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Editorial: IN THIS ISSUE OF ‘THE FLOCK': WHAT ARE WE DOING TO OUR CHILDREN? WHAT ARE WE DOING TO OUR CHILDREN? THERE has always been concern about the younger generation apparently even Socrates worried about the young Greeks as he grew older! However, today the widespread concern that is frequently expressed has good reason. Although there are many wonderful youngsters, others seem lost and very unhappy, turning away from God and looking to drink, drugs and promiscuity for their consolation. It does not help that they often have no proper understanding of a loving God watching over them and therefore no relationship with him. Of course, this should never apply to Catholic children but we, too, have to examine our consciences on the preparation we give our youngsters for their wonderful future living with Almighty God in his home, Heaven. We must ask ourselves a few questions about this and then examine some ways to a better future. A LOOK AT OUR CATHOLIC SCHOOLS Are Catholic schools succeeding in doing this today? Sadly, the answer seems to be that most of them are not. We all know Catholics who have been educated at Catholic schools and who have dropped out of the Church. Often they are thoroughly nice, well-meaning people but tragically, and through no fault of their own, they have not received the fullness of Church teaching they should have been given. At present over 90% of Catholic school-leavers lapse while still at school or soon after leaving, while more Catholics at state schools stay faithful. Why is no-one doing anything about this scandal? It does look as if some people are beginning to think about taking action at last, but at first everyone in authority was in denial. When we first started to address this problem in 1980 we were ostracised as ‘whistle-blowers' so often are. Now that the situation is so serious it can no longer be denied, there are some very welcome voices speaking out, here and in Rome, and this gives us grounds for hope for improvement sometime soon. A BISHOP SPEAKS OUT THIS December, Bishop Mark Davies, Diocesan Bishop of Shrewsbury, speaking at a Day of Recollection for Youth 2000, told them this is a hard time to be a Catholic. He mentioned that obstacles have been put in the way of young people going to Church and that they had been let down by previous generations. As he put it, “They so often failed to pass on the directions, the fullness of our Catholic Faith which, in Isaiah's words at every crucial turn in our lives tells us ‘this is the Way, follow it.” This admission from a Diocesan Bishop is important because, it is the first Episcopal admission, and as Alcoholics Anonymous have taught us, when there is a serious problem the first step in dealing with it is to admit the problem exists. Unfortunately the next speaker at this Day of Recollection was Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton Diocese, who is still in denial. In spite of all the evidence, he queried whether previous generations could be blamed for failing to pass the Faith on. He even condemned the past teaching, quoting the myth invented by promoters of the new teaching and saying “many generations learned their Faith in terms of Catechism content but can we say that they ever really understood and therefore were in a position to pass on the Faith? ” It is well known that every revolution has to condemn the previous regime to win credibility for itself and the catechetical revolution was certainly no exception. Also, perhaps Bishop Conry is too young to remember how carefully we had to explain Church teaching before the advent of the disastrous Modern Catechetics but he is obviously aware that it continued for “many generations” so something must have been passed on successfully. Even he cannot argue with the official statistics which show a steady growth in Catholic numbers, in Mass attendance and in reception of the Sacraments in the years up to 1970 when our dramatic decline started. ANOTHER BISHOP SPEAKS OUTBISHOP Michael Campbell, Diocesan Bishop of Lancaster, writing in his New Year Pastoral Letter, discussing the future of Catholic schools in his Diocese, writes, “Is it right or sustainable to expect our Mass-going population of 21,000 to support our schools and colleges when the majority of pupils and sometimes teachers are not practising Catholics ? Is it time to admit that we can no longer maintain schools that are Catholic in name only? The Diocese of Lancaster is the historic Diocese where its Bishop Emeritus, Patrick O'Donoghue, (now retired and working in an Irish parish,) was the first Bishop to call attention to the current failure of Catholic schools. Before his retirement he spoke out very bravely, saying “catechetics in Britain is pathetic” and lamenting the level of ignorance now among the faithful. He even encouraged people to challenge their Bishop if they think he is allowing wrong teaching. Sadly, he didn't endear himself to his brother bishops but perhaps he paved the way for that might be happening now. THE SITUATION 1850 - 1970 She had 80 infants in her first class – I only had 50 – and she told me she taught them by numbers, but they all learnt to read and write properly and most importantly they learnt to know and love their Faith. Her pay consisted of a few pence every week given her by the parish priest who used to share out what he could spare