FATHER IS FURIOUS AND THE BISHOP IS BAILED UP

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"I can see you all, you know, and I can see you're not praying! You're not listening to the Readings! None of you are (sic) praying the Mass!'

It was the Sunday before Christmas, the Fourth Sunday of Advent - last Sunday, to be precise. Father was not in a good mood, and that's putting it mildly. 

It was all because, after the Filipino Christmas Novena Mass on the preceding Friday evening, he'd been told the reason why those adorable Filipino children were nowhere to be seen until the time for Father's blessing was, someone had complained the previous night that they'd made a racket and run around the church, and they shouldn't be allowed. So on Friday night, those Filipino parents being as humble as they are, the children were banished till blessing time.

On Sunday morning - different congregation, different church even - Father was "very, very angry" with whomever had told the Filipinos their children shouldn't be allowed to attend Mass. He'd tossed and turned till 2 a m on Friday night, he said, because those children "are my children! They are my spiritual children!" 

To my knowledge, 'im indoors and I were the only people at Mass that Sunday morning who'd been present at the Filipino Mass which occasioned the complaint, which made his remarks particularly pointed. The rest of the homily doesn't bear repeating, but the remark quoted above  was very telling -almost as much as his Parthian shot, which was, "If you don't become like little children, you will go to Hell!   

"YOU WILL GO TO HELL!"

It was the first time in living memory that Father had uttered the 4-letter word which was not rarely on the lips of Jesus Christ. I nearly did what my father did many many years ago, for the first time ever in St Joseph's Waipukurau: I nearly clapped. (My father had clapped because the PP of his day had made favorable mention of Malcolm Muggeridge.)

I was glad also that Father had reminded the congregation, who were probably somewhat stunned, that a priest is a spiritual father to his flock. However, Father neglected to add that a priest is also responsible to God the Father of all for leading his spiritual children to Heaven.

To do that he must spiritually feed his children, or their souls will sicken and die on the rough and sometimes cruel path through the perils of this world, and yes, they will go to Hell.

Not only must Father provide food for the souls of his spiritual children, he must also care for those souls who are sick. Even Pope Francis seems to subscribe to this idea; he's described the Church as 'a field hospital'. But what happens when the doctors and nurses who staff the 'field hospital' are sick themselves?

I have slowly come to believe that the priest's task of feeding and nursing souls is almost Mission Impossible, mainly because our basic diet - the Novus Ordo ('New Mass') - is a subsistence diet, and our priests who are provenders and doctors for the soul are severely malnourished themselves, to the point of sometimes being sicker than their patients.

In Palmerston North Diocese, for example, there's no bishop feeding our priests or 'nursing' them, and no prospect of one for at least a year, which is apparently the length of time it will take for the Pope to pick a new one.

A reader of this blog asks, "Why? What's so hard about appointing a bishop? Why can they elect a new pope in three weeks and it takes a year to pick a bishop? It smacks of an agenda.

"Why don't they just choose Monsignor Brian Walsh (Acting Diocesan Administrator)? He is very reassuring in his manner. Or they could use one of the more forthright and orthodox priests who could do a very good job for a very long time. There's no reason why we should be in this state of suspended animation and co-dependency on the Pope and Cardinal (Dew). We know it's the norm, but why should it be this way when there are obvious candidates?

"We don't trust Cardinal Dew's promises regarding Fr Joe Grayland (that he will not be made bishop). The fact that he has been promoted to Cathedral Parish Priest is a clear indicator that this is a Fabian tactic; they're just biding their time, knowing full well that Fr Grayland is the man to implement the Pope's heterodox church as his bishop."

So, why are we in this parlous state? What was the reason for Bishop Charles Drennan's resignation? Why are the people of Palmerston North Diocese humiliated by their former bishop being hunted down, bailed up, covertly photographed (collarless of course) and depicted in the media like some sordid criminal?

Bishop Drennan proved incapable of living by his priestly vow of celibacy, probably for pretty much the same reason our PP is incapable of detachment from his spiritual children, and Fr Joe Grayland is incapable - by reason of his preaching heresy - of the role of bishop, and Pope Francis is incapable of delegating the role of appointing bishops.

