The Hermeneutic of Continuity

It was sad to hear that Family Publication had to cease trading. A resourceful priest bought up the copyright to several of their titles so as to facilitate republication. One important title is Dora Nash's "Jesus Comes to Me" which I mentioned when it was first published. Since many parishes use the book for their First Holy Communion course, it has been a cause of anxiety for some priests and catechists that it might now be out of print. I am therefore happy to report that St Pauls are now publishing the book and it is available from them at £6.95.

I just stumbled across The Work of God's Children's Educational Project , a co-operative online venture that is developing a free public domain curriculum for home-educators. I came across it because of the collection of public domain images . This includes several hundred black and white images that are useful for newsletters, as well as a good collection of images of saints . The main project is an excellent idea with a lot of potential to become a resource for families, whether homeschooling or not. The site uses wiki software to enable people to edit the pages and improve them.

A student at the University of Edinburgh tells me of the Catholic chaplaincy there , which is run by the Dominicans. The students are fortunate to have five friars dedicated to their our spiritual care. Last year they started up a blog called ' Almighty Answers ' to encourage ordinary students (as well as anyone else who comes across the blog) to ask questions about the Faith or any other aspect of the Church. These questions are then responded to, either by one of the priests, or by a student, depending on the nature of the question. The blog was set up and run last term during the Chaplaincy's 'Mission Week' and it has now been restarted. They welcome questions and comments ...

Ignatius Insight has carried today a short extract from Peter Kreeft's Angels And Demons. What Do We Really Know about Them? including "The Twelve Most Important Things to Know About Them". I often remind people that angels are not fairies - Peter Kreeft gives some excellent further short points. Happy feast day for today - and for Friday's feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, which is also the anniversary of the dedication of the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen. Last year, on a Sunday in October, I gave a sermon on The Archangels and our families .

Evangelium is a catechetical resource prepared by Fr Andrew Pinsent and Fr Marcus Holden. I reported on the launch a couple of years ago. The Evangelium Conference has grown out of the same enthusiasm for passing on the faith to the young. This year's is the second such conference; it has been running since yesterday afternoon and finishes tomorrow afternoon. There are about 150 participants in a programme that is very full with an impressively wide variety of speakers. The major conferences covered a range of subjects to help young people in the work of evangelisation: Joanna Bogle - Women and the Church David Quinn - The new Atheism and the Media Dr Tom Pink - Freedom and Reason Fr Tim Finigan - Homosexuality and the Catholic Church Fr Brian Harrison - Why we need a magisterium Dr Helen Watt - The Brave New World of reproductive technologies Fr Andrew Pinsent - Christendom Awake! The New Apologetics Fr Nicholas Schofield gave a supplementary talk on "The History of Catholi...

At the close of the General Audience last Wednesday, Bishop O'Donoghue presented "Fit for Mission? Schools" and "Fit for Mission? Church" to the Holy Father. The Lancaster press office observed: The Holy Father departed from the usual protocol and spent quite some time going through both documents with Bishop Patrick expressing his obvious delight at the wide-ranging scope of the work. The Holy Father and Bishop Patrick were joined by Mgr Georg Ganswein - Private Secretary to the Pope – and Archbishop James Harvey, Prefect of the Papal Household. The Holy Father thanked Bishop O'Donoghue for his work of renewal in the diocese. As the bishop will be retiring next month, this is a fitting tribute to his groundbreaking work which has inspired so many people. Just yesterday I received a review copy of " Fit for Mission? Marriage " which is an marriage preparation course. It is published by the CTS - here is a link to the notice for the Course Presenter...

( Click to enlarge ) The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Congregation for the Clergy, and the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace have already written to Bishop O'Donoghue congratulating him on his document "Fit for Mission? Church". (For my previous posts, here is a link to the search term " O'Donoghue " for this blog.) Now Cardinal Antonelli, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family has also written, offering unqualified praise for the document and referring particularly to its support for the family.

Archbishop Luis Ladaria SJ, Secretary to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has written to Bishop O'Donoghue, warmly endorsing his teaching document "Fit for Mission? Church." Here is a jpeg of the letter ( click to enlarge ): The body of the letter concludes: It is to be hoped that not only the faithful of your own diocese, but also Catholics throughout Britain, will find hope and encouragement in your document. Bishop O'Donoghue has expressed his delight at receiving this communication. He said: I would just like to express my heartfelt thanks to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith for supporting the programme of renewal I have now fully set out in Fit for Mission? Church, and Fit for Mission? Schools. At the heart of both documents is the urgent appeal to Catholics throughout our country to reject the misinterpretations of the Second Vatican Council that have become so wide-spread. Once again we must commit ourselves without reservation to the...

