Positively Inspired...

If I were ever to get a dog, I'd have to name him "Anathema" just for the pleasure of getting to utter the phrase Anathema, sit...!

His Hermeneuticalness told me that, as there is no such thing as a new heresy, just the old ones resurrected every few centuries or so, we ought to start a twitter hashtag to go along with #FollowFriday - namely, Anathema Saturday.

In one of my more inspired moments, I riposted that it ought, by rights, to be #AnathemaSiturday...

Yes, yours truly, blonde though I am, was able to bask in the pleasure of having demonstrated a moment of pure, unadulterated genius.

Given the nonsense that some of the crackpots on Catholic Voices for Reform are likely to be spouting, it might be a good idea to get a few of those anathemas out into the open... you know, like the one that condemns anyone who says that Christ never ordained the Apostles as priests...

Mind you, most of them find the new media a little difficult to understand, so they might not know what Twitter actually is...

Redemptorist Publications & The Bones They Couldn't Crush...!

Sorry, Laurence... Couldn't resist that opportunity... Now, enough frivolity.

It appears that Redemptorist Publications have little understanding of the new media. Once something is "out there" on the internet, there is little point screaming blue murder about copyright infringement just because one doesn't like a blogger's review... (I'm pretty sure that, if Bones had given a glowing endorsement of the pamphlet produced by Redemptorist Publications, not a single objection to his quotes would have been made!)

You see, Catholic bloggers are mostly orthodox. The reason that they blog is that they want to proclaim the Truth, in all its beauty, to share it with others.

People of a less orthodox bent can't really blog to the same extent - they have few opinions, because, after all, for them, "my truth" may be very different from "your truth" and one wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings by expressing the belief that "my truth" is correct, and "your truth" is not. That might be seen as being judgemental and unfeeling.

Orthodox Catholics, on the other hand, have got the certainty of the Faith behind their statements. 2000 years' worth of certainty, give or take a year or two, guaranteed by Christ himself, just as long as one is in Communion with the successor to St. Peter. And, no matter how much the baby-boomers scream about the spirit of Vatican II opening the windows and doors of the Church to allow discussion, anyone with half a brain cell, who troubles themselves to read the actual documents of Vatican II, will be able to see that there are certain definitive Truths held by the Church, which have been held since the beginning.

One of those Truths is that the ministerial priesthood is not open to women.

Not in the past. Not now. Not ever.

This teaching has been declared as part of the deposit of Faith, and, as such, must be given complete assent by the faithful. Complete assent means that it is not open to discussion. This is not because the discussion is being suppressed, it is simply because the matter cannot be changed. Can not. Not will not. The Church has declared that she does not have the authority to change this teaching.

The sun rises in the East.* This is not open to discussion. I'm not attempting to quash discussion of the matter, it just isn't possible to discuss something which is immutable. I might wish, were I of a philosophical persuasion, (I'm not, but I'll concede the point) to speculate as to the reasons why the sun rises in the East, but there would be no discussion, as such, because it simply isn't open to change. And no amount of money spent on bus adverts will have the slightest effect on this basic fact.

The Catholic Women's Ordination group, CWO, have failed to grasp this. This is basically because they see the ministerial priesthood as being little more than a way to exercise power within the Church, and a matter of equality. If this was all that the priesthood was about, then, yes, women should be able to be ordained. But it is not. And it has precious little to do with the feeling that one is called to be a priest... many men feel that they have a priestly vocation, but this has to be tested and affirmed by the Church. Many are called, but few are chosen, to coin a phrase.

If you want to read a clear piece on Pope John Paul II's teaching on the matter, you can read a far better post over at Bridges and Tangents by Fr. Stephen Wang (twitch of the mantilla to Fr. Tim Finigan) and for an even deeper analysis of why the CWO's arguments are so flawed, check out this excellent post by Fr. Philip Neri Powell (more mantilla-twitching, this time in the direction of Vincenzo.)

Anyway, à rétourner à notre mouton... knowingly to dissent from the definitive teachings of the Catholic Church is to declare oneself a heretic. CWO has, by declaring its intention to fight for the ordination of women, effectively done that very thing.

So we are left with several questions of vital importance. Why does a Catholic publishing house produce a leaflet which gives a link to CWO while claiming to be a spiritual guide for the Papal Visit to the UK? Why does the leaflet encourage the discussion of women's ordination in groups? Who is Lucy Russell, and why was she asked to write for the pamphlet when she appears, on the surface, to be so ill-equipped to defend the teaching of the Church?

I totally agree with Fr. Ray Blake in suggesting that emails should be sent to the Secretary General of the Redemptorists, Fr. Joseph P. Dorcey C.Ss.R., asking some of these questions. I also wrote a review of the pamphlet, warning others that this publication, because of its promotion of a heretical group, could not in truth call itself Catholic... somehow I suspect that the review will not find its way onto the website... I shall let you know!


* Yes, I know. After all, I'm a Science teacher. I do realise that the Sun only appears to rise. Nevertheless, it only appears to rise in the East, so stop being so pedantic. Or I'll put you in detention...

Fantastic Video About The Holy Father...

I watched, absolutely entranced. I'm not entirely taken with the soundtrack, but that's just me. Watch and learn, my friends, watch and learn!



Mantilla-twitch in the direction of the excellent Mary O'Regan...

A Blogger In Need Of Prayers...

Just for once, it isn't me.... apart from the fact that all of us are in need of prayers all the time, that is.

