Ten amazing Catholic list of 2011 includes three prominent bloggers!

Journalist Mary O’Regan, writing in the Catholic Herald (click here for the full article), has drawn up a list of her ten outstanding Catholics of the past year and, no less than three of those included are Catholic bloggers.

It is an impressive roll and, of course,  Dylan Parry (A Reluctant Sinner) is one of those listed and many congratulations to Dylan, such recognition is richly deserved.

Journalist Mary O'Regan
of The Path Less Taken blog

Good, also to see US blogger, Thomas Peters included. Tom is a young man who has rapidly built up a most successful blog over a span of six years, once known as American Papist he is now part of the Catholic Vote blog.

Mary’s list also contains Robert Colquhoun (I feel the ‘amazing’ theme is on youth as far as the list is concerned, and why not?). Robert is well known for his work for the unborn and for those suffering the after effects of abortion. His blog also needs no introduction but to those who may not have come across it, it is Love Undefiled.

The complete article may be viewed here and the remaining seven names are, equally illustrious. Bishop Mark Davies is there (huzzah! as Fr Z might say) as well as some who have suffered death and persecution for their Catholic faith.

It is a good and inspirational thing to reflect on those among us who are excelling in their lives and in how they are making a difference in the world.

 We have been starved of good Catholic role models for many years and we should rejoice that we have such ‘beacons of the faith’ among us.

In her article, Mary O’Regan has also touched on the formation of the Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma and I am sure all Guild members are grateful to Mary for this.

In some ways this list of 'amazing Catholics' is an accolade, in part, for the way in which the new technologies may be used to effectively spread news and information rapidly and even to evangelise.

Herself a well established and respected blogger, Mary was one of the British (Irish) contingent who received an invitation from the Vatican in 2011 to attend the world seminar in Rome.

Her blog also needs no introduction - The Path Less Taken


Please note: Apologies to Robert Colquhoun as I found it impossible, for some reason, to link to his blog.

"Extraordinarii" - a good label!

My learned and distinguished friend, Professor Robin Whatley has had a letter published in The Catholic Herald that has now been reproduced in Mass of Ages.

It is not a good letter - it is a fantastic letter! It is reproduced in full below:-

..For all those Catholics who may have become depressed that our bishops are so loath to grant wholesale support to Pope Benedict XVI's Motu Proprio, when they thought that 'Summorum Pontificum' was the solution to all their yearnings, I offer the following.
There seems to be an interesting comparison between those who today attend Holy Mass in the sublime Tridentine Rite and special members of Roman armies. Given that the various priestly orders dedicated solely to that Rite enjoy almost an embarrassment of riches with respect to the large number of seminarians they attract, especially compared to those coming forward in what we might call 'ordinary' seminaries, the former will eventually, at least in Western cultures, become the vanguard of the priesthood.
Their ranks will be added to because many young priests are much more orthodox than their teachers and are volunteering to learn to celebrate Holy Mass in the Old Rite.

"Extraordinarii" - an elite fighting force!

We may, since the Tridentine Rite has come to be called the Extraordinary Form, refer to priest and congregation as the extraordinarii, which term was used in the Roman military system to describe those troops, usually a fifth of the infantry and a third of the cavalry,detached from the alae or wings that flanked the legions. The extraordinarii were under the direct command of the army commander and provided the vanguard to the column when advancing and the rearguard when retreating; dangerous tasks requiring particularly good soldiers.
My case is that, given time, it is the extraordinarii who will guide Holy Church back to her Traditional Catholic foundations, while leading us into the future and who will always safeguard her against further attempted subversion by the neo-Protestants.
Watched over by the Holy Spirit, supported by the Magisterium and commanded by our dear Holy Father, how can the extraordinarii not succeed?


ends/.....



Now I am aware that my fascination for 'labels' is irritating to some but we all live by the designations that surround us; English, African/American, Vegan, Carnivore, thinker, doer and so on. The Catholic Church has something in the region of 23 different rites (Armenian, Maronite, Syro-Malabar) and so on. All are distinctive in their own...um....rite - but all are Catholic! And some are extraordinarii!