Obviously Bishop Drennan fell for the modernist clerical idea that sexual pleasure is a right, to be indulged by priests more or less sub rosa, often with the unofficial blessing of their bishops. And please don't tell me that in the early Church priests were married and so, a la the 'Shamazonian Sin-od', they should be allowed to marry now.

In the early Church priests were married, yes, we know that from Scripture for a start, but they were married and celibate (however impossible that may sound to the modern sex-maniacal mind).

Okay: as a Proddy friend of mine told me, in connection with +Drennan, "women have always screwed priests", and there have been times in Church history when that was almost a given, when the 'concubinage of priests' was 'a plague' -
https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/famed-catholic-historian-refutes-argument-that-priestly-celibacy-is-merely-church-discipline

- and that was when the Mass was celebrated in the usus antiquior (Traditional Latin Mass). So it seems there must be another factor at play in the failure of priests and their people to follow Christ in His way of the Cross, and of course there is.

But if you ask me, that factor is the best-kept secret of Catholic tradition. Or rather, it's known by some, "but is also widely ignored, for it contains an otherworldly wisdom that this world does not welcome" (Thomas Dubay SM, Fire Within.)

This is the the prayer of contemplation. St John of the Cross, significantly called a Doctor of the Church, tells us that works or apostolates carried out without prayer can actually cause harm, and as another reader of this blog says, in her opinion (and mine), "he is not talking about the Divine Office, Rosary or communal prayer, but that interior, lowly, contemplative prayer that transforms and transfigures the soul!

"Vatican II is clear on this point: bishops and priests are to share the fruits of their contemplation with their people (Decree on the Priesthood, num 12). Their first duty then is to teach them to pray."

"St Teresa of Avila says "One must drink from the source of the living waters of contemplation. This experiential loving knowledge of God is divine wisdom, which gives the soul a dark, luminous knowledge of God as He is in Himself. I know that this one loving blind desire for God alone is more valuable in itself and more pleasing to God and the saints, more beneficial to my own growth and more helpful to my friends, both living and dead, than anything else I can do.

"I texted these words to Fr Brian (Walsh)  to counter the askew theology on contemplation of his PP Fr Grayland. One has to fight fire with fire, so to speak, with the sword of  Truth, with the science of the great masters of prayer."

It struck me very forcibly that if Father were praying the Mass ad orientem (paying attention to God, as in the Latin Mass, instead of the people  as in the 'New Mass') he would not be distracted and exasperated by the congregation "not praying the Mass". 

But they don't know how to pray the Mass; they haven't been told. And the Mass they don't know how to pray is a mere shadow of its former self (the Latin Mass). Maybe also if Father were praying the Mass ad orientem he wouldn't have been so worked up about people 'not praying' as to forget to announce the time for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the only Advent session, with the result that only two parishioners showed up.

Also very telling is the testimony of a friend who has attended the Latin Mass at St Anthony's SSPX in Whanganui with the school children. In regard to those adorable Filipino children running around and making a racket, she says: "Is anyone thinking about the children's poor training in that holy place (the church)? It would never happen at St. Anthony's, at the Latin Mass. The children seldom look around, and do not smile all over the place and are watched and corrected, as it is a holy space and the majestic God of Heaven is there."

As Dr Peter Kwasniewski comments  - https://onepeterfive.com/priest-crisis-conscience/  -  
"The Church is passing through a crisis that can be surmounted only by heroic faith. Good people will be pummeled and shaken up, yet by this means the chaff will be drawn away and the fat of wheat prepared as a sacrifice to the Lord. 

This, too, is one of the works of Our Lady, through which she will bring to birth a purified clergy and a purified Church."

Bob Gill says:

Regarding Father's observation that his congregation is not listening to the readings, I hope his church doesn't suffer from a problem we have in St Joseph's Dannevirke - a large church with a high ceiling where the audio system is loud enough, but most readers' speech reverberates and is mostly inaudible to some of the congregation.

