330a Burnt Oak Lane
SIDCUP
Kent
DA15 8LW
Sorry I haven't got a parish "Paypal" button yet - I'll try and get that going.
One priest put "Friendly" on the back of the envelope which enclosed the kind letter he sent me - thank you Father. In fact, I have had very few hostile messages either by post or by email. Ah! email. I am about 150 emails behind at the moment but will get around to them all in due course. Thank you all for your support.
Someone has set up a Facebook group and someone else has put up a petition asking the Tablet to apologise (don't hold your breath!)
When the Tablet's publisher wrote to me (and copied to the paper's lawyers) his complaint about my breach of copyright (in quoting the Curti article in full and commenting on it) he invited me to send in a letter to the editor. I have no intention of doing so. If they want a letter, here is the text:
"Dear Ms Pepinster,One of the things that attracted me to blogging is that it provides an opportunity to respond to the print media without being edited out. And in fact, despite the polyanna attitude over there at the Klosters, the Catholic blogosphere is not a "tiny conservative world". One of the things I have to thank the Tablet for is a rise in readership of this blog such that I can now post these two statistics for comparison (click to enlarge):
Cf. http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/
Yours etc."
Now add in Fr Z (as many visits in a day as I have per week), DT etc I, etc II, etc III, and others that I have probably missed and the readership is very many times that of the Tablet. Nevertheless, many thanks to all those who have written in. It will be most interesting to see what is allowed to appear on the Tablet letters page. Having received copies of many letters that have been sent in, I will be publishing a selection of those that do not get past the editor.
25 comments:
Yes, and get just under half of your figures recently.
Dear Father,
For your American readers who wish to make a donation, do checks have to be made in British pounds, or can you accept those in American dollars?
Keep up with the great work!
We get hammered by the bank if a cheque is made out in another currency. But maybe you get hammered if you have to do the cheque in GBP. From my end, British pounds are better.
Although the postal service tell yo not to, banknotes (any currency) are a way of preventing the banks taking their cut.
I love that stat comparison.
I happened to run into Elena Curti at a party on Shrove Tuesday. Naturally I asked her about all the controversy her article about Father Tim Finigan had generated.
I have to say that the first thing she said and was at pains to stress was that Father Tim is a very good parish priest who is pastorally quite superb. The impression she gave me was that Father Tim went to quite exceptional lengths to give support to parishioners facing difficulties in their personal life.
As to the article itself, it came about because a parishioner contacted The Tablet with the story. There were a number of them who wanted to speak to the publication about it, some on and some off the record.
Since the article appeared The Tablet has been deluged with emails; many have firmly but politely taken issue with it but there have been some of a nasty and abusive nature sent to Elena. I know Father Tim would be the first to condemn such unpleasant green ink missives.
This brouhaha will die down eventually and Father Tim will carry on with his job which by all accounts he does excellently.
Incidentally, I know some traddies take a dim view of The Tablet but I'm sure you'll be as delighted as I am to know that a certain pseudo Catholic group with a WACky name dislikes it even more. Apparently, despite all their efforts, The Tablet stubbornly refuses to regurgitate their mendacious propaganda. So it's not all bad by any means.
Fr Finigan, greetings. I'm not an avid reader of the Catholic press or on-line for that matter, but it has been hard to avoid the stories of controversy that have, amusingly, engulfed my former parish. It is pleasing to see that certain of the parish traditions are still maintained and indeed enhanced; what would be even better would be a recording of a Solemn Mass which could help to generate income - and, of course, appeal to people like me!
As for vestments, I recall there was a rose set with green detail, so wonder what happened to those. There was also a gold set, although this was not seen after Fr Koch's death, and even a balck set which did survive, albeit unused, in the vestry for some years.
A small suggestion for the parish website: perhaps some photographs of former PPs; as well as more photographic content, eg: galleries, generally.
Kind regards and best wishes to you and those I remember in the parish, especially the choir, and the deacons.
Andrew J
MisterJ - how kind of you to comment. I have no idea what happened to the gold set - it was not there when I arrived. There is a rose chasuble and stole with green detailing but sadly it was not well cared for. The black set is incomplete (no stole) but I have managed to acquire a number of good low Mass sets free from a school that had no longer use for them. We now have a good collection of vestments for the parish and the room that used to be used as a "chapel" for daily Mass has been fitted out as a good sacristy. The Latin Mass MC has done quite a bit of handiwork in his spare time, restoring various things and putting up ingenious storage storage racks for the torches and thuribles etc.
Other activities are going well - this business with the Tablet has not really helped the sense of community but most people are keen to get on with the good work that is done here for various causes.
Thank you for the suggestion about photo galleries on the website. I do have a few old photos which I must get scanned in when I get time.
God bless
Red Maria - thank you. I have had a few abusive missives myself (you can see some on the petition which give you a flavour of the kind of nastiness that this kind of controversy generates.) Both Elena and I know that this sort of thing comes with the territory but of course I utterly condemn any personal abuse that has been directed at Elena and I'm grateful for her recognition of my pastoral work.
