Confession.....a nice chat?

A comment left by a well respected member of the Catholic laity on my previous post made me think that I might have been too unkind in believing +Conry's interview on the subject of lapsed Catholics showed him to appear weak and imprecise.

I searched again for more evidence and, first one on Youtube that I came to showed a clip with +Conry being interviewed by Ruth Gledhill giving his now well known views on Confession....not a list of sins these days, more a chat.

So, how does it go?

Penitent: "Bless me Father for I have sinned (or, rather, I may have upset God a little), it is six weeks since my last Reconciliation.
Now, let me see, on Tuesday I murdered my granny and, on Thursday of the same week I poisoned all of my work mates in the staff canteen; well, all except Bob because we play snooker in the inter parish championships together..."

Priest: "Well, my boy, that's grand of you to come and have a wee chat about all of this. I'm really glad you spared Bob because we need to get a few wins in over St Knobbly's team and, as for your granny (God love her), as she was over the age of 75 years I think we can say that you just helped her on her way to Heaven a bit prematurely".
Now, we don't 'do' penances any longer so please just go off and focus hard on winning that snooker tournament and try not to lose again"

Now please, if you can possibly bear it, view the following video clip of Fr Robert Barron speaking rather more generally on the Sacrament of Confession (not reconciliation).

Fr Barron communicates using his voice (well), his hands, eyes and general body movement (as should any good communicator. 

He does not go "erm" every few seconds, he knows his subject, he knows his Faith - and, above all else, he has 'passion'

                             

A good Japanese friend and mentor who, many years ago, coached me in the ways of doing business with his countrymen by saying: "You must have passion in everything you do".

And that, among many other things, is what is lacking in Bishop Conry.

What do you look for in a Bishop?

Do you look for a warm character, one who oozes holiness and yet is fearless and outspoken when it comes to speaking up for the Faith?

A man who is unafraid to tell the truth regardless of the consequences?

A clear, positive speaker who makes his point without hesitation or prevarication?

A beacon of light and a leader and role model to his priests?

And, one who is, to paraphrase the late Alice Thomas Ellis, a Catholic?

Well please feast your eyes on this interview with Bishop Kieran Conry (who proudly proclaims that he never reads blogs).

Really, My Lord? And I thought you were the epitome of a modern Catholic bishop.....

 

Shortly I shall be running a poll on Bishop Conry and how inspirational you, dear reader, find him.

 

I shall post on that once my pulse has slowed and heartbeat returned to normal after watching this Bishop frankly and lucidly expounding on lapsed Catholics (I thought it was non pc to call them that these days).

H/T to Deacon Nick at Protect the Pope for his post on the ACTA and the Bishop.

 

Me too!

Bishop Conry....read blogs carefully before appearing on television

The Bishop should know better than to make comments without apparently absorbing precisely what Fr Ray stated on his post.

And he should never have made an apology - a man out of touch with his Faith....and reality.

Here is the BBC News report on Fr Ray....view it at 9.55

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b039fq9t/South_East_Today_06_09_2013

"Bless me Father, for I am a future Bishop"

Creating a towering inferno effect....

Bishop Kieron Conry of Arundel and Brighton, has stated that he had difficulty in thinking of sins to confess as a small boy.

He lied, therefore, making up sins so that he would have something to reel off in the confessional.
 I am sure he is not the only boy to have done this.

The trouble is, that the Bishop was really laying the blame for such lies, on the repressive clericalism that existed before 1969 (cough).

I never had any such problem at that age; seven year old boys, in my experience, generally have access to a wide range of sinful acts ranging from theft of a tadpole to placing a drawing pin in an older sister's slipper.

And many more in between.

But, just in case there are any young future Bishops out there, here is a prompt list of some of the deadly sins that a typical seven year old Catholic boy might commit:-

1. Switching the church hall instant coffee for gravy granules

2. Emptying the contents of a firework into the thurible, for discovery at a later date

3. Standing on the edge of the cassock of a kneeling altar server (when on acolyte duties) - this does produce rather spectacular results as the kneeling server performs a backwards somersault upon getting to his feet

4. Flicking pellets at the church cat

5. Placing small dead animals in Sister Rosario's desk drawer

6. Removing the clappers from the sanctuary bells

7. Serving at Mass with your pet white mouse in your pocket

8. Placing itching powder on the collar of the MC's cassock

9. Creating a towering inferno effect when entrusted with the thurible

10. Treading on the toes of senior clergymen whilst serving, specifically, Monsignor Derek Worlock

There, Bishop Conry, that doesn't look too hard does it?

Picture: Angelus Online

What do you call men who are disloyal to their leader?