We have two readers, obviously aware of the problem, who compensate by speaking slowly which reduces reverberation somewhat but things are marginal. I suspect that many don't clearly hear the readings. A local audio expert advised me that because the speaker output system is situated in the high ceiling an additional speaker on each side wall, nesrer the congregation, would probably overcome our problem.

I say:

No, Bob, I don't think we can blame the audio system in St Joseph's Waipukurau for the congregation's apparent inattention. As long as the sacristan has remembered to turn it on, there's no problem. But remind me to write a post on Proclaiming the Word ...

Father Nathaniel Tat Brazil says:

 Pray for a faithful Bishop for our Diocese. God Bless you and Merry Christmas.

I say:

Amen to that, and thank you Father.

Teresa Coles says:

Many prayers are needed for the Palmerston North Diocese at present and for a holy Bishop, one who will guide people back to their Faith...

We were so saddened when we visited Central Hawke's Bay for Christmas Mass by how few parishioners were present, maybe they went to the Christmas Vigil? Nearly 13 years since we left the Palmerston North Diocese.The church used to be overflowing,where are the young people? The times are sure changing and not for the better.

Bob Gill says:

·       Prayers indeed are needed for the Palmerston North Diocese, especially for the priests who refrain from incorporating orthodox practices into their Masses and who also continue to ignore the actions of their lay ministers who touch people while giving a blessing and who then plunge that same hand into the ciborium to grab another Host for the next communicant, thus contaminating the Blessed Sacrament.

In my book, a candidate for Bishop must be orthodox and have the utmost respect for the Blessed Sacrament. Nobody in the Mother church, the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, has the credentials to be Bishop of our diocese, as I see it.

Teresa Coles says:

We are certainly taught differently..When giving a blessing we do not ever touch a person's head,but hold the hand above the head..A Bishop should always have respect for the Blessed Sacrament, you are so right Bob.

Bob Gill says:

Father Brian Buenger was taught to hold the hand above the head too by the good Bishop Thomas Olmsted when he returned to the States. Some lay ministers have latched on to doing it in St Joseph's Dannevirke, but others drift back into the old ways. 

As the NZ Bishops Conference meets mid-February, I have asked Bishop Lowe to raise the matter for discussion in the hope we can end up with a standard national practice.

1

·         Donna Te Amo says: Christmas eve was packed. And heaps of young people. 

     Angela Annear says: And families.

·         Philippa O'Neill  says: 

      

     The young people find many of our services naff and embarrassing... especially If they have no understanding of the real presence...without this then what is the point. Nothing to inspire them. Terrible music... screechy singing... no mystery etc. Sigh.

·         Kirsty Taylor  says:

     Many of us went on Christmas Eve - and Donna is right. It was bulging. Lots and lots of children - I was amazed at the number of children. It was a beautiful service, and one I look forward to yearly. 
     
     Philippa O'Neill says: Exactly. shame that it's yearly.

·         Bob Gill  says:

     If you’re referring to the huge number of children present at the Cathedral at a Christmas service, does this equate to a similar number present at a normal Sunday Mass there? If the number is about the same, then would somebody please share the secret. Philippa O'Neill says: Same with our cathedral at Midnight Mass. Lovely to see so many new faces ... look forward to seeing them at the next cathedral Mass I attend.

e 
I    I say:   

·       

·        

      They're referring to the number of children present at St Patrick's Waipawa (Holy Trinity Parish CHB). It's good to know they and their families turned up then. 

     Bob Gill adds:

Not that many children at St Joseph’s Dannevirke on Christmas Day either. If they don’t go in large numbers on a Sunday, though, why should it be any different at Christmas? 

You’re right, Philippa, there’s nothing to inspire them, and I have seen little ongoing evidence during school Masses that they have actually been taught about the Real Presence. I noticed most of the school teachers at the Christmas Mass and, just like they do during a school Mass, only one of them bothered to genuflect on entering the church. Interesting, though, that most people make the Sign of the Cross on entering, but many of them don’t genuflect. Could this be a local tradition, I’m wondering? I must ask my teacher friend (the one who demonstrates she believes in the Real Presence).

