Are you serious?

The coronation of King Richard III  in Westminster Abbey in 1483 by Cardinal Thomas Bourchier - a Catholic.

It seems that the remains of King Richard III are to be interred in Leicester Cathedral after all - with the Rites of the Anglican Communion.  The local Catholic bishop, Malcolm McMahon is, in accordance with ecumenical practice, "happy to take part in any form of ceremony which takes place to mark his final burial.”

No representations seem to have been forthcoming from any Catholic Bishop or the Bishop's Conference.  What a pity.  It seems plain to me that a Catholic should be given Catholic rites.  Would I want my Catholic grandparents remains to be re-interred with the rites of a denomination foreign to them?  I don't think so.  Should my remains ever have to be moved after burial, I would hope my original wishes and faith would be respected.  King Richard is not to be so fortunate.

That no official Catholic interest in giving Catholic Rites for Catholic King have been forthcoming is perhaps indicative of a wider malaise within the Church - certainly here in the West.  My suspicion is that it is just not thought to be important.  This is the same attitude as is displayed in varying ways to all the Sacraments in our day. A sign that we don't take religion seriously any more - not even in the church.  A complete loss of confidence.  If we don't take it seriously, ignoring our own teachings, how can we expect anyone outside the Church to take us seriously?  No wonder evangelization is nigh on impossible. 

To use the Sacraments as examples:

Baptism is delayed until the family happens to get around to it or the school asks for a certificate to get the child into a Catholic School.  No importance is attached to the removal of Original Sin, no importance is attached to giving the child a relationship with the Church and the community of salvation. No importance is given to the promises made to bring the child up in the practice of the Faith - the words are said but not taken seriously as promises.

How to take seriously the most important event in your life.

No one goes to Confession any more.  No one takes seriously the need for forgiveness, presumably because people do not believe they are sinning, or if they are, it really doesn't matter - either for their reception at Holy Communion or for entrance into Heaven.

Sinners seem to have been banned from the Church.

First Communion is sadly, a joke for the most part.  There has been heavy stress since Vatican II on this as part of the process of initiation - one of the Sacraments of Initiation.  However, we all know that the vast majority of those receiving it have not been initiated into the Faith, are not going to be brought on in it and are highly unlikely to be at Mass the following Sunday.  We keep on giving it to the children of families that show no signs of carrying out the promises they made at Baptism.  We do not take it seriously. Perhaps because if we did, there would be so few children making First Communion that we really would have to do something about the crisis - like admitting there is one  - but as no one appears to know how to tackle it, best to continue with head buried firmly in sand.  The obligation to attend Sunday Mass is simply ignored - even by those who do, for the most part, come regularly to Mass. It is not thought important to put Mass before entertainment, recreation or a lie-in on a Sunday morning. A general selfishness of what suits me rather than any relation to the meaning of the sacrament.

I see absolutely no problems!

Confirmation is supposed to be the completion of the Sacraments of Initiation.  In other words, the initiation process is completed.  Yet I hear it described as a means for those lapsed from the Church to "re-connect". The Sacrament is used as an evangelising tool instead of grace offered to those completing the initiation process. (Not that it works as an evangelising tool, for I've tried doing that myself in the past.)

In the Traditional Form of Confirmation the Bishop slapped your face. Could do with bringing that back!

Weddings.  Oh my!  Apart from the fact that there are so few of them, most Catholics don't appear to see them as at all necessary.  A party for when you can afford all the fripperies is all that a wedding is. Not necessary to express or support commitment.  Not necessary for the raising of children. The vast majority of Catholics, even those coming to be married, have completely taken on the attitude of the secular world. Any Catholic understanding of Marriage is completely alien to them.  Most couples coming along (never seen before) have no idea that they should not even be coming to Holy communion should they start attending Mass.  

The Church - a suitable backdrop for "my perfect day."

And so we return to King Richard and the final Rites.  Although it's provided by many dedicated hospital chaplains there are very few Catholics for whom receiving the Last Rites is high on their agenda.  In older parish death registers there is a place for noting if they were given but no one worries about that any more, let alone praying for the deceased at a Requiem Mass.  Surely, as they were baptised (aged 4 to get into the school)

went to Confession (once) 

received First Communion (the last time they were in church before their wedding)

were allowed to be married in church

and had a lovely 'celebration of life' Mass for their funeral

surely, they will go straight to Heaven (where they are not dead but have only slipped into the room next door).

 

Anything you want - and heaven too.

Am I painting a rather bleak picture - yes.  I fear it is for the most part a true one.  Over the centuries when a Religious Order lost its way, a great leader, a saint, rises up to call it back to its original charism.  Some great leaders, saints, are what we need today to call us back to our original charism.  Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will send us such - and soon - to call us back to the Faith.  In the meantime it's up to each individual to start from themselves - bishop, priest or lay person.  It's not lost, it's all there written down in the Scriptures, the Catechism, the Documents of the Councils, the words of the Sacraments.  All we have to do is start doing and believing what they say.  Along with many others, I believe that the primary place where people experience the Faith - the source and summit (to quote a recent Council) - is one of the most important places to be called back to faithfulness, to start taking seriously again.  The Mass must look like the Mass of Ages and not like a children's playgroup if we are to begin taking it seriously again - along with the rest of the Faith.

Down we go.