Church's rules will help you live longer - Scientific proof

 
Radio Four

Click on the above link to hear the segment.

 

I caught an item on the BBC Radio 4 "Today" programme this morning about the research now showing that fasting regularly each week has positive health benefits.  Not just on weight but on general health and on brain cells in particular.  The "Horizon" programme on BBC1 this evening at 9pm will look at the research in more detail.  What the neuro-scientist interviewed described was almost exactly the sort of regime recommended by the Church for centuries on each Friday (and Wednesdays in the past in some parts of the Church) - a decent breakfast, no lunch and fish with vegetables for supper.  Apparently, the stress on cells helps them to grow stronger and this applies particularly to brain cells, strengthening them against such things as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

So, scientific proof that what the Church has taught for centuries is good for your physical and mental health and helps you to live longer.  Following the Maker's instructions given through the Church is good for the human person.  Another indication that an organisation with 2,000 years experience might just have learnt some valuable lessons over the centuries and that we abandon our traditions at our peril.

The only thing the poor old Beeb missed out was to add in a light sprinkling of prayer so that body and spirit will be in good shape!

Tradtional High Mass in St Peter's

 Good Pope John XXIII celebrating the Mass in St Peter's

Many of you will already know from other blogs that there is to be an international "Summorum Pontificum" Pilgrimage in Rome around the Feast of All Saints on 1st November this year including a High Mass in St Peter's on 3rd November.  As the Eponymous Flower writes, "The unspoken hope for some is that the Pope himself will celebrate it himself for the first time as head of the Church."

It is sometimes said that one difficulty might be that the old Pontifical Mass with the Holy Father was so complicated that there is now hardly a soul still alive who would know how to organise it!  Also that it was so elaborate that the whole effect might be too much to suddenly return to.  I wonder if the Papal Mass as it was in every detail would need to be replicated?  The Holy Father - as the supreme liturgist - could simply celebrate Pontifical High Mass, as even bishops in this country have done.

However it might be done, it would be a wonderful gesture and boost for the Holy Father's obvious and continuing support of the traditional Form of the Roman Rite.I think the Pilgrimage is already giving new impetus to the recent petition to be sent to Rome expressing the desire for just such a celebration.  Apparently, 12,000 signatures are needed before Rome will look at such petitions so anyone who wants can sign the petition HERE.

Addition: Mr Thomas Murphy, Secretary of the FIUV, asks me to make it clear that the petition is nothing to do with the the Pilgrimage organisers. 

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By the by, in reference to a comment on my last post, (and others occasionally received) if you don't happen to like the views expressed on this blog - you really don't HAVE to read them.  No, honestly, you really don't have to!  Seriously, I wouldn't mind.

Suggest a new bishop

Your priest may not thank you for putting him into the position of having to choose one of these!

 

I posted a while ago about making sure that we do not just complain about the status quo but that we do what we can to work for change and the good of the church by writing in to the papal Nuncio to put forward names of prospective bishops for the presently vacant and numerous soon to be vacant diocese around England and Wales.  If no one tells him about good priests, how will they come to his attention?  Especially as it's rumoured that he is trying to look outside the usual circles - magic or otherwise.

I write this now as I've just been putting pen to paper with my own suggestions - and no, I'm not suggesting myself, as some wag commented this morning.  Your suggestions to the Nuncio should be realistic!  Nor am I letting on who I have been suggesting

The Nuncio's address is: 

His Excellency the Most Rev. Antonio Mennini,Apostolic Nunciature,
54 Parkside,
Wimbledon,
London.
SW19 5NE

Enemies of the Church

Three interesting posts to juxtapose:

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I read a post from Rod Dreher concerning the plight of what is possibly the oldest surviving Christian monastery in the world, the Mor Gabriel Monastery , which is about to be closed down in Turkey:

The Mongolians failed to destroy it 700 years ago despite the massacre of 40 friars and 400 Christians. Yet the existence of the oldest functioning Christian monastery in the world, the fifth century Mor Gabriel Monastery in the Tur Abdin plane (the mountain of God’s servants) near the Turkish-Syrian border, is at risk after a ruling by Turkey’s highest appeals court in Ankara.
Founded in 397 by the monks Samuel and Simon, Mor Gabriel in eastern Anatolia has been the heart of the Orthodox Syrian community for centuries. Syriacs hail from a branch of Middle Eastern Christianity and are one of the oldest communities in Turkey.
Today the monastery is inhabited by Mor Timotheus Samuel Aktash, 3 monks, 11 nuns and 35 boys who are learning the monastery’s teachings, the ancient Aramaic language spoken by Jesus and the Orthodox Syriac tradition.

