The Archdiocese of LiverpoolGBTQ – exactly as the St Gallens wished

 

Link to original Tweet by Michael Haynes, as re-Tweeted by Rorate Caeli

We were alerted today to the screen-shotted Tweet above (we saw it via Rorate Caeli and salute the fearless work of Michael Haynes – whom, we stress, is not and never has been connected to this blog; nor is he in contact with us). Pray for him.

Frankly, nobody should be surprised. The truth about the Archdiocese of Liverpool has been staring people in the face for years and most especially since 2014. 

That's what our previous, admittedly slanted, post was all about. However, we are aware that it confused a few people. That was surprising given the contents of our previous posts. Having said that, we know all too well of the need to be hyper-vigilant; such are the times we live and pray in. Be assured, though, the intention of our last post, which has stood without sequel for the better part of five years, was but a non-too-subtle nod (at least we thought so) to the prevailing and dominant ethos of this Archdiocese.

For, even the mother church of this territory is quite literally and deliberately physically-framed by purposefully ambiguous, rainbow-themed stained-glass structures, as unveiled 13 years ago by one Cardinal Walter Kasper, as a symbol of surely the longest running, nod-and-wink, in-jokes ever played on the faithful in this locale. (please, spare us any painful explanations of how we are actually quite wrong about the steles that are deliberately visible right along Hope Street, for we know enough of the back story of how they came to be,  the commission etc., and how the previous Ordinary, Most Rev. Archbishop Patrick Kelly was likely duped – as par and per [but anyway if anyone wants to follow their own lead here's a backgrounder ] – oh and, yes, we also know all about the crozier and Pope Francis etc.; trust us, we weren't born in the early hours of this morning.)

Anyway, we thought it sufficient and necessary to temporarily break our fourth (since 2015) prolonged silence (this time since summer 2018) just to publicise Mr Haynes' Tweet and let it be known that we know and we're still watching. There have been plenty of occasions since 2018 that we could have interrupted our silence. We chose to do so today for a very specific reason which doesn't need to be amplified. We wonder whether Mr Haynes realises just how close he is. More power to his pen.

So, we haven't gone away. Further, we don't intend to remove or amend anything that we have written on this blog (again, we haven't been asked or ordered to). 

We may even one day complete our series about His Grace (but there's probably no need to).

We've rather let the unfolding and accumulating evidence of the last five years, almost, just speak for itself.

However, that hasn't been the reason for our ongoing silence. We're just in a very sensitive situation in which the need to maintain a certain ongoing obedience and prudence has been and still is required of us. We don't feel that this silence-breaking post has necessarily contravened that observant policy. It's vague, we know, but essentially it can be summed up as: Trust in God.

So, please, if you're new to these pages, then peruse this blog as much as you wish. Indeed let others know about it. As we said at the start of our postings, though, the Archdiocese of Liverpool is shot-to-pieces and we maintain our belief that it is the biggest seed-bed – certainly in England & Wales, very likely in Europe and quite possibly the world – of the long-game plan, straight from St Gallen, to infiltrate the local Church through the wiles and means of the aberrosexual agenda (the layers of malevolence are just staggering, and we thought we knew a thing or three) simply in order to normalise its routine evil in the everyday parish setting.

We believe that Liverpool was specifically chosen for that purpose a long time ago (there may well have been other strategic "centres" [our term]). It's a form of "entryism", make no mistake (oh and they laugh about that, too; they would). 

The reality really is still staring you in the face. It always has been. Whether it was in the form of an invitation to visit this locale extended to the disgraced Cardinal Roger Mahony, or that to Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP who believes that aberrosexual activity is "eucharistic", or that to Massimo Faggioli, or countless other disgraceful occasions that this blog has adverted to – the plainly obvious disobedience has been screaming out for years. It really doesn't require a pipe, and a deer-stalker adorned with a pom-pon to join the dots about the base reason for it all. 

Until next time sometime, then.

St Joseph, Patron of the Archdiocese of Liverpool, pray for us.