Red maria writes ...."the first thing she (Elena Curti) said and was at pains to stress was that Father Tim is a very good parish priest who is pastorally quite superb".
Couldn't agree more with that sentiment BUT Ms Curti then went on not only to write that nasty article but publish it aswell! And THAT is inexcusable and something for which she must take personal responsibility.
Red Maria - she can't get out of it so easily by passing on through you, a second party, some half baked 'well Fr Tim is a nice chap after all, blah blah blah' excuse, that will certainly not wash with the Catholic Blogosphere. It's all her own work - and only a full retraction of the allegations and a public apology by her and the Tablet's editorial team will prove true and genuine regret on this issue.
Is a humbling 'sorry' just too much for these people? Or are they going to puff out their chests, point fingers at everyone else, strutt their stuff and try to style it out.
Dear Fr Finigan,
You mentioned in your reply to Red Maria a petition that is being circulated concerning the dispute in the parish.
Is this a petition for parishioners? I have not seen any details.
Please forward me the details.
Regards
If you were able to get a PayPal account going - it's not hard at all to set up - I think you'd get quite a few donations! Those of us living on the other side of pond can send you a PayPal donation in a second, whereas bank notes or whatever (or a wire transfer) are far more involved.
Keep up the great work!
Basically, if you can't be bothered to write to the editor then I can't see that you have any justification complaining really (and that's not to say that I don't have some sympathy with the points you have raised). Please do not complain about the whole affair again because you had your chance to do it in the appropriate arena and let it go.
Of course The Tablet figures refer to actual circulation (the readership is estimated 65,000) whereas your readership figures include many duplications of the same people visiting your site, and are drawn from worldwide.
Your stats may be understated. Do they reflect those of us who read your blog via RSS and only rarely visit the site?
The unsavory article on Blackfen seems kind when compared with the previous week's issue of the Pill, a special 'Kick the Pope 'issue.It tied in with Tablet ethics to put the boot in when you see a man stumble under the enormous burden of his office and all the world's media on the assault; so the Pill had to join in.On Sunday's feast of the Chair of St Peter, Pope Benedict said," Dear brothers and sisters, ..I ask you to accompany me with your prayers, so that I may faithfully carry out this great task, entrusted to me by Providence, as successor to the Apostle Peter."
Father Tim, I'm sorry you've had abusive messages as well.
I just can't believe some people.
I think there's a paper to be written on that sort of behaviour by an enterprising shrink: The psychology of green ink letter writers.
So when can we expect to see a article by her in the Tablet saying all that then Red Maria?
Bullish. Bene!
Claire - it is a petition drawn up entirely without my knowledge as a result of the publicity sought in the media. Parishioners are of course welcome to sign it. The "details" are all at the link in this post.
big benny - yes, we can argue about stats until the cows come home. But the combined traffic to Catholic blogs far outstrips whatever "readership" the Tablet claims.
On writing to the Tablet - why should they be considered the "appropriate arena"? Once upon a time they controlled the debate. They sure don't any more.
George, I ran into Elena at a party on Tuesday and asked her about the controversy (hey, who wouldn't? The Catholic blogosphere lit up when the article came out) and she gave me her opinion. Elena didn't ask me to pass on an excuse about the article. She hasn't repudiated it.
I know Elena. She's a lovely lady. I won't always necessarily agree with all her views and she won't always agree with mine but she's a good journalist with over 20 years experience and a person of integrity.
Let's consider the article itself and do so calmly. What did it do? It reported the views of a number of Father Tim's parishioners - one of whom had contacted The Tablet, Elena didn't go out on a fishing expedition by any means - about his introduction of the Extraordinary Form and the fact that they weren't happy about it.
No one has suggested that Elena invented their quotations. Of course they wouldn't, some spoke on the record, others off, she has notes for all the conversations. So she reported a fact. In that sense, those who have criticised her for writing the piece are getting it wrong.
Next, was the article justified and this, I think, is where so much of the bad feeling has arisen. I'm going to go out on a limb here and argue that it was and here's why.
Think yourselves back to the late 60s Vatican II and all that, when the Ordinary Form was introduced worldwide. Countless numbers of Roman Catholics all over the planet felt deeply upset at the loss of the Extraordinary Form. They had grown up with it, they felt it deepened their prayer life, their sense of reverence for God and they appreciated its history and sublime beauty. Many of them felt the Ordinary Form had been imposed upon them and that their feelings about the Mass had been casually dismissed.
Would it have been legitimate for a journalist on a Catholic publication at the time, who had been contacted by a parishioner saying that they and others felt the parish priest had gone over their heads and imposed the Ordinary Form upon them to do a story on it? I say it would have been.
Let's fast forward to the pontificate of Benedict XVI and his Motu Proprio, which we know a few bishops have been obstructive about. Is it legitimate for journalists on Catholic publications to report that, to report, say, the shenaningans in the Leeds diocese? Again, I say it is.
Remember the Leeds episode? Someone whose name escapes me, who we all thought was a senior cleric in the diocese came on these blogs back in summer defending +Roche and assailing those keen on the Extraordinary Form. He wrote in rather cliched terms about brand spanking new parishes and modern this and vibrant that. He was very worked up about it all.
