Party Poppers and Party Poopers

Fr Ray Blake today posts on Tina Beattie's latest 'musings'. Tina's 'inspirational' blog, in as much as it inspires Catholics loyal to the Faith to denounce her near constant dissension from the Church's position on a number of matters, continues to entertain and depress at the same time.

While it is true to say that we don't really know what Heaven is like, it is hard to imagine that English martyrs such as St John Fisher, St Margaret Clitherow and St Thomas More, as well as Blessed John Henry Newman, have not been 24-hour party people over the past few days, as party poppers stream across Heaven, while Our Lady of Walsingham looks on in loving approval. That party has been reflected in the great joy of the Faithful on Earth, still in awe, both at the inspired ecumenical master stroke of Pope Benedict XVI and the surprisingly enthusiastic response from disaffected formerly-flying Anglican bishops and nuns who have flown the nest to roost in the One True Church.

Unfortunatley, Tina is 'saddened', because the stunning news of the Ordination of three men, Father Burnham, Father Broadhurst and Father Newton, as they follow in Blessed John Henry Newman's footsteps, while leaving behind them a Church of England writhing in acrimonious disharmony and without a paddle with which to steer up that insalubrious creek, doesn't reflect her feminist-marxist-theology-is-like-any-social-science world view. But hey, it isn't just Tina who is upset and so our hearts must go out to the entire editorial team and readership of The Tablet as well as Jo Siedlecka of Independent Catholic News, who also voices her approval, sorry, dissent, on Tina's blog, because the 'silent majority' of the Church are all thinking the 'same thing' about women priests, celibate clergy and the other 'marginal musings' that Tina's self-promoting blog promulgates every time she puts finger to keyboard and woe to the Church, because their voices are not being heeded. It all starts to make me wonder who was calling the shots in Heaven; the Lord God of Hosts or the Devil and his fallen angels, who, for a time, must have thought themselves some kind of 'silent majority' and campaigned for Heaven to be more demo(n)cratic.

On the Ordination of the married, formerly Anglican bishops to the Priesthood, Josephine Siedlecka writes, "I'm not sure this makes Christianity look any more comprehensible or attractive." Well, Jo, I'm not sure feminism, socialism, Marxism, liberalism or any other -ism but Catholicism makes Christianity look more comprehensible or attractive. It has to be said, looking at the Church of England, that the more -isms are embraced in a Church, the less it looks like a Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ and the more likely it is to become less attractive and less comprehensible over time, a truth to which I am quite sure these new Priests will testify.

I understand that '90% of the British population don't go to Church' and that it concerns you. But did the Lord promise the Church some kind of enduring popularity with British society, or, indeed, any society? What would be the point in the whole British population coming to Church if they all understood the Catholic Faith along the same feminist-marxist-liberal-humanist-getting-close-to-atheist nexus that some Catholics appear to, were catechised to believe in the same 'marginal musings' as Tina does, and never knew nothing of Our Blessed Lord's merciful love for poor sinners and the Salvation of God to be found within our Holy Mother the Church? What would that profit their souls? Thankfully, those being received under the Ordinariate have been receiving sound teaching in the form of Evangelium, a truly excellent tool for catechesis. Things bode well...Deo gratias!

Sorry, love, the Lord called men to be Priests

Tina, love. The reason your musings are 'marginal' is because they are not Catholic. If you want to convince more people of your Catholicism, why not try putting a picture of the Sacred Heart or Our Lady of Walsingham in your sidebar, a favourite Saint, like St Joan of Arc, or some other Saint who you can pretend was just another feminist or someone to whom you have a devotion other than yourself and some famous feminists? Heck, why not a little picture of Pope Benedict XVI or something? How about showing a little loyalty to the Holy Father? As far as I can see, your blog is all about you, since yours is the only picture that appears in the sidebar.

Tina, Jo and various campaigners within the Church, along with those Priests, Bishops, and Religious who privately egg them on to dissent against the Magisterium, had better get used to the events that took place on Saturday, because it looks very much like those events will not be all that rare. I sincerely hope and pray that one day you will join us in praying for the conversion of England, once called Our Lady's Dowry, without bitterness and weepy, gin-soaked disappointment that the Church is not ran along the lines of your local Borough Council. Thanks be to God! For sure, 'equality' needs to be addressed within the Church. It needs to be put in a fire-proof envelope and addressed to the circle of Hell from whence it came. There is no 'equality' in Heaven. The Devil and all his fallen angels will tell you the same if you meet them in the next life. I pray none of us do.

Long live Pope Benedict XVI, now reigning gloriously! Say a prayer for the party poopers...