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"We are called to be witnesses in the world. So why are we not out there giving witness?"asked Bishop Paul Martin of Christchurch in his online homily yesterday.
Talk about a leading question! A good thing it was rhetorical, and aimed at a virtual congregation. Because if real live Catholics had been there they might have answered. They might have said:
Talk about a leading question! A good thing it was rhetorical, and aimed at a virtual congregation. Because if real live Catholics had been there they might have answered. They might have said:
- Because you, Bishop, are not out there leading us
- Because you priests are "the light of the world, a city built on a hill-top which cannot be hidden" but now you are hidden
- Because "your light must shine in the sight of men, so that seeing your good works, they may give the praise to your Father in heaven" but your light has been put under the bushel of your private chapel
- Because we're weak and starved of the nourishment of the Eucharist
- Because we've been told over and over again there's nothing we can do to merit God's love
- Because we see you handing out the Body of Christ like a potato chip
- Because we see you at Mass with your back turned to our Eucharistic Lord in the tabernacle
- Because you priests and bishops have "let yourselves be led astray by all sorts of strange doctrines"
- Because we hear priests teaching heresy
- BECAUSE WE'VE LOST THE FAITH
"(St Paul) showed to all a light burning and shining on a candlestick, in every place
proclaiming Jesus, and him crucified – St Bernadine of Siena.
"We're not being physically persecuted," said Bishop Martin. "We're not being stopped from worshiping God in our prayer and in the way we are able to live our lives."
So stop complaining, people! Just get on with your contact tracing and sanitizing and online Masses and spiritual Communions and be very very grateful that the our Saviouress the Prime Minister has saved you from dying of Covid-19.
Such was the subliminal message of the homily given yesterday by Bishop Paul Martin of Christchurch, who is singing from the same page as Cardinal John Dew. +Martin's was a thoroughly Protestant homily and Cardinal Dew's only reference to the Sacraments in his Checkpoint interview reported yesterday on this blog was negative:."no sharing of the chalice, with the consecrated blood ... no Communion on the tongue"...
So stop complaining, people! Just get on with your contact tracing and sanitizing and online Masses and spiritual Communions and be very very grateful that the our Saviouress the Prime Minister has saved you from dying of Covid-19.
Such was the subliminal message of the homily given yesterday by Bishop Paul Martin of Christchurch, who is singing from the same page as Cardinal John Dew. +Martin's was a thoroughly Protestant homily and Cardinal Dew's only reference to the Sacraments in his Checkpoint interview reported yesterday on this blog was negative:."no sharing of the chalice, with the consecrated blood ... no Communion on the tongue"...
"We are free," Bishop Martin went on,"in a way that many of our Christian forebears have not been, so then why are we not out there giving more witness to Christ talking to people about what it means to live a life in a relationship with God and having the holy Spirit dwell in us and the freedom and the joy that this brings?": https://youtu.be/Mcbw-6e0xo8
'FREEDOM AND JOY'? Locking our Lord and Saviour up in the church, shutting yourself up in the presbytery and forbidding your priests to celebrate Mass and feed your flock, is 'freedom and joy'? Sorry, Bishop Martin, we don't believe you. We can't believe you.
And then Bishop Martin talked about COURAGE AND BOLDNESS. You know, like St Paul and Silas who were attackedin Philippi and then ordered by the magistrates to be stripped and beaten with rods. What sort of courage and boldness does it take to kowtow to a government which slaughters unborn children and abolishes the right to freedom of religion?
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| St Paul in prison (Rembrandt van Rijn) |
"(St Paul) showed to all a light burning and shining on a candlestick, in every place proclaiming Jesus, and him crucified" – St Bernadine of Siena (Feast, May 27).
I wish Bishop Martin (and Cardinal Dew who once upon a time was an altar boy here) could have attended the first Mass celebrated in my church of St Joseph's, Waipukurau, for eight weeks.
The congregation numbered five. Two did not take Communion because Father, toeing the Party line, refuses to grant his people the Communion on the tongue which is the universal norm, which only the Pope has power to modify.
If another parishioner, a Latin Massgoer, hadn't been prevented by ill-health from attending, half the congregation - Latin Massgoers - would have made spiritual Communion. That half the people who turned up to the first Mass in eight weeks were Latin Massgoers - all of whom drive at least an hour to attend the Latin Mass - should tell the bishop and the cardinal something about the faith engendered by that Immemorial Mass.