Turkey’s highest court agreed with Muslim villagers who accused the monastery of practicing “anti-Turkish activities” by educating young people (including non-Christians). The court just happened to lose documents the monastery provided to back up its 1,600 year old claim to the land. Ergo, the appeals court:

… said the land which has been part of the monastery for 1,600 years is not its property, Turkish newspaper Zaman reported.
The lawsuit also claimed that the sanctuary was built over the ruins of a mosque, forgetting that Mohammed was born 170 years after its foundation.

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At the same time, Fr Tim Finegan has a post about Tony Blair once again giving us the benefit of his extraordinary take on the Catholic Faith (which, as Fr Tim points out is once again self-contradictory and contrary to the Teachings of the Church.).  On Islam, the dominant religion in Turkey, Mr Blair days:

I see the Koran very much as an outsider. It stands in the great prophetic tradition of trying to return people to the basic principles of spirituality. Taken for its time, it was an extraordinarily progressive declaration of principle.

Mr Blair is a supporter of bringing Turkey into the European Union:

The EU should allow mainly Muslim Turkey to become a member of the bloc to demonstrate its commitment to the creation of a tolerant and diverse Europe, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday.
"Let us show by our willingness to bring Turkey, a proud Muslim nation, into the EU on the same and equal terms as all others, that Europe is commited not just in word but in deed to a Europe of diverse races, cultures and religions all bound together by comon rules and a sense of human solidarity and mutual respect,"

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Meanwhile Deacon Nick over at  Protect the Pope notes that we have begun once again to recognise some worldly and spiritual realities - that enemies of the Church do actually exist:

In his recent interview with ZENIT the newly appointed Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith referred to ‘enemies of the Church’. Archbishop Müller said:
‘We are aware that our vocation is to be friends of God and thus discover to what hope, in reality, we are destined. This makes doubts disappear from the heart. Atheists and enemies of the Church should ask themselves, perhaps, with a spirit of self-criticism if they themselves have means of salvation to offer the men of today.’

Failed dissenters on the back foot

Deacon Nick at Protect the Pope has twice now drawn attention to a little band of dissenting priests who are trying quite openly to foment dissent against the Holy Father and the public teachings of the Church. Here and now here. In an attempt to rouse up an Austrian style campaign they have managed to garnish seven names to their rebellion and now a meeting, in an Anglican church, of seventy citing a rejection of the Second Vatican Council by the Holy Father, the Vatican and some new bishops.  The truth is that they are ignoring the fact that the more proper interpretation of the Council in a hermeneutic of continuity with the past instead of a deliberate association with Protestant rejection of essential dogmas of the faith is now in the ascendancy - well, something had to be done for if we carried on the way we were doing, there would eventually be nothing left of the Church.  Pope Benedict is not rejecting Vatican II but mooring it in the safe harbour of Tradition. 

Those who have for so long ignored the actual teaching of the Church and ridden rough-shod over the authority of the Pope and tradition and are still trying to do so in many places, are now on the back foot.  Complaining that they no longer have a blind eye turned towards them by all the bishops when they preach dissent from the pulpit.

These priests, retired or not, have bishops and superiors who should call them to account.

What is also disgraceful is the open support given to these dissenters by "The Tablet" - a supposedly Catholic journal.  If a journal calls itself "Catholic" it seems absurd that it feels able to criticise the proclaimed teaching of the Church.  No doubt this would be claimed as "discussion" and "debate" but the slant is so angled against the Holy Father and anything deemed to be  "traditional" that it is in fact attacking the Church herself.  We can't help being traditional, God chose to effect our salvation through the incarnation and our tradition goes back to those great events.  Our Lord himself founded the Church to protect and hand on that message and thereby gave the People of God a history, a Tradition - but perhaps that's another one of those things dissenters don't believe. 


