Skip to main content

Just when I'm Warming to Catholicism

Along comes an article to derail me.

Fr Lombardi: Great Expectations for Popes UK Trip

Such an inoffensive article detailing some of the itinerary of the Pope's forthcoming trip to England and Scotland. But there's one section which just got my goat. It's this one here:
Then, I would highlight the Pope's great address in Westminster Hall, his meeting with civil society, the world of culture, with all the most active and influential members of English society.
And what about the rest of us? What's with setting aside this group as the 'most active and influential members of English society'? I'm betting that most of them will be there because of who they know or who they've brown-nosed. How many of them are actually Catholics who support the teaching of the Church and support the Holy Father? Call it inverse snobbery or something like that but these sort of concepts really, really get my blood pressure up. What about the rest of the English Catholic church, or even the rest of the population, are they inactive and ineffective? The tone of the phrase I've picked out would seem to infer that.

One of the long standing takes I have on much of church leadership and the status of the great and the good is that they set themselves aside from the masses as though they were something special. That they are chosen to lead and we should know our place and follow. That they are the ones with the revelation which they will share with us as long as we doff the cap and curtsey. Know thy place.  As the oft missed out verse of 'All things bright and beautiful' goes:

The rich man in his castle,

The poor man at his gate,

He made them, high or lowly,

And ordered their estate.

I'm afraid my long suffering stereotype of the English Catholic has just been unfortunately entrenched.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. Christopher Wright18 August 2010 at 19:58

    I'm sorry, but this really is untypical of Catholics like me and millions of others. Just the usual cack-handed obsequious slop we expect from out weak, grovelling hierarchy.

    English Catholicism is in bad shape thanks to feeble "leading Catholics" who want to court the powerful, with little regard for their flock.
    You might like the Pindaric ode on my blog Leftfooter here. Or, again, you might not.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chris Hall18 August 2010 at 20:55

    Hi Christopher, I think it's also a case of something in me that is repelled by the whole concept of 'them and us', my problem really.

    I do get the feeling, as you say that 'English Catholicism is in bad shape' judging by the posts I read on any catholic blogs on my feed list.

    Good post on Pindaric Ode - http://left-footer.blogspot.com/2010/04/pindaric-ode-affectionately-addressed.html

    Disqus doesn't seem to allow url links.

    ReplyDelete
  3. jameshigham18 August 2010 at 21:31

    Yep, that puts me off too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cammie Novara19 August 2010 at 09:27

    "Then, I would highlight the Pope's great address in Westminster Hall, his meeting with civil society, the world of culture, with all the most active and influential members of English society. " Truer words you won't find on the internet. There's a really animated debate that I thought would be of interest on evolution vs. intelligent design going on at http://www.intelligentdesignfacts.com

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Spammers, trolls and blatantly offensive posts will be summarily deleted. My blog, my rules. Otherwise comment away!

Popular posts from this blog

The Upper Rooms

We often think of the 'upper room' as being the place where Jesus and the Disciples held the Last Supper but the Bible has many more 'upper rooms'.
Post a Comment
Read more

Sound familiar?

Watching the BBC interview of Adele by Graham Norton tonight and Adele sang one of the new tracks off her forthcoming album. The track was called A Million Years Ago. Listening to it reminded me of a different song by someone else. You know where you almost recognise a tune but get lost with the words, yet it's the words which are the key! Eventually it came to me, El Shaddai by Michael Card, famously sung by Amy Grant. It's a song that I occasionally play during worship. Have a listen. What do you think?
Post a Comment
Read more

The Archbishop and Wonga

Image via CrunchBase Have to say I was initially chuffed to see the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby laying down a challenge to Wonga and others of their ilk. The AoC communicated that he wanted to see the payday loan industry driven out of business by promoting the use of credit unions. The payday loan industry is involved in outright usury which is condemned by many faiths such as Islam and Christianity and others. Usury we can look upon as the lending of money at exorbitant rates of interest. But then I thought what was the AoC actually saying? He wanted to replace excessive usury with not so excessive usury. Is that what we should be aiming for? Plus the architects of our current austerity are backing the AoC! I would love to see all of the credit industry driven out of business but it will only be done by paying workers a decent wage, sharing in the profit of their labour and making capitalism history. At the end of the day this sort of initiative is just a...
3 comments
Read more