The New Radicals

Some time ago I read a piece by an aging former hippie complaining that the younger generation have no passion of political protest. This old guy was remembering his glory days of sit ins and peace protests and riots in the streets and anti war protests and rock concerts.

He's blind to the fact that young people are just as radical as they've ever been. They're just as idealistic and fed up with the complacent status quo. What the aging hippie didn't see is that the complacent status quo is the brave new world he and his generation have created.

The new radicals aren't really the unwashed and angry young people occupying Wall Street, they are the well scrubbed and happy young people marching up Constitution Hill. What the sour old hippie didn't realize is that you don't have to be angry to protest injustice. You can have a peaceful, well organized and legal protest and still be radical.

The new radicals are the hundreds of thousands of college aged and high school students who thronged into Washington yesterday for the March for Life. All statistics show the future belongs to them. Anti abortion sentiment is strongest among the young, and the young people who marched on Washington yesterday are not only young and joyful. They're smart.

The new radicals won't drop out. They'll get involved in life and they'll change the world. They will do so because they not have faith, but they come from solid families, good communities and from a people who know how to work hard, achieve solid results and do so with a positive, upbeat and can do attitude.

They know how to use the new technologies and overcome the MSM bias. They know how to get involved and stay involved--not just launch a few noisy protests. They know how to work together with others and communicate their message. They will do so with intelligence, shrewd new ideas, hard work--and most of all--joy!

Then I thought of another reason why the aging hippie isn't seeing any of his grandchildren espousing his radical causes....he probably doesn't have any.

March for Life

Crescat has some nice comments and personal photos of the March for Life here. For a few more of my own photos--including some of my kids--go to my Facebook page. The Anchoress rants here about the biased press and asks "250 people camping in a park gets thousands of articles and huge coverage but half a million marching on the nation's capital is virtually ignored." Nice collection of photos here. Read George Weigel on child sacrifice here.

Newman and Littlemore

Go here to download the text of my sermon preached at Choral Evensong at Mount Calvary Church on Sunday evening.

The Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter

I have just been to one of the most exciting, historic, sad and nostalgic and happy day of my life for many years.

This morning I witnessed Fr Jeffrey Steenson, Ordinary in waiting, receive nearly fifty people into full communion with the Catholic Church. The priests and people of Mount Calvary Church in Baltimore are now Catholics!

Mount Calvary has a long and venerable tradition within the Episcopal Church. It was the first church to be built according to Anglo Catholic principles in the 1800s and it's first pastor, Fr. Curtis, travelled to England and was received into the  Catholic faith by Cardinal Newman himself.

Today their journey is complete, and a new journey begins. My prayer for the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter is that both the Anglican Churches will stop being so stressy about the whole thing. Let them bid a fond farewell to the Anglo Catholics. Let them hand over some of the many churches they don't really need.

Then let the Anglican tradition live in communion with the See of Peter. Let them be united, not absorbed, and let them live in peace.

I'm excited by the Ordinariate and wish Fr Catania and his people and the new Ordinary and all others every blessing and success.

Sublimity or Sanctity?

If you are a convert to the Catholic faith from Lutheranism of Anglicanism or any other form of tasteful religion, then you will have to deal with Catholic kitsch. What are we to do with the trashy trinkets, the horrid holy cards, the sappy statues? How do you put up with the banal hymns, bad preaching and sentimental religiosity?

You have to correct your expectations. You thought sanctity and sublimity were the same thing, and while what is true is also beautiful, we sometimes have to re-assess our own opinions about beauty. There is a beauty that transcends matters of fine art and good taste.

Being a Catholic means having our pre-conceptions blown away. It's all much bigger than you thought. Being a Catholics is learning to see the beauty of holiness. Sanctity and sublimity are not always the same thing.

A good illustration of this is St Therese of Lisieux. Anyone with taste and learning who has first read her book will probably not find it to their taste. It is a schoolgirl's account of growing up in a very pious household in nineteenth century France. It is not only unremarkable, but it is sentimental, sweet and not only girly, but frenchy girly. Then you see the popular images of the simpering saint of Lisieux with her ruby lips pouting in a pious smile--the upturned gaze, the cross and the roses. "Give me break!" said my tasteful Anglican soul.

But there was something else there--something I missed. There was a beauty that lurked beneath and behind and below and in and through all the sentimentality and tackiness. It was the beauty of sanctity--and that sanctity was a mystery of divine light made incarnate by God's grace in a very ordinary little girl.