-

P.S. And specifically addressed to those from beyond these parts, but not necessarily shores, who may have passed by this site over the years and who know certain things and may wonder what else we know: yes, we are also aware of the alleged events here circa 1984 (though thankfully within the bounds of Natural Law and indeed legalities; small mercies). We'll offer a partial numerical code as a nod to the wise here: ***42. You've got it, yes? So, you see? Accordingly, if our information is correct, then our advice, offered in charity and prayer, again specifically to those in question, and only those, which we would never have offered or seen the need to if certain developments over the recent past hadn't ominously unfolded, episode by painfully observed episode, to the point where things are now potentially quite precarious if not outright dangerous: do not let potential events escalate and overtake the greater good of the Church. For, be assured, if we know the alleged basics (and we really don't wish to know more) – and we have known of the allegations since 1992 btw – then others are bound to, also. Certainly, some may well have died, but the timeline suggests that many who may (emphasis) possess the same knowledge as us will still be living. Think about the dramatis personae: the phrase "shrinking violet" doesn't exactly spring to mind, does it? And that particular accent does tend to project. It would be utterly stupid to imagine that, if true, the information wouldn't emerge into the public domain. Like night following day, it surely would. As they say in ***42: "Think on." And pray on. 

P.P.S. We offer the following links – almost two sides of the same coin – without comment or endorsement, for anyone who wishes to unravel more about Cardinal Kasper (given in logical order): One Two

P.P.P.S. They knew what they were getting:

Penny dropped yet?

If not, it will. Soon enough.

BEHIND THE PURPLE DOOR: for Lent - the 10 stages of an hour's thoughts during a solo-prayer vigil outside Liverpool's infamous abortion mill (40 Days for Life)

(image grabs: Google Street View; public domain, fair use) The bpas
[British Pregnancy Advisory Service] "clinic", Sefton Park, Liverpool

(* Liverpolitanus start-note: this welcome and urgent contribution piece refers to the damning NHS Care Quality Commission Report, delivered one month ago, regarding the unsafe routine practices inside the bpas (British Pregnancy Advisory Service) clinic in Liverpool. We strongly urge readers to learn the shocking and hypocritical truth, completely unreported in the mainstream media, about this horror site. We provide a precis of the damning report at the foot of this piece and also trusted links to the, very contemporary, source materials and also to the valiant pro-life news sites that have, of course, been alert to the otherwise silenced-scandal that has been allowed to unfold in our area. As always, readers can trust that all of our other links are safe. We entrust this prayerful piece to the Virgin Most Powerful)

Sign-up for the "40 Days for Life" silent prayer vigil here. Local contact: Declan Carroll; 07584-575867; Declancrrll@hotmail.com 

A LENTEN CONTRIBUTION

i. Prelude


Every time I pray here it seems to pour down. Something about Rorate Caeli desuper. It's never like the "brochure" on Google Street View - all sunny and leafy. Though obviously it must be sometimes. Just not when I come. Though I do wonder whether the sun ever truly shines here. 

Ah, the vile purple door. Front and centre, as they say. The proud corporate colours of bpas. Wonder if they realise the penitential irony? As if! Yes, that violet door! Smudged with thousands of invisible finger prints down the years as "the born" have pushed through it. 

Lent. Wet. Fasting. Cold. It's utter misery. Hard to look at that purple/violet door and not think of tabernacles around the Catholic world right now veiled (in parishes that still bother with old-fad things like liturgical colours and covers, of course) in much the same shade. Penance. The difference between the two violet doors is eternities apart and terrifying to reflect on: one being a blessed portal for the nourishment of souls hopefully onwards towards eternal life; the other a damned gateway to hell. Wonder why bpas chose purple?

A thought: but one letter separates violet from violent. Vio-Lent.

"Interculturalism" and "Universal Fraternity"

This post – largely centred around the movement known as Focolare – is addressed chiefly to those who self-identify as Catholic Traditionalists in the Liverpool area. FYI, as it were.

However, much like the aims of Focolare, anyone and everyone else is, of course, very welcome to stick around.

