Bears Still Go in the Woods, but are Peace Mala Catholic?

I was looking at an old Damian Thompson post about the Cardinal Vaughan School 'argument' and this comment - the first in reply to his post struck a chord:

The problem is that the Diocese of Westminster employs so many people who do not believe in the vision of the Church, that being the vision of Jesus our Lord and Saviour. They readily employ people who have a beef with the Church and its teachings on so many issues. You wonder why these people flock to the Church to a body that they seemingly hate so much. I know this is the case because I work in the Diocese in an influential department and only probably a few people believe in the Church teachings. And you wouldn’t believe how many souls these people get to effect with the rubbish they sprout. We need to good orthodox Catholics to apply for jobs with the Diocese. But also to box clever in the interview for such jobs and not come across as too rigid or not ‘mainstream’ enough, otherwise these left-wing trendies who interview will never employ you. Above all we must pray and pray and do penance, the Lord is punishing us for turning away from Him and apostasy is sadly rampant in the Church endangering many souls.
Andrew

The article and comments are here

When I consider recent articles I've read on the Diocese of Westminster allowing the homosexual "Soho Masses" and the uproar over the Catholic Education Service (plus the fact that the ex-head of CAFOD thinks he is "married" to the man who acts (or has acted) as an "Eucharistic minister" at the Soho Masses... it doesn't take a genius to work out that there are far too many homosexuals, atheists and (literally) God-knows-whats working in the Catholic Church in England & Wales.

As Andrew says above, "You wonder why these people flock to the Church to a body that they seemingly hate so much."

Today is apparently Epiphany (5 days early I make it) or as Catholic and Loving It blog says, How the Bishops Stole Christmas. We only get 12 Days of Christmas as it is and I'd like to celebrate all 12.

I am not Super Catholic. Far from it. I am just another miserable sinner who needs all the help that God gives us, especially through the auspices of His Church. That is why I feel betrayed when bits of the Church are taken away, when I hear that Catholic education is being whittled away.

You see when I enter a Catholic church with a High Altar, with a tabernacle smack bang in the centre, with the altar rail in place, with statues to the Saints, with stain glass windows, and the other 'essentials' to a Catholic Church it lifts my soul.It helps me pray. It helps me feel that I am in the presence of God (as I said I need all the help I can get).

But when I enter a Catholic church that looks like a roller-disco, with the tabernacle tucked out of the way, with "God 'hearts' U" tapestries etc. I find it does not lift my soul at all. I feel like I am in a waiting room to see a social worker, not in the presence of Almighty God.

All I want my Catholic church to be is... Catholic.

For millennia the Church fine tuned its ceremonies and buildings. Corruption could come and go. Heresies could come and go. Saints and sinners, empires and monarchies could all come and go - but the Church would stay, would raise up wonderful Cathedrals, churches and chapels, all designed to raise the minds of the faithful to the Holy Trinity and bring focus to Our Lord in the Tabernacle and the Holy Eucharist.

Countless Saints have told us of the many Angels present during Mass, when Our Lord comes to us in Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Do we envisage that when we are in a "roller-disco" church? I certainly do when I am in a beautiful Catholic church.

I know the Mass can take place in a back room as in Elizabethan England & Wales. I know it can take place on a rock in the wilderness as in Elizabethan and Cromwellian Ireland. But surely when we have the opportunity to do so, with a Church hierarchy in place, we should be making the church per se, from its altars, to its schools, to its orders as Catholic as possible?

Just today I picked up a copy of Menevia News from my own diocese and front page news was how a Catholic youth group was given a talk by a (Catholic?) group called Peace Mala which 'promotes friendship, respect and peace between people of all faiths and none, regardless of race, colour, religion, sexuality, size age or ability'

To quote their own website:

Peace Mala (The Peace Mala Youth Project for World Peace) is an award winning, non-political, non-religious charitable organisation. We do not support any political party, movement or belief system over any other.

Our aim is to contribute to education for global citizenship by inviting all people to treat each other with respect regardless of race, colour, religion, gender, sexuality, size, age or ability. Our compassionate wish is for people, animals and the environment to be at peace.

A Peace Mala is a symbolic bracelet that focuses on the Golden Rule. It promotes friendship, respect and peace between people of all faiths and none; all cultures and lifestyles. Its intention is to educate and remind everyone that this rule is recognised by many scholars, teachers and philosophers. It is also universal to all compassionate faiths.

I think the above speaks for itself and there are several aspects to the above that make me, as a simple, stumbling Catholic trying to lead a Catholic life and give good example to my own children, deeply uneasy.

It even has a Rainbow coloured logo. It's also supported, according to Menevia News, by "many national and international religious leaders" with many wonderful and exotic names (Anglican, Buddhist and Muslim included).

