The Blind Leading the Blind (off a cliff)!!!

I have returned, apologies for my absence only I've been incredibly busy. Ok that excuse was not good enough, I was washing my hair....no? Ok i admit it I'm a lazy blogger, there I have faced my problem and admitted it. Truth be told I have been really busy, and by night the thoughts of pounding on a keyboard doesn't really appeal. Secondly I'm not the type to splatter the screen with every random thought that sluggishly meanders through my cranium, I never intended to post every single day on every single topic.

 But here's my thought for today.
 Everyone who loves their Faith knows about the problem (understatement) that is the RE congress in the LA archdiocese. This annual heresy fest has long been a very public source of great shame to the Church not only in the States but throughout the world. Not much noticed here in the Emerald Isle was the steady stream of catechetical "experts" and high ranking Irish clerics  from these shores who visited and indeed spoke at this apostasy.
    Not merely content with contributing, these eminently qualified people decided that what could be better than having an Irish version of the congress. Yours truly attended the first one, which was held in Dublin, several years ago and it was everything I hoped (and feared) it would be. From St. Patrick's Breastplate being used for stretching exercises (I kid you not) to a workshop on dreams hosted by a Jesuit ( who else) which expounded the idea that the Baptism at the Jordan was Our Lord dreaming and then he went in to the desert for forty days to work out this dream!! Another workshop euphemistically called women in scripture which wasn't about the bible, but rather a one woman (nun) rant on discrimination, women priests and the evils of men all coming from an invitee from Canada. The list goes on from a self appointed congress poet (with terrible iambic pentameter)  to a call for a pre-Christ christology???
  I came away from the congress chuckling but with a sense of foreboding. The one silver lining was that all the delusional souls present were getting on in years and the place stank of desperation. But these were the "experts" who devised and published the "Children of God" and "Alive -O" series for Catholic schools, these cretins are responsible for forty years of devastation and countless lost souls.
  But you have to give them credit the next congress they had a youth day planned so as to get more youth in their ranks. I doubt this will work, young people tend to drift to the neo-catholic/new springtime group rather than the lost generation of the council.
   Now  the next congress hoves into view hosted in the autumn in the diocese of Kerry, the shepherd of which is the head of the catechetical office of the Irish episcopal conference. Need I say more. Perhaps most significantly, the keynote speaker is one Thomas Groome, professor of theology  and religious education.
Here are a few snippets of his writings:

" One possible solution (which for this author has seemed successful with younger children) is to interchange the terms 'father' 'mother' and 'loving parent' for God. Then, when teaching a traditional prayer like the 'Our Father' , teachers can take care to explain in the catechesis which follows that Jesus intends us to approach God as a trustworthty, forgiving and loving parent."

" As for all human beings, Jesus has to be one gender or the other, and the Gospels give no indication of any particular significance in his being male. Better, then, to treat this as one aspect of the 'scandal of particularity' that was his life: as a person, Jesus was a man, a Jew, a carpenter, from Nazareth etc. It is through his divinity and hunamity, not particularly his maleness, that Jesus is our Saviour and Liberator."

 Note the words stretched to breaking point, all to make Groome's argument for inclusive language in the classroom when teaching religion. I particularly enjoy his own definition of his educational theory.

"A participative and dialogical pedagogy in which people reflect critically on their own historical agency in time and place and on their socio-cultural reality, have access together to Christian Story/Vision, and personally appropriate in their community with the creative intent of renewed praxis in Christian faith towards God's reign for all creation."

There simple, why even a five year old could understand that! Quick get me a five year old I can't make head nor tail of it!! 

Faith and Society.

"It would be a strange fatality if the great revolution by which Western man has subdued nature to his purposes should end in the loss of his own spiritual freedom, but this might well happen if an increasing technical control of the state over life and thought of its members should coincide with a qualitative decline in the standards of our culture. An ideology in the modern sense of the word is very different from a faith, although it is intended to fulfil the same sociological functions. It is the work of man, an instrument by which the conscious political will attempts to mould the social tradition to its purpose. But faith looks beyond the world of man and his works; it introduces man to a higher and more universal range of reality than the finite and temporal world to which the state and economic order belong. And thereby it introduces into human life an element of spiritual freedom which may have a creative and transforming influence on man's social culture and historical destiny as well as on his inner personal experience."
                                                                                      Christopher Dawson 1949.

