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A Series of Happy Events
Like so many Catholics in the UK, we were delighted when Bishop Philip Egan was appointed as the new Bishop of Portsmouth in 2012.
And there was good reason to be delighted: at the time of his consecration, Bishop Egan shone brightly as one of the few episcopal beacons of orthodoxy in the sea of modernism which constitutes so much of English Catholicism. In contrast to the general milieu, Bishop Egan was widely known for both his orthodoxy and his enthusiastic commitment to evangelization.
Christocentric and Orthodox
In his opening address at Portsmouth Cathedral, His Lordship spoke enthusiastically about conversion to Our Lord Jesus Christ and of the love of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. He concluded his address with a heartfelt request for prayers to enable him to be a bishop that was humble, holy, orthodox, creative and courageous, as one fashioned after the Lord's own. This was indeed a breath of fresh air to the beleaguered faithful in these isles. Bishop Egan's address was so powerful that it resonated for months in an environment starved of orthodoxy and passion for the truth.
Defence of Chastity
A few months later, Bishop Egan followed up this address with a veritable tour de force of a pastoral letter. On the Feast of the Holy Family, His Lordship proclaimed Humanae Vitae as a prophetic document; recalling that Pope Paul VI had warned of the catastrophic consequences that would follow if the dual purposes of conjugal relations in marriage - the procreation of children and the union of spouses- were separated through contraception. Bishop Egan even spelled these out in terms of the destruction of the family, the popular reduction of sexual expression to a mere leisure activity, the prevalence of pornography, the trafficking of people for prostitution, and the explosion of addictive behaviours leading to shame, guilt and even despair. In contrast to these problems, His Lordship pointed the way to ''lasting happiness and fulfillment'' involving the grace-aided struggle for self-mastery.
Bold Stance Against ''Gay Marriage''Â
In December 2012, Bishop Egan also wrote a strong public response to Prime Minister David Cameron over the issue of homosexual ''marriage''. His excellent letter warned that Cameron was luring the English people away from their common Christian patrimony and values.
Tradition Friendly
During the autumn season of 2013, Bishop Egan happily presided at a Traditional Latin Mass in his Cathedral. It was the first to be celebrated there for many years.
Putting Christ First
There was more to come the following December, when Bishop Egan called on the priests and people in his diocese to consecrate themselves both individually and communally to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in order to put the Lord first in their lives, in the midst of a society becoming dominated by ''powerful forces of chaos and moral malaise''. It had been a long time since many English Catholics had heard an English bishop speak with this kind of faith and clarity.
Defence of the Blessed Sacrament and Souls
During March, 2014, Bishop Egan gave an interview to LifeSiteNews reminding people who dissent from Church teaching, on issues like abortion and sexual morality, that they are not to approach for Holy Communion. He also pointed out that this is not so much a punitive measure as an act of mercy, which stands as a way to encourage people to genuine repentance and conversion.
His Lordship received a lot of backlash for this courageous interview. In fact, he was even disgracefully undermined by the Bishops' Conference, when their dissenting layman Greg Pope - writing in his capacity as Head of Parliamentary Relations for the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales - wrote to Catholic MPs and Peers to assure them that there were no plans from the Bishops' Conference to deny Holy Communion to anyone who voted in support of ''gay marriage''...
Bold and Prayerful Stand Against Euthanasia
Notwithstanding this diabolical attempt to erode His Lordship's Christ-given authority, Bishop Egan next urged all the priests and laity in his diocese to make a firm stand with all people of good will in resisting Lord Falconer's deadly ''Assisted Dying Bill''. He called for every parish in the Portsmouth Diocese to hold a Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration to encourage intercessory prayers, on the night that the infamous bill would be debated in the House of Lords, in July 2014. The bishop also provided good resources and the addresses of the various Peers to enable the faithful to write pro-life letters to the House of Lords.
Traditional Parish
On Our Lady's Birthday, 8th September 2015, Bishop Egan appointed Fr. Serafino Lanzetta, the splendid theologian-priest and author from the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, as parish priest at St. Mary's in Gosport. Under Fr. Lanzetta's leadership, this parish would host six Traditional Latin Masses each week - though sadly not on Sundays - sung with Gregorian Chant. In the present ecclesiastical climate the provision of this parish, and with this particular priest, was a doubly courageous thing to do.
There were many other good things that Bishop Egan did too: like offering Sacred Scripture classes, encouraging evangelization and providing guidelines to promote chastity and orthodoxy in the diocese's schools.
Whose Happy Now?
Some folks detected a possible wobble in the wheels of this orthodox train of events when Bishop Egan suddenly began to speak of ''climate change'' in his pastoral letter at Christmas 2015. However, given his sincerity and overall trajectory we did not like to read too much into this occurrence. Anyone who has studied the science which questions the validity of climate-change data would agree that this is a non-doctrinal issue on which Catholics are free to disagree.