Before continuing with our, now 10 month, silence, we just wished to point out that next weekend (February 24th-26th, 2017) the 10th in a series of Focolare youth events called "ReGENerate" will be held at Welwyn Garden City.

We offer you this, from the "carpe diem" website entry that is currently advertising the event, stating that: "The political turbulence of the last year, the fracturing of relationships across societies, and the dejection that many young people feel, at the way things are moving in the world - will be challenged, and indeed countered by the enthusiasm, optimism and energy of ReGENerate 2017!"

Video materials encourage attendees to be: "Protagonists".

FT?

The Financial Times, no less.

SEARCHING FOR THE ARCHBISHOP (15); Re: "We should perhaps think of how we have contributed to the crisis"; Mass of Chrism 2016; Notes #17

Advice: this standalone topical post is not a sequential part of our ongoing sub-set (Link 12.1, Link 12.2, Link 12.3.1, Link 12.3.2) – concentrating on the issue of His Grace and the matter of women priests – which forms part of our bigger Series "Searching for the Archbishop...". However, it does touch on related issues. We are also well aware of what dread day this is in the Franciscan papacy; you may find our un-connected post quite apt    

It has been interesting to note the positive reception, notably in certain Traditional quarters also, of the homily given by His Grace The Most Rev. Archbishop Malcolm McMahon OP, ninth Archbishop of Liverpool, at the recent Solemn Mass of Chrism on Maundy Thursday at the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King.

Indeed there was much about it to commend. So we do.

Incidentally, as usual we are unable to show specific photographs of the Mass due to the archdiocesan media policy not to directly share images; never mind. However we can Flickr-link to the whole album as shared on Twitter [and as embedded in the Twitter grab image above].

Also, in passing, we note that the Mass was attended by the two most senior clerics from those Traditional priestly orders with ministry in or around this territory. Pictures show the procession featuring: Fr Armand de Malleray (foreground in this photo link – shown in cassock and surplice but with maniple which, amid the liturgical chaos of the Novus Ordo, especially that at our local Mother Church, at least served to symbolise, on that day of all days, the dignity of his priestly toil and labours and thus distinguishing him from the so-called "altar girls" processing immediately behind him in all but the same garb), who is Superior of the FSSP-England Apostolate (Priestly Fraternity of St Peter) who have responsibility for the fully Traditional church of St Mary, Warrington, in the Archdiocese of Liverpool; also Canon Amaury Montjean (midground in this photo link - the darker-haired of the only two priests seen in ordinary modern chasuble, i.e. not the frankly awful "rainbow wear" of the "Liverpool Diocesan Vestment" first introduced by His Grace at last year's Chrism Mass), who is Rector of the fully Traditional shrine church of St Peter & Paul and Philomena, New Brighton, overseen by the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest for the Diocese of Shrewsbury. We pray that the presence of Fr de Malleray and Cn Montjean may have afforded a passing opportunity to convey a few helpful - but always subtle, of course! - ars celebrandi suggestions to the cathedral's liturgy team.

Anyway, back to His Grace's homily. We were struck by the following: "...the sacrament by which Jesus absolves us through his priests from our sins is poorly appreciated in our days. In most of the parishes in the Western world the Communion queues are long while the Confession queues are short or do not exist at all. The confessional is sometimes called the 'loneliest place in the Church'. This looks like a crisis. We should perhaps think of how we have contributed to the crisis."

Well, yes.

SEARCHING FOR THE ARCHBISHOP (12.3.2); Re: His Grace and the subject of "women priests"; our analysis finally triggered by matters arising from the Roscoe Lecture, October 2015; this time considering the Nottingham period of 2001-2007/8; the "God is She" scandal and other dissents promoted by the Nottingham Diocesan Assembly; fourth in a short sub-series; Notes #16

Before reading this lengthy post, we would ask you to consider signing the following Citizen Go petition: link here if you haven't already done so. It concerns the repulsive events that have very recently come to light at the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Primary School, Atherton, Wigan, in this very archdiocese; also the duties we now expect of His Grace The Most Rev. Malcolm McMahon OP, the ninth Archbishop of Liverpool, to defend Catholic Truth. Although this post is not a direct commentary on that obscene matter at Atherton, our readers will detect some very bitter ironies and connections. It's all part of the same toxicity. Also, counter-intuitively, we draw your immediate attention to the explanatory note (text marked in deep red) that we have included at the foot of this post before you read on.

