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Pope's message for 50th World Day of Peace
| Posted on December 13, 2016 at 8:22 AM |
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 Picture: zenit.orgPope Francis asks "God to help all of us to cultivate nonviolence in our most personal thoughts and values." Read the entire message here: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-message-for-50th-world-day-of-peace/ |
Pope Francis claims gender theory is the ‘great enemy of marriage today’
| Posted on October 6, 2016 at 6:03 AM |
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 Pope
Francis has spoken out against the theory of gender, something he has stated as
being the “great enemy of marriage today”.
The pope, speaking to a group of religious men and women in Tbilisi,
Georgia, said: “Today, there is a global war trying to destroy marriage…they
don’t destroy it with weapons, but with ideas.
It’s certain ideological ways of thinking that are destroying it…we have
to defend ourselves from ideological colonisation.” The
pontiff has often spoken about ideological colonisation and gender theory and
the dangers they pose to society. The
ideological colonisation he refers to is primarily to do with developed
countries – mainly in the West – imposing their ideas and values into
developing nations and potentially withholding aid where those ideas and values
are resisted. Gender theory, on the
other hand, is what an individual person believes himself or herself to be and
it may not necessarily correspond with their biological sex. Indeed, it may even be non-binary; that is, neither
male nor female. The next day, during an in-flight press conference on his way home
to Rome, the pope spoke once more about gender theory and expressed deep
concern about “teaching in school about this [gender theory], to change mentalities.” This, he says, “is what I call ideological
colonisation.” He then spoke more specifically about homosexuality and the
pastoral call of the Church with regard to people who experience same-sex
attraction. He said: “First of all, I’ve
accompanied in my life as a priest, a bishop, and even as pope, people with
homosexual tendencies or even homosexual practices, I’ve led them closer to the
Lord.” He called on all people within
the Church to accompany people in such situations “as Jesus accompanies”
because “when a person who has this condition gets in front of Jesus, Jesus won’t
say ‘leave because you’re homosexual.’” The pope was, however, cautious about the more liberal headlines
that have been attributed to him in terms of a possibly softer Church attitude
towards homosexual acts when he said: “I want to be clear, this is a problem of
morals. It’s a problem. It’s a human problem that has to be resolved
as it can, always with God’s mercy.” |
Speaking about matters of faith
| Posted on May 6, 2016 at 12:32 PM |
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 Sunday’s First Reading (Acts 7: 55-60)‘Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and
saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God’s right hand. ‘I can see heaven
thrown open’ he said ‘and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ At
this all the members of the council shouted out and stopped their ears with
their hands; then they all rushed at him, sent him out of the city and stoned
him. The witnesses put down their clothes at the feet of a young man called
Saul. As they were stoning him, Stephen said in invocation, ‘Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and said aloud, ‘Lord, do not hold this
sin against them’; and with these words he fell asleep.’ While sitting at my desk at work earlier this week a
conversation about religion was struck up among my colleagues. Religious chat is generally taboo these days
and where it does exist it tends to take the form of an attack on whatever
religion happens to be in the spotlight.
This time it was the Catholic faith; my faith. I was asked to explain the Catholic Church’s
belief in the Eucharist. No easy task in
a very secular environment I can assure you.
But I tried my best to explain it in terms acceptable to the ears of my
audience. My colleagues listened to what I had to say and once I had
finished a stony silence followed. This
was followed soon thereafter by a change of subject, diverting away from the ridiculous
notion that a piece of bread and a cup of wine could be turned into the body
and blood of a two thousand year old Jew.
The truth is, my colleagues probably felt not only confused but also a little
uncomfortable by all the body and blood chat.
And I can assure you that I most certainly felt uncomfortable with
having to explain it to a cynical crowd.
