De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

The Synod, where the Church of England continue to reject explicitly any jurisdiction of the Holy See over them, and move continually further away from the beliefs held by the whole of Christendom in an unbroken and immemorial tradition. Well done chaps. There's an 'open letter' in the Independent today which purportedly puts the Biblical case for women bishops. Of course as a Catholic, this does not, nor can it ever affect me. Pope John Paul II declared the question closed in his letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis , stating: "Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance…I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgement is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful." - John Paul II in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis , cf. Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici (30 December 1988), 31. This teaching on the restriction of ordination to men i...

Today is the octave day of the centenary celebration at my Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Joseph in Leigh-on-Sea. You can read my report on the beautiful Mass we had last week here . In that report, I mentioned a couple of reasons why I found the Mass a bit emotional. Another reason the Mass was emotional is that it was probably the last Mass I will attend presided over by my Bishop, the Right Reverend Thomas McMahon. Bishop Thomas overseas a large and varied diocese stretching from East London to the North Sea. Formed in 1917, the Diocese comprises the Administrative County of Essex, the unitary authorities of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock, and the London Boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest. He was born on 17th June 1936 in Dorking, Surrey and grew up in Old Harlow. He was educated at St. Bede’s Grammar School, Manchester, before training for the priesthood at St. Sulpice, Paris. He was ordained on 28th November 1959...

Fr. Dominic O'Toole CSsR, Parish Priest at the beautiful church of St. Mary's , Clapham, is one of my dearest friends and God Father to my third son John Joseph. Regular readers may recall that he recently celebrated his first Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite ; the Usus Antiquior , Tridentine or 1962 Missal. With the help of my mendacious friend, Ben Travato , I put together some questions about the experience which I thought you, dear reader, might find to your delight and erudition: Me: How did you come up with this idea to celebrate the anniversary by saying the EF Mass? Fr. Dom: We were wondering how to mark our 160th anniversary in a special way. Someone suggested the idea to me, I thought about it, and spoke to the Parish Council about it. They were supportive of the idea. Me: How did you set about learning to say the EF? Who helped you and what was your experience? Fr. Dom: Fr Andrew Southwell, the former Chaplain to LMS, ministered in ...

Ordination of priests by the Bishop of Brentwood — with Jeff Woolnough, David Waller and Lee Bennett. Thanks to the Hermeneutic of Continuity , I found this brilliant Ordinariate blog: Father Ed Tomlinson's Blog Well worth a read, much of what is written there is of an extremely high standard, very good indeed and has answers to many of the common questions and criticisms of the Ordinariate. For my part, I cannot state strongly enough how we are blessed to have these brave men and their families join us in the fullness of communion. They are directly and openly living out Jesus call that we might all be one (Jn 17:21) and a shining example of true faith and commitment to each one of us. I am truly humbled. What extraordinary courage it must take to walk away from a job and a home and follow Christ to such an extent that you expose yourself to all kinds of abuse and calumny (Mt 5:11) in order to be truly Catholic. Their journey has involved the difficult step of ack...

Welcome to this, the seventeenth of my reflections on the theology of the Sunday readings at Mass. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I sincerely hope that this reflection will inspire you, answer some questions you may have, help you to see how fantastic Sacred Scripture is and perhaps enable you to share some of my love and passion for the Bible as you begin to comprehend how layered and multi-faceted it is, and what a carefully considered part of the Mass the readings are. If you want to know how these posts came about, please read my first post in this series  here . My particular hope is that these blogs will help you develop a love of the Old Testament, and help to foster a better understanding of its value in understanding how Jesus fulfils what is prefigured therein. I would like to think this regular blog would be a great help to anyone who reads at Mass, to enable them to foster a deeper understanding of the message they are trying to impar...

Therefore every threat to human dignity and life must necessarily be felt in the Church's very heart; it cannot but affect her at the core of her faith in the Redemptive Incarnation of the Son of God, and engage her in her mission of proclaiming the Gospel of life in all the world and to every creature (cf. Mk 16:15). - Blessed John Paul II

The Third Commandment given by God to Moses clearly states:  "Remember to keep holy Sabbath day. Six days you may labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, your God. No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your beast, or by the alien who lives with you. In six days the Lord made the heavens and earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day He rested. That is why the Lord has blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy" (Ex 20:8-11). The word "Sabbath" is an Anglicised version of the Hebrew Shabbath (שַׁבָּת, or  Shabbat ), which means means "day of rest". It derives from the verb shavath (שָׁבַת, Strong's Concordance  no. 7673 as šāvat , often shavat ), defined as "desist from exertion" (often "rest" or "cease"). The word shavath was first used in the Biblical account of the seventh day of Creation ( Genesis...