The Common Good

We are lone individuals. As Matthew Arnold wrote,

"Between us lies
"The unplumbbed, salt, estranging sea."

and as Kipling said,
“For the sins that ye sin by two, by two
Ye shall pay for, one by one.”

And yet we seem to yearn for the common good. Individualism is, we are told, a bad thing, and the common good is paramount. So how about a moral litmus test? Do you agree with the following as "common good" propositions?

Please try to avoid using common sense.

1 There are too many people in the world, so contraception and abortion are good things.
2 Treating the terminally ill wastes resources which could be better used elsewhere. Therefore some form of euthanasia is a good thing.
3 My car pollutes our environment, so I must walk, cycle, or use public transport.
4 Religion is good if it promotes social cohesion.
5 Religion, if taken to extremes, does not promote social cohesion, so it is bad.
6 Public display of religious symbols does not promote social cohesion, so it is bad.
7 Excellence breeds envy and discontent, so it is bad.
8 Clever children should not be taught with other clever children, and by clever teachers, as this is divisive. Mixed ability schools and classes should be the norm. Difficult subjects should not be taught because they are divisive.
9 Sex makes people happy, so the more the better.
10 ‘Deep’ ecology, which values all life equally is a very good thing.

And one for luck: The Pope and the Church need to be 100% inclusive.

I think you can guess my position, but your comments would be greatly appreciated.

The People At The Tablet

The people at The Tablet
Were feeling low as Hell.
Their lonely little magazine
‘s Not selling very well.

On tables, shelves, old, yellowing
Unsold, the copies lie.
“What can be done to save our jobs?
What is there left to try?”

The sun declined, the wine, undrunk,
Grew tepid in the glasses.
“Why don’t we imitate The Sun,
Pitch at the unchurched masses?

“We could be tabloid, topless, pert,
Support the Hierarchy –
Rubbish Hans Kung, attack the Prods
Call ‘We Are Church’ mularky.

“Proclaim Humanae Vitae and
Damn heresy and schism,
Show Stanford and that lot the door
And plug the Catechism.”

“Ok, you’re on, let’s seize the day
No time for indecision!
We’ll be with Benedict all the way.
Maybe call for the Inquisition.”

They did it all. Their phoenix rose
And circulation rocketed.
Their sad hearts quailed with guilt , but oh
The profits that they pocketed!

I'm So Happy! I'm So Clappy! I'm So Happy And Clappy And.....

Vigil Mass just anywhere,
loudspeakers squeak and groan
A lady stalks to the lectern
And taps the microphone.

“Your celebrant this evening will be
Father Bogus Smirk.”
She taps the bloody thing again,
and still it doesn’t work.

Someone’s in the lavatory
–You can hear the water flush
Relayed by lapel microphone.
It penetrates the hush

Of the devout and penitent.
And now here comes the priest
All smiles and new-age chasuble.
But how his brow is creased.

When he says, “Hello,” acoustic feedback
Booms. He looks unhappy.
“D’you mind?” he asks. Clearly he blames
The electrician chappie.

The electrician is devout,
But he'd rather not be here.
Far better in the “Horse and Groom”
With mates and darts and beer.

But off he whizzes, tweaks a wire
The Mass can now begin
With folk choir’s shrill cacophony
Guitars’ unlovely din.

And so it goes, smiling and smug
Busy ladies bustle
And organize, but how we miss
Some theological muscle.

Bishops take bearings on a cloud.
The Barque of Peter rolls.
Despite the Pope, its mutinous crew
Are heading for the shoals.

Chesterton should be living now,
Belloc and Martindale,
To tell us how we gained the trite,
And lost? Why, there’s a tale.

Lost reverence, fear, the numinous,
Lost sense of sin. And gained?
A Church that does not speak its Faith,
Weak, wandering, muddled, maimed.

St Humphrey Lawrence, Martyr, 1572-1591

St Humphrey died the horrible death meted out, until the XIXth century, to those found guily of treason.

He called Elizabeth I a heretic, which she most certainly was.

We should pray to St Humphrey Lawrence that our clergy will speak out with equal uncompromising clarity on matters of Faith and morals. The only penalty they face is the ridicule of those who already hold them in contempt.

What have they to lose?

Our Lord Is Present In A Very Special Way - Does That Mean Not Really?

When Christ explained the Eucharist
Many followers fled.
The Truth was unacceptable
“Too hard! Too hard!” they said.
Our Bishops are of subtler stuff
They nuance things instead.

We once believed - I still believe -
That bread becomes our God
That wine becomes the Blood He shed
Is this so very odd?
Aquinas gave us words to clothe
Belief, but now we nod

Assent at clerics who recoil
From such crude credal vigour
And think they’d better water down
Aquinas’ divisive rigour
“Our Lord is present in a very
Special way,” they figure.

From fudge and nuance and half lies
And German exegesis
They sound-byte forth a statement that
Has as its central thesis
Whatever is acceptable
Whatever your belief is.

Like slippery salesmen they predict
The punter’s predilection.
Street cred is what it’s all about
Not Nicene Creed conviction.
“Our faiths are custom-made," they smirk
"Just choose from our selection.

"Don’t like Hell? Don’t fret, dear sir,
It’s a discontinued line.
No Purgatory? a wise choice,
Heaven ok? That’s fine!
And now, how would you like to pay,
Up front or down the line?"

Caveat Episcopus: A Cautionary Tale

Reading William Oddie's article in the Catholic Herald on the problems of Cardinal Schonborn, and his advice to be wary of the press, reminds me of my experience with the educational correpondent of a nameless national daily when I was teaching in London in the days of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA).

The school and its headmaster were well known, the school for its success and popularity, and the Head for his traditional values. This sat uncomfortably with the marxist ILEA.

The journailst came to interview me and another teacher of more leftist leanings. We were to talk about what was good or bad about the ILEA.

I started by getting him to agree that everything I said would be unattributable - anonymous. I then did my best to tell the truth about the Authority and its preference for ideology over education. Hot stuff. I named names.

My colleague was not so smart. He gave the journalist a loyal defence of ILEA.

My more negative story was printed. His was not.

However the newspaper in question ambiguously attributed my comments to him, or seemed to do so.

He was not happy.

I was.

A Horrible Memory

A few days after being received into the Catholic Church in 1989, I went to Mass, I think on a weekday, at Farm Street. It was the week of Christian Unity.

Father (Professor) Thomas McMahon S.J. (I think) gave the homily, and declared:

"The time will come - certainly in our lifetimes, when there will be no Catholic Church, no denominations. We shall all be together. It will be a new church. Many people will be sad at having to give up much which they love....."

He did not elaborate on what we should have to give up in the credal horse-trading which would clearly precede this amalgamation, nor on whether the new church would be world-wide, or merely a British phenomenon.

My oral memory is very good, but not perfect, and I may have misrepresented the actual words, but certainly not the sense. It was a shock - 30 years deliberating whether to become a Catholic, and now - had I hitched my wagon to a dead horse?

I whizzed into the confessional, but not to confess, and the priest, Father Bermingham, reassured me that nothing was going to change. He was wise old man, like Father John Tracy S.J., to whom I owe my final decision to convert.

I don't know whether Professor McMahon is still alive. If he is, I suppose there is still time for his prediction to be fulfillled. Time for nuancing, lying.

But how, why?

The truth is not negotiable.

The clever money is still on the Pope.