CatholicVoice Omnia possum in eo, qui me confortat
9 April - 22 April 2021
Issue 314
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The Supper At Emmaus
Was Not Our Heart Burning Within Us, Whilst He Spoke In This Way, And Opened To Us The Scriptures?
Supper At Emmaus - Matthias Stom (1615 - 1649)
St Joseph’s Cord Available now - see page 7
2 EDITORIAL
Catholic Voice
9th April 2021
The New Irish Penal Laws Have Been Confirmed. Lord Braid agreed the regulations went further than was lawfully allowed. The ruling was issued with “immediate effect” meaning churches could open their doors on the same day.
Anthony Murphy
Lord Braid said those who brought the judicial review were entitled to have the regulations declared unlawful. He said the Scottish government regulations disproportionately interfered with the freedom of religion secured in the European Convention on Human Rights.
As we go to press there has been a development in Declan Ganley’s case against the unjust State imposed ban on public worship. The State had been asked by the High Court to clarify whether there is a legal basis for Covid-19 restrictions on people attending Mass or whether they are merely advisory. The State have confirmed that the restrictions are not merely advisory but carry legal weight — in the eyes of the State it is therefore illegal to attend Mass. This authoritarian and unjust response comes in spite of the fact that similar legal challenges in several countries have found in favour of the freedom to worship. The most recent case being in Scotland at the end of March.
He added: “It is impossible to measure the effect of those restrictions on those who hold religious beliefs. It goes beyond mere loss of companionship and an inability to attend a lunch club.”
Places of worship in Scotland were allowed to reopen immediately after Covid regulations forcing their closure were deemed unlawful. A group of 27 church leaders launched a judicial review at the Court of Session arguing the Scottish government acted beyond their emergency powers.
“……….criminalising corporate worship has been both damaging and dangerous for Scotland, and must never happen again.”
CatholicVoice
Editor: Anthony Murphy editor@catholicvoice.ie Telephone: 059 8627268 ROI 00353 59 8627268 Outside ROI Keep up to date with news and articles via The Lumen Fidei website www.lumenfidei.ie
Rev Dr William Philip, senior minister at the Tron Church in Glasgow, welcomed the ruling. He said: “From the outset we have recognised the serious decisions the Scottish Ministers had to take in response to the pandemic. “However, its approach to banning and criminalising gathered church worship was clearly an over-reach and disproportionate and if this had gone unchallenged it would have set a very dangerous precedent.
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said she was “thankful and relieved” that the court had recognised what she described as a “dangerous interference”. She added: “The fundamental principle of freedom has prevailed with a strong dash of good old common sense.” Canon White, parish priest of St Alphonsus Church in Glasgow, said: “I’m overjoyed to hear that the court has understood the essential need to protect not only the physical and material health of our society but also its spiritual
needs and therefore overturned the disproportionate, unnecessary and unlawful blanket ban on public worship.” On hearing that the restrictions would be lifted immediately, Canon White confirmed he would be organising Mass at St Mary’s immediately. It is hoped that the Irish courts will reach the same judgement as other places and declare the ban on public worship to be unlawful. Declan Ganley is challenging certain temporary regulations introduced by the Minster for Health to deal with the pandemic — Regulation 5(1) and (3) of the 1947 Health Act. He claims the regulations are incompatible with various articles of the Constitution, including Article 44 where the State acknowledges the right to the free practice of religion. Alternatively, he wants a declaration the regulations do not prevent him leaving his residence for the purpose of practising his religion. Meanwhile a recent study in the US suggested that, with the right guidelines in place, churches can reopen with little or no risk of transmission. But in Ireland the attacks on Christianity continue and are getting worse. Garda checkpoints were erected close to Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Mullahoran, Co Cavan, on Sunday 7th March as parish priest Fr PJ Hughes said Mass in defiance of the Covid-19 regulations. Fr Hughes likened the Covid-19 Level 5 restrictions to the penal laws and Oliver Cromwell. The Gardaí stayed outside during
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EDITORIAL 3
9th April 2021 Catholic Voice Mass and Fr Hughes was given a €500 fine which he is refusing to pay. Father Hughes told the Irish Times he was “just absolutely sick at the whole idea of closing the church. The people who are making the decision about closing the church are not people of faith. They can’t be because if they were they would know the damage they are doing to themselves, their own souls and to the whole country.” He said he is “disappointed with the archbishops, that they don’t stand up and see what’s going on, what’s happening.” He believed “the Archbishop of Armagh should be doing more, He’s responsible for the souls of the baptised in this country because he is the Archbishop of Armagh.” The Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Francis Duffy, had told him “to close the doors. It does not represent the official church, what I am doing. They are towing the line of a Government who don’t believe in God.” In Limerick Gardai have been taking the names and addresses of Catholics who were praying outside the Sacred Heart Church.