Yet our discomfort at explaining our faith can never match
the discomfort that must have been experienced by the Christian martyrs. In today’s first reading St Stephen shows
incredible courage as he stands before a cynical crowd and tells them that he
has seen ‘heaven thrown open’ and that he has also seen ‘the Son of Man sitting
at the right hand of God’. Despite
knowing that such words would likely lead to his death he was still not afraid
to speak them. And he even echoed the
words of Christ on the Cross when he begged God to forgive those who were
killing him. Like any human being in
that situation he would have been absolutely terrified, but he never once
denied his faith in order to save his earthly life. It’s not easy to talk about our faith to others. We can feel embarrassed, afraid, and even
silly. But thankfully the UK is not like
the world St Stephen lived in. It is a
place where, despite some arguments to the contrary, people are generally free
to talk openly about their faith. We
must not be afraid to use this freedom, but to do it sensibly and
proportionately. Our world needs a
message of love, mercy and peace; a message that was so profoundly illustrated
in the words and actions of St Stephen just before his death. We can give the world hope with our message;
a message that comes in the shape of one man….Jesus Christ. |
Accompaniment could be the key to building God’s Kingdom
| Posted on May 3, 2016 at 9:43 AM |
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 Accompaniment. Could
this be one of the most important words in the life of the Church today? One thing above all else struck me in reading Pope Francis’
recent exhortation Amoris Laetitia. It is the call to accompaniment. While we are well aware of our call to love
and to be merciful towards all people, do we know how to achieve this? Think about those who live in ways or
relationships that do not entirely accord with God’s divine plan, such as
same-sex unions, cohabitation and the divorced and remarried. Pope Francis refers to these ways/relationships
as ‘irregular’ and he suggests a need for accompaniment for people in such
situations. Not just the need to love
and be merciful; but the need to commit to actual one-to-one accompaniment. I don’t intend going into the fine detail of Amoris Laetitia as there have been numerous
commentaries on the document and many different views expressed. For me, I would sum up the document as being
insightful in many ways, but especially when it comes to the love we are
expected to show our spouse and our children.
I found it incredibly helpful, directing me towards being more patient
and understanding in family life. It is
in many ways a challenge to live a holy and wholesome home life. But like a fine thread running through the document, there
is this call to accompaniment. The Pope
isn’t advocating anything that is contrary to the teaching of the Church. There is no call to change doctrine and this
is confirmed in the Pope’s own words: ““To show understanding in the face of exceptional circumstances never
implies dimming the light of the fuller ideal, or proposing less than what
Jesus offers to the human being.” Quite
simply, Church doctrine continues to stand strong and will always do so. But perhaps the Pope’s call to “show
understanding” is something we should dwell on for a moment. The Church has
always called its people to be loving, compassionate and merciful; to
understand the difficulties experienced by others. It is after all a hospital for sinners. So, in that sense, there is nothing new
here. The truth is, we should already be
accompanying people in their difficulties and bringing them to Christ. Sadly, however,
the reality is somewhat different. Too
often the Church (that is, the Catholic people) is seen as being judgmental,
lacking compassion with a tendency to take the moral high ground. We are often quick to go on the defensive, preferring
to argue rather than listen. Whether
these accusations are justified is not something we should waste our time
arguing about. The important thing is to
focus our minds on accompanying all people, whatever their circumstances, and
to show them the loving face of Jesus. We
need to stop being defensive and, instead, be positive. If we come across someone in an irregular
situation; be it a same-sex union, or perhaps someone who is divorced and
remarried, we are first and foremost called to show that person what it is like
to meet the loving Christ, to feel the closeness of his endless love and his
unfailing mercy. We must accompany them. Only by imitating
the love of Christ and accompanying our brothers and sisters can we hope to
bring them ever closer to Christ and his teaching. In essence we are offering them an
alternative to what the world offers them. The world, with all its riches and ill-thought-out
‘freedoms’ offers people what they want, whenever they want it, seemingly
satisfying every desire they could ever wish for. Yet this is never the case. People always want more. Always.
The truth is this: people are never satisfied with what the world can
give them. Our patient,
loving accompaniment may offer an alternative to the world’s failure to
satisfy. By understanding the
difficulties experienced by people and walking with them as Christ would we can
bring them closer to the One who can satisfy the longings of each and every
heart. Our mission as Disciples
of Christ is to bring people to know him and to know his Truth. If we want to succeed in this we must first
and foremost accept and act on our call to accompaniment. That must be our first step. Only then, once we have established a loving,
trusting relationship, can we hope to change hearts to acknowledge and perhaps
even accept the Truth; a truth that brings real love, real mercy, and
ultimately, real freedom.