––––––––––

Advice: this post (12.3.2) is the third of a sub-set within a broader Series. It can be read either as a standalone commentary or in the light of the first two parts (Link 12.1), (Link 12.2) and (Link 12.3.1)

i. Introduction

"Creator God".

Just two small words – albeit with ultimate import for the entire cosmological order.

Theologically sound, too.

Apparently.

For context is everything.

Especially when those words were conveniently (ab)used to form the opening of the official prayer of the infamous Nottingham Diocesan Assembly (NDA) – which commenced in 2002, was still belching dissent in 2008, and begat tentacles that poison even today.

Scandalous that two holy words could deceptively mask layers of compact defiance.

It may seem improbable to seriously allege that so much sinister significance could be loaded into so small a term (phraseologically speaking).

They were just two words of 10 letters after all. In clear praise of Almighty God.

What could possibly be hidden?

But that's the surface deniability, cloaked in sickly plausibility, that's long been a favourite "Exhibit A" Modernist machination.

It's generally prone to exposure, though, because it often leaves a fetid trail. What the Modernist expects, however, is that nobody undertakes the unpleasant and arduous effort to sniff back to source.

Well, it's a dirty job...

Having said that, certain media parties – most notably Christian Order and the Catholic Herald  – did, to greater or lesser extents, unmask elements of the noxiousness that was the NDA. Largely, though, especially beyond the Nottingham diocesan area, much of what occurred from early last decade in that territory escaped many commentators' attention.

Yet it really was as pernicious a period as we suggest. When overlapping agendas – the usual liberal hiss-ues – were conveniently woven to procure a perfect storm of episcopally-facilitated revolt.    

By unpicking the thinly-veiled stitching covering those two opening words of the NDA official prayer, the shameful deceit beneath bursts forth chaotically like an unsprung cartoon mattress; uncoiled grievances, feminist foaming, puffed-up politics and sham spuriousness furiously shrieks apart in every demonic direction.

Make no mistake, those two words were not posited positively, to affirm the universal prowess of God the Father.

Rather, “Creator God”, per the NDA, was an entirely negative circumvention, if not outright omission, of Catholic Truth and an implicit denial of the Trinity into the nauseating admix.

And the primary cause of it all was His Lordship The Rt Rev. Malcolm McMahon OP, ninth Bishop of Nottingham –– who has since been made, in 2014, the ninth Archbishop of Liverpool, hence our reasoning behind this study which we have adequately explained in many previous posts but most particularly the one immediately prior to this (we link again).

For it was the then newly consecrated Bishop McMahon of Nottingham who "opened the windows" (a famous phrase) back in 2001/02 to an Assembly of Agitation.

And he surely knew what type of encouraged stench would inevitably blow back.

Impossible to conclude otherwise.

SEARCHING FOR THE ARCHBISHOP (12.3.1); Re: His Grace and the subject of "women priests"; our analysis finally triggered by matters arising from the Roscoe Lecture, October 2015; this time considering the blurred lines of the Nottingham period from 2002-07; third in a short sub-series; Notes #15

Advice: this post (12.3.1) is the third of a sub-set within a broader Series. It can be read either as a standalone commentary or in the light of the first two parts (Link 12.1), (Link 12.2) 

We pick-up our Series by beginning to concentrate roughly on the period immediately after the confusing events of 2001, as explored in our last post, until circa 2007, i.e. the first half of His Grace's 13.4 years as the ninth Bishop of Nottingham – his first episcopal appointment following his consecration in December 2000.