Incensing the Altar at the Offertory

Dirigatur, Domine, oratio mea, sicut incensum in conspectu tuo: elevatio manuum mearum sacrificium vespertinum .
Pone, Domine, custodiam ori meo, et ostium circumstantiae labiis meis.
Ut non declinet cor meum in verbo malitiae, ad excusandas excusationes in peccatis.

Let my prayer, O Lord, be directed as incense in Thy sight: the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.
Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, and a door round about my lips.
Incline not my heart to evil words: to make excuses in sin.

What type of car would you be...?

Posting a lot recently about journey and crossroads etc so it got me thinking, what kind of cars would be on these thoroughfares?
Liberals, well I think there would be two types; the more etheral, cosmic at one with mother godess clique would have hybrids or if lucky electrical cars. You can just see it, sitting smugly behind their wheel holding all the traffic back as they hum contentedly down the road. The second type of liberal car would be a turbo charged sports car, screeching away trying somehow to attain the speed of light. But both these cars would have the same in common, they are unaware of any road users or indeed any rules of the road. " Rules are too square man!" "Red lights what a drag, I need to be free man!" " Hey I know what's best on this road man so move over baby." Of course its the rest of us poor insured rabble that have to pay for these arrogant idiots. "Hey man...  Shut up!! hippy"
Neo-cons, well lets see. Of course they would have to consult the Vatican first to see what the Holy Father's preference is, and then they would drive carefully. Every day that they drove would be a beautiful spring  morning, and life would be joyous and spirit-filled, open to every emotion and secure in the knowledge that the sat nav would speed them in the right direction. In fact they would listen and follow implicitly the directions, turn right in 200 metres, turn left now, stop at junction, continue for 2 kms over bridge. Afterwards, puzzled as they sit in their car which is slowly filling with water, they will conclude that they didn't listen carefully enough as obviously the sat nav was vatican approved and therefore perfect. ( most neo-cons use the notion of papal infallibility in the same manner that a 4 year old uses paint, liberally and without discrimination; in fact empirical data suggests that a neo-con wouldn't know the true definition of infallibility if it came up and punched them on the nose.)
As for traditionalits, well any old car will do as long as it gets you to where you are going, stopping frequently to consult the map and don't forget to display the learner plates!!!

A view from the Square.

Sunday was a strange day, in that two wings of the church diametrically opposed to each other agreed on the same thing. Namely the liberals and the traditionalists agreed that they had huge reservations about the beatification of John Paul II. This was a day for the neo-cons, those Catholics really celebrated.
  The liberals were predictable in their bleating about Vatican II being stymied by the "dictatorial" pontiff ( this is a bit rich as we shall see), they were on firmer ground in their misgivings about the handling of the abuse crisis and in particular the halting of the investigation of the antics of Maciel and the undue influence of the Legion in Rome.
  Traditionalists, well they had a long list of grievances.
But what is the problem? Well lets look at the positives.
Was JPII fearless in his struggle with communism? Yes he was.
The manner of his death and his example of witness to suffering was inspring.
Did he give an example of personal holiness and prayer? Yes he did.
Was he strong on moral issues around the sanctity of life? Yes he was.

 But with true Christian charity it must be pointed out that there was much to mourn:
The appointment of bishops unsuited to leading their flock, the supervision (or lack thereof) of these bishops to ensure that their flocks were not led astray.
Papal liturgies around the globe that were akin to rock/ pagan spectacles.
The Assisi meeting and frequent pronouncements that undermined for the faithful the belief that the One True Church was the sole means for salvation.
The Theology of the Body, JPII's own system of teaching on human sexuality and relationships, this continues to be the flavour of the month spawning conferences and seminars around the world, a rich meal ticket but shot through with humanism. At variance with the traditional teaching of the Church as regards the ends of  marriage.
His belief in the human institutions such as the UN as the means to bring about social justice etc.
 These are just a few of the concerns that could be expressed, JPII was truly a child of Vatican II, intimately involved in the council, one of the main movers and shakers behind Gaudium et Spes (a document whose ethos cannot be squared with traditional Catholic teaching  on man's place in creation and his reliance on God) a favourite of Paul VI.
  This goes some way to explain the haste of the process for beatification. Vatican II needs a saint. The neocons demand it. JohnXXIII is blessed, Paul VI's cause limps along. Now there is the strongest card to play. A consumate public figure, even the media grudgingly admired him. For the neocons he represented the best of their brand of charismatic Catholicism, namely visible, emotive and spiritual. Faith and Reason are the cornerstones of the Church, yet reason seems to have been jettisoned. This well fits in with the "cult of personality" that has become the trademark of this wing of the Church. "What? The Holy Father says that we must wear leather hats? Right I have my gun, now where did I put that cow...?"
 Even the mechanics of the process are up for questioning, the recent changes to the criteria favour speedy and less stringent  examinations of the cause. This was explained away with the notion that the judges must have enough evidence gathered to proceed with the cause, but who judges the judges and the background motivation and pressures that lead to their judgement?
John Paul the Great? No.  Blessed John Paul? ...

