...for some nasty attacks as lobbyists start to mobilise against the Pope's visit. A lot of Catholics, including perhaps some who enjoy the Internet, don't really know what it's like out in the vicious bearpit where real engagement with those who loathe Christianity takes place. Until you've actually recieved death-threats (yes, since you ask) and anonymous letters full of filth (ditto) and promises to harm your family (yes, that too) you can't actually quite imagine how unpleasant it can be. Defending the Church isn't a matter of expressing delight at birettas...
Please join me, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, in prayers, starting today, that Christians will continue to have the right, in Britain, to affirm the moral teachings of thei Christian faith, to promote them in Church schools and in Church organisations, to publish them and to pass them on to their children.Info here.
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8 comments:
God Bless you for your constancy in defending the truth against such opposition.
I don't mind the pope coming to visit, but I don't think the UK tax payer should have to pay for it. Especially if the cost is near the rumoured £20million.
Dear Joanna.
I am not a ' loather of Christianity ' as you put it. However I am not a Christian so when Pope Benedict says......'Fidelity to the Gospel in no way restricts the freedom of others – on the contrary, it serves their freedom by offering them the truth '….I shudder.
I am a practicing heterosexual with 3 children and two grandchildren and have never understood why anyone should have a problem with homosexuality. I have spent many years both in education and child protection and have worked with homosexuals both as colleagues and clients . As a direct result of this experience I would vehemently support their right to peacefully coexist with the rest of humanity ,completely free of discrimination. The Gospels place homosexuals on a par with idolaters, adulterers, drunkards and thieves therefore we have a problem ,but,please do not seek to place me on a par with those who threaten you or your family .
Love Hugh
I do think that Christians should 'mobilise' and 'be prepared'...there's a long and narrow path a head, which has to be negotiated with a keen eye and a focused mind.
Sorry to hear about the threats against you and yours, Joanna! I for one, will stand firm and fight the good fight.
We need to have ONE voice.
Alyson
I've long admired your willingness to take a stand for the Church in the hostile British media. On occasions, I've defended you when friends, and others, have criticized your 'style'. One thing I've failed to do is to say, simply, "thank you", for all that you have done, and do. So, thank you Mrs Bogle. Whilst I'm at it, thank you, too, Holy Father.
Hughball - your use of the term "heterosexual" suggests that you accept as a premise that homosexuality is a mirror image of heterosexuality. It is illegitimate to then conclude that homosexuality is a mirror image of heterosexuality.
In fact the term "heterosexual" was originally introduced as a psychiatric term, to refer to a homosexual-style pattern of sexual behaviour (lots of partners, extreme practises, etc), but directed towards the opposite sex. Was only later that it acquired the meaing "straight".
Hughball, you are unjust—no doubt unintentionally—to Joanna. She has not said that all those who loathe Christianity have done or would like to do those dreadful things, only that some who do have. Since you say that you do not loathe Christianity—and I quite believe that you do not—she could not be possibly be suggesting that you might be placed on a par with the those who commit the incivilities she mentions.
As for your particular concerns, you have expressed them in a reasonable and civilized manner, and I think that they should be responded to in the same manner (though not be me, today). Love as well.
Dear Johanna,
Something different.
I have long prayed to the Holy Spirit to help me learn how to cook, for reasons to do with my familial situation, where there are three other adults who all cook...for me too! Two are unmarried children who were taught by my first wife from Scotland before her death from cancer a decade ago. The third is my second wife from America. All cook well... anyway on Ash Wednesday I caught you on EWTN giving out a "Lenten" recepie for fish, vegtable, and potato pie and it just stuck in my mind... so today I just did it!
What I'm really trying to do is ask the Holy Spirit to help me approach the appreciation of the significance today of John Paul II's "Theology of the Body" with my adult children from my experience as being married to both my wives. I think the conversation over your fish pie helped me start down this road after many years trying! This was only the second meal I have cooked, and both made me think of the heavenly banquet.
I always enjoy your words on EWTN. I'm very interested in the inspiration the Holy Spirit encourages in human material creativity. The Second Vatican Council spoke of our true role as laity being "the making holy of the temporal order". Today this seems to me to be of great relevance to rejecting the tyranny of money as a bad master while recognising it's utility as a good servant through the help of inspirations like those in "Deus est Caritas" and "Caritate in Veritate".
So it has been a delightful surprise to come across the banker turned nun Sister Catherine Cowley who forsaw the cause of the financial meltdown. The idea of integrating the social in the economic is a "recipe" that the Holy Spirit can help us work out on our own responsability from the strained dialogue between science and faith into various syntheses in the development of fiduciary cuture in the digital age.
sincerely,
PeterCosmo
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