ARCHBISHOP STACK - DO YOU BELIEVE IN OUR LADY'S INTERCESSIONARY POWERS?

"Not an English and Welsh Bishop again"

                                                     

The new Archbishop Designate of Cardiff, His Grace, George Stack gave an address to the General Synod of the Church of England in which he, apparently, denied the role of Mary, Mother of God with regards to her intercession.

Now the important word is "apparently" because, as William Oddie of The Catholic Herald points out, the Archbishop's phraseology is open to some interpretation - but it damn well shouldn't be! Surely that's why our priests rise up the hierarchical ranks, because of their ability (among many other things) to pronounce clearly and without error on the teachings of Holy Mother Church.

It is not good enough to make a statement that leaves a number of speculative options open as to the meaning behind the words.

I am not one of ++ Stack's biggest fans, I disliked the way he handled the Vaughan School debacle and how he responded to letters with a letter of his own (standard response) plus a computerised signature......very low grade in my books.

However, I would like to think that, on this occasion, the Archbishop has been misunderstood and I would also hope that he will issue a corrective statement in which he clearly lays out the role of Our Lady as part of Church teaching.

BUT..........more than that I would hope (and strongly recommend to his Grace) that he leads a pilgrimage to the National Shrine of Wales, Our Lady of the Taper, in Cardigan.

Our Lady of the Taper - what is the
relevance of Lourdes if we do not
believe in Our Lady's intercession?

 In fact, it would be a very good thing for Welsh Catholics if the new Archbishop were to lead the Latin Mass Society Pilgrimage to the shrine this year - and even celebrate a Latin Mass (EF, that is).

You see......it's not just the people of Cardiff who want to know, it's not even the Catholics of the rest of Wales, it's all Catholics from all over the world who want to be reassured of the Archbishop Designate's belief in Our Holy Mother.

Bill Oddie on the Burka - a must read!

Now this will throw you! I mean Bill Oddie the Catholic Herald journalist (not the grumpy and eccentric birdwatcher, despite my last post) and blogger who has an excellent piece on why we SHOULD ban the burka. His post contains reference to an article that appeared in The Daily Telegraph last week by Allison Pearson and she has some very poignant observations to make.
As I am steering clear of controversy all I shall do is point you towards Mr Oddie's blog.

March for Life UK?

I wrote this piece a couple of days ago and shelved it thinking that, really, a UK March for Life was not something that I should be banging on about. Then, a few minutes ago I read Fr Tim's blog on the same topic and this gave me the courage to post mine.

So here it is....


I did not go on last year's UK pro life march held, I believe, in November. So, it may be inappropriate for me to criticise; but I shall do so anyway.
In the run up to the 24th January screening, on EWTN, of the US March for Life on Washington, they featured the UK March of last year. Only 350 people turned out for it - and that looked bad seeing what America had to offer just a few minutes later.
Why only 350? Why were they all brandishing white crosses? Those are the symbols of the war dead, not aborted babies.
My cynical marketing eye detected a need for conventional posters 'Abortion kills' or similar. Maybe even, '30% of women undergoing abortion will have a mental problem in later life' - bit of a mouthful but it could be paraphrased.
I am not knocking the folk who turned out, full marks to them, they'll have another jewel in their crown as my mother used to say after a  good deed done. But, they appeared to fall into the 60 plus age group and I really wanted to see lots of young mums and dads and babies in buggies; perhaps the camera was being selective but it made me contemplate the lack of punch in our anti abortion campaigning.
It also made me question just why we could not organise a larger more impressive march. I fully support John Smeaton and SPUC and all the other pro life groups and believe that the work they do is wonderful, many thanks to them all.
But...couldn't we just have one bloody great big march? This year....soon.

NB: Fr Tim reports that the Catholic Herald has put out a call for a British March for Life. Great!
As they say in the USA......."Let's do it!"