II Timothy

"Be sure of this, that in the world's last age there are perilous times coming. Men will be in love with self, in love with money, boastful, proud, abusive; without reverence for their parents, without gratitude, without scruple, without love, without peace; slanderers, incontinent, strangers to pity and to kindness; treacherous, reckless, full of vain conceit, thinking rather of their pleasures than of God. They will preserve all the outward form of religion, although they have long been strangers to its meaning."  3:1- 5
" The time will surely come, when men will grow tired of sound doctrine, always itching to hear something fresh; and so they will provide themselves with a continuous succession of new teachers, as the whim takes them, turning a deaf ear to the truth, bestowing their attention on fables instead." 4:3-4

Tir na Nog.

I've noticed myself starting to go grey,  Scream and dull thud as Servus collapses on the floor, gibbering in horror of full blown mid-life crisis!!!!  Nah! can't be bothered with all that self-analytical navel gazing.
But why does it matter to so many?
It used to be the case that women dyed their hair to hide grey,to maintain that look. Now every time I flick on the google box I see men desperately lathering themselves in hair dye, age defying cream (at last we can control the space time continuum!!) and other concoctions. Don't get me started on cosmetic surgery
 What happened to growing old gracefully?
It used to be the case that the elderly were treated with respect since they were valued for their wisdom, now advancing years is seen as the ultimate sin, remain youthful for as long as possible, experience all that you can. Wisdom has taken a back seat to subjective feelings and sense impressions. Fleeting, impulsive, non-commital and usually with a price tag attached. There are no lessons to be learnt, no knowledge to be passed on, too busy feeling and being.  And if you get too old to be economically viable or socially appropriate well there is always the elderly homes or better still .... when quality of life is diminished. ( quality now there is a deliberately vague word.)
Yet perhaps under this layer, lies another more subconcious issue that is being expressed.
If God has been banished, what comes next?
If the eternal is absent, age begins to assume a dreadful finality.
Stay young, defy age for afterwards there is only  oblivion.
That perhaps is one reason why the elderly are not as valued as they once were, they visibly remind us of our mortality and what lies beyond that door. And if God ain't the doorman....?

Chaos at the Crossroads!

Now  my  friends   make  sure  that  you  are  sitting  comfortably.  Yes?  Good.  Then  I  shall  begin.

     Once  there  was  a  crossroads.  A  place  where  four  roads  from  the  four  cardinal  points  of  the compass  met.  It  was  beautiful.  The  north  road  swept  down  from  the  high  mountains  and  the  snow  plains  where  the  icy  wind  was  king.  The  east  road  snaked  its  way  through  the  dense  jungle,  full  of  exotic  animals  and  plants  thriving  in  the  sticky  humidity.  The  south  road  came  from  the  desert,  bleached  by  the  incessant  sun.  Finally  there  was  the  west  road  winding  its  way  through  ancient  forests.  There  were  many  legends  of  travellers  who  had  used  this  crossroads,  of  their  exploits  and  their  lives,  some  of  these  were  questioned or  debated.  Yet  all  agreed  that  the  crossroads  had  been  made  by  the  Great  Traveller,  it  was  He  who  had  shown  the  Way  and  it  was  He  who  had  given  instructions  on   how  to  use  the  crossroads.  Then  He  had  departed  forging  a  new  road  for  those  who  wished  to  follow  Him.  Everybody  knew  that  this  new  road  began  at  the  crossroads  and  that  it  led  to  the  undying  land,  the  home  of  the  Great  Traveller.

      Many  who  wandered  the  lands  discovered  this  crossroads.  It  became  a  meeting  place  for  all,  for  the  land  round  about  was  fair  and  pleasant.  Many  rested  here  and  called  it  home,  for  it  brought  a  sense  of  fullness  and  contentment.  Dwelling  there  seemed  to  answer  all  the  questions  that  these  wanderers  had.  The  very  land  was  sacred.

