Monday, 16 March 2015
We desperately need
another St. Patrick..read all the posts today, please. The one on obedience is likely the most important one.
Trouble in England
Monday, 16 March 2015
Catholic authorities' platform for Fr Radcliffe is a grave betrayal of trust
Young people, their parents and clergy were betrayed by organisers of Flame 2 youth event
Once again Fr Timothy Radcliffe, the well-known dissenter from Catholic teaching, is being given an official platform by Catholic authorities to spread his unorthodox views in England and Wales.
Fr Radcliffe will be speaking tomorrow evening on the theme "Tolerant and Free despite being Catholic" as part of the Archdiocese of Westminster’s “Faith Matters” series of Lenten talks at Vaughan House.
Even more disturbing was Fr Radcliffe’s invitation to address thousands of young people at the Flame 2 youth event earlier this month. To invite a known dissenter from Catholic teaching like Fr Radcliffe to speak to young people, under the cover of a supposedly Catholic youth event, was a grave betrayal of the trust that parents and clergy across the country placed in the organisers - and a betrayal of the young people who expect to be taught the truth in love.
Please read my brief outline of Fr Radcliffe’s dissent from Catholic teaching below and please write to the organisers of both events charitably to express your concerns.
From a pro-life perspective, it is absolute essential that we act now to protect our children and grandchildren’s right to receive the Catholic faith from Catholic authorities - on matters relating to human sexuality, remembering the words of Pope John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae paragraph 97, where he taught that it is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not offer adolescents and young adults an authentic education in sexuality, and in love, and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection.
To express your concerns about “Faith Matters” contact:
Ausra Karaliute, STL
Adult Faith Formation Adviser
Agency for Evangelisation
Vaughan House
46 Francis Street
LONDON, SW1P 1QN
To express your concerns about “Flame 2” contact:
CYMFed Board
Catholic Youth Ministry Federation
39 Eccleston Square
London, SW1V 1BX
Outline of Fr Radcliffe’s dissent from Catholic teaching
In the context of Fr Radcliffe's open dissent from Catholic teaching on homosexuality, it's important to keep in mind the teaching of the Church as expressed in The Catechism of the Catholic Church:
In the context of Fr Radcliffe's open dissent from Catholic teaching on homosexuality, it's important to keep in mind the teaching of the Church as expressed in The Catechism of the Catholic Church:
2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.In his submission to the Church of England Pilling Commission on human sexuality, chaired by Sir Joseph Pilling, Fr Radcliffe made the following comments about “gay sexuality”:
“We must ask what it means, and how far it is Eucharistic. Certainly it can be generous, vulnerable, tender, mutual and non-violent. So in many ways, I would think that it can be expressive of Christ’s self-gift.
“We can also see how it can be expressive of mutual fidelity, a covenantal relationship in which two people bind themselves to each other for ever.”
In a 10 March 2012 article in The Tablet entitled "Can marriage ever change", Fr Radcliffe wrote:
"This is not to denigrate committed love of people of the same sex. This too should be cherished and supported, which is why church leaders are slowly coming to support same-sex civil unions. The God of love can be present in every true love."
The confusion caused to those attending the “Soho masses” was eloquently described by Mrs Daphne McLeod of the organisation Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice:
“I do feel that this pretence and condoning is not in any way compassionate or pastoral. These Catholics need and deserve proper guidance, especially the young one who have not received good religious instruction. I cannot forget the poor young man who said to me ‘Don’t worry about Daphne, if it were still wrong these Masses wouldn’t have been arranged especially for us.’”
In a 26 November 2005 article in The Tablet entitled "Can gays be priests?" Fr Radcliffe rejected the clear teaching of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's document on "Persons with homosexual tendencies and the priesthood".
The document states that it is forbidden to ordain men with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” to the priesthood. Fr Radcliffe responded:
“...we may presume that God will continue to call both homosexuals and heterosexuals to the priesthood because the Church needs the gift of both.”
Criticising Fr Radcliffe's interpretation, Fr Alphonsus de Valk wrote that:
"The article has done a disservice to the Church...by attempting to deconstruct the Vatican warnings ... In unjustly deriding the Vatican warnings, Fr. Radcliffe has given succor to other detractors."
In 2006, Fr Radcliffe joined Britain's leading dissenting “Catholics” in contributing an essay to "Opening up: Speaking out in the Church", a book of essays produced as a tribute to Martin Pendergast, one of Britain's leading Christian homosexual activists and one of the organisers of the Soho gay Masses. The book co-edited by Julian Filochowski, Pendergast's civil partner, andPeter Stanford, another well-known dissenter from Catholic sexual ethics.
