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 (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!

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.

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.