Philippa O'Neill says: 

Um.. they would be genuflecting to an altar anyway .. not the tabernacle, most kids take no notice of the tabernacle.. I mean, what's that!!! Was at Mass recently when the priest bowed to the crucifix before reading the Gospel... why not bow to the tabernacle where Jesus actually is present was my thought. Brian Holdsworth sums it up beautifully/sadly why so many parish Masses are missing our teenagers or young adults.

same with the Cathedral at midnight Mass. Lovely to see so many new faces......look forward to seeing them at the next Cathedral Mass I'm at.

CATHEDRAL PP FR GRAYLAND ON BVM, PRAYER: UNTRUE

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"Jesus Christ," says Palmerston North Cathedral's new PP,  Father Joe Grayland, "came to save us as a group, not as individuals."

Today, in a guest post, Matthew Walton of Palmerston North reports that Fr Grayland, in last Sunday's homily, was reflecting on the genealogy of Christ.

"As for those people who go off to pray by themselves...." 
Fr Grayland implied that this is not what prayer is meant to be.

He said, "This is prayer, when we come together like this in (public) liturgical acts." This was the gist of Father's homily.
       
In my view our PP was attacking the idea of personal prayer, solitary prayer, contemplative prayer. What would he make of Christ going off to pray alone - for long hours and frequently ? We are to imitate our Master - to become living, praying models of our Lord.

Essentially, he was also attacking the 'individual'. "He didn't come to save us as individuals, He came to save us as a community."

Wrong ! Wrong ! Wrong! Driving this thought is the concept of 'Collective Consciousness'. I challenge this thought. A sublime respect for the dignity of the individual is the foundation of any sound human community. This most definitely applies to Catholic, Christian and Orthodox communities. When we love one another, we don't love the 'collective' , we love the person - friend or foe - who represents to us an image of Christ.

Without this respect for each human person, we don't have a real community, we have a dictatorship. Communities are made up of individual persons, each one converted. At Judgment Day each person stands as an individual before the Judgment of God.

       
Two weeks ago, in another Sunday homily Fr Grayland described the Incarnation as "Mary heard the Word in her ear and she gave birth through her ear". Apparently this is a medieval description.

Good Marian theologians do not refer to Our Lady in such crass, disgraceful terms. No mystical thinking there - and no faith. The description used by Pope John Paul II, "Christ came forth from the womb as he came from the tomb, and he came from the tomb as he came from the womb". Here the mystery of Faith is preserved.

Pope Francis, meanwhile, speaking on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, analysed Mary down to Mother, Woman, Disciple, A Marian principle, a Mestizo* (a mix, in this case, of God and Man)..This was in defence of his view that we don't need more Marian titles.

He is opposed to the title of "Co-Redemptrix") He called it 'nonsense'. 

"Co-Redemptrix" is actually embedded in Catholic teaching; it just has not been proclaimed as a Dogma as yet.

The reason we need titles, dogmas and clear definitions is that they free the mind, point a direction for the spirit. They open for the many a field of metaphysical insight which hitherto was known only to a few.



*Dictionary definition:  (in Latin America) a man of mixed race, especially one having Spanish and indigenous descent.


On the subject of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Pope, Matthew Walton and Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano are of like mind. Yesterday in Rome, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the US issued this statement:

“On the liturgical memorial of the Virgin of Guadalupe,” Pope Francis “gave vent once again to his evident Marian intolerance,” striking at the heart the Marian dogma and the Christological dogma connected to it.

But “the Immaculate Theotokos, ‘terrible as an army with banner unfurled’ [acies ordinate] will do battle to save the Church and will destroy the unfettered army of the Enemy that has declared war on her, and with him all the demonic pachamamas will return definitively to hell.”

“For more than six years now we have been poisoned by a false magisterium, a sort of extreme synthesis of all the conciliar misconceptions and post-conciliar errors that have been relentlessly propagated, without most of us noticing it,” he writes.

