Archbishop Cranmer was ahead of the game

Not allowed in multi faith prayer rooms

I have been banging on for the last six months about Catholic schools making what I consider to be a profoundly wrong decision to provide prayer rooms for Muslim male pupils.

Now I have discovered that the Archbishop Cranmer blog had it covered and covered well, no less than five years ago.

That fact, alone, is humbling but add to it the little matter that Cranmer blog is, of course, a Church of England one, then you do begin to think, if the CoE can see the dangers, why can't the Catholic bishops?

http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/roman-catholic-bishops-want-muslim.html

I have also read, in various places, that there is a call for the Catholic bishops to make Multi faith rooms available in every school

Does, whichever bright spark who dreamt up this idea, believe for one minute that Muslim students are going to use a room just vacated by Jewish ones?

Or Hindus takeover after the Sikhs have had a go?

And what happens when the Wiccan students fancy a dance of the circular kind?

Of course, what really would upset the episcopal apple cart would be Catholic students demanding a Latin Mass - a wailing and gnashing of dentures all round I think.


Picture: Sanctamissa.org

A call to prayer from.....

...Channel Four.....and....Catholic Secondary Schools in Southwark Archdiocese.

  Southwark or Saudi Arabia - hard to tell

Good old conservative Channel Four is to feature the Muslim call to prayer throughout the fasting period of Ramadhan this year.

You know Ramadhan? It's the time when devout Muslims fast from before dawn till sundown (a long period in British Summertime) and, at either end, stuff themselves with as much grub as is humanly possible.
Fast and feast.

In this process they operate lathes and commercial guillotines, drive buses, trains and lorries as well as conduct brain surgery, all without the benefit of energy generating food.

At all of the Colleges that I have worked in, we would bar Muslim students from using any dangerous machinery during Ramadhan; the capacity for seriously injuring themselves, and others is immense.

 But following closely on the heels of Channel Four is the Archdiocese of Southwark.

Archbishop Peter Smith has conducted an investigation into the diversion of hard pressed resources into the provision of Muslim Prayer Rooms in no less than ten (yes, ten) of his schools.

And, to cut a long story short, he is cool about it.

In fact, he sees it as his bounden duty to make such provision.

He didn't actually say: "We're all members of the same club" but he might just as well have done so.

Bully.

63 good Catholics and true, signed the letter querying this most dubious of practices but ++ Smith has waved two episcopal fingers at all just to tell us to keep our noses out of Southwark madrassas practices and to let him get on with what he started so successfully in Cardiff.

And Archbishop Mennini, whom we have kept in the loop, has stated that he has no jurisdiction in such matters..but....but....but....

....he has hinted that he will have a word in someone's ear (my words, not his).

He was bit more forthright, good man that he is.

Now, I hope that I am not reading too much into that phrase but isn't the sentence:
"Have a word in his ear" Cosa Nostra speak for "I'm sending some of da boys round as we speak" - meaning: "He will never walk in a straight line again"

The more I see of our Nuncio, the more impressed I am.

He is a true Godfather in every sense of the word.

The poll is dead!

The vote on Muslim Prayer Rooms on my sidebar has suffered from, what shall I call it? Pollution?

As a result, it is now dead, extinct, it has ceased to exist.

 

 

Another poll that has ceased to exist



Yes, lets call it pollution and leave it there.

Some have suggested that I run it again but, with the best will in the world, it just will not be the same.

Never mind, we know that, overwhelmingly, the people who voted were opposed to Catholic School premises being used for worship by those of the Islamic faith.

Many of those who have written to me asking for their names to be included are school teachers.
All of them are suffering for their Faith (for presenting the teachings of HMC without any touchy feely perversions).

But, this abuse of Church teaching, and of Church premises continues apace.

There is a great deal of duplicity taking place.

Parents who have struggled to give their children a Catholic education, find that another religion is being inserted into the ethos of the school.

School mission statements, ever bland, are in breach of what they promise, 'A good, Catholic environment etc'

And the misuse of school premises presents those involved in making rooms available, with the charge of theft.

Yes, the sin of theft. 

There are costs associated with every physical part of a school;  rates, heating, lighting, caretaking, maintenance. If those costs are used for any purpose other than those intended, it amounts to stealing.

I mention this fact only because it tends to get overlooked when we speak of the equally serious religious aspect.

The letter to Archbishop Peter Smith will be sent next Friday 7th June and, if you have not already added your name, please do so now, either by emailing me on r.collinsassoc@btinternet.com or, by leaving your name in the comment box.

Of course, Southwark is not the only diocese where such abuses are taking place, but we have to make a start somewhere.

Thank you.



 

Oh no! I have got it wrong about Muslim Prayer Rooms!

I am sorry. So very sorry, so-oo sorry.