If we want to build God’s Kingdom in our world today,
we must take people by the hand and walk with them.  |
We Christians will be known by our love
| Posted on April 26, 2016 at 9:03 AM |
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 Pope Francis heard Confessions in the days leading up to the MassPope Francis has given a lesson in love and freedom during
his homily at the Jubilee Mass for Young People in Rome. The Pope, speaking to thousands of youth in St Peter’s
Square, said that Jesus himself declared that Christians would be known “by the
way they love one another.” The Pope
continued saying, “love, in other words, is the Christian’s identity card.” The Pope then tackled the meaning of love, stating that love
is something you give. He also added: “it
[love] is caring for others, respecting them, protecting them, and waiting for
them.” Francis then challenged the young people on the true meaning
of freedom, stating that “freedom is not the ability to simply do what I want. This makes us self-centred and aloof.” “Freedom” he said “is the gift of being able to
choose the good: this is true freedom. The free person is the one who
chooses what is good, what is pleasing to God, even if it requires effort, even
if it is not easy.” He then called on the young people to grow in love and
told them how they could do this: “the secret, once again, is the Lord: Jesus
gives us himself in the Mass, he offers us forgiveness and peace in Confession.” The Pope’s call to the young people can be summed up
nicely in the term ‘free love’. He wants
Christians to give themselves freely to
others in love, and he wants us to choose to do this as it is
pleasing to God. He then tells us that
the nourishment we need for this task can be found in the Holy Mass and in the
Sacrament of Confession. Let us be under no illusions. Our mission as Christians is to spread the
love of Christ throughout the world. We
must let his Truth be known to all people and we must deliver this Truth in a
spirit of love; a love that is freely given and that always has the other
person’s best interests at its core. This
message is not just for our young, but for all Christian people. The Christian message is one of great hope, mercy and peace for all
people. But, above all, it is a message
of love. Click this link for the full text of Pope Francis’ homily: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-homily-at-jubilee-mass-for-teens/ |
Finding hope in Peter's weakness
| Posted on March 22, 2016 at 1:09 PM |
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 From today’s Gospel: ‘Simon Peter said, ‘Lord, where are you going?’ Jesus
replied, ‘Where I am going you cannot follow me now; you will follow me later.’
Peter said to him, ‘Why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for
you.’ ‘Lay down your life for me?’ answered Jesus. ‘I tell you most solemnly,
before the cock crows you will have disowned me three times.’’ This small passage from today’s Gospel follows on nicely
from our reflection on yesterday’s Gospel when we compared the simple love Mary
had for Jesus in needing to be close to him with Martha’s need to be on the go. In being so preoccupied Martha missed out on
precious quality time with Jesus, a mistake Mary was not prepared to make. And today we have Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples,
claiming that he would lay down his life for Jesus. That, you would think, is a step up from the
love shown by Mary. And it is. And Peter would, of course, eventually become
a martyr for Christ in Rome. But for now
Jesus has an unfortunate surprise for Peter.
He tells him that he is going to deny him. Imagine your best friend, or even your
spouse, telling you that they know you will betray them in some way. You, like Peter, would be very disappointed
to hear such news! But then don’t we
betray people every day, denying their true value as fellow human beings and
children of God? Don’t we gossip,
complain and criticise other people behind their back on a regular basis? These are human weaknesses and no human is
exempt from them. Even St Peter fell
into this trap! So, in that sense, we
are in good company. But, like St Peter, we are called to greater things. We are called to overcome our human weakness
and realise the hurt caused by some of our actions. How can we forget the look on Peter’s face in
Mel Gibson’s The Passion of The Christ when he heard the cock crow? How can we forget the way he then rushed to
the feet of Mary and sobbed uncontrollably as he clung to her garment,
realising how foolish and weak he had been?
We are all capable of moments of weakness in our
lives, even to the point of mistreating or even denying those most precious to
us. The next time you fall into this
trap look for the comforting arms of your mother Mary, just as Peter did, and
seek reconciliation with Jesus in the Sacrament of Confession. This is how we can overcome our weakness and
become saints. If Peter can do it, so
can we. |
Go away, and do not sin any more
| Posted on March 11, 2016 at 12:03 PM |
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 Sunday’s
Gospel (John 8:1-11): ‘Jesus went
to the Mount of Olives. At daybreak he appeared in the Temple again; and as all
the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been
caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in full view of
everybody, they said to Jesus, ‘Master, this woman was caught in the very act
of committing adultery, and Moses has ordered us in the Law to condemn women
like this to death by stoning. What have you to say?’ They asked him this as a
test, looking for something to use against him. But Jesus bent down and started
writing on the ground with his finger. As they persisted with their question,
he looked up and said, ‘If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be
the first to throw a stone at her.’ Then he bent down and wrote on the ground
again. When they heard this they went away one by one, beginning with the
eldest, until Jesus was left alone with the woman, who remained standing there.