“Thus,” he continues, “in the course of these last decades, the Mystical Body has been slowly drained of its lifeblood through an unstoppable bleeding: the sacred deposit of faith has gradually been squandered, dogmas denatured, worship secularized and gradually desecrated, morality sabotaged, the priesthood vilified, the Eucharistic Sacrifice protestantized and transformed into a convivial Banquet...”

The distinctive mark of modernist heresy, stresses Msgr. Viganò, is the concealment and “tactic of affirming what one wants to destroy, using vague and imprecise terms, promoting error without ever formulating it clearly.” The result, he says, is what we now have before our eyes: “a Catholic Church that is no longer Catholic; a container emptied of its authentic content.”

Archbishop Viganò concludes: “The Church is shrouded in the darkness of modernism, but the victory belongs to Our Lord and His Bride. We want to continue to profess the perennial faith of the Church in the face of the roar of evil that besieges her. 

We want to keep vigil with her and with Jesus, in this new Gethsemane of the end times; to pray and do penance in reparation for the many offences caused to them.”

SACRED HEART NAPIER'S MASS IN ANGLICAN CHURCH

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"I am not too popular for choosing not to attend my daughter's Catholic school's End of Year Mass which is once again being held in an Anglican cathedral. Instead, I will offer my Mass for Sacred Heart in a Catholic church on the same day."

So says 'Unknown', in a comment on my post "RUDE AND DEFIANT: DOING A RUNNER TO ESCAPE AN 'ECUMENICAL SERVICE" (Dec 3). 

We can now reveal (sounds like One News), with 'Unknown's' permission, the name of this 'Catholic' school.

It was Sacred Heart College Napier which held its end-of-year Mass not in the city's main Catholic church, St Patrick's, but at the Anglican Cathedral of St John.

Is this not taking 'ecumenism' a teensy-weensy bit too far, even for the most liberal and modernist of Catholics in the Diocese of Palmerston North?

At the Filipino Novena Mass tonight in St Patrick's Waipawa, we heard the Gospel of Lk 1: 5-25. The missal said that's tomorrow's Mass, but anyway:

"(Zechariah) was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense". In the temple of the Old Testament, just one priest was permitted to enter the sanctuary, "while the whole assembly of the people was praying outside." 

We may be struck by their reverence for the Ark of the Covenant: by comparison, how cavalier is our treatment now of the Son of God, in the Blessed Sacrament!

What justification is there for celebrating the Catholic Mass, in which Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is offered in an unbloody re-presentation of the Sacrifice of Calvary, and made present in His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity by the priest in the act of transubstantiation - a dogma denied by the Anglican Communion - in an Anglican church, be it ever so large, impressive and CBD, as is St John's Cathedral in Napier? ("Poor Anglicans," some wit has observed, "all dressed up with nowhere to go.")

How can a Catholic priest consent to making Christ really and truly present on an altar built and used merely for a quotidian gathering of Protestants (i.e. heretics) in remembrance of the Last Supper, be the wording of the Anglican communion service ever so similar to the Catholic Novus Ordo (New Mass)? 

In an Anglican church there's no altar stone, no sacred relics, no tabernacle and no crucifix, only a tasteful, tactful cross which doesn't offend sensitive Anglican sensibilities. How can the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - except in an emergency - be divorced from the altar stone and its sacred relics of the saints? And from the tabernacle above the altar? And from the crucifix above the tabernacle? 

"Easy-peasy," you say, "it happens all the time, at 'house Masses' and rest homes.

So once again we see the rotten fruits of 'the spirit of Vatican II' and of the banalities and trivialities of the Novus Ordo: the erosion of reverence, of a sense of the sacredness of things. 

It's tantamount to denying the dogma of the Blessed Eucharist. How can a Catholic bishop give permission (because surely he must have been asked) for Mass to be celebrated in an Anglican church? Surely he realized the potential for scandal of such a proceeding? 

And we can't even say, "oh, we haven't got a bishop to ask for permission", because Sacred Heart's end-of-year Mass was held in St John's in 2018, when we did have a bishop - of sorts: Bishop Charles Drennan, recently ret'd. So presumably it was +Charles who gave permission, and we can't ask him why because he's shot through. 