    The  years  passed  and  from  a  humble  crossroads,  with  the  occasional  cart  or  solitary  voyager , sprouted  a  beautiful  land,  filled  with  those  who  had  a true  sense  of  place.  They  were  no  longer  wanderers  rather   they  called  themselves  pilgrims,  travelling  on  a  different  path,   they  began  to  give  thanks  and  express  their  belief  in  song,  verse  and  art.  Their  music  and  their  buildings  soared  up  to  the  heavens  from  whence  all  had  come.  Yes  indeed  it  was  good.

    Centuries  passed,  some  peaceful  and  some  tumultuous.  There  were  arguments  and  sometimes      pilgrims  left  to  find  new  lands  and  construct  their  own  crossroads  that  they  hoped  would  lead  to  the  light  on  the  far  horizon.  Then  slowly  change  began  to  happen  in  the  land.  New  ideas  came,  not  a  bad  thing  in  itself,  but  this  led  the  pilgrims  to  begin  to  see  reality as  confusion  and  complicated.  Somehow  the  light  that  had  shown  the  path  had  dimmed  (or so they  were  led  to  believe) and  they  were  left  to  their  own  devices.   The  pace  of  life  quickened  and  everybody  seemed  so  self-absorbed   yet  nobody  seemed  happier,  so  the  grumbling  started,  especially  among  those  who  felt  that  they  were  really  important.  The  cry  went  up  that  the  crossroads  was  too  slow.  All  these  important  people  with  their  important  tasks  in  their  important  lives  could  not  wait  interminably  at  the  crossroads.  So  the  idea  started  that  perhaps  the  people  could  do  a  better  job  by  themselves,  that  they  could  create  new  rules  for  travelling.  This  was  terribly  upsetting  to  many  pilgrims  who  still  believed  that  the  crossroads  was  an  important  thing  and  had  to  be  cherished.

     Eventually  after  many  contentious  traffic  jams, some of the more foolish  pilgrims  decided  to  talk  to  the  important  people  to  decide  how  best  to  preserve  the  crossroads  but  make sure  that  everyone  was  happy.  The  busy  important  people  agreed    and  used  encouraging  words  like  “progress”,  “all-embracing”  and  their  favourite word  “dialogue.”  But  in  secret  they  began  to  plot  how  best  to  get  rid  of  it,  they  scorned  the  fairy tale  of  the  Great  Traveller,  the  crossroads  was  a  dangerous  relic.

   The  two  sides  met  and  talked  and  talked  and  talked,  and  when  it  seemed  that  they  had  finished  they  talked  some  more.  Finally  a  decision  was  reached  and  everybody  (apart  from  an  unimportant  few)  agreed  that  this  was  the  way  into  the  future.  The  declaration  was  that  traffic  lights  would  be  placed  at  the  crossroads.  Although  most  pilgrims  were  not  used  to  it  they  could  quickly  learn,  if  the  Great  Traveller  were  here  now,  said  the  experts,  he  would  put  lights  at  the  crossroads.  The  pilgrims,  it  was  argued,  had  lost  sight  of  what  He  really  wanted.  Now  there  was  confusion,   it  was  clear  that   red   was   for  stop  and  green  was   for  go,  but  what  about  amber,  what  did  that  mean?  No  one  seemed  able  to  clear  up  the  matter  and  many  pilgrims  now  avoided  the  crossroads  and decided  to  find  better  routes.  The  worst  was  yet  to  come  for  you  see  the  busy  important  people  and  their  experts  had  played  a  nasty  trick.  For  the  traffic  lights  they  had  installed  were  the  newest  and  most  modern  lights  that  they  could  find.  At  night  and  when  the  traffic   lessened,  these  lights  talked  amongst  themselves.

 “ My  travellers  are  coming  from  the  cold  north  and  need  to  warm  up  fast  so  they  should  have right  of  way,”  said  the  light  standing   proudly   on  the  north  road.

 “ Yes  that  is  a  fair  point  and  I  hear  your  need  and  respect  your  opinion,”  said  the  emotional   south  light, “  but  my  voyagers  have  felt  thirst  and  need  quickly  to  find  water  and  comfort.  Surely  you  can  not  ignore  their  experiences?”

