Protect the Pope on hold

"What is truth?"

The news is that Bishop Campbell of Lancaster Diocese, has asked one of his deacons, the highly respected Nick Donnelly, to "pause" from blogging for a period of recollection.

I have no wish to pour petrol on the fire but this does seem to be a most unwise decision (on the Bishop's part).

Deacon Nick's blog, Protect the Pope, is one of the most professional and well respected blogs on the circuit.

He focuses, in the main, on providing short, concise news type reports on events concerning the Church on an up to the minute basis.
 I speculate as to whether the Deacon was, in fact, a journalist in an earlier part of his life; his posts are well informed, balanced and to the point.

What is more, as a good man of the cloth, he avoids scandal and gossip but goes straight to the point.

Maybe that is the problem.

 Protect the Pope tackles the more worldly aspects of Church affairs in a straightforward fashion and those who twist and pervert the teachings of HMC "don't like it up 'em" as Lance Corporal Jones would have said.

The Bishops of England and Wales seem very content to allow any manner of liturgical abuses and deviations to take place but, anything that smacks of orthodoxy gets the order of the boot.

There are even other blogs operated by Deacons that portray the sort of church that I have no wish to be associated with.
 It's the church of "Look at me" and "Aren't I clever and humble?"

There are more sinister aspects to at least one of those blogs and I know of four young Catholic women who have been targeted and verbally abused by the person concerned.

Yet, no Bishop has asked him to "pause for a period of prayer and reflection" despite the many representations made to him.

Various odd organisations seem to be springing up all over the place and their aims seem to be to wreck the Church and impose mob rule where the teachings of Christ and doctrinal truths are cast to one side.
No Bishop, as far as I am aware, has attempted to block any of the activities entered into by these dissidents, in fact, resources are placed at their disposal.

I will not attempt to lay the blame on Pope Francis but, it is a fact that, in the past 365 days, a shadow has been cast on the Faith (who knows, it might have taken place even if Pope Benedict had not resigned).

The fact is that the shadow exists and Catholic life seems to grow darker by the week.

What can one do?

Pray for Bishop Campbell and pray for Deacon Nick and his wife; that's the first thing.

Secondly, a note to the Bish politely and civilly reflecting on the good that emanated from the PtP blog and requesting that the "pause" period be lifted might not be a bad thing (provided that such action did not cause concern to the Deacon).


The Bishop's address is:

Bishop Michael Campbell
The Pastoral Centre
Balmoral Road
Lancaster
LA1 3BT

Email communications do not seem to have reached as far as Lancaster, I could see no sign of an email address for His Lordship on the Diocesan website.

See also, Fr Z's post on the issue: WDTPRS

And how it was reported on the PtP blog