The plan of action appears to be badgering our bishops to hold Masses to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. Now, I have no objections whatsoever to Masses held to celebrate anniversaries, and I am quite happy with accepting the teachings of Vatican II as they have been stated and signed by the Magisterium of the Church...
I do, however, have strong reservations about such Masses being hijacked by a bunch of people whose stated aim is to protest against the teachings of the Church.
I will say again, Stand Up for Vatican II is being coordinated by groups which are opposed to the Magisterium of the Church: they want to change the Church's teaching on sexuality, contraception, abortion, women priests, homosexuality and married clergy. They're also none too keen on the actual teachings of Vatican II, preferring to invoke "the Spirit" as a cloak for their own disobedience and dissent.
Catholics for a Changing Church
Executive Committee
To allow groups such as Catholics for a Changing Church and We Are Church (UK) to have a Mass in support of Vatican II is like allowing the Family Planning Association to host a fund-raising dinner in aid of SPUC. It is nonsensical. It sounds wonderful (after all, there's nothing objectionable in the idea of a Mass supporting the Council) and many people will be taken in by it, but, like the fictitious fund-raiser, it cannot be allowed to happen. Just as we check the ethical views of charities, businesses, political parties and so on, so also we have a duty to check who is promoting a particular Church event.
To allow such a Mass to be promoted (and hijacked) by groups which are in open defiance of Church teaching is to give tacit support to their dissent. This would be to ignore the recent statement of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, on the occasion of the ad limina visit of the English and Welsh bishops:
"In a social milieu that encourages the expression of a variety of opinions on every question that arises, it is important to recognize dissent for what it is, and not to mistake it for a mature contribution to a balanced and wide-ranging debate. It is the truth revealed through Scripture and Tradition and articulated by the Church’s Magisterium that sets us free."
I suspect that our bishops will need to be given prayerful support in seeing the Stand Up for Vatican II campaign for what it is. I have seen an email from Bernard Wynne calling for members of the group to send letters and petitions to their diocesan bishops, giving suggested wording. Particularly interesting was the instruction to have about 10 names actually on the letter to the bishop, with a statement to indicate that several other people had also appended their names - and to have these extra names recorded separately. This is, I am told, a popular political manoeuvre, as these extra names have not necessarily seen the exact wording of the letter being sent... There was also a suggestion that meetings could be arranged to coincide with any Masses being held as a way of drumming up enthusiasm.
Watch this space for further developments...
The simple answer is to make sure that priests write to their Bishops to make sure that they know what's happening. The Bishops, or, charitably, the Bishop's staff keep letters from the laity from the Bishops so that they can ignore anything that they don't wish to have drawn to their attention. (All pronominal ambiguity in the preceding sentence is deliberate!) The Bishops can't do that with their own priests.
ReplyDeleteThere is perhaps another fruit of Summorum Pontificum that we hadn't suspected until now: that in the same way that some Bishops feel that Vatican II has improved their understanding of collegiality, priests now understand better what is, of right, theirs.
Is it just me or is the idea of holding a mass to celebrate the anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, just presumptuous in itself? It has hardly been a sucessful one at that and 45 years later, we still don't really know what the church fathers intended (hence the idea of the reform of the reform and the ongoing discussion between the SSPX and Rome).
ReplyDeleteThe idea of such a mass is just a convenient smokescreen for such people who are either too afraid to face up to the truth or are seriously deluded.
One of the characters in that photo looks spookily like my R.E teacher at school...
ReplyDeleteI hate to be uncharitable during Lent but those photos of the executive committee are the ugliest looking bunch of discrepit farts I've seen in a long time.
ReplyDeleteApparently, dissident priest Fr Ray Lyons was at the Stand up for Vatican 2 meeting, sounding off as usual. He used to be in Portsmouth Diocese, but I heard he is now in Westminster, although I'm not sure. Either way, his involvement with this crowd is further proof of how 'off-the-wall' they are. See http://www.christianorder.com/features/features_2003/features_jan03_bonus.html for article on Fr Lyons
ReplyDeleteThe above link got cut off. Just Google 'Ray Lyons Christian Order' and it's first on the list - the May 2003 edition, titled 'Into the Lyon's Den'
ReplyDeleteThanks Patricia...
ReplyDeleteIn fact, the link works perfectly well - provided you copy the whole thing (the comments wrap-around text facility is a bit of a pain)
Alternatively, the article can be found by clicking HERE
It is time for some decisive action by our new Archbishop Vincent Nicholls - especially as he and his brother Bishops have just returned from their ad limina visit to Rome - hopefully with the words of the Holy Father still ringing in their ears.
ReplyDeleteThis fledgling self obsessed bunch of baby-boomers calling themselves Catholics for a Changing Church should be 'nipped in the bud' by the Archbishop before any more souls are taken in by this malarky and damned for eternity. AND if being 'nipped in the bud' means official excommunication because of pride and a refusal to change, with continued dissent, then so be it!
What kind of 'catholics' do they think they are, taking on the Catholic Church in such a brazen 'spit in your eye' manner?
Enough of this nonsense - and while we are on this subject why the heck have the other rebel groups not been brought to book for their disobedience??? Just as a simple comparison - if you decided to do your own thing at work and try to scupper your Company wouldn't you expect to get carpeted by your Boss and fired?
What's wrong with this world??? Why do we put up with these goofs when they are so open about their disagreements and disobedience with just about everything that the Catholic Faith stands for?
Catholics they are certainly NOT!
Sirian;
ReplyDeletewe know perfectly well what the Conciliar Fathers intended; it's in the documents : the problem is not that, it's the great throng of people who got carried away by all the nonsense then, and have managed to con themselvs (and others) ever since that what they want is what the Council wanted.
Don't be too hard on them; it's only because they can't read, and have to rely on others telling them about it . . . and thus are misled.
The real solution is for Priests who really are faithful to the teachings of the Council to have Masses to celebrate the Anniversary, celebrated strictly in accordance with the Council's teaching on the liturgy !
Mac,
ReplyDeleteplease keep bashing these elderly heretics. Shine the light of truth on their disobedience ... so we can all actively participate in their exposure as Protestants. It's all so 1970's...thank the Lord for his gift of the "Biological Solution".
Absolutely Mac, David is right, keep bashing these senile heretics.
ReplyDeleteThey have messed up their lives, their childrens and now they are trying to justify what they have done by foisting it on the rest of us.