The Church Suffering...

The phrase "the Church Suffering" most properly applies to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. The Church on Earth is referred to as the Church Militant (with the Church Triumphant being all those in Heaven.) Unfortunately, "the Church Suffering" was the phrase which came to my mind most often when reading the book by Fr. Matthew Despard: Priesthood in Crisis: One Priest's Experience.

It's awful to contemplate. If even half of what Fr. Despard recounts is true (and Fr. John Abberton is of the opinion that his account does indeed ring true) then the Church in Scotland is in a shocking mess. The scandal of Cardinal O'Brien is merely the slightest tip of an iceberg which would sink a whole fleet of Titanics.

Just as Michael Rose's book, Goodbye Good Men exposed the homosexual culture existing in US seminaries from the 1970s until as late as the 1990s, Fr. Despard's book makes it clear that the Church in Scotland resembles the Augean Stables.

I couldn't bring myself to finish Goodbye Good Men, and I'm having problems reading Priesthood in Crisis. It is horrible.

Apparently the further appointment of Bishops in Scotland has been put on hold until the whole sorry mess has been fully investigated by the Nuncio, Archbishop Mennini.

I am sure that I cannot be the only person to wonder whether, given the total lack of appointments to the ever-increasing number of vacant Sees in England & Wales, the state of the Church south of the Border is coming under the same scrutiny as that in Scotland. After all, Pope Francis has appointed Bishops in other countries which have not had such long-standing vacancies (the Bishop of Buenos Aires being a case in point!)

By the way - it is interesting to note that the e-book is apparently no longer available for sale through either the Amazon UK or Amazon US sites...