You really cannot make this up!

 

Following the publicised trial of Kermit Gosnell (see last post) now 'pro-choicers' are blaming those who are against abortion for the terrible case of Kermit Gosnell. See here. You really cannot make this up! Apparently pro-lifers so stigmatise abortion that women are driven to 'dodgy' places like Kermit Gosnell's.
However the US National Abortion Federation apparently made an assessment of Gosnell's facilities and despite finding them to be woefully unsuitable to provide any medical procedure, they failed to report him to the authorities. As others have reported there was a deliberate lack of inspection over his facilities because of pro-choice politics in the State.

The way of thinking for those who support abortion leads usually to a position that any child can be 'terminated' as long as it is in the uterus. For a pro-choicer the decision to terminate a child's life can only be legitimately made by the mother, but can be made at any time during the child's gestation in the womb. The horror of discovering that Dr Gosnell had snipped the spines of these babies after they were born seems to have no impact on these pro-choicers. Their way of thinking would seem to suggest that Dr Gosnell's actions if done in-utero would have been legitimate. This is the culture of death: a very twisted logic that legitimates something that rightly causes people to be horrified. Intrinsically I see no difference between the twisted logic of the Nazis whose way of thinking legitimated the destruction of those they regarded as less than human, and, the twisted logic of the pro-choice movement which legitimates the destruction of human beings whose status is dependant on the choice of their mother. Both ways of thinking build up a culture of death, where destruction of human life becomes commonplace and acceptable.

In this following discussion there are some suggestions at how we might go about opening people's eyes to this deathly logic. It is certainly very difficult to bring up the subject of abortion, but the Gosnell case gives us an opportunity to open a discussion. One of the difficult things is that our culture finds it almost impossible to publicly discuss this atrocity. And that means it is hidden away. Hidden away, the culture of death thrives. One of our responsibilities as members of our society is to bring into the light, albeit in a sensitive way, any injustice/evil being perpetrated in our society. We need to discover with courage and sensitivity, how we might do that.

The horrors of the case of Kermit Gosnell

The horrendous case of Kermit Gosnell in the US has been discussed on Catholic blogs and websites for some time. The general media has made little of it. Here was a 'doctor' murdering babies born viable, damaging women, and practising 'medicine' without any or very little supervision. He had not been inspected for the past ten years. In the 45 min report from Fox News harrowing details are shared of the practices of someone who can surely only be described as a murderer and abuser. What is shocking is how the authorities turned a blind eye to this man.

Although Fox News has, of course, its own political agenda, nevertheless the substance of this report is important for all those committed to fighting the culture of death which extends through modern 'progressive' societies around the world.

Here is The Catholic Heralds piece on the case.

Kermit Gosnell pleaded not guilty to murder - he says, he was simply doing his best for these women. He could not see the difference between killing a child outside the womb and killing it within. This is the thought process of a murderer but it is chillingly not so far from the justification for all abortions. Only children killed at a certain age of gestation is regarded as murder, according to the state's definition. Yet the chilling logic of the murderer holds true for any age. Why should it be okay to kill a human being just because it is hidden from sight, but not kill a human being if it can be seen?

Some of these difficult questions perhaps explain why so much of the mainstream media around the world has reported very little about this mass-murderer.

UPDATE 20:19 on 13th May 2013
Gosnell is found guilty on 3 out of 4 first degree murder charges.
Read a report of the verdict at LifeNews.
Tim Stanley of The Telegraph writes this blog.

Ryan Anderson defends marriage in TV debate

In this 14 minute TV clip of a CNN live debate, we witness the great problems we face in western society's 'debate' over whether we can consider marriage applicable to gay couples.

Here Ryan Anderson debates very logically and clearly the case for marriage not to be redefined. He gives a clear and reasoned response to all their challenges, yet they will neither concede the argument nor put forward a better one. While it is in some ways depressing viewing, for if logic and reason can so easily be abandoned how can we have hope for western society? Yet it is important to reflect on these things in order to understand more clearly where the real problems are, and, how we can defend the understanding of marriage as between a man and a woman.

One of the things that comes over to me again is how the question of children and their well-being has become secondary. Ryan's point that the State has no need to interfere with relationships except when it affects children is a good one. A union of a man and a woman can produce children, whereas a gay couple's union/sexual expression can never produce children. All children have a mother and a father, and marriage binds together the father and the mother for their good, yes, but most especially for the children. Again it seems to me that the children suffer because of what adults want. This is also true regarding the abortion 'debate': one in which reason has been abandoned for the sake of adults doing what they want to do. Principally abortion is needed because sexual union and procreation have been divorced in people's minds. The consequence of people having multiple sexual relationships is that women will become pregnant. The logical conclusion is to put off sexual union until one is in a position to be able responsibly to have children, for the sake of the children. The children should have the priority for the sake of future generations. Abortion literally sacrifices children almost always for the sake of allowing adults to freely gratify their sexual desires. Instead of strengthening the bond that can bring stability to a child's mother and father, what advocates of gay marriage are effectively saying is that marriage is principally about adults and not about children, it is about adults being happy before children's well-being.

It is well worth listening carefully to this, so-called, debate, for sooner or later most of us will be asked the same sorts of questions, and we need to have the answers that defend the truth.

Ordinariate priests en France

Eglise de Saint Pierre, Berrien, Brittany

Four Ordinariate priests from the Southwest spent a week in France this last week. It was a welcome break for us during Eastertide. We were staying in Berrien and were very privileged to be able to celebrate mass each day in the village church with the blessing of the Parish Priest (who seemed to have six or seven churches!).

