Read before you Speak

As well all know, in the run-up to the Holy Father’s visit there was a lot of talk by people who are committed to the ‘Spirit of Vatican II’ about their concerns about the Holy Father’s alleged ‘failure’ to promote the doctrines and practices which they support, and want to see not only encouraged, but compelled . . . even when what they want is clearly contrary to the actual teachings of the Council.

Other things have rather interfered with me writing about it until now; but I have to say that I was delighted by the passage which formed the First Reading in the Office of Readings last Friday . . . a passage from the First Letter of S. Paul to Timothy :

Anyone who teaches anything different, and does not keep to the sound teaching which is that of our Lord Jesus Christ, the doctrine which is in accordance with true religion, is simply ignorant and must be full of self-conceit – with a craze of questioning everything and arguing about words. All that can come of this is jealousy, contention, abuse, and wicked mistrust of one another; and unending disputes by people who are neither rational nor informed

Is it just me, or does that sound as though S. Paul had foresight in respect of those who want to promote their own particular (per)version of what Vatican II taught . . . and wouldn’t it serve the people who want to promote the ‘teachings of Vatican II’ well if they read them carefully before they went around promoting this ‘spirit’ of it which has no resemblance to what the Council, and the Fathers of the Council, actually said ?

Just slightly surprised . . .

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been; but I admit that I was slightly surprised this morning when I got to Westminster Cathedral.

Today is Blessed John Henry Newman’s day – for the very first time – and of course at the Oratories it is kept as a Feast : my understanding being that in the general English Kalendar it is only a Memorial (and apparently only an Optional one at that).

I heard two Masses at the Oratory – the Extraordinary Form at 08:00 and a private Ordinary Form at 09:15; and was present during, although not attending, the 10:00 Ordinary Form, all at the Newman Altar : and in each case the number of worshippers appeared to be noticeably up on an ordinary Saturday. (Incidentally, there was also, of course, Veneration of a Relic of the Beatus at the end of Mass; a delightful addition to the liturgy.)

Wasn’t I surprised, then, when at the Cathedral – I was book-shopping next door, not visiting the Cathedral – I witnessed a vast hoard (including many priests) pouring out; and I was told by friends amongst the throng that the place had been packed . . . for the Archbishop’s Mass for Blessed John Henry Newman.

Given that Newman was an Oratorian – indeed, it was entirely due to him that the Oratory arrived in England in the first place – I have to say I found it odd that there was such a popular preference for Mass at the Cathedral, rather than at the Oratory . . . or am I just being silly, or naïve, or something ?

(Sorry about the quality of the photo; I had only my phone with me, and the light was not wonderful, hence the slightly blurred quality : but I think it is clear that the Feast at the Oratory was as splendid as things there always are.)

Rosary Confraternity

I know I’ve said this before : but the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary is not only beloved by so many Saints and Popes; it is also beneficial to its members, through the enormous blessings one derives from membership.

Membership costs nothing, and all you have to do is say all the original fifteen mysteries at least once a week . . . though if you aren’t able to, or fail to do so in a week, you don’t thereby automatically lose your membership.


The Indulgences and other blessings which accrue to all members are truly phenomenal; and if you are going to say your Rosary anyway, then it is really silly not to join, and start gaining those spiritual benefits right away.

How do you join ? Well, if you look in the left-hand sidebar you will see a ‘Rosary Confraternity’ link you can click on, which will connect you to the Brother of the Order of Preachers who is the Confraternity’s Promoter in the UK : and he will be very happy to hear from you, and to enrol you . . . so what are you waiting for ?

Just to remind you . . .

. . . that today is the first Feast of Blessed John Henry Newman : so a Happy Feastday to you all.

Do let me encourage you to visit one of the Oratories today, where I imagine you will be able to hear the appropriate Mass, meditate upon his motto Cor ad Cor Loquitur . . . and with luck also be able to pick up a set of propers (both of Office and Mass) for future use.