On 10 July 2009, Fr Radcliffe gave a talk to a Catholic parish in Mashpee, Massachusetts, which he said:
On 10 July 2009, Fr Radcliffe gave a talk to a Catholic parish in Mashpee, Massachusetts, which he said:
"It's not that sexual ethics are particularly important. I don't think they are" (video at 8min40sec)
and
"We have to find ways of promoting our vision of the Christian family so as we can have a context within which to raise children, another generation; but we have to do it in a way which doesn't trash the relationships that people actually have." (video at 1min)
This echoes Fr Radcliffe's words in:
- a 28 January 2006 article in The Tablet ("How to discover what we believe") in which he wrote:"[S]hould the Church accommodate her teaching to the experience of our contemporaries or should we stick by our traditional sexual ethics and risk becoming a fortress Church, a small minority out of step with people’s lives? Neither option seems right ... I confess that I do not know the answer."
During his 2009 Mashpee talk, Fr Radcliffe was asked about relations between the Catholic Church and the newly-elected strongly pro-abortion President Barack Obama. He replied (video at 9mins28secs) that:
"I think that the most important thing is to have a mutually-respectful dialogue with President Obama. He is a very bright man. I have to say that when he was elected, in England you cannot believe the excitement we had. And I believe that he is a man with whom the Church can be in dialogue, on all sorts of issues."
Fr Radcliffe then called to the stage Professor Thomas Groome to speak as an expert on the Church's "dialogue" with Mr Obama. As LifeSiteNews.com has detailed, Professor Groome is a leading dissenter from Catholic teaching within the world of Catholic education. Cardinal George Pell banned his books within the Archdiocese of Sydney. Professor Groome said (video at 0mins40secs) that:
- Obama "on many, many issues, really embraces Catholic social teaching"
- "many Catholics would not be in favour" of banning all abortions
- banning all abortions would "to send abortions back to the back-alleys of our country"
- Obama is "deeply committed to reducing the numbers of abortions"
- Catholics "can work with" Obama on the abortion issue.
Petition Against Parade
| |||||||||
|
The Pope is correct
...in his statement yesterday about the world ignoring Christian persecution. But, he is wrong about the lack of violence in the Koran. May the Pope begin to read and study the real deal.
A great basic source online...http://www.jihadwatch.org/islam-101
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Pope:-Christians-are-persecuted-and-the-world-tries-to-hide-it-33720.html
Also, pray for the typhoon victims in Vanuatu. One of my friends may have been there.
A great basic source online...http://www.jihadwatch.org/islam-101
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Pope:-Christians-are-persecuted-and-the-world-tries-to-hide-it-33720.html
Also, pray for the typhoon victims in Vanuatu. One of my friends may have been there.
Hundreds? At least 1,400...
Dr Billings said: “Public confidence in South Yorkshire Police has been severely damaged by these most recent allegations that the force failed to listen to hundreds of abused young people in Sheffield as we know they failed in Rotherham. http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/sheffield-officers-investigating-child-grooming-told-to-wind-necks-in-by-bosses-1-7156412
This is what happens to reasonable people who give in to fear in a fear culture.
This is what happens to reasonable people who give in to fear in a fear culture.
From A Young Reader in Ireland
.jpg)
"I have an odd feeling these last few days and today especially. I have been to morning Mass and prayed the Rosary ... I can't explain it but it seems like something is brewing in the Church. Please, pray today. You know that bit in Lord of the World where the priest goes in to church and begins praying and goes in in in to prayer, totally immersed and unaware of his surroundings. That is what is needed today. Something dangerous is brewing."
One can understand why this youth feels this way...and this is not on YouTube this a.m.
I wonder why. Here is the script as well as the original link. One small correction, the statue is the famous Dying Gaul, not dying Celt, who may or may not have been a Celt. The name "Gaul" comes from an ancient Germanic word meaning "foreigner".
http://www.churchmilitant.tv/scripts/vort-2015-03-15.pdf
http://www.churchmilitant.tv/platform/?today=2015-03-15
Why Now? America Is Weak...
http://news.yahoo.com/putin-orders-northern-fleet-full-alert-exercises-ria-073059816.html
and
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/japan-rising/
I have warned parents with children with large university debts to pay them off, or not to even start the debt process since 2008....
Why? The army is so understaffed that a conscription starting with debt forgiveness could be introduced here. I have written on this before on this blog as early as 2007, when someone who is now president was speaking about a draft.
I wish all my friends would have listened....
and
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/japan-rising/
I have warned parents with children with large university debts to pay them off, or not to even start the debt process since 2008....
Why? The army is so understaffed that a conscription starting with debt forgiveness could be introduced here. I have written on this before on this blog as early as 2007, when someone who is now president was speaking about a draft.
I wish all my friends would have listened....
On Tobit Again, And Authority in Disobedience
Adding to the meditations on the book of Tobit, one of my favorite books in the Bible, these few thoughts continue a theme on the family.
Tobias' journey with the Archangel Raphael is a walk into manhood. He must leave his parents, meet people he has never met, and in the process, kills a huge fish which would have eaten him, (no small feat), delivers a woman from a demon and becomes a new head of household by redeeming money and inheriting much from his new father-in-law.