The Church is a sixteenth century Church under the patronage of Saint Peter. So we were overjoyed to begin our days with the Offices and then Mass in the Church. In the photo you can see Fr John, pastor of the Cornwall Mission, with Fr David of the Torbay Mission and myself. Fr Simon took the photo. Each day after Mass we popped into the boulangerie for croissant and bread. During the days we toured various churches viewing beautiful architecture, statuary, vestments and church plate.

One Church named after the relic they housed, St John's finger, also possessed an incredible acoustic and we were moved to sing the Regina Caeli before the statue of Our Lady. Some tourists who came in during our singing were quite surprised - whether that was due to our singing, due to singing English, or having a group of men voicing a devotion to Our Lady, we were not sure.

One of the objects of our quasi retreat/break was to pray together but to also take stock of where we are as an Ordinariate in the Southwest and to share some of our thoughts about the future and the way we might develop. We had a very good time discussing and share our thoughts.

May Our Lady of Walsingham, Saint Pierre, Saint Jean de doight, Blessed John Henry Newman and all the saints intercede for us.

The risk of a "baby-sitter church"

I really like what John Thavis has posted today about the Holy Father's surprising sermon to the Bankers at the Vatican. Very interesting that he didn't give a sermon about the morality of money, but about evangelisation and our baptismal call:

From the Blog: John Thavis:

When Pope Francis said Mass this morning for Vatican bank employees, some might have expected a homily on financial ethics.
Instead, he delivered a brief and insightful reflection on the strength of baptism. Essentially, the pope argued that unless lay Catholics are willing to courageously live and proclaim their faith, the church risks turning into a “babysitter” for sleeping children.
Pope Francis was speaking to the mostly lay employees of the Vatican bank in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where his morning Masses have become daily teaching moments.
He referred to the day’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles on the evangelizing efforts of the earliest Christians, who traveled from place to place proclaiming the Gospel.
“They were a simple faithful, baptized just a year or so before – but they had the courage to go and proclaim,” he said.

“I think of us, the baptized: do we really have this strength – and I wonder – do we really believe in this? Is baptism enough? Is it sufficient for evangelization? Or do we rather ‘hope’ that the priest should speak, that the bishop might speak ... and what of us? Then, the grace of baptism is somewhat closed, and we are locked in our thoughts, in our concerns. Or sometimes think: ‘No, we are Christians, I was baptized, I made Confirmation, First Communion ... I have my identity card all right. And now, go to sleep quietly, you are a Christian.’ But where is this power of the Spirit that carries us forward?”
The pope said Christians today need to “be faithful to the Spirit, to proclaim Jesus with our lives, through our witness and our words.”

“When we do this, the church becomes a mother church that produces children…. But when we do not, the church is not the mother, but the babysitter, that takes care of the baby – to put the baby to sleep. It is a church dormant. Let us reflect on our baptism, on the responsibility of our baptism.”

This was a favorite theme of Pope Francis when he was an archbishop in Buenos Aires, and I think we can expect to hear more on the topic in coming weeks and months.
In a revealing interview in 2011 with the news agency AICA, then-Cardinal Bergoglio was asked about the Catholic laity in Argentina, and he answered with these words:
“We priests tend to clericalize the laity.We do not realize it, but it is as if we infect them with our own disease.And the laity — not all, but many — ask us on their knees to clericalize them, because it is more comfortable to be an altar server than the protagonist of a lay path. We cannot fall into that trap —it is a sinful complicity.”

This is something for us all to reflect upon. Is our church a mother producing children? Or indeed have we become babysitters? Do we hope we can put the baby to bed soon so we can have an easy life?

Ordinariate Guidelines for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist

Today, our Ordinary has provided the Ordinariate with Guidelines on how we are to celebrate the Mass.The full guidelines can be found here.

As far as Buckfast Ordinariate Mission is concerned many of the recommendations have been implemented by us already. Here are a few comments (numbers refer to original document above) :

4. Calendar - Most noteable are "Sundays after Trinity".
5. Ad orientum - When possible we have been facing liturgical east for Mass.
9. We use incense every Sunday, and have gradually sung more and more of the mass, even the priests who are not musically trained (like me).
15. With help we have sung more and more plainchant.
20. We are confident singing the simple mass of the Missal.
21. We are currently singing Mass VIII: Gloria, Sanctus & Agnus in Latin. We haven't as yet sung the Creed or Our Father.
22. We have used the Advent Prose and Lent Prose for the last two years (from the English Hymnal). We only sing the Marian antiphons (Angelus & Regina Caeli) in English as yet.
23. We have used the RSV 2nd Ed exclusively since our first Sunday.
25. We now use the RSV psalter at mass. Considering singing it to plainsong instead of responsorially.
26. We have not yet used the mass of the Book of Divine Worship.
36. Up until just recently we have been celebrating mass in a chapel with communion rails and used them. We are currently in another chapel which does not have a rail (so we are receiving standing but several of us don't like it).
37. NOTE I still do not think this gives enough detail. I.e. is it dignified to lift the sacred body with finger and thumb, or should one lift palm to mouth?
38. This is very helpful guidance.


Generally I much prefer to be told what to do liturgically, than have to work it out from first principles, not least because it is less time consuming, less individualist, and more likely to result in consistency between groups. I welcome these guidelines.

Fr Ian Hellyer
Pastor of the Buckfast Ordinariate Mission