Three easy steps that would dispense with the questionnaire

Time to remove the cuckoo's egg

According to Deacon Nick's excellent post, the Vatican is now telling us that we are becoming too intense with regard to the Family Synod questionnaire.

There are parts of the questionnaire that do not involve us, they are beyond our pay grade.

That may be the case but why, in Heaven's name issue a market research paper that is so misleading?

So ambiguous. So intent on asking questions that run well beyond the writ of most of the laity and the clergy.

And why embark upon this exercise at all when the means of pinpointing the moves that will restore the Faith is so blooming obvious?

I have worked in education for 25 years, not as an academic but as an administrator.  In that time I have helped design many strategic plans and most (not all) have been successful.

More specifically, I have been part of a team designing solutions to problems; of course, none quite as complex and wide ranging as renewing the Faith and zeal of 1.2 billion Catholics, but most of the same principles apply.

I am sure that Rome can call on talent that far exceeds my basic skills but, even I, can see a pathway that will bring the Barque of St Peter back on course.

It is based on three elements.

It's not astrodynamics.

The three elements are Education, Training and Liturgy.

Firstly, education. Certainly in the UK we desperately need an RI syllabus that provides red meat as opposed to the thin gruel that has poisoned and disaffected the minds of the young for so long.

Young minds are capable of much more than the Catholic education system currently offers.

What is required, at secondary level, is a programme that focuses on key elements such as the history of the Palestine region during the time of Christ, the parables and the life of Christ, the New and Old Testaments, the Sacraments, comparative outlines of other faiths and their relationship to Catholicism all set within a framework of morals and society.

The underpinning knowledge element to come from the Catechism.

OK, that's a quick fix, broad brushstroke treatment but it's well on the way to creating knowledge, love of God and fervour for the Faith in the hearts and minds of the young.

However, Catholic education should be more than curriculum based.

There are outward signs and acts that reinforce knowledge and encourage belief and piety.

A crucifix in every classroom.
Prayers at the beginning and end of the school day, School retreat days, pilgrimages to Catholic shrines (not Hindu temples), weekly school Masses, Inter school Faith quizzes, Nativity plays at Christmas, Passion plays at Easter, Catholic Poets' Societies, School Scout and Guide troops, a shadow school board of pupils charged with developing Catholic social and charitable events.

The list could go on, but you get the idea.

The second step, that of training, would be aimed at Catholic adults. It would need to be doctrinally sound and morally unambiguous.
The schedule would include the doctrinal and dogmatic elements of the Faith, the primacy of the Papacy, the role of the Magisterium and the responsibilities of the hierarchy.
 The role of the priest as an "other Christ" and the cultural and social role of Catholics both within the Church and in the outside world.

And maybe one or two 'out' sessions where a more spiritual element is introduced by studying the Ten Commandments or how greater reverence can be introduced into the parish.

Thirdly, I would argue that 'Liturgy' should be properly ordered so that we begin to regain some semblance of continuity and community.

Most members of the laity have either forgotten or do not know what is expected of them at Mass and, I suspect are ignorant of the liturgical riches that should be readily available.

Benediction, Stations of the Cross (not just during Lent), the Angelus, Forty hours Devotion, the Rosary.

So, parish priests should have their authority restored so that they may impose (yep, that is what it needs) the correct way of behaving in church; no loud chatter and laughter, genuflection before the Blessed Sacrament, dignity at all times, abolition of the KoP, appropriate dress codes, reception of the Eucharist in a reverent manner and, above all else, the awareness of what takes place during the Consecration; the fact that bread and wine is changed into the Body and Blood of Our Lord while still maintaining the characteristics of bread and wine.

 That is, the most vital element of all.

And finally, an integral overarching component of all three of the strategies, Education, Training and Liturgy, is to make the Mass in the Extraordinary Form available on every Sunday in every parish church throughout the world.

Oh, and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion should be done away with, not with a hatchet but with charity.

Do all of the above and the souls of many will be saved and the demands of Fatima fulfilled.

And Satan and all his works will be thwarted.

But will it happen? Heaven help us! Literally.

My computer has just exploded.....

You might like to check with your GP before filling
in the Bishop's Questionnaire

.....I feel as if I have just run a marathon, my pulse is racing and my blood pressure score must be at an all time high....you see....

...I have just completed the Bishop's online questionnaire on Faith and the Family (well, they don't call it that but that's what it's about).

It is something that we must all do (like taking out life assurance, going to the dentist or dying a slow and painful death) - but pleasant it ain't.

Here is the link FAMILY SYNOD

Please undertake this purgatorial act and offer it up on behalf of the Holy Souls, after all, how often do we get asked to contribute our opinions?

Precisely.

But, I have to say that it is banal in the extreme, poorly put together and extremely hard work for us poor laymen and women who don't understand sentences of more than five words.

The average Catholic on the liberal omnibus will struggle with it......truthful, not patronising.

If I handed out leaflets after Mass at my local parish church, asking what people understood by the word 'Magisterium' and offering £500 cash to the first one with a correct answer, my cash would be as safe as a pork pie in a you know what.

Yet, this paper is littered with such words and phrases.

The first principle of communication is to ensure that it is idiot proof...can we say that any more?

 Well, I just did.

You widen participation by making it easily understood. That's their Lordships first stumbling block.

The second is, just how will anyone produce a sensible report based on this loose piece of contrived social engineering?
The responses are going to be so wide ranging and disparate.

It does not even comply with the basics of qualitative market research, the results, I suggest, are going to be meaningless.

The third is, and this is where it falls into the basic sin of atrociously poor research, it leads (or, tries to) lead you in your answers.

Ho, hum, I smell a hidden agenda......something nasty lurking in the Diocesan woodshed, could it be that some of our esteemed Bishops would like to produce a case for Rome that states that the laity of England and Wales are demanding that  some of the doctrines of the Catholic Church, should be eased a little?

You know, just twist them a bit?

Nothing too much, just a few minor distortions and perversions?

After all, we mustn't be too dogmatic must we?