My friend the mighty p.p. of Blacken and Dean of Bexley, His Hermeueticalness, Fr. Finigan, whom I look forward to seeing soon, has a great post at his blog, The Hermeneutic of Continuity, about the upcoming meeting of the British Province of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy. I wrote about the meeting HERE. I urge all priests in dear ol’ Blighty to sign up right away. Here is a link to the Booking form.
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It seems that the editors of The Tablet have their knickers in a knot over the very existence of the newly formed and faithful Confraternity of Catholic Clergy. Fr. Finigan explains the whole thing better than I can, and he does so with his customary sense of humor. Go THERE to read about it.
Some of you US readers might not know much about The Tablet (aka The Bitter Pill). The Tablet was once a respectable Catholic publication. It still occasionally has good articles, but it is for the most part rather like the US’s National Catholic Fishwrap. I believe The Tablet’s circulation is dropping. They probably wouldn’t exist if they weren’t being propped up by the aging powers-that-be. The best Catholic weekly in England now is unquestionably The Catholic Herald, to which you can subscribe for an online, digital edition of the full paper. Fr. Finigan, by the way, has a weekly Q&A feature in The Catholic Herald, which is reason enough to subscribe.
We have been talking about this all week among my Catholic friends (mostly sems and priests in London). I have written about this as well. All the priests and sems I have met are thrilled with the new appointment of Bishop Egan. It is an inspired choice.
As long as Westminster allows the Pill to be in every parish which wants it, every secondary school library, every retreat centre in England and Wales, and every seminary, this periodical will continue to spew out poison. It should have been shut down under Tom Burns when it broke with Pope Paul VI over Humanae Vitae, leading millions of Catholics into dissent and sin a long time ago–in fact, almost immediately after the Encyclical was published in 1968. I know about this and for some reasons I shall not go into, I knew Tom Burns and his wife. The liberal Catholic establishment took over this diocese. Everyone here knows it. But, it is changing and the libs are panicking. Yeah! Their days are numbered and they can’t face the loss of influence and power. I love watching all of this. It is so medieval!
Why the Pill continues and why such dumb articles are allowed to be published is beyond me-not really I know why. It is not even good journalism, it is mediocre journalism. This journalist is immature and irrational. I mean, can you believe the phrases? “must be opposed” Going is the “Spirit of Vatican II”.
I read the Catholic Herald every week, and echo fully your comments, Father. Very occasionally I make the mistake of picking up the ‘Tablet’, but only if it is face down in church. I was quite fascinated when someone told me it was a Catholic weekly – my response was: ‘How can you tell?’