This is the beauty of the saints. Very few of them are sublime, and even the ones who seem sublime--when you really get to know them--are gritty and real. This is the deeper beauty: the beauty of the reality of the Catholic faith.

It's true we have tacky music and bad hymns. But we have Palestrina and Mozart and Byrd as well. We do have plastic glow in the dark rosaries and those night lights you plug in with the Blessed Mother. But we also have the Pieta and the Sistine Chapel and Michaelangelo and Carravagio. It's true we have brutal churches that look like a cross between a space ship and a parking garage, but we also have Chartres and St Mark's Venice and Chartres and Mont St Michel.

This is the authenticity of the Catholic faith. It is universal. It has room for the peasant and the aristocrat, hoi polloi and high falutin', the learned and the ignorant, the tasteful and the tacky, the sinner and the saint.

Patroness of this Blog

I credit my conversion to the Catholic faith, my miraculous ordination to the Catholic priesthood and my preservation in the faith to St Therese of Lisieux.

I am re-reading the best book on Therese--The Hidden Face by Ida Gorres, and I am remembering my own meeting with Therese in 1987 on my pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The story is told here. Time and again her presence has been known in my life. At my ordination two friends gave me beautiful images of Therese and another friend gave me a first class relic.

Do people wonder about spirituality and religion? The two are not separate. They come together in the lives of the saints. Benedict XVI says that Sacred Scripture can only be interpreted through the lives of the saints. The same is true of the whole riddle of religion. It is in the lives of the saints that we see spirituality and religion incarnated in one inexplicable experience.

Read the lives of the saints. Meet the saints. Live with the saints. Pray with the saints. You will soon come to see that you cannot have spirituality without religion and you cannot have religion without spirituality. If you would have one you must have the other, and as you have both you will understand the saints. You will understand the Scriptures. You will understand the Church.

You will understand your destiny.

I have gone off track. I only meant to say that from this day St Therese is the patroness of this blog. Officially.

And I am going to expect some miracles little sister!

Spirituality and Religion 2

What is the relationship between spirituality and religion?

Spirituality is subjective. The Catholic Religion is objective.

Spirituality is the genius. Religion is the discipline.

Spirituality is the heart. Religion is the mind and body.

Spirituality is the vine. Religion is the trellis.

Spirituality is the music. Religion is the notes on the page and the practice.

Spirituality is the drama. Religion is the script.

Spirituality is the cuisine. Religion is the cookbook.

Spirituality is making love. Religion is the marriage.

Spirituality is the paycheck. Religion is the work.

Spirituality is the free fall. Religion is the parachute.

Spirituality is the quest. Religion is the map.

Spirituality is the climb. Religion is the ladder.

Spirituality is the grace. Religion is the law.

Spirituality is the inspiration. Religion is the perspiration.

Spirituality is the question. Religion is the answer.

Twitter

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English Catholicism Conference

There is still time to register for the upcoming day conference on English Catholicism.

Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church, 3710 Augusta Road, Greenville, SC, will host EWTN personalities and authors Joanna Bogle, Joseph Pearce, and Fr. Dwight Longenecker on Saturday, January 21 from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm for a day conference on: “English Catholicism: Then & Now." Topics include: English Catholic life in the Middle Ages; Feasts and Seasons; Was Shakespeare Catholic?; the Importance of G.K. Chesterton, and more. Registration is just $15, and that includes lunch. Contact the church office at 864-422-1648 to sign up.

Call today!

CofE Priest Wants to be Bishop

The Guardian reports that the Dean of St Albans-- Dr Jeffrey John (pictured above) is thinking of suing the Church of England because he was not selected to be the Bishop of Southwark. He believes his rejection was due to his being a homosexual.

I doubt if this is the reason at all. I suspect it is because Dr John will be confused with the flamboyant entertainer Elton John-- another person who has sung in Anglican cathedrals and worn outrageous clothing--much like an Anglican Bishop.

Dr Elton John has denied having any relationship with the singer Jeffrey John even though they look remarkably similar and have the same last name. "Elton and I are not brothers." said the clergyman indignantly, "and no, I do not wear a wig."