Men who stab their general in the back; men who do not wait for the stage to be cleared before they put the boot in by talking of needing a change, of moving away from a 'conservative Church'

Would you place these men in that category? -



Cardinal Emeritus Cormac Murphy O'Connor    



                         
                                              Bishop Kieran Conry, Arundel & Brighton


Bishop Thomas Burns, Menevia             


Would you use these words to describe the character of any of the above?

Integrity/Faithful/Loyal/Obedient/Visionary/Decent/True

But Bishop - Arundel and Brighton needs you!

How selfish are we?

We take a Bishop from his own diocese and plonk him down in the wilds of west Wales (Carmarthen) and ask him to be guest speaker at a seminar on 'The Year of Faith and the New Evangelisation'.

Yes, there seem to be no bounds to our greed to have Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel & Brighton Diocese, come and speak to us here in Menevia Diocese (Carmarthen).

We care not that Laurence England and others will be deprived of Bishop Conry's steadying hand for a few days or that his charitable and kind comments on the Holy Father will not resound along the eastern boundaries of England in his absence.

There will be crying in Crawley, weeping in Worthing and unseemly bawling in Brighton.

How can this much loved shepherd leave his flock with such apparent gay abandon?

And can Menevia Diocese cope with the anticipated influx of pilgrims from all points of the compass, anxious to hear words of wisdom from +KC?

The event of the year is due to take place at St Mary's Church Hall, Carmarthen next Tuesday and all are welcome, light refreshments are provided and the day is free. Heady stuff for us west Walians who are starved of any intellectual, theological discourse (let alone egg and cress sandwiches).

Shall I be going?

Sadly, no.

I have already committed myself to washing the car that day.

Bishop Conry 'misses' golden opportunity

Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton Diocese has 'missed' a critical chance to speak out against proposed legislation by the Coalition Government on same-sex "marriage".

In his rather yawn inducing pastoral letter issued on the great feast of The Holy Family, he speaks about the "family" structure in excellent sociological terms and there's even a passing reference to God and the Gospel of the day but......and it's an important but, there is not a mention of the fact that Holy Matrimony is a Sacrament intended to sanctify the union of one man and one woman and that any deviation from that would be in direct opposition to Church teaching and to the Holy Father's guidance on the matter.

How could one of our Bishops overlook the issue of gay "marriage"?

Was it an oversight?

Or was it just another Bishop flying the colours of weak liberalism?

Answers on a postard please.

The Bishop's letter may be reade HERE

Catholic Schools - they just don't get it

I think that just about every Catholic Secondary School in Great Britain is named after the Sacred Heart, Our Lady, a saint or a leading Catholic cleric.

So far so good. But they miss out on a tremendous opportunity to catechise and excite the senses of those in their charge because, they fail to give any details regarding the saint or the personality they are named after.

Do those pupils attending the St John Lloyd School know anything about him?

Or those pupils in Coventry attending the Bishop Ullathorne School, would they be able to compose a short essay on the life of the great man?

But quite obviously, after the recent Papal visit the pupils of Cardinal Newman School in Hove will be au fait with HE John Henry?

Not according to their website, not so much as a photograph or painting of  Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, or a snatch of verse from the 'Dream'.

This would go rather well on their site I thought...

This child of clay

To me was given,

To rear and train

By sorrow and pain

In the narrow way,

Alleluia,

From earth to heaven.

An opportunity missed, a chance to enlighten passed by; and would not a brief biographical note lift the school out and place above others when the time for comparisons came?

But, upon closer inspection of the Cardinal Newman School website I came across something that was, how shall I put it? Not quite the round shilling?

This is what was stated on the website ................

"Anglican Eucharist

On Wednesday February 29th at 10a.m we are having one of our regular Anglican Eucharistic services. Over 300 Anglican students have been invited to attend and we will warmly welcome members of their family who can be there too. Please sign in at reception if you come. The service itself will celebrate the long standing and significant contribution the Anglican community has made to the Christian ethos and the success of Cardinal Newman Catholic School".

Yikes! Thought I, this is not right in any shape or form. Just what is an Anglican Eucharist?

I am reasonably happy for Anglicans to go along holding their own brand of service in the hopes that, one day, God's grace will enter their souls and they will make a move towards conversion to the one true Faith but, in the meantime, I see no merit in holding such a service in a Catholic School.

I have no idea how it all panned out but I have a horrid sneaking suspicion that there may have been a joint "service" with the Catholic priest celebrating Mass and the Anglican Vicar having a Eucharistic Service - just the sort of thing one wants to confuse young minds and encourage indifferentism.

So, a brief foray into Catholic School websites to determine if they had paid their dues to their patron has turned into something even more disappointing.

