The new Pelagians

Here is one - a film maker - Danny Boyle - who was quoted recently by a BBC's Faith columnist saying something which struck me because of the force of its neo-Pelagianism:

"It's faith that's linked to the imagination - the power of taking a leap - rather than it being faith in a strictly conventional religious sense."

These are the words of a Catholic who is grasping at human notions to build faith. What he should have said is:

"It's faith that links me to Christ - His power in me - not my ideas about faith, but being able to embrace the Mystery of His life." That would be a Catholic statement.

Culture of Life movies

After highlighting Clint Eastwood's extraordinary film "Gran Torino", I would like to offer here a list of worthy films which have been given awards by the Madrid archdiocesan weekly magazine, Alpha and Omega, which is distributed by the newspaper ABC. It has given special awards for the production of recent films in defense of life.The Alpha and Omega awards highlighted five pro-life films released in 2008, four related to abortion and one to euthanasia: "Juno", "Bella", "4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days", "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and "The Princess of Nebraska".

Other awards which have been given are:

Best Leading Actor: Tommy Lee Jones, "In the Valley of Elah"

Best Supporting Actor: Ciarán Hinds, "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day"

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Clarkson, "Lars and the Real Girl"

Best Cinematography: Sergey Trofimov and Rogier Stoffers, "Mongol"

Best Film With Christian Theme: "Guadalupe," director Santiago Parra

Best Soundtrack: Alberto Iglesias, "The Kite Runner"

Best Family Film: "Horton Hears a Who!," directors Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino

Best Historical Drama: "O, Jerusalem," directed by Chris Kraus

Best Educational Film: "The Wave," director Dennis Gansel

Best Animated Film: "Wall-E," director Andrew Stanton

These should keep us going for a while!

Against the neo-Pelagians

"And if you hear any Catholic say or teach something that goes against the teaching and discipline of the Church, as safe-guarded by the Pope, politely, but firmly, challenge them, be they a lay catechist, teacher, deacon, priest or even a bishop."

My last post was a comment on a sermon by St Augustine who on many occasions spoke against Pelagianism. In our day, when neo-Pelagianism is so strong in the Church in the UK, making humanity the measure of the Gospel, Bishop O'Donoghue is loudly teaching people about grace and how to embrace the Mystery of Christ. Thanks go to the Newman Society of Oxford University for inviting Bishop Patrick O'Donoghue to speak in Oxford last month and enable the vision for the Church in the UK to be proclaimed by this courageous Bishop to a whole generation of students.

You can read his entire discourse on the "Christendom Awake" website. It is a long time since the Catholic Faith had episcopal leadership in England; we should thank God for this 'second-spring' and pray that many will follow Bishop O'Donoghue's indications and take "Fit for Mission? Church" as their personal blueprint for building up the Church. Following on from my last post, I would recommend that fathers of families take up this kind of leadership within families and for the Church - since families are the primary building bricks of the Church.

Leaders after the heart of Christ

St Augustine (of Hippo) once while he was preaching famously addressed the fathers of families who were in his congregation as "my fellow bishops". Quite a radical thing to say but an expression which reveals a deep truth about fatherhood. The reason why this could be considered radical is because St Augustine was releasing married men for the role of leadership which God had entrusted to them. Here we see a bishop not seeking to control his flock but rather empowering them for their unique mission.

There is nothing contrived about this mission for it is something which arises from the very nature of Christian manhood, which has received, in the sacrament of marriage, the goods of Salvation. St Augustine was not timid in the way he spoke about the being of a bishop and being of a married man, comparing the spiritual and pastoral leadership of a father to that of his own as a Catholic Bishop.

There is much then, that a bishop (or priest) can learn from a married man, and much that a married man can learn from a priest (or bishop) since their roles spring from the same source - the love of Christ for His Church.

In Familiaris Consortio JPII said:

In revealing and in reliving on earth the very fatherhood of God, a man is called upon to ensure the harmonious and united development of all the members of the family: he will perform this task by exercising generous responsibility for the life conceived under the heart of the mother, by a more solicitous commitment to education, a task he shares with his wife, by work which is never a cause of division in the family but promotes its unity and stability, and by means of the witness he gives of an adult Christian life which effectively introduces the children into the living experience of Christ and the Church.