Should we have ignored what he had to say, even though we may have disagreed with it? Of course not. Let's be honest here. The Church is and has been going through some pretty significant cultural upheavals in the last four decades to which we'll all react differently and it is a matter of legitimate interest how we do so, why we do so and how parish priests navigate these incredibly complex minefields.
That, I submit, is what Elena Curti's article addressed. I see it as an interesting piece of social history and I wish similar pieces had been written when the Ordinary Form was first introduced.
In a sense, I wish her piece could have gone further in exploring the views of those of Father Tim's parishioners who felt uncomfortable with the Extraordinary Form. Speaking for myself, I love the Extraordinary Form. I love the priest facing east as it connects me with the Semitic roots of the faith, I love the beautifully choreographed movements, I love the liturgy in Latin, I love seeing priests wearing gorgeously coloured vestments. The soaring majesty of the Extraordinary Form is, in my view, one of the supreme achievements of Christian culture.
But that's me. I really don't understand how some of Father Tim's parishioners can possibly object to this lovely spectacle in their church every week but I'd like to try to do so. I'm honestly, genuinely curious as to why they feel uncomfortable with it when so many others desperately wish they could have the same opportunity and here perhaps Big Benny could explain.
At the same time, I put it to Big Benny that those parishioners are experiencing a smidgen of what so many ordinary Catholics felt decades ago when the Extraordinary Form of the Mass they so loved was wrenched away from them.
I'll close on this quotation from Elena Curti's article because I think it expresses the most important thing about Father Tim Finigan - the excellent pastoral care he gives his parishioners.
"A woman who asked not to be named said she had known Fr Finigan for many years and he had been a ‘rock’ supporting her family through some difficult times."
Basically the dead tree media don't get the blogsphere at all. Rather like the ageing liberals who read The Tablet don't get what's happening in the real world of the Catholic Church.
Red Maria - a sensitive and well-written post, but your analogy of the two priests imposing each form is not a true parallel.
At the end of the 60s the OF was 'imposed' on the church as a whole, not by the choice of one parish priest. Thus, no journalist had a story about a particular PP. Now Pope Benedict XVI has made the EF optional and PP's may say it if they so wish. In any case, Fr Finigan hasn't imposed it, there are three other Masses in the OF each weekend.
I rather think that Ms Curti's real objection to Fr Finigan was that he isn't a 'tabletista' - her comment about his not supporting CAFOD speaks volumes. We are not obliged to support it!
I looked at the names on the petition and saw that 'Elena Curti' had signed it with the note that people hadn't read her article - well I have, and I still think it is one-sided.
There should be no story: Fr Finigan is not a member of the SSPX, he says the OF most of the time. Parishioners who grumble about him are really against his style, this happens from time to time in parishes ;)
Father, re your comment re Paypal- (as distinct from 'papal'), you may like to know that the American pro-life website 'Life Decisions International' have blacklisted 'Paypal' and its parent company 'Ebay', as financially supporting the world-wide pro-abortion organisation, 'International Planned Parenthood Federation' (IPPF). The criteria that is used by LDI when recommending the boycott of those organisations supporting IPPF, can be viewed on their website. Some may not necessarily agree with this criteria, nevertheless the LDI appear to have achieved a great deal in the pro-life battle. I suspect that there are alternatives to 'Paypal'. Best wishes and thanks for your excellent blog-site. Brian.
Clare, I think that's the right view of events, though I can understand Red Maria's eloquent defence of Elena Curti.
Apart from a period when I attended the parish associated with my secondary school, I was fortunate to grow up in, and later to participate in certain of the Blackfen traditions: the music principally, but also as an occasional senior server, which gave me an appreciation of the liturgy which had the added highlight of coming together in the most dramatic fashion during Holy Week and Christmastide (although I preferred Easter because the choir's repertoire was more technically challenging). My present parish is liturgically far removed from the riches of Blackfen; that is a statement of relative fact, not one of regret or criticism. If Fr Finigan could somehow livestream the solemn Sunday Mass to a wider audience, i would be a very happy man!
Of course, it may be that some view what has happened at Blackfen as a throwback to the meaningless rigidity of pre-Vatican II, or as a showcase of faux-religious excess. Another perspective is that the Mass, while a focal point for the parish community and whether it is attended out of duty or devotion, is not the sole reason why people choose to go to a particular service; that choice reflects whatever else they make of the day. It is also a human tendency to resist change that doesn't have an obvious benefit - thus even a simple alteration to the time of a Mass can cause an inordinate level of disruption. That Fr Finigan's discrete restoration of the EF seems to have appealed to both older and younger generations in his parish is to the great credit of him, his parishioners, and their Bishop.
For me, the real beauty of the EF, and one which I hope will be further encouraged, is its power to connect the Church Universal in a way that the OF, for all its own merits, simply cannot do. The ability to understand the Mass in the same language wherever one might be in the world is not only a practical attribute but also a symbolic link to the faith of our fathers, living still.
Andrew J
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