"Oh but," you say, "St John's is bigger. There wouldn't be enough room in St Patrick's for the prize-giving." That's beside the point. Holding a prize-giving in a Catholic church is quite simply wrong. 

I've attended such prize-givings and experienced the hubbub, the applause, the laughter, the 'songs' - all in the presence of our Lord who, Sr Lucia, one of the seers of Fatima, assures us, is "deeply offended" just by talking in church, let alone the racket of a prize-giving. The Blessed Sacrament could have been removed from the church for those events, but wasn't, and wouldn't be at St Patrick's, either, which is further evidence of a lack of belief in the Real Presence.

The prize-giving was held at St John's in the morning, and fair enough: no reason why not. But parents and families were required to turn up again at the Anglican cathedral in the evening to celebrate the End-of-Year Mass. 

If St Patrick's is big enough for Christmas Eve Masses, and big enough for Requiem Masses, I bet it's big enough for the Sacred Heart Mass. If it's not, then enlarge St Patrick's or better still, build a new church, a traditional church with the tabernacle in its rightful place - but instead of that, St Patrick's is setting its sights on a new 'community centre'.

Why, when Mass counts are dropping and churches emptying, do 'gathering spaces' and 'community centres' conversely get bigger? Pre-Vat II there were no gathering spaces, only church porches.

"Oh," you may say, "but gathering spaces are necessary to build 'community'. No, they're not. It's Holy Mass, reverently and frequently celebrated, with catechizing that feeds the faithful, which builds community. Pre-Vat II, when the Mass was celebrated in Latin, with sermons, not 'homilies', churches were full to busting.  

And St Patrick's already has a community centre, newer I think than the church. Napier's Parish Priest, Father Barry Scannell SM, arrived just last year from Wellington, trailing clouds of glory: he'd been awarded the NZ Order of Merit for leading the multi-million dollar earthquake-strengthening exercise at St Mary of the Angels. 

Maybe Father Scannell's finding Napier a bit humdrum. Maybe he wanted a challenge. Anyway, I'm told fancy architects have been hired for a new community centre on the site of the old presbytery which, significantly, is no longer needed. A parishioner who's seen the plans says "it's very ugly". 

Wouldn't a new, fit-for-purpose St Patrick's church be far more suited to Fr Scannell's revenue-gathering and morale-building skills than a mere 'community centre"? 'Fit for purpose' means a church with acoustics to showcase the Sacred Heart choir - which was the reason other than size adduced for the use of St John's.  

Slight by comparison to the gratuitous insult to the Eucharist, the "source, centre and summit" of our Catholic Faith, of celebrating their Mass in an Anglican church, but still to be considered, are the needs of Sacred Heart's students and staff. They don't even have a chapel any more, and now they're expected to hold their end-of-year Mass in a Protestant church.

In 1 Corinthians 8, St Paul tells us that even if a certain idol is "nothing", we shouldn't eat it if there's any danger of leading our brothers astray. "When you thus sin against members of your family,and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ." (1 Cor 8:12). 

How could the celebrating priest - let alone the bishop - get around Scripture, which teaches that even lay people, let alone clergy, must avoid not only evil actions, but also the appearance of evil?

Let me refer you to a new book by the brave Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Christus Vincit: Christ’s Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age (Angelico Press).

https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2019/10/christus-vincit-bishop-schneiders.html

"I think that with the tremendous and almost unprecedented interior crisis in the Church we are witnessing today, the hour of the laity has arrived. They also feel responsible for the conservation and defense of the faith. The true intention and teaching of the Second Vatican Council on the laity is being realized now in our days ever more clearly, in many meritorious and courageous lay initiatives for the defense of the Catholic faith. 

"We have arrived at a grotesque situation, in which the sheep are beginning to unmask the infiltrating wolves in sheep’s clothing, i.e., the unbelieving, apostate, and debauched cardinals, bishops, and priests.”

Philippa O'Neill says:

Read your post on the end year Catholic college school Mass in Napier held at an Anglican cathedral. Sadly nothing surprises me anymore. Shameful.