  Then  the  west  light  reluctantly  changed  to  red  and  spoke  up.  “  Its  really  not  in  my  nature  to  be  red,”  it  said  plaintively. “  I  really  should  be  true  to  myself  and  what  I  feel.  After  all  that  is  where  reality  is  most  present,  in  my  feelings.”

  At  this  point  a  new  sound  began  to  be  heard,  it  was  the  crossroads  clearing  its  dusty,  venerable  throat.

 “  You  all  talk  of  rights  but  none  of  duty. You  can  not  all  do  what  you  please.  You  were  placed  here  to  serve  a  bigger  purpose  than  yourselves,  if  you  do  not  function  as  you  were  made  then  all  will  be  chaos.

“ Quiet  you!”  Snapped  the  pluralistic   east   road  light,  “ do  not  dare  to  oppress  us,  we  are  the  future  that  is  inclusive  of  all  who  journey  on  these  roads,  not  your  outdated  and  dictatorial  ways.”

  The  crossroads  lapsed  into  silence  and  listened  with  a  mixture  of  amusement  and  alarm  as  the  traffic  lights  debated.  They  agreed  by  committee  that  each  of  them  had  a  valid  reason  for  holding  their  views  and  that  all  views  should  be  equally  respected.  The  consensus  reached  was  that  if they  wanted  to  turn  green  at  any  time  then  they  could.   Democracy  and  equality  were  hailed  as  the  winners  of  this  discussion.  My  friends   you  can  see  where  this  is  going.

  The  very  next  day  during  the  morning  rush  hour  there  was  a  terrible  crash  at  the  crossroads.  All  the  traffic  lights  had  turned  green  at  the  same  time.  There  was  the  crumple  of  metal,  the  tinkling  of  glass,  the  blaring  of  horns  and  the  screech  of  tyres.  In  the  very  middle  of  the  crossroads  a  terrible  argument  broke  out  about  whose  insurance  was  going  to  cover  the  damage.  In  fact  I  believe  the  argument  is  still  going  on  to  this  day,  since  all  those  unfortunate  pilgrims   believe  (thanks  to  the  lights)  that  they  are  in  the  right.

    So  you  see  the  busy  important  people  and  their  plan  prevailed.  With  all the  arguments  and  confusion  at  the  crossroads  they  were  able  to  open  up  their  brand  new  six  lane  highway,  which  they had  been  building  in  secret.  More  and  more  wanderers  used  it   (for  a  small  toll  fee  of  course)   and  they  loved  the  convenience  of  speeding  off  into  the  distance  away  from  the  muddle  of  the  crossroads.  Indeed  I  am  sad  to  report  that  many  pilgrims  also  forsook  their  precious  gift  of  the  crossroads.  The  allure  of  the  sparkling  new  expensive  highway  was  such  that  any  one  who  drove  on  it  never  wanted  to  get  off.  Many  never  found  their  way  home  to  the  crossroads.  No  one  knows  where  the  highway  goes  to  over  that  dark  and  foreboding  horizon.

   If  my  friends    there  is  a  salutary  lesson  to  be  learnt,  then  here  it  is.  Be  warned  you  pilgrims,  those  of  you  who  are  happily  speeding  along  relevance  avenue,  be  careful  that  you  don’t  spin  off    at  relative  curve.

©servus2008.

Road to nowhere.

