De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Anyone who knows the history of the decline of the Church in this country knows much of the genesis of the present situation can be traced back to one man: Derek Worlock. Worlock was appointed private secretary to Cardinal Griffin, and assisted successive cardinal-archbishops of Westminster for almost two decades. He attended every session of the Second Vatican Council between 1962 and 1965 when he was appointed Bishop of Portsmouth on 18 October. He was eventually appointed Archbishop of Liverpool in 1976 and by Christmas, Worlock had produced a master-plan for the Archdiocese which was not well received by many of the senior clergy, so Worlock launched a charm offensive on the younger clergy—and Fr. Vincent Nichols became his young protege alongside Fr. John Furnival who was ordained in 1976 and acted as his private secretary right up until his death in 1996.  Worlock instigated what became known as "The Magic Circle", a largely self-selecting small pool of...

Andrew Burnham (born 19 March 1948) is an English priest of the Roman Catholic Church. Burnham was formerly a bishop of the Church of England and served as the third Bishop of Ebbsfleet (a "flying bishop"), a provincial episcopal visitor in the Province of Canterbury from 2000 to 2010. He resigned in order to be received into the Roman Catholic Church. He was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham on 15 January 2011. Further to the recent decision of Philip North to withdraw his acceptance to be the new Anglican Bishop of Sheffield, Mgr Burnham has written an excellent response to the situation in The Catholic Herald . The story is that North, 50, who is Bishop of Burnley, is a traditionalist who disagrees with female ordination. North said that the news of his appointment last month had ‘elicited a strong reaction’ . A similarly strong reaction greeted his decision on Thursday to withdraw. After he had inform...

There seems to be considerable fuss this morning over some comments made by Primate of Boston, Cardinal Sean O'Malley's comments on "60 Minutes" on Sunday night. The usually excellent Greg Kandra posted this on his blog: I guess I wasn’t the only one who did a double-take when I heard   this   on “60 Minutes” Sunday night: Catholics who thought Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s remarks about Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn’s suitability for office were provocative have another interesting comment to ponder: If he were to start a church, he would “love to have women priests.” In an interview with “60 Minutes” on CBS that producers said took more than a year for them to persuade him to do, O’Malley seemed troubled by reporter Norah O’Donnell’s question as to whether the exclusion of women from the Church hierarchy was “immoral.” O’Malley paused, then said, “Christ would never ask us to do something immoral. It’s a matter of vocation and what God has given t...

Abraham Offers Tithes to Priest-King Melchizedek of Salem—Peter Paul Rubens. Thanks to Luke O'Sullivan for providing the inspiration for the title of this post. I have been fascinated by the events in the Anglican church over the last few days. I have also come to recognise how ignorant I am regarding Anglicanism (is that the right terminology even?) which seems impossibly complex and bureaucratic, which is saying something coming from a Catholic! I was taken to task by someone I know on Twitter last week for referring to Anglican 'bishops'. This was considered patronising and I was admonished to accept the validity of Anglican religious orders out of respect for them. This struck me as somewhat disingenuous. I am a Latin Rite Catholic and the Papal Bull  Apostolicae Curae issued in 1896 by Pope Leo XIII declared all Anglican ordinations to be "absolutely null and utterly void". The issue, as best I understand it, is regards the intention with which o...

This is stunning: Eisegesis (from Greek εἰς "into" as opposed to exegesis from ἐξηγεῖσθαι "to lead out") is the process of interpreting a text or portion of text in such a way that it introduces one's own presuppositions, agendas, and/or biases into and onto it. The act is often used to "prove" a pre-held point of concern to the reader and to provide him or her with confirmation bias in accordance with his or her pre-held agenda. Eisegesis is best understood when contrasted with exegesis. While exegesis draws out the meaning from a text in accordance with the context and discoverable meaning of its author, eisegesis occurs when a reader imposes his or her interpretation into and onto the text. As a result, exegesis tends to be objective when employed effectively while eisegesis is regarded as highly subjective. Stephen makes his argument using Gal 3:28, which, as I noted yesterday , seems to be considered Biblical basis for the case for women...

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...