The Rev'd. Humphrey Blytherington, Vicar of Great Snoring in the St Alban's diocese said, "Dr Jeffrey John is a wonderful man. I have enjoyed many of his records over the years, especially Candle in the Wind which I have often played at funerals." He continued, "I have no problem with bishops. Some of my best friends are bishops." The Rev'd. Lavinia Winkett, Priest in Charge of St Boadecia, commented, "It is an outrage that Jeffrey has been rejected from the Episcopate simply because of his sexuality. Why should he be rejected just because he wears sequin jackets and funny spectacles?"

Elton John was unavailable for comment.

Spiritual but not Religious?

What's all this "spiritual but not religious" claptrap? Saying you're spiritual but not religious is like saying you love food, but hate cooking. Let's take it further. You love food but hate cooking? That means you can't be bothered to learn to cook. You can't be bothered to study food and a meal and how it all fits togethers. You can't be bothered to read cookbooks and learn how to make a recipe. You're not willing to give it a try and burn something and be embarrassed. You're not willing to burn your fingers, make a mess and have to clean it up. You're not willing to invite friends, plan a dinner party, take a risk, spend some money and cook for them.

Why is that? Because you have known some bad cooks in your day? Because you were brought up on junk food? Because you have never had a cordon bleu five course meal? Because a chef once offended you in some way? Because you tried cooking from a cook book once and you failed? Because your friends think good food is snobbish? Because how can you eat a fine meal when there are hungry children in the world? Because some people eat better than you do and they understand fine food, and it makes you look bad? All of these and many more reasons can be given.

"Spiritual but not Religious?" This just means the person is too lazy to look beyond their adolescent bias. They are too lazy to learn what it means to be truly religious. They are too smug and shallow and immature to ever regard anything greater than themselves as greater than themselves.

"Spiritual but not Religious"? They have dismissed religion before they have even seriously considered it or studied it, and even if they have had a chance to consider it, what kind of religion have they been offered to consider? The state of Christianity in the United States is so dire, I'm not surprised any kid with half a brain rejects it. The culture encourages passivity and being a spectator. No wonder they reject religion for religion requires commitment and hard work and wonder and fear and self sacrifice and guts.

"Spiritual without Religion" is subjective Protestantism taken to it's logical end point. It's where individuals in a Protestant culture will end up, and given the starting point it makes sense. Some time ago a Protestant woman came to see me about her teenaged son who was a pretty smart kid who stopped going to church. He said to his parents, "I can love Jesus without going to church. Church doesn't matter."

"What can we say to him!?" they wailed. In fact, they didn't have an answer. The kid was right. If it is only about me and Jesus; if it is only about me and my "personal relationship with my Lord" what is the point of going to church?

We should be clear: "Spirituality without Religion" is not a product of atheism or agnosticism or secular humanism. It is the product of Protestantism, for that is subjective Protestantism's logical conclusion.

Every argument is a theological argument. So what is the underlying theological problem? A distrust of the physical world. Manichaeism. The belief that the physical world is either evil or it doesn't ultimately matter. Protestantism with its denial of the visible church and it's emphasis on eternal security and salvation by faith alone (therefore what you do doesn't matter) and it's often otherworldly Puritanical denial of this world and all that is 'worldly' is Manichean, and it is no mistake that the historians of the Protestant movement see their pre cursors as the Bogomils, Paulicians and Cathars.

"Spiritual but not Religious" is therefore a denial of all that is real and physical in God's interaction with the world. It is a denial of the importance of the physical world. It is a denial of the church, a denial of the sacraments, a denial of the incarnation, and is therefore a most noxious heresy.

No. Because the Lord Jesus Christ--the only begotten son of the Father--took human flesh he therefore sanctified the physical realm. Because he took human flesh; human flesh matters. Because he on physical matter; matter matters. My body matters for it is the temple of the Holy Spirit. My Church matters. The physical church building matters. The One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church--the Catholic Church with all her institutions and history and paperwork and bureacracy and canon law and dogma--all of it matters. The incense and the candles and the books and the bells. They all matter.

The saints and their suffering matters. My rosary and my books of theology and my Infant of Prague and my plaster St Therese and my Our Lady of Lourdes--soiled and with a hole in her head because a nun from the convent where I got her dropped her once--that matters, and so does my starving neighbor and my friend with a headache and my child who needs a hug and a listening ear. They matter.

And so does the Blessed Sacrament which is the focus of the presence of God in the physical.

...and because of this I kneel to adore.

Questions and Answers on the Ordinariate

Go here for my latest article on Catholic Online. It's a Q&A all about the Anglican Ordinariate.

