+Vincent Nichols has abolished the Soho ‘Gay Masses’ and given the desecrated Church to the ex-Anglican Ordinariate. Hmmm…. one hopes this is not a veiled insult. The Jesuits will take over ‘pastoral care’ of the congregation (but no more Masses). Hmmm….. alcoholics and breweries. These arrangements will take effect from next Lent (one wouldn’t want to rush into the cessation of sacrilege). Damien Thompson welcomes all this but feels sure that the Church’s teaching on homosexuality will ‘evolve’. Like many people with a weak grasp of Catholic doctrine he seems to confuse political conservatism with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The bishops seem to confuse vague centre-leftism with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Still John Smeaton thinks we should welcome the move and he is not over inclined to naivete in regard to the local hierarchy. So I suppose one ought to be gracious. Thank God for the Nuncio. Pray for the Nuncio. The one good thing about the misery of these times (as with our own sins) is that they expose the most important truth upon which we can meditate Sine tuo numine, nihil est in homine, nihil est innoxium. Distrust of the world is the logical corollary of distrust of self. But distrust of self is not enough without trust in God. If the Gospel is not presented to our contemporaries the disgust of many of them with the open sewer of our culture will not be enough to bring about their salvation. “For if I preach the gospel, it is no glory to me: for a necessity lies upon me. For woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.” It makes it a lot easier to preach the Gospel if the local hierarchy is not repudiating it by their words and deeds. Thank God for the Nuncio. Pray for the Nuncio.
January 3, 2013 at 2:37 pm
“+Vincent Nichols has abolished the Soho ‘Gay Masses’ and given the desecrated Church to the ex-Anglican Ordinariate. Hmmm…. one hopes this is not a veiled insult.”
I confess the thought flitted through the unswept chambers of my mind. It was, in fact, difficult not to consider the possibility that this might be passing the Ordinariate something of a poisoned chalice. The Ordinariites will thereby be the ones facing much of the wrath of the liberals over the cessation of the Soho experiment, and the liberals will not be slow to make the same insinuation about the sexaul track record of anglo-catholicism. At the same time, it looks like “doing something” for the Ordinariate, whilst incidentally deflecting some of the flack onto them. Two birds, one stone? It is at any rate extremely shrewd.
January 3, 2013 at 5:10 pm
Looks like the claim that there will be no more ‘Gay Masses’ is false anyway or at least that the attendees at the Soho thing are planning to take over the evening Mass at the Jesuit place. I don’t know if that represents a big change as I give Jesuits a wide berth.
January 3, 2013 at 7:00 pm
Oh dear…