Like a bishop a married man is called to bring about the unity and the mission of his family - a living experience of Christ and the Church. What a great calling, what a wonderful thing it is to enable fathers to appreciate their mission, what a great thing for a married man to strive to fulfill, what a great and essential part of the New Evangelisation. We need Catholic fathers in this age. This is something which the world doesn't tell men, but it is certainly something which is worth pointing out - and how marvellously St Augustine pointed it out all those years ago in Hippo.

Starting up a culture of appreciation

Fr Tim Finnigan of "The Hermaneutic of Continuity" may be experiencing some difficulties in his parish because of the way that he is promoting the Liturgy, but those difficulties are a sign that a new appreciation of the Liturgy is beginning to happen. And that the hinge of this new "conversation" about the Liturgy has been the way in which Fr Tim has implemented the "Motu Proprio" in his parish.

Fr Tim has now made available, through his blog, an excellent essay on the Liturgy which he has written and in which he offers a very clear historical understanding of the way in which the Liturgy of the Mass has developed, together with some important comments on current practices in the Liturgy.

This essay and Fr Tim's pastoral leadership in his parish is cutting new territory for the Church in the UK. In most parishes there is a status quo which insists that the Liturgy be celebrated in the most banal way possible and in which there is no recognition of the calls from the Church for a renewed Liturgy or a renewed appreciation of the Liturgy. So, the two important Liturgical documents of our age "Redemptionis Sacramentum" and "Sacramentum Caritatis" are virtually unknown. For many Catholics the experience of the Mass is still that of "Colours of Day" and rotas of lay people fulfilling loads of jobs on the sanctuary. If you add to this stymied situation that of the number of people who come up to communion without any idea of what they are doing, and a whole raft of practices which are seemingly now set in stone, but which are actually abuses, for instance, lay people preaching or helping themselves to the sacred species at communion, then we are talking about a totally disfunctional situation regarding the Liturgy.

Yes, indeed, Fr Tim has made a real breakthrough and, in his territory at least, has opened up the situation in favour of a genuine process of renewal and appreciation of the Liturgy which the Church is calling for. He is at the forefront of leading the Church in the UK out of the Liturgical stymer and disfuntionality that it is in, and into the reform of the reform. And the heart of the reform of the reform is a appreciation of what the Liturgy is. This means not only seeking to celebrate the new Mass in a renewed way, but also celebrating the Mass of 1962. And it also means returning to study "Sacrosanctum Concilium" and the history of the development of the Liturgy - to follow the fatherly directions which B16 has given us in "Sacramentum Caritatis" and throughout his pontificate.

If there is any upset in Fr Tim's parish, this will not have been intended, and I do hope that any upset can be easily addressed in favour of being led to appreciate in a renewed way the greatness of the Liturgy. I also hope that Fr Tim's leadership here will influence many in the UK to break out of a self-imposed liturgical ghetto and to also embrace the reform of the reform.

The latest from Clint Eastwood

Driving through Sydney last week and listening to the radio I was intrigued by a review about Clint Eastwood's new film "Gran Torino". The reviewer made little of the fim, saying that it was about a certain kind of narrow-mindedness in mid-west America and he advised his listeners to wait until it comes out on DVD to watch it. I thought otherwise and went to the cinema to see it the other day. The setting of the film is certainly a sector of narrow-minded mid-west, but the film is about grace. It is an extraordinary film and I certainly recommend it.

As the film ended and I got up to leave I turned to look at the rest of the viewers - they were rooted to their seats in stunned silence!

A New Evangelisation Parish

Not everyone yet has the experience of being a part of a renewed parish - a parish of the new evangelisation - which is responding to the call of Christ at the heart of the Church. Indeed, it is hard to foresee what a new evangelisation parish would be like until we encounter one. We sometimes speak of disfunctional families - we could easily speak also of disfunctional parishes (I was once Parish Priest of one), or of dying parishes, parishes which are sad because they are linked to a particular culture or convention or conformism rather than to the person and teaching of Jesus Christ (I have had my experience of these too).

What an immense joy then to have been given a web link to a parish which is renewed. It isn't every day that you encounter a parish whose vision is totally different, because it is renewed. Are you ready for this:

The transformation from Church member by convention to Christian Disciple by conviction.