The Vicar on Marriage

Guest blogger, The Rev'd Humphrey Blytherington is Vicar of St Hilda's, Little Snoring with All Saints, Great Snoring. He is a graduate of Plymouth University. He completed his studies for the ministry at Latimer Hall, Durham. He is married to Daphne and enjoys home brewing, model railroading and is an avid member of the Great Snoring Morris Dancers.

I must say lads, it's been some time since I've been able to tootle on down here to the Goose and Garter to join you. Been rather busy don't you know, what with Christmas and the New Year and all that! Yes, don't mind if I do Nigel. You know my particular poison--a half pint of lager shandy and a packet of peanuts if you please!

I thought on the whole the Christmas thingy went quite well don't you? The villagers enjoy the carol service, and it was good of Daphne to bring along a few of the Romans from her church. She always grumbles that they don't know how to sing, but they seemed to do pretty well. She's got a new priest there now. Used to be one of ours. Fr. Rodney Stornaway. Reminds me of a joke they told in school...never mind.

He's a married fellow too. The Pope is bending the rules for chaps like him. Well, I thought when Fr. Stornaway and his missus came around for a meal it would be rather awkward, but not at all. We were chatting away about the Church of England just like he was still one of us. Seems with all the Anglicans going over, that the Roman Catholic Church is becoming rather more congenial. Fact is, Fr. Stornaway was rather critical of the Romans. He says his bishops aren't much better than the Anglican ones--calls them "stuffed clerical shirts" and thinks it's a case of "the bland leading the bland." Funny chap. I rather like him, and Mrs. Stornaway's a real corker. Says there's no problem with the other Catholic priests about the marriage thing. They take one look at her and thank God they're celibate. We laughed.

Ahh, thank you very much Nigel. Hits the spot doesn't it? Peanuts anyone? What's that you say? The canon up North who's got married for the third time? I don't understand it I really don't. Not too long ago he would have been out on his ear, but it seems his bishop doesn't mind too much. Full of words about being "wounded and abandoned" and "the loneliness of loss". It doesn't seem to me like the fellow's been lonely. Too much loving companionship if you catch my drift.

I admit that sort of thing comes as rather a blow. You know me lads, I'm not particularly traditionalist. Just middle of the road. All I want to do is be a good Christian in the dear old C of E. But I do think marriage is marriage. When a bishop makes excuses for a fellow to be married three times and lets him stay in his job how am I supposed to give instruction to some young couple who are tripping along to be married in the parish church? Honestly, they make my job harder every day.

I mean to say, I'm not one to judge anyone, but there have to be some sort of standards don't there? Is anyone supposed to be allowed to marry whoever they like? I don't know. I find it all rather confusing. Then do you know what else has happened over Christmas? Lavinia informed the clergy fraternal that she has gone and "married" her room mate Georgie Samsonite! Well, I never! I was shocked I can tell you. I didn't suspect that they were any more than old college chums, and now it turns out that they are actually whatchacallit--Thespians.

And to think this is happening in the parish next door and nobody is planning to do anything about it at all? Why over Christmas we had a dinner party at the Archdeacon's for the clergy and their wives and Mrs Huffington Post was telling Daphne that Lavinia was offended that Georgie hadn't been invited. Daphne gave one of her withering looks and said, "This is a dinner party for clergy and their wives. I think Georgie is Lav's husband isn't she?"

Another round? Don't mind if I do. Say, Nigel, why not make mine that whiskey you mentioned a moment ago? There's a good lad. Thanks awfully.

I suppose you're right Ian. It's all going to pot, and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. Everything I thought was part of the C of E and following the Lord Jesus seems to be thrown out the window. Fr. Rodney says I ought to join this Ordinariate thingy the Pope has set up. Who ever would have guessed it? Seems you can be an Anglican and a Catholic at the same time. Can't imagine what Canon Farnsworth back at theological college would have made of it. Awfully confusing. But I suppose they're not going to have any of this business of two women marrying each other.

Very strange. Ah well, here's to the new year lads! Chin chin!

The Priest and the Veil

I get emails and phone calls from all sorts of people all over the world asking questions and making comments and observations. Some are trivial; some intense. Usually I give a short reply and can't say much else.

One came in the other day in which a woman said that her priest was discouraging her from wearing her veil to Mass. What did I think?

I know what Mantilla the Hon would say...I'm thinking fireworks in Spanish...

To me this is crazy. Why would a priest have any objection to a woman wearing a veil to Mass? What business is it of his? The simple rule is this, "No bishop or priest has the right to forbid what the universal church allows nor mandate what the universal church forbids."

