tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34607684904318922312024-03-07T05:38:47.064+00:00Friends with ChristA Blog by a Catholic priest as the New Evangelisation begins.Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.comBlogger1176125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-54827372333776356212021-12-21T21:11:00.002+00:002021-12-21T21:13:34.117+00:00Magister 3<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFqB2KV7DdXqcEkJQmU7TF9uTvDhLmluOITB4oJRBCVzlHJsij7_hUKHn0f6OuLPaIZnrqKDIlDTmq1gXSuh4JOARTjRnSij0RzWfo_Q9IDLnu550-mBNanTUG2CMtcXYxZE8s7bWgtFH690A-PyTLZ49r7bIHgUZOxozfBV1aqK2H_8hM__OQ-jn5=s640" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="640" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFqB2KV7DdXqcEkJQmU7TF9uTvDhLmluOITB4oJRBCVzlHJsij7_hUKHn0f6OuLPaIZnrqKDIlDTmq1gXSuh4JOARTjRnSij0RzWfo_Q9IDLnu550-mBNanTUG2CMtcXYxZE8s7bWgtFH690A-PyTLZ49r7bIHgUZOxozfBV1aqK2H_8hM__OQ-jn5=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The relationship between the Church and the world has always been a dynamic and a variable reality. Often the Church has had to adapt the ways in which she relates with the world. We saw this take place, for instance, during the English Reformation, when the Church was refined in a most remarkable way. Then, throughout the Modern era, we saw the Church seeking to enable the Christian life in decisive ways. Today, the world (at least in the West) is trying to emancipate itself entirely from the legacy of the Gospel. Not surprisingly then, the Church should not today seek to follow the way of the world, but rather has sought to embrace a new evangelisation. What has also happened is that the world's current struggle has entered into the Church in ways that we have not seen since the Reformation. Within the Church there is a now a polarisation, between being an un-Enlightened Church and being an Enlightened Church, together with the whole range of accommodations that exist between these two poles.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">For me, the Second Vatican Council was a intentional endeavour by the Church to re-embrace and to witness to the light that she has received from God - she sought to enable a new evangelising and formative relationship with the world. "Gaudium et Spes", which was the central Decree of the Council about the relationship, is very understandable from the perspective of the Council Fathers, the vast majority of whom were firmly grounded in the Tradition. It was from that perspective that they called the Church to act, rather than to act from a correspondence with the world, in which the Church adopts the attitude of the world.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">However, the principal movement which took place following the Council, was the movement of an Enlightened attitude, which sprang from latent and somewhat hidden ranks of the Church, and which took hold of many executive positions within the Church. This attitude then sought to take hold of catechetics and also of new an un-mandated forms of liturgy. In this way, a Modernist agenda appears again in the Church.</span></div><br /><p></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-79004448444991011892021-12-18T20:52:00.002+00:002021-12-18T20:52:26.458+00:00Magister 2<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEixXbQw3Wc4w5g8sU0cqiPWjr2ARhCVYwP8L89pgHTI5LTNS8CUoa6x_rGpSxqyKJXGgqNG9JkoXPK15aUW_40fopIFTXkfTS_1gjlV5Sg0rt2oVjydUvy17ff-QlhiDeryThL3RWiZnlHpl9KVe3Mbw0ai6biggUVT-go_6B1QWTHyp52cYGXwXrDn=s900" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="900" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEixXbQw3Wc4w5g8sU0cqiPWjr2ARhCVYwP8L89pgHTI5LTNS8CUoa6x_rGpSxqyKJXGgqNG9JkoXPK15aUW_40fopIFTXkfTS_1gjlV5Sg0rt2oVjydUvy17ff-QlhiDeryThL3RWiZnlHpl9KVe3Mbw0ai6biggUVT-go_6B1QWTHyp52cYGXwXrDn=s320" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">In Sandro Magister's magnificent post about the virus that has infected the Church, the virus that he is speaking of is the attitude of the Enlightenment, and the vaccine that the Church needs to counter this is to reclaim the Christian life.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">To better understand what is taking place in the Church today, it is good to understand what flowed out of the Kulturkampf in Germany between 1872 and 1878. Essentially this Kulturkampf created two wings to the Church in Germany: a Church which corresponded with the values and attitude of the Enlightenment, and a Church which, rather than do that, sought to reclaim its native identity and vision.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This division was present in the background at the Second Vatican Council, and is apparent today in the Church Universal. This is the issue at stake today. The Enlightenment has been allowed to enter into the Church and now we have a full-scale dichotomy on our hands:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">1. For the Church to approach the world, as the Council intended, from a renewed understanding of her Faith.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">2. For the Church to approach the world from a shared position of Enlightenment, where we all agree the Ts and Cs.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This all takes some time and understanding to see. The more time, reflective reading, and conversation that we give to this, the more we will see it. We need to step back and see the big picture.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Today, it is becoming clearer to me, that the two attitudes or projects which flowed out of the Kulturkampf in Germany, are now present in the Church:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">There is an un-Enlightened Church, which seeks to claim anew her Faith and Teaching, and so build up her life and mission. In other words, a Church who wants to allow God to act.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">And there is an Enlightened Church, which seeks to appropriate much of the world's criteria and self-understanding, and to accommodate herself to its ways. In other words, a Church which is a human endeavour, based on human resourcefulness.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">To be continued.</span></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-34898719358489395232021-12-16T21:48:00.000+00:002021-12-16T21:48:31.681+00:00My notes on Magister<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiNFAjahwk5BiWGtR9pyKUZnSWogPQFM8QMTPUHiag767UTLXeRGPrVozYB2Mg-71hWW57uEjHrDgj1oeR2NQHlpPB-byGJYBQD0MAt0I8UPZk5zkwRbCh2g4PrO4g3angH7yj7aZRjuUZKkKb5a8QLesaa5LWtYhkljTRlDTzbYmXoP-7bFG6jcKbJ=s474" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="247" data-original-width="474" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiNFAjahwk5BiWGtR9pyKUZnSWogPQFM8QMTPUHiag767UTLXeRGPrVozYB2Mg-71hWW57uEjHrDgj1oeR2NQHlpPB-byGJYBQD0MAt0I8UPZk5zkwRbCh2g4PrO4g3angH7yj7aZRjuUZKkKb5a8QLesaa5LWtYhkljTRlDTzbYmXoP-7bFG6jcKbJ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">A recent post on Sandro Magister's blog was entitled, "There is a vaccine for the virus that infects the Church." This post is so good that I had to read it three times, back to back, and then made my own summary notes of what he is saying. Here goes.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The secular movement in the world is advancing while the Church diminishes. This is happening in tandem with the eclipse of the conservative paradigm in the West (which promotes duties before rights.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This eclipse has also entered into the life of the Church. But whereas conservatives has sought to reinvigorate this paradigm, the pandemic has revealed that it is not simply the form of Christianity that is at stake, but much more fundamental issues.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Looking back to the time of the Second Vatican Council, we saw the secularising agenda imposing itself on the Church through all its issues, contraception, divorce, homosexual union, feminism etc. In other words, secular values and issues took centre stage in the life of the Church and pushed the Christian life to the margins.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">JPII and B16 tried to save the key issues of the Council (Revelation, the Church, Xt in the Liturgy, and seeking an adequate anthropology) and also of the Enlightenment (human dignity and freedom.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">B16 was aware of how Christendom (9th to 15th Centuries) provided the best context for the Enlightenment. That the organic unity of faith and life enabled Christian values to flower. What then happened was that the culture took those values and re-established them on the basis of reason, and left the Christian life behind. This was the Enlightenment.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">B16 spoke of how "Gaudium et Spes" was the Council looking specifically at the correspondence between Christianity and the Enlightenment, revisiting the Enlightenment to seek a new relationship with the world (presumably for an evangelising and formative purpose.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">B16 also spoke of how, in putting God into the purely subjective realm, the Enlightenment actually wounded human reason - reason eventually gave up on itself - in spite of the historical fact that the search for God is the foundation of any good culture.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">So, in ancient Greece God was unknown, yet people searched for him. Today, following the impact of Christian revelation on humanity, much of it has given up on God and itself!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Pope Francis, on the other hand, has set aside both Christianity and the Enlightenment; we are all the same, without God or Christian values. All we need to do is be brothers to one another.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Even so, Francis supports the subjectivisation or impoverishment of reason, by promoting the Church's focus on issues (rather than the Christian life.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Magister notes that the conservative wing of the Church is actually in tune with the Enlightenment, through its support of individual freedoms.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The result of all this is that Christians are again a small minority, as they were in the first centuries.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">He specifies that today's Christian minority has the same options as those in early centuries:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">1. To conform to the dominant culture.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">2. To close yourself off from it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">3. To escape to a new homeland.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">4. To enter into a strongly critical relationship with the world and exercise a cultural influence on it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The 4th approach is the one that the Church took in the early centuries.