In theory, this should have been a delicate time for the still relatively new and episcopally inexperienced Dominican bishop given the confusion that, apparently, he knew had wrongly been spread about his views during his first year in Nottingham. For as we later learned (but not until 2008) the disturbing events of 2001, when His Grace was publicly proclaimed to be pro so-called "women priests", apparently stemmed from a misquotation in a botched interview first published in a local diocesan youth magazine and then in the (apparently independent) diocesan newspaper. Therefore, based on the clarifications given in 2008 – when His Grace unequivocally stated that he was against the ordination of females and furthermore that he had clearly stated as much in 2001 only for the complete opposite to be printed – it is a reasonable retrospection to say that, from 2002 onwards, he would have been keen to ensure there were no further erroneous perceptions about him spread around.

SEARCHING FOR THE ARCHBISHOP (14); Re: "Some Catholics in a second marriage for example will be disappointed that the recent Synod of Bishops did not ask the Holy Father to allow such people to receive Holy Communion"; Pastoral Letter for the First Sunday of Lent, 2016

• This expedited post is another that is not part of our ongoing sub-series (Link 1, Link 2) concentrating on the issue of His Grace and the matter of women priests, the next part of 

which (note for our monitors' attention) will appear this week.

It was just one letter (Link), with only eight paragraphs and barely over 1000 words.

Yet it served as a perfect microcosmic example of the concerns and the conundrum – perceived by a fair few in this territory – surrounding His Grace The Most Rev. Malcolm McMahon OP, ninth Archbishop of Liverpool, about where he truly stands in regards to the Church's tradition and teaching.

Basically, it managed to both please and disturb at the same time.

In anticipation of any accusation that, in stating the above, we have evidently missed the point of the letter – "Whoosh! It was all about mercy but that obviously sailed right over your heads" – well, we really haven't (but we'll make a very necessary point about the overladen emphasis on mercy – and mercy alone – later in this post, just to provide some perspective).

SEARCHING FOR THE ARCHBISHOP (13); Re: overt support for Progressio - supporter of contraception, abortion rights, family planning, general Culture of Death aims and dissent, and all round evil but "mercy-based" weasel-wording uber-feminist con-artists; more new normal; (Notes #14)

• This unanticipated but pathetically inevitable post is not part of our ongoing sub-series (Link 1, Link 2) concentrating on the issue of His Grace and the matter of women priests, the next part of which (note for our monitors' attention) will appear this week.

Less than 50 minutes ago we read in the Catholic Universe (Feb. 11th, 2016) that His Grace, Most Rev. Malcolm McMahon, ninth Archbishop of Liverpool cares "passionately about social justice and Progressio’s work".

Furthermore, he – and the Archdiocese of Liverpool in general – is supporting a Lenten challenge directed towards supporting the most "vulnerable" in Zimbabwe.

N.B. Progressio just loves the interchangeability of words like "vulnerable" and "fragile"...in one sense they can mean people who are starving and poverty-stricken or in another they can refer to girls/women denied their rights to the Culture of Death.

Just as an exercise, it took us less than 20 minutes, simply by Googling a combination of "Progressio", "Progressio Catholic", "Progressio Church teaching", "Progressio abortion contraception", "Progressio planned parenthood" we came up with the following links (at the foot of this post) about this rancid but brightly and florally marketed – always with the smiling black faces – post-Catholic organisation that is yet another of the myriad of "mercy-based" evil tentacles attached to the worldwide Culture of Death.

That's how easy it is.

That's how quick it is.

40 minutes later, we've posted this.

SEARCHING FOR THE ARCHBISHOP (12.2); Re: His Grace and the subject of "women priests"; our analysis finally triggered by matters arising from the Roscoe Lecture, October 2015; this time considering the confusion of 2001; second in a short sub-series; Notes #14

Advice: this post is the second of a sub-set within a broader Series. It can be read either as a standalone commentary or in the light of the previous "intro" piece here. 

–

Heard the one about a future Pope, a future archbishop, a botched youth magazine interview, and an inexplicably incompetent diocesan newspaper?

No, we didn't "get it" either.

Anyway, we'll have another stab.

To try to understand, that is, just how it transpired, in 2001, that His Grace The Most Rev. Malcolm McMahon OP, now the ninth Archbishop of Liverpool, since 2014 – but back then having not long since been appointed the Bishop of Nottingham – was twice reported to have been firmly in favour of female ordination...only for the truth, apparently, to have been emphatically the opposite (as indeed it should have been and should always be).