To reform and renew the world by helping every person surrender his or her life, without reservation, to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

A willingness to allow His Gospel to be the measure of our whole lives and a readiness to abandon anything that is contrary to the Revelation of God.

Becoming evangelical Catholics is a life long adventure of letting go of cafeteria, casual or cultural Catholicism by accepting the liberating truth of the Word of God and living by grace through faith in the Son of God.

The nature and life of this parish is due in no small part to its Parish Priest, Fr Jay Newman. The Parish is that of St Mary's, Charlston, South Carolina, USA - a model for our age, and the age that is beginning.

New Evangelisation Congress 2

For more information, please comment or contact me.

Redeeming Valentine's Day

Here is a great message from Christopher West which I saw today:

"On this insecurity-inducing day, couples around the world exchange chocolates, romantic dinners, diamonds and other gifts for sex. Men and women, it seems, will go to great lengths to save themselves from the loneliness that creeps up when all the red hearts and romantic songs replace Christmas dcecorations and carols. It seems we all wonder at times "Am I really loved?" or "Do I have to buy his or her attention with something?"

This makes Valentine's Day an annual event ripe for redemption, ripe for John Paul II's Theology of the Body.

The fact that we set aside a day each year to celebrate romantic love points to the importance we place on it, and rightly so. The love of man and woman is what makes the world go round. When the love of man and woman ceases, so does the human race itself. And it's precisely because it's so important, so valuable, that it has become so terribly distorted by the enemy. The devil is not creative. He cannot create his own parrallel universe of pure evil. All he can do is to take what God created to be true, good and beautiful and twist it, distort it. This means that behind every temptation the father of lies uses to lead us astray from God, we will find something that God created to lead us to him. And behind every distorted desire in our own hearts that lures us away from God, we can discover a God-given desire that will lead us to him.

So, Valentine's Day can become, if we will allow it, an opportunity to celebrate the love we all truly long for, the love of Christ for the Church, of which man and woman's love is a mere shadow. We needn't prostitute ourselves to know we are loved. We needn't spend lots of money. We ourselves have been purchased at a high price."

Courting the culture of death

Here in Oz there is a new website offering baby predictor software, to introduce us all to the next step in Eugenics: a freely available service to all biological partners, enabling them to make genetic judgements about their relationships and the transmission of life. This is, of course, the soft edge of the culture of death (if it has a soft edge), but I wonder who it is that is sponsoring http://www.babypredictor.com.au/ . The evil which lies behind such a project is terrible.

New Evangelisation Congress

The Holy Spirit calls us on from World Youth Day to the New Evangelisation - to be witnesses to Christ at the heart of the Church.

SCNE - The Sydney Congress of the New Evangelisation

You are invited to this Congress in Sydney, 19th - 26th July 2009. Families, parishes, young people, catechists and teachers, priests and deacons, religious and communities are called to register as Delegates.

The Congress sessions will be held at St Mary's Cathedral in the mornings, and evangelisation events will take place in the afternoons and evenings throughout the week in the CBD. Seminars, workshops and speakers will present the Gospel in the context of secular culture, the family, business and finance, love and sexuality, spirituality, new methods of evangelisation and apologetics.

I'll be able to let you have full details including delegate registration details very soon, but please, put this in your diary and make it into a prayer intention.

Night Fever

On Friday evening I went down to the city to take part in a regular event at the Sacred Heart Church in Darlinghurst, down town Sydney. This is an evangelisation evening of prayer, catechesis, testimony and adoration. I spent most of the evening hearing confessions and was not at all surprised by the numbers of young people who were there. This monthly event is hosted by the Emmanuel Community and offers a concrete basis for being a part of the Church and encountering Christ.

The hottest place on earth

Well, that's what the pundits said but I imagine there are places that are hotter still. We had 45C on Campus today and although one can't photograph temperature, I hope that you can feel the heat coming off this photo of Campion College today. It's quiet at present - we're in the middle of the summer holiday season - and the Campus is bestilled by the heat. Thank goodness for the airconditioning which changes life so much at these temperatures.

