THE LONG LENT, TRIDUUM, EASTER, POPE BENEDICT AND THE CHURCH

In Kosovo, this video shows a procession of the Faithful, who had their churches trashed and country laid waste in the recent wars-their LENT. Gradually thy walk through it all to the HEAVENLY city and it becomes an Easter proccession with the Bride and the Lamb entering it. It is a joyous Easter Procession , giving us hope for the future.




So we have also trawled through a long Lent and a long winter, colder than we have experienced for some time! At the same time our hearts have been heavily laden with the sins of priests of our church who have been sinful and wreaked havoc with the lives of young children at the beginning of this century.This is always CRIMINAL and WRONG, and there is no excuse for them. They will have had their judgement by God by now.

Not all the abuse was sexual-some was physical, as was usual, unfortunately at this time. It is only in recent times that beating such children has become illegal , and unfortunately with the influx of family breakdowns and sometimes immature people , as we have seen sadly in the case of Baby P and many others, this does continue behind locked doors.

All organisations contain people who abuse children whether it is hidden or not and Pope Benedicts campaign to defrock priests within the Catholic Churrch, when they came to his notice, was hampered by others terrified of the church's reputation being harmed, and by the disappointing reaction of Pope John Paul, who, as a good and holy man , decided to extend more compassion upon Fr Murphy for example (who was terminally ill and did die shortly after the decision was made)than Father Murphy had for his victims. The then Cardinal Ratzinger was furious 'The other side won' he said-pointing out that this treatment would be seen to be 'hiding' the abuse.It is ironic why he of all people should be held rresponsible, while it was he who was trying to laicise those priests.

I am not taking anything away from the experiences of the families who have been through this experience. I know the agonies of all this and the lasting legacy it leaves, and God will deal with those who have perpetrated these crimes and seemingly got away with it .(These crimes were all a long time ago) And indeed I remember rreading about similar cases in schools (statistically more abusse goes on amongst the teaching profession than any other apart from within the family-but would we smear a great an noble profession by intimating that the profession 'hides' this cases and somehow all teachers are involved? No.

Nor would we smear other churches with cases of Child abuse on a large scale in the early part of the twentieth century.A friend of minne was abused by her Jehovah's Witness leader a long time ago and this, unfortunately happens everywhere.

The Pope is,as an octagenarian , a great pope, who has worked tirelessly to unify Christians-not for personal agrandissment but for Christ, who wanted us to be one. The Catholic Church IS counter cultural. Christ would have had a lot to say about the worship of money, dubious morality, neglect and abuse of children (and abuse means not giving children enough love, enough stability) to flourish. Some of our bishops have become lax and distant in promoting the Law of God rather than that of men and they have to toe a difficult line.

I was dismayed that Archbishop Rowan is now wading in to try and stop loyal traditional Anglicans 'defecting' to the Ordinariat that the Pope has set up to provide a space for traditional Anglican worsship. Worse still that the media in the UK is jumping on the bandwagon trying to 'smear' the Holy Father himself, who himself disagreed with the decision not to deal with these priests. You have to wonder whether there are agencies within the church itself out to get at Pope Benedict-what a heavy cross he has to bear this Easter.

Innocent yet accused by an unthinking chattering class out to taint the whole church with the actions of a very small number of sinning priests seemingly in all countries.-so this does seem to be ann orchestrated campaign! This is the message of the Passion and we arre seeing thiss spiritual battle going on. The allegations in Germany began when an alleged victim tried to blackmail the church over an instance of abuse.Having been refused, as his parents had made no complaint and it was his word for it, it sseems he decided to go the compensation route. Most of the priests parishioners protested as he was a hugely popular priest. Some of the priests have now been removed, and no doubt as police make more enquiries they will be rooted out. But don't blame Benedict-he wanted this scandal removed for some time and has doubtless been unpopular amongst some of the bishops because of it.

The evil within the church is real annd manifest, but for the rest of it in it, whilst we are Christ's hospital for sinners, we do try to maintain the teaching of the church and are a powerful source for good inn the world.

We founded the first hospitals and schools.
We still educate people all over the world more than any other organisation.
Our charities and missions are all over the world.
The word DOLE comes from the monasteries, which before Henry VIII stole them and sold them cheaply to his friends provided social help-orphanages, infirmaries, apothecaries etc.
Think of the Priests Wing in Auschwitz where Priests hiding Jews and not going along with the 'Great Atheist' Hitler's plans , were gassed along with the Jewish people.
Think of the stability of family and the Church's defence of it as a place of Love and security.
Think of all the Catholic hospitals in the world-especially in the Third World.

