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| MASS CONCELEBRATED AT EASTER 2006 BY ROMAN CATHOLIC AND ANGLICAN PRIESTS | |
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P! Published in the Irish Times on 21st April 2006 EASTER MASS IN DROGHEDA Madam, - The concelebration of Mass by four Catholic and Church of Ireland priests in Drogheda was shocking and a sham. [Front page, April 18th] Catholics believe that the Mass's consecration transubstantiates bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ; Protestants believe these only symbolise the flesh and blood. Therein lies the essence of the irreconcilable difference between the faiths. Shared prayers are one thing, shared transubstantiation quite another. For a consecration to have been "joint" and to have had any meaning, at least one of the priests had to have been denying his faith, which made him an apostate. Fathers, which of you was it? I am calling on your personal honesty and integrity. - Yours, etc, TONY
ALLWRIGHT |
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During May 2006, at the urging of the
Roman Catholic church, the three Roman Catholic priests |
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P!
Published
in the Irish Times
APOLOGY OVER DROGHEDA MASS Madam, - Most
ordinary, decent Roman Catholics are appalled at the way in which Fr Iggy
O'Donovan and the other two Augustinian priests have been bullied by Rome
and conservative Catholic forces over the Easter Eucharist at Drogheda. It is
unfortunate that Fr Iggy and his brother priests issued the apology, but
any sensible person can see that it was extracted from them as a price for
their continuation in priestly ministry. The Augustinian community and the
priesthood are like families and to be threatened with expulsion must have
been frightening. It is time that somebody stood up to the bully boys. Are
there any lay Catholics willing to take a stand, or is the conservative,
fascist element to be allowed to rule the roost? It is
interesting to observe how religious conservatives are abusing the
Eucharist and Holy Communion as a means of enforcing conformity to Rome's
dictates. In the United States and elsewhere, people have been refused
Communion because they are gay or divorced or living with someone outside
marriage. Politicians who would not toe the line on the issue of choice in
the abortion debate were threatened that they would be refused the
sacraments. What a nasty, bully-boy abuse of the Body and Blood of Our
Lord Jesus Christ! Of course,
many people who have been bullied by Rome have had the courage and common
sense to move out and move on and join other Christian churches, where
they are valued as sons and daughters of the one God and Father of us all.
In Ireland, more and more people are making that brave decision. A Roman
Catholic Church that has lost its dominant and domineering place in
Western societies is hitting out at minorities and vulnerable groups. It
is abusing the Eucharist as a weapon in its war with those whom it
considers dissidents and those who would challenge its attempts to claim a
monopoly on the preaching of Christian morality. Morality has
changed and Rome cannot accept that. In attempting to shore up outdated
morality, the Vatican and religious conservatives of other traditions are
doing huge damage to the Christian ethical tradition. The ethic remains
the same but the rules must change to take account of the evolution of
human understanding. No man-made rules should be made absolute. The Eucharist
belongs to all Catholic Christians. The problem, of course, is that Rome
still sees itself as "THE Catholic Church", instead of being
just a part of the Catholic (ie universal) Church and it thinks that it
owns the sacraments and has the right to withhold them. Rome does not
recognise the full validity of the priests and ministers of the Reformed
tradition. That is Rome's problem and Rome must sort it out. There are
wide differences of interpretation between and within the churches on the
issue of what happens at the Eucharist and on the nature of the presence
of Jesus Christ. What cannot be denied is that when bread is broken and
wine is poured and the name of the Lord is invoked, Jesus is somehow
present. I wish Fr Iggy
and his comrades well. They must now ponder in their hearts and decide on
what to do. Like a lot of people, they seem to have opted for the quiet
life over the more difficult path of standing up to the bullies and I
understand what has led them to issue their "apology". Perhaps they
may yet find added courage to speak out again and stand over what they
did. Other people need to stand up now and defend what they did. Who has
the guts to take on the bully boys of Rome? - Yours, etc, Rev
DAVID FRAZER |
P!
