Is this the battle hymn of the ACTA mob?

To be filed under the "Two legs good, four legs bad" heading

A church hall somewhere in the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton

Catholics of England! Catholics of Ireland! (and Wales)

Catholics of land and sea and skies!

Hear the cloven hoofbeats of tomorrow!

See the golden future rise!

How does the life of a Catholic pass?

In endless drudgery.

What's the first lesson a Catholic learns?

To endure the slavery.

How does the life of an Catholic end?

In mass apostasy.

Catholics of England! Catholics of Ireland! (and Wales)

Catholics of land and sea and skies!

Hear the cloven hoofbeats of tomorrow!

See the golden future rise!

Now the day of the beast is coming,

Tyrant man shall lose his throne

And the shining fields of England (and Ireland and Wales)

Shall be trod by apostates alone.

Pull the rosaries from out your pockets

Tear the scapular from your back!

Bell and thurible must rust forever,

The Magisterium we will attack.

Catholics of England, (and Ireland and Wales, and, possibly, Scotland) 

seize the prizes,

Cash and abortion, free love and gay,

Indifferentism, heresy and same sex 'marriages'

Shall be ours upon that day.

(Apologies, George)

Confession.....a nice chat?

A comment left by a well respected member of the Catholic laity on my previous post made me think that I might have been too unkind in believing +Conry's interview on the subject of lapsed Catholics showed him to appear weak and imprecise.

I searched again for more evidence and, first one on Youtube that I came to showed a clip with +Conry being interviewed by Ruth Gledhill giving his now well known views on Confession....not a list of sins these days, more a chat.

So, how does it go?

Penitent: "Bless me Father for I have sinned (or, rather, I may have upset God a little), it is six weeks since my last Reconciliation.
Now, let me see, on Tuesday I murdered my granny and, on Thursday of the same week I poisoned all of my work mates in the staff canteen; well, all except Bob because we play snooker in the inter parish championships together..."

Priest: "Well, my boy, that's grand of you to come and have a wee chat about all of this. I'm really glad you spared Bob because we need to get a few wins in over St Knobbly's team and, as for your granny (God love her), as she was over the age of 75 years I think we can say that you just helped her on her way to Heaven a bit prematurely".
Now, we don't 'do' penances any longer so please just go off and focus hard on winning that snooker tournament and try not to lose again"

Now please, if you can possibly bear it, view the following video clip of Fr Robert Barron speaking rather more generally on the Sacrament of Confession (not reconciliation).

Fr Barron communicates using his voice (well), his hands, eyes and general body movement (as should any good communicator. 

He does not go "erm" every few seconds, he knows his subject, he knows his Faith - and, above all else, he has 'passion'

                             

A good Japanese friend and mentor who, many years ago, coached me in the ways of doing business with his countrymen by saying: "You must have passion in everything you do".

And that, among many other things, is what is lacking in Bishop Conry.

What do you look for in a Bishop?

Do you look for a warm character, one who oozes holiness and yet is fearless and outspoken when it comes to speaking up for the Faith?

A man who is unafraid to tell the truth regardless of the consequences?

A clear, positive speaker who makes his point without hesitation or prevarication?

A beacon of light and a leader and role model to his priests?

And, one who is, to paraphrase the late Alice Thomas Ellis, a Catholic?

Well please feast your eyes on this interview with Bishop Kieran Conry (who proudly proclaims that he never reads blogs).

Really, My Lord? And I thought you were the epitome of a modern Catholic bishop.....

 

Shortly I shall be running a poll on Bishop Conry and how inspirational you, dear reader, find him.

 

I shall post on that once my pulse has slowed and heartbeat returned to normal after watching this Bishop frankly and lucidly expounding on lapsed Catholics (I thought it was non pc to call them that these days).

H/T to Deacon Nick at Protect the Pope for his post on the ACTA and the Bishop.

 

Bishop Conry....read blogs carefully before appearing on television

The Bishop should know better than to make comments without apparently absorbing precisely what Fr Ray stated on his post.

And he should never have made an apology - a man out of touch with his Faith....and reality.