So the Easter ceremonies are over for another year. They were absolutely beautiful , from the procession on Palm Sunday, the "Miserere" of Tenebrae, the stripping of the high altar on Holy Thursday to the joyous mass on Easter Sunday, beautifully and reverently prayed and attended (apart from the NO heads who attended on Sunday clapped after the recessional when they had been told not to, and despite being told that reception was kneeling and on the tongue, stormed off in a huff when they stuck out their hands and were politely told that this was not the norm). 
    To attend and participate prayerfully ( no active participation for me no siree!) in the ceremonies was to immerse oneself in the mystery of Easter, the passion , death, burial and resurrection, it was to journey through the sacrifice of the Redeemder and to become reborn through his victory on the cross.
 Journey, now there's a word, with the rare gift of common sense it denotes a trip from one place to another, there it is a definite action it has a beginning and an end.
Let's for a moment pretend that some people don't avail of common sense, you know the ones to which I refer in particular the Catholics who don't exercise their God given faculties. To them journey denotes something esle, namely the aimless meandering through their life, akin to a drunk trying to negotiate their way home after a night on the tiles. Manys the time I have heard this nonsense from clerics, religious and laity.
      The destination is not important it is our experience as a pilgrim people on this journey that matters.
What absolute and utter rot!  Imagine getting into a car one fine sunny morning and saying to your passengers."Listen I don't know where we're going, in fact I'll not hold onto the steering wheel, but I know it will be a lovely experience wherever we are going."   If the journey doesn't abruptly terminate in a wall, then the occupants could find themselves anywhere out of petrol and lost. And because they have been so busy paying attention to the experience and how they are feeling then they have not noticed the signposts. Consequently the first place that they come across that looks nice they decide that this must have been their destination and they pitch camp there. Hence the Catholics that have been lost to protestantism, islam, buddhism, hare krishna, hinduism, confucism, secular humanism and atheism. What is the response of our bishops? "Well they are on their spiritual journey and have searched outside the church. Sure wont they find God there? After all in a modern pluralistic society there are many voices with a hint of the divine in all of them" (Nostra Aetate has a lot to answer for!!!) This is always said in a smiling yet slightly pleading manner, desperately seeking reassurance, for the clergy need to be affirmed by those who really matter (eg anyone but a faithful Catholic) that the enormity of their negligence can be glossed over. And those in the know will nod their enlightened heads and say unto the bishops, well done and pat them on the head and send them off until they are ready to attack the Church again.
   Yes we are a pilgrim people but we know exactly where we are going, the route is mapped out from the cradle to the grave and providing we have the map the right way up then we can follow it. No one said it would be easy, in fact it is damn hard but then if it was easy the prize would not be worth striving for. And what a prize it is. The journey continues every day, let us keep our eyes on the prize and not stray off the path into darkness, Lumen Christi.

Oh it's the craze that sweeping the nation!!

Dear readers, as you sit down to that nice meal with your loved ones, or sip at the cup of delicious coffee that you so richly deserve please just stop for a moment.... and think.... of those less fortunate than yourselves, those who suffer from a peculiar form of mental illness. Think of having a compunction so consuming that you will do anything to satisfy it, bend reality to serve it and give up your heritage to collaborate with it.  The worst of this malady is that those poor souls don't realise their plight and resent the label that has been given to their condition, they are the ecu-maniacs.

 Ecumenism, what is there to say. Many Catholics believe it is a noble cause, indeed it is THE cause, but they come at it from a faulty understanding of what it truly is.
I'm reminded of that scene from the film "The Deerhunter." You know the story with Robert DeNiro, set against the back drop of lives torn apart by the Vietnam War. Anyway in the film the characters decide to go up into the mountains to hunt deer. Picture the scene, a mountain road and a car appears, it slows down and stops and one of the men gets out to relieve himself, he finishes and goes to get back into the car. Just as he reaches the door of the car the car speeds up and leaves him. He shouts at the driver and the car stops a short distance up the road, he walks towards it and just as he reaches it the car speeds off again, this happens several times, the driver is playing a joke on him. I'm sure that some of us played that joke as well in our younger days!!
    My point is this it reminds me of the Catholic church and its relationship with some of the other christian communities. It is one big joke!  Think about it, the Church strives to come to some sort of agreed frame work with the anglican communion, works at it for years and then the anglicans allow women priests and ordain practicing homosexuals. Others communities allow contraception and abortion under certain circumstances. Yet the Catholics have to keep running to catch up, moving farther and farther away from the core of their faith simply to appease fellow travellers who succumbed to the modern world years ago.
Ah but what about the dialogue? Yes lets look at that this interminable dialogue that seems to have no beginning , no middle and no end. The definition of dialogue is simple, it is a conversation between two or more, not much help there. Well what about conversation what does it mean? The definition of to converse simply means to talk. But what I find interesting is that there is another meaning of converse, namely the opposite, turned round, reverse. That seems to be more apt when we think about the conversation that Catholics engage in with other christians.
 True ecumenism is the process by which all those who profess to believe in Christ Jesus are gathered together in the One True Church, that which was founded by Christ, that which is lead by Peter and his successors.

Reordering Liturgical Space!

