Catholic and Loving it!

The best game I've played in ages. Simple but clever, retro pixels, short enough to be finished in fifteen minutes. What more could a guy want?

Marvellous.

Because that's as much freedom of choice as you're going to get.

This is the Director of Catholic Education Services favourite quote in the world. It's Ed Balls (Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families) speaking in the Houses of Parliament...

The decision to make sex and relationship education statutory is, I think, supported by all political parties, but it is essential that it is taught in line with the ethos, including the faith, of the school. That is clear in the legislation: it is clear that parents as well as school governors will have a say in how the subject is taught, while there is also a parental opt-out, which will apply to pupils until they are 15. I can thus give the hon. Gentleman the complete assurance that the school will be in charge of how to teach SRE, but the fact of teaching it will be in law and guaranteed to all children.

[link]

So, how does he tally that up with this? Here's Ed Balls again...

If their faith has a view in scripture, they can inform pupils of that. What they must not do is teach discrimination. They must be absolutely clear about the importance of civil partnerships

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Must is a pretty strong word. It sort of contradicts his earlier comments about "the school will be in charge".

Then there's another Ed Balls quote...

You can teach the promotion of marriage, you can teach that you shouldn't have sex outside of marriage, what you can't do is deny young people information about contraception outside of marriage."

[link]

Again... strong language... "What you can't do", sort of contradicts "parents as well as school governors will have a say".

Catholic Education Services quotation of the statement that "the school will be in charge of how to teach SRE" is misleading because it gives the impression that schools will be able to choose what to teach when they will not.

But then we look more closely at the first paragraph and we we discover that Mr Balls makes no assurances whatsoever about what may be taught. Only how.

Presumably parents, governors and schools will have the freedom to choose between a Powerpoint Presentation and a DVD?

"They must be absolutely clear about the importance of civil partnerships"

"what you can't do is deny young people information about contraception"

In short. Catholic Schools are going to have no choice about what to teach at all.

Lay people don't have any rights, and the clergy can do whatever they like... right?

On the contrary, it is the right of all of Christ’s faithful that the Liturgy, and in particular the celebration of Holy Mass, should truly be as the Church wishes, according to her stipulations as prescribed in the liturgical books and in the other laws and norms. Likewise, the Catholic people have the right that the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass should be celebrated for them in an integral manner, according to the entire doctrine of the Church’s Magisterium. Finally, it is the Catholic community’s right that the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist should be carried out for it in such a manner that it truly stands out as a sacrament of unity, to the exclusion of all blemishes and actions that might engender divisions and factions in the Church.

Redemptionis Sacramentum 11

But we don't have a right that Bishop's do anything about anything? Do we?

Christ’s faithful have the right that ecclesiastical authority should fully and efficaciously regulate the Sacred Liturgy lest it should ever seem to be “anyone’s private property, whether of the celebrant or of the community in which the mysteries are celebrated”

Redemptionis Sacramentum 18

It is the right of the Christian people themselves that their diocesan Bishop should take care to prevent the occurrence of abuses in ecclesiastical discipline, especially as regards the ministry of the word, the celebration of the sacraments and sacramentals, the worship of God and devotion to the Saints.

Redemptionis Sacramentum 24

Do we have the right to a decent liturgy?

It is the right of the community of Christ’s faithful that especially in the Sunday celebration there should customarily be true and suitable sacred music, and that there should always be an altar, vestments and sacred linens that are dignified, proper, and clean, in accordance with the norms.

Redemptionis Sacramentum 57

All of Christ’s faithful likewise have the right to a celebration of the Eucharist that has been so carefully prepared in all its parts that the word of God is properly and efficaciously proclaimed and explained in it; that the faculty for selecting the liturgical texts and rites is carried out with care according to the norms; and that their faith is duly safeguarded and nourished by the words that are sung in the celebration of the Liturgy.

Redemptionis Sacramentum 58

Any clergy reading?

Have you respected our rights?

Let each one of the sacred ministers ask himself, even with severity, whether he has respected the rights of the lay members of Christ’s faithful, who confidently entrust themselves and their children to him, relying on him to fulfil for the faithful those sacred functions that the Church intends to carry out in celebrating the sacred Liturgy at Christ’s command. For each one should always remember that he is a servant of the Sacred Liturgy.

Redemptionis Sacramentum 186

Ad Limina a bit stressful was it?

[Image Source]

Pope Benedict sums up everything that is wrong with the Catholic Church in England and Wales...

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.

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In other words... Goodbye Terry Prendergast?

When I interviewed Bishop Drainey, we had the following exchange...

I explained that most young people in Middlesbrough diocese don't know the Our Father in Latin. "Well," he replied. "I think that's very sad if that's the case. It's part of our heritage and I feel very strongly about that."