from the Sunday collection with the teachers every Monday morning at playtime. As she told me, “I could have been earning £90 a year, dear” as she was a fully qualified teacher. Thanks to self-sacrificing teachers like Annie Evans the Church in England grew dramatically. Beautiful Churches were built and more schools as our fast-growing Church needed them. In 1904 the Government started paying a large proportion of the costs, including teachers' salaries and this continues today. This is the tradition I inherited. The teachers were all practising Catholics, the pupils were all Catholic and most Catholic schools in London had a waiting list as the Church was growing faster than we could build schools. I remember that our Headteacher insisted that the time spent daily in Religious Instruction was to be considered the most important. None of us spent this hour making the children repeat catechism answers by rote like parrots -we would all have gone mad if we had. We taught to a Syllabus passing on what we had learnt and we had rigorous inspections every year. Carefully chosen priests were sent by the Bishop to spend 30 minutes with each class checking that the children really understood Catholic teaching. Each teacher received an individual report, which was seen by the Bishop, and I understand that anyone found wanting, twice, was taken off Religious Instruction by the Bishop who took his duty in this field very seriously - then. As Our Blessed Lord told us, “By their fruits you will know them”. The fruits of this careful, dedicated religious instruction were stable marriages, crowded churches for every Sunday Mass, and well filled churches for weekday Masses, plenty of priestly and Religious vocations and numerous well-instructed converts. RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND VATICAN II T HIS year is the 50th anniversary of the second Vatican Council so it is a good time to take a look at developments in the Church since 1962. I was thirty five years old when the Council opened and I had already been teaching in Catholic schools for fifteen years. I went on to teach for another twenty five years so I feel I have some understanding of the situation before and after the catechetical revolution 1968-70. The Council Fathers are not to blame. The Schema for Religious Education was one of the shortest used at the Council, the time allotted for discussion on it only half one morning and all the next morning, while the Decree Gravissimum Educationis is very brief. It deals mainly with administrative matters and the development of Catholic Universities. This is not because the Council Fathers failed to recognise how important it is to teach the Faith well, but, on the contrary, because they knew it was already being so well done it needed no alteration at all. H.E. Cardinal Spellman of New York said at the start of the discussion, “The Church has never before had such a well informed laity”. No-one challenged him as all the Council Fathers knew this was true – then. Tragically, His Holiness Pope Benedict,speaking as Cardinal Ratzinger in 2003 had to acknowledge that, “ There exists now an enormous religious ignorance. In the times after the Council it is evident we have not succeeded in transmitting the content of the Catholic Faith” . How could such a disastrous change occur less than forty years after generations of sustained growth? This is how it was done. After the Council, which ended on December 8th 1965, all the Bishops returned home to their own dioceses. On January 6th 1966 Pope Paul VI set up Committees to implement the various Council Decrees. He instructed them not to change anything the Council had decreed but the one on Religious Education was chaired by a Father Hofinger, who drastically changed the content of religious instruction. He was an Austrian, a Modernist and the main architect of “Modern Catechetics”. He seems to have worked to a ready-made plan. Step 1. He chose like-minded people from other countries and began a series of six Study Weeks which rubbished traditional teaching as ‘just rote learning' and re-defined Divine Revelation, replacing it with the new teaching that Divine Revelation is God speaking to each of us individually. This made the Church redundant and opened the door to a variety of different “truths”. Step 2. These people returned to their own countries to instruct religious teachers, including me, in this new modern catechetics. We were told that this was all decreed by the Council and therefore we must respect it. This was not true but we had no way of finding that out until the Decree appeared in English in 1971 and by then their work had been done. Step 3. They used the Authority of the Church, which we all respected then, to enforce their new teaching. In England every R.E. teacher had to attend Corpus Christi College, set up by Cardinal Heenan who appointed Father Hubert Richards as Principal. Father Richards later left the priesthood and married one of the students. He and the other priest lecturers who left the priesthood, and sometimes even the Church, were the first fruits of Modern Catechetics. Step 4. Catechetical Advisors were set up in every Diocese to check that the new teaching, and only the new teaching , was given in parishes and schools. They and their followers are still in place and are responsible for writing the R.E. textbooks most teachers use today. In 1971 Corpus