If the woman wants to wear a veil, she can wear a veil. What get me is that I suspect the priest who doesn't like the veil is really objecting to the woman's take on her Catholic faith. Maybe he thinks she is a weird traddy or a dangerous conservative or whatever.

I wonder if he makes any objection to the gals who slouch into Mass chewing gum, wearing flip flops, a spaghetti strap halter top and hot pants?

Somehow I doubt it.

Attachment and Detachment

Twice a year I preach on stewardship and wealth. In January and in September. Here is today's homily on our attitude to our wealth. It considers Detachment, Attachment...

Integrated Catholic Life

Part of my aim this year is to expand the reach of this blog, and my writing and speaking ministry. Randy Hain and Deacon Mike Bickerstaff run the fairly new Catholic e-magazine called Integrated Catholic Life.

They've asked me to be a contributing editor, and today my first article for them is published. Go here to read about Benedictine wisdom and seven principles for a peaceful life.

Day Conference on English Catholicism

Why you should come:

1. Joanna Bogle is a funny, lively and motivating speaker
2. Joseph Pearce is a funny, lively and motivating speaker
3. Father Longenecker tries to be a funny, lively and motivating speaker
4. It's only $15.00 and that includes lunch
5. You'll learn about your Catholic faith
6. You'll learn about your Catholic history
7. You'll learn about your Catholic literary figures
8. You'll learn about C.S.Lewis too--who wasn't Catholic but should have been
9. You'll meet some interesting people
10. It's something different and exciting to do on a Saturday.

It starts at 8:30. At Our Lady of the Rosary Parish. More information here.

A Bit of Fun

My rendition of Twelve Days of Christmas from OLR School Christmas Pagaent. Enjoy!

Old Monk on Silence

In Silence--a Symphony

Newt's Three Marriages

How can Newt Gingrich have been married three times and now be a Catholic in good standing?

In order to understand this you have to understand the Catholic approach to marriage, and to do that we have to put on one side the common misunderstandings about the process to apply and be granted a decree of nullity from the church.

First of all, a decree of nullity is not a "Catholic divorce". For Catholics a validly married couple cannot be divorced. "That which God has joined together man cannot divide." A valid, sacramental marriage is eternal. Therefore, the Catholic Church examines whether the marriage was valid in the first place. Another way of saying this is, "A divorce says, "These two people aren't married anymore." A decree of nullity (aka an annulment) says, "These two people were never married in the first place."

For the marriage to be valid the criteria are quite simple. 1. the marriage must be between a a man and a woman 2. They must both be free to marry (in other words, not married to someone already or not having some other impediment) 3. They must enter the marriage covenant with a full understanding of marriage and 4. They must do so with a completely free act of consent. 5. They must be capable of consummating the marriage and be willing to have children. These rules apply for all marriages--Catholic or non Catholic--Christian or non Christian. That's why a Catholic marriage tribunal is willing to rule on the validity of any marriage--not just Catholic ones.

Whenever I'm asked about the Catholic understanding of marriage I say, "Like marriage itself, it's simple in principle and complex in practice." I'm not an expert, and I'm not one to judge, but let's imagine the situation with Newt Gingrich (or anyone else in a similar situation)--and I should stress that I know nothing of Newt Gingrich's personal life and am not making a personal judgment. I'm simply commenting on the issue in the largest sense.

The marriage tribunal would start by considering the person's first marriage. Maybe when the man married he was very young and did not fully understand what marriage was all about. Maybe he came from a broken home where there was no proper understanding or teaching about marriage. Maybe he married an older woman for an ulterior motive--for social or financial advantage, or for an escape from an unhappy home life. Maybe he was under psychological stress or experienced some other pressure to marry. All of these things and many more may influence either his understanding of marriage or the freedom of his will, and therefore the validity of the marriage at the time it was contracted.

A person's second marriage may have been contracted in even worse circumstances. Just because he made one mistake doesn't mean he won't make another. If it was a marriage made after an affair, and if the person was, at the time, promiscuous and never intended to be faithful or to contract a proper marriage, and did not understand what marriage really was and never intended to have children...for all sorts of reasons it might be a very simple matter to say that the second marriage was also invalid.

In saying that a marriage is invalid, the church is saying that despite appearances these two people did not make a marriage. The necessary components for a marriage did not exist.  Therefore the church declares the marriage to be invalid, and to never have existed in the eyes of the church.

