Eight Months into 2015 – State of the Disunion Address; Re (amongst other things): attitudes towards abuses of the Blessed Sacrament; and broader matters "in light of recent events"

If we're correct in assuming that our local Ordinary – His Grace, the Most Rev. Malcolm McMahon OP – was fully consulted about (as he should have been) and then approved the recently televised, radio-broadcasted and cyber-relayed liturgical scandals, Eucharistic abuses and sacrileges that occurred in these parts, all of which can objectively be proven by video evidence, then it's perhaps appropriate to now revisit footage of another event held earlier this year.

We refer to the publicly available recording of a gathering, as publicised in early summer on Liverpolitanus, which had been held in February 2015 far from this archdiocese. On the west coast of the USA, in fact. We chose not to comment fully about the footage at that time. Rather, we felt that the actions purposefully caught on camera – indeed promoted on YouTube for worldwide witness, no less, presumably with some intent towards "evangelisation" – were best left to speak for themselves.

For a while.

Who it's all about...Re: the "Requiem Mass" for Priscilla Maria Veronica Willis OBE (aka "Cilla Black" - the UK celebrity singer and TV star) at the Catholic church of St Mary, Woolton, Liverpool - August 20th, 2015 (#3); Scrutiny

This third post on the subject follows our previous two here (1) and here (2). The posts should be considered as a set.

The "Order of Service" produced for Cilla Black's funeral (a BBC link to the document is here) is all that's needed to prove that a potential public scandal and Eucharistic sacrilege lay in wait. Many alert Catholics saw it coming a mile off. We did. The team at Torch of the Faith can even provide documentary evidence (provably published just two hours prior to the funeral) that they did.

If lay people were switched-on enough to the dangers, you'd expect that a permanent deacon, two priests and an auxiliary bishop – i.e. the four-hand clerical team that celebrated the funeral –  were equally so. Either that quartet knew the clear risks, or they didn't. Simple as that. If they didn't, then serious questions should be asked about the extent of their prudent involvement in the preparation of a very public funeral broadcast live in the UK on TV, radio and the Internet – the latter also having a global reach; nothing, absolutely nothing, should have been left to chance, misinterpretation, or ambiguity. If, however, they did know of the possible perils (far more likely), then more serious questions must be asked about why they didn't take firm, preventative action.

Who it's all about...Re: the "Requiem Mass" for Priscilla Maria Veronica Willis OBE (aka "Cilla Black" - the UK celebrity singer and TV star) at the Catholic church of St Mary, Woolton, Liverpool - August 20th, 2015 (#2); Preamble

* This post – the second concerning the subject of the funeral of Cilla Black – is a preamble piece, ahead of a third, necessarily punctilious, scrutiny which we intend to publish in the next 24 hours. These matters are being aired and published contemporaneously "for the record".

We are hugely indebted to the Torch of the Faith team – also based in the Archdiocese of Liverpool – for flagging-up the biggest of the scandals, among many, perpetrated at last Thursday's bewildering and depressing funeral "Mass" for Cilla Black. See our first post on the subject.

It had been anticipated – and strongly suspected in the aftermath – that such a conspicuously heterodox, worldly and irreverent event would inevitably provide the wicked (yes) platform for open public scandal and sacrilege to especially occur during the distribution of Holy Communion.

And so it was.

This is not using the benefit of hindsight, as we'll go on to prove.

What's it all about...? Re: the "Requiem Mass" for Priscilla Maria Veronica Willis OBE (aka "Cilla Black" - the UK celebrity singer and TV star) at the Catholic church of St Mary, Woolton, Liverpool - August 20th, 2015 (#1)

At the time of writing, the Archdiocese of Liverpool website is highlighting (as shown above), a link to an important briefing paper ("Assessing the evidence on Assisted Suicide") produced just three days ago by the English and Welsh Catholic bishops, ahead of the UK MPs' debate in the House of Commons, 20 days from now, about a bill which seeks to enshrine in British law the legal right to "enable competent adults who are terminally ill to choose to be provided with medically supervised assistance to end their own life; and for connected purposes".

