper of the Bargain. Because we have one Keeper: the Keeper of our Salvation. Christ, the power of God. Christ, the wisdom of God.

'No bargain exists between God and Satan. Between. God's Church and God's enemies.' Lansing's voice rang out, sending the blood coursing faster in the veins of tens of cardinals. 'A state of perpetual war exists. A long, bitter, wavering struggle, that will go on until Christ steps into the world again with arm upraised to strike evil and dismiss it into eternal perdition.'

Lansing stopped. It was not fair - not quite fair — to inflame the hearts of his fellow churchmen, or of anyone, with such brave statements, without warning of their consequences.

'My Lords, just one more moment of your time, and I will, I think, have answered all your questions that I can.

'A few moments ago, I said I could not accept your mandate, because its consequences might push us over the cliff of chaos, into oblivion.

'It may be your turn to say those words to me. The practised ear in Vatican affairs can see the Holy See's approaching twilight as a worldly power.

'If I as your pope reject the Bargain, that will mean my Church declares itself free to wage Christ's war with Christ's power. There will not be billions at our disposal, as there are now. Nor even millions. Those enemies in whose world the Church has played the game of power can club us to smithereens, because they have worldly power. If you elect me and install me, I may, like Pope John Paul I, last one month or so before they kill me. And that fate I am willing to accept.

'What I will not accept is any other mandate but this one: to preside over the liquidation of this Bargain, and of every other bargain; yes, over the Moscow-Vatican bargain struck by Pope John XXIII, too; and to reinstate the unique spiritual power and the central moral authority of this Holy See, and of its Vicar as the Roman head of the one and only true Catholic and Apostolic Church.

'There will be hardship for us all. For you, in particular. I will not allow you your petty corruptions. I will denounce your shameful alliances. If you fall into heresy or allow heresy to flourish, if you fall away in schism, I will fire you, excommunicate you formally with bell, book and candle. If you oppose me, I will fight you tooth and nail. I will not permit any use of politics. Any use. I will require a strict accounting from you about money, about doctrine, about moral practice. I will not treat the Church's enemies as friends or even as decent people. And I will not yield to the economic boycott of the financial squeeze of the Universal Assembly.

'So, whatever about the other candidate, my Venerable Brother Cardinal Basil Hume — Rico bowed in Hume's direction — 'know that if you choose me to succeed Pope John Paul II, the fullest fury of Christ's enemies - of Christ's Enemy, the fallen Archangel - will be directed at me, at you, and at this One, Holy, Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church.'

In the hushed and tense atmosphere, every ear could hear the slow ripping sound as Lansing tore the four fragments of the Bargain yet one more time, and let the pieces flutter to the floor at his feet.

Helmut reached the bottom of the stairs and came out into the bright midday sun of June. He squinted for a moment, letting his eyes adjust after the three hours in the dim glow of il Tempio [a secret room adjoining the Sistine Chapel so that the Conclave can be observed by the Keeper of the Bargain]. He could already hear the rising hum of the crowds over in the piazza. In a few moments, everyone in the Vatican would be drawn there, as water is drawn to a vortex.

Helmut raised his eyes. 'He's done it, Uncle. Be with us. He's begun.'

The booming voice of Africa's Cardinal Arinze followed on Helmut's gentle prayer, magnified by a hundred speakers, calling out to all men and women of goodwill in the city and the world.

'Annuntio Vobis gaudium magnum!... I announce to you a great joy! We have a Pope! The Most Eminent Lord Richard Cardinal Lansing!'

"The night before Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications on Richard Williamson and the other SSPX bishops, I emailed a friend in Rome who has close links to the papal household. I said: 'You do know how awful this is going to look, don't you?' And he replied: 'I know, but it's too late'."

"This is probably the week we will start to see an acceleration of expressions of real hatred of the Holy Father and the SSPX".

"These people are terrified".

None can afford to be triumphalistic, but one reflection comes into my mind. Twenty years ago, in 1989, the Berlin wall came crashing down and Communism just dissolved. It is perestroïka and glasnost in the Church - liberalism is dissolving away and going out with a whimper!

I read another commentator's idea, comparing the Pope to a surgeon. He is lancing an enormous abcess in the Church, and the pus is just flowing out!

Anyone read Vatican by Malachi Martin, a novel that came out in the 1980's? Quite prophetic!

We are living historical moments...

More about the Rumours (or trial balloon)

Biretta tip to The Anglican Catholic Express by by Fr Richard Sutter SSM

Fr. Richard Sutter is the Master General of the Society of Saint Michael (SSM) and is a priest of the Anglican Church in America, a member Church of the TAC. I am a member of this Society. This is his take on the recent rumour which I was perhaps a little quick to discredit in my scepticism.

"If you’ve been watching the blogosphere in the last week, you’ll have seen a lot of excitement. If you haven’t noticed it, I’ll detail it for you before I make my own comments.

First off, it seems, an article appeared in The Record, a respected Australian Catholic newspaper, on Wednesday, January 28th. This article, titled Healing the Reformation’s Fault Lines, gave a brief background summary of the ecumenical conversation between the Traditional Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church, a conversation that has been going on for nearly three decades.

It seems that the thirty years of conversation are about to bear fruit.

(Actually, it’s been more than thirty years. Forty-two years ago the discussion began between representatives of the Anglican Communion and the Secretariat for Christian Unity. In the years since then, the Anglican Communion chose to abandon its Catholic faith and order by ordaining women, dumbing down theology, and dropping biblical morality. The legitimate heir to the Anglican side of that conversation is the Traditional Anglican Communion, the ecclesial remnant of a once great branch of Catholic Christianity. The TAC, called “Anglican Catholic” in most of the countries in which it exists, remains true to the Catholic order and faith of historic orthodox Christianity. What may seem sudden to some commentators is the result of years of long, hard work.)