Newt Gingrich went on to "marry" a third time. This time he married a Catholic. One must assume that he and his bride received proper catechesis and that this time he fully understands what marriage is and what his responsibilities are.

The Anglican Patrimony

What enriches us from the Anglican Communion? What riches will we share as Anglicans come into full communion? Consider the scholarship, the purity and the poignant beauty of this passage from the liturgical Anglican scholar Dom Gregory Dix:

"Was ever another command so obeyed? For century after century, spreading slowly to every continent and country and among every race on earth, this action has been done, in every conceivable human circumstance, for every conceivable human need from infancy and before it to extreme old age and after it, from the pinnacle of earthly greatness to the refuge of fugitives in the caves and dens of the earth. Men have found no better thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for armies in triumph or for a bride and bridegroom in a little country church; for the proclamation of a dogma or for a good crop of wheat; for the wisdom of the Parliament of a mighty nation or for a sick old woman afraid to die; for a schoolboy sitting an examination or for Columbus setting out to discover America; for the famine of whole provinces or for the soul of a dead lover; in thankfulness because my father did not die of pneumonia; for a village headman much tempted to return to fetich because the yams had failed; because the Turk was at the gates of Vienna; for the repentance of Margaret; for the settlement of a strike; for a son for a barren woman; for Captain so-and-so wounded and prisoner of war; while the lions roared in the nearby amphitheatre; on the beach at Dunkirk; while the hiss of scythes in the thick June grass came faintly through the windows of the church; tremulously, by an old monk on the fiftieth anniversary of his vows; furtively, by an exiled bishop who had hewn timber all day in a prison camp near Murmansk; gorgeously, for the canonisation of S. Joan of Arc—one could fill many pages with the reasons why men have done this, and not tell a hundredth part of them. And best of all, week by week and month by month, on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across all the parishes of Christendom, the pastors have done this just to make the plebs sancta Dei—the holy common people of God."

The Dark Lord Does it Again

Some time ago Mark Shea wrote a slam dunk article in defense of the resurrection. Now he's done one on the "Jesus never existed and the gospels are not historical" junk dished out by some sophomore who's read Dominic Crossan. Connect to it here.

The Vicarage Bedroom

Some time ago a friend of mine (we'll call him James) who was once an Anglican vicar opined that the introduction of women priests had an unexpected consequence in the bedrooms of vicarages across the land. What made him think was the ad in a church paper for a new vicar for what had always been a conservative Evangelical parish. After stating what sort of person they were looking for the advertisers added, "Marital status not an issue."

In former times, my friend observed, this would have meant "We are willing to accept an unmarried man for the post." What it now means is "We're not going to ask any questions about the vicarage bedroom." Indeed, he knew of parishes in the Church of England with just about every permutation of modern "marriage" possible. Two men living together, two women, divorced and remarried people, single women with children, single men with children after divorce, men and women co inhabiting....you name it.

James said, "I think what happened when women were ordained is that a certain understanding about Christian marriage was also shattered. Before women's ordination the man was the "father" of the parish. If he was a married man he and his wife and family became a kind of "first family" of the parish. If he was celibate he was father to all. Women's ordination broke that. Suddenly the family structure of the parish was broken and one of the unexpected consequences was that the family structure of the vicarage was also broken. If women could be priests, then the traditional family no longer worked, and what was happening in society generally soon became the norm in the Anglican parish and vicarage.

Today in the Daily Telegraph we have this article about Canon Andrew Clitherow--a high ranking Anglican priest who is embarking on his third marriage, and what is most interesting is that his bishop Nicholas Reade (who has always dressed up as an Anglo Catholic) states that “There is no reason why Canon Clitherow should not remarry. The Church has long recognized both the strengths and fragilities of human love and seeks to provide encouragement and support for those celebrating new relationships after the pain of separation and loss.” 


