Wednesday 3 February 2010

Flattery... (Of A Sort!)

Last Friday, I put up a post highlighting the connection between the "Stand Up For Vatican II" crowd and the dissident group, Catholics for a Changing Church (CCC).

The objectives of CCC can be seen quite clearly from their website - starting as a protest against the papal encyclical, Humanae Vitae, they rapidly formed themselves into a pressure group... though in 1980 they claim to have been marginalised following the National Pastoral Congress in Liverpool, and subsequently they morphed into a "think-tank/study group."

They obviously haven't been studying the actual documents of Vatican II - as I explained before, all the things they hold so very dear (Mass "facing the people" and in the vernacular, married and female clergy, the primacy of conscience, etc. etc. ad infinitem... *yawns*) were actually not called for by Vatican II, and were, in some of those cases, explicitly condemned.

Their "thinking" has also been somewhat ineffective: they state that they have

"...looked at the future form of the Christian faith. We feel that if we don’t like what is on offer, it is incumbent on us to advance our own ideas for wider discussion."

Hardly an example of the filial submission of mind and will to the authority of Holy Mother Church envisaged by the Council!

I suspect that, in 1980, they were told as much... which is when they declared themselves "marginalised" (and, in all probability, terribly hurt and upset) because no-one would actually take them seriously.

Bernard Wynne, one of the main agitators in the anti-Latin Mass campaign at Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen, who aired his "grievances" in The Suppository, is the Chair of CCC. I wonder how many parishioners, who thought that maybe Mr. Wynne had a right to express his concerns about the liturgy, actually realised that he was also campaigning against Church teaching?

Of course, my openness in criticising the actions and aims of CCC has not gone unnoticed. My blog has come to the attention of another participant in the "Stand Up for Vatican II" coalition. Valerie Stroud, the contact given for "We Are Church (UK)" sent an email round to the We Are Church Yahoo groups.

In it, she stated that

"The Daily Telegraph, a respected newspaper in my youth, employs Damien Thompson to write a fundamentalist blog on its website. There is also a woman "in private vows" called Mac McLernon who writes a blog called Mulier Fortis. They are so outraged by Catholics for a Changing Church's spearheading of the Stand Up for Vatican II campaign that they have found the time to create a rather nasty website of their own.

Do visit http://gcc4vat2.co.uk/ ..."

I am extremely flattered to be linked with Damian Thompson and his blog in this way... I mean, wow, he's really big in the blogging stakes!! The CCC, WAC(UK) and IMWAC bunch must think I am a very talented writer... sadly, I cannot accept any of the credit for the spoof website. I wish I could. All I did was link to it... which, I think I'm right in saying, means that Valerie Stroud is indulging in libel. I hope she remembers to mention that in Confession...

She continues:

"It is highly offensive but mature adults are used to turning a blind eye to the juvenile antics of the young. I rather go along with the PR adage: "No publicity is bad publicity" You would have to be pretty stupid to give this spoof website any credibility.

The real CCC site will be found at http://www.ccc4vat2.co.uk/"

More (presumably unintentional) flattery. I haven't been called young for quite a while! And, personally, I'd have thought you'd have to be pretty stupid to imagine that the spoof website was supposed to be given any credibility...

The fact she felt the need to indicate that there is a real website made me chortle...

The defence of CCC by Valerie Stroud is interesting. WAC(UK) is a part of IMWAC... and IMWAC has wacky ideas about the direction the Church should take, as you can see:

We are Church: The Roman Catholic Church should accept the role of condoms in the prevention of HIV/Aids.

40 Years Encyclical "Humanae Vitae" – July 25th, 1968 "We Are Church" keeps calling for future-oriented Christian sexual ethics.

*yawn*

21 comments:

the mother of this lot said...

Young AND big in blogging. There'll be no talking to you next!

Unknown said...

"mature adults are used to turning a blind eye to the juvenile antics of the young."

Does she mean geriatric instead of mature or was she just being coy? :)

Congratulations on making it into the big time!

Anonymous said...

glad to read that a youngster like you is doing such good work exposing that geriatric group CCC.

Londiniensis said...

Well done, Mac!

Jane said...

Mac:

Was just about to say the same as Londiniensis!!
Keep at it!

George said...

Mac - accept the flattery, you deserve it. Just don't let it go to your head! :-)

See it as a 'shot in the arm' to up the stakes and get more heavily stuck in to this corporal and most definitely Spiritual battle that rages around us.

And just because Ms Harman must have used up at least two Kleenex Mansize tissues to stifle her sniffles after losing out big time in her Equality Bill - see here:

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10020304.html

does not mean that we let down our guard. Old Samurai Warrior saying goes something like; 'When you have defeated the enemy, that is time to tighten your helmet strap'.

So the battle goes on, we run the race and fight the good fight. With God's Mercy and Grace we all hope to receive our 'Crowns of Gold' in the fullness of time.