On a completely unrelated point, Fr Ray Blake also has a post "that a so called "Catholic" weekly, that has a reputation for criticising the Pope and  his works, was doing a muck-raking exercise trying to dig up dirt on Catholic clergy's private lives," apparently focusing on clergy in the Ordinariate. What more evidence do we need to know that dissenters do not really like other Christians joining the full unity of the Church - especially when the invitation comes from the Pope?  If true it's disgraceful, coming from a supposedly Catholic journal.


I do wish dissenters would stop stamping their feet like frustrated children and if they disagree so profoundly with the Church and can't come to an
 acceptance of Her teachings, to go and found one of their own that does suit their agenda.  Even Her Majesty's loyal opposition is meant to be loyal, as well as an oppposition.

Day for Life

Well done to Fr Tim Finegan, who has posted about the rather weak and bland materials produced for next week's "Day for Life", in particular the leaflets sent in bulk to each parish for distribution.  They latch on to the Olympics, of course.  I don't think its necessarily a bad thing to use something in the public consciousness as a hook to get people's attention but only if it leads on to a real presentation of the Faith.  Too often we jump on any popular bandwagon that comes along - it smacks of a desperation to be popular.  I think the worst example was possibly in 2005 when the leaders of the Catholic Church in the UK ran up to Scotland to join in with some very anti Church types in protesting the G8 Summit Meeting, but then they did get to be photographed with Bob Gelolf (wow!)

 As I'm in the process of writing a review of a book which illustrates that Pope Paul VI was very wary of allowing Communion in the hand  as a dangerous novelty undermining proper faith in the Real Presence, I was particularly unhappy with, as Fr Tim says, with "the back cover close-up of Holy Communion in the hand, the photo chosen to illustrate the Eucharistic Dimension of the theme."

Here is the actual message of the day as outlined by Blessed Pope John Paul when he proposed a Day for Life in his encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae:

Its primary purpose should be to foster in individual consciences, in families, in the Church and in civil society a recognition of the meaning and value of human life at every stage and in every condition. Particular attention should be drawn to the seriousness of abortion and euthanasia, without neglecting other aspects of life which from time to time deserve to be given careful consideration, as occasion and circumstances demand. (n.85)

Considering that the "theme" is focused on the body, there is no mention of suffering (except once, obliquely, in the prayer).  Many people sitting in church this Sunday will either have bodies that bring them suffering or be people who care for those who are suffering.  The supposed big argument in support of abortion and euthanasia is that it relieves suffering but this is not tackled at all.  It is precisely in the area of suffering that respect for the human person "from conception to natural death" in Christian terms needs to be explained to people.  A missed opportunity.

New Translation in St Peter's

Whilst in Rome I was able to offer Mass early one morning in St Peter's Basilica at the altar of St Thomas at the side of the south transept.  It always feels a little unreal to be able to offer Mass in the great Basilica.  There appears to be a Latin Missal at each altar now, which was not always the case in the past.  

What I also could not help noticing was the large American group that arrived at the neighbouring altar of St Joseph  towards the end of my own Mass because the priest proceeded to speak rather loudly using a microphone.  It is not the lack of sensitivity I'm complaining about but the fact that, while he used the new English translation he changed the wording all the way through the Mass - bellowing out his own made-up version right there in St Peter's!  The most glaring abuse was the deliberate change of 'chalice' to 'cup' but others are too  numerous to mention.  (If I'd taken his name I would have reported him to Cardinal Burke, as I happened to see him later that day at the Apostolic Signatura!)

Obviously, the intention of re-sacralising the Mass through the new translation is never going to work if priests still feel free to invent their own versions which they somehow believe superior to the one promulgated by the Holy See.  It will not matter how much better the new translation is if priests still add in their "Good Morning everybody - Good morning Father" and interrupt the Mass to add in their own dubious rubrics instructing the congregation to "hold hands during the Our Father" and all the other ad libs that congregations have been forced to suffer in recent years.

The other great thing about St Peter's is that all the altars that priests say Mass on around the Basilica are "ad orientem".  It must come as quite a shock to many.