De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

ABOVE: Picture of Bishop Alan Williams attending the Tina Beattie lecture at Newhall and featured on the website of the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre Introduction: Faithful Dialogue or Dissent? Professor Tina Beattie is a prominent Catholic personality and has been for many years. She is a regular contributor to Radio 4's Thought for the Day and is an active novelist and commentator with a special focus on women's issues. However, despite her notoriety, her theological positions often spark significant controversy within the Catholic community, particularly due to her public dissent from established Church teachings. The Catholic Church’s teaching on moral and social issues is not hastily formed opinion, but rather an organic synthesis of divine Revelation from sacred Scripture, a rich and nuanced Tradition shaped over 2,000 years, and the wisdom of the Magisterium—a living authority that has grappled with complex questions across centuries. Any approach that disregards th...

Today's homily from Our Lady of Ransom, Rayleigh, Essex, UK. Do I spend my Sundays monitoring homilies so I can bring you the dodgy ones? No, of course not. But this horrendous mess of a homily was brought to my attention by a troubled parishioner. You might remember Fox from this post  where he denied the existence of hell. Subsequently he uploaded a video where he explained to his parishioners the Church has got it wrong and he has figured it out - he's figured out what Jesus really meant and it isn't the "horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible teachings punched into us as children". This homily follows some of the same themes and hits some of these same notes. Soon after I posted that blog, the video evidence was removed and Fox appeared to have his preaching faculties removed as he stopped preaching homilies after the Gospel. It didn't really stop him though as he just gave his little lessons in abject heresy before the Mass started. Now he has started gi...

  I know I moan a lot on here but part of the reason I do that is so everyone knows where we are and why things are the way they are. Not just in the Church at large, but locally. Despite the great gifts given to our dioceses in terms of time, money, buildings, etc, there is a great tendency to do nothing or support the wrong things. I suppose the obvious element here is leadership. You have to have strong leadership in any successful project. You have to know you can ask the leader if you don't know what to do. You have to be confident that the people in specific jobs know what they are their for and that they have the confidence of the person in charge. A bishop is not like the boss of a business. He is WAY more powerful! The bishops are sovereigns in their dioceses. The pope doesn't tell them what to do - the pope is the bishop of Rome and he does have universal jurisdiction but this is something which is very seldom exercised. It doesn't matter if there's an annoyin...

Brentwood Diocese released a vision document at the beginning of Advent which states its aim as not "managing decline"....It then goes on to suggest a strategy for managing decline. We don't have any vocations you see . It's not all complete rubbish one good idea is that Parishes work together and help each other/ share best practice (something I have been trying to encourage in my own locality for years now). However, the plan basically seems to be that lay people will have to do the priest stuff from now on. In the "Restructuring Section" it explains: As our number of priests reduces from the situation we currently have towards this long-term position we will go through a transitional period that we have previously referred to as the “medium term”. As we go through the transition over the next 15 years the number of priests will reduce as God sees fit It's like we are locked in to a cycle of inevitable collapse and real "renewal" is ...

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...

As we start 2018 and Dioceses all over the UK (and beyond) are developing plans for the future (such as my own here ) we are being asked to discuss and consider a way forward as communities of believers as vocations dwindle and practising Catholics disappear even more rapidly. This has been discussed in numerous places with great clarity, perhaps most familiarly by Sherry Weddell in her book Forming Intentional Disciples , and most recently by Professor Stephen Bullivant in the Catholic Herald . Bullivant's article is concise and packed with valuable detail for anyone discerning the future direction of the Church. Key points are: There are more priestly retirements (or deaths) each year than ordinations.  A number of our seminaries have closed, the ones we still have are practically empty. Priest numbers fell between 1970 and 2014 by 48 per cent. Sunday worshippers fell by 55 per cent over the same period. In short, priest-to-worshipper numbers were better in 2014 ...