Perhaps Bishop Conry might like to pay Cardinal Newman School a visit and perhaps all Bishops might like to commission a review of all schools in their Diocese to make certain that they really do portray the Catholic Faith and are, indeed, Catholic.

I shan't be holding my breath.

The Church Will Not Give the Government "An Easy Ride" on Gay Marriage

"This will cost you, mate."

Among the condemnations from a handful of Catholic Bishops of England and Wales has been a comment from our own Bishop of Arundel and Brighton that the Church will not give the Government an "easy ride" on David Cameron's Conservative Conference pledge to support what has become known as 'gay marriage'.

His Lordship also said of the move, "We can’t just let this slide by and say we are not interested." His comments in defense of the institution of marriage are encouraging. It is important that the Government is never given "an easy ride" when either the Church, or the fundamental Christian values that underpin society are either violated or in danger of being violated.

The Bishop's comments support the defense made by Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark and Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, both of whom condemned the Prime Minister's very public coming-out in endorsement of homosexual marital rights. The PM appeared to suggest he supports the proposal "because" he is a Conservative. Quite what he is trying to 'conserve' if he cannot 'conserve' marriage as being between one man and one woman, one can only imagine. Perhaps he should focus on the economy, since, let's face it, that would appear to be a higher priority than redefining marriage.  We can only assume that Mr Cameron is only interested in "conserving" the four-party love affair with Stonewall. It turns out, after all, that at the last general election a vote for the Conservative Party, for a Catholic, and a vote for the Green Party, for a Catholic, were both equally abominable to God and, henceforth, look as if they always will be.

Unless, that is, the Prime Minister can be persuaded that popularity for his cause has only minority appeal and that he is morally and politically absolutely in the wrong. Will he outdo his predecessor in his intransigence in the face of his own grievous error? Only time will tell. However, we have more than one Bishop making it clear that the Government will not be given "an easy ride".

Be afraid, David. Be very afraid...

The problem we face, unfortunately, is that the comment by His Lordship does rather suggest that on every other issue on which Bishops have been called by Christ to battle for His Church, the Government of the day has been given "an easy ride". The comment suggests that, as His Lordship said in a recent article in The Catholic Herald, the militancy of some in the gay lobby in their demands for gay marriage is "a step too far".

Yet, for the life of me, I cannot see why the Bishops should make such a great exception for this.  Was not the Civil Partnerships Act enacted under the Labour Government, also a "step too far"? Not, seemingly, for His Lordship, who maintains that even though such legislation was condemned at the highest level of the Church, for its approval of homosexual acts, the Civil Partnerships Bill apparently had the 'support' of the Catholic Church. His Lordship was described as believing, by The Telegraph that...

'...the Catholic Church supported civil partnerships, which confer the same rights to gay couples as marriage, because they give better legal protection to individuals in matters including inheritance.'    

Now, it may be that, misguidedly and in the face of Vatican disapproval, the Bishops of England and Wales supported Civil Partnerships, but it is not true that the Catholic Church supported civil partnerships.  Furthermore, and rather unfortunately, the Bishop's words suggest that whether the issue was Civil Partnerships Bill, the Equalities Bill, the Catholic's Early Sexualisation Bill (CES) proposed by Ed Balls, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, or the dreadful blueprint for the implementation of Nazism - the Mental Capacity Bill - all of them, bar Ed Ball's CES "easy rider", became the law of the land.

Did the Bishops allow those nasty pieces of legislation to be given "an easy ride" and did the Bishops Conference of England and Wales "let it slide and say "we are not interested"? After so many years of either acquiescence, indifference or scandalous support for anti-Catholic legislation under the Labour Government, in which the Church was either grossly naive about the intentions of those behind it, or indifferent to the consequences, why should any Government fear the Catholic Church because, apparently, this time, after all that evil legislation, the Church won't give the Government "an easy ride"? I am quite certain that the Government has far more trust in the Bishops Conference of England and Wales than do the Catholic faithful, sad as that may be.

Vroom, vroom: The 1969 cult classic, Easy Rider

It also begs the question, just how does the Catholic Church in England and Wales intend to combat this should the Government go ahead with the Cameron plan to support 'gay marriage'. Do the Bishops have enough, and I hate to say this, credibility among the lay faithful to call upon an army of them to fill the streets in protest against the Government's attempts to redefine marriage? Or are the Bishops now so distant from the laity, and even their own clergy, that the laity would be unsure of how to react to such a call, because they're knowledge of their own Bishop is so tenuous and they are not quite sure who their Bishop is?  It will be no surprise to readers to learn that I would be among the first to join such a protest were it to be called. We are, after all, the Church Militant.

