Friday 17 August 2012

Is the magic circle starting to go pear shaped?



First we have Bishop Mark Davies putting an orthodox stamp on Shrewsbury Diocese, then his Lordship's right hand man, Monsignor Philip Egan, an orthodox man according to the pundits is appointed Bishop of poor old Portsmouth Diocese and now, the Bishop of Lancaster, the Rt Reverend Michael Campbell, successor to the acclaimed Archbishop O'Donoghue, has drawn a line in the sand as far as teachers in Catholic schools are concerned and asked them to make a public profession of faith.

This has resulted in shrieks from the left wing press and cries of "McCarthyism rules again".

I don't quite get that; wasn't McCarthy anti communist?

 Is it just the act of asking people to come clean about their beliefs that results in such emotive language?

What is wrong, precisely, with wishing to know where those who are in charge of educating and informing the young stand?

Isn't that where the Catholic Education Council and the Bishops of England and Wales have gone so very wrong over the past forty or so years?

They appear to prefer a sort of grey sludge and mediocrity delivery of religious education as opposed to orthodoxy and clarity.
The thing I was always brought up to believe is that theology is black and white, no room for dissembling or equivocation.

So now, out of circa 28 Bishops in England and Wales, for the first time since Vatican II we appear to have a growing number of good men who are not prepared to toe the party line.

That's getting on for 11% - maybe not a great statistic but a damn sight better than zero.

And, with more appointments looming, and the good offices of the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Mennini, we may hope to see that number of good men increase dramatically.

Who knows, given time and the works of the Holy Spirit, the magic circle could disappear in a puff of smoke?

2 comments:

  1. I didn't know he'd said that. As a school governor it greatly interests me as I would like to see more committed Catholic ethos at our Catholic Secondary School. Do you have a link or anything to his speech?

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  2. Mark, The Catholic Herald of 10th August 2012 carried the story, the link is here http://www.exacteditions.com/exact/displayPage.do;jsessionid=E2E6F58414DA2ABDDBD269446B5220E
    Richard

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