My Parish Priest said to me a long while ago, something like: 'Don't follow any one man, only follow Christ'. The conversation occurred within the context of my applauding a "media priest" who had impressed me on EWTN  with a forthright exposition of the Gospel. I think Father's advice was really important and it has often resonated with me since. A priest's job is to be a man for others; to show Christ to the people, to diminish so that He can increase. There are many who do this wonderfully and help us on the path to salvation. But there are many who do not help us to know Christ, and instead impose their own version or flavour of Christianity on us. This seems to be increasingly prevalent presently, contrary to secularists’ claim that Catholic clergy are nothing more than papal agents bent on enforcing rigid moral controls that smother our human instinct for pleasure and freedom. Father Alexander Lucie-Smith has written an article in the Catholi...

The flock is struck, it is in disarray. Wounded and confused, the faithful cling to the Barque of Peter for a variety of reasons. Pastors have been breeding confusion for a number of years. They seldom seem to do the work of a priest; calling the people to repentance. It is far easier to be lovely to the people than to shock them into any kind of real change. Speak to a mature Catholic in Brentwood Diocese today about their faith and you tend to hear a confusion of progressive Protestant theology and secular reasoning. If they practice, they have filled the void of any sound Catholic teaching with these ideas which bridge the gap between what they feel is the unrealistic demands of the "old" Catholic Church and the constant social reprogramming of the modern secular state. Discussions I have tend to result in shock that I believe what the Church has always taught, assertions that the Church "has moved on", or "we don't believe in *insert doctrine h...

Further to the announcement of Mgr John Armitage's forthcoming move to Walsingham, as reported here , the new Vicar General for Brentwood Diocese has been announced as my friend, the Dean of Southend and Parish Priest of Our Lady of Lourdes & St. Joseph, Leigh-on-Sea, Fr. Kevin Hale! Brentwood's new VG reveals his more tender side as he cradles my new born daughter, Mary-Therese. This is great news for the Diocese as Fr. Kevin has developed a reputation for orthodoxy, excellent management skills, and gentle pastoral touch. Most importantly for a VG, he loves the priesthood and he loves his fellow clergy. He has achieved a great deal in his twelve years at Leigh-on-Sea, including the building of our magnificent Parish Centre . He has always played an important role in the diocese and is Chair of the Council of Priests. This is the function of a VG according to the Code of Canon Law : Can. 475 § 1 . In each diocese the diocesan bishop must appoint a vicar genera...

How wonderful to hear that our Diocesan Youth Retreat Centre, Walsingham House , which is managed by two fine Catholic young men; Michael Barwick and Leighton Walker, recently received input from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) who help highlight the suffering of persecuted Christians.  The Walsingham House team in their retreat work often speak about persecuted Christians, with reference to ACN . Leighton has written some excellent things about the persecution of Christians on his blog, see here . He writes:  As Christians, we are witnessing the persecution of our brothers and sisters throughout the world. We are not bound by blood, but we are bound by spirit. Let us not forget the words of St Paul about how we are  one body with many parts . When one part suffers, every part suffers with it. I also want to commend Westminster Diocese’s Youth Service for entering into partnership with ACN and highlighting their important ministry: see here . I beli...

Gathered together for prayers at the Grotto on Ruth's Anniversary 2014 The week before last was the Brentwood Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes and I must apologise that I have only just managed to finally finish my blog on the trip. This event annually coincides with Brentwood Catholic Youth Service' s annual Summer Lourdes Pilgrimage. The Youth Service goes to Lourdes in Spring too, but Summer is the big pilgrimage, with four coach loads of young people heading off to help our VIP's in whatever way they can. There's a nice bit on BBC iPlayer here , from Peter Holmes' show on Sunday, which features the Bishop , Fr. James , Roisin and my son Michael (amongst others). Both of my oldest sons joined them for the second time, but the pilgrimage also coincided with the 5th anniversary of my daughter Ruth's tragic death and we really did not want to be apart as a family for this day. As much as I want it to fade into ignominy as a date, it never fails to sneak u...