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| _WeDoWebWork.com |
Editorial: IN THIS ISSUE OF ‘THE FLOCK': THE CURRENT CRISIS IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN
ENGLAND AND WALES 2010
We welcome our Holy Father POPE BENEDICT XVI We look forward to him restoring TRUTH in our Parishes and Schools by reminding our Bishops of his own recent words: “The Church must use the Shepherd's Rod to protect the Faith against those who falsify it ….. true Love will not allow heresy to spread and the Faith to be twisted and chipped away as if it were something we ourselves had invented.” Pope Benedict XVI (Homily for the Feast of the Sacred Heart, 2010.) THE CURRENT CRISIS IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ENGLAND AND WALES 2010 The following pages indicate some of the most serious problems we pray the Pope will address before they destroy the Church in this country. First our credentials: We feel we are in a position to speak on this crisis because we have been in existence since 1980 and, although initially founded to combat false catechesis, we have since taken a stand against any of the other abuses which no-one else is tackling. This necessitates keeping ourselves well informed on every aspect of the Church in our country. Our Newsletter, The Flock, is mailed out, free, to 2,400 addresses, which means it probably reaches 5-6000 readers. Many others read it on our web-site www.proecclesia.com and we are informed by YAHOO that 5,752 Catholic organisations world wide have now established links with our web-site. The feed-back we receive by post and by e-mail from these Catholics is touchingly grateful and fully in agreement with our stands on current issues. Also, the financial donations they provide*, which enable us to continue our activities, show their support is genuine. So we speak for a very large number of faithful Catholics who are extremely unhappy about the situation in our country and who pray the Pope will use his God-given Authority to rectify it. This report does not deal with the scandals of abortion or euthanasia as that is the apostolate of several excellent Pro-Life organisations. Of course we support them but we see no necessity to duplicate their work. Also, our concern is not with Society but with scandals within the Church which come under the Pope's jurisdiction. Here are seven disturbing facts: 1. False teaching in our schools and parishes. For over a hundred years our schools did a wonderful job, teaching the Faith so well the number of Catholics in this country grew and grew. Very many beautiful churches were built which were crowded -even for weekday Masses; Seminaries and novitiates were packed with enthusiastic young people; well instructed converts flooded in and lovely spiritual books were written by clergy and laypeople. Then in the late nineteen sixties and early seventies ‘Modern Catechetics' was introduced, changing the content of religious instruction for our schools into vague, ambiguous talks following poorly devised textbooks which distorted, omitted or even contradicted basic Church teaching. A brief glance at any of the officially approved R.E. texts will substantiate this. Sadly, as well as keeping pupils ignorant of the Faith, this teaching also instills a contempt for the Church which is very hard to eradicate. Unfortunately, the bishops, listening to their ‘experts' the Diocesan Catechetical Advisors, trained by the late ex-Father Hubert Richards in Corpus Christi College and installed by Bishop David Konstant in every Diocese, make this teaching mandatory in all their Catholic schools. Most pupils respond by walking away from the Church as soon as they leave school, to the distress of their families who had trusted the Catholic school to teach the faith as they used to. Now this ‘built in' Apostacy has continued for forty years, most parents, parish catechists and teachers have little idea of the Catholic Faith, so we have empty churches, many of which are being closed down or even sold. We also have few priestly vocations, so the Church is, in effect, dying in this country. Yet the bishops still insist on ‘modern catechetics' being taught in Catholic schools. This means ignoring The Catechism of the Catholic Church and its companion The Compendium to use trendy, often heretical religious textbooks. One recent exception was Bishop Patrick O'Donoghue of Lancaster Diocese, who realised shortly before his retirement, how much harm our Catholic schools are doing and produced a Document, Fit for Mission – Schools ? listing Doctrines which should be taught in our schools. Sadly, as he told me when we met in London in May 2009, his brother bishops were not pleased and they distanced themselves from him, though, as he said, he was only following Church teaching. Another scandal is the recent introduction of combined Catholic and Anglican schools where the religious instruction is given to all the pupils together, often by a lady vicar who also acts as school “chaplain”. We trust the Holy Father will correct the Religious Instruction in Catholic schools when he addresses the bishops and that he will insist that as the results show present teaching to be ineffective, (currently 97% of Catholic school leavers lapse every year) sound books must replace the heretical books now in use. There are no sound religious textbooks in England and Wales but we could use excellent books from America like The Faith and Life Series. 