12 January 2015

Je suis ...

I had lunch in Oxford today with a very dear friend, a brother priest from the Diocese of Chichester. Putting his cards firmly upon the table, he loudly proclaimed Je Suis Chablis.

I do hope that all the hysterical claptrap will now quieten down and slink shamefacedly away, I mean a long way away. And I pray that no more mad and murderous Islamicists will kill any more blasphemous and sacrilegious Secularists for, say, something like the next 85 years. Or vice versa. It's more than I feel I could take.

BTW, lovely article over on Rorate by ... Proust, of all people. I never knew he was One Of Us.

4 comments:

Osmund Kilrule said...

I am Puligny Montrachet, any Frascati, and even the cheapest Marsala (Menfi 2006, in reality), why, even crusted port...sorry, I am undergoing an identity crisis at the moment . I find Mrs Proudie's constant gloating unbearable. You once told us of a peaceful haven on the shores of some italic lake, Father...

Fr John Hunwicke said...

My dear Mr Dean

How good to hear from you again, tantum post lapsum temporis.

The peaceful haven which you need on the shore of an italic lake is called "the Ordinariate". And it needs you very badly. The reason: the Ordinariate is awash with formerly Anglican bishops, now masquerading as eyetye Monsignori, cluttering up the trattorie and bagging all the best places on the beaches. It is decently Archdeaconed. But what it lacks is a formerly Anglican Cathedral Dean (of a properly pre-Henrician foundation). And, of course, because of this lacuna (no pun intended) it lacks the power to claim the Plenitudo Patrimonii Anglicani.

I am waiting avidly to forward your application to the emeritus Bishop of Richborough so that he can get it on its way to Propaganda Fide ... I presume that must be the proper dicastery ... by the most expeditious posts.

B flat said...

It is the sham outrage against extremists who attack our basic values, the pretended support for free speech, by our dishonest political leaders which makes me choke. They simply go with whatever wind blows stronger, with no moral sense, no purpose in life except their own love of grandstanding.
Where is their consistency?Where were these charlies when the feminists and militant LGBTQ lobby attacked and destroyed all toleration of the moral consensus which was the basis of our European society for two millennia?
We must now fear charges of hate speech, have no freedom to object to, or refuse to cooperate with abortions, sodomy or perversion of marriage if they impinge on our trade or profession, no matter how remotely. Who stole these freedoms from us if not our politicians and their appointed judges?

Colloquial English had a prophetic term for making a mess of things. It applies to the "multiculuralism" and dictatorship mischievously imposed upon Europe by its pseudo-liberal politicians - they b*gg*r*d us up.

Unknown said...

I do hope I don't cause you good gentlemen to lose your appetites , mais ça l'air que Charlie aimera roter de nouveau - plus fort qu'auparavant ; and on the subject of an identity crisis: Roughly one hour ago the news coming over my alarm-clock/radio announced that a special mass run edition of Charlie Hebdo would go on sale tomorrow : According to that source, material includes , um , work of some of the writers who recently lost their lives so tragically along with the work of others . . .an unprecedented 3 million copies. What’s wrong with this picture ?

The Charlie Hebdo cartoon of Pope (emeritus) Benedict XVI referenced by Father H in his recent post Killing conveys a veritably horrid sentiment if one is able to understand all those shady thoughts represented by the symbols in their entirety. While we continue to pray for their authors ,It would prove uncomfortably wholesome for Catholics to be given some idea of the magnitude of, or the gravity of blasphemy unleashed in some of their cartoons . Ensuing is a description of two other Charlie Hebdo cartoons I randomly scrutinized yesterday (sorry no links – this is a dignified blog):

The first example is a cartoon of Pope Benedict XVI at the moment of Consecration (depicted as the elevation) during Mass, but instead of holding up a host , he is holding up a condom, while saying the words “Ceci est mon corps!” (“This is my body!”) And in the upper left- hand corner the title, Le Pape va trop loin!” (“The Pope goes too far”).

The second cartoon is entitled La DenièreTélé- Réalité de TF1 (Roughly- “The last TV-reality show of TF1” ;TF1 is a French TV station). It is a cartoon of our Blessed Lord Jesus nailed to the Cross , (with several TV cameras at ground level) and Jesus is screaming, “Je suis une célébrité . . . Sortez-moi de là!” (“I’m a celebrity. . . Get me out of here!”).

That is just a smidgen but should more than suffice to demonstrate the truth that no self-respecting Catholic need bother to claim “Je suis Charlie” , unless, of course, Charles happens to be their true given name.

Pope Francis offered the Mass for the victims and “also for the perpetrators of such cruelty that the Lord will change their hearts.” While their prayer also included victims’ families, I couldn’t help but wonder whether we weren’t forgetting another important group ?

It is in moments like these we discover just what an anchor our Catholic faith can be- solid and immovable – no matter which way the wind or currents may jolt us in attempts to have us veer off course.

But could it be, the majority of those masses we saw bearing their identity crisis name tags , were truly mired in precisely that – an identity crisis ? . . . While our faith was confirming who we were, their lack of any faith, or belief in Christ, or at the very least -their not having the benefits of the sacraments , could have easily added confusion and disorientation to their traumatized state - leading them to drift wherever mass hysteria’s whims dictated ; while perhaps a few political hitch-hikers opportunely hopped onto the float with the intention of prostituting themselves out to the god of public opinion ?

Is it possible that we were subjected to these images of mass hysteria so that we might be reminded just how precious our own gift of faith is and of how we might wisely and compassionately use this faith to pray for the so many we saw who appear to be devoid of any true faith and therefore could well be living without the benefits of the sacraments ? A little food for thought . . .

1. “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing — they believe in anything.”
GK Chesterton

2. “At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Matthew 9:36 [NAB]