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">In history, he says, we can see 'metaphysical mutations' (radical transformations of the collective vision of the world): </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">1. Christianity asserting itself in the strongly pagan Roman Empire.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">2. The dissolution of Christendom in favour of a secular and materialist culture.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">How, he asks, will today's dominant culture proceed? We don't know.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">What we do know is that we need to keep the Christian heritage intact, so that we can re-propose it in the modern empire and regenerate it from the teaching of the first Christians and the Fathers of the Church. End.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This article is so extraordinary that I will post my own comments on it next.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><br /><p></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-68261395596791539482021-12-03T13:57:00.000+00:002021-12-03T13:57:15.773+00:00Days with the Martyrs<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhboWWaMIYWMgxUq0NYvnMpH1p7gInsd-Fh0_cJcHK5OBMhmFfig7bc0EyPYV8CzCJXdq-fS8C6dnRoq90Mvdip1J6XCg31eWGqFqojEvrmcQjptTiUdbgEs315XVEJrH-h7DImsYSHWs0/s800/IMG-20211202-WA0000+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhboWWaMIYWMgxUq0NYvnMpH1p7gInsd-Fh0_cJcHK5OBMhmFfig7bc0EyPYV8CzCJXdq-fS8C6dnRoq90Mvdip1J6XCg31eWGqFqojEvrmcQjptTiUdbgEs315XVEJrH-h7DImsYSHWs0/s320/IMG-20211202-WA0000+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">1st December is the feast of St Edmund Campion and companions, who were captured at Lyford Grange in July 1581. Edmund was executed at Tyburn, London on 1st December 1581.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">What an immense privilege and joy to be part of a pilgrimage in his honour at Lyford Grange on Wednesday of this week, and to have celebrated the Mass there in one of the medieval barns.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Particular thanks to the proprietor of Lyford Grange for graciously allowing us to celebrate Mass on his premises, and to all the pilgrims who took part in the day. St Edmund Campion is one of our great saints and he continues to inspire and to draw the crowds. He was a great leader for us then; he is a great leader for us now.</span></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-7449791009697725402021-11-30T11:34:00.003+00:002021-11-30T11:34:27.534+00:0016<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjHKNWXqtxBq1yP_-4ZqcgA6LJCg7VfxHQI7NK4B0DzJOT6izR6CA8JPsotnucwIH-p46Yufv5n8snvX7e5riId678XJ68T9HbCxzudPPzYEMef0HarAhQMXfUsiMcFZoSFx7eY73Nzsw/s1125/engagement+copy.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="1125" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjHKNWXqtxBq1yP_-4ZqcgA6LJCg7VfxHQI7NK4B0DzJOT6izR6CA8JPsotnucwIH-p46Yufv5n8snvX7e5riId678XJ68T9HbCxzudPPzYEMef0HarAhQMXfUsiMcFZoSFx7eY73Nzsw/s320/engagement+copy.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">"Sixteen years, sixteen banners united over the field."</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This week is the sixteenth anniversary of the launch of this Blog. I can hardly believe that it is still going!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Let's see where it can go from here.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">(Oh, and the quote above is from Dylan's song, "Changing of the guard".)</span></div><br /> <p></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-8118449717079264182021-10-15T17:23:00.024+00:002021-10-16T20:47:16.850+00:00Good read 4<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Fr34EK1wh43aMP5CCNpz5R7x5ew17g8FNhx4IhUpC4Z0rASAegj9FOF1nWC435YMJTVnlMWZWDwUZY5v1AZyQgApWDhooORjOyQ38UdSghmBBOMmNKjbytqc5qr7fetH7gLBbKwVgZo/s500/book.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="500" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Fr34EK1wh43aMP5CCNpz5R7x5ew17g8FNhx4IhUpC4Z0rASAegj9FOF1nWC435YMJTVnlMWZWDwUZY5v1AZyQgApWDhooORjOyQ38UdSghmBBOMmNKjbytqc5qr7fetH7gLBbKwVgZo/s320/book.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Having recently finished reading the third part of Michael Davies trilogy on the Liturgical reform - <i>Pope Paul's new Mass</i> - here are a few thoughts.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">First, this book is a masterpiece. It is also a long read at 650 pages. But for anyone who wants to better understand what took place in the Liturgy of the Catholic Church in the 1960s, this book is essential reading. Michael Davies documents the whole process that surrounded those changes in that era. He was able to do this because of the depth of his understanding of the Liturgy, of Liturgical development, of the key documents of the Church, and of the strategies that were in play during the 1960s. The importance of this book cannot be underestimated. I imagine that book will have increasing importance as time goes on, when new generations will want to know what really took place when the Liturgy was changed.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Secondly, the author gives a concrete and detailed account of what happened in the immediate aftermath of the Council, when all the bishops had gone home. The author narrates the history of an agenda that took hold of the Liturgical reform after the closing of the Council, and of how that agenda became the driving force for unprecedented changes to the Liturgy of the Catholic Church. The author rightly notes that, although the Council had asked for reform, the changes that subsequently took place had been asked for by no one. Changes such as the eradication of Latin, the celebration <i>versus populo</i> etc, were expressions of a new form of clericalism that was on the ascendency, but without the vast majority of the faithful being aware of it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Thirdly, this book shows how the new Liturgy of the Church was conceived in a rushed and somewhat botched way. So, alongside some genuine developments, such as the addition of new Prefaces, we also had the inadequacy of the 1st Edition of the new Altar Missal, which was withdrawn, the omission of the Rogation and Ember days, the sporadic incoherence of texts between the Missal and the Gradual, the absence of the Offertory Antiphon in the Missal etc. The new Liturgy then, appears somewhat as an interim Liturgy, a Liturgy that still requires attention. And there remains the unanswered question, why did we get a new Liturgy when the Council asked for a reform of the Liturgy?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">My opinion is that the current status of the Liturgy needs to take on board the following:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">1. The Church needs to come to terms with Pope Pius V's Bull "Quo primum tempore" and what this actually meant and means for the Church. Presently, this Bull has been shelved. But this Bull is essential because it denotes how the Liturgy has developed, and specifically, it embraces the 'lex orandi' as a possession of the Church, rather than as a possession of the Pope, which it is not. "Quo primum tempore" cannot be simply ignored or forgotten - only totalitarians would want to do that! This Bull is not merely a Canonical document; it is what it represents that must be newly acknowledged.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">2. We need to revisit "Sacrosanctum Concilium", the Liturgical Decree of the Second Vatican Council, and appreciate what it actually taught. Essentially, it proposed the reform of the Liturgy - the old Mass. But the old Mass was manifestly not reformed, but relegated and dismissed, while a committee worked to invent a new form of the Mass and to impose it on the Church. Extraordinary! This is something that had never happened before. "Sacrosanctum Concilium" was given by the Church to enable a genuine and objective appreciation of, and reform of, the Liturgy of the Church. Michael Davies for one, argued that this never really took place, but that this Decree was cleverly used to disguise changes that the Church had never intended. So, as Pope Benedict asked us to do (on a number of occasions), we need to engage with this Decree.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">3. We need to come to an honest understanding of the difference between what the Council asked for, and what took place, being able to appraise this in the light of the Tradition and of the 'lex orandi' of the Church. After all, this is something that used to happen up until 1969, and it is something that should freely happen again.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">It is clear that the time to do this is not now. The present senior executive of the Church has no desire to review the Liturgical changes of the 1960s, which seem to be set in stone in a way that was never the case until the 1960s. Rather, a clericalist mindset of imposition and control is still proposed. The time for such an honest appraisal and review is around fifty years hence. That time will come, and with it a more Catholic appreciation of the Liturgy will flow, one in which the Catholic Faith will be better embraced and expressed.</span></div><p></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-75650069392320282021-10-02T14:17:00.001+00:002021-10-02T14:17:31.441+00:00A Day with the Martyrs<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftUwf1kYXT7ELDtd3VcN7bWMUm_48Zgls1uCRu5QiYNhOWwMkNEPLb6H0zWGIMMQccov_3lZcBO6KfbJMUVaLXHhk264FXl8rQa0hit0SoXg7l1QZz2_fzGZQKK6OqCF929qR-FXWpSE/s1066/st-edmund-campion-tumblr_msjhgluugc1rrwnhfo1_1280.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="840" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftUwf1kYXT7ELDtd3VcN7bWMUm_48Zgls1uCRu5QiYNhOWwMkNEPLb6H0zWGIMMQccov_3lZcBO6KfbJMUVaLXHhk264FXl8rQa0hit0SoXg7l1QZz2_fzGZQKK6OqCF929qR-FXWpSE/s320/st-edmund-campion-tumblr_msjhgluugc1rrwnhfo1_1280.jpeg" width="252" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #2f5496; font-family: "Goudy Old Style", serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">A pilgrimage day to honour St Edmund Campion, 1<sup>st</sup> December 2021. Holy Mass, lunch, short talk and Rosary Walk. This day is being held in the midlands. If you would like to take part, please contact me now as places are limited.</span><span style="background: white; border: 0px; color: #2f5496; font-family: "Goudy Old Style", serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div><br /><p></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-73737060477657414052021-08-25T18:52:00.000+00:002021-08-25T18:52:04.339+00:00A month of families.<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4EwSZhVeG-bcO9TXBxvFXSPmWGeBLax6gZs3wZEuZtn4WxV3H1AZbGrAg-BFLcDUSAZXldSZb1TTvVgx5Les5xU7-hsqrinLPPZvksXYxa_S2nCkXvMxZnXFu10tiPSILCEhxNDnnIQA/s1280/family.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4EwSZhVeG-bcO9TXBxvFXSPmWGeBLax6gZs3wZEuZtn4WxV3H1AZbGrAg-BFLcDUSAZXldSZb1TTvVgx5Les5xU7-hsqrinLPPZvksXYxa_S2nCkXvMxZnXFu10tiPSILCEhxNDnnIQA/s320/family.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">What a wonderful month August has been for me, a month of accompanying families.