Thankfully, as we later learned, the future Pope Benedict XVI had the matter clarified to his satisfaction just 12 months later in 2002.

However, as far as we can ascertain (caveat), the rest of the Catholic world didn't discover for perhaps as long as another (almost) eight years that His Grace had been dangerously "misquoted" (his word) and that his actually stated views in 2001 were, apparently, diametrically opposed to what they were erroneously alleged to be.

So, as far as we can tell, this mind-bending story which has bounced around the Catholic media and blogosphere for many years – but often very short on detail and seemingly never really examined under-the-bonnet – is a five-fold-farrago comprising the following elements:

i) what His Grace's true quotes were in 2001;
ii) an apparently completely distorted youth magazine interview;
iii) a "diocesan" (our emphasis) journal that later compounded that error by republishing it;
iv) the relatively swift but (seemingly) unpublicised assurances given to Rome in 2002; and
v) a very belated but necessary public clarification possibly as late as 2008...denouncing the "misquotes"

You couldn't make it up, as they say.

Except that, apparently, a gang of kids did exactly that!

We interrupt planned proceedings...

...to advise you to go straight to the fearless Torch of the Faith (TOF) blog which, sadly, has some pretty depressing news.

ACTA acting up again it seems - with more episcopal blessing; natch (we've always thought it rather fitting that ACTA has a capital C in its acronym and it doesn't stand for "Catholic"!).

A Cancerous Tumour Attacks - more like. Other fitting descriptions are available.

SEARCHING FOR THE ARCHBISHOP (12.1) - Re: "Uh, what about it? Yup"; also: "Dogma's tricky – it's there on a page. It doesn't mean much while it just stays as words on a page"; matters arising from the Roscoe Lecture, October 2015, inc.: Catholic dogma and women priests; Intro to short sub-series; Notes #13 (update: footnote added on Feb. 3rd, 2015)

Advice: this post takes roughly 30 minutes to read (i.e. on a flat basis, which we initially recommend, without following the accompanying and specifically titled "Key Links", of which there are 23, all of which are clearly marked and numbered, presented in as coherent an order as possible, can be returned to later but most certainly should be perused). The whole piece has been structured as something of an information portal, and presented as courteously as we could manage for the reader in order to enable him to return to it easily and at leisure.

–

1. BACKGROUND

The 134th Roscoe Lecture (series founded by Baron Alton of Liverpool KCSG, KCMCO; hosted under the auspices of Liverpool John Moores University) was delivered by His Grace The Most Rev. Malcolm McMahon OP, ninth Archbishop of Liverpool, at the Brittania Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool, on October 28th, 2015.

Our ears noted two potentially disturbing, at the very least ambiguous, snippets uttered by the Archbishop during the Question and Answer session that followed his, otherwise well-recommended, if more than a bit "Seventies Lefty", and certainly endearingly gentle talk: The Common Good (and Catholic Social Thought).

We immediately provide for your consideration the verbatim and salient extracts from each instance (but fuller, more contextualised versions will appear later):

EXCERPT 1:

(A female audience member, commenting to His Grace on the shortage of Catholic priests):

"...what about your, I know this is very difficult, what about the idea of broadening your recruitment to women?” 

[laughter, general hearty audience applause]

(His Grace):

“Uh, what about it? Yup." 

[even more - and this time clearly knowing - laughter]

EXCERPT 2:

(His Grace, responding earlier to another female audience member who touched-on issues of tolerance, compassion and Catholic dogma):
"...dogma's tricky because it's there on a page. It doesn't mean much while it just stays as words on a page. Doctrine is always something that you have to live out as a person..."

We'll revisit those nuggets later.

THE MOST REV. DEREK WORLOCK CH, SEVENTH ARCHBISHOP OF LIVERPOOL - d. FEBRUARY (8th) 1996: REQUIESCAT IN PACE

SEARCHING FOR THE ARCHBISHOP (11) - Re: Anticipating His Holiness' decree by 10 months; washing the feet of women at the OF mandatum; Notes #12

We've been holding-off from publishing this for a while.

