Musings 19 February 2016

MUSINGS OF THE ORDINARY The  appearance  before  the  Royal  Commission  of  Cardinal  Pell  has  led  to  a  frenzy  of  emotion  and  a  suspension  of  rational  thought.  It  is  reminiscent  of  the  Red  Queen  at  the  trial  of  the  Knave  of  Hearts  in  ‘Alice  in  Wonderland,’  ‘Sentence  First  –  verdict  afterward’  (chapter  12).  There  seems  to  be  no  interest  in  evidence,  facts,  due  process  or  truth.  What  is  demanded  for  Cardinal  Pell  is  another  of  the  Red  Queen’s  sayings,  ‘Off  with  his  head!’  

Such  things  may  be  amusing  in  literature  but  in  this  case  and  generally  with  the  Catholic  Church,  some  victims  and  their  supporters  Fired  up  by  the  media  and  its  personalities,  are  behaving  as  a  group  in  ways  which  they  may  not  do  as  individuals.  

There  are  numerous  instances  where  groups  and  crowds  have  taken  on  a  ‘collective  personality’  but  the  appearance  of  Cardinal  Pell,  via  video  link  from  Rome,  is  a  ‘hot  spot’  in  a  more  widespread  attack  on  the  Catholic  Church,  whereas  other  Christian  groups,  professions,  Indigenous  communities,  State  institutions  and  family  circles  in  which  abuse  is  prevalent,  are  not  targeted  to  the  same  extent.  

The  Catholic  Church  is  easier  to  target  because  it  is  universal.  It  is  responsible  for  the  education  and  care  of  people  in  all  age  ranges,  whereas  other  Churches  and  State  facilities  and  families  are  more  localised  and  so  less  prone  to  concerted  attack.  

Apart  from  its  size,  what  other  factors  are  at  play  in  the  current  upsurge  in  anti-­‐Catholic  sentiment  which  is  prevalent  in  the  small  section  of  the  world  known  as  the  Western  world?  In  his  book,  ‘The  Gentle  Traditionalist,’  (2015  Angelico  Press)  Roger  Buck  argues  that  in  the  countries  of  the  Anglo  world  and  Europe  affected  by  the  Reformation,  there  are  two  religions  opposed  to  each  other.  They  are  the  Catholic  Religion  which  still  values  Tradition  as  part  of  its  belief  system,  and  what  he  calls  the  New  Liberal  Secular  Religion  which  has  its  roots  in  the  18th  century  Enlightenment,  but  takes  its  core  beliefs  from  the  1960s.  Both  these  ‘religions’  have  multiple  beliefs  about  the  nature  of  existence  and  what  kind  of  morals  Flows  from  it.  

Buck  lists  some  of  the  dogmas  of  the  New  Secular  religion  as  inclusivity,  political  correctness  and  equality.  Out  of  this  Flows  a  set  of  morals  based  on  the  premise  that  everything  before  the  1960s  is  wrong  and  everything  after  that  point  is  right.  Any  belief  or  moral  system  held  by  generations  prior  to  the  dawning  of  the  new  age  of  Aquarius  is  not  only  to  be  dismissed,  it  is  to  be  expunged  from  modern  society.  

So  those  who  are  alive  today  and  were  born  prior  to  the  1960s  have  ‘discovered’  that  what  was  believed  by  the  majority  of  people  to  be  Christian  values,  were  in  fact  heresy.  So  abortion  is  no  longer  murder  because  a  foetus  is  not  human;  suicide,  assisted  or  otherwise  is  not  sinful,  but  self-­‐deliverance;  gender  is  Fluid;  homosexuality  is  ‘normal,’  etc.  

This  new  Secular  Religion  may  believe  in  some  ‘higher  power’  but  not  in  a  personal  God  or  in  an  afterlife,  so  this  shapes  the  ethics  of  its  adherents.  

Ever  since  the  Reformation,  the  Church  of  England  has  been  governed  by  the  Monarch  and  Parliaments.  This,  being  so,  that  Church  has  always  found  ways  of  adapting  to  secular  values  and  shaping  its  teachings  in  accordance  with  those  ever  changing  values.  As  the  British  Empire  expanded,  those  same  attitudes  were  ‘exported’  with  the  CofE  into  the  countries  with  majority  

Musings 19 February 2016

European  populations.  Observe  how  much  more  the  Anglican  and  other  Protestant  denominations  in  the  Western  World  have  embraced  the  liberal  secular  mores  than  the  Catholic  Church  has.  

