Sat March 17th
GROSS AND WRONG
The gross Sexual Orientation Regulations have been rushed through, without a proper Parliamentary debate, in a hurried committee meeting at Westminster at 8.55 am yesterday. These unjust and ill-considered new regulations present massive problems and could mean - among many other injustices - that Catholic schools will be forced to teach thre acceptability of homosexual unions, contrary to Christian teaching.
There is to be a torchlit prayer vigil this coming Wednesday, March 21st, outside Parliament, starting at 7pm.
Christian groups are asking people to contact their MPs and members of the House of Lords over the weekend to get emergency debates etc on Monday.
GOOD NEWS FROM ROME
Reading the Holy Father's superb new document on the Eucharist is a joy. Now - how to get it implemented?
Er....our Bishops don't seem to have commented on it yet.
I predict there will be an attempt to suggest that it's a hard-to-read (it isn't) complicated (not a bit, it's straightforward, powerfully straightforward, and beautifully written) and not relevant to Britain (it speaks directly, almost pointedly, at the liturgical realities of most of our suburban parishes).
ACTIVITIES
Hurtling about in bright spring sunshine. Yesterday evening the final day of our parish mission - spoke on "Catholic for a reason". I was very nervous about giving a talk in my own parish, but it turned out to be a happy evening. We are very, very fortunate in our parish clergy here and our parish priest has done wonderful job with this mission for which we are all grateful. Great atmosphere in the church, sense that the mission has achieved something, good to have been part of it.....
On Thursday evening I spoke to the Confirmation class. They invite me in every year to talk about saints and the calendar etc. I find the prospect of a teenage audience a bit scary but the reality is always fine! It's a good-sized parish: we have 40 young people being confirmed every year. They were receptive and listening - you could have heard a pin drop when I explained that they were to be anointed with sacred oil, as monarchs and priests are anointed, as our Sovreigns have been anointed for over a thousand years....they were interested to learn about the calendar, watched as I explained how the whole round of our seasons is intimately bound up with the Incarnation and Lady Day and Christmas, Lent and Easter and the Passover now made new and universal.....
(and yes, before anyone writes in with criticisms, of course I explained the full reality of Confirmation and that it is no mere symbol like the Queen's Coronation etc).
The idea was also to help them choose a Confirmation name. I explained about names being v. important in the Scriptures...Abram's name changed to Abraham, Simon's to Peter, etc etc....we went through some stories of saints especially heroic ones like Maximillian Kolbe, Edmund Campion, Mother Teresa.
NOW.....
Of to lunch with Mother (Mothering Sunday tomorrow, and today we were going to a matinee as part of the treat). To Manchester overnight to do a TV programme "Heaven and eartbn show" - more on that later.....
13 comments:
...and that it is no mere symbol like the Queen's Coronation
His Grace begs to differ, and seeks to humbly enlighten you on this ancient ceremony.
To dismiss the Coronation of the Monarch as 'mere symbol' may be consistent with the Roman Catholic assertion that Anglican Orders are 'absolutely null and utterly void' (Apostolicae Curae, 1896), or even of the present Pope's assertion that the Church of England is 'not a church in the proper sense' (Dominus Iesus, 2000), but it is somewhat dismissive of a carefully crafted and most sacred rite which has its origins in Christian liturgy from the very beginnings of the faith on these islands.
A symbol is a mere representation, like the sceptre being a symbol of royal power, but the Coronation service includes prayers, anointing with holy oil, and scriptural declarations, all of which are considered efficacious by Anglicans, and not 'mere symbol'.
Somebody once asked Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, what was the most moving moment for her during the Coronation in 1937? Was it when the crown was put on her head or the acclamation of the King by the peers and peeresses? She replied that it was neither. It was the annointing. She said that when the Archbishop of Canterbury annointed her she felt quite taken out of herself. Many have experienced this peace of soul after being annointed. It is at Coronations that many pre-Reformation customs survived, in fact it is almost an entirely pre-Reformation rite. The holy oil in the ampula has been added to cumulatively down the centuries, never destroyed. Queen Elizabeth II has a firm belief in the consecrating power of the annointing and, as many have observed, in her case the oil stuck. In the Coronation rite the monarch is also invested with a stole and cope as well as an orb and sceptre to signify a priestly character. The last English monarch to be crowned before the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the high altar of Westminster Abbey was King Edward VI. The Coronation still remains a Eucharistic rite and has done so through history. If you publish this comment doubtless mean-spirited ones on the validity of Anglican orders will follow. But, writing as a Catholic, I have been thankful for the essentially Catholic continuity of the Coronation rite ever since I first discovered it.
I've just looked up the English Coronation rite in the Catholic Encylopedia (you can get it on Google) and find that Elizabeth is substantially right. Good comment. I have always believed in the Queen's powerful sense of vocation. There are few Protestant ammendments, although some are significant. Joanna, I see that you are making more television programmes. Surely you don't expect us to watch them with your firmly stated views against the iniquity of the medium? Do you ever see the results, or can't you bear to turn on the switch wherever it may be?
