THE
P RTAL
July 2018
Page 3
P ortal Comment
Around the Blogs
Will Burton has been looking at Catholic,
and especially Ordinariate, Blogs
W
e read at Ignatius, His Conclave -
ignatiushisconclave.org - that Pope Francis
abandoned his prepared speech, and spoke
off the cuff to the Forum of the Italian
Family Associations on 16th June:
On ‘gay marriage’: The greatest gift God
gave to humanity is the family, because after
the story of the creation of man, God shows us
that he created man and woman in his image and
likeness, and Jesus himself, when he speaks of
marriage, he says: ‘Man will leave his father and
mother and he and his wife will become one flesh.’
Because they are the image and likeness of God.
You are an icon of God: the family is an icon of
God. the woman: it is precisely the image of God.
He has said it, I do not say it, and this is great, it is
sacred.
Today – it hurts to say – we are talking about
‘diversified’ families: different types of families Yes,
it is true that the word ‘family’ is an analogical word,
because we talk about the ‘family’ of the stars, the
‘families’ of the trees, of the ‘families’ of animals …
It is an analogical word, but the human family as an
image of God, man and woman, is only one.
On elective abortion: Children are the greatest
gift: children who welcome themselves as they
come, as God sends them, as God permits – even if
sometimes they are sick.
I heard that it is fashionable – or at least it is
habitual – in the first months of pregnancy to make
certain examinations, to see if the child is not well,
or comes with some problem … The first proposal
in that case is: ‘Shall we send him away?’ The
murder of children….
When I was a boy, the teacher taught us history
and told us what the Spartans were doing when a
child was born with malformations: they took him
to the mountain and threw him down, to treat ‘the
purity of the race.’ And we remained stunned: ‘But
how, how can you do this, poor children!’
It was an atrocity. Today we do the same. You
wondered why you do not see so many dwarves on
the street? Because the protocol of so many doctors
– many, not all – is to do the question: ‘Is it bad?’
I say this with grief: in the last century,
the whole world was scandalised by
what the Nazis did to treat the purity
of the race, but today we do the same,
but with white gloves.
Praise the Lord! Now say that in Ireland.
Over at Fr Ed’s Blog - tunbridgewells-
ordinariate.com/blog/ - the indefatigable Fr Ed
Tomlinson has produced a series of three Blogs that
deserve to be read by us all. They are entitled, “We
need better bishops” “We need better priests” and
“We need better laity”. All three should be studied by
all Ordinariate members, clergy and lay. The opening
paragraph of the third in the series, “We need better
laity” will serve as a flavour for all three.
Having reflected on the need for better bishops
and priests, men of God who exude confident
leadership, loving zeal and authentic holiness,
attention must turn to the laity. For the pews are the
pool from which clerics are drawn, meaning that
when the laity are not living the faith in the home
the sanctity of the entire church comes under threat.
At Facing Islam Blog - facingislam.blogspot.com
- we see that Fr Benedict Kiely is quoted as saying:
We are at a Lepanto moment in Western history,”
said Father Benedict Kiely, founder of Nasarean.
org... Lepanto refers to the 1571 naval battle that
turned the tide for Christian forces resisting the
onslaught of the Muslim invaders of the Ottoman
Empire in the waters off southwestern Greece.
We must pray with the same fervour that the
Christians prayed then to save Western civilisation,
not just from the danger of radical Islamist
extremism, but from radical, aggressive secular
liberalism.
Has your Group booked delegates for the
Ordinariate Lay Conference at Worth Abbey
from 7th to 9th August 2018? There is still
time. If you contact [email protected]
we will pass on your booking