Normally I love writing this column, but this week I need to say something that gives me no pleasure at all. Here it is in a nutshell: Reporting on religion in the mainstream British press is not only sometimes dreadful, it's dangerous, and something needs to be done about it.Allen is particularly moved to write because of Ruth Gledhill's article in last Monday's Times "Churches back plan to unite under Pope."
To be honest, when I heard of this article, I didn't really bother to take much notice. Over here we are so wearily accustomed to stupid sensationalist reporting on religious matters that I have come to the point that I only read such articles when it is necessary because someone has been foolish enough to take them seriously.
However, this particular piece in the Times seems to have had the effect of waking up people elsewhere in the world to the staple diet of religious reporting that we have to endure.
Jimmy Akin has also commented on Gledhill's reporting (not as politely as Allen) in his post She's Baaaaa-aaaack!!!. From there he links to a withering attack on a previous article which was headed "Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible."
7 comments:
That Times article was ludicrous, That said, since I moved out of London into a rural area it has become obvious that what lay people believe has merged an awful lot. (if it ever diverged that much in the first place)
The only people who asked if we had the house blessed were the C of E people next door (they were very relieved when we said we had because the two previous couples living here had fallen out quite nastily), and we had to get Fr Thwaites to do the Blessing on a visit because our then, now deceased, parish priest didn't do things like that.
Meanwhile one of the local C of E churches only has the Tridentine Mass in English!! and we use the adjacent towns pre ref church (where Catherine of Aragon was forced to live after the "divorce") as a weekly Mass Centre. In the adacent village to the south, the again pre-ref C of E church plays host to our twice monthly Tridentine Mass (which the vicar advertises as Roman Catholic Latin Mass in his newsletter!), Funeral masses of catholics from the local villages held in the village C of E church are not uncommon (and give an excellent opportunity for prayers for the dead buried there, those old enough of course being Catholic dead). Essentially some of our Parishoners only ever attend mass at Anglican churches - except that of course in reality they are still Catholic churches -they've never been de-consecrated.
Meanwhile the services of Matins continue to disappear and Holy Communion or even "Mass" is the advertised norm in the C of E locally. (as an aside, I once attended with a C of E work colleague, as an act of Ecumenical charity, a weekday "Mass" at a high anglican church in Central London where daily "Mass" is now held, he warned me that I might find it a bit "high" compared with what I was used to - he was right. Priest ad orientem and the tiny congregation (about 1/30th of that weekdays at St Ethelredas) received communion on the tongue (and were rather confused when I abstained from communion)
Meanwhile both our non denomination kindergarten (run by a C of E regular churchgoer) and state primary school put on excellent traditional nativity plays involving our children (and the kindergarten taught our oldest a new prayer "Gentle Jesus now I pray..") which we discovered when we heard her teaching it to her younger sister.
It seems to me that the apples have become ripe for picking but the tree is beyond hope. I think we will eventually see the C of E break up with about a third of them coming over (if we are in any fit state to receive them), the big question will be what happens to the great cathedrals and historic churches - and who pays for their upkeep. I think the financials are probably the biggest obstacle, C of E vicars would lose their "living" and state funding for church upkeep.
One final thing. I looked up the text of the 1662 BCP on the net a while back. The rubrics regarding communion were fascinating. People still knelt, but this troubled them and there was a long note at the end warning of the dangers of "adoration". This, over 100 years from the reformation, suggests that "adoration" was still alive and well in some quarters, much to the consternation of the government. Given that even the BCP had the correct words of consecration (and Cramner did a better job of translation than ICEL [many]), the question I suppose is how many priests, and whether any C of E Bishops secretly did believe in the Real Presence, in charity one hopes that there were some as otherwise a lot of people in this country especially those who lived in rural areas carried on worshiping in the same church and couldn't have known much about the theology of the reformation have been denied the Sacraments unwittingly. Such a pity institutional reunion in the 1980's with Womens Ordination.
John Allen is a good writer, but he doesn't write for the National Catholic Register. On the contrary, he writes its rival, for the National Catholic REPORTER. The difference is considerable....if the Register is a bit like the Catholic Herald, then the Reporter is a bit like the Tablet!!
Allen's story is an interesting one. He is on something of a journey. He wrote a very bad, shockingly ill-researched and rather vicious book about Cardinal Ratzinger....which was rushed out into a new edition with a new title following the election to the Papacy. Embarrassed by this, he slowly began to discover the truth about the real man behind the false facade he had created, and in doing so started to learn quite a lot more about himself, the Church, and more.......
In the past year or so, Allen has researched and written a rather useful, and very honest, book about Opus Dei, and some excellent feature articles on a variety of subjects relating to the Church. His journey continues, and his latest piece, about the absurd Gledhill piece, is good.
Thanks Paul. I can't understand a priest not wanting to bless houses - pastorally, it is one of the most fruitful ways of visiting parishioners. People always very much appreciate it too.
Joanna, thank you for correcting my ignorance of the US Catholic press. (I have corrected the post.) I knew there were two - trust me to get it wrong!
I have been following John Allen's journey with interest.
sorry the last sentance was meant to be "Such a pity institutional reunion was put beyond any hope in the 1980's with Womens Ordination"
the other week I was asked do I read the Tablet - I replied that I don't read anti-Catholic publications!
Seriously though - I get the impression that the BBC and some of the press get their views and information about the Church from the Tablet, very irritating imo.
fr paul harrison
I also read that absurd Ratzinger biography and assumed that Allen must be a Catholic because it was so 'tabletesque' in tone.
Joanna's comments here suggest that John "Cardinal" Allen is not yet a papist. Gee, honey he sure writes like one!
Yours back in from the States
"$ede"
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