And we are celebrating this on the front page of our own Catholic newspaper?

What are we teaching Catholic Youth Groups? That Catholicism is one of a pick n mix group of religions? Or that the rights of homosexuals are to be defended?

Whatever it is - it's not Catholic

Can't we just teach them that they belong to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church? That the ultimate charity is to bring homosexuals, Anglicans and Muslims into that fold and away from sin, heresy and idolatry, not to fawn to them or make them think their false ways are equal to or acceptable to the Church established by Jesus Christ.

My worry is that their are others out there like me: poor Catholics, ill-educated Catholics, Catholics who need help, struggling sinners trying their best and often failing. If there are, and I'm sure there are, then we need a Catholic church, with Catholic principles, with Catholic youth groups etc.

The Church should be the one dependable in this mad, materialist, all too atheist world. Sadly, in many instance it seems that the Church is not as dependable as we'd like.

From Westminster to Menevia, from the Soho Mass to Peace Mala.

Can I please just have a Catholic church that's Catholic?

Link:
Peace Mala (It's not Catholic!)

P.S.Among the links on the Peace Mala site (You know, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Taoism and 101 other types -- what is Yungdrung Bon? Is it legal?) are the following "Earth Religions":

http://www.witchvox.com http://www.paganfed.org http://www.druidry.org http://www.druidnetwork.org http://www.darkforce.com/wicca/  

Should the Catholic Church be promoting such evil links to our own young folk, as well as on the front page of the Diocesan newsletter?

 

National Secular Society: They Want No 'Catholic TV'

Damian Thompson

Damian Thompson writes for the Daily Telegraph. I enjoy most of his blog entries (I'd say all, but I don't read it as often as I should and there may be one somewhere I may disagree with).

I find his writing witty, not po-faced in the slightest and he gets to the nub of the matter.

A post of his a few days ago, dealt with a matter that I had been thinking of over Christmas.

As you will remember, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, gave the Thought for the Day on Radio 4 on Christmas Eve. As predictable as night following the day, the National Secular Society (NSS) complained at the BBC promoting the Pope and the Catholic religion.

Hmmm.

Usually the BBC's programmes promote the secular society, or homosexuality, or multi-faith/culturalism, or evolutionary theories dressed up as unassailable facts -- in fact almost anything but Catholicism.

The normal religious output of the BBC is the fuzzy, soppy 'Songs of Praise' which is usually so ecumenical as to be watered down, semi-secular "niceness" which turns people away from Catholicism.

On the other hand, turn the BBC (ITV, Channels 4, 5, Sky etc.) on any day and you will see secular, atheist, agnostic, pagan, homosexual, smutty, pornographic, blasphemous and other "entertainment."

We have a veritable storm of secular programming washing over us all, with "normal" programmes (magazine programmes, the soaps, radio music programmes, news output etc.) usually promoting a secular/atheist/pro-homosexual/pro-abortion agenda which many Catholics (and others) find offensive.

An independent poll recently gave the homosexual population at circa 1% (even after many years of promotion, government funding etc.) whereas the Catholic population stands at circa 5 or 6% as I understand it.

Can anyone reasonably suggest that Catholicism is promoted 5 or 6 times more than homosexuality in the media?

Now I don't believe in relativism or majoritarianism, so even if there were 1% of Catholics and 40% of homosexuals, the Faith would always be right. But the BBC claim to be "democratic" and so, by their own criteria, the TV and radio should have far more Catholicism than it does!

Yet whilst the NSS chokes on its muesli at the thought of the leader of the world's largest religion (and more importantly the only founded by the Son of God, Jesus Christ, but they don't care for those kind of facts) getting a few minutes early in the morning we hear nothing from them about these two choice little numbers put out (multiple times at peak-viewing hours) this Christmas:

• Louis Spence's Christmas Message, full of homosexual double-entendres and outright entendres.
• QI Christmas Special - Witchcraft Special with spinning Satanic pentagram symbols.

I dare say there were lots more too (do bear in mind I don't watch as much TV as the average chap), not least Hollywood's output (repeated on TV) which tends to be full of blasphemous language and much worse.

In short, by screeching their disgust and banging their little fists in a tantrum over a few minutes given to His Holiness the Pope, the NSS expose how little airtime genuine Catholicism actually gets.

Just as when they gathered their atheist forces in London to oppose the Pope, they were drowned out by a sea of pilgrims flocking to see the Holy Father and showing that they were willing to publicly defend their Catholic Faith.

The NSS: you have to feel a little sorry for them. Poor little loves. They just can't help themselves.

Link:
Damian Thompson on the NSS