The primary aim of the bishops' short document is actually to refer readers onwards to another work: a study produced by the Anscombe Bioethics Centre ("Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: A Guide to the Evidence") which comprehensively nails the lie that this murderous campaign (heavily backed by the UK media and assorted UK celebrities, incidentally) is founded upon "mercy". Moreover, it asserts that its anti-success, if given Royal Assent, would only serve to "undermine key principles of law, medical ethics and palliative care". 

Offering eight reasons not to legalise Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS), it is the fourth in a sobering list provided by the Anscombe team which forms the bedrock case: 

Legalising PAS would undermine a foundational principle of law and justice. All human beings possess, in virtue of our common humanity, an equal and intrinsic dignity. It is contrary to justice and human solidarity intentionally to kill an innocent human being (that is, someone not engaged in unjust aggression).

Whilst rightly highlighting the links to this hugely impressive, incredibly clear and ultra-urgent document, the Archdiocesan website also directs readers to coverage of the high-profile funeral celebrated yesterday by the Auxiliary Bishop in one of the city of Liverpool's most famous Catholic churches – which was also broadcast live to millions across the UK on TV, radio and the Internet – of a soul who scandalised many of her fellow baptised Catholics by publicly proclaiming her support for assisted suicide and especially the Dignitas euthanasia clinic in Switzerland.

SEARCHING FOR THE ARCHBISHOP (6) - Re: "Foreword" (2010) written for Dominican Lay Missal (Leicester - Ordinary Form of Mass, in Latin); concerning the use of Latin and vernacular language, Gregorian Chant, orientation of worship, and the document Sacramentum Caritatis; limited remarks only; Notes #6

We thought it timely to re-publicise the following. It's the beautifully inspiring "foreword" (provided in full below) written by His Grace The Most Rev. Malcolm McMahon OP, ninth Archbishop of Liverpool, in 2010 (when he was still Bishop of Nottingham), for a lay missal – Missale – produced by his fellow Dominicans, for use at Mass in the Ordinary Form (Novus Ordo - aka The Mass of Paul VI) celebrated in Latin at Holy Cross Priory, Leicester.

We say "re-publicise" only in the sense of acknowledging that it was the estimable blog of Fr Simon Henry – Offerimus Tibi Domine – which originally heralded (in 2011) the fine words of His Grace which were penned a year earlier, a full four years before he was appointed at Liverpool and back when there were still three years of H.H. Pope Benedict's XVI's papacy remaining.

From the "Catholic Who's Who & Year Book 1915" - excerpts from: "The Catholic Year" (January to November 1914: January - Concluding Post #2)

St John the Evangelist by Paolo Veronese (sacristy of San Sebastiano, Venice -
one of four ceiling depictions of the Evangelists); shown here in memory of His Grace,
the Most Rev. John McIntyre D.D. (d. 1935) second Archbishop of Birmingham
(as featured in the post below) whose commentary on the Gospel of St John is
a forgotten true treasure of the early C20th English and Welsh Catholic Church   

Continuing our series of excerpts from the Catholic Who's Who & Year Book 1915; specifically to finalise our two-part reproduction of the retrospective entry for the month of January 1914 in the section of the publication entitled "The Catholic Year".

We hope to complete reproduction of the entries for the remaining months of 1914 prior to the end of 2015.

As per previous posts in this series, we have sought to offer – via links and other references – as much background information to the transcribed entries (provided verbatim) as we can.

This has been especially so – and most satisfyingly, too – in this instalment regarding the joyful research of the memory of His Grace, Most Rev. John McIntyre D.D., (1855-1935), the second Archbishop of Birmingham (1921-28) who the reader will soon recognise as a true giant of the Church in England and Wales in the early 20th century and the very late years of the 19th.

Alas we were unable to locate an image for His Grace (we would be grateful if any of our readers – we've gained a fair few! – could point us in the direction of one). However, as shown, we have very aptly illustrated this post with an artistic depiction of St John the Evangelist, for among Dr McIntyre's canon of superior writings, his magnum opus was surely his Commentary on the Gospel of St John (which we link to below).

As to why we are reproducing these entries: see here

Without further delay, then, we start the short but magnificently rich remainder of the Year Book entry recounting January 1914 (the first entry for that month can be found here):