One of the spiritual communicants was a Latin Massgoer from way out of town. So only four parishioners turned up. After eight weeks without the Mass.
So the parish shouldn't be too upset to know that Father has decided not to celebrate Mass this Sunday. Seeing as how Jacinda the Juggernaut has declared that only ten people may attend.
If another parishioner, a Latin Massgoer, hadn't been prevented by ill-health from attending, half the congregation - Latin Massgoers - would have made spiritual Communion. That half the people who turned up to the first Mass in eight weeks were Latin Massgoers - all of whom drive at least an hour to attend the Latin Mass - should tell the bishop and the cardinal something about the faith engendered by that Immemorial Mass.
One of the spiritual communicants was a Latin Massgoer from way out of town. So only four parishioners turned up. After eight weeks without the Mass.
So the parish shouldn't be too upset to know that Father has decided not to celebrate Mass this Sunday. Seeing as how Jacinda the Juggernaut has declared that only ten people may attend.
"Religious services fall under the
definition of "gatherings", the Prime Minister has revealed as
questions are raised as to why there is no specific mention in the Government's
COVID-19 alert level 2 legislation.
National MP Simeon Brown on Monday
called for the Government to clarify the matter "urgently".
"The COVID-19 website and the
Prime Minister have both said that the maximum number of people allowed at a
religious service is 10," he wrote on Facebook.
"However, this does not match
with the Government regulations just published under the COVID-19 Public Health
Response (Alert Level 2) Order 2020, which has been issued under section 9 and
section 11 of the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act, which in turn had been
rushed through Parliament last week.
"There is no specific mention of
religious services, either in the definitions of 'higher-risk gatherings'
(which are not allowed) or 'lower-risk gatherings' (which are limited to 10
people)."
Questioned about the matter at
Monday's post-Cabinet press conference, Ardern said that under the
legislation, Crown Law defines religious services as gatherings.
The alert level 2 legislation defines a gathering as "a group of people who are intermingling, and includes both public and private activities".
Gatherings are limited to 10 people
at home and in social settings under alert level 2.
"My hope would be that, actually, we recognise that we all have
the same goal here," said Freemason-sponsored Communications degree-holder Prime Minister Ardern.
Then she produced her 'Second-Wave' trump card, the one that never fails to browbeat our bishops into submission (because what other reason could the NZBCB possibly have for denying us the Mass and Sacraments?).
"I
would hope," said Ms Ardern, "that no Member of Parliament wants to see us in a position where we
have a second-wave of COVID."
Only the law is enforceable. Your opinion, Ms Ardern, Facebook and the MoH website are not the law, and are not enforceable. The Regulation as passed by Parliament, and as the police have interpreted it, states that Religious Services fall under "Businesses and Services" in the regulation, not under "gatherings".
The cops would have had their lawyers go over this mess with a fine tooth comb. That's why 'Bishop' Brian got away with his service last Sunday and the police were fine with it.
The PM can quote Crown law till the cows come home, but we can't believe her. She's already been proved a liar by stating she would support parental notification of teenage pregnancies, and then voting against it. And a legal opinion has no legal status. If Parliament intended to exclude a specific group (or class of activity/people e.g. religious worship), from "Businesses and Services") then they
should have stated it in the Bill. They did not.
Ms Ardern, if you want to define Religious Services as "gatherings" you need to amend the Regulation. Until then, RELIGIOUS SERVICES ARE SERVICES. THAT IS THE LETTER OF THE LAW.
Our obligation as law-abiding citizens is to obey the law, not what pops up in the Q and A at the end of the PM's press conference.
Our obligation as law-abiding citizens is to obey the law, not what pops up in the Q and A at the end of the PM's press conference.
But of course as God-fearing law-abiding citizens we must obey God's law first. And the law that applies here is the Third Commandment: "Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath Day.
But, no Mass for Holy Trinity Parish this Sunday, the Feast of the Ascension. Because Father says.
In a Christian state, the scripture below, taken from the Divine Office for Pastors, would apply to Parliamentarians, including Prime Ministers, as well as to Priests:
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