However, given the plethora of encouraging things listed above, orthodox Catholics were certainly scandalized when news broke in February 2016 that the dissenting group A Call to Action (ACTA) were holding an event in one of the parishes within Bishop Egan's Portsmouth Diocese.
The event would include the dissenting Fr. Daniel O'Leary as well as Bishop Peter Doyle as keynote speakers. Regular readers will recall that Bishop Doyle was the man who had said to Vatican Radio, during the heat of Synod '15, that there was no room in Church teaching for a same-sex relationship ''at the moment''; and he then went on to call for a ''greater theological exploration of anthropology'' in that area...Â
As we have recently discussed, ACTA is a group that itself publicly dissents from the Magisterium over the issues of women priests, contraception, same-sex ''marriage'' and other ''LGBT'' issues.
What scandalized UK Catholics was not only the shocking fact that the ACTA event was being allowed to happen within the Portsmouth Diocese, but that it was even advertised on the diocesan website. Indeed ACTA's own website proudly boasted: ''This event has the blessing of Bishop Philip Egan, RC Bishop of Portsmouth''.
This seemed to be a remarkable u-turn from Bishop Egan's earlier words and actions.Â
Worse came when a number of people wrote in to Bishop Egan to complain about his episcopal backing of the ACTA event. Bishop Egan replied through his secretary: ''The word ''blessing'' is strong and Bishop Philip would perhaps not have chosen this word himself. He did give his permission for this event to take place and was happy to do so.''
And he was happy to do so...
A U-Turn of Some Magnitude
You'll remember the shocking Wijngaards Statement that we critiqued here on 22nd September, 2016. We speak of the public expression of dissent issued, with the backing of three UN agencies (!) by 100 ''Catholic'' figures against the Church's Magisterial teaching in the areas of contraception, masturbation, homosexual relationships and IVF.
Well, Deacon Nick Donnelly, reporting for EWTN GB, has exposed the fact that one of the signatories to the infamous Wijngaards Statement will now appear as a keynote speaker, at an event chaired by Bishop Philip Egan in the Portsmouth Diocese this November.
The event is called the Care of Our Common Home Conference and is based on Pope Francis' environmental document Laudato Si. It will include guests of other faiths and no faith at all to discuss care for the planet. The dissenting speaker in question is Professor Mary Grey, Emeritus Visiting Professor of St. Mary's in Twickenham.
Another of the keynote speakers at this event will be Fr. Augusto Zampini, a theological adviser to the troublesome CAFODÂ organization. Again, readers may recall that Tina Beattie, another of CAFOD's theological advisers had written a letter earlier this year in support of the fallacy of ''early and safe abortion'' in Poland.
At the end of our recent critique of the Wijngaards Statement, we noted that the signatories needed to be reminded by their bishops not to approach for Holy Communion until they had repented, confessed, received sacramental absolution and publicly recanted their support for such gravely sinful acts as the use of contraception, masturbation, homosexual activity and IVF.
This expression of Catholic Truth is itself entirely in keeping with the above-mentioned interview which Bishop Philip Egan gave to LifeSiteNews in March 2014.
Holding the Line
During that interview, Bishop Egan had also reflected that the Catholic Church in the UK faced a difficult future. He stated that the prospects could nevertheless be good if Catholics became convicted and led others to Christ and His Truth.
He thus explained that we need to help our contemporaries to see that a true grasp of values, such as respect and diversity rightly understood, actually comes from the Christian underpinnings of our civilization. Without a recovery of this, His Lordship warned, true values would only be lost in a sea of relativism that would ultimately lead to the tyranny of a police state.
The bishop then concluded that the Church could prosper in the future if Catholics held the line and did not lose their nerve.
What is Going On?
How then, can Bishop Egan now welcome a woman as a keynote speaker alongside of him, that so publicly dissents from the Church on issues like contraception, masturbation, homosexual activity and IVF?
Based on his earlier statements and acts, will His Lordship caution Mary Grey not to approach for Holy Communion in his diocese? Will he make a public statement to distance himself from Mary Grey on the issue of the Wijngaards Statement? Will he ask her why anyone should take her views on environmentalism seriously when she cannot even take her own Church's moral teachings seriously? Given Grey's public support for contraception, masturbation, homosexual activity and IVF, will Bishop Egan cancel her appearance at the event? Â
If he does not ask or do any of these things, is Bishop Egan aware of the grave public scandal and confusion that this will cause?
Is Bishop Egan under some kind of undue pressure to backtrack from his former expressions of orthodoxy? Or is he just doing all this to cover his back in the days of Pope Francis? Perhaps he no longer holds his earlier orthodox positions? Just what is going on?
Please Pray for Bishop Egan
As we said above, Bishop Egan called at the start of his episcopal ministry for prayers for him to be a humble, holy, orthodox, creative and courageous bishop. For a long time, His Lordship has encouraged Catholics by being all of these things in the face of some pretty tough opposition.
Please do pray for Bishop Egan to continue in the good way that he originally began. Â Â Â