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">At the start of the month, I was part of a young family camp in north Devon, where we even started each day with the celebration of the old Mass.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Following this, I was part of a different and larger group of young families, doing a camp in Keswick. The above photo was taken on Walla Crag, with Derwent Water down below. This camp brought together families from all over the UK and established some truly apostolic connections.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Following this, I accompanied another group of young families on a part of the St Edmund's Way in Suffolk, where again we were able to start the day with the old Mass.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Finally last week, I led a group of young families on a pilgrimage day to the shrines of Our Lady and St Joseph in the Goyt Valley. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I would never want to miss these irreplaceable opportunities!</span></div><br /><p></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-54033961786927882462021-07-15T18:29:00.000+00:002021-07-15T18:29:00.232+00:00Good read 3<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUHRC3ug86Bz92vf-aLiVQWDYhtEkAUinqM32jdOR9ielsa0Fl9Q5zrwi7RMy3c3QGsHuuYN9R8Bp8QV8Qn79KV0xc3ur2lta6P4LTDS9Q4R1NroGx35lwaInec-00Jm9ms3vTOUKr9HQ/s1050/book3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="701" data-original-width="1050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUHRC3ug86Bz92vf-aLiVQWDYhtEkAUinqM32jdOR9ielsa0Fl9Q5zrwi7RMy3c3QGsHuuYN9R8Bp8QV8Qn79KV0xc3ur2lta6P4LTDS9Q4R1NroGx35lwaInec-00Jm9ms3vTOUKr9HQ/s320/book3.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">In the second chapter of Michael Davies' "Pope Paul's New Mass", the author speaks about the 'Ottaviani Intervention'. This was a letter accompanying a document, written by a number of theologians critiquing the New Missal. Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci presented this to Pope Paul in 1969, just before the New Missal was promulgated. Having never read this critical study before, I found it on the internet - there are a number of sites with the full text - and I was amazed to discover in it a most marvellous presentation of the Theology of the Mass. Anyone who desires a fuller appreciation of the Mass should read it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This "Critical Study of the New Order of Mass", although clearly not a Magisterial Document, goes to the very root of 'Sacrosanctum Concilium'. In other words, if we are looking for a greater participation in the Mass, then the fuller our understanding of the Mass, the greater our participation will be.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">In Chapter 3 of Michael Davies book, 'Reform or Revolution', the author expresses how the immediate aftermath of the promulgation of the New Missal in Advent 1969, was a state of incredulity on the part of ordinary Catholics. Neither priests nor people knew the rationale for the radical change in the Liturgy. Even the very meaning of the Mass appeared to be in question!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Having lived through the 1970s, and now looking back, it is very hard to reconcile 'Sacrosanctum Concilium' with state of the Church and its Liturgy in that decade. The Council Document appears venerable, lucid, directive. What took place was horrible. I don't like to remember it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Stepping back from the Liturgical changes makes one think of how those very changes took the Church away from her mission and manipulated her into a bureaucracy, and led her into a sort of 'limbo'. A place where things are not really sorted out and where there is no real opportunity for development or reconciliation.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The reality is that much needs to be sorted out in the Liturgy, but the present generation, who lived through the changes, have no desire for more change. In this state of 'limbo' the real understanding of the Mass is no longer truly alive. Many Catholics refer to the Mass as a 'service'. And active and interior participation is replaced with mere ritual and conformity.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The renewal of the Liturgy will take place, 50 to 100 years from now. Those in their 20s, maybe even their 30s, will see it and they will rejoice.</span></div><br /><p></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-78092288846895455162021-06-24T16:59:00.006+00:002021-06-24T18:57:53.297+00:00Good Read 2.<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqvwkSR1949LIQr_K1KWCkeEqWzPtFwlhNapbYG-Op-G4ginySDJHswleNX9olL-4usfKiQLLvsCUT7cBoswHsTm28nLl1xROUf2izImvtngwHPoGa0K3LaGvQorDkluY67VWfmuRisLY/s1050/old+book.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqvwkSR1949LIQr_K1KWCkeEqWzPtFwlhNapbYG-Op-G4ginySDJHswleNX9olL-4usfKiQLLvsCUT7cBoswHsTm28nLl1xROUf2izImvtngwHPoGa0K3LaGvQorDkluY67VWfmuRisLY/s320/old+book.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">My notes on the second chapter of Michael Davies book, "Pope Paul's New Mass".</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This chapter details many of the documents from a bewildering assortment that came out of the Vatican in the 1960s concerning liturgical changes.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Reading through this chapter gives one a sense of how the Church in the 1960s changed from being Mission to being a bureaucracy. I was a boy in the 1960s and even then I had a strong sense of how strange and unreasonable were the many changes in the Mass and the number of missals that we got through in a few years. As we know, what took place in the Church during the late 1960s was a Public Relations disaster.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">What took place during these years was anything but that which the Second Vatican Council had asked for. As Davies says in this chapter, "the Council did not order a new Order of Mass but a revision of the old." (p57)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The reform of the Church's Liturgy requires, as Pope Benedict said, a care study of "Sacrosanctum Concilium", the Council's Document on the Liturgy. The Council did not ask for a butchering job!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Reading through this chapter makes one aware of just how much in a rush was the Committee which Pope Paul VI established to implement the Council's wishes. As a result, the "contrast between the theory and the reality of liturgical reform" (p40) could not have been greater.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Davies puts his finger on the essential thread running through these documents; that what really matters "is not what they authorise that was not authorised before, but what they forbid that was not forbidden before." (p37) And that their authors secured papal endorsement for their revolution. (p42)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Davies again keenly sees another key principle - that in Paul VI's Apostolic Constitution "Missale Romanum" of 1969, the Pope derogates (modifies) from <i>Quo Primum</i> in ending the prohibition to use any other Rite than the Missal of Pius V. (cf,53) But he does not at the same time abrogate that Rite.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This, together with what Davies set out in Chapter 1, enables us to see the Missal of Pius V as a Rite that belongs to the Church, a Rite that belongs to the very reality of the Church and to all the baptised. And that what took place in the late 1960s amounts to an unprecedented act, one of imposing on the baptised a Rite that it had neither possessed before, nor had asked for. What took place in 1969 had never happened before in the life of the Church. What took place in the late 1960s could be seen as an act of clericalism - an executive committee of clergy demanding something of the whole Church. Whereas, what <i>Quo Primum </i>did, was to secure the Missal of Pius V - which already belonged to the faithful, as properly their possession. <i>Quo Primum </i>and <i>Missale Romanum </i>are two very different acts, neither is excluded by the other, but they are so different in their approach that, I don't think, we have even begun to reconcile what the second act did, and therefore, how these two acts relate with one another. The reality is that the Missal of Pius V belongs to the Church, as it always did. The Missal of Paul VI has come, seemingly, out of nowhere. Where does that leave us?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Now, I do realise that the right to use the Missal of Pius V is a complex issue. Various Indults, together with <i>Summorum Pontificem,</i> have brought this issue forward. But there remains the implicit reality that anyone in the Church has the moral right to either celebrate or participate in the celebration of Mass according to the Missal of Pius V. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Pope Benedict's call, that the Church should study <i>Sacrosanctum Concilium</i> goes to the heart of what needs to done - to bring into focus the status of <i>Quo Primum</i> and <i>Missale Romanum</i>, and of how they are actually related, and of what that means for the Liturgical Reform to date.</span></div><p></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-61262150979666663342021-06-20T14:14:00.003+00:002021-06-20T17:54:51.510+00:00A really good read.<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxdr-z0vYjUc6p4IEH0Wyj91_urN0LQ_WupdafxAOih5ZVfTMGftRDBnmva-BYyIuiVu99ACmOyuEmBBS_iX8ut60t4ds90N6mPgqtzKCpHfQ9ufhHNIh4REmbalMTXnQtRprOFHklAgs/s1350/book.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxdr-z0vYjUc6p4IEH0Wyj91_urN0LQ_WupdafxAOih5ZVfTMGftRDBnmva-BYyIuiVu99ACmOyuEmBBS_iX8ut60t4ds90N6mPgqtzKCpHfQ9ufhHNIh4REmbalMTXnQtRprOFHklAgs/s320/book.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">At the end of the year I will post on the books that I have read during 2021. However, the book that I am presently reading is so good that it deserves its own comments.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I'm reading Michael Davies' "Pope Paul's New Mass". I bought and read this book in 1980 and have picked it up again. What a fantastic read! A thorough-going appreciation of the changes to the celebration of the Mass that took place in the 1960s. I have been making some salient notes as I read and will post these here. For purposes of reference, the edition that I am reading is:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Michael Davies, <i>Pope Paul's New Mass</i>, Angelus Press, 1980. And the references that I will make refer to the pages in this edition.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Chapter One. The development of the Roman Rite.</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This chapter contains three elements:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">1. The best concise description, that I have ever read, of what the Liturgy is.