2. Lessons on Sex in Catholic schools. These lessons under the title ‘sex-ed' have been usual in most Catholic schools for some time but recently the Government has moved to start these lessons for children who are aged only five, to make them much more explicit and to include information about contraception and, for senior children, where to obtain abortions. The Act enforcing this was postponed because of the General Election, but it will be raised again. Unfortunately our bishops, instead of insisting our schools should be exempt, as they could, actually agreed to all this, even allowing their Catholic Education Service to assist in drawing up these diabolical programmes. They need the Pope to remind them that Catholic schools must follow the Guidelines produced by the Pontifical Council for the Family in The Truth and meaning of Human Sexuality. Catholic parents expect their bishops to protect their children from corrupting lessons on sex and to ensure they are taught the Faith in all its Glorious Beauty. Instead, as one angry mother wrote to me, They don't teach them the Faith any more they talk dirty to them instead! 3. Endemic Moral laxity goes uncorrected. Many Catholics today just go to Sunday Mass occasionally yet when they do go they always receive Holy Communion. Very few ever receive the Sacrament of Penance as they have heard nothing about sin and when Catholics die they are usually instantly “canonised” at their Requiem Masses with an effusive Eulogy accompanied by totally inappropriate songs and music. Purgatory is not mentioned and of course neither is Hell. It is assumed we all go straight to Heaven however we have lived, so prayers and Masses for the Holy Souls seem pointless. 4. Sexual Immorality is also rife. Schools assume their senior pupils will sleep together so various methods of contraception are taught in Catholic schools, even those known to be abortive in back-up. Sadly, even Catholics who stay in the Church often live together before (or even without ever) being married and contraception is frequently practised. This is because most of today's Catholics have never heard in school or church that such practises are gravely sinful. The Catholic Divorce rate now equals that of non-Catholics and many get ‘re-married.' 5. Same sex relationships. These are regarded as permissible now and the notorious SOHO Masses in Westminster Archdiocese, for Catholic and non-Catholic homosexuals, who openly flaunt their same-sex relationships, while receiving Communion, are now in their fourth year. These men and women admit freely that they are committed to the homosexual lifestyle and that they have no intention of amending their lives. So these Communions are by their nature sacrilegious. That is why some of us pray in reparation every first and third Sunday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. outside the beautiful Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, Piccadilly. Others who cannot get there pray at home. Some of us go into the church for Mass at times and we find that Church teaching on homosexuality is never given in any of their Homilies. For more information about them visit their web-site http://www.sohomasses.com or http://queering-the-church.com/blog Father Timothy Radcliffe O.P., a frequent celebrant, recently spent his Homily vilifying the Vatican for being ruled by “old men…who seem out of touch with the world” - presumably for not approving homosexual activity. Their situation is further shown by their rainbow decorated newsletters which include items such as encouragement to join the London Gay March carrying banners proclaiming PROUD TO BE CATHOLIC, PROUD TO BE GAY or invitations to attend a showing of the DVD Queer and Catholic made by Mark Dowd, Head of Quest , another dissenting homosexual group for Catholics. Until recently same-sex couples who contracted Civil Unions were congratulated from the Sanctuary during Mass and they are all often urged to report any ‘homophobic incidents' to the police. Since all this and more makes their situation painfully obvious and Bishop Longley, then Auxillary in Westminster and now Archbishop of Birmingham, told them when he set these Masses up that they need not change their way of life, it is rather surprising to find Archbishop Nichols now claiming, when he does reply to letters from concerned Catholics, that they are, by their own description only of a homosexual orientation …. who struggle to be part of the Catholic Church and conform