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It is becoming clearer by the day that the biggest casualty of Covid is our personal freedom and I encourage you to read the excellent article on page 24 by Dr. Joseph Mercola which discusses the impact of this. The article highlights the following: • While the casualties of government-imposed COVID-19 countermeasures are manifold, the biggest and most tragic of them all is the loss of individual freedoms. • • We either choose freedom, or we choose to live under authoritarian rule. Even if restrictions are lifted, public attitude can place freedom on shaky ground, as public acceptance of overreach will allow for the same to occur again and again at a moment’s notice. • • The freedom to interact with other human beings is a crucial, most basic human need. • • The inevitabilities of life — which include uncertainty, moment-to-moment risk and the surety of death — demand that we not require people to cease living in order to “save” others from the ramifications of ill health. • • The answer, if we really want to protect the masses, is to educate and promote healthy living at all stages of life. Improving your health through a healthy lifestyle, sunshine, fresh air and real food, is the best way to protect the most people. I will close with a short update on my wife’s progress. Unfortunately there has been a setback and Kim is now back in hospital, it appears there is more damage to her back than originally thought and so she requires more scans and a new program of physiotherapy. It means her journey to recovery will be slower than we originally had hoped for and could take a number of years so please keep her in your prayers.
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12 QUO VADIS IRISH BISHOPS?
Catholic Voice
9th April 2021
Quo Vadis Irish Bishops? John Lacken
The need for Irish Catholics to pray for our bishops grows more urgent by the day. One could be forgiven for thinking that our Irish bishops have lost their way. Irish Catholics will once again be officially denied access to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on Easter Sunday and the Irish bishops, by their actions, fully support the unjust penal restrictions that have been forced on lay Catholics. The bishops and the priests will get to attend the Holy Sacrifice of Holy Mass at Easter, most of the lay faithful will not. Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen. As I write this article the Irish Government have just confirmed to Declan Ganley that they believe that it is now illegal in Ireland for a priest to celebrate Holy Mass with members of the laity in attendance and that it is illegal for the laity to attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. They have confirmed that penal sanctions have been attached to such celebrations or attendance. It will be interesting to see what the High Court judge decides in this case and whether it will be referred to our Supreme Court. In Scotland, a recent ruling by Judge Lord Braid has declared the criminalisation of celebrating Holy Mass and attendance at same as being unconstitutional. He said that article nine of the European Convention on Human Rights had been breached. This article reads:
alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance. 2. Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs shall be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.” It is notable that article nine allows governments to restrict freedom of religion on health grounds. However, if one can go to the supermarket to purchase an Easter egg or a television set, then one can hardly argue that there is a health imperative which would allow the restriction of public worship in conditions which are safer than the supermarkets. The Irish bishops have not made any legal challenges to the legislation as it would appear that they have more important things on their minds such as launching a synodal process in Ireland and making negative comments about the recent Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s document reaffirming Catholic Church teaching that one cannot bless openly sinful relationships. Bishop Paul Dempsey, of the Achonry Diocese, recently issued a ‘reflection’ which was published on the Irish Catholic Bishops’ website. In his reflection Bishop Dempsey quoted Bishop Bonny of Antwerp. Bishop Bonny is in favour of blessings for same-sex relationships.
