The Hermeneutic of Continuity

Happy feast day of St Francis of Assisi. In his honour, I would like to quote a verse from the Canticle of the Creatures: Laudato s' mi Signore, per sora nostra Morte corporale, da la quale nullu homo vivente pò skappare: guai a quelli ke morrano ne le peccata mortali; beati quelli ke trovarà ne le Tue sanctissime voluntati, ka la morte secunda no 'l farrà male. Be praised, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whose embrace no living person can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin! Happy those she finds doing your most holy will. The second death can do no harm to them. This verse is sometimes glossed over in popular renditions of the hymns of the holy founder. After all, the language of mortal sin is now seen as a " misguided attempt to movitate the faithful ."

Enjoy this short google spoof posted by Lisi Sterndorfer at Gloria TV

Fr Mildew, my former teacher, has posted some thoughts on purgatory of particular relevance to the priest. These were prompted by a recent trip to the hospital. I found them very salutary. Today, Father has commented on an "extraordinary letter" in the Tablet. Reading it, I was struck by how vast a gulf there is in understanding between some of the older clergy and the clergy of the John Paul II generation. Priests like Fr Mildew have watched a kaleidescope of theological opinion and liturgical practice spin round since Vatican II and now find themselves shoulder to shoulder with many of the "under 5s". (A term often used for those ordained less than five years.)

My Firefox homepage is a personalised iGoogle page with useful bits and pieces. Among them are the Daily Telegraph and Google News feeds - and a feed from Reuters "oddly enough" section. This has items like " Man forgets car at gas station ", " Cow plunges off cliff onto moving minivan ", you know the sort of thing. Yesterday's selection had " Bishop backs brothel regulation " with the story that Bishop Hollis of Portsmouth has supported the local branch of the Women's Institute in calling for the licensing and regulation of brothels. It was perhaps unfair of Reuters to list it with randomly falling cows and absent-minded drivers since Bishop Hollis was offering a serious and well-intentioned argument. However, it is one with which I respectfully but strongly disagree. The legalisation of an evil seldom has the hoped-for consequences and inevitably leads to a greater social acceptance of the particular evil that is legalised. Bishop Holli...

The posts on hell and mortal sin have generated a lot of comments and some good discussion. I would like to take up two themes that are related. One is to ask how God can be so cruel and vindictive as to condemn someone to hell for a fleeting mortal sin. The other is the question of why we should be obsessed with sex when there are so many other evils in the world. I think we might like to say to God "Look, this sex thing - you gave me these feelings, it's no big deal. I wouldn't condemn anyone for this." We don't see what harm there is in a little sexual licence here and there (although the daily newspapers could help us out a bit on this.) We want to ask him "Can't you just lighten up a bit?" But he doesn't. Our Lord said that if a man so much as looks at a woman lustfully, he has committed adultery with her in his heart. No compromise. So we get a little angry at this refusal to budge. We know this just must be wrong. After all, we could be qu...

In the discussion about hell, one or two people have raised the question of mortal sin which is, of course closely connected. Now if we are honest, people are usually talking about sexual sins here. People are not usually worried about accidentally stealing a couple of thousand quid and then being run over by a bus. We’re not normally talking about compulsively breaking people’s legs and then having a sudden heart attack. So first of all, some basics. For a sin to be a mortal sin, there must be all three of the following: Grievous matter – the thing must be serious in itself. Sometimes the Church clarifies this question. For example, it is the teaching of the Church that in sexual sins, there is no “light matter” Perfect knowledge – the person must know that the act is a sin and that it is serious. Full consent – the person must give the full consent of their will to the act. This would not be present if they acted under force or fear, for example. A number of problems have arisen i...

It is interesting (and indeed welcome) to have some reaction to the prayer of St Alphonsus. "Anonymous sinner" struggles with the notion of a God who will damn people for an unrepented mortal sin, "Peter" thinks that recommending St Alphonsus is as loopy as promoting devotion to St Philomena, and an elderly priest questions the relevance of 18th century prayers for today. Regular readers of the blog will not be surprised to find that I stick firmly to my guns on this one. Being thought "loopy" is certainly no deterrent. ( St Philomena, pray for us. ) I do not find St Alphonsus' focus on the last things in any way gloomy or morbid. Hell is rarely mentioned nowadays except to try to explain why nobody is likely to go there; and yet it is a part of our faith expressed unambiguously in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. For that matter, it would be difficult to read the gospels honestly without accusing Jesus Christ of having the same preoccupation as S...