Friday 19 April 2013

Coming off The Pill

In my formative years, when hookers were only found on rugby pitches and generals were the only people with aides, there were three main Catholic publications in church porches throughout the country.

Their readership was quite distinct in both class and character.

At the cheap and cheerful end there was The Universe, the working Catholic man's newspaper.

The Catholic middle classes read the broadsheet Catholic Herald and, as Sister Catherine Walsh OP used to say: "It's the only Catholic newspaper run by Catholics, boys". And so it was and still is.

And then the Upper Class Catholics had a rather upper class publication called The Tablet. This was and is, in magazine format and carried rather more copy than pictures; it would then have been described as  "an intellectual read".

I think this hierarchy still stands except that The Tablet, as we all know, has become the mouthpiece of  liberal crassness; somewhat left of Arthur Scargill.

But it still retains, (among Catholics of the cafeteria variety) a sort of air of pseudo intellectuality, of being unassailable as an organ of the thinking Catholic.

The once exclusive readership has drifted so that both the lower and middle classes like to be seen with a copy under their arm.

It lends them, so they believe, a sort of pew credibility; it adds an air of 'better than thou' to those who buy a copy and then, on returning home, consign it to the re-cycling bin unread.

A group of young Catholics has started a campaign aimed at closing down The Tablet, (Tabula Delenda Est) I wish them every success in their endeavours.

But we all need to challenge this false air of intellectual authority that surrounds the editorial team and their Directors at The Tablet.

We need to question those who wave their copy around as proof of their forward thinking capacity and charitably point out the truth of the matter to them.

The Tablet is not now the thinking Catholic's magazine; it has evolved into 'Pseud's Corner'.
Please inform your Bishop, Parish Priest and you fellow parishioners of this fact.

In this clip below you can see three Catholics.

Can you tell The Tablet reader from The Universe reader or The Catholic Herald reader?


There's also a final clip showing an interview believed to be with a young Clifford Longley


6 comments:

  1. "I have got innate breeding, but I do not have any faith..."

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  2. Richard,
    Thank God for his gift of humour! Great saints-people of faith had great humour! I needed a laugh today, thank you!


    Cheers,

    Michael.

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  3. "Shutting down" The Pill sounds harsh; how about "laughing it out of existence?"

    Separate matter: West, Texas is a wonderful little Czech / Polish / German / Tejano / English town of hardworking farmers and commuters, with very good public schools and Catholic schools. Their annual Czech Heritage festival is very popular among Czech-Americans and everyone else who loves good, clean, healthy merriment. Please pray for them.

    - Mack in Texas

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  4. Well put, Richard!

    Similar comparisons could be drawn here in the former colonies - specifically regarding the "National Catholic Reporter", "America Magazine" and the "National Catholic Register".

    I can also confirm that Eccles suffers from innate breathing, but he does have fate...

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  5. Mack have and will pray for both West and Boston. If there is an appeal for financial aid can you post it here. The town sounds like any Australian small town-hard working and community minded. God be with them all

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  6. Let them sell their publication at pagan or New Age temples or Unitarian or Labour Party meeting houses. They don't belong within Catholic Church establishments.

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