COLLECTA
Deus, qui beátum Ioánnem Henrícum, presbýterum,
lumen benígnum tuum sequéntem
pacem in Ecclésia tua inveníre contulísti,
concéde propítius,
ut, eius intercessióne et exémplo,
ex umbris et imagínibus
in plenitúdinem veritátis tuae perducámur.
Per Dominum.

(COLLECT
O God, who bestowed on the Priest Blessed John Henry Newman the grace to follow your kindly light and find peace in your Church; graciously grant that, through his intercession and example, we may be led out of shadows and images into the fulness of your truth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.)

What Fun !

I’m sure that you have probably, by now, have seen the splendidly illustrated post by Mulier Fortis (one of whose photos I have borrowed) about yesterday evening’s Solemn High Mass in celebration of the Patronal Festival of Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen – the suburban parish of
His Hermeneuticalness,
Fr Tim Finigan.

Well, it really was as good as Mac suggests : indeed even better. There were a good few people who had travelled some distance – several of them clergy – to be present, and I am sure that every one of them went away feeling that they had got a good deal more than they bargained for – in the very best of ways.

For me, apart from hearing my friend fr Lawrence Lew OP preach on Our Lady of the Rosary (and say a lot which was very good indeed – facebook people can read the homily here), what I really got out of it was the ordinariness of it.

Now that may sound as though I’m putting things down. After all, a lot of people went to a lot of trouble to make sure that it wasn’t ordinary; and as Mac makes clear, in one sense it definitely wasn’t.

What I’m getting at is the fact that Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen, is in one way an ordinary Catholic church, in an ordinary suburban parish, full of ordinary people . . . and yet it managed to offer God such an amazing Mass, full of love, and splendour, and devotion, and holiness . . . it did so last evening, and in fact it does so constantly, Sunday by Sunday, day by day.

I spend much of my time (religiously speaking, that is) at the London Oratory; and although many of those who go there are entirely ordinary, the fact is that it’s quite clearly not an ‘ordinary’ Church; the building is amazing; the music is a long way out of the ordinary; and many of those who worship God there are very far from ordinary too . . . there are many of the famous (and infamous), the titled, the stinking rich . . . so although it’s a wonderfully effective, and exciting, church, in one sense it’s not exactly ordimary – especially to the outsider who just turns up for a special occasion.

Blackfen, on the other hand, is so exactly not like that. It is a smallish building of no great architectural merit, completely (apart from the driveway) surrounded by private semi-detached houses; as far as I know there is no-one in the congregation with a title, or millions in the bank; and yet it manages to be such a lively, welcoming, and active Catholic church . . . and whilst I have no doubt that this is largely due to Fr Tim, it must also be very much due to the people of the parish, who bring themselves, and give their time and their talents (and I suspect their resources) generously to make sure that God’s work goes forward in Blackfen . . . and it so obviously does.

Last Night’s MC, for instance, Patrick, is a young man who has – as one can see from his blog – definite opinions on matters liturgical, with many of which I do not (shall we say) entirely agree : but whatever they may be they he largely suppressed them last evening in the interest of ensuring the worship of Almighty God with the dignified celebration of a splendid Solemn High Mass with every circumstance of liturgical splendour in an ordinary sanctuary of no exceptional size . . . an aim which was amply achieved.

This is my point : that Blackfen (and I am sure many another parish) simply gets on with preaching and teaching the Faith, and promoting it to the people around it, as an ordinary thing which will eventually bring them to the Kingdom of Heaven . . . and last night gave us all, for a little time, a wonderful foretaste of that : so on behalf of all the visitors who were there I say to Fr Tim, and to everyone at Blackfen, ‘Thank you for having us, and we look forward to coming back soon. Meanwhile, may God bless you all, and Our Blessed Lady keep you safely under her mantle’.

What, M'Lord . . ?

You may have read some of the recent posting about Mgr Loftus’ threat to Fr Ray Blake that he will sue him for defamation in respect of some comments on a post or posts of Fr Ray’s blog.