Now one part of this tale, which I have never heard discussed or preached, is that the demon, Asmodeus, had control over the girl, Sarah, because of her father.
Here is the key passage. Raphael is explaining the situation in the kinsman's house, including the fact that Tobias is destined by Jewish law to marry Sarah. From Chapter 6:
10 When he entered Media and already was approaching Ecbatana,[c] 11 Raphael said to the young man, “Brother Tobias.” “Here I am,” he answered. Then Raphael[d] said to him, “We must stay this night in the home of Raguel. He is your relative, and he has a daughter named Sarah. 12 He has no male heir and no daughter except Sarah only, and you, as next of kin to her, have before all other men a hereditary claim on her. Also it is right for you to inherit her father’s possessions. Moreover, the girl is sensible, brave, and very beautiful, and her father is a good man.” 13 He continued, “You have every right to take her in marriage. So listen to me, brother; tonight I will speak to her father about the girl, so that we may take her to be your bride. When we return from Rages we will celebrate her marriage. For I know that Raguel can by no means keep her from you or promise her to another man without incurring the penalty of death according to the decree of the book of Moses. Indeed he knows that you, rather than any other man, are entitled to marry his daughter. So now listen to me, brother, and tonight we shall speak concerning the girl and arrange her engagement to you. And when we return from Rages we will take her and bring her back with us to your house.”
14 Then Tobias said in answer to Raphael, “Brother Azariah, I have heard that she already has been married to seven husbands and that they died in the bridal chamber. On the night when they went in to her, they would die. I have heard people saying that it was a demon that killed them. 15 It does not harm her, but it kills anyone who desires to approach her. So now, since I am the only son my father has, I am afraid that I may die and bring my father’s and mother’s life down to their grave, grieving for me—and they have no other son to bury them.”
16 But Raphael[e] said to him, “Do you not remember your father’s orders when he commanded you to take a wife from your father’s house? Now listen to me, brother, and say no more about this demon. Take her. I know that this very night she will be given to you in marriage. 17 When you enter the bridal chamber, take some of the fish’s liver and heart, and put them on the embers of the incense. An odor will be given off; 18 the demon will smell it and flee, and will never be seen near her any more. Now when you are about to go to bed with her, both of you must first stand up and pray, imploring the Lord of heaven that mercy and safety may be granted to you. Do not be afraid, for she was set apart for you before the world was made. You will save her, and she will go with you. I presume that you will have children by her, and they will be as brothers to you. Now say no more!” When Tobias heard the words of Raphael and learned that she was his kinswoman,[f] related through his father’s lineage, he loved her very much, and his heart was drawn to her.
Here are the plain facts: one, the father of Sarah is the cause of the deaths of the seven young men; two, this is because Raguel has disobeyed the laws of kinship by giving Sarah's hand in marriage to men who are not in the extended family line with the legal right to marry her-they are not from the same tribe; three, the demon, Asmodeus, enters into the picture because of the disobedience of the father--if the father was in obedience, Asmodeus would have no power over Sarah; four, Raguel knows this, which is why he has a burial hole dug in the middle of the night--he is ashamed of his own part in the attacks of Asmodeus, but wants to cover this fact up; five, Raguel does not trust in God, as he forgets or purposefully sets aside the idea that Tobias would be protected from a demon, as he, Tobias, is in order, is the real husband of Sarah; six, Raguel would have incurred death, but the death penalty fell on the seven young men instead without Raguel repenting-these men "wore" his sin; seven, Raphael, who is teaching Tobias about the sacredness of both the law of kinship according to Moses, and the laws of marriage, tells the young man how to release Sarah, who has been blamed unjustly for the presence of this demon, Asmodeus. She is freed when a real protector takes over her life in the order of the Jewish law and allows God, through Raphael, to enter into this spiritual warfare.
I shall write more on this later, but it is clear that Asmodeus is allowed to attack Sarah because she is not protected by her own father.
This ties in with my previous post on the synod. The attack of this devil, who hates marriage and works when those in authority ignore the laws of marriage, is now attacking the very institution of marriage in the Church because of the disobedience of those in authority-some bishops and some cardinals. Raguel reminds me of those kings and generals before and during WWI who did not care how many of the best and brightest men of Europe went out of the trenches into death. In fact, Raguel thanks God in his prayer after the discovery that Tobias is alive, that he, Raguel, did not incur what was going to happen to him! What a selfish man....see verse 16 of Chapter 8.
Like Tobias, we need to learn how to be obedient in order for the Church, the Bride of Christ, to be healed. When the heads of our families, including our Church family chose disobedience, we all suffer. When the laws of marriage as set up by Christ are ignored, the entire Church suffers.
I repost the link to my thoughts on the demon here named and the synod, from last October.
Too bad about the wings on the angel in some art, but I like the little white dog here--either a Westie, or Maltese, or a Poodle...
To be continued....