Well, 10 months to be exact (*).

Today seems as good/bad a day as any to do so, though.

"Anneye got three Hail Marys off der Bishop of Liverpewl! LOL!"; more "Cillagate"

Our first post of the new secular year (Deo gratias for safe delivery).

Sadly, we find our first duty is to report further fallout from "Cillagate" (pew nod to the prodigious team at Torch of the Faith for originating that pithy short-hand for this local and national [well, it should have been!] Catholic scandal).

We'd hoped that our last word on this, still all-too-depressing, mess had been written with the last of our three posts dissecting the repulsive, episcopally-approved occurrences that were permitted in this archdiocese late last summer. We use the term "our last word" with no little irony, for it was an equal scandal that, apart from this parish – and the aforementioned Torch of the Faith blog, and the superb Catholic Collar and Tie blog – one of this land's biggest public sacrileges and insults to the Lord Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in years, certainly one of the most widely broadcast, was completely ignored not only across the Catholic media but also by the Traditional Catholic blogosphere. We're tempted to say something about "the unreported north" but we'll let it go; let's face it, near everyone else has!).

The Year of Who? You? Who Knew? (updated: 15/12/15)

Apologies. We just couldn't resist!

You know, just for a moment, we genuinely thought that the Church of Pope Francis had finally gone into super-turbo-charged anthropocentricity...and perhaps you can forgive us for fearing that an inevitably humanist end-point had finally been reached.

But, phew, we now see that it's just the most deliciously ironic "Year of Mercy" graphic design blooper on our archdiocesan website.

That's all it is, isn't it?

Yeah, of course it is.

Isn't it?

SEARCHING FOR THE ARCHBISHOP (10) - Re: The Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy 2015/16; His Grace's pointed signal to the Archdiocese; limited remarks only; Notes #11

Leaving aside the significant reservations that we – and many across the Traditional Catholic world (e.g. this from Rorate Caeli) – have concerning the "Year of Mercy", which began on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception last week, we wish to place on record the measured, succinct and very pastoral words of His Grace The Archbishop to mark the start of this extraordinary jubilee.

The Prayer for the Jews - Re. their Lordships' belief that it needs to be "reviewed" (yet again!); the telling contradictory views, beyond the grave, of one of C20th England's staunchest Catholic liberals

“Pope John gave us an indication of his own frame of mind on the subject when he had the formula praying for the 'perfidious Jews' removed from the Easter liturgy. Since then the Jews have been prayed for in the same manner as everybody else and without any insulting adjectives.”
– Norman St John-Stevas

We offer a different – probably unique – though very illuminating and contemporaneous perspective on the petty nonsense peddled by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales late last month, who effectively called for the abolition of the already thrice revised Prayer for the Jews (last re-written in 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI), as currently used in the Extraordinary Form (EF) of the Solemn Good Friday liturgy (per the 1962 Missal of Pope St John XXIII), and presumably for it to be replaced by that currently used in the Ordinary Form (OF) liturgy (per the 1970 Missal of Blessed Pope Paul VI).

SEARCHING FOR THE ARCHBISHOP (9) - Re: Pastoral Letter, Advent, 2015; limited remarks only; Notes #10

The underscored emphases are ours.

"What does the Jubilee of Mercy have to do with our preparations for ‘the coming of Jesus’? Well, let us think what happened to the world at the first Christmas. We say it at Mass every Sunday: the Son of God "was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man"; in the Apostles' Creed it is simpler: Jesus Christ was "born of the Virgin Mary". It does no harm to let that sink in, because it is astonishing to claim that God "shared our human nature" (Eucharistic Prayer IV). God can seem so far from our daily life, but he could not have come closer to us than by becoming one of us."

– Most Reverend Malcolm McMahon OP Archbishop of Liverpool; Pastoral Letter for the Second Sunday of Advent, 2015

–

We refer readers back to the first, and what we believe was one of the most telling, posts we have published thus far in our year-long and ongoing "search". A far from insignificant instance.