But this evening, as I was checking through my SiteMeter stats, I discovered a blog I hadn't seen before. Quam Angusta Porta is written by Malvenu, a married man who is struggling with his faith. He believes that the Truth is to be found in the Catholic Church, but cannot quite bring himself to cross the Tiber for family reasons.

Please spare a few prayers for him, that he can see the way forward and come home.

Via Romea, The Musical...!

Heheheheheheh... we had our Parish Music Evening last night. As a special treat, the "Trio-Lars" sang us their Via Romea theme tune... something this very talented trio concocted during a thunderstorm, and based on their experiences during the French leg of the ordeal pilgrimage...

I'm delighted that my dinky little Canon IXUS 100 was able to capture the moments so well... but in case you are wondering, the lyrics are on the You Tube page for the video... and, since I'm generous that way, the embedding code is there too. But pretty please, give me a link back to the blog!

Redesigned Sanctuary For Cofton Park..?

Unasked by the Bishops of England & Wales, Vincenzo has generously submitted an alternative design. He's even provided before-and-after videos to demonstrate the differences this will make.

Unfortunately, I doubt that this will be acceptable to their Lordships.

*sigh*

I guess we're stuck with the one which resembles Ebbsfleet International Station...

Abortion Survivor...

This seems to be my day for videos. I saw this over at The Sensible Bond; it is the account of Gianna Jessen, who was born alive after a saline abortion. The video was made during a speech she made in 2007, on the eve of the debate to decriminalise abortion in Victoria, Australia.

The heart-stopping moment for me in this account is realising that it was only in August 2002 that President Bush signed the Born Alive Infants Protection Act... up until that time, the practice was to end the life of a baby who survived an abortion by either strangulation, suffocation, leaving the baby there to die or throwing the baby away!!

The news has been full of outrage this past week about a woman who shoved a cat into a wheelie bin, where it was stuck for 16 hours. I am a cat lover. I think it is dreadful that anyone could shove a cat in a bin. But it's only a cat. The same treatment was being meted out to other human beings, and IT WAS LEGAL !

Here in the UK it is legal to have an abortion up to birth if the child is disabled. I doubt that we have the equivalent of the "Born Alive" Act.

A Bunny In The Oven...

I like this picture. It's not a fail at all, according to my way of thinking. It helps to fight against the tendency of the media to portray animals are as cute and cuddly, and nothing to do with food.

I have often found myself staring in disbelief at children who do not realise that all our food is either from animals or plants. I still recall the lesson where, after I had made this assertion, one Year 11 class (that's 15 - 16 years old) proceeded to name a succession of different foodstuffs in an attempt to catch me out...

"Cornflakes?"

"Comes from maize, also called corn. It's a plant."

"Ummm... ok, toast?"

"Toast is made from bread, bread is made from flour, flour is made from wheat. Wheat is a plant."

"Aha! Tomato ketchup! That's not made from plants or animals!!"

"And, what does tomato ketchup contain, then...?"

"Tomatoes, of course... oh, yeah... tomatoes are, yeah... Well, what about spaghetti?"

I was soooooo tempted to say that spaghetti grew on spaghetti trees...

Carmel In Bulgaria...

A very moving account of a Carmelite convent in Bulgaria, with descriptions of some of the persecutions the nuns experienced when the Communists took over.

Unfortunately, it's only the first 10 minutes of the documentary, but still well worth watching. The thing that struck me most was the complete serenity on the faces of the nuns, and the complete absence of frown lines...



Twitch of the mantilla to Nazareth Priest and to Hilary White.

My Patron Saint's Feast...

Today was the feast day of my patron saint - the one I chose when I took private vows, that is.

St. Anne Line shares her feast with the two other female martyrs who were canonised among the forty martyrs of England & Wales. As I have mentioned before on this blog, I chose her because I liked her reply to her judges, when asked if she repented of the "crime" of harbouring a Catholic priest.

"So far am I from repenting that I would I could have harboured a thousand."

Once I chose her as my patron, I found that we had lots in common. She helped to prepare for Mass to be celebrated in the safehouse she kept (which ultimately led to her arrest), she had poor health, she taught children the Faith, and took private vows.

I tend to remember her in February (She was arrested on Candlemas - 2nd February - and martyred on 27th February) more than August, but there's no harm in celebrating twice a year!

Another Mini-Blognic & Girlie Drivers...

Another busy Sunday morning Mass at Blackfen saw the First Holy Communion of a little boy to whom I've been giving catechesis (spare a prayer, if you will, for him and his family), two Baptisms and the visit of no less than three bloggers - James and Ella Preece (Catholic and Loving It) and Dominic Mary (Libera Me).

James and Ella and their gorgeous little girls are down South on a camping holiday, which, given the weather, is rather brave of them. Friends and followers of Dominic Mary will be relieved to hear that he was looking quite chirpy after his recent admission to hospital. Hopefully he'll take things gently for a while longer...

Some motor racing event or other was being shown in the Parish Club this lunchtime, which reminded His Hermeneuticalness of an amusing sketch in the comedy show, Smack the Pony, and he regaled us with details of the "Girlie Driver" sketch. James Preece and Dominic Mary asked if he would dare to put it on his blog? Fr. Tim thought for about 30 seconds and decided that no, he wouldn't... "I think I'll leave that one for Mac to post!"

So, ever keen to oblige, here it is...