[link]

He is going to need to feel very strongly if he is going to do anything about it. He is not up against one or two hippy priests, he's up against a cultural phenomena, as Jeffery Tucker describes in his preface to Msgr Marini's address...

Every Catholic has experienced it at some level, that culture of disdain for the past that has afflicted Catholicisim in the postconciliar period. It happens at our parishes, when a special guest lecturer talks about the supposed horrors Catholic school back in the day, or of how ridiculous it was that the Mass was in Latin, that we attempted to sing chant and did it so poorly, or that we went to confession behind a screen. We read about it in our catechetical materials, that contempt for what has gone before in the great age of ignorance and oppression that was finally swept away in the liberating Age of Aquarius. How unfortunate those people were and how fortunate we are in this enlightened age.

Or so we've been taught. So pervasive has this attitude been that we can speak of self-hating Catholics as a widespread cultural phenomenon. Even in our own parishes, the absence of a positive self identity seems almost required as an ground rule for every conversation. "I don't want to go back to the past of course," we are expected to say before adding any critique of the present. This attitude - this hermeneutic of discontinuity, this positing of a great divide between preconciliar and postconcilar faith - has cut us off in a strange way. Wondering used book stores we find pre-1965 books on the faith and read them like relics. We don't recognize the pictures, understand the words, or even see a familiarity in the disciplines then and now.

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You don't fight a culture by quietly pottering away in the Cathedral and making sure Masses there contain the occasional bit of Latin. You fight a culture by doing things openly and publicly in such a way that it becomes a widely known fact that, as Bishop Drainey said to me: "It's part and parcel of being a Latin Rite Catholic to at least know the Our Father or to be able to sing the Creed and the basic things [in Latin]."

Regular readers can read my interview with Bishop Drainey here.

Welcome to any new visitors this weekend, especially if you found my link in the Catholic Herald. I'm a 27 year Catholic old young dad of two who goes to Mass every week because he wants to and not just because his wife drags him along, there are about six of us in the whole country - do let me know if you meet any more. I grew up in a Church designed do destroy faith in God and for most of my generation it's worked very well. Fortunately I have a rebelious streak in me and worked things out for myself, not because I'm clever but because like Gandalf, God likes to work with the most unlikely creatures imaginable.

I've been blogging on the state of the Catholic Church in England since 2002 and in that time I've written a lot of stuff. Here are some recent highlights:

On the Sex Abuse Scandals (we've learned nothing)...

• The Catholic Church: A Culture Favourable to Abuse
• How the Catholic Church Creates a Culture which is Favourable to Abuse
• The Sword of Damocles?The Culture of Abuse in the Diocese of Middlesbrough

On Criticising the Clergy (it's okay to do it)...

• Should Catholics criticise priests?
• Pope: Laypeople should shut up, keep their heads down and let the clergy get on with the job...

On Archbishop Nichols (picks on traditionalists, doesn't do his job)...

• Throwing his weight around
• Inexorably Distancing: The Movie
• Turning Their Back on the Church's Ordinary Pattern of Prayer
• A Joke...
• Nobody is going to anything about anything?

On Kieran Conry (The Bishop for Youth)...

• How to avoid the parts of Christianity you don't like: A beginners guide from Bishop Kieran Conry

There's lots, lots more to be found via the Tag Cloud on the left. Try my posts on Bishop Drainey or if you fancy a laugh, Middlesbrough Cathedral.

The best way to keep up to date with the latest goings on is to subscribe to the free email updates or if you are a bit technical, try the RSS Feed

I thought you might find the following information useful...

Find an analog watch (the kind with hour and minute hands) that is set accurately. Place it on a level surface, such as the ground, or hold it horizontal in your hand.

Point the hour hand at the sun.

Bisect (that is, find the center point of) the angle between the hour hand and the twelve o'clock mark (the number 12 on the watch). The center of the angle between the hour hand and twelve o'clock mark is the north-south line. If you don't know which way is north and which south, just remember that no matter where you are, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. In the northern hemisphere the sun is due south at midday. If your watch is set to daylight savings time bisect the angle between the hour hand and the one o'clock mark instead.

Further methods (like what to do at night time) are available here

My interview with Bishop Terence Drainey will be in the coming issue of the Catholic Herald. This should especially be of interest to anybody in Middlesbrough Diocese. The Bishop speaks on...

• The fearful task of being a Bishop
• His relationship with the Bishops Conference
• The lack of porridge at World Youth Day
• Signs of traditionalism from Pope Benedict
• Where new Priests are going to come from
• Sex education in schools
• Latin and Gregorian Chant

Plenty of stuff to wave in the face of your parish priest. Especially if you want less porridge in your parish and a bit more Gregorian chant.