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. 

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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.

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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!).