This statement is just about as classic an example of mealy mouthed Anglican double talk as can be imagined, and the same squirmy language could be used to justify anything at all. So for example, faced with rioting and looting in the streets the Anglian Bishop would probably say, "The Church has long understood the cry of the poor, and sympathizes with those whose lives are shattered by poverty. We hear their desperate cry for help and understand that at times their poverty will erupt in rage and frustration." (Other examples may be submitted to the combox)


Meanwhile in the New York Times an article which is about as shallow, vicious and anti Catholic as possible has been published by a woman who wishes to impose the misogynistic and Manichean opinions of a medieval cleric on the twenty first century Catholic church. This article  suggests that the Catholic church will regard the wives of Anglican priests (who are married and granted a dispensation to be ordained) will all be wanton hussies distracting the priest from his holy duties. The woman who wrote the article should take the time to meet some of these clergy wives. She'd find most of them to be smart, funny, hard working, down to earth, thrifty, normal women who just happen to be married to a man who ended up as a Catholic priest. I can't help feeling the medieval academic who penned the article has been reading too many Gothic novels. Carl Olson fisks the article expertly here.


While we're talking about the vicarage bedroom there is this item from the other side of the world right here in Texas where a mega church pastor, Ed Young and his wife Lisa (pictured above) plan to spend twenty four hours on the roof of their church in bed together. The whole thing will be broadcast to their congregations, and they will have the opportunity to share their understanding of Christian marriage. A life they say that is full of exclamation marks!!! full of "passion, purpose and pleasure." Whaaat?  Whoops. They forgot to add the other word associated with the marital act "Procreation".


Last week it was reported that one mega church pastor here in the USA had set up a tattoo parlor in the lobby of his church to appeal to the youth. I wonder if Ed and Lisa have set up a botox, face lift clinic and tanning salon in theirs? It looks like they might be the main customers. But I'm getting off track...


I could keep writing this morning on this subject, but will stop--not only because I have other things to do than blog, but because I'm left speechless at the state of Christianity. 


No wonder thinking and caring people look at this foolishness and sneer, and lest we think that these folks are just extreme Protestant kooks we only have to look at the number of Catholic families where they've given everything for the double income, the trophy house, the trophy wife and the trophy 2.5 suburban kids to see that plenty of Catholics also live for  "Passion, purpose and Pleasure." They may not do it on the rooftop, but they do it for all to see because part of the "Purpose" is that everyone else can see how "successful" they are.


Lord Have Mercy.

Spiritual Warfare and the Atom Bomb

In 1987 I went on a personal pilgrimage hitch hiking from England to Jerusalem staying in monasteries on the way. I had many amazing experiences, and one of them was to stop at Nevers in France to see the incorrupt relics of St Bernadette. I've told the story before of how I met an unusual American woman who told me all about Bernadette and how I experienced the odor of sanctity. You can read that here.

But I don't think I have told many people that another person I met there at Nevers was a Catholic nun who survived the atomic bomb being dropped at Hiroshima. She sat next to me at dinner and told me how she and her sisters survived despite everyone else around them being killed. I wish I had had the sense to write down her story and stay in touch, but I was living that summer very much in the present moment, and didn't record everything.

Today I had a comment from a reader in England that reminded me that we are engaged in a war of cosmic proportions. The spiritual war is of greater magnitude and importance than the A Bomb. Here's the story she shares:

"Eight Jesuit priests survived the searing hurricane of blast and gamma rays during the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. They were in a rectory only 8 blocks from the blinding center of the nuclear flash. Although everyone within a mile radius perished, all survived and they attribute their survival to the Rosary and living the Fatima message.

This is the incredible story of the late Fr. Hubert Schiffer, as retold by a priest who met him:

On the morning of August 6, 1945, he had just finished Mass, went into the rectory and sat down at the breakfast table, and had just sliced a grapefruit, and had just put his spoon into the grapefruit when there was a bright flash of light. His first thought was that it was an explosion in the harbor (this was a major port where the Japanese refueled their submarines.)


Then, in the words of Fr. Schiffer: "Suddenly, a terrific explosion filled the air with one bursting thunder stroke. An invisible force lifted me from the chair, hurled me through the air, shook me, battered me, whirled me 'round and 'round like a leaf in a gust of autumn wind." The next thing he remembered, he opened his eyes and he was laying on the ground. He looked around and there was NOTHING in any direction: the railroad station and buildings in all directions were leveled to the ground.


The only physical harm to himself was that he could feel a few pieces of glass in the back of his neck. As far as he could tell, there was nothing else physically wrong with himself. Many thousands were killed or maimed by the explosion. 


After the conquest of the Americans, their army doctors and scientists explained to him that his body would begin to deteriorate because of the radiation. Many of the Japanese people had blisters and sores from the radiation. 