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">2. The best concise description of the historical development of the Liturgy that I have read to date. On page 5 the author notes that the Second Century reference to the priest as 'celebrant' was due to the word 'priest' having pagan connotations. In fact, by the Second Century, the three-fold division of 'bishop', 'priest' and 'deacon' was already established. Substituting the word 'celebrant' for 'priest' today is much more anomalous.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">3. An analysis of what the Bull <i>Quo Primum Tempore</i> is. This is the Bull with which Pope Pius V published the Roman Missal of 1570.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This Bull established the Roman Missal as an act of the Council of Trent. This was the very first time that a Council or a Pope had legislated on the Liturgy. Up until 1570 the development of the Liturgy had taken place in an entirely organic way, and it had come under "Customary Law" (how general practice is accepted and protected.) <i>Quo Primum </i>adds Positive Law (which specifies or prescribes a particular practice) to this. Specifically, <i>Quo Primum</i> established that no one, other than the Pope, could make changes to the Missal on his own initiative. (Cf, p14)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">In looking at how the Liturgy could develop after <i>Quo Primum</i>, the author speaks of an important distinction that must be made. Namely, the legal right of a Pope, and his moral right. The Pope can legally change the Liturgy, but would it be morally right for him to do so. (Cf, p14) Under this distinction, a change to the Liturgy must represent a continuation, but not a contradiction of what has gone before. (Cf, p15)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Thus, a future Pope could legally abrogate (abolish) the Missal of Pius V, but would he have the moral right to do so?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><i>Quo Primum </i>possesses three characteristics that would affect the moral right of a Pope:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">1. Its aim is that one Missal should express the faith of the Universal Church.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">2. It sought not to establish a new form of Liturgy, but rather to restore the ancient Roman Missal. In other words, it codified the organic development of the Liturgy, rather than enacted an artificially procured form of the Mass.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">3. It is the act of a Pope expressed with the full force of Apostolic authority, in conformity with uninterrupted tradition. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">(Cf, 16)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This is wonderful stuff!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><br /><p></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-47392560765777140602021-06-17T07:14:00.003+00:002021-06-17T07:14:56.574+00:00Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 9 and Conclusion<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs-I6qvaQ6zIvd_xY0U5t0SXKbpp44uSlTA7jccpMk0qmudaWOqs8DlXsceqX5zdrkwmw7miMpsa5sqJHTOrczmZmRL3KxKhm-Ag6kC3gGTXhVJL4f6pr4wfZbsGNuP0hyPVu9HvoxeaY/s1050/rings.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs-I6qvaQ6zIvd_xY0U5t0SXKbpp44uSlTA7jccpMk0qmudaWOqs8DlXsceqX5zdrkwmw7miMpsa5sqJHTOrczmZmRL3KxKhm-Ag6kC3gGTXhVJL4f6pr4wfZbsGNuP0hyPVu9HvoxeaY/s320/rings.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>My notes on Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 9. The Spirituality of marriage and the family.</b></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The Pope speaks of the “spirituality of the bond”, of how spouses can depend upon one another. Yet he is clear that they can depend upon Christ even more. </span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This chapter does not present the spirituality of marriage and the family in the hierarchic way that we have inherited; that for Christian people who marry, Christ is mediated to them in a new way through their marriage, and that they mediate Christ to one another. The call within Christian marriage is for spouses to form their mutual relationship on the pattern of Christ’s relationship with the Church.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">There is a strong sense then, in this chapter that the Christian family is the same as the natural family, but with a Christian gloss. But there is no indication from Pope Francis about the Christian identity. In other words, if a person does not know Christ, he or she is not going to find him through marriage and family life. The foundation for every person is to find Christ, and whoever you are, once you have found him, you will find how he is mediated to you. Amoris Laetitia gives no indication of how a person, who has not found Christ in life, might find him marriage.</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Summary of my notes.</b></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">There is a natural goodness to marriage and family life, but in Amoris Laetitia, the natural and supernatural goodness of marriage are blurred. The consequence of this is that Pope Francis presents marriage and the family through rose-tinted spectacles. He robs them of their ideal, but does not present them for what they really are. Amoris Laetitia can easily come across as a form of Clericalism – the clergy taking down to families. What the Magisterium should be doing is to give a vision of marriage and the family that flows from people who have given their lives to Christ. But if spouses don’t know Christ, how will they find him in their marriage and family?</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Reflecting on Amoris Laetitia puts me in mind of the chicken and egg syndrome. Which comes first, the Church or marriage and the family? It is clear that Christian marriage and the family flow out of the Church. But this is not at all apparent in Amoris Laetitia, and so today’s pastoral problems remain, all stacked up, with no clear route forward. The Pope’s Letter reads as though it precedes John Paul II, rather than follows him.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I hope that some good will come out of Amoris Laetitia, particularly as a help to young spouses and those who will prepare for marriage. I often think of St Bernadette of Lourdes who, when asked by the Blessed Mother to drink the water, found that she had first to dig and clear away the mud, before she could discover the clear water. The problems of our age are many, but the path to travel on is Christ. Christian spouses who have submitted their lives to Him are truly great lights in the Church and in the world.</span></div></div>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-81486683925115114532021-06-07T19:11:00.003+00:002021-06-07T19:11:44.504+00:00Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 8<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">My notes on Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 8. Accompanying, discerning and integrating weakness.</span></p><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">This chapter reads as though it is the purpose of the whole Letter. At the beginning of para 292 Pope Francis acknowledges the ideal of marriage in a particularly good and full way, but he doesn’t then go on to propose or ask that this should be expressed pastorally by the Church. Rather, we should simply try to make better, whatever our situation is. </div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">He speaks about the “law of gradualness”, which JPII had spoken of in his Letter Familiaris Consortio. Using this principle, JPII looked at the concrete situation, but then led people towards where they should be. But Pope Francis is really saying that the ideal of marriage is unattainable, so we should lower our view of the ideal. That since there is some goodness in whatever situation people are in, we should now re-envision marriage. This is very suggestive of Hegelian idealism rather than the Gospel; that we make up our experience of life rather than be Christians, recipients of a transforming gift of life.</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">He seems to be promoting human effort with a good slice of moralism added to the mix. However, human effort doesn’t make something Christian! </div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">In speaking about the accompaniment of concrete marriage situations, and their discernment, by pastors is hardly practicable. And what makes pastors the arbiters of marriages? God created marriage – why should anyone put them under a microscope?</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">In para 305 the Pope seems to say, quoting himself, that if anyone is trying to live the Christian ideal of marriage, they are living only an outward show. So, the Pope makes it clear that, if there is no ideal for marriage, all we can speak about is people’s experience of marriage.</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since this chapter reads as an apologia for those who don’t want to have an ideal for marriage, the question arises, is this a Magisterial Document or it is simply a discussion document?</div>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-44942703911245568592021-06-07T16:10:00.002+00:002021-06-07T16:10:28.314+00:00Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 7.<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">My notes on Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 7. Towards a better education of children.</span></p><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The chapter is a summary of what the Church teaches and, whilst teaching nothing new, the Pope does enunciate some key elements; what freedom is, the formation of the will. But because this Letter is addressed to the many and varied contexts that exist in the world, this chapter is actually very bland. The Pope doesn’t here offer a vision, or a strategy, or tools for responding to today’s needs.</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today’s needs call for a concrete response. Recognising the superficiality of today’s culture should lead the Church to respond with a concrete strategy and engage people where they are at. The heart of this situation is indeed the family, which should be the source of culture. In reality, since the 1960s we have seen the compartmentalisation of the family; we have separated ourselves from the family and looked to new sources of culture. These are principally the media, technology and “youth culture”. “Youth culture has developed in such a way that parents are now excluded from what is going on in the lives of their children.</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">This chapter raises very urgent questions, how can we help to nurture the family and to help parents in their educational task? How can we nurture the lives of young people so that they can distance themselves from the pressures of the media? This chapter does not answer these questions.</div>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-86002024456149380542021-06-04T14:51:00.007+00:002021-06-07T16:13:26.163+00:00My notes on Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 6.