Fr Timothy Radical O.P. –sorry! Fr Radcliffe: Catholic candidate for the Anglican See Canterbury

According to this Month’s edition of the Northern Cross (NC) Fr Radcliffe gave interesting Riddell Memorial lectures at Newcastle University recently. He is quoted as saying in his first lecture that (please note -even though my own typing can be poor- that the punctuation in the quotes is as found in the NC),

“The parables of Jesus lead to questioning, so the preaching of the Gospel happens when the hearer makes a difference to his life.”

There can be no disagreement with this statement since we all preach in order to solicit change by forming ourselves and our people in the teachings of the Gospel rather than the teachings of the world. Sadly, Fr Radcliffe appears to side with the world in his second lecture where he is quoted as saying,

“As a society we have lost faith in reason, contrary to that Christians believe in reason but do not practice it. If we did we would find the truth.

(Does this border on Modernism? Does it suggest that truth is gained through man’s reason apart from Divine Revelation? In charity we have to say that it’s possible that this quote has been given out of context.)

Christians should be tolerant but Churches are bastions of intolerance for instance to people of gay, lesbian or transgender orientation”.

(Apparently we are to tolerate things scripture says preclude us from inheriting the Kingdom of God (Rom. 1:27; 1 Cor. 6:9-11). Such tolerance is not pastoral: it is to pretend to ‘gay, lesbian and transgender’ persons that their lifestyle is approved by God and that He was in error both when He inspired the Sacred Scriptures and as guided the Magisterium over the last two thousand years...)

During question time Fr Radcliffe was asked; What would you do if you were Pope? To which he replied,

“I would decentralise power and remove the temptation to control, and I would abolish silly titles like Monsignor and My Lord and would institute a new title called ‘My Servant’ and I would like myself to be called ‘Not Particularly Reverend’.”

I feel sure those latter remarks are typical of Fr Radcliffe’s humour. Sadly Anglican Bishop Wharton of Newcastle was said to have been so impressed by Fr Radcliffe that in his concluding remarks he invited the former Master of the Dominicans to take up the vacant (Anglican) See of Canterbury. That tongue-in-cheek remark may be seen as a compliment but it seems to me to hold a rather disturbing disparagement: that Fr Radcliffe is more Protestant than Catholic. Father Radcliffe is surely more faithful than this article suggests, or am I wrong?

Whatever happened to...the Lord?

It has become very common for us to use the Holy Name of Jesus in our conversation, perhaps in a desire to profess or to experience an intimacy with Him. But have we lost something by not speaking of Him as Our Lord?  The noble-sounding designations of ‘Our Lord’ and ‘Our Lady’, or better still “Our Blessed Lord” and “Our Blessed Lady”, convey a dignity that simple use of the Holy Name does not.

Interestingly, the Gospels use the Holy Name of Jesus frequently, but their purpose is to introduce His life and ministry to the world, whereas the Epistles, written to those who already know the Lord, tend to make use of the titles “Lord” and “Christ”. Is there not something to be learned from this? As we celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee I wonder how many of us would address her as Elizabeth. I suspect that not even the Prime Minister does that, yet we approach the King of kings and Lord of lords, we draw near to the Queen of Heaven and of Earth, without the respect we give to mere earthly royalty.

It is not that we should avoid the intimate, family names of Jesus and Mary on every occassion, but a recovery of their titles as the greatest dignitaries in creation would surely not go amiss. In fact, if we are to claim that we have Jesus as “The Lord of my life”, should we not refer to Him as such? After all, He is ‘Jesus’ to all and sundry, and often in a most blasphemous manner; to us He is Lord –Our Blessed Lord, and His Mother our Blessed Mother. Can we not recover use of these pleasing and accurate titles?

St Norbert, Archbishop Fulton Sheen and Priests...

June is the month of ordinations to the priesthood. While I celebrate 19 years of priesthood on the 26^th of this month, I am still seeking to achieve the ideal I set for myself. As each anniversary approaches I am particularly focused on the promise I made to the Lord on my ordination day; a promise that I would “celebrate Mass with reverence so as to inspire people with a love and awe of Your Majesty; preach with orthodoxy since the Truth alone sets us free, and be there for those in crisis”. I have today been deeply moved by two passages I read earlier this morning. The first was an exclamation of St Norbert whose Memoria we celebrate today in the Ordinary Form; the second was in Fulton Sheen’s ‘The Priest is Not His own’. Fulton Sheen writes, 

After the priest has given up meditation and fills his day with ‘activism’, his next downward step is to give up mortification and become lukewarm: “Peter followed Him at a great distance” (Matt.26:58).

At the Last Supper Peter had promised everything; quickly he begins to give up everything. When Our Blessed Lord set His face toward Jerusalem, Peter and the others “followed Him with faint hearts” (Mk 10:32), dreading the prospect of the Cross... As a commentator of the ninth century wrote, “Peter could not have denied the Saviour if he had stayed by His side”. He would have stayed by His side if he had not drawn his sword without orders and if, above all, he had known how to watch and pray with the Saviour. Every priest undergoes the same experience. Neglect of watching, prayer and mortification, produces an inner uneasiness about being close to the Lord.