There is a very interesting article published today at Catholic Action UK by Daphne McLeod. She argues that the root of the crisis in the Church is to be found primarily in the widespread religious ignorance of the truths of the faith and not primarily in the loss of the older form of the Mass. Daphne's article is a valuable contribution to this discussion because she certainly loves the older form of the Mass and attends it regularly. Hers is not an argument that in any way denies the beauty or the value of the usus antiquior . I think that her comments are timely, prompting us to take a closer look at the question of catechesis. For many years as a student and a priest, I had no great interest in the Classical Roman Rite. I came to know and love it after responding positively to a request for a funeral in the old rite. Having previously considered that the teaching of the faith was the only thing that really mattered (provided that the Liturgy was celebrated reverently, in accor...

The CTS are publishing Bishop O'Donoghue's Fit for Mission? Church , which I wrote about at the end of August and ( again the other day ) with reference to Archbishop Piacenza's praise for the document. The CTS edition will be an expanded version, drawing on Pope Benedict XVI's addresses and homilies in 2008 at World Youth Day and during his apostolic journey to France; as well as the writings of John Henry Newman, and others. 104 pages, £8.95, available from 10 October 2008. Advance orders can be placed now at the CTS website .

Bishop O'Donoghue of Lancaster has received a ringing endorsement for his documents "Fit for Mission? Schools" and "Fit for Mission? Church", from the Secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy, Archbishop Mauro Piacenza. (Catechetics is one of the key responsibilities of this congregation.) Archbishop Piacenza (ordained a priest for the Diocese of Genoa by Cardinal Siri in 1969) has been generous in his comments and this is far from being simply a formal letter of "grateful receipt". His encouragement to a brother Bishop is genuine and thoughtful, affirming his ministry as a successor of the apostles and his courage in facing up to a situation which has given rise to much correspondence with the congregation over the years. The picture to the left is a jpeg of the letter which you can click to enlarge. To make it easier for others to quote from it, I have transcribed the letter below. (Please let me know if I have made any errors and I will correct...

Fr Anthony Ho is a priest in Vancouver in Canada. His blog is eminently pastoral, with sermons and talks for his people that are of value for anyone. He runs a Chinese RCIA class using a Chinese-English parallel text Catechism with lovely illustrations. For his High School class, he uses a book that is now out of print which has 17 volumes, each with 20 pop-up prints. There are many pictures posted on his blog (see High School lesson on creation ). Here is one showing the basic choice that we must make in life:

Puella Paschalis has posted this link to a collection of photos from the Bootcamp that I went to speak at in the Netherlands last month. There is one where I am attempting to pronounce Dutch correctly with help from the students. They were very kind about my efforts. Here is another photo from Mass: the singing of the Gospel: The vestment was made by a lady locally and was very fine. It meets the requirements set out by Fr Anthony Symondson in his article submitted to NLM questioning the Borromean revival where he reminds us of a decision of the Sacred Congregation of Rites that 'a chasuble may reach a little below the wrists, or a little below the shoulder, but not in between.' Personally, I quite like the Borromean chasuble and all things Borromean but it is good to know that the chasuble I was wearing met the strictest standards. I liked the following picture because it captures the atmosphere at the Masses. In somewhat spartan conditions, the students are reverent, attent...

The Catechetical Boot Camp has now finished and the various bloggers have been writing it up and posting photos. Brother Hugo has posted some very kind words - it is good to know that I am not too burdensoime a house guest. He was certainly an excellent host. Bootcamp: de avond van de eerste dag . In an earlier post, he had a photo of the altar of the tent chapel during exposition: Notio Bonum, Visa Olum is Back , tired, has contracted a Gregorian chant bug, and is considering starting a new religious order. Summa Catholica ad mentem Sancti Thomae Aquinatis , in the post in the post Boot Camp Warfhuizen has this nice photo of the altar set up for Mass: and the Puella Paschalis has photos of my getting on a bike and riding it in my cassock - not so easy to get started but I managed: and the bike was way too big for me. Took me back to the days of getting on my older brother's bike. Anyway, here's proof for Jackie Parkes that I can cycle when provoked!

