The Hermeneutic of Continuity

A cliché often repeated about blogging (or Facebook or Twitter ...) is that it prevents people meeting real people. Well this evening, as I was blogging, I received a phone call from the local hospital. As a young priest in Camberwell, I often had to respond to such calls, and made my way over to Kings College Hospital "in the still of the night". Another local parish looks after the main hospital here so well that I don't have these calls so often now. So when I do get called out, it is a reminder for me of a basic part of the ministry of the priest: to attend to the dying. Late at night, the drive to the hospital is easy enough. I drive briskly but well within the margins of safety, keeping alert and reminding myself of the advice in "Roadcraft", the advanced drivers' manual. At the hospital, it is easy enough to park since most of the visitors have gone. At the ward station, the nurse is waiting and I meet the family, and chat to them in a good humoured w...

Alfons Maria Cardinal Stickler SDB died yesterday, aged 97. Earlier this year, he celebrated the 70th anniversary of his priestly ordination. Gillibrand at Catholic Church Conservation has a translation of his obituary in Der Standard ( Cardinal Stickler, one of the all time great cardinals has died ). The Cardinal was always a friend of the traditional liturgy. Here is a link to an address that he gave to the Latin Mass Society at its annual meeting in 1992. Summorum Pontificum was a vindication of his consistently held position that the old rite of Mass had never been abrogated. His book The Case for Clerical Celibacy , published by Ignatius, was an accessible summary of the conclusions reached by the research of Cochini, Cholij and others on the question. He made the telling point: These studies have either not yet penetrated the general consciousness or they have been hushed up if they were capable of influencing that consciousness in undesirable ways Here is the announcement of ...

I have just updated by parish website's Downloads Page to include a leaflet produced by the Guild of Catholic Doctors. It includes prayers for the dying and prayers to be said immediately after someone has died. The prayers should be led by the priest if he is present - he would also give the sacrament of anointing, viaticum, and the apostolic blessing with the plenary indulgence. However, the prayers in this leaflet can be very helpful for the family and for the dying person to repeat again after the priest has gone, or if a priest cannot be had. The family may request that the priest use the older form of the rites. However if the priest is unable to do so (because he doesn't have the relevant book, because he does not know any Latin etc.) it is obviously more important for the person to receive the sacraments than to worry about which rite is used.