He looked up and said, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No
one, sir’ she replied. ‘Neither do I condemn you,’ said Jesus ‘go away, and do
not sin any more.’’ In the Jubilee Year of Mercy this particular passage of
scripture stands out more than most. It
is a perfect example of the new world order that Jesus seeks to achieve. It is a world of mercy, where no sin is
incapable of forgiveness. It is a world
where hate, grudges, complaints and criticism reign no more. What Jesus wrote in the sand is a mystery. But his message is abundantly clear. We must be careful not to judge and condemn
the goodness or otherwise of people when we ourselves are in a sinful state. If we are aware of someone acting contrary to
the Gospel we are called to be like Jesus and do two things. First, we are called to show kindness, mercy
and compassion and to put our arm around the person to show them that they are
loved. Second, we are called to
encourage them to seek the forgiveness of God, to live in accordance with the
Gospel, and to refrain from committing sin again. This is precisely how things are played out when we go to
Confession. Jesus welcomes us, puts his
loving arms around us and forgives our sins.
He then asks us to go and sin no more.
And while we must take Jesus’ call to refrain from further sin very
seriously, he understands our weaknesses and the difficulties and struggles we
experience in our world. That is why he
welcomes us again and again in Confession.
He never tires of pouring out his forgiveness. He just needs us to be willing to make the
effort to go to him. |
The Parable of the Merciful Father
| Posted on March 4, 2016 at 12:22 PM |
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 The Gospel you will hear at Mass this Sunday is perhaps one
of the most well-known passages of sacred scripture. It is often referred to as the parable of the
prodigal son (though I personally prefer to refer to it as the parable of the merciful
father).It is an astounding parable and it brings home the reality
of God’s mercy. No matter the sin, your
Father is waiting for you to return to Him and seek his forgiveness. Whatever you may have done or failed to do in
terms of keeping God’s commandments and living a good, holy life, never forget
that forgiveness is just around the corner. There is no doubting the availability of God’s mercy. But perhaps the biggest problem is within us,
and our failure to acknowledge God as our Father and our failure to accept that
He really does forgive us. In order to reconcile
ourselves to God we need to seek Him in the sacrament of reconciliation and it
is in that sacrament that God really does pour out His forgiveness. We need to accept this and then approach him,
just as the son did in the parable. The
father couldn’t forgive the son unless the son first sought the father’s
forgiveness. That must be our challenge this Lent and thereafter. We must be willing, like the son, to search
out the Father and ask Him to forgive our failures, our sin. God will never deny us His forgiveness. But we must be prepared to ask for it. |
Catholic Teaching on Homosexuality: The Truth.
| Posted on February 4, 2016 at 12:37 PM |
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 Following a recent discussion on our Facebook page I
thought it might be useful to draft up a short note on our Catholic faith and
homosexuality. It is intentionally
brief. For a more in-depth article on the matter please click
this link. Our Catholic faith tells us that homosexual acts are
wrong. I think it's hard for us to hear this in such an abrupt way in today's
world but this is what we are taught by faith. The reason such acts are wrong
is that God has ordered us male and female for the authentic union that is
marriage between man and woman and to be completely open to the precious gift
of new life. Homosexual acts are not ordered in this way and are thus sinful.
