How fitting! How ironic! The Church of England which arose from the sexual sin of Henry VIII is further along on the road to its demise as a result of supporting the sexual sin of same sex marriage. Both events are fitting book ends to a sad saga. The latest LifeSite News documents the story of the Church of England giving up its opposition to SSM, and then the Peers passing the legislation. Next will be figuring out how its ‘new’ marriage ceremonies will be conducted.
The Church of England is in the latter days of completing a cycle which again shows the first sin is the beginning of the journey to the last sin. It is a grave warning to the Catholic Church hierarchy that there can never be compromise with sin, in spite of even bishops and cardinals being in error or afraid, some being just as permissive as Church of England leaders. 
They themselves are NOT the Church, though they have often failed to speak out for her, and allowed sin to cascade in her midst for decades. Nevertheless the Deposit of the Faith, for which St. Thomas More (left) and St. John Fisher (right) died, is still intact and still under the guardianship of the Holy Spirit. We trust God, not man. So much for ecumenism.
All the more we need to pray for our Church Leaders, not only to become stronger and heroic shepherds for the flock, in a world now further weakened by pseudo-Christian brethren having caved in, but also for the righteous people of other faiths who are dismayed by their own leaders’ desertion and compromise, and who need a welcoming refuge. It is not (and should not be) pride on our part, because the wolf is always at the door of the Catholic Church; there is no greater prize it could seek, as it ravages other “churches” created by men and captures priests. Rather, we need to be grateful for the protection of our souls promised to us if we keep our eyes on Christ and His teaching. The Church of England leaders have sadly failed their flock and themselves. The Holy Spirit does not fail. Did He not provide the foresight to Pope Benedict to create the Anglican Ordinariate of the worldwide Catholic Church, which offers a righteous haven to those fleeing such sexual permissiveness and heresy? Praise God!
Highlights from the LifeSite News article:
WESTMINSTER, June 8:
- the leader of the Anglican bishops, who sit in the House of Lords, said there would be no further organised opposition from them to the government’s “gay marriage” proposal
- For the Bishops, the issue now is not primarily one of protections and exemptions for people of faith, important though it is to get that right….
- The bill maintains that adultery is legal grounds for divorce for heterosexual couples but not for same-sex partners.
- With the withdrawal of all opposition from the Established Church, the government may now bring the process to a successful [sic] conclusion by the end of next week, the Guardian reports, with opposition now consisting only of Conservative Party backbenchers and a handful of Catholic Labour Party MPs.
May God bless those who voted well-formed consciences.
I feel very discouraged. We are supposed to “Evangelize” others, especially the unchurched. Knowing what I do about what goes on in Church, what am I supposed to say when confronting a “fallen away Catholic”. For what would he or she be coming back to.
I am referring to the state of the Church. For if they go back, what are they going to be fed as far as food for the journey. There are too many parishes that are reprehensible and where we wouldn’t be caught dead attending mass.
So unless we can guide them to a priest who is strong and courageously talks about everything relevent in today’s society, it would seem like a useless proposition.
Christ is in charge of this mess and things look very bleak at this time. With Church attendence continuing to go down there is not a lot to attract someone to Church, unless they are personally committed and can survive the wishy washiness seen in most parishes.
Most of us read the newspapers, watch TV, especially, cable, and I like many if most, watch too much of this, and send our children to public or even Catholic schools. What we see, every day, is a tidal wave of anti Christ propaganda concerning homosexuality and birth control.. We receive a steady diet and unfortunately, when we are in Church, most of us never hear a spoken word about these issues and as a result, many of us are won over to the “Culture of Death” simply because there is no one to speak the truth.
So lofe goes on and on. Our young people, fed with a continuous diet of the culture of death, are won over and do not go to church, like together, and do not marry or simply exchange vows in a private ceremony.
There is nothing in a Catholic Chirch, as of now in most places, to bring them back. So our church becomes more irrelevant as time progresses. Church is mainly a vehicle of worshop for the elderly.
Sorry to sound so negative there’s a naked elephant in the room and everyone seems to ignore it.
It seems that for most of us, life will be one of perseverance and we just have to hang on, in spite of the troubles and dificulties.
@RT, yes the Church especially in the US and Europe is in a mess. After destroying liturgy and the beauty of our churches, then we had the priest sex abuse scandal, and then the wannabe priestesses abandoned the work they started in schools and hospitals, and more recently we are losing our parishes and teteering on the brink of financial scandal as well, and drowning in an obscene secular culture. But we have had some very good popes, our Church teaching is intact (even if not taught) and we have the promise that Christ will be with us until the end of the world, which seems quite close. The Holy Spirit is with us in this pain.
I am reminded that when almost all the priests were killed by the Nazis in Poland, it was the soil from which JP II emerged. And from an abusive culture in Germany, Pope Benedict emerged. When Russia again permitted the faith to be followed, people emerged from all over the nation with relics, books and holy items which helped them to endure in decades of aetheism. The same is and will happen in China. Persecution strengthens the Church, and blood of martyrdom waters the seeds. What is God intending, we might ask? Perhaps a strengthened laity which has had to find its voice in the face of a damaged priesthood, and perhaps new, real vocations to serve Him, as we have seen emerging in African cultures, in particular. So, most of us are called to be faithful laity, in good times and bad. And that includes persecution which seems bound to increase.