Thank you for your endorsement Anonymous! I am relieved that Cranmer has raised the ecclesiological obstacles that divide us. But I suspect that many Catholics recognise the sacramental character of the Coronation rite. I am praying with all my heart that it won't be changed out of recognition at the next Coronation. As the article in the Catholic Encyclopedia points out, it was shortened for the Coronation of Edward VII. I hope this won't be used as a destructive precedent.
Thank you for your endorsement Anonymous! I am relieved that Cranmer, rather than one of my fellow Catholics, has raised the ecclesiological obstacles that divide us. But I believe that many Catholics recognise the sacramental character, if not the sacramental vaiidity, of the Coronation rite. As the Catholic Enyclopedia points out, it was shortened for the Coronation of King Edward VII; this was because of the King's health. I am praying that this won't be used as a destructive precedent at the next Coronation, given some of the expresed notions of the Prince of Wales.
I think Papa is so afraid of offending people that he hasn't really said what he means. We had seventeen Eucharistic ministers at my old church, for a congregation of under 100 people. With such a core of committed members you would think that the church would be expanding vigorously, or at least making a nuisance of itself to the surrounding society. Of course that wasn't the case. It died. The bishop said that remaining members should not blame themselves. However did the presence of so many Eucharistic Ministers blind us to the realities of the situation, and convince people that their involvement was greater than it really was?
Malcolm McLean
I didn't see all the H&E Show discussions, in fact only a few minutes, but I did notice that when a caption came up, you were labelled by the programme as "Joanna Bogle - Conservative Catholic", and then the gentleman was captioned as a "Progressive Christian".
A cynical observer might suggest that the producers were deliberately trying to label these speakers in order to influence the viewer, based on the principle which I have heard in business/capitalistic circles: People Buy People First And Everything Else Second.
I wonder, Joanna, were you aware of this "labelling" before the broadcast, and did you agree/approve?
I hope that Joanna does do more television! It gives us something differant and worth while to watch. Those of us who do.
Some people who cannot get out much do reley on it and that is fine, but I quite agree with Joanna that it is no subsitute for actually living or interacting or a babysitter.
Cheers to you Joanna! Push on inspite of everything getting twisted into something ugly.
Back to the real world...
Heard you on the BBC World Service today (Sunday March 19th) over here. Splendid job. I don't know whether the interviewer was being deliberately difficult or just doing his job, I'm inclined to the latter, but suspect the former is possible. Your remark about Buddhists swatting a fly (in the context of everyting but Catholicism is de rigeur) illicited a slight pause mit intake of breathe from the man, don't know if you spotted it, but you hit home with that one.
thanks.
Anglican orders are absolutely null. How is that mean-spirited? It is what it is, the truth as revealed by God through the Catholic Church, the ordinary and univeral means of sanctification outside of which there is no salvation unless a man be 1. invincibly ignorant of the claims of the Church to be said means, 2. worship God according to the law He writes on the heart of every man, and 3.dies not in mortal sin: all three conditions must be fulfilled.
Is that mean-spirited also, or just a hard truth?
"I am relieved that Cranmer has raised the ecclesiological obstacles that divide us."
It is far more than mere ecclesiological differences. Why on earth would you be relieved? Did you misread him? He raised them and slapped them aside in the same breathe as mere assertions.
We will be at the torchlit vigil on Wednesday with our children, I have always believed God has a special place for childrens prayers.
Keep up the good work, your articles are superb and your faith to the Church will be rewarded, but not in this life. You, must endure mockery just as Christ did, but He did warn you of this.
God bless you and your work
Aren't the commentators getting carried away by patriotism rather than truth? No amount of ceremonial or old liturgical forms can give the English Coronation sacramental validity in a Catholic sense. Nationally the ceremony is a serious matter for some but for most it's little more than pageantry and is no more sacramental than the state opening of Parliament. Next time round it's bound to be muddled to include multi-faith dimensions and will be reduced to even less Christian, let alone Catholic, significance. I believe that at the last Coronation the Apostolic Delegate sat in a stand outside Westminster Abbey which must have been uncomfortable for him as it was a rainy day. Next time he and whoever is Cardinal will be mized up inside with Protestants, heathens and hundreds of unbelieving guests. Who knows, they might even include gay-bashing Baroness Bogle of New Malden.
Simon-Peter, for reasons I do not altogether understand, Joanna edited my second comment on the Coronation in which I stated quite clearly that the ceremony was sacramentally invalid in a Catholic sense. That does not detract from its sacramental character. This was removed, perhaps to give my comment greater clarity. As for the aggressive tone of your own comments, I shall pray for you. I shall also pray for David who not only appears to make fun of the Coronation and regards it as negligible but was gratuitously rude to Joanna. Perhaps he would prefer to live in a republic with a religionless presidential inauguration.
Dear aunty jo,
Isn't the Eucharist publication amazing?! My american friend posted it across to me last week, it's a shame it wasn't more widely circulated over here.
There is also a prayer breakfast in parliament in a few weeks. Backed by the pro-life campaign - it should be very interesting. I can't remember when it is unfortunatly, but if you're interested i shall keep you posted.
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