Or, alternatively, are the Bishops saying that the Government will not be given an "easy ride" because they, personally, will be a thorn in the Government's side by making public pronouncements against the Government's plans and intend to speak out in various committees? I find it confusing. There is no point in making empty threats and gestures. Furthermore, we have been given reassurances by the Bishops Conference that we need not worry because they are "on the case" and are fighting on our behalf, or rather Christ's behalf, only to hear later of some degree of complicity, acquiescence or indifference among the Bishops towards the fight. I do hope and pray that His Lordship is right and that the Bishops will fight to conserve the institution of marriage as being between one man and one woman, but I, for one, am not filled with confidence. Perhaps, God willing, this will turn out to be a watershed moment for the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

It looks like Mr Cameron has this one sewn up...

The Bishops should require neither imagination nor the gift of prophecy to realise that unless this is defeated, Priests could be hauled before a court years down the line, once, as the 'lobby' intends, the refusal of marital 'rights' to homosexuals in Churches becomes illegal. What will the Bishops be saying then? That the Government won't have "an easy ride" on this one as we witness the car crash that is 'down the road'? They must realise that, aside from the surprisingly reasonable (on this subject) Peter Tatchell, the pressure groups advocating and campaigning for gay marriage will most likely not be content until this terrible situation comes to pass.

Doubtless this blogpost will attract criticism because once again I am posting on the subjects of homosexuality and gay marriage and I am obviously 'obsessed' with the subject. Yet, if the World were not so obsessed by it, the Church's Pope, Shepherds, Clergy and lay faithful would not feel so utterly compelled to react against it. I am sure others have written it before, but it is not the Pope or the Catholic Church that is obsessed with sex. It is the World that is obsessed with sex. Because the World is so obsessed with sex, the Church must respond when the World's obsession with sex becomes so dominant and out of control that even marriage itself is under threat and the obsession becomes so all-embracing of society that marriage itself is seen as in need of redefinition, just so that one vociferous minority group feels 'accepted', 'tolerated' and totally 'equal' to married, monogamous persons who bear fruit and raise children as befits the natural law.

There is no doubt that the Bishops of England and Wales, or at least those who have spoken out publicly against the move so far, are looking to find new ways in which to present the Church's view in the new debates taking place, especially among those with power and influence, over human sexuality and marriage. As A Reluctant Sinner has noted in his excellent blogpost on the subject today, Archbishop Vincent Nichols used a recent Catholic Voices event to argue the need for the Church to "reframe" the debate in the terms of "human ecology" used by Pope Benedict XVI. At the said event, two publications, both co-written by Austen Ivereigh, were launched to proclaim to the World the ineffable goodness of the Catholic Voices project and its new and intriguing vision of "Catholic humanism".  The Archbishop must be commended for his stance and especially his public endorsement of Benedictine theology. Will this convince MPs that this is one 'road' down which they do not wish to walk?

Our Lady of Fatima: Pray for us...

Catholic Voices

The Church needs strong 'Catholic voices' now from the Bishops Conference, from the Priesthood, from Religious and from the Laity. Time, I would suggest, is running out. The Church, today, does not require Catholics to come out as gay and defend their homosexuality - there are already plenty of them who do. The Church needs Catholics who are gay, or who rather carry the Cross of homosexuality, to come out as Catholic and defend the Church from the grave errors of the World.  These voices need to be coherent, strong, bold, brave, unflinchingly faithful to the Magisterium and they need to be heard from the lips of those who are ready to lose everything for Christ in this World, so that they may merit to keep their souls in the next.

If strong Catholic voices are not heard in defense of the Church now, when She is so under attack from the secular World, even a 'Christian' Prime Minister, then, believe me, those who are charged with a duty to defend Her, but who refuse, will not be given "an easy ride" by Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Last Day.  Those charged with responsibility by Almighty God within the Hierarchy of Holy Mother Church to defend Her so far have, with only a few exceptions, proved themselves 'unfit for mission'. With God's help, may they learn from their grave mistakes and may we assist them with our prayers and our own supporting role in this new phase of the Church's battle for hearts, minds and above all, souls.



I suppose that one problem for the Archbishop of Westminster in his fight against this proposal might be those Soho Masses, what with one of the organisers of the said Masses, Martin Prendergast, being something of an apologist (to put it mildly) for the gay marriage rights movement within the Catholic Church. But really, we must now all "hold" our "tongues" because there is absolutely no contradiction between the 'pastoral work' of the Archdiocese of Westminster and combatting any forthcoming Government campaign to legalise gay marriage.  Still, let us give the Archbishop time and see what is down the road. Maybe the Bishops should take a line out of David Cameron's Conference speech as he assessed the Conservative agenda for the economy and make it their own: "It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog!" Go get 'em, your Lordships! You certainly have my prayers.