Well the Pope is here. I only hope that his visit isn't a complete farce. You know for someone so cold towards the Papacy as I am I actually felt all tingly this morning, like bees, but that didn't stop me going shopping after work (I purchased some new Brogues from Charles Tyrwhitt at half the original price) and finding the BBC commentary in Glasgow entirely pointless (although even the more enthusiastic Catholics would agree there). I hope that one of the things on the Pope's agenda is deposing all the Bishops and replacing them with ones of my personal choice. I know this isn't the forum to be malicious but I can't say that I have any respect, let alone reverence, for the Bishops of this Isle - not so much their doctrinal shortcomings as their liturgical shortcomings. He alone sees all ends though. I was thinking this morning that while I go on about ridding the Church of ecclesiastical despotism in the person of the Pope if I were in charge I'd probably become a tyrant myself - at least I would impose the Old Rite on the Universal Church whether people liked it or not. It annoys me that the reforms of the last 60 years were so fiercely impetuous and yet the upclimbing is so slow and painful, and full of dead ends and wrong turns. It need not be. If the Pope has all this apostolic authority why does he not use it to do things properly and at a quicker pace?
I'm going to the Post Office now (if it's still open, I hope it is). Afterwards we'll see what we shall see. It's hard, as an English Catholic, not to be interested in the events.
Of course it is. I'm neither English nor a Catholic, but I'm interested! In fact I'm holding all my anti-Catholic polemic in abeyance till after the visit. After that, watch out! ;o)
ReplyDeleteO come on Moretben don't hold back, some of us are in deepest penance of Ember Week and need cheering up!
ReplyDeleteIs your fellow countryman Alex Salmond an RC? Either that or he is an opportunist par excellence. I was saddended that Baron Bannside was excluded from the Holyrood House reception.
The big problem is that the culture of the Papal Superstar Visit is all based on the excitement and vibrant charisma of the person of the first of the Western Patriarchs,as was supposedly true for John Paul II and not much that was really Religious,doctrinal or spiritual (let alone liturgical).Now that there is a Pope who appears to be a post-Thatcherite-tory-wet (in Catholic terms) the party won't be so successful,because of his rather sadly sweet but wet personality.Fr R.C.Silk used to talk about the New religion as being Ecumenical Pope Worship - we're in for some now.Funny, that his visit to Westminster today takes place on the Novus Ordo feast of the former Roman Professor of Controversy, St Robert Bellarmine; will he get a mention ? Alan Robinson
ReplyDeleteThe Pope did all well.
ReplyDeleteHe's back in Rome now.
But, as an ancestor of the British Isles, I am very proud of what transpired.
The reminder and constant reiteration of the Catholic foundation of England and all was a real edification and confirmation of what must be done.
Maybe not in great numbers.
Nevertheless, it's still there.
Prayers.