<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBBvQWiDiLGWYDivGysojXE-Z0j6Eft2PPgyayLsHxHRH1A5wSgy7MYzRBfLiPohH8iKhG85vEQeS7O7Cos7nTUZtYasZd65aavwvO8WirIeecDus9u6G2yK3kSNsaCiK8T6ZdPzcMAdE/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="468" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBBvQWiDiLGWYDivGysojXE-Z0j6Eft2PPgyayLsHxHRH1A5wSgy7MYzRBfLiPohH8iKhG85vEQeS7O7Cos7nTUZtYasZd65aavwvO8WirIeecDus9u6G2yK3kSNsaCiK8T6ZdPzcMAdE/w103-h118/image.png" width="103" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><div><div class="du4w35lb k4urcfbm l9j0dhe7 sjgh65i0" style="margin-bottom: 16px; position: relative; width: 500px; z-index: 0;"><div class="du4w35lb l9j0dhe7" style="position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class=""><div class=""><div aria-describedby="jsc_c_28 jsc_c_29 jsc_c_2a jsc_c_2c jsc_c_2b" aria-labelledby="jsc_c_27" class="lzcic4wl" role="article" style="outline: none;"><div class="j83agx80 cbu4d94t" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column;"><div class="rq0escxv l9j0dhe7 du4w35lb" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="j83agx80 l9j0dhe7 k4urcfbm" style="display: flex; position: relative; width: 500px;"><div class="rq0escxv l9j0dhe7 du4w35lb hybvsw6c io0zqebd m5lcvass fbipl8qg nwvqtn77 k4urcfbm ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs sbcfpzgs" style="--t68779821: 0 1px 2px var(--shadow-2); border-radius: max(0px, min(8px, ((100vw - 4px) - 100%) * 9999)) / 8px; box-shadow: 0 1px 2px var(--shadow-2); box-sizing: border-box; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 500px; z-index: 0;"><div><div><div><div><div class="" dir="auto"><div class="ecm0bbzt hv4rvrfc ihqw7lf3 dati1w0a" data-ad-comet-preview="message" data-ad-preview="message" id="jsc_c_29" style="padding: 4px 16px 16px;"><div class="j83agx80 cbu4d94t ew0dbk1b irj2b8pg" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; margin-bottom: -5px; margin-top: -5px;"><div class="qzhwtbm6 knvmm38d" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 5px;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql oi732d6d ik7dh3pa ht8s03o8 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d9wwppkn fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: var(--primary-text); display: block; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">My notes on Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 6. Some pastoral perspectives.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This chapter presents a very full perspective of the Church’s role in nurturing marriage, from marriage preparation through to helping marriages and families to process the baggage that we can bring with us, as individuals, into marriage and family life. This last section is, I think, the first time that this dimension of marriage and family has been spoken of in a papal document. Pope Francis opens up the Church’s role in supporting marriage and the family. Although he does reference the sacramental dimension of marriage, his main focus is the human dimension. This is a shame, because both dimensions need to be opened up and better understood. It is God, not us, who creates something new in marriage. It is God, not us, who forms the covenant. But it is the choices that spouses make that shape their family.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The scope of the Pope’s treatment of the pastoral care of marriage and the family bespeaks a considerable infrastructure with much personnel. Presently in the UK, with the exception of some of the new ecclesial Movements, the clergy are the main agents of this pastoral work. If we were to really embrace what the Pope describes here, we would immediately need lots of gifted people involved. The clergy are not set up to do all that is needed.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This same scope of pastoral work, and need for staff, also presumes the capacity of the Church to process a proper human engagement with all these aspects of life. In the context of the UK, I don’t believe that we are ready to engage in this work. We don’t yet have the formed personnel, nor an adequate focus. We have not been developing and processing our life nor really engaging with the Teaching of the Church for many decades. Moreover, it is a very clericalised environment.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Reading this chapter, with its expansive panorama, made me think of the common assumption, made by many people in the UK, that the Catholic Church is a moralistic institution (an institution which tells you what you can do and what you can’t do), and perhaps in some cases people have indeed been led to make that conclusion. The Pope is right to point to the opening up of the pastoral scenario to a fuller vision, and to enable a fuller living out of the mystery of Christian marriage and the Christian family. In this vision, moralistic attitudes are inadequate. But to flesh out this vision will need concrete strategies and formed personnel.</span></div></div></span></div></div></div></div><div class="l9j0dhe7" id="jsc_c_2a" style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div class="l9j0dhe7" style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="oajrlxb2 gs1a9yip g5ia77u1 mtkw9kbi tlpljxtp qensuy8j ppp5ayq2 goun2846 ccm00jje s44p3ltw mk2mc5f4 rt8b4zig n8ej3o3l agehan2d sk4xxmp2 rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 a8c37x1j mg4g778l btwxx1t3 pfnyh3mw p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x tgvbjcpo hpfvmrgz jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso l9j0dhe7 i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of du4w35lb lzcic4wl abiwlrkh p8dawk7l tm8avpzi" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10165975606415389&set=a.122811665388&__cft__[0]=AZVh1KFhWe02OywCATT8_jYSWL2vwRYPzlmY56nzofoUHhcjnvMs7B3Gs3QniPpaW1hInF-097g6qR9DIJiEmtUDf12CGj5-6xQ12kuj6Ihz0DyIw6OzLPuScr1hPVQB7KQ&__tn__=EH-R" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; 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overflow: hidden;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="tvfksri0 ozuftl9m" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 12px; margin-right: 12px;"><div class="rq0escxv l9j0dhe7 du4w35lb j83agx80 pfnyh3mw i1fnvgqd gs1a9yip owycx6da btwxx1t3 ph5uu5jm b3onmgus e5nlhep0 ecm0bbzt nkwizq5d roh60bw9 mysgfdmx hddg9phg" style="align-items: stretch; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; flex-shrink: 0; font-family: inherit; justify-content: space-between; margin: -6px -2px; padding: 4px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="rq0escxv l9j0dhe7 du4w35lb j83agx80 cbu4d94t g5gj957u d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz rj1gh0hx buofh1pr n8tt0mok hyh9befq iuny7tx3 ipjc6fyt" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex: 1 1 0px; font-family: inherit; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; padding: 6px 2px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div aria-label="Send this to friends or post it on your Timeline." class="oajrlxb2 gs1a9yip g5ia77u1 mtkw9kbi tlpljxtp qensuy8j ppp5ayq2 goun2846 ccm00jje s44p3ltw mk2mc5f4 rt8b4zig n8ej3o3l agehan2d sk4xxmp2 rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 pq6dq46d mg4g778l btwxx1t3 pfnyh3mw p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x tgvbjcpo hpfvmrgz jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso l9j0dhe7 i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of du4w35lb lzcic4wl abiwlrkh p8dawk7l" role="button" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; 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margin-bottom: 4px;"><h3 class="gmql0nx0 l94mrbxd p1ri9a11 lzcic4wl q45zohi1 ema1e40h ay7djpcl pfx3uekm pmk7jnqg rfua0xdk" dir="auto" style="clip-path: inset(50%); clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px; margin: 0px; outline: none; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; width: 1px;">0 com</h3></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><p></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-75136145225045496232021-05-26T20:52:00.001+00:002021-05-26T20:54:58.612+00:00Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 5<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLsHfTO0kBC_MvflQ6KsFRxRDNc3L49isdYKq4_pkcmJxytH6P4R3sBXfRSpaeFm35myWVDycKiOGQ2RFsQ3OqaKiS7-iVjOJbtndNP32yxyBVLU2mVEAUMyJ0-pvf_onEyj4m83Phaf4/s1199/marrige.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1199" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLsHfTO0kBC_MvflQ6KsFRxRDNc3L49isdYKq4_pkcmJxytH6P4R3sBXfRSpaeFm35myWVDycKiOGQ2RFsQ3OqaKiS7-iVjOJbtndNP32yxyBVLU2mVEAUMyJ0-pvf_onEyj4m83Phaf4/s320/marrige.jpeg" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><b>My notes on Chapter 5, Love made fruitful.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">A very readable chapter, yet one that does not shed light on today's questions. Questions like, how do we attract people to Christian marriage? How do we enable an understanding of the unity of the person, and of the unity of persons in marriage? How do we speak about the unity of the ends of marriage? How can we even speak about the ends of marriage today?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Although this chapter speaks well about the fruitfulness of married love, the reality is that many people today do not live this. The culture does not offer a good environment to live marriage. Nonetheless, the problem lies not with marriage and the family, the problem lies with individuals such as us, who have a fallen human nature. The proclamation of the Gospel and the call to encounter Christ is the keystone.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Marriage today is not necessarily seen as a source of unity for the person, nor necessarily as the place of procreation. Today there is a new normality, and indeed, today's remedy for concupiscence is to indulge in it!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Perhaps the Pope is here trying to re-interpret the ends of marriage (the good of the spouses, children, and a remedy for concupiscence) in a new vocabulary. However, the lived reality today is very different from faith and life in Christ. The cultural context affects the message of the Church about marriage and the family. Before the values of the Enlightenment became the lived culture, the family was seen as the basis of society. Marriage was the 'inner sanctum' of society, the preserve of spouses where humanity was engendered and nurtured, and whose inner unity was the place from which the human project sprung. Following the Enlightenment, the individual became the basis for society. The 'inner sanctum' has gone and now the state and social currents are the basis of society. Marriage and the family and now adapted for today's purposes.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">At the recent Council the Church set aside the remedy for concupiscence as the third end of marriage. Perhaps this was done out of a sense of optimism. Human resourcefulness takes the place of the former, more realistic view. However, marriage as a remedy for concupiscence is still there, though hidden. We don't know how to speak about it today. Perhaps we do need a new vocabulary here.