Now, where would you rather have your friends and family weather the storm? In a false faith, or among laity strengthened by the suffering? We should not underestimate how the Eucharist feeds us for the battle, and how important confession is to strengthen our souls. The time may come when neither will be available — when good priests go to jail and false priests must be avoided. In the world toward which we are heading, the question is simply — where would you rather be? And if it is in the Church, may it not be our lack of witnessing and evangelizing which leaves someone outside the door. They will need it more than ever. So we should willingly admit the faults of humans, including ourselves, but how none of us has any hope without Christ, in the Church He designated for us.
Maybe it doesn’t sound “Hopefull” but I really am.
RT – with all due respect, your hand-wringing is in no way responsive to Diane’s post. Her post is about the continuing disintegration of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. We should not be surprised – it was a denomination born in sin and now will continue to come apart based on its wholesale embrace of sin. And despite your hand-wringing, the Roman Catholic Church is the destination for millions of disaffected Anglicans. If only our bishops remain strong and uncompromising, which, guided by the Holy Spirit, they will.
RT, you need to have more faith. The Church is not exactly what you would have it be. So what – have faith that the Church is and will continue to be exactly what God wishes it to be. It is not nor ever has been perfect, so (as Diane said) PRAY that we the Church will more perfectly be Christ’s presence on earth, calling sinners to repentance, and being His loving hands, feet and heart.
In dark times, the LIGHT must shine ever so much more brightly!
When the planes were going into the buildings
on 9/11 I was driving a RTS bus praying and wondering
how can I help my country and it’s people.
Finally it occurred to me how I can help.
Simply to be, with God’s help, the best bus
driver I could be; the best husband and father
I could be; the best son and brother; the best neighbor;
the best parishioner and servant I could be.
I knew that if I strived with God’s help to be the best child of God
I could be I would be a good and helpful citizen in the 9/11 crisis.
Seems like the same simple answer can help Chrit’s beloved
Catholic Church. Each of us must strive to be the most faithful
disciples of Jesus we can be.
He has already overcome he world and our faith over comes the
world. Hopeful, I am hopeful. Richard keep on keeping on.
May Jesus Christ be praised;
Now and forever.
Just a comment on Richard Thomas’s blog: I frequently go to daily Mass, as well as on Sundays, and definitely see a reduction in the numbers of people going to Mass. As Thomas said, our Masses are made up largely of elderly people. Where has everybody gone? At most of the weekday Masses where I attend, the assigned servers NEVER show up, even though they only have to serve one day a week! I know that some younger and middle-aged folks have switched over to evangelical churches, and many people simply do not go at all. I post this because I feel a real “sense of sadness”, that our Masses are so unattended. I can remember a time when Sunday Masses were so full, that the ushers told me to scoot down the pew, to make room for large families who were coming in to sit. Now, many of those pews remain empty. I think the only parish that I am aware of that has many young families in attendance on Sundays is Our Lady of Victory/ St. Joseph’s at their 10:00 Mass. We REALLY NEED to pray for our Catholic Churches!
Hæc nox est, de qua scriptum est:
Et nox sicut dies illuminábitur:
et nox illuminátio mea in delíciis meis.
Huius ígitur sanctificátio noctis fugat scélera, culpas lavat:
et reddit innocéntiam lapsis
et mæstis lætítiam.
Fugat ódia, concórdiam parat
et curvat impéria.
In huius ígitur noctis grátia, súscipe, sancte Pater,
laudis huius sacrifícium vespertínum,
quod tibi in hac cérei oblatióne solémni,
per ministrórum manus
de opéribus apum, sacrosáncta reddit Ecclésia.
Sed iam colúmnæ huius præcónia nóvimus,
quam in honórem Dei rútilans ignis accéndit.
Qui, lícet sit divísus in partes,
mutuáti tamen lúminis detrimenta non novit.
Alitur enim liquántibus ceris,
quas in substántiam pretiósæ huius lámpadis
apis mater edúxit.[TextNotes 1]
O vere beáta nox,
in qua terrénis cæléstia, humánis divína iungúntur![TextNotes 2]
Orámus ergo te, Dómine,
ut céreus iste in honórem tui nóminis consecrátus,
ad noctis huius calíginem destruéndam,
indefíciens persevéret.
Et in odórem suavitátis accéptus,
supérnis lumináribus misceátur.
Flammas eius lúcifer matutínus invéniat:
ille, inquam, lúcifer, qui nescit occásum.
Christus Fílius tuus,
qui, regréssus ab ínferis, humáno géneri serénus illúxit,
et vivit et regnat in sæcula sæculórum.
R/ Amen.
These words are the latter part of the “Exultet” – traditionally sung at the Easter Vigil. I thought of the “Exultet” when I read the last sentence of anonymouse’s post. The last paragraph of the “Exultet” is translated:
May the Morning Star which never sets
find this flame still burning:
Christ, that Morning Star,
who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all mankind,
your Son, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
As Inspiration and Spiritual Food, I am posting a link to the “Exsultet” also referred to as the “Praeconium Paschale” from the 1962 Missal and 1975 Missal.
http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Hymni/Exsultet.html
When reading Dominick’s post it reminds me that we are supposed to be consumed like wax in a candle shining forth the Light of Christ.
Christian – thanks for the post and “inspiration and spiritual food.”
I’ll note that, like all the liturgy, the Exsultet received a new translation in 2011.