Hello - I'm your new parish counsellor



You see there are no Muslim Prayer Rooms in the Catholic Schools of England and Wales - I stand corrected.

I have been told this fact and I am sure my informant is correct.

He tells me that there are no Muslim Prayer Rooms in our schools....only rooms used by Muslim pupils for prayer.

Umm....just run that past me again please.....you mean there are only dedicated rooms for Muslims to pray in.....no Muslim Prayer Rooms?

Ooh, I'm feeling a bit funny, time for a couple of Mogadon and a lie down.

And, you may be surprised, dear friends (and others) to learn that I have been reading Twitter....yes, really.
 It's easy, just like reading haiku.
Anyway, some kindly old soul made a comment on this whole Muslim Prayer Room debate and tweeted the following:

"Maybe our own pupils would learn from the Muslims" (that's my paraphrase but accurate in essence).

Ah, well, that makes sense. Let's make Muslim Prayer Rooms mandatory in all Catholic Schools so that Catholic pupils can learn how to pray!

Stop the world, I want to get off!

More on Muslim prayer rooms and a letter to the Archbishop

I posted, a few days ago, on the apparent surge in Catholic Schools dedicating some of their hard won resources to providing Prayer Rooms for Muslim students.

That goes against all the mission statements that any Catholic School has ever produced...you know, the ones that state:-

The XXXX School is a Catholic secondary school for boys of all abilities and all backgrounds. It exists to serve the educational needs of the Catholic community of  XXXX and neighbouring areas. As such, it will at all times seek, via opportunities for worship and prayer, and via the teaching of its religious studies programme, to deepen and enrich the Catholic faith of all its pupils. Further we seek to provide for these same pupils, access to real academic, sporting, musical and artistic excellence.

We believe as well that all aspects of the life of the school should be lived in a spirit of justice and charity and that Christian selflessness should be part of all our dealings with one another.

OK, no mention of other faiths there. 

No mention of taking funds from the Catholic coffers to provide a room facing Mecca for its male Muslim students. No mention of the dangers of apparently equating Islam with Catholicism.

So now is the time for action against such silliness. 

I have composed a letter to Archbishop Peter Smith (copy to HG Archbishop Mennini) and I am collecting signatories so that I may present the letter (hard copy) with as many names appended as possible.

I hope that you will agree to join in and send me your name, either in the comment box or, privately by emailing me at r.collinsassoc@btinternet.com

Your names will not be made public and only appear as signatories on the letter itself.....please help me on this one, we cannot allow this sort of abuse to continue.

Here is the letter:

"Your Grace

We have been made aware of a number of Catholic Schools in your Archdiocese, where, in conflict with Catholic teaching and in direct contradiction of their mission statements, resources have been allocated to providing prayer rooms for Muslim students.

This is not an issue with Muslim pupils attending Catholic Schools, always provided that there is a shortfall in places. Such attendance is an opportunity for the Faith to be spread by example and by observation on the part of the pupils.

It is concerned directly with the fact that this facility should not be provided on Catholic premises, especially, a school setting where young people could, quite understandably, interpret the provision as a signal that there is little or no difference between Catholicism and Islam.

We hope that you will act to put an end to this practice and inform Headteachers, Lay Chaplains and Deacons who may be involved in pastoral work in the Catholic School sector, to that effect.

We assure you of our prayers for you and your priests at all times."

So now, please send me your name if you agree with the content of the letter. It matters not whether you are from Southwark or, indeed from Britain, all signatures made with good intent are valid.

This needs nipping in the bud before it becomes the norm.

 

Catholic School, Muslim services

I do not think that you will find any chapels in Muslim Schools

Is that right?

A Catholic School offering Muslim students the facility to practice their faith?

A Catholic School providing a Prayer Room for Muslims, is that so very wrong?

Deacon Tony Flavin provides a Prayer Room at his school, (not sure which one), and is pleased that young Muslim males and females attend prayers there.

Well, for the record, in a secular educational situation, I have provided Prayer Rooms for Muslims most willingly.

But, I do not think it right that a Catholic School or College should do so.

If you allow Muslims a space, would you also do the same for Sikhs, Seventh Day Adventists, Hari Krishna followers, Wicca Groups, Scientologists, Mormons and so on?

I suspect, depressingly, that most Catholic Schools would fall in line with any requests from such faiths. But then, I have a very low opinion of most Catholic Schools.

We do have one or two (but only one or two) flagship Schools where the essence of clear doctrinal teaching and ethos is promoted. Cardinal Vaughan is one; the London Oratory is, I suspect, another.

There may be a few more. Count the fingers on one hand; that is the state that we are in.

Appalling.

It would be interesting to have your views on the subject; am I being a racist right winger?

I hope not.

Please vote according to your view in the sidebar on the right.