When this happens, the priest’s heart is no longer in his work. He celebrates Mass and says his Office, but he rarely makes a visit to the Blessed Sacrament. He keeps the Lord at a distance. He mounts the pulpit to plead for the missions, but gives nothing from his own pocket. He no longer assists at a Mass after he finishes his own. He loses the taste of spiritual things. Saintly priests annoy him. He observes the days of fasting and abstinence but cuts lots of corners. He whispers to his conscience, “Well, if I have not done all the good that I could, at least I did no harm”.

How easy it is to fall into all kinds of corner–cutting today when there are so few priests and so much ‘active’ work to be done. It is not from a lack of sincerity or desire to serve the Lord and His people that corners are cut, but from a wrong sense of priorities. I remember a priest of this Diocese, Father Hugh Lavery (of happy memory) saying, “Remember priest: presence precedes doing”. I think we priests must once again return to being men of presence. We must remember that we enter people’s homes as Christ. No matter how much the housebound appreciate the Holy Communion brought to them by a faithful and devout Extraordinary Minister, a visit from their priest moves them deeply and greatly pleases them. In my heart I believe that we priests, in order to be worthy of the office of alter Christus and the love our people give us, must fill ourselves with the presence of Christ. This can be achieved by devout celebration of the Mass and devout, prayerful visits to the Blessed Sacrament.  My mind and soul tell me that if we don’t fill ourselves with His Presence, we can take only ourselves to the people: our theology, our energy, our human concern. But we cannot take Christ; our ontological change will be impoverished in its spiritual fullness, and yet this fullness in Christ is fundamental to life as priests. The people of God, when well-trained and well informed, can do our administrative work for us, and they are invaluable in supplementing us in catechesis, housebound visitation, support of the bereaved and such like. But they cannot replace us. They are not shepherds, and we cannot leave the sheep to tend the sheep without a shepherd to guide them. It is worthwhile reminding ourselves that priests are alter Christus, and that in this, “Presence precedes doing”.

And what of that exclamation of St Norbert? It is from his ordination day and is striking:

“O Priest! You are not yourself because you are God. You are not yourself because you are the servant and minister of Christ. You are not your own because you are the spouse of the Church. You are not yourself because you are the mediator between God and man. You are not yourself because you are nothing. What then, are you? Nothing and everything. O Priest! Take care lest what was said to Christ on the Cross be said of you: “He saved others, himself he cannot save!’”

Brother Priests of all ranks and offices: let us pray for one another daily, especially in the Most Holy Sacrifice and before the Blessed Sacrament. Holy People of God: pray for your priests, and assist without replacing the alter Christus God has sent you.

Preparing for the Year of Faith...

I am often taken aback at how little Catholics know about their Faith. For example, in one discussion it was said, “Well, Vatican II said all bishops are now Vicar of Christ in their own Diocese, so that means the Pope has no say over them. He is Bishop of Rome, not Bishop of the world”. Wow. I have also had a sixth former say that he agreed adultery was wrong, so was going to ‘sow his oats’ before he got married... While I have tried to inform our people of what constitutes the Faith during my homilies, comments overheard after Mass are “Oh, the Faith according to Father Dickson again”. Sadly, one has no power over how one is heard. In a homily given earlier this year when I explained that mixed marriages are recognised as carrying obstacles that are not to be underestimated (cf. Catechism #1634), a complaint actually went to our Bishop. Apparently, we are expected to welcome mixed marriages as we welcome Catholic marriages.

It seems to me that some folk have difficulty in letting go of the hermeneutic of rupture and in grasping the hermeneutic of continuity. This is true not only in Doctrinal matters but in liturgy: I celebrate every Mass ad orientem as per rubrics 157/158, and use a smattering of Latin at our vigil Mass (as per Sacrosanctum Concilium 36, 54, 116 and GIRM 41) but these are so uncommon that they are seen as a backwards step by some. After all, they rarely see them elsewhere. So I wondered how to foster growth in the parish’s understanding of the Church’s teaching in a way that was accessible and could be referred back to time and again.

The answer arrived through the door one morning...the latest catalogue from the CTS. Since I spend the peoples generous offerings on church heating, lighting, votive candles, cleaning materials, insurances, building repairs etc, I had the idea of spending some a little more directly on the folk themselves. To this end I perused the CTS catalogue and purchased for each Mass-going family a copy of the booklets ‘Credo’ and ‘Lumen’, both by Fathers Marcus Holden and Andrew Pinsent.  So far the response from the folk has been very good, and they have been over the moon to receive them. Perhaps it is easier for some people to hear the Faith from someone other than their own parish priest, and indeed, the printed word often seems to carry a power the spoken word from the pulpit does not: “But Father, I read this in a book!”

