News Item: : Listen... Those Who Have Ears to Hear! (Matt 13:9)
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Friday 05 December 2008 - 19:25:28
Yesterday we blogged about the Everybody's Welcome initiative. Since then, we've done a bit more research on its own website (which is part of the Bishop's Conference of England and Wales website). It seems the programme has so far received £3 million from donors.Â
Some of the website materials are so banal as to seem like a parody of the liberal agenda. So there are pages with themes such as Name Badge Sunday and making parish car parks more welcoming... We kid you not!
Perhaps more grave however is the fact that such an initiative, which could (and should)Â have been used to bolster the Catholic family against the onslaught of the Culture of Death, has been used to further the very culture of dissent from Church teaching which has weakened the foundations of the Catholic family in the first place.
The feedback documents from the Listening 2004 programme can be downloaded from the website. They read so much like a list of favourite dissenting gripes as to betray the fact that they have been engineered to deliver the conclusions which they do.
Here are a selection of typical quotes with the name of the diocese of the contributor;
(P.57) Southwark - 'We don't appear to have any co-habiting Catholics to talk to us here today about their views. We don't talk to them and address them but tend to judge them and leave them with a feeling of guilt.'
(Our experiences on our 'marriage prep' mentioned yesterday day tend to suggest that the opposite is true!).
(P.57)Â (diocese unmentioned) - A priest describes as 'unhelpful'Â the teaching authority of the Church, which 'continues to use expressions in describing practices about human sexuality as ''This is intrinsically evil.''
(You couldn't make this stuff up could you!)
(P.58) Middlesborough - 'The whole of the Church's teaching in the area of sexuality needs re-examining from adultery to bad thoughts.'
(Perhaps the real problem is they have not even been heard of, let alone examined, by most of the previous generation and down!)
(P.58) Brentwood - 'Some of the replies were critical of the Church and her antiquated teachings esp. when it came to contraception and divorce.'
(Notice that this is a comment from the collator of 'evidence'... And it has a loaded value judgement with the word 'antiquated'. GK Chesterton said the great thing about the Catholic Faith is that it prevents one from being bound by the transitory values of one's own day. The Church's teachings are perennial, ever new and beautiful; as a whole new generation of young converts to the Church are finding to their great joy! In scientific research the Heisenburg Principle contends that such research is always effected by the one doing the experminent. To get a true reading then, the one doing the experiment must be aware of their own prejudices in order to transcend these in the search for the truth. That word 'antiquated' would suggest that this collator failed to do this. In short, they were not objective enough...)
(P.56) - Liverpool - A grandfather, formerly active in diocesan family support in the post Vatican II era, sent in his comments.
(This is priceless; they're admitting at the outset that the gentleman in question is an insider of their group!)
He says;
'I think a major (though not the only) problem is the failure of the Church to rethink certain aspects of its attitude towards sexuality. This has alienated so many... The fundamentalist fringe sometimes makes a louder noise than those who still believe but now see little hope for a long time to come of the vibrant pilgrim church we thought was coming to birth in the 60's'.
(Yes, sorry pops... The 60's are OVER! We grew up in the hangover period from the 60's party. Our generation knows what it is to live in the impoverished world created by dissent from God's life saving truth. Note two things here though; orthodoxy is equated with fundamentalism... a classic ploy of dissenters; Grandaddy is despairing because he thinks the liberal era is fading. In light of the fact that so much dissent is being openly tolerated it would be hard to agree with him on this - or most anything else he says here - but at least it shows an awareness that the next generation, when finding the fullness of Faith in increasing numbers prefer Married Life to Marriage Lite!).
Hilare Belloc said that, in the end, all arguments are about theology. That this is true can be illustrated by two telling photographs. The first is this one taken from the Everybody's Welcome website to show one of the 'consultation' periods. Here the folks are gathered in Church chatting together and 'being church' in Sacred Heart Church in Hemsworth...
The community is the centre - this could occur in any social club... or fair enough in the parish club afterwards.
The second picture was taken at the moment of the Consecration during a recent Latin Mass at Westminster Cathedral, and comes from Fr. Tim's blog.
Here Jesus Christ, the true and only dependable source of our human community and peace, becomes present to us in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. He is the Head of His Church and we are His body in the Church. By becoming united to Him, we can become truly and deeply united to one another. By rejecting sin - not sinners - we may have much deeper community with each other than if we cling to our self-serving agendas.
In a nutshell, the folks quoted above are trying to welcome sinners by removing the sense of sin. A kind of re-emergence of the ancient Pelagian heresy... It is laudable to welcome sinners. Goodness, none of us would be in Church if sinners were not welcome! But, the only one who can welcome sinners fully and remove their sin authentically and definitively is Jesus Christ. That is why He gave us His Church and the Sacraments; that we may repent, confess and then recieve His peace and saving love in Holy Communion. It's His Church. Her teachings are His teachings. They are not antiquated because like Him they are alive and active and can judge the heart like a two edged sword!Â
The answer then is to receive from God in humilty. To try and 'produce' a new church with new doctrine is a typical culture bound expression of the present zeitgeist.
Perhaps Paschasius Radbertus (a deacon, teacher and abbot who died in 865 A.D.) sums it up best;
Come then, whoever you may be: at least desire now in this world of time to be rid of baneful vices, and that the reign of virtue may come in you, for God is a God of virtues and not of vices. Desire to be reckoned among the number of Christ's members.
May we all repent and be converted this Holy Advent season and find Christ in the fullness of His Church!