So what did that article in The Record have to say? You can read it here, but simply, it announced that

It is understood that the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has decided to recommend the Traditional Anglican Communion be accorded a personal prelature akin to Opus Dei, if talks between the TAC and the Vatican aimed at unity succeed.

Next we saw on the 29th that Damian Thompson of the Telegraph put out a post on his widely read blog Holy Smoke, titled Traditional Anglicans ‘to be offered personal prelature by Pope’. Thompson brings more information to the fore, from both the Record article and other sources. Then a correspondent for the National Catholic Register stated that according to an unnamed CDF source “nothing’s been decided.”

And yet, and yet….

What do I think? We’ve heard rumors before. This is just too close to the action, I think, to be a rumor. It looks to this simple parson like a trial balloon. If it is, look at some of the reactions. There are catholics who will not be happy to see an influx of Anglican Catholics who take seriously theology and who celebrate liturgy with the intentionality and reverence the sacred mysteries deserve. But there are many more Catholics who love the Church and will rejoice to see the restoration of Anglican Catholicism to the western Church. If, as we have heard the Holy Father say, the Church needs to breathe with both lungs, then extending that metaphor might suggest that the Body of Christ needs to have an arm restored to it…the arm of English Catholicism.

So what if it happens? What might things look like with a personal prelature for Anglican Catholics? What would it be like to have an influx of parishes and priests where Mass is offered in reverence and devotion? What would it be like if, instead of having to close a parish because of manpower shortage, a bishop could assign an Anglican Catholic priest to pastor it? What would it be like to begin to heal the terrible wound in the Body of Christ that has hampered the conversion of the world since the sixteenth century?

Pray for the unity of the Church.

Venerable John Henry Newman, pray for us!"

• The extreme traditionalists are against, preferring us Anglicans to "repent" of Anglicanism and swim the Tiber to the true Church as individual converts. Nothing else would do. They rehash the old Roman Catholic objections to Anglican Orders and will readily resort to personal innuendos to discredit our clergy.
• The liberals see in us a threat to their stronghold of liturgical mediocrity and a system of belief that is very similar to the kind of Anglicanism we left. Admit the SSPX and traditional Anglicans and they lose all credibility.
• Moderate traditionalists see in us an ally, despite our cultural and spiritual differences, and encourage us to help in the work of liturgical and spiritual revival in the Catholic Church. We are also seen as more moderate than the SSPX, and many people would come to our Masses if we were in communion with Rome, but not to theirs if they had a choice.
• Those with knowledge of canon law and the way things work in the Roman Catholic Church are opposed to the idea of a Personal Prelature as this would require us to have the permission of the local diocesan Ordinary to minister or establish a place of worship. Those involved in the traditional Roman Catholic movement see parallels with their own cause, and would favour a different canonical solution - the Universal Apostolic Administration (ie. available to people in all countries) or some form of sui iuris uniate Church, at any rate, an Episcopal jurisdiction directly under the Pope and outside the control of diocesan Ordinaries.

Almighty God, we give thee humble thanks for that thou hast vouchsafed to deliver this woman thy servant from the great pain and peril of Child-birth: Grant, we beseech thee, most merciful Father, that she, through thy help, may both faithfully live, and walk according to thy will, in this life present; and also may be partaker of everlasting glory in the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

February 1st - Third Sunday after the Octave of the Epiphany, Saint Bridget - Smaller but more faithful - our Prayers for Pope Benedict XVI

Going through the blogs, I stop again at that of the good parish priest in Brighton, England. I find his reflections on an old subject Smaller but More Faithful, in which he reflects on how to explain to his flock the Pope's recent acts.

As I have mentioned, one of these recent acts was the lifting of the excommunications that the Society of St. Pius X bishops had incurred from being illicitly consecrated. This penalty is prescribed in the Roman Catholic Church by canon law for episcopal consecrations without a mandate from the Pope.

There has been a considerable amount of press and media criticism because one of the bishops involved is a conspiracy theorist and a holocaust denier. The Pope went ahead because he esteems the complete reconciliation of these dissident Catholics to be for the good of the Church and his duty as the chief Pastor.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley, the Archbishop of Boston, has written a fine piece to make it easier for all these events to be understood for ordinary people. He has also explained how the Pope has very clearly distanced himself and the official position of the Catholic Church from any kind of antisemitism or denial of the Shoah. As Benedict XVI said, "May the Shoah be for everyone an admonition against oblivion, negation and reductionism, because violence against a single human being is violence against all".

When you think of it, for the trouble he is going through, the Pope could just as easily have created a traditionalist enclave in the form of something like an apostolic administration from the present Vatican-recognised Tridentine communities, and then invite individuals from the SSPX to join it individually. Would this not sound familiar?

Incidentally, an Italian news article in the Roman La Stampa mentions a slight delay in the progress of the Society's full regularisation. Then the reporter Galeazzi also mentions the Traditional Anglican Communion, but without adding any new information. Does he know something off the record he can't print?

We Anglicans and all Christians of good will should pray fervently for the Pope as he lays his reputation, and possibly his life, on the line to do what he believes is right and for the good of the Church. May God give him the strength to continue to resist the pressure exerted by the politically correct media and those whose reason and intellectual faculties are clouded by slogans and ideology!

In the meantime, we traditional Anglicans keep quiet, wait and pray. And we have no problems with religious freedom and respecting the Jewish people and the memory of their loved ones who died in the Shoah. We are ready and waiting for the Holy Father to call us forward to take up spiritual arms by his side.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak (Ephesians 6, 12-20).