There are many sinful acts so this isn't necessarily a singling out of
homosexual people. Consider sex outside marriage between a man and a woman,
which is also wrong, as is the use of contraception. It’s absolutely critical to also bear in mind that having
same-sex attraction is different to homosexual acts. Mere attraction is not of
itself sinful. It is only when these feelings are acted upon where it is deemed
to be wrong. This is something that many
people get confused about. I think it's also important to see the positive side of
the Church's teaching on homosexuality. It seeks to protect humanity by
promoting the love between a man and a woman for the sake of giving new life to
the world and raising this new life in marriage, which throughout history has
been the best place for kids to thrive. The Church doesn't say a man can't love
a man or a woman can't love a woman. Indeed, such a notion is completely
contrary to Church teaching. It simply states that it is wrong to interfere
with God's clear and natural plan for humanity. It's not about hating homosexuals as many people wrongly
think. It's actually about loving everyone and calling them all to live in
accordance with God's plan. That too is a form of love though it is often hard
for this society to see it in this modern age of relativism. In my time running the Scots Catholic website
and social media accounts I have often been corrected for straying out of line
with respect to Church teaching. I have
learned so much in terms of my faith and I am grateful to those who have
offered their generous help. For me,
they are simply doing God’s work. They
are doing what Jesus did and are challenging me, and I shouldn’t be afraid to
be challenged. In fairness to anyone who abides by the teaching of
Christ and his Church on this matter, they are simply trying to live out their
lives as God intended and they are well within their rights to stay true to God
no matter what the world may tell them. Jesus and the Apostles were ridiculed and even
put to death for going against the tide and remaining faithful to God's
teaching. But they remained faithful. And we are called to do the same. It is also very important to note that there are many,
many gay people living out their Catholic faith chastely in the Church. Their
call to chastity is no different to the call to chastity of single people in
the Church. And we must remember, the Church is open to all people
and she loves all people, especially those of us who sin. That's why I'm a
member. Many people query whether the Church might change its
stance with respect to homosexual acts. This is highly unlikely given the wrongs
of homosexual acts is contained in scripture, the Word of God. It's also
entrenched in nature itself and the ability of man and woman to procreate
(something the Church wants to protect for the sake of the family). I appreciate
this is a difficult teaching for some, especially in today's society, but the
Church can't fit around the whims of society. First and foremost, the Church
can't stray from the Truth it has protected for 2000 years. And secondly, it
would be impossible to satisfy everyone all of the time. The Church, like Jesus, is here to challenge
us with the Truth. It is not here so
that we can abuse it for our own ends. The Church is also here to bring God’s mercy to us
through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
There is no sin we can commit that is too great that we can’t reconcile
ourselves to God. He loves us like no other.
For more information on reconciling our Catholic
faith with same-sex attraction, click this link to go to the Courage RC website. |
Is it possible to be faithful to the Truth whilst also being humble and compassionate?
| Posted on January 11, 2016 at 8:39 AM |
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 Jesus was compassionate but firm in the Truth Pope Francis, during his Sunday Angelus, has spoken about the
importance of Baptism and the role it plays in our lives. Having earlier baptised 26 baby girls and boys at
morning Mass, the pope was keen to impress upon the gathered faithful the
critical nature of this sacrament. The
pope said that in Baptism the Holy Spirit "burns and destroys original sin, returning
to baptism the beauty of divine grace.” The
pope then stressed the importance of following Jesus and being obedient to the
Truth whilst remaining true to Christ’s qualities of tenderness and humility. And here, I think, is the critical issue for
us Christians today. While we must speak
the Truth we must do it in a spirit of tenderness and humility. But similarly, while we must be tender and
humble in our approach, we can never stray from the Truth. It's not a balancing act because that would
suggest compromising one or both aspects.
Instead we are called to deliver the Truth in its fullness and to do
this in a fully humble and completely tender way. In my experience
people tend to be more inclined to do one more than the other. For
example, some people may reject certain elements of Christ’s teaching with the aim of showing more compassion and tenderness to
people. This is because some elements of
teaching are difficult to accept, especially set against the backdrop of an
increasingly liberal and relativist society.
Others
may be more determined to stick rigidly to the Truth but seem to lack that
tenderness and humility, especially when they see a threat to Christ's
teaching. Ultimately we
need to be firm in both elements. We need
to be firm in our faith, in the same way that Christ was and in the way that
God calls us to be. Jesus’
disciples died unimaginable deaths because they were firm in their faith and didn’t go
along with the popular views of society.
They stuck to their beliefs even though everybody mocked them and
thought they were talking nonsense. They
refused to reject the truth of Christ and the Church he established, preferring
to invest their lives in being the men Jesus called them to be with the sure
and certain hope of an eternal reward.
Similarly, we need to be firm in our tenderness and humility. Jesus had an uncanny knack of being firm but
also loving, gentle and kind.
When he
prevented the prostitute from being stoned by the scribes and the Pharisees he
was careful to tell her to “go and sin no more”. But he did this while telling her that he
didn't condemn her. He wanted her to stop sinning, to stick to
the Truth. But he also wanted her to
know that she was loved and that mercy would be shown to her. It's important
for us to remain true to both aspects when it comes to our faith. We must be true to Christ and his teaching
and we must be tender and humble in remaining faithful to that teaching. The
Truth is what it is and it doesn’t change. It can be found in your copy of the Catechism
of the Catholic Church. And the
tenderness and humility we need in order to take that Truth to others can be found in
the loving person of Jesus Christ. So, is it possible to be both faithful to the Truth
and be tender and humble? Yes. Just look to the example of Jesus and in him
you will find the perfection of fulfilling both aspects. |