Published
in the Irish Times APOLOGY
OVER EASTER MASS Madam, - Rev
David Fraser, who from the context of his hysterical letter of May 31st is
not a Roman Catholic, begins by asserting, without evidence, that
"most ordinary, decent Roman Catholics are appalled at the way in
which Fr Iggy O'Donovan and the other two Augustinian priests have been
bullied by Rome and conservative Catholic forces over the Easter Eucharist
at Drogheda." I am a Roman
Catholic who considers himself "ordinary and decent" and I
heartily welcome the apology of the three Augustinian priests for the now
infamous Drogheda Mass, and commend their firm resolve not to repeat their
error. Just like a
golf club, the Roman Catholic church has certain rules which you have to
obey if you wish to remain a member. Belief in transubstantiation is one
of them, and is the defining doctrinal difference between Catholics and
Protestants. The Augustinian trio made a mistake but then recanted. Well
done. As for Rev
Fraserīs extraordinary statement that "morality has changed",
he should perhaps expand. Is non-marital sex no longer immoral because
more people do it? How about robbery and murder? Are they also no longer
immoral for the same reason? Have the Ten Commandments been rewritten? The
Roman Catholic church has always ruled that certain behaviours - which
include the aforementioned - are intrinsically and seriously wrong. As
such they are classed as mortal sins which, without repentance, guarantee
a place in hell. Moreover
people in a state of mortal sin have always been barred from receiving
Holy Communion because it actually is, and does not merely represent, the
body of Jesus Christ. Rev Fraserīs
thinly disguised proselytising for converts from Roman Catholicism is fair
game. The world needs more Christian proselytising. But the Roman Catholic
Church's enforcement of well-known strictures is entirely defensible, the
more so since any of us can turn our backs on the church if we so wish. It
has no unwilling practitioners. - Yours, etc, TONY
ALLWRIGHT |
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Published in the Irish Times on 7th June 2006 APOLOGY OVER EASTER MASS IN DROGHEDA Madam, - Tony Allwright (June 2nd) accuses Rev David Fraser (May 31st) of being "hysterical" when he said most Catholics were appalled at the way Fr Iggy O'Donovan and his colleagues were bullied into making an apology for the Easter Mass in Drogheda. Mr Allwright is delighted that an apology was extracted from these men. The Catholic Church, is like a golf club where the rules must be kept, he asserts. He further challenges Rev Fraser for his comment that "morality has changed" and asks: "Is non-marital sex no longer immoral because more people do it? How about robbery and murder?" Mr Allwright's golf club - oops, church - may have a rule about non-marital sex, but that does not mean that non-marital sex is immoral, only that it breaks the rules of his church/club. [This answers my question - what was once considered immoral Mr Kelly no longer regards as immoral. In other words, morality in Mr Kelly's view is not an absolute] To speak of non-marital sex as if it were comparable to to robbery or murder is as hysterical as anything of which he accuses Rev Fraser. How can consensual sex have anything in common with robbery or murder? It is noteworthy, too, that Mr Allwright first thought of something sexual (and a benign act at that) when wishing to condemn an act as irretrievably immoral: robbery and murder came second and third on his list. [Selected only because Rev Fraser condemned withdrawal of Holy Communion from cohabitees; the other two extend the logic] This must be Catholicism at its best! Mr Allwright should know that even golf clubs are sometimes forced to change their rules. Blacks were not allowed to play at Augusta a few years ago. Clubs that bar women from membership, such as Portmarnock, will not get away with it for too much longer. - Yours, etc., DECLAN KELLY, Davis Court, Christchurch, Dublin 8. Madam, - A few weeks ago my husband and I and many others attended the baptism of our grandnephew. Present were Catholics, Protestants, atheists and agnostics. To some was a sacrament, to others a naming ceremony, to all a welcoming party for the baby and I am sure to none a cause of confusion. So I can't see what harm could have come from the celebration of a sacrament in Drogheda by Protestants and Catholics. [The issue is CONcelebration, not celebration] I take issue with Tony Allwright when he writes that the Catholic Church "has no unwilling practitioners". I "consented" to be a Catholic when I was one day old and the catechism was beaten into me in school. So I was an unwilling practitioner for many years - and I was far from alone. [My use of the present tense was deliberate] He is right, of course, when he writes: "Just like a golf club, the RC Church has certain rules which you have to obey if you want to remain a member". Yes indeed, like golf clubs the church has full member privileges for male members, restricted membership for females and the right to leave the club. [Touché!] - Yours, etc, MARY McELENEY, Rochestown Avenue, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin. |
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Gift Idea |