Nuncio to the UK .... 'no' to married priests?

The Northern Cross, our local Diocesan newspaper, carried an article quoting the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Mennini. In responding to a question on having married priests posed by a member of the Diocesan Council of Laity, the Nuncio is quoted as saying,

“For young people in our times, compared to twenty years ago, it is more difficult to make a choice to get married or not to get married but this choice depends upon the strength of the encounter young men have with Christ. We have no finer reason to lead a chaste life than to follow the example of Jesus. We are taught to give more than we receive because Jesus acted in this way and I think that this is the case with celibacy”.

In responding to a comment that a town once served by six priests is now being served by one, the Nuncio indicated that:

“In the face of this crisis, which nobody can deny, the churches should be pushed to give to the lay people more tasks surrounding the spiritual life of the parishes”.

Now, while no priest I know would claim he could care for his parish without the collaboration of the people of God, I wonder if there is something else that can be usefully noted. As Redemptionis sacramentum points out:

146: There can be no substitute whatsoever for the ministerial Priesthood.  For if a Priest is lacking in the community, then the community lacks the exercise and sacramental function of Christ the Head and Shepherd, which belongs to the essence of its very life.

I wonder if the crisis in vocations arises not only from young men being attracted by a secular world, but from the fact that many of our pupils leave school with little or no understanding or appreciation of our Faith -isn’t it around a 90% lapsation rate we have directly after leaving school? Vocations come from understanding and appreciation of the Faith, and the dearth in vocations is not likely to be helped by having laity take a step back from their authentic apostolate in the world –so in need of a solid Catholic leaven today- to make a spiritually deficient attempt to fill in for lost vocations to the priesthood.

The Mass celebrated at St Mary’s Catholic School included bidding prayers offered in six different languages (from 40-od mother tongues pupils are said to speak at home), and a liturgical dance to the words of the Hail Mary. In his homily Archbishop Mennini is said to have recalled his time in school; he told the pupils he had wasted a lot of time on many things, and encouraged the pupils to waste a little time each day in prayer. Sound advice, to be sure.

As for the liturgical dance, I will only say that this indicates a shift from seeing liturgy as the worship of God to seeing it as a context for the celebration of the community, in the sense of show-casing the God-given talents of man. Seen in this way, God becomes the secondary focus. I cannot help but wonder if the dance was followed by applause...a human response to a human achievement.

Novus Ordo and the Versus Apsidem: a Core Need

I was honoured to attend Fr Grieves’ First Mass on Friday. It was beautifully arranged; said with reverence and dignity, served attentively, and superbly accompanied by a splendid choir who sang Spatzenmesse in C (Sparrow Mass) by Mozart. And yet I found myself increasingly aware that no matter how reverently the Novus Ordo is celebrated and with what great music, the lack of a High Altar or at least of the versus apsidem orientation, is a significant absence. The experience has deepened my conviction that the celebration of Mass ad orientem is a core loss to be recovered in Catholic liturgy. That said, it didn’t help that the Sanctuary is only one step up from the Nave, as though we weren’t to see God as being too far above us…

Andrew.

Post 3: Assisted suicide, Abortion and Contraception

The interesting and useful blog, Christian Medical Comment, by Dr Peter Saunders, informs us that the euthanasia advocates are about to make another attempt to have assisted suicide made legal. Problems which we must all note, Catholic or not, are manifold. Euthanasia or assisted suicide do not easily appear as ways of caring for the dying but rather of refusing that care by ending the person instead of the person’s suffering. Two things need to be said here. First, we have today sufficiently powerful drugs to combat anxiety, pain and agitation in the seriously ill; some folk seem to simply exclude this, advocating killing instead. Second, the argument that to end a person’s suffering we can end the person’s life. Such an argument holds a very dangerous trajectory: it would allow us to end the suffering of poverty by killing the poor. We are seeing an ever increasing assault on human life in today’s world; an ever-increasing avoidance of the Cross in human life, and indeed, of the compassion those crosses call forth from us.

Abortion remains a central attack on the dignity of human life, and despite what many seem to believe, is always the ending of a unique human life. With its own DNA from fertilisation, and its own heartbeat from around 20 days after conception, the human embryo is an individual. Even the placenta has as one of its functions the filtering of impurities from the mother’s blood so as to safeguard the foetus (this is an interesting aspect of the physiology of pregnancy, for the body recognises the mother has the potential to be an unjust aggressor upon the child). The argument from ‘personhood’ is spurious in that we are all developing as persons, and the point at which we become fully who we are -or are called to be- is perhaps never attained in this life.

Contraception can be seen as the first and foundational attack upon life since it is a refusal to cooperate with life; a refusal to engage in the procreation of the species -and perhaps, therefore, an offence against humanity. Same gender sexual activity may hold the same difficulty: engaging in use of that faculty for procreation in non-procreative ways. What a sad, anti-life world we are becoming...and at a rapid pace.

Father Dickson