All the millions of men and women battling alone in far away places with honour and love serving their fellow man, as the great Celtic age saints of our Isles did and relinquishing all they possessed to give to the poor-like Mother Theresa of Calcutta for example.

This is the institution being attacked as a whole.We are the Church. Procedures are in place in the British Isles for all such criminal activities to be reported directly to police. None of these cases are recent and the reason for them now is because of the success of Pope Benedict and his trip to the UK. Britain has thrived on anti-catholicism for centuries since the reformation. English people always loved their church. The royal divorce and Henry's desire for a younger wife prompted this thing in Britain, which caused the schism and countless deaths with ensued.

Neverthless while our monarch and parliament was Christian, it maintained its Christian values and orthodoxy and distinctive worship. Parliament is now anti-Christian treating Her Majesty with contempt, and trying to force its cultural values onto the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. This will indeed prompt true Christians to decide which side they are on. When Moses came down with the tablets to find the Chosen People of God dancing around the Golden Calf, he called those to him, who were with God and for him. Those who came over to Moses and pledged themselves to God were saved-the others destroyed. (exodus 32 v 19-29). Now largely atheists are in control of parliament, they will try to invole their law against the Law of God. We have to get by as best we can but need to stand firm in the faith, confident that in spite of these terrible sinners in the church that Christ is the Kingdom, Christ is our Body and Christ on our side. Christ himself said of those who led children into sin or abused them

St Matthew tells us (18 v 6-10)

'Anyone who welcomes the little child like this in my name welcomes me. But anyone who is the downfall of one of these little ones who have faith in me would be better drowned in the depths of the sea with a great millstone around his neck. Alas for the world, that there should be such causes of falling, indeed there must be, but alas for anyone who provides them!'....See that you never despise any of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven are continually in the presence of my Father in heaven.'

Unfortunately it is a black and white thing. The Beast of the media is attacking the church by means of the impurity and actions of a small minority of its own ministers who, seemingly have lost their fear of the Vengeance of God.What were they doing being priests?

The DISAPPEARED CHILDREN

Why is the Media so quiet about the disappeared children-the Ben Needhams and Madeleine MaCann's kidnapped and disappeared to the eternal agony of their own parents. Thousands of these children disappear all over Europe and yet this is hushed up. Obviously powerful money is at play. You would think a scandal of this magnitude would be written about until all these perpetrators are found and rooted out. This is true 'hiding' the truth and it would probably surprise people to know that paedophiles arre found in large numbers in all walks of life. Sad but true. But they have no right to be in the Church trying to persevere in holiness. I feel our new brrand of priests in seminaries which are now filling up again will be very different.

We now thankfully have procedures to protect our children in the future and hopefully will reach out to reassure and help the healing of those who have been affected by their terrible unpriestly behaviour.There is nothing to help child victims within families and abusive casual relationships such as Baby P's and all such other cases from immature behaviour , uncontrolled anger and weak mothers. We should pray for ALL such abused children.

The many terrible sins of the ex priests and deceased priests have become more stripes on Christ's back. The Holy Father's Good Friday speech to exhort priests to be more holy is timely, but it is also for us to support and strengthen and nourish our priests with our own faith and holy lives.Above all we must nourish our children in holiness, goodness, compassion, endurance in suffering,courage in morals, perseverence in sticking to the Truth of the Gospel and Church's teaching of it, and protect them at all costs from predatory adults wherever they may be found. If you have a good relationship with your child, they will tell you things before they go too far , and you must act with wisdomm and courage.

Jesus said:

(Matt:13:10+).....Because to you it is granted to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not granted. Anyone who has, will be given more and will have more than enough, but anyone who has not enough will be deprived even of what he has. The rreason I talk to them (the people) in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding. So in their case what was being sspoken of by the Prophet Isaiah is being fulfilled.

Listen and Listen-but never understand!
Look and Look but never perceive!
The people's heart has grown coarse,
Their ears dulled, they have shut their eyes tight to avoid using eyes to see
Their ears to hear
Their heart to understand
Changing their ways and being healed by me.

But Blessed are your eyes because they see, your ears because they hear! In truth, I tell you, many prophets and upright people longed to see what you see and never saw it, to hear what you hear and never heard it'.

And so I wish you a Happy and Blessed Vigil and Easter and I pray for those of you who have been in the desert with me during Lent, will come with great rejoicing to the Father and Resurrected Lord this Easter.

Mary See you all after the Festival with some new super posts.