God Bless.

Elizabeth said...

Oh Mac, this is brilliant. I love the new GCC website and no doubt some of its founders and members (CCC and the Stand Up Brigade, offer them free membership, they deserve it) will meet again in a rather grim place.
What is it with this sixties lot, do they not believe in the supremacy of the Pope and the infallible teachings of the Church.
The importance of the Pope is shown by the fact that Peter is mentioned by name 195 times in the course of the New Testament. This shows that Peter had a special role that represented all the apostles as a group, a spokesman for them all, the voice of the Church.
So don’t these "Stand Up For Vatican II" crowd and the dissident group, Catholics for a Changing Church (CCC) get it, following the teachings of the Catholic Church all comes down to obedience and humility.
They cannot accept that they have ruined their lives, their children’s and those they have influenced with their false interpretations and teachings, now they are trying to justify their beliefs by foisting them on all of us.
The reason I am a Catholic is because the Church has the authority to properly teach the doctrines of faith for my salvation.
"know this for all, that there is no prophesy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation" 2Peter1:20

The only infallible truth lies within the teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church which Christ established.

Sarah said...

I like your reaction, God bless you!

Patricius said...

Congratulations! and please keep up the good work. These people need to be exposed.

George said...

CCC, WAC(UK), IMWAC & all these heretics and dissenters are definitely WHACKY!!!! Just read their websites - BARMY!!! Mad as a box of frogs!

Only prayer, humility, obedience and grace will help. We should pray for them.

Elsa Laska said...

I blogged about you, Damian, and the spoof website on my German blog and now the Geriatrics for a Changeling Church have made it in the german catholic newspaper Die Tagespost.
Some german Bloggers really have a taste for british humour. Especially, because the german WAC keeps boring us for - uh, wait, maybe one hundred - years.

Thanks for your blog and God bless you!
Elsa

Mrs McLean said...

Oh, those young and their juvenile antics!

Quote that made me abandon a similar group the one time I dipped a toe in: "Our kids won't continue this fight."

Then why bother?

defuriosmontanis said...

Strange that they call themselves "CCC" of their own free will. When I read law (at an Austrian university), "CCC" was the abbreviation for the "Constitutio Criminalis Carolina", or in German "Halsgerichtsordnung Karls V." (the Penal Code enacted in the Holy Roman Empire in 1532, Carlo Quinto regnante). It makes for grisly reading, with burying people alive, burning them at the stake, breaking them at the wheel ... in fact, the CCC worked a bit like English legislation against recalcitrant Catholics, come to think of it. CCC - I wouldn't touch these three letters with a very long pole!

Dominic Mary said...

Mac;

for what it's worth, the putting of 'in private vows' into quotes could reasonably be construed as an attack on your honesty and/or the integrity of your vows - and in the circumstances, that would clearly be defamatory !

Of course, if you moved quickly, you could split the damages 50-50 between the Holy Father's visit and Blackfen's new Mini-Basilica !

Anonymous said...

CCC to my mind stands for Catechism of the Catholic Church ...

Jonathan Marshall said...

Great stuff, Mac!

Whoever did create the GFCC spoof website did an excellent job - when you read through it it becomes apparent that it is a really intelligent (and extremely funny) pastiche of the original, rather than a simple parody.

Dilly said...

Of course you can't be responsible for GCC. You would never be rude about a cat owner like Letitia Cropley.

I think the author was male (A woman would have drawn the line at the Harold Shipman joke.)

I suspect he is under 37, as the Mr Majeika books were first published in 1984 and the TV Series ran from 1986-88- so they are a not a cultural reference point for anyone older than about 10 in 1984.

I also suspect he was either privately or Grammar School educated - as my lovely, intelligent comp-educated graduate nephews and nieces in that age group would not be able to reproduce his mastery of spelling.

Theirs was the first generation that were not taught this systematically.

truthfinder said...

This was priceless! We have the same sort of polyester and tie-dye-wearing rebels here in the U.S. Actually, I think we have a great many MORE of them here in the U.S. I'm hoping that by the time I die it won't be necessary to mention it, but directives for my funeral include "Latin, please." and, "Absolutely NO Marty Haugen songs!"

Unknown said...

There is also a woman "in private vows" called Mac McLernon who writes a blog called Mulier Fortis.


Ignore the cheap slur as well as the unwarranted attack. Do not get discouraged.

Mulier Fortis said...

Thank you Terry, but don't worry... I'd only get upset and discouraged if dissenters like that thought I was the best thing since sliced bread.

The fact that I'm a thorn in their side is rather a badge of honour!!

Now if I was getting attacked by the likes of Fr. Z and Damian...
:-D

defuriosmontanis said...

@ berenike:

In German, catechism is written with "K", and the same applies for catholic (katholisch) and church (Kirche). So, to my mind, KKK can only mean one thing, but try explain that to any Americans ...

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