His Hermeneuticalness, for instance, has put up an excellent post (which refers to Neil Addison’s splendid ‘Religion Law Blogspot’) about the extreme unlikeliness of any British Court dealing with such a claim.

As HH correctly points out, Gray J said that ‘the court will not venture into doctrinal disputes or differences’; which means that a Court could not decide whether something was or was not heretical : which in turn would mean that it could not decide whether the allegation that something was ‘heretical’ was defamatory.

However, in the case from which Mr Justice Gray’s statement came (Blake v Associated Newspapers [2003] EWHC 1960 (QB)), it was in fact the Claimant who said (in his Skeleton Argument) that ‘It is a fact . . . that there is no forum . . . anywhere worldwide that can make an objective doctrinal determination’; and this was agreed by Mark Hill QC, the expert witness for the Defendants, who pointed out that it would involve ‘a detailed and painstaking examination of questions of doctrine, theology and ecclesiology combining an assessment of history and a full understanding of contemporary and emergent theology . . .’ – which would, of course, demand full understanding and the competence to undertake it : which Her Majesty’s Judges simply do not (and indeed will not) claim.

However, it seems to me that there is another interesting aspect to this case : namely that the allegation of defamation is not, in fact, against Fr Ray, but rather against certain Commentators who post comments on his blog – and do so under their names or labels.

Further and in any event, (to use the legal expression) Fr Ray’s blog bears a note on the sidebar which reads ‘Comments : Anonymous comments are never published. All comments are the opinions of those who make them, they are not necessarily mine.’

Given that, it seems to me that a Claim against Fr Ray would be highly unlikely to succeed, even if a Court would hear it, as it would be difficult to suggest that he was the person defaming Mgr Loftus.

Given that both these points are well known – at least in outline – to people with even modest legal knowledge, and that clergy aren’t meant to use the secular courts to resolve disputes between themselves anyway, one has to wonder about someone who makes a threat which wholly ignores all these points, and exactly what they’re trying to achieve . . .

(And the photo above has no direct connection with any of this : Mr Justice Philimore, later Baron Philimore, was a very well-knkown judge, but he was also of a very Puritan character, and would - I suspect - have had not time at all for a Catholic controversy . . . 
I just like the photo !)

This morning’s second Reading from one of S. Bernard’s sermons ends with his clear exposition of the need for man to understand God; and to do this, to ponder Him through the events of Our Blessed Lord’s life and works :

What could a man conceive of God unless he first made an image of Him in his heart ? He was above understanding, unapproachable; He was completely invisible and beyond our intellect; but now He wished to be comprehended, to be seen, to be pondered.

But how? you may ask. I answer : lying in a manger, resting on a virgin’s bosom, preaching on the mount, spending the night in prayer, or hanging on the cross, the pallor of death on His face, like one forsaken among the dead, overruling the powers of hell, or rising again on the third day, showing the apostles the print of the nails, the sign of victory, and finally ascending from their sight into heaven.

Is there anything here that cannot be reflected on, truthfully, lovingly, reverently ? If I reflect on any of these things I reflect on God, and in all of them I find my God. I call it wisdom to meditate on these things. I judge it prudence to recall the fragrance which the rod of Aaron produced so plentifully in these buds, the fragrance which Mary draws from above and pours generously on us.

Reading that gives, I think, a splendid background to the prayer with which we frequently ends the praying of the Most Holy Rosary :

O God, whose only begotten Son, by His life, death, and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life, grant, we beseech Thee, that meditating upon these mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.

In other words, not only should we meditate upon the mysteries of Christ’s life because we are commanded to do so, but because by doing so it brings us to understand God’s love for the world, and His wonderful power . . . the power which will, with our co-operation, eventually bring us to Heaven : and our co-operation will, ofcourse, be both easier and more certain if we understand what we are co-operating with . . . which this meditation will greatly assist us to do.