My 'nice old codger' from Dannevirke has just rung, and it was not to wish me a Happy New Year.

No, he'd just read this post and he was 'absolutely furious'. Holding a Catholic school Mass in an Anglican cathedral is 'incredible'. He's going to ring Cardinal 'Call me John' Dew, to see what he has to say about it. 

I'll keep you posted ...

  

My nice old codger rang back today. He wasn't allowed to speak to Cardinal Dew. Some female gatekeeper told him that Cardinal Dew is - you guessed it - on holiday. So he rang Emeritus Bishop Peter Cullinane.

+Cullinane hadn't heard about Sacred Heart celebrating their School Mass at St John's Anglican Cathedral. Even though they've done it twice, that is, for two years running.

"Oh," said Bishop Cullinane. "Mass is celebrated in all sorts of strange places these days."

It seems my 'nice old codger' isn't so nice after all. Because what he dearly wanted to tell the Bishop  was, "I think there are more bishops in Hell than in Heaven".

Jeanette Hancock says:

That's my old school. I went there in the 90s, and yeah, St. Pats is too small for an end of year Mass. It was then, and it defintely will be now. Heck, it was too small for our opening and feast day Masses, which weren't as popular that our wider school community wanted to attend. Parents et cetera would complain that our opening Mass was too cramped.

People honestly need to get over themselves. If they want a bigger Church, then I suggest they have larger families and pay more to the local parishes so they can afford a building big enough that it can offer an end of year Mass for a school and it's community.

This is quite frankly a mountain out of a molehill, crafted by those who think they're more Catholic than the Pope.

I say:

I'm so tempted to reply, "Well I am more Catholic than the Pope", but I'll content myself with quoting Michael Matt of The Remnant: "The Pope wouldn't even make a good Moslem".

And it seems that even with their families the size they are now, St Patrick's can afford a building big enough for a 'Community Centre'.

Isn't this a case of the tail wagging the dog? A church big enough for all the community to worship God is the first priority, not a 'gathering space' for the community to worship community.

Helen Carver says:

In the words of Fr Max Palmer OCSO, "Pope Francis is the best Pope we have ever had and the group in the Vatican plotting to bring him down is a nest of vipers." Hear Hear! 

I say: 

He would say that. Fr Palmer is a liberal and a modernist, one of those described by Bishop Athanasius Schneider in his new book 'Christus Vincit' as the latter-day Scribes and Pharisees. 

Thanks for supplying his surname. I was wishing I knew it so I could pray for him by name.

Philippa O'Neill says:

By his own words he will bring himself down. 

While I try to teach my young adults the truths of the Catholic Church (the Pope) constantly moves the lines or totally confuses us. I respect the office of Pope and that he is my Pope but I can totally disagree with him and what he says.

I'm not a lemming.

Bob Gill says:

Regarding “In an Anglican church there's no altar stone….” I was shocked to discover recently that Catholic altars not made of stone (most it seems) do not contain an altar stone or relics of a saint these days. Apparently things changed after Vatican II.

As Father Buenger just recently explained to me: “From my research and discussion on this point in New Zealand, most altars are not fixed and therefore don't "qualify" as a permanent altar into which an altar stone is placed with a relic in it. Note that the altars in Dannevirke and in 'Palmy' at the cathedral are not fixed and therefore do not have a relic. The altar in my "new" parish is not fixed either, nor does it have a relic.”

I say:

According to both the GIRM and to Canon law, it is “proper” and “appropriate” for every church to have a fixed altar, and fixed altars “are to be dedicated” (while moveable altars can simply be blessed), and the tradition of placing relics in the altar to be dedicated “is to be retained”.

A member of our Parish Council confirms what I thought, that in the new, moveable altar at St Joseph's Waipukurau there are no relics. He states that there haven't been relics in altars "for many many years".

I'd say, about 50 years. Since Vat II. It figures. The saints have been tossed out of the altars just as by and large they've tossed out of the texts of the 'New Mass'. How the Church thought she would get along without the help of the saints, I don't know. 
But now,50 years on, we do see. And the Church is not a pretty sight.