However,  it  would  be  foolish  to  assume  that  the  Catholic  Church  has  not  been  inFluenced  by  the  beliefs  and  dogmas  of  the  New  Secular  Religion.  Our  battles  in  education,  defending  the  dignity  of  all  human  life,  and  the  freedom  of  speech,  are  not  supported  by  some  who  claim  to  be  Catholic  but  openly  Flout  the  teaching  of  the  Church.  ‘Catholicism-­‐lite’  is  the  Fifth  column  of  the  Secularists.  

The  gospel  of  ‘niceness,’  relativism  and  the  blurring  of  the  differences  between  belief  systems  is  an  illusion.  These  doctrines  and  Catholicism  cannot  co-­‐exist  because  they  threaten  the  faith  of  the  Church  which  we  are  charged  to  believe,  teach  and  hand  on.  As  Buck  challengingly  puts  it,  ‘Secularism  gets  away  with  murder.’  (p.157)  

Buck  calls  for  a  Counter-­‐Revolution.  By  this  he  does  not  mean  a  violent  Holy  War  against  the  New  Secular  Religion.  He  says  that  societies  in  the  world  that  possess  the  Church,  be  that  Roman  Catholic,  Eastern  Rite  Catholic  or  Orthodox  are  notably  different  from  societies  with  a  sacramental  free  or  sacramental  light  Church.  In  Sacramental  societies  there  is  not  the  same  level  of  individualism  or  family  societal  breakdown.  

So  he  calls  for  a  renewed  understanding  of  the  power  of  the  Sacraments,  or  sacramental  devotion  such  as  Benediction,  the  Rosary,  Holy  Water  and  icons.  We  must  reverse  the  trend  within  the  Church  to  surrender  to  rationalism  and  keep  faith  in  the  tradition  of  the  Church.  

‘The  Church  must  recover  her  tradition.  Only  tradition  understands  the  immense,  healing  power  of  the  Sacraments.  That  power  can  save  civilisation.  If  people  returned  to  Confession,  if  people  took  the  Mass  seriously  again,  there’s  no  telling  what  might  happen.’  (p.161)  

The  vocation  of  clergy  and  laity  in  the  Ordinariates  is  to  show  what  it  means  to  take  the  Catholic  faith  seriously  and  that  includes  responding  positively  to  Pope  Benedict’s  belief  that  ‘The  ecclesial  crisis  in  which  we  9ind  ourselves  today  depends  in  great  part  upon  the  collapse  of  the  liturgy.’

We  in  the  Ordinariates  must  be  what  we  are  called  to  be  and  share  the  treasures  we  bring  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  the  Church.

In ChristMonsignor Harry

The Kingdom of God is at Hand

Set out without a road map to discover God, knowing that the way is sure and has no ending. Don’t try to find him through new techniques but let yourself be formed by him in the poverty of a banal life. Monotony is a kind of poverty: accept it. Don’t look for beautiful trips in your imagination. May the varieties of the Kingdom of God suffice for you and bring you joy. Don’t be overly concerned about your life because to be that concerned is a kind of wealth: then old age will speak to you of birth, and death of resurrection. Time will seem to you like a small fold in the vastness of eternity; you will judge everything in the light of the eternal. If you love the Kingdom of heaven with genuine love you will rejoice in the fact that your understanding is at

a loss in the face of the divine and you will try to have more faith. If your prayer is stripped of tender feelings you will know that we don’t reach God through our nerve endings. If you are short on courage, you will rejoice at being well-fitted for hope. If you find people boring and your heart wretched, you will be happy to have within you that charity that cannot be perceived. When, stripped of everything, you can only see in the world an unfurnished house, and in yourself total poverty with no facade, think of those shadowy eyes open in the centre of your soul and fixed on things that are beyond all words, for the Kingdom of heaven is yours.

Servant of God Madeleine Delbrêl M Delbrêl (♱ 1964) was a French laywoman, writer and mystic devoted to

caring for the poor and to evangelising culture.