D. Tyler: A spiffy sermon for the opening of the Fortnight of Freedom

5 Comments

1. JKnott says:

   22 June 2012 at 9:14 AM

   Wonderful sermon. I am forwarding it to several others for inspiration them as well. Thanks Father
   Interesting how the Nuns on the Bus agenda divides, and this sermon unites.
2. irishgirl says:

   22 June 2012 at 9:33 AM

   A ‘spiffy sermon’, indeed; but the good Father got a couple of his facts wrong regarding King Henry VIII and St. John Fisher.
   First of all, Henry’s first wife was Catherine of Aragon, not his second. It was when he was married to Catherine (his older brother Arthur’s widow), and when she failed to give him a living male heir (the boys she did bear all died a few months after birth) and had only a girl who survived (Princess Mary, who became Queen Mary I), then that’s when he wanted to put Catherine away by divorce and marry Anne Boleyn. Of course, we all know what happened to Anne-her childbearing history was much the same as Catherine’s ( miscarriages, one boy who died in infancy, and one living girl, the future Elizabeth I). I think Father got his ‘wives facts’ mixed up.
   And then, with St. John Fisher, he was not the ‘Bishop of CAMBRIDGE’. No such ‘animal’, either then or now. He was the Bishop of ROCHESTER, in Kent. He did have a ‘Cambridge connection’, though, in being the Chancellor of the University.
   Can’t help it: I get irritated when historical facts are messed up…..

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4. oakdiocesegirl says:

   22 June 2012 at 12:18 PM

   Thanks for the clarifications, irish girl! Pretty appalling gaffe for a guy with an obvious Irish brogue. Those English history books used in Ireland must be really messed up. He left out the “would make a shipwreck of my conscience quote”, too. I liked Archbishop Lori’s sermon much more [which got a 45 second standing ovation].
   Has anyone noted that St. John Fisher’s head hung on a gibbet on London Bridge a Fortnight ,until it was replaced with that of Thomas More? Lots of Fortnight significance around these guys being missed here in America. Here in Oakland, the diocese evidently has nothing yet planned for the F4F and there wasn’t a speck of red on or around the altar at Mass in Alameda this AM the celebrant wore white-altho he did acknowledge whose feast it was ] Used the wrong readings, too.
5. irishgirl says:

   23 June 2012 at 8:17 AM

   @oakdiocesegirl: Thanks! As I said, I get rather irritated when historical facts are not ‘set straight’.
   Yes, that priest DID have an Irish brogue, come to think of it!
   I also know about St. John Fisher’s head being put on London Bridge. I think I read somewhere that before it was cast into the River Thames, it was brought to Anne Boleyn, who stabbed the martyr’s tongue ‘a la Herodias’ in revenge for his speaking out against the royal divorce and remarriage (Herodias was the wife of King Herod’s brother Philip, and the reason why St. John the Baptist-whose birthday is tomorrow-was imprisoned and beheaded: ‘You shall not marry your brother’s wife’).
   And when St. Thomas More’s head was impaled in place of St. John, his courageous daughter Margaret Roper, at great risk to herself, retrieved it and took it to Canterbury, where it rests in her husband’s family vault in the Church of St. Dunstan. I visited that church on my first visit to England in 1987-I remembered the beautiful stained glass windows commemorating St. Thomas More.

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