Christi College closed down. Its work was done. Modern Catechetics continues and is still supported by most Bishops. The Solution to this. Obviously we must get back to sound teaching which is in line with The 1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church as quickly as possible to stop this haemorrhage of young people from the Church. Just as obviously this will not be easy. This scandal has now run on for more than forty years, so we have parents, catechists and even teachers who have never been taught the Truths of the Faith adequately. They cannot pass on what they have not been given without considerable help. Teachers work from textbooks so the first thing to do is remove all the faulty textbooks from schools and parishes and replace them with sound religious teaching programmes. There are none produced in this country but Australia and America, who have already started to recover, have produced some. The best one seems to us to be the American Faith and Life Series . It is published by Ignatius Press in San Diego and covers the ages from six to fourteen. It provides teachers with material, lesson plans and follow up work which are so well planned they will educate parent, teacher and pupils. It is already in some English schools and I am told both children and teachers love using it. How do we get this into all our schools? Unfortunately lay people do not have the Authority to do this. But Diocesan Bishops do have the necessary Authority and as each of us has a bishop we can do all in our power to see he uses this Authority to ensure the Catholic children the Lord has entrusted to his care receive the full Catholic teaching which is their heritage. He will have to remove the Diocesan Advisors who are dedicated to Modern Catechetics (as well as their books) before he puts sound religious textbooks in his schools. He will also have to arrange for sound Catholics to inspect the schools and report to him on their religious instruction. None of this will make him popular, but as Mother Angelica used to say “We are not here to win prizes for popularity!” It may help if you tell him that Bishops in Australia and America have already taken these steps and survived. Indeed they find they have won the gratitude and respect of the faithful Catholics in their diocese. The rewards are considerable. As well as the eternal reward for being such a courageous pioneer there are immediate blessings. Bishop Fabian Bruskewicz, for instance, who took these steps around twenty years ago when he was first made Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska now has packed churches again, stable Catholic marriages and plenty of priestly and religious vocations. H.E. Cardinal Pell got the same results in Melbourne just by correcting the false teaching being given in his Catholic schools and Seminaries. Other bishops in America and Australia are now following their example and also getting the good results we need so much in our country before the Faith disappears from England entirely. We must each do everything we can to ensure our own Diocesan bishop puts back sound religious teaching in the schools of our Diocese without delay. THE SECOND THREAT TO OUR CHILDREN'S SOULS MORE recently a new danger has appeared in our schools and that is the explicit lessons on sex which are threatening to corrupt our children - even the very youngest. The Vatican guidelines on this state clearly that no such lessons should be given in class to any Catholic child of Primary School age – i.e. 4 -11yrs. Also, information on sex given publicly to senior pupils should never be given to mixed classes and must not be explicit. In spite of this, many Catholic schools, which cannot find time for sound religious instruction, give detailed and graphic lessons about sex even to mixed classes of five year olds. Catholic School Governors, which should include the Parish Priest, have the power to veto this so it is their responsibility and their duty to insist they are kept fully informed of the contents of any ‘sex-ed' in their schools and act according to Church teaching. The Solution. The only solution here is to follow Church teaching extremely carefully. Primary Schools can, fortunately, be kept free from sex-ed as this Government has decided that it should not be compulsory for Primary schools. School Governors and teachers must ensure they are kept free. In Senior Schools School Governors must check the material used for lessons about sex very carefully to ensure it is in line with Church teaching. These talks should always be given by a practising Catholic and they should not include information on how to obtain an abortion, on the use of contraceptives or on illegal, under-age sex. Nor should a homosexual lifestyle be held up as routine and normal, any more than sex outside marriage for heterosexuals should be approved. Parents' rights as well as children's rights are denied if these standards are not kept to rigidly Also, anyone can see that the combination of ignorance of Church teaching while concentrating on sexual matters is very dangerous. It will put the young person's immortal soul in grave danger so it must be avoided at all costs. THIRDLY, RESISTING THE HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA Tesco support has been slightly modified following their reception of so many protests from their Christian customers who pointed out that such support