their lives accordingly! Can he really believe this against so much evidence to the contrary ? Doesn't he realise that faithful Catholics with this orientation who are really striving to follow Church teaching don't want to call attention to themselves with special Masses? Some of these noble souls have contacted us to express the distress these Masses with their sacrilegious Communions cause them while they, who really deserve it, get so little pastoral care. Recently the Holy Father told Bishops in Rome You have the duty to teach, with audacity, the Truth. Hopefully he will tell our bishops to once more start guiding their flocks responsibly by issuing Pastoral Letters and Ad Clerums insisting that true and only true Doctrinal and Moral teaching is given in our parishes and schools again. 6. Liturgical Abuses and Irreverence. There is little acknowledgement of Christ's Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament now. Catholics talk in church, genuflections are fast going out of fashion and many children are taught that they only receive ‘Blessed Bread' in their Communion preparation. Some priests habitually substitute their own words while saying Mass, Sunday homilies are sometimes given by lay people and Extraordinary Ministers are still responsible for the Ablutions in many churches as well as being allowed to distribute Holy Communion while the priest sits in the Sanctuary. Communion under both kinds is common every day of the week in many churches and convents. In some dioceses the Sacrament of Confirmation is administered by priests although the Bishop is perfectly fit, General Absolution is still common and priests frequently dress as laymen. 7. Bishops in open rebellion. All these Liturgical problems arise from the Bishops ignoring Vatican Documents which give contrary instructions such as the 1997 Instructions on Questions regarding the Collaboration of the non-Ordained Faithful , which we re-printed as a booklet and sent out with The Flock . The Bishops usually greet Vatican Documents by declaring that ‘ Rome doesn't understand England and Wales so this doesn't apply here!' That is probably why the Extraordinary Rite of Mass is still so difficult to find in England and Wales in spite of the number of faithful Catholics who want it. The Holy Father might take this opportunity to remind our Bishops that they owe obedience to Rome just as much as their priests owe obedience to them. Conclusion Usually we deal with only one problem in a newsletter but this time we have covered the seven which seem to cause most concern among the faithful so we can give a general picture of the scandals which urgently need addressing by those with the God-given Authority to deal with them. Consequently, this makes for very sad reading but there is nothing here which really good Catholic Bishops couldn't rectify. Unfortunately we never get such bishops in this country. New bishops are always chosen by those already in situ who invariably choose like-minded men. The Papal Nuncio, perhaps because he always has little English, approves whatever they suggest, behaving more like a ‘Bishop's Nuncio' than a Papal Nuncio. This is particularly sad because we now have some excellent priests who would make wonderful bishops but who are always passed over. They are holy, loyal to the Magisterium and they know and love the Faith, having usually attended State schools, as their parents were discerning enough not to trust Catholic schools and taught them the Faith themselves. Good Bishops would give us a light at the end of this long tunnel and it is what the good priests mentioned above deserve as well as the good Catholic parents we are beginning to see who, disillusioned with Catholic schools after their own experiences, now teach the faith to their children at home. We must pray that the Holy Father, showing his fatherly concern for all the faithful Catholics, including our good young priests, brings the present bishops into line and ensures we get better bishops in future. This would end our forty years in the wilderness and it would save the Faith of our Fathers for England and Wales - not only for us but for future generations. He would forever have our grateful prayers . * If you would like to support the work being done by Pro Ecclesia Et Pontifice please click on the "Standing Order/Gift Aid" button in the left-hand margin. Thank you. Writing to Rome Please play your part to help turn around the desperate situation in this country. Remember when reporting abuses and dissent to Rome, keep letters factual and as brief as possible, giving places and dates where appropriate and enclosing any supporting documentary evidence where possible.
On matters relating to Seminaries, Catholic Schools and Colleges:
TO ASSIST YOU WHEN WRITING TO YOUR BISHOP, FIND THE NAME AND ADDRESS HERE, LISTED ALPHABETICALLY BY DIOCESE.
The Flock is published by Pro Ecclesia Et Pontifice.
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