Today, being my birthday, I remember, as I always do on this day, the judicial murder of Mary Queen of Scots, which took place on this day in 1586; an event which changed the course of history and helped especially to lay the foundations for the myth of England which the whole world has had to breath since then - about an ethos and a way of looking at things which claims a certain superiority. A couple of years ago I was out and about in deeply rural Lincolnshire and walked into the ancient village church of Glentworth. There I encountered the tomb of Sir Christopher Wray (pictured), the judge who had prepared the death warrant of the Catholic Queen of Scotland. I'm not pointing a fingure at him particularly - it was the decision of Elizabeth I to execute Mary. I was surprised however on that day to discover this remnant of history tucked away in Lincolnshire, but I am not surprised that the "Elizabethan Settlement" is taking such a long time to disintegrate.

Are you going to finish strong?

I don't know if this Aussie guy has faith, but he moves hearts and maybe is a powerful instrument of grace also: http://www.maniacworld.com/are-you-going-to-finish-strong.html-you-going-to-finish-strong.html

Freeing the Family for it to take its leading role.

Although many do not see the truth of or the value of the family we cannot say this of the Teacher of all humanity, Benedict XVI. His witness to families at the recent International Congress of the Family has been listened to by countless families across the world. They came to listen to him and to hear his proclamation of the Gospel. At the recitation of the Rosary on 17th January he said:

"It is therefore necessary to promote a family culture and policy that the families themselves can develop in an organized manner. For this reason I encourage them to join associations that promote the identity and rights of the family, in accordance with an anthropological vision consistent with the Gospel, while I invite the said organizations to cooperate with one another to ensure that their coordinated activity may be more effective."

Why do we want the coordinated activity of the family to be more effective? Because it is the family which has a life-giving mission to humanity; many who have tried to act in the family's stead and have given us instead death! Do not listen to them.

The following day he spoke again to the Congress at the end of Mass saying: "This World Meeting of Families has aimed to encourage Christian homes so that their members may be people who are free and rich in human and Gospel values, on their way towards holiness; that is the best service that we Christians can offer contemporary society."

The proclamation of the Holy Father to families is life-giving because it engenders real freedom in those who are the architects of society - spouses and their families- so that they can embrace and reveal the mission which is theirs through marriage, a mission which both the Church and the world need to give way to. The Holy Father has been inspiring families to a new initiative and to really take the lead in embracing life, creating real human and Christian culture, forming the Church and forming society. Christian families are listening to the Gospel - the consequences of this will be remarkable for the New Evangelisation!

Seen at Bondi

Having returned to Sydney after a grace-filled Christmas break in the UK and Ars I am enjoying my first Australian summer. As you might imagine the beaches are the most popular places to be when temperatures rise. I took this photograph just by Bondi beach - a most unexpected sight. When I was a little boy in Leeds Peter Maturi could then still be seen treking round the streets with his push-bike and wheel sharpening knives door to door. I was amazed to see this skill alive and kicking at Bondi. Perhaps you might think that taking a knife to the beach is a good idea with all those sharks around; no, Bondi beach is surrounded by bars and restaurants and this young lady was offering them a very competative edge.

Coming from Lancashire again

It is wonderful that the Catholic Faith is coming out of Lancashire again - Lancashire, which has always been a home to the Faith.

One of the highpoints of my break in the UK over Christmastime was being given a copy of Bishop O'Donoghue's document "Fit for Mission? Church" which I had not previously seen. I was amazed when I discovered this CTS publication and the vision it contains. First, let me point out that I took above photo while out for a drive with my mother; it shows the River Ribble, one mid-morning in January, just by the village of Sawley whose great Abbey was destroyed in 1537 (one of the three great Abbeys of Lancashire before the "Reformation").

You open "Fit for Mission? Church" and you find that you are being addressed by a Bishop as a Pastor; he is writing to his own Diocese, but he is also addressing the whole Church in England and Wales. Bishop O'Donoghue is here presenting the Church in England and Wales with a vision for her life and mission. I have to say that I dont know when this was last done by a Bishop in England and Wales - I think that we would have to go back long before Cardinal Heenan to find such a vision. In fact, this document has stunned me somewhat - after all these long years of having lost sight of a real vision for the Church in England, suddenly and unexpectedly, Bishop Donoghue throws clear light upon the Church in England. What he has done is wonderful; this docuemnt is a great grace!