The northern region of the Netherlands is a beautiful part of the world. Canals, pastures stretching as far as the eye can see, windmills, and lovely houses made for a restful and rejuvenating couple of days. The participants in the Boot Camp were mainly young graduates in various disciplines: they wanted to learn more about the Catholic faith. My task was to talk about the sacraments in general and the Eucharist in particular. I took along the notes that I use at the seminary and tried to give an overview of these topics, looking in some detail at questions such as validity and fruitfulness, the nature of the Eucharistic Sacrifice and the Tridentine decrees on transubstantiation. I was not sure beforehand what level to work at and so I was glad that for those who took part, I had to hand my full notes with quotations from the Fathers and the magisterial documents. The programme for each day was quite ambitious. The participants were camping locally in tents and walked the half mile to...

As I mentioned the other day, my journey to the Catechetical Boot Camp took me via Groningen. On the way back today, the Puella Paschalis very kindly took me to see the Cathedral which is her parish Church. Since she knows the personnel there, she was able to take me into the sacristy and the presbytery. Unfortunately, their excellent parish priest was busy out and about with pastoral work so I was unable to meet him but I was very pleased to hear that he called in to the Boot Camp. The Cathedral of St Joseph in Groningen was built by Cuypers who is the "Dutch Pugin". The tower is the tallest structure in Groningen. As you can see below, the vista of the Cathedral has been left intact. The High Altar is also unaltered. The versus populum altar is a movable wooden altar and could easily be shifted for the usus antiquior . Not only the High Altar but the episcopal throne and the sedilia have been left in place, allowing the Cathedral to retain its continuity with the past. C...

Schiphol airport at Amsterdam is a major international hub and it was a very long trek from the plane to passport control. The terminal is built around a "plaza" which is in fact Schiphol railway station. At the airport, there was an English sign pointing to "Information about Holland" which reassured me - it is supposed to be very incorrect to talk of the Netherlands as Holland since Holland is only a part of the Netherlands. (Cf. this Wikipedia article which explains everything...) Update : I have now realised that Schiphol Airport is in fact in Holland. So yes, we should speak of "The Netherlands" My train takes me via Amersfoort to Groningen. We have just stopped at Hilversum which is a name people of may age remember from old wireless sets. The journey is about two and a half hours through flat and fertile country, much of which is below sea level. My destination has a Wikipedia article of its own: Warfhuizen . Here it is on the map: View Larger Map ...

I'm blogging today from a table at City airport which is usually a very pleasant place to fly from - today is no exception, nice and quiet, plenty of room and a decent place in the departure lounge for brunch. There was a rather, er, well-built policeman at the top of the escalator with a machine gun but nowadays, that is reassuring. I'm on the way to the Netherlands - which we in England usually call Holland, to take part in the catechetical Boot Camp . From Schiphol airport, I have to catch a train to Groningen where I will be met to take a local train and then a bus to a nearby hermitage where I will be staying with Brother Hugo. Tomorrow, I'll be giving two talks at the camp - one on the sacraments in general and one on the Eucharist. I hope to have some photos for you soon.

There has been a lot of interest in the Catholic Truth Society (CTS) pamphlet on Exorcism written by Jeremy Davies. I wrote about this recently (Cf. Good pamphlet on exorcism ). Many of the stories have been of the type "Yoga makes you possessed" and have ignored the important spiritual advice given by Fr Davies but the internet provides people with the links to get the original text so I hope that the publicity helps. Yesterday, the CTS presented its new Catholic Bible to the Holy Father at the General Audience. This is also an opportune moment to remind your of the CTS/Evangelium conference to be held from 8-10 August (for 18 to 35s). The marketing director of CTS has told me that this blog is the top referring website according to Google Analytics. I'm very pleased to support the excellent work of the CTS. Family Publications also send me copies of their new publications. I am very happy to review and publicise good (and orthodox) Catholic books, pamphlets and init...

As I arrived at the seminar at Wonersh on Monday night, ready to mark exams the following day, I met two students who were returning from New Malden, clutching copies of Fit for Mission Schools . A correspondent who was at the meeting sent me this account: Fr Luiz gave a brilliant exposition of Bishop O’Donaghue’s document ‘Fit for Mission? – Schools’. Admitting that he himself had felt quite ‘challenged’ by the bishop’s call to all involved in Catholic education to go back and ask themselves ‘What are Catholic schools for?’, Father Luiz went on to outline the role of the Catholic school as it has presented by the Church’s teaching authority ever since Vatican Two. Using both Vatican documents and those of our own Bishops’ Conference, he outlined the vision of Christ as Head of the whole Church, and of Catholic schools as particular communities within that Church. He explained that the model for a Catholic school should be the early Christian community as it is presented in Acts 2:42 -...