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Marriage is best seen in the light of grace, yet trying to speak about it in this way can seem very foreign. This is the problem. Yes, there is a great goodness in marriage, which Pope Francis highlights, but he does so without leading it into the life of grace. This is a shame, because the people who are not trying to life the life of grace, do not easily see the natural goodness either.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Christ Jesus is the centre. When people have him in their lives they are filled with faith-filled hope. This hope is the presence of Christ Jesus in them. He incarnates hope in marriage. Actually, we need a vision of how the theological virtues, given in baptism, are active within marriage. </span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /><br /></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-33870555001512263942021-05-24T07:00:00.000+00:002021-05-24T07:00:10.180+00:00Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 4.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim8VNqA3RLS1wp2FjsPzASfPMsCMUokPADPaED3j_sOKW9-tZEhF76MeO3I4NM208z_6w4194BVF_ZA-CMFNtxjxrOpeMrby4Aq5-Fo15iEospRFLB2FKWPoOnPenQylCbp6Rduw6fuXc/s1050/rings.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim8VNqA3RLS1wp2FjsPzASfPMsCMUokPADPaED3j_sOKW9-tZEhF76MeO3I4NM208z_6w4194BVF_ZA-CMFNtxjxrOpeMrby4Aq5-Fo15iEospRFLB2FKWPoOnPenQylCbp6Rduw6fuXc/s320/rings.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Chapter 4, <b>Love in Marriage</b>, gives a basic human and moral framework, not a theological one. It reads as a 'vademecum' for spouses, to help them to keep their love on an even keel. Or as a guide for couples preparing for marriage, helping them to discern what they want their marriage to look like.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This chapter does not give a vision for married life. It is not prophetic about how marriage needs to be in the world today. It is merely descriptive, whilst being morally optimistic about what love should look like in marriage.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Today, we live in an idealistic age, but find practically that our love can't live up to the ideal. Our culture has seen a sharp move away from the supernatural aspect of marriage to the natural aspect. The primary concern today is the love of the spouses, not of the family. Today, marriage is more about having a wedding - a celebration of 'us' - and not about marriage.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Amoris Laetitia seems to play up to this, rather than to challenge it, presenting an idealised and human-centred marriage. The big question remains, how do we evangelise marriage?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">JPII's way was to hold before couples a Christ-inspired vision of marriage. He placed an ideal before us, whose starting point was Christ Jesus. Pope Francis' way is to place before couples the human aspect of marriage and suggest that this can come alongside Christ. His starting point is the here and now.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Neither of these ways appears to be a key for today. In fact, the key is evangelisation. That is, couples encountering Christ and being changed by him before they marry. Christian marriage is not a human symbol with a Christian veneer. We should first announce Christ to the couple who are preparing for marriage. And we need to be speaking about marriage, not a wedding.</span></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-84644065176958120692021-05-14T19:11:00.002+00:002021-05-14T19:11:33.000+00:00Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 3.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuROURaKeV1p1hoTfcBCi2tc-u11d7-aLltCZ4vuMDyc-PME265A-NzUwepwLmYeLCl8ayJCiuPxHrvbo4WJeUiUgjgYFeawbjWzLskf2gLI5dago3CUgzjnrPdsd52cixxslAg3zFGXI/s1051/family2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="701" data-original-width="1051" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuROURaKeV1p1hoTfcBCi2tc-u11d7-aLltCZ4vuMDyc-PME265A-NzUwepwLmYeLCl8ayJCiuPxHrvbo4WJeUiUgjgYFeawbjWzLskf2gLI5dago3CUgzjnrPdsd52cixxslAg3zFGXI/s320/family2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Chapter 3. Looking to Jesus: the vocation of the family.</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Here the Pope speaks about the imperfection of the sign of marriage. He's caught up with human imperfection, so he can't speak about the ideal, and as a consequence, he doesn't teach the perfection of marriage. This is somewhat Lutheran.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">But if we don't have the vision of perfection, what is it that people are being called to?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Practically speaking, we need to look at how Christ is mediated in marriage; what is special and attractive about Christian marriage?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Perhaps the most important question to arise from this chapter is, how do we present Christian marriage to young people today?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">First of all, what do young people today think that marriage is? Unless we know where they are, how do we know how to guide them towards where they need to be?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Secondly, what do we teach them? Many young people today are looking at a wedding, an event, and not at marriage, a communion of life.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Marriage is<span> also a secular reality, whereas the other sacraments are not. So, how do we proclaim the qualitative difference between Christian marriage and a wedding or a relationship? What does Christian marriage add to life?</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span>Amoris Laetitia has nice words to say, but remains quite distant from where people are.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span>For people of faith, the Pope's message no doubt inspires. But what about people of no faith? Today, the Church continues to provide services for people, as it used to do during the era of Christendom, but the times have changed. Today we need to evangelise.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span>The big question is, how do we inspire young people for Christ?</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /> <p></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-82736006448897020382021-05-06T18:41:00.006+00:002021-05-06T18:47:20.096+00:00Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 2<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMZmjZLY76jxwixdOk-488NfBnXtLcK56j85xWApd1E1PVnWny56dXUSHxPH-HUzUZ2K3B1gyiWEUeiY9qnUqPptPT5Lz8pt9kf0_mvZEpA-HGro6E6TlO7WYRTWU0jKuN8IVp85tiN-0/s1650/houses.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1100" data-original-width="1650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMZmjZLY76jxwixdOk-488NfBnXtLcK56j85xWApd1E1PVnWny56dXUSHxPH-HUzUZ2K3B1gyiWEUeiY9qnUqPptPT5Lz8pt9kf0_mvZEpA-HGro6E6TlO7WYRTWU0jKuN8IVp85tiN-0/s320/houses.webp" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">My notes of Chapter 2, "The experiences and challenges of families."</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Pope Francis appears to be saying that the way in which Pope John Paul II presented the ideal of marriage and the family has become remote to how people live. That way of looking at marriage and the family is no longer seen as an ideal, but as a judgement on people. Marriage and the family is an unattainable goal, according to Pope Francis. And so we need to look again at all the things that actually affect marriage and family life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Pope Francis is calling the Church to stop putting the Christian vision before people, and instead, he is calling the Church to help people to live the nitty-gritty of marriage and family in a better way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">But what is lacking in his presentation is the foundation of marriage; that marriage is symbolic of the relationship between God and man. It seems to me then, that there is a Protestant anthropology within "Amoris Laetitia". Instead of applying the Gospel directly to people’s lives and calling them to allow grace to change us, there is a real sense of a negative anthropology – that we are in fact set in a fallen mode and must put up with that lot.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">For priests, how do we experience marriage today?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #ffd966;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->We see the disintegration of marriage and family at large.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #ffd966;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>We observe that people no longer express the capacity for self-gift, and therefore, in some way, lack the capacity for marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #ffd966;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->That people rarely, if ever, consult with us about these issues, but rather decide upon their own resolutions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #ffd966;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->That today, the traditional cultural conformity - that everyone gets married - has gone, and that the sexual revolution has been integrated into people’s lives. The result is that people today want a relationship, but not marriage; this is the new cultural conformity. So, today conformity has moved away from what it used to be, and that which the Church gave her accord to. And there is now a new situation, which the Church cannot accord herself to.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #ffd966;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Just as before, today also, a small minority actaullyget married with a sense of vocation.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">What has caused this situation? This is very difficult to pin-point, but a loss of faith and the sexual revolution have played their part.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><o:p><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px;"><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">What is the response of the Church to this situation? This is also very difficult to answer. We know that we can’t shore up a shifting culture, still less a land-slide. Part of the answer lies, I believe, with Rod Dreher's "The Benedict Option", which implies new and small Christian communities who actually live Christian marriage and family, and who build themselves up in the Christian life, so that they can become a new leaven for the future.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="color: #ffd966;"><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-80048985201018002242021-04-30T20:02:00.006+00:002021-04-30T20:03:20.524+00:00Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 1.<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiougpOwM4nUXzKL6RMCjNt0HOwXTHyPFuzmfhqwRDnhRCe15vAKkdV7YfYh3OcEX_tiSMGUbX2-gJ8BE5TIu0hLSvNpsP-Rz6sBLKdGJU_FAjRJNIkuioBtoS6-P4Eg98MNW8jcbF3Y-E/s1350/tree.