Essentially Bishop O'Donoghue begins by looking again at the four principal documents of the Second Vatican Council; he reflects upon what they actually say, he comments upon how they have been erroneously interpreted, and he teaches, in a structured and practical way, how Catholics need to respond today in order for us to truly embrace our identity and mission. Indeed, this is no heavy text - it is a working document. Bishop O'Donoghue is speaking to Bishops, to priests, to families, to groups and individuals, to whole parishes. It is a blueprint for the New Evangelisation in England and Wales.

This is a document that every family and every parish needs to internalise and work through. Thank you Bishop Patrick for the great leadership you have shown.

The Grace of Ars

Over the Christmas break Fr Julian and myself gave three separate occasions to our fraternity in the SJMV. Each time we meet we will celebrate Mass and spend and hour in Adoration together, we will do a Gospel sharing and converse together at the level of our pastoral mission. I took these photos while we were walking in the Clent Hills in Worcestershire just after New Year. As you can see snow had fallen and the light of the late afternoon sun made the landscape into a wonderland.

I remember considering my reasons for wanting to joing the SJMV in 2006; then, I had seen that the SJMV valued the Diocesan Priesthood in a way I had never encountered before and, because of that was seeking to renew it - this was a great draw for me. Also, I sensed a great unity with the continental (European) Church - something which I have always had through my having trained in Spain, and finally because the SJMV, like myself, was trying to respond to the call made by John Paul II. Prior to my Australian mission I had been visiting Ars three times a year and spending one and a half days monthly with Fr Julian. These occasions are now severly limited while I am in Australia, however, an important part of our fraternity has been newly enabled by Skype! Nevertheless, I am aware that the influence of this fraternity on me as a priest has been very great at the level of the interior life and also at the level of the New Evangelisation. This, I think, is a very great grace for the New Evangelisation can today be easily considered only at a notional level - as an idea. The SJMV has lead me to really begin to internalise the New Evangelisation through my own relationship with Christ and the way that I hear the Gospel.

May the grace of our fraternity continue to flourish in us, and may God use our fraternity for His purposes.

Light and darkness

"America: you cannot insist on the right to choose, without also insisting on the duty to choose well, the duty to choose the truth! Already there is much breakdown and pain in your own society because fundamental values, essential to the well-being of individuals, families and the entire nation, are being emptied of their real content." John Paul II, South Carolina, 1987

New Year

For the past twelve years I have celebrated New Year by taking part in the Youth 2000 New Year Prayer Festival, a wonderful opportunity offered to young people to come away from the empty secular and even pagan celebration of New Year and to enter the new year in the presence of Christ and to honour his Mother whose Solemnity is celebrated each 1st January.

The first Festival I took part in was near Guildford and will remain a special occasion for me because it was there that I first met John Pridmore who was to become a very great friend. Other years the Festival was held at Henley on Thames, Liverpool, Harrogate, Wapping, Winsford and Birmingham, but for the past five years the Festival has been held at the Holy Ghost Parish, Balham. And so, after Christmas in Wharfedale I headed south again to Balham. This parish is unlike many other parishes in the country, having stepped aside from the liberal neo-Pelagianism which has taken root again in the UK, and seeks to reveal instead the living Church, rich in Catholic integrity and identity and focussed on the apostolic mission of the Church today. It is not at all surprising that young people come to Balham each New Year from all over the UK, because they are welcomed by Fr Stephen, his assistant priest and parishioners with great generosity. Indeed, even though this Festival is held here only once a year, the Holy Ghost parish is now a spiritual home for many young Catholics because of the way in which this extraordinary parish helps them to hear the Gospel, to see their lives in the light of grace, to discern the call which God is making to them as individuals and the call He is making to the whole Church. This year the Festival witnessed the arrival of many mid to late teenagers, newcomers to Youth 2000 Festivals - a new generation of young people who are simply and spontaneously seeking to be built up on Christ. An atmosphere of real prayer and contemplation was evident but the highlight for me was the sermon given late at night on New Year's Eve which called the young people to a New Evangelisation. Fr Julian proclaimed a strong message which resonated in the hearts of everyone present. We know that it is the Holy Spirit now who will enable all the hearers of this proclamation to attune their lives to what God wants. And how marvellous is it for all those who come to the Youth 2000 New Year Prayer Festivals, that the message we are given and called to respond to at the start of a new year is the Gospel.