Just thought I better give a quick update on the parish priest and his nefarious plan for my old home church.  (post 23rd October 2010)   The reverend father seems to be progressing with his scheme quietly and efficiently.  He posted up the new look for the sanctuary of the church and then took a straw poll of the views of the parishioners.  A few Sundays ago he announced the result of this democratic consultation. 65% opposed to the alterations with 35% agreeing. He then gave the best bit of spin I have ever heard, politicians should take notes, he stated that the views of the 35% would have to be accommodated!!! Brilliant,  this piece of verbal sidestepping showed the new church of the people for the lie that it is, oh sure it is the church of the people as long as the people think the same way as their leaders. LONG LIVE THE SPIRIT OF VATICAN II!! VIVA LA REVOLUTION!! LOL.

Plus ca change ......

"O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
 And men have lost their reason!"  -  Julius Caesar. Act 3: II

The Irish media are intellectually and morally bankrupt! There I said it! 
Gasp! "Servus," I hear you say, "What on earth could prompt you to make such a bold assertion?"
Well let me explain. With the election over, the press have called it a new dawn, a political seachange, the end of old Irish politics, a new national government.  Little did I know that when I went to bed that night that when I rose the next day I would be in a new country!!! Have to buy a new sat nav LOL.
     But to read and listen to the media that is apparently what has happened.  Who are they trying to kid? This new government is going to continue with the same policies as the last. Which consists of doing whatever our European overlords tell us to do, and doff our caps to them (beggorah sir! to be sure at once and no mistake sir). These are the same politicos who forced us to vote for Lisbon again with lies about guarentees, for no other reason than to bind us to our fate with the French and German banks. Yes to jobs, yes to recovery!!  LIES, more like yes to debt, yes to economic servitude.
   This is the same media who peddled these falsehoods, who referred to any one who supported the no campaign as right wing reationaries with shadowy agendas. And note please that over the last few months that the bailout and the debt is now referred to as the IMF deal.  This again is spin, it is an EU/IMF bailout and truth be told the IMF is only supplying a third of the  money at a better interest rate than that of our EU "friends."
  It is not a national government, it is merely a coalition of  political expediency.  Of course using the term national conjures images of crisis, Churchill led a national government during the war. This is no coming together of all political hues in an effort to save the country, far from it. Switch the party symbols around and you will find no difference in policies bewteen any of them. Of course no one in the media would even contemplate raising this issue. After all these are the same parasites who a few years back would have said  "oh you have to get this, house, car, furniture, oh you have to go here for your holidays!!!"  long gone are the days when news was informed by public opinion, now people are treated like sheep to be programmed to accept whatever the intelligentsia (term used loosely)  think is best for them.
 So what is new? Answer nothing, more of the same. New faces but not new ideas. Yet to read a paper all would appear to be change. Like I said intellectually and morally bankrupt.
Plus ca change plus c'est le meme chose.

Brass Tacks (rant#4 the revenge)

Without religious instruction, and proper religious instruction then all the efforts of the present will dissolve in the future. Fewer pro-lifers, those that do take up the cause will be unsure as to the actual church teaching, they will get bogged down in the secularist double-speak that is the quality of life, human rights etc.
 Fewer young Catholics who think that waiting until they are married is the prudent and ultimately wisest decision, why? Because they have not been taught otherwise.
   Recently released amidst much fanfare  the new national directory for catechesis was launched, the blueprint for future religious education. Interestingly we have a section on the challenges that the Irish church faces in the new century. So concern for the environment, for immigrants, those who are socially marginalised etc. yes all noble and good causes. BUT not one mention of prolife issues, attack on the family or the hedonistic lifestyle that is being encouraged.  So trees, eastern europeans, beggars all deserve our christian witness and charity and this is how it should be, but to shirk away from abortion or pre-marital sex in case it offends someone is downright reprehensible.  Yet it is not surprising, during the election the labour party made it clear that if elected they would legislate for abortion (this is driven by the youth wing of the party who of course were educated in "catholic" schools), the response of the bishops??  Well the episcopal conference ( the herd) released a communique criticising the capitalist culture that got us into this mess, but of the labour election promise, not a word, no direction given to their flock, no censure , no condemnation and reassertion of catholic teaching. Truly the flock has been scattered and the shepherds have gone astray!!!!
     If in this most basic and one might say simplest expression of Catholic teaching , on the sanctity of life, there is no guidance, what hope is there for any aspect of our faith. True Catholic teaching will be replaced by fuzzy quasi-Christian social consciousness,  emotive, deviod of reason and at the whim of whatever fad is current in general society. Those who attempt to stand up for the faith, will increasingly be labelled, conservative, reactionary, denying lived  christian experience, and dare we use the word !!! Traditional!!!