“ARTICLE 9 Freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
I called Bishop Dempsey and he kindly took my call. I asked him if he supported Bishop Bonny’s call for blessings of same-sex relationships.
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either
Bishop Dempsey said that I seemed to have a particular focus on that issue and that he also quoted Pope Francis in his reflection.
I explained that the reason I was focusing on this particular issue was because of Bishop Bonny’s public stance on the blessing of homosexual relationships and because Bishop Dempsey, in his reflection, had not clarified whether or not he supported Bishop Bonny’s position. Bishop Dempsey said that the reason he quoted Bishop Bonny was to highlight what was discussed at the Synod on the Family. Here is the quote from Bishop Bonny that Bishop Dempsey used in his reflection. “there were frequent discussions about appropriate rituals and gestures to include homosexual couples, including in the liturgical sphere. Naturally, this occurred with respect for the theologically and pastoral distinction between a sacramental marriage and the blessing of a relatioinship. The majority of the synod fathers did not choose a black and white liturgical approach or an all-or-nothing model.” Bishop Dempsey goes on to tell us how we must understand the bigger picture saying that the Church’s understanding of marriage is fundamental. He says that, “The deeper problem arises in the sphere of language, at best it is experienced as cold and distant, at worst hurtful and offensive. The statement that the Church “cannot bless sin” is seen as targeting or treating same sex couples in a way that others are not targeted or treated in the Church. Many have found this deeply offensive. As a result some feel they are not welcome and have no place in the Catholic Church. There is a great sadness in this as no one should feel that they are not welcome in the Church, which is the Body of Christ. Further to this so many people in same sex relationships have enriched the life of the Church and continue to do so in parishes across the world.” In my conversation with Bishop Dempsey, he said that I was trying to
9th April 2021
Catholic Voice
QUO VADIS IRISH BISHOPS? 13
twist what he was saying, and that I was angry and aggressive. I admit that I was angry as I am very passionate about these matters. This is because I am a father of children who is very much aware of the push to have homosexual relationships given some form of false recognition within the Catholic Church. Most of our Catholic schools in Ireland promote the false LGBT ideology and to date, no Irish bishop has publicly spoken out against this false indoctrination of Catholic children. This makes me angry and I publicly apologise to Bishop Dempsey for any upset caused I may have caused him. However, Bishop Dempsey did not answer the question I asked him which was, “does he support Bishop Bonny’s call for blessings for people in same sex relationships”. This is a yes or no question and Bishop Dempsey accused me of trying to put words into his mouth by asking this question, which is simply not true. Catholic parents need to know if their bishop supports giving blessings to same sex couples. It is not clear from Bishop Dempsey’s article, which you can read in full on the Irish Bishops website, what exactly he is in favour of with regards to same sex couples. Bishop Dempsey’s reflection is misleading, I assume unintentionally. When Bishop Dempsey says that “The statement that the Church “cannot bless sin...”, he has misquoted the CDF document which nowhere states that the church cannot bless sin. What the CDF document says is that Jesus does not and cannot bless sin: “At the same time, the Church recalls that God Himself never ceases to bless each of His pilgrim children in this world, because for Him “we are more important to God than all of the sins that My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee. I beg pardon of Thee for all those that do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee. Amen. Angel to the Children of Fatima 1916
we can commit”. But he does not and cannot bless sin: he blesses sinful man, so that he may recognize that he is part of his plan of love and allow himself to be changed by him. He in fact “takes us as we are, but never leaves us as we are” When Bishop Dempsey erroneously says that “The statement that the Church “cannot bless sin” is seen as targeting or treating same sex couples in a way that others are not targeted or treated in the Church.” he is again being misleading and is following the agenda of those who seek to incorporate the
homosexual lifestyle into the Catholic Church. The CDF was not targeting same sex couples, even though it was responding to a specific question which asked, “Does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex?” The CDF document does not narrow its treatment of relationships only to same sex relationships. In regard to the blessing of relationships the document states the following.
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