To the doctors amazement, Fr. Schiffer's body contained no radiation or ill-effects from the bomb. Fr. Schiffer attributes this to devotion to the Blessed Mother, and his daily Fatima Rosary. He feels that he received a protective shield from the Blessed Mother which protected him from all radiation and ill-effects. (This coincides with the bombing of Nagasaki where St. Maximilian Kolbe had established a Franciscan Friary which was also unharmed because of special protection from the Blessed Mother, as the Brothers too prayed the daily Rosary and also had no effects from the bomb.)"

Have You Heard the Call?

Today's mass reading--beautifully set at the beginning of Ordinary Time--is the call of the boy Samuel. He is serving in the tabernacle when he hears the call of God in the night. He runs to old Eli and wakes him up twice before the old man tells him to respond to the voice of the Lord.

So he says, "Here I am Lord. Your servant is listening."

I am convinced that many do not hear the voice of the Lord because they do not wish to hear the voice of the Lord, and what troubles and puzzles me most is that those who most do not wish to hear the voice of the Lord are the religious people.

I am so tired of nice, all together religious people who treat religion as the cherry on top of the cake of their beautiful, organized, prosperous lives. How can they hear the voice of the Lord when their ears are full of the noise of their own wonderfulness?

Instead, behold this child in his innocence, who hears the voice of the Lord calling in the night. First he is able to hear the voice of the Lord because he is already serving him. Second, he can hear the voice of the Lord because he has the trusting heart of a child--free of doubt and cynicism and fear. Third, he responds to the voice of the Lord with simplicity and total trust.

He has no fear. He has no concerns. He does not worry about what other people think of him. He is like the birds of the air and the flowers of the field.

"Unless you become like this little child you cannot enter the kingdom."

March for Life

Here's the deal: I'm flying to Baltimore to preach at the Church of Mount Calvary--an Anglican congregation coming into full communion through the amazing Anglican Ordinariate which the Holy Father has created.

Then I'm going on to DC to join a group from Greenville who are on the March for Life. English author and EWTN personality Joanna Bogle will be there. I see that Katrina the Crescat will be there too.

I'm for a meeting. Let's get some Catholic bloggers together and see if we can have some fun tweeting and blogging from MFL.

Really folks, some people say MFL is on its last legs. Let me tell you, the numbers are greater than ever. We couldn't get tickets for the youth events. It's mega. Let's turn up. Let's have fun. Let's tell the world we're pro life.

So who else is going? Where are we going to meet up?

Deliver Us from Evil

I couldn't sleep the other night and was feeling despondent because of some choices I had made, and maybe I was a little down about some other things. Tossing and turning, my mood went from bad to worse. I guess I dozed off a bit, then woke again and experienced a very dark temptation. Not just a titillating thought or a vague desire, but something really and truly nasty.

I couldn't shift it. Then along with the temptation came a sense that I was losing my sanity. I was going to go crazy. I held my head in my hands and curled up. Then I realized I was under attack. I immediately sat up and said out loud, "In the name of Jesus the Lord, I rebuke you. Be gone."

At once the darkness lifted, I rolled over and went to sleep and woke up refreshed and lightened.

All of this was in the dark time of the night, and it is easy to write it off as a bad dream or some sort of half awake, half asleep trick the mind plays on you. I don't think so. I think it was real, and what I found so encouraging is that the name of Jesus really is powerful. The dark shadows that surrounded me really did lift. The diabolical temptation and disturbance was banished.

I recommend this to you as a part of your prayer life. Of course to call it 'exorcism' is exaggerated. True exorcism involves those sad individuals who are infested with demons and who need to be delivered by the authority of an proper exorcist. Nevertheless, diabolical temptations and attacks happen at lower levels of spiritual involvement and through the grace of our baptism all of us have taken authority over evil. We can be delivered from evil by saying an instant prayer like I did, or at even less dramatic level we can put up the barriers against evil through a conscious recitation of the Lord's Prayer itself with an emphasis on the phrase 'Deliver us from evil."

I once went to a day conference with the famous Protestant minister Dr. Kenneth McCall. He wrote the ground breaking book Healing the Family Tree. Some rather excitable women in the front row told him during a question time that they had a coven of witches living in their town and what should they do to get rid of them?

Dr. McCall just said calmly, "In most cases all that is required for evil to be banished is for two or three baptized Christians to gather together and recite the Lord's Prayer with a focus on the phrase 'deliver us from evil.'" It wasn't quite the dramatic answer the ladies were looking for, but it has stuck with me all these years.

We can take authority over the things that trouble us. We just have to remember to do so.