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiougpOwM4nUXzKL6RMCjNt0HOwXTHyPFuzmfhqwRDnhRCe15vAKkdV7YfYh3OcEX_tiSMGUbX2-gJ8BE5TIu0hLSvNpsP-Rz6sBLKdGJU_FAjRJNIkuioBtoS6-P4Eg98MNW8jcbF3Y-E/s320/tree.webp" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">My notes on this chapter, "In the light of the world".</span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This chapter reads as though it could apply equally to the natural family as to the Christian family; the sacrament of marriage makes no difference. It feels as though the Pope is looking here at the family as a human reality, and not as a Christ-centred one. The title of the chapter itself seems strange.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">However, there are indications to the contrary. In paragraph 11 he says, “fruitful love becomes a symbol of God’s inner life.” Indeed, human beings are nothing without God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Later in paragraph 11 the Pope mentions the mystery of the union of Christ and the Church. But this is the centre and foundation of marriage!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Again in paragraphs 27-30, the family is spoken of as a natural reality, but with a semi-Pelagian possibility – that we can make our families better if we try. That if we try to live well, God will bless our family.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">No, the key to marriage and the family is the Nuptial Union between God and humanity and not mere human virtue. Living with God creates virtue and blessing!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The Pope seems to be telling people how they can make their families better on their own when I would expect him to proclaim the truth about marriage and the family.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p><br /></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-26553551372187260452021-04-29T17:29:00.001+00:002021-04-29T17:29:39.808+00:00Lockdown 2021<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB8MmVzH94Qi9hqvZIhmm-4dtAJCI3Gj05cV_JTFwX70jAmKF4coO0rfhLIUSU6-ti1RHnlhHVKTCe2L5wgIZiv038jPzmk444431kMq_sX7bYPNSNSCn6-39m1kehNMmm_F6-NzcoSt0/s2016/20201229_124041_resized+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB8MmVzH94Qi9hqvZIhmm-4dtAJCI3Gj05cV_JTFwX70jAmKF4coO0rfhLIUSU6-ti1RHnlhHVKTCe2L5wgIZiv038jPzmk444431kMq_sX7bYPNSNSCn6-39m1kehNMmm_F6-NzcoSt0/s320/20201229_124041_resized+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The recent winter lockdown was, in my estimation, much harder to live through than that of this time last year. The shorter days and dark evenings, the inclement weather and the reduced possibility for social contact hit us all hard. Nevertheless, since January till now, 2021 has been a very productive time. A few months ago I listed here all the things that I had done during lockdown 2020, and now, as we begin to open up again, I'm updating that list.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">So, since new year 2021 I have:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I signed up for the Divine Renovation "Kick Start" seminars. These took place over four months, January to April, and were given by Matt Regitz. I'm still absorbing what we went through. Excellent, excellent!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I wrote four texts form parents on educating for love. These were a response to the new RHSE curriculum for schools. I sent them to my families as PDFs.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I began trialing the "Flocknote" parish software in the parish.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Certain books stand out in those that I have read since new year. "Sensing your hidden presence" by Fr Ignacio Larranaga - a prophet of our time. And "Pope John's Council" by Michael Davies - what a compendium of understanding of the recent Council and the currents that surrounded it. This is a thoroughbred book for anyone who wants to revisit the Second Vatican Council. Excellent!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I began live-streaming Masses, just one each week.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I had a new flat screen installed in the church, in place of the projector and screen. The new screen is so versatile and will be so useful for so many things.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I began producing a professionally printed monthly newsletter for the parish.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I led a Novena to St Joseph via Zoom and am now giving a three-week workshop on fatherhood in light of St Joseph, again via Zoom.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">In late January I led a 10 week prayer workshop via Zoom.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Together with the other priests of the SJMV, we are continuing our chapter by chapter reading of Amoris Laetitia.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I don't intend to give further updates on my activities during lockdown. We are gradually opening up and I hope that 'normal service' will in due course return. Of course, things will be different, and it will be interesting to note, in the future, just how the virus has permanently changed our lives. </span></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-90575450848506371812021-04-25T17:03:00.001+00:002021-04-25T18:07:22.014+00:00Revisiting "Amoris Laetitia"<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuWjogopMMcEggNc5uVWdLrgsnp8BpGcBWAzfgTuZZXgOeMViQpVeeJ1pFtAzzIPgYJYEWXJvz6hDXUaNhoB8yRhWKKdKp4cTsEL4GIYc9REY9XjTHHQypzeRd0SuQO85Sji6XNarUEao/s1600/family6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1055" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuWjogopMMcEggNc5uVWdLrgsnp8BpGcBWAzfgTuZZXgOeMViQpVeeJ1pFtAzzIPgYJYEWXJvz6hDXUaNhoB8yRhWKKdKp4cTsEL4GIYc9REY9XjTHHQypzeRd0SuQO85Sji6XNarUEao/s320/family6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Since last September, I have joined with all the other priests of the St John Vianney Society in making a study of Pope Francis' Letter, Amoris Laetitia. One of the priests of the Society, a priest from Burgundy, set out for us a study itinerary, with accompanying texts and helpful questions to guide us. We have been reading a chapter a month and have now just completed chapter seven of the Letter.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I have made my own brief notes as we have gone through the chapters and will publish these notes here, chapter by chapter, beginning with an introduction. I read Amoris Laetitia when it was first published but have found our common study of the text more helpful. I now have a much greater perspective on this Letter than previously.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Introduction.</b></span></p><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">In Pope Francis discourse to open the (first) Extraordinary Synod, and in his discourse to close the (second) Ordinary Synod, I note:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">1.<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->That he is intentionally placing all aspects on the table as equals (magisterial teaching, opinions, issues, arguments etc).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">2.<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->That he wants marriage and family to be looked at from the perspective of today’s issues, rather than from the perspective of foundational truths.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: justify;">There is a sense in the Introduction to</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><i style="text-align: justify;">Amoris Laetitia</i><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">that Pope Francis is avoiding the ideal of the family. There is also a sense from the Pope that we can’t attain the ideal which God wants us to be, so let's set the ideal aside. However, if there is no ideal to the family, then grace can seem to be something that is extrinsic to the family, something that is added to who we are. It feels as though he is speaking of the family with a Christian veneer! However, the reality is that grace is intrinsic to the family.</span> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">As an introduction to the text, these two addresses did not inspire me. Chapter 1 to follow.</span></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-82831053257240708802021-02-24T13:14:00.003+00:002021-02-24T13:14:52.904+00:00A comment on today's vision for RHSE in Catholic schools. Part 3.<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifJp-NnUZ92znRYL-lKCNrTpS-YrnhZo3yoJOQkW06YxJJrrT9oo6tsUK3Bs__iHJXOHtMl5i7xQDi-PAupH73BlLS61LETtgOci-zBwYaz9tq2JuPfUNeDVGpnRb9bLloLFEoP359O58/s634/school3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifJp-NnUZ92znRYL-lKCNrTpS-YrnhZo3yoJOQkW06YxJJrrT9oo6tsUK3Bs__iHJXOHtMl5i7xQDi-PAupH73BlLS61LETtgOci-zBwYaz9tq2JuPfUNeDVGpnRb9bLloLFEoP359O58/s320/school3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Since values are spoken of so much today, I give my appraisal of them:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">It is we who give value to a thing. Values are relative because we are continually making choices. So, values are also relative to objective truth. However, there are certain basic goods and values that flow from the human person, which always have to be respected. If they are not respected it is quite possible to hold and teach false values. Human values, if they are true, will lead to the person’s true good. If they are false, they put the person’s true good in jeopardy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">True human values flow out of the reality of human nature (all human faculties) and its true end (communion with God and one another.) We can summarise human values as:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->The value of life in its physical and moral integrity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->The value of the procreation and education of children, and therefore of the family also.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->The value of truth and knowledge.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->The value of religion.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->The value of work, and therefore of leisure.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->The value of society.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->The value of friendship.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">·<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->The value of the common good, and therefore of justice.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">None of these values is something that we have created because of circumstances, they all flow out of the reality of human nature. Re-assessing human nature does not necessarily lead to a truer understanding of the person, because you cannot use science, or history, or culture to construct an image of the person. Human beings are the authors of science, history and culture, not their servants. Human development follows from the moral strengthening of human nature as a whole. In other words, truth enables us to see who we are, and how to embrace that identity more fully. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The Catholic vision clearly presents the truth about human beings and their genuine moral unity and integrity. On the other hand, the secular vision has separated the inner and outer worlds of human experience; matter and spirit are dislocated. People who seek to shape public opinion today use this dislocation to separate particular values from their true context and then to explore how a new idea of the person can be construed. Ideology, instead of objective truth, can easily become fashionable. Even so, there is much in contemporary culture which should be redeemed – because, if redeemed, it can contribute to our true good. The truth about human beings reveals what is truly of value and what takes value away.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">What is that makes a Catholic school Catholic? There are various takes on this: its vision, its ethos, having Mass celebrated there publicly, and calling itself ‘Catholic’.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">My answer to the question, what makes a Catholic school Catholic, is: It is the staff who make a Catholic school Catholic. By that I mean that the staff are people who are evangelised and who live their faith, that they are formed in their appreciation and engagement with the life and mission of the Church, and that they are commissioned to teach, in the name of the Church, by a Catholic bishop.</span><span style="font-family: Goudy Old Style, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The recent Council had the vision for Catholic schools and Catholic teachers; there it is for us to take up and put into action today.</span></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-43396127273651564922021-02-23T13:27:00.006+00:002021-02-23T13:28:45.140+00:00A comment of today's vision for RSHE in Catholic schools. Part 2.<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimuPKovXiS6_RzQBGgWTdOw2M8hmzNrH9HBauHQmAA8UXN5-0D7XB7FvScWt_ZjJWg5c47f-5zLFRgW04HX_EcQNF3dhyNNdY4gheEul_XJUuHSc4MDygPODFqiikURavYu2MD1b33-og/s275/school2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimuPKovXiS6_RzQBGgWTdOw2M8hmzNrH9HBauHQmAA8UXN5-0D7XB7FvScWt_ZjJWg5c47f-5zLFRgW04HX_EcQNF3dhyNNdY4gheEul_XJUuHSc4MDygPODFqiikURavYu2MD1b33-og/s0/school2.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The role of parents.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">About this a comment is made; “The relationship between the school and parents is something to be desired and hopefully explored, and even evaluated.” </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">No, this relationship is already clear. The school is subsidiary to the parents’ role. The school can’t impose. Parents, however, can evaluate the school. The parents’ role is a human right, and not simply something that the Church teaches. To say otherwise opens the door for this relationship to be manipulated and the parents' role to be made subject to school and state.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Speaking about “sensitive or fast-changing subjects, online safety, and mental and physical well-being”, and how the school is better placed to deal with them is again very manipulative if not patronising of parents. What is at stake here are not cultural trends, but the truth about the human person, which the Church has the responsibility to nurture.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The curriculum.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Well, the curriculum has its own agenda, separate and independent to that of the mission of parents and the Church. It is clear that this agenda intends to take the lead, and that all others are subsidiary. The agenda is to do with ways of living and life-style, whose nurturing is to be placed firmly in the hands of the school, making the ethos of the school concerned with new ideas of self-identity, rather than Christ Jesus and the Christian life. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The parents’ role and that of any genuine educative agency is to form persons. And so the curriculum is a big problem.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The requirement to involve parents.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Their role is often evaluated from the perspective of Muslims! Why is this? Why is the Catholic faith not the foundation here? This is another big problem.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The model curriculum.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This is spoken of as being based on “core pedagogical virtue”. But what does this mean?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">It is also stated that love is the basis of Christian morality. No, it is not. God and human nature is the basis of Christian morality. Moreover, love has to be <o:p></o:p>learned.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Moreover, “we have to work for the Kingdom of God.” No, our effort does not produce the Kingdom of God. We are called to live with God. Christ Jesus uniquely enables us to do this. We are called to allow Christ Jesus to form us for true human identity, which is to live with God. Out of life with God, love emerges.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">“Prayer and worship nourish our lives with God.” No, everything about a baptised person’s life is to do with God, we have been brought from darkness into light. Prayer and worship help to form our new lives in Christ. The disengagement of prayer and life which is implicit here is a big problem.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The ethos of the new 'Catholic' presentation is profoundly Pelagian and oriented to accommodating the secular agenda. This is especially dangerous at the level of anthropology. It is presented by people who appear to have an acquaintance with the Faith, in the sense of being able to comment upon it. However, commenting about matters of faith is not the same as being in living contact with the Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3460768490431892231.post-88846657091953330442021-02-22T15:36:00.000+00:002021-02-22T15:36:46.431+00:00A comment on today’s vision for RHSE in Catholic schools. Part 1.<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTNJhoAXNWGBqhoXqJJ23GvaQgt3rSpf2nV2gPcfzu_0OGDPLgE-sBgl8RJzOfNSU7KVCCcwZhVgPF5QWSN2oevSnLfKr1s6b9z444mrGXBuw5Kfekl_nzf61ucGO8PwG-m901v8IDk6E/s512/school1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTNJhoAXNWGBqhoXqJJ23GvaQgt3rSpf2nV2gPcfzu_0OGDPLgE-sBgl8RJzOfNSU7KVCCcwZhVgPF5QWSN2oevSnLfKr1s6b9z444mrGXBuw5Kfekl_nzf61ucGO8PwG-m901v8IDk6E/s320/school1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Today’s project of <b>‘values-based education’</b>, suggests that what being human means, comes from values. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">No, it doesn’t, the meaning of humanity comes from God and from human nature.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Values, even Gospel values, are not the focus of the Christian life. No, our focus is the person of Christ Jesus, who transforms human beings; he is the entire good of humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Values-based education can easily be manipulated today because truth is not referenced. Values can reflect opinion as well as they can reflect truth. Values are important, they reveal the way that we appreciate and understand reality. However, in the matter of RSHE we are looking at the most important values of all because these values are derived directly from humanity itself.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Some new ideas and associated rhetoric:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">“Sex is rooted in the ‘image of God’”. Yes, it is, but how is this understood? If ‘image of God’ is used merely as catchphrase, it can become a merely ‘box-ticking’ exercise. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">“Sex is rooted in the ‘image of God’ and therefore we are called to a life of discipleship.” This is not so and it sounds like a way of manipulating both the subject matter and the person. What we are speaking of here is first, anthropology, which is not here defined. And secondly, the concrete embracing of the Christian life. But discipleship is not the consequence of understanding our sexuality, but of a decision for Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">“Values that are taught about sexuality need to be in line with the values taught in the school.” This is such a sweeping statement, which lacks focus and meaning. Rather, what we need to look at is how everything that happens and is taught in a Catholic school should flow out of a genuine vision of who the human person is. Values should be taught alongside a genuine understanding of the human person, not on their own, as if they are the key. For instance, if we compare Catholic anthropology with secular anthropology, we will come to very different ways of looking at RHSE. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>The relationship between the school and the Church</b> <b>or parish is spoken of</b>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">But what is this relationship? Today it is not at all clear. Yet this relationship is the key to what a Catholic school is. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This matter was taught by the 2<sup>nd</sup> Vatican Council. Its decree <i>Gravissimum Educationis</i> gives a really great vision, and Paragraph 8 teaches about the relationship between the Church and the school:<br />"Since therefore, the Catholic school can be such an aid ... " The relationship of the school towards the Church is one of supporting the Church in her life and mission.<br />"But let teachers ... be very carefully prepared ... " The relationship of the Church towards the school is to feed the school with evangelised, catechised and formed personnel to carry out that mission.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">We can’t merely assume the nature of this relationship, nor that anyone understands it, since in practice it is not clear. However, this relationship is the hinge of the whole matter, and so a conversation should be engaged in, involving all the different sectors, so that this relationship can be clarified. Such a conversation is an urgent need today, will take time and patience.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">There is a lot of rhetoric in Catholic vision documents today, which ‘tick boxes’ regarding Christ and the Church, whilst not really engaging with either, and in which a secular and horizontal vision is the underlying ethos. The Christian life immediately becomes a human idea when it is in the hands of secularised people. The secular reality, which is in play today, marginalises the Living God and seeks to draw Catholics (parents, priests, teachers) into becoming agents of our neo-marxist State (the project to re-configure our lives and society upon the basis of newly construed ideas about sexual identity.) The key to any real development is evangelisation, not box-ticking, nor values.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Fr Richard Aladicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063302398661651882noreply@blogger.com0