De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Yesterday Cafod  (the Catholic Agency For Overseas Development) announced that they had appointed a new director. Christine Allen, currently director of policy and public affairs at Christian Aid will take over as director in the spring. Cafod is the official aid agency for the Church in England and Wales and this appointment is apposite as it provides a very clear window into the minds of the bishops. At least they are consistent. For the past 30 years the clearest message they've taught us is that they are actually rather supportive of active homosexuality, not even slightly bothered about the use of contraception, aren't particularly fussed about abortion. Catholicity isn't relevent to them and they are A-OK with our children being indoctrinated and sexualised by the secular, Atheistic agenda. This new appointment will do nothing to convince believing Catholics that Cafod can be trusted. In fact, Cafod was forced to defend Allen’s suitability for the role aft...

Screenshot of the picture used to advertise Brentwood's  Caritas  website, which emphasises LGBT ideology & a strong link with children. (I have obscured the faces of the children for obvious reasons). It seems almost divine providence that, further to my last post , Cardinal Müller (former prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ) has given an interview  on the abuse crisis and its link to homosexuality in priesthood. In this interview he states: The LGBT ideology is based upon a false anthropology which denies God as the Creator. Since it is in principle atheistic or perhaps has only to do with a Christian concept of God at the margins, it has no place in Church documents. This is an example of the creeping influence of atheism in the Church, which has been responsible for the crisis of the Church for half a century. Unfortunately, it does not stop working in the minds of some shepherds who, in their naive belief of being modern, do no...

This weekend in my own diocese of Brentwood we saw the launch of a new initiative: Caritas Brentwood launches! Have a look at https://t.co/H6sgRsmiJN to discover amazing people doing stunning work throughout @BrentwoodRC . Catholic Social Teaching in action. Lives transformed. — Fr Dominic Howarth (@Father_Dominic) November 17, 2018 I actually read the bidding prayers at Mass which prayed for the success of this initiative and when I got home, I thought I would have a look. I was flabbergasted (frankly) to find this page promoting the organisation Quest which Cardinal Hume banned from the Catholic Directory of the Church in England and Wales because he concluded it was not a Catholic organisation as it stated that its objectives were to change Church teaching. Quest  have a long history of lobbying and dissent which you can get a sense for at Protect the Pope . Quest openly and publicly support same-sex marriage in direct contradiction to Church teaching. Despite ...

China - Hebei:  Asia News reports that four underground priests have disappeared in police custody. Two of the priests belong to the ancient Diocese of Xiwanzi; the other two to that of Xuanhua. All four priests were taken from their churches to a nearby hotel to be indoctrinated in the religious policy of the Chinese government because they refused to enrol in the Patriotic Association , which aims to create a Church independent of the Holy See. Meanwhile, in Shangcai (Henan), the cross of the bell tower of the church and some of the building's spires have been destroyed. Since China and the Vatican signed an agreement on the appointment of bishops, with which - at least in theory - the Pope is recognized as head of the Catholic Church - the Patriotic Association and the United Front have been waging a campaign to remind all priests that the Church in China "despite the agreement", is "independent" and as a requirement of their commitment to thi...

Oh this is brilliant! "We will resume our weekly offering when the Bishop resigns or is removed," read one handwritten note that was placed in a Sunday collection basket..." You see it is the lay faithful who really hold the power in this equation. It is lay Catholics who allow bishops and priests to continue their privileged lifestyles. It is lay Catholics who make sacrifices so that we have beautifully furnished churches and buildings in which to meet and worship, it is lay Catholics who sacrifice their sons and daughters to be priests and religious. If we, the lay people, stop believing in the moral authority of the priests and bishops, if they cease to preach what the faith holds and teaches and instead start preaching some other Gospel, we have the power to stop them.  They think they are in control, we have been docile for so long, but under the strain of scandal after scandal, the dam is beginning to break, and this story could provide the templat...

The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Gerard Cardinal Nichols took to Twitter recently to berate Catholics who use the internet for the “bitterness, tittle-tattle, hostility and false witness that floods the digital world.” How easily the internet reduces us to digital tribes, engaged in a kind of bitter conflict which somehow seems acceptable because it is ‘out there’ somewhere. These things are a true disfigurement of the face of Jesus and should have no place in our lives. — Cardinal Nichols (@CardinalNichols) October 26, 2018 Linking to a homily the Cardinal delivered at the Venerable English College in Rome on the 21 st October 2018, he suggested “those who contribute” include “priests and deacons.” “How easily the internet reduces us to digital tribes, engaged in a kind of bitter conflict which somehow seems acceptable because it is ‘out there’ somewhere. Even if we do not contribute, and sometimes we are worse than others, far too easily we amuse ourselve...

The disaffection of Catholics with Pope Francis continues to grow in the wake of the synod. Robert Royal offers a particularly sobering reflection on the Synod's final document in this article : In this article he tries to answer the question “Which future for the Church?” Would the Synod Fathers accept vague language about sexuality and synodality that could lead to anything – and probably will, as the vague formulations of Vatican II did in the 1960s and 1970s – or would they affirm not only Catholic moral teachings in a world that doesn’t understand them, but also the Church’s sense of itself as, of course, engaged with the world, but as possessing a truth and a Spirit that is not of the world. As has come to be the characteristic of Church documents under this pontiff, the final synod document is horrendously long and full of meaningless waffle, as Royal puts it,  if you read through the entire text without specially looking for  the worrying controversial i...