Here is the BBC News report on Fr Ray....view it at 9.55

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b039fq9t/South_East_Today_06_09_2013

Priest forced to say sorry to his Bishop

Of course, this character is fictitious and bears no resemblance to any priest of the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, all of whom are perfectly sound and respectable.

"Bless me Father, for I am a future Bishop"

Creating a towering inferno effect....

Bishop Kieron Conry of Arundel and Brighton, has stated that he had difficulty in thinking of sins to confess as a small boy.

He lied, therefore, making up sins so that he would have something to reel off in the confessional.
 I am sure he is not the only boy to have done this.

The trouble is, that the Bishop was really laying the blame for such lies, on the repressive clericalism that existed before 1969 (cough).

I never had any such problem at that age; seven year old boys, in my experience, generally have access to a wide range of sinful acts ranging from theft of a tadpole to placing a drawing pin in an older sister's slipper.

And many more in between.

But, just in case there are any young future Bishops out there, here is a prompt list of some of the deadly sins that a typical seven year old Catholic boy might commit:-

1. Switching the church hall instant coffee for gravy granules

2. Emptying the contents of a firework into the thurible, for discovery at a later date

3. Standing on the edge of the cassock of a kneeling altar server (when on acolyte duties) - this does produce rather spectacular results as the kneeling server performs a backwards somersault upon getting to his feet

4. Flicking pellets at the church cat

5. Placing small dead animals in Sister Rosario's desk drawer

6. Removing the clappers from the sanctuary bells

7. Serving at Mass with your pet white mouse in your pocket

8. Placing itching powder on the collar of the MC's cassock

9. Creating a towering inferno effect when entrusted with the thurible

10. Treading on the toes of senior clergymen whilst serving, specifically, Monsignor Derek Worlock

There, Bishop Conry, that doesn't look too hard does it?

Picture: Angelus Online

A 'Catholic' school provides a prayer room for students

Excellent, well done and jolly good show you might say.

But, me, being of the curmudgeonly inclination, I think not.

The very phrase 'Prayer Room' summons up images of a room set aside for the use of Muslim students or, (horror of horrors) the ubiquitous ecumenical room where all sorts of odd denominations hold sway.

Now this particular Catholic School is in a well heeled area, Hove, on the outskirts of Brighton, and I have written about it in the past and of how they hold, or used to hold, ecumenical services.

Not good, in a Catholic school, not really much good anywhere, after all, just what is the point?

Now Cardinal Newman School, for such it is, actually has a rather beautiful and grand chapel; the original prayer room, if you like.

But, instead of using this sacred space they have created a prayer room that looks as if it caters rather more for the Primary rather than the Secondary pupil.

                        

           This is the school's Corpus Christi Chapel but heaven knows what's going on in it!

The video clip on the link below carries the usual silly sort of quotes along the lines of "pupils feel comfortable in it" (the new prayer room).

But really, Bishop Conry needs to man up and squash this whole lunatic concept and drag the school back to sound Catholic practice.

H/T to A & B News Blog (although, I suspect that they think the concept is great).
There is a link to a video on the A & B post.

But Bishop - Arundel and Brighton needs you!

How selfish are we?

We take a Bishop from his own diocese and plonk him down in the wilds of west Wales (Carmarthen) and ask him to be guest speaker at a seminar on 'The Year of Faith and the New Evangelisation'.

Yes, there seem to be no bounds to our greed to have Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel & Brighton Diocese, come and speak to us here in Menevia Diocese (Carmarthen).

We care not that Laurence England and others will be deprived of Bishop Conry's steadying hand for a few days or that his charitable and kind comments on the Holy Father will not resound along the eastern boundaries of England in his absence.

There will be crying in Crawley, weeping in Worthing and unseemly bawling in Brighton.

How can this much loved shepherd leave his flock with such apparent gay abandon?

And can Menevia Diocese cope with the anticipated influx of pilgrims from all points of the compass, anxious to hear words of wisdom from +KC?

The event of the year is due to take place at St Mary's Church Hall, Carmarthen next Tuesday and all are welcome, light refreshments are provided and the day is free. Heady stuff for us west Walians who are starved of any intellectual, theological discourse (let alone egg and cress sandwiches).

Shall I be going?

Sadly, no.

I have already committed myself to washing the car that day.