This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.145 )
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Friday 05 December 2008 - 19:25:28
Yesterday we blogged about the Everybody's Welcome initiative. Since then, we've done a bit more research on its own website (which is part of the Bishop's Conference of England and Wales website). It seems the programme has so far received £3 million from donors. Some of the website materials are so banal as to seem like a parody of the liberal agenda. So there are pages with themes such as Name Badge Sunday and making parish car parks more welcoming... We kid you not!
Perhaps more grave however is the fact that such an initiative, which could (and should)Â have been used to bolster the Catholic family against the onslaught of the Culture of Death, has been used to further the very culture of dissent from Church teaching which has weakened the foundations of the Catholic family in the first place.
The feedback documents from the Listening 2004 programme can be downloaded from the website. They read so much like a list of favourite dissenting gripes as to betray the fact that they have been engineered to deliver the conclusions which they do.
Here are a selection of typical quotes with the name of the diocese of the contributor;
(P.57) Southwark - 'We don't appear to have any co-habiting Catholics to talk to us here today about their views. We don't talk to them and address them but tend to judge them and leave them with a feeling of guilt.'
(Our experiences on our 'marriage prep' mentioned yesterday day tend to suggest that the opposite is true!).
(P.57)Â (diocese unmentioned) - A priest describes as 'unhelpful'Â the teaching authority of the Church, which 'continues to use expressions in describing practices about human sexuality as ''This is intrinsically evil.''
(You couldn't make this stuff up could you!)
(P.58) Middlesborough - 'The whole of the Church's teaching in the area of sexuality needs re-examining from adultery to bad thoughts.'
(Perhaps the real problem is they have not even been heard of, let alone examined, by most of the previous generation and down!)
(P.58) Brentwood - 'Some of the replies were critical of the Church and her antiquated teachings esp. when it came to contraception and divorce.'
(Notice that this is a comment from the collator of 'evidence'... And it has a loaded value judgement with the word 'antiquated'. GK Chesterton said the great thing about the Catholic Faith is that it prevents one from being bound by the transitory values of one's own day. The Church's teachings are perennial, ever new and beautiful; as a whole new generation of young converts to the Church are finding to their great joy! In scientific research the Heisenburg Principle contends that such research is always effected by the one doing the experminent. To get a true reading then, the one doing the experiment must be aware of their own prejudices in order to transcend these in the search for the truth. That word 'antiquated' would suggest that this collator failed to do this. In short, they were not objective enough...)
(P.56) - Liverpool - A grandfather, formerly active in diocesan family support in the post Vatican II era, sent in his comments.
(This is priceless; they're admitting at the outset that the gentleman in question is an insider of their group!)
He says;
'I think a major (though not the only) problem is the failure of the Church to rethink certain aspects of its attitude towards sexuality. This has alienated so many... The fundamentalist fringe sometimes makes a louder noise than those who still believe but now see little hope for a long time to come of the vibrant pilgrim church we thought was coming to birth in the 60's'.
(Yes, sorry pops... The 60's are OVER! We grew up in the hangover period from the 60's party. Our generation knows what it is to live in the impoverished world created by dissent from God's life saving truth. Note two things here though; orthodoxy is equated with fundamentalism... a classic ploy of dissenters; Grandaddy is despairing because he thinks the liberal era is fading. In light of the fact that so much dissent is being openly tolerated it would be hard to agree with him on this - or most anything else he says here - but at least it shows an awareness that the next generation, when finding the fullness of Faith in increasing numbers prefer Married Life to Marriage Lite!).
Hilare Belloc said that, in the end, all arguments are about theology. That this is true can be illustrated by two telling photographs. The first is this one taken from the Everybody's Welcome website to show one of the 'consultation' periods. Here the folks are gathered in Church chatting together and 'being church' in Sacred Heart Church in Hemsworth...
The community is the centre - this could occur in any social club... or fair enough in the parish club afterwards.The second picture was taken at the moment of the Consecration during a recent Latin Mass at Westminster Cathedral, and comes from Fr. Tim's blog.
Here Jesus Christ, the true and only dependable source of our human community and peace, becomes present to us in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. He is the Head of His Church and we are His body in the Church. By becoming united to Him, we can become truly and deeply united to one another. By rejecting sin - not sinners - we may have much deeper community with each other than if we cling to our self-serving agendas.In a nutshell, the folks quoted above are trying to welcome sinners by removing the sense of sin. A kind of re-emergence of the ancient Pelagian heresy... It is laudable to welcome sinners. Goodness, none of us would be in Church if sinners were not welcome! But, the only one who can welcome sinners fully and remove their sin authentically and definitively is Jesus Christ. That is why He gave us His Church and the Sacraments; that we may repent, confess and then recieve His peace and saving love in Holy Communion. It's His Church. Her teachings are His teachings. They are not antiquated because like Him they are alive and active and can judge the heart like a two edged sword!Â
The answer then is to receive from God in humilty. To try and 'produce' a new church with new doctrine is a typical culture bound expression of the present zeitgeist.
Perhaps Paschasius Radbertus (a deacon, teacher and abbot who died in 865 A.D.) sums it up best;
Come then, whoever you may be: at least desire now in this world of time to be rid of baneful vices, and that the reign of virtue may come in you, for God is a God of virtues and not of vices. Desire to be reckoned among the number of Christ's members.
May we all repent and be converted this Holy Advent season and find Christ in the fullness of His Church!
This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.145 )