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Good to report that as at
FREED AT LAST, |
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BLOGROLL
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What I've recently
But it's not
entirely honest in its subtle pro-Palestinian bias, and therefore needs
to be read in conjunction with an antidote, such as See detailed review +++++
BP's ambitious CEO John Browne expanded it through adventurous acquisitions, aggressive offshore exploration, and relentless cost-reduction that trumped everything else, even safety and long-term technical sustainability. Thus mistakes accumulated, leading to terrifying and deadly accidents in refineries, pipelines and offshore operations, and business disaster in Russia. The Macondo blowout was but an inevitable outcome of a BP culture that had become poisonous and incompetent. However the book is gravely compromised by a litany of over 40 technical and stupid errors that display the author's ignorance and carelessness. It would be better to wait for the second (properly edited) edition before buying. As for BP, only a wholesale rebuilding of a new, professional, ethical culture will prevent further such tragedies and the eventual destruction of a once mighty corporation with a long and generally honourable history. Note: I wrote
my own reports on Macondo +++++
A horrific account of:
More details on my blog here. +++++
After recounting a childhood of convention and simple pleasures in working-class Aberdeen, Mr Urquhart is conscripted within days of Chamberlain declaring war on Germany in 1939. From then until the Japanese are deservedly nuked into surrendering six years later, Mr Urquhart’s tale is one of first discomfort but then following the fall of Singapore of ever-increasing, unmitigated horror. After a wretched journey Eastward, he finds himself part of Singapore’s big but useless garrison. Taken prisoner when Singapore falls in 1941, he is, successively,
Chronically ill, distraught and traumatised on return to Aberdeen yet disdained by the British Army, he slowly reconstructs a life. Only in his late 80s is he able finally to recount his dreadful experiences in this unputdownable book. There are very few first-person eye-witness accounts of the the horrors of Japanese brutality during WW2. As such this book is an invaluable historical document. +++++
This is a rattling good tale of the web of corruption within which the American president and his cronies operate. It's written by blogger Michele Malkin who, because she's both a woman and half-Asian, is curiously immune to the charges of racism and sexism this book would provoke if written by a typical Republican WASP. With 75 page of notes to back up - in best blogger tradition - every shocking and in most cases money-grubbing allegation, she excoriates one Obama crony after another, starting with the incumbent himself and his equally tricky wife. Joe Biden, Rahm Emmanuel, Valerie Jarett, Tim Geithner, Lawrence Summers, Steven Rattner, both Clintons, Chris Dodd: they all star as crooks in this venomous but credible book. ACORN, Mr Obama's favourite community organising outfit, is also exposed for the crooked vote-rigging machine it is. +++++
It is really just a collation of amusing little tales about surprising human (and occasionally animal) behaviour and situations. For example:
The book has no real message other than don't be surprised how humans sometimes behave and try to look for simple rather than complex solutions. And with a final anecdote (monkeys, cash and sex), the book suddenly just stops dead in its tracks. Weird. ++++++
It's chapters are organised around provocative questions such as
It's central thesis is that economic development continues to be impeded in different countries for different historical reasons, even when the original rationale for those impediments no longer obtains. For instance:
The author writes in a very chatty, light-hearted matter which makes the book easy to digest. However it would benefit from a few charts to illustrate some of the many quantitative points put forward, as well as sub-chaptering every few pages to provide natural break-points for the reader. +++++
The author was a member of Britain's V Force, a forerunner of the SAS. Its remit was to harass Japanese lines of command, patrol their occupied territory, carryout sabotage and provide intelligence, with the overall objective of keeping the enemy out of India. Irwin is admirably yet brutally frank, in his descriptions of deathly battles with the Japs, his execution of a prisoner, dodging falling bags of rice dropped by the RAF, or collapsing in floods of tears through accumulated stress, fear and loneliness. He also provides some fascinating insights into the mentality of Japanese soldiery and why it failed against the flexibility and devolved authority of the British. The book amounts to a very human and exhilarating tale. Oh, and Irwin describes the death in 1943 of his colleague my uncle, Major PF Brennan. +++++ Other books here |
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After
48
crackling, compelling, captivating games, the new World Champions are,
deservedly,
England get the Silver,
No-one can argue with
Over the competition, |
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