cannot be equated with support for alzheimer and cancer victims. Action on same-sex “marriage”. This is due to be debated in Parliament in March and we need to let our representatives understand why this is a contradiction in terms. Marriage is defined in every dictionary I have seen as the lasting union of a man and a woman. Anyway, the Church also adds the stipulation that marriage must be open to new life. A couple who decide from the start never to have children are not married in the eyes of the Church even when they are male and female. However, every society from time immemorial has reserved the term ‘marriage' for the union of a man and a woman – even the ancient Greeks and Romans who had no problem with homosexuality. To misuse use the word ‘marriage' for same-sex couples is to alter the meaning of an important word just to accommodate a small number of extremists, as not many homosexuals want to describe their co-habitation as ‘marriage.' Once we start altering the meaning of such important words we are entering dangerous waters. As George Orwell explained in his book 1984, we think in words, so altering their meaning artificially is interfering with our thoughts and this interference with our thinking must not be tolerated. We have civil unions which already give all the privileges and benefits of marriage to same-sex couples and that satisfies most people without doing violence to the language and endangering our freedom of thought and speech by altering the meaning of the word‘marriage'. THE MEDIA INFLUENCETHE threats to our children already discussed occur outside the home but this fourth threat is in the home – the one place where our youngsters should feel safe and protected from all harm. This makes it especially dangerous. It also makes it very hard for them to escape from it. We are surrounded by the ubiquitous media and our young people are especially vulnerable to its influence so we need to protect them as carefully as we can. Unfortunately today's media often seems to follow an agenda which is contrary to Church teaching in the values it extols and in the standard of sexual morality it promotes. Sometimes this is done very openly but at other times it is more subtle, which could be even more dangerous. Most of the time it is obvious that the media does not approve of Christianity, particularly Catholicism. This may be because the Church condemns so many practices media-folk accept as normal or even praiseworthy. This leads them to portray Catholics as rather unpleasant or even evil people which can be damaging to Catholic youngsters' opinion of Catholicism. At the very worst we need to remember that both computers and television sets can be used to watch pornography which can be really corrupting, especially for the young. So supervision is always essential. The Solution Well, there are several possible solutions so parents can use the one they feel most appropriate.
Children brought up like this from an early age will later be able to discriminate for themselves and for younger siblings so can be trusted to watch on their own more. Most importantly, they will be protected from influences which, not being designed to help them in their spiritual lives, will do them harm. Catholics Unplug your Television (CUT) is a Crusade urging Catholics to protect their children from unrestricted T.V. For more details visit www.cutunplugtv.co.ukor write to Stefano Mazzeo at St Winefride's House, Mynd Close Monkmoor, Shrewsbury. SY2 5RA for a copy of his excellent free newsletter. FOND FAREWELLS E VERY year we bid farewell to some of our faithful readers. They are remembered in the Novena of Masses we arrange every November for departed Flock supporters and we feel sure they still remember us in their prayers. Sadly, this Autumn we also lost two active supporters, Monica Flynn and Tom van der Linden. Monica Flynn sat on the "Pro Ecclesia Et Pontifice" Committee for several years and her contributions gave us much wise and valuable guidance. We remember her as a kind and helpful colleague who was always ready to tackle anything, cheerfully and willingly and without any fuss. Monica died in the early hours of 27th October 2011 fortified by the rites of Holy Mother Church, after struggling bravely with cancer for a year. She gave us a wonderful example with her great courage and perfect trust in the Mercy of Almighty God. She is sorely missed. Tom van der Linden came to England from Holland in the final years of the war. His parents worked for the Dutch resistance and they decided the Gestapo were taking too much interest in sixteen year old Tom, so he was smuggled out of Holland and into London. Tom settled here, became a Chartered Accountant, married and raised a family of five children. Over the years he helped us in many ways, including auditing our accounts for the Charity Commission annually, while refusing to accept any fee. We owe him a great debt of gratitude. We feel grateful to have worked with and enjoyed the friendship of two such wonderful Catholics. Masses have been offered for the repose of their souls but please add your kind prayers. “May they and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace.” ITEMS OF INTEREST Greg Clovis and his team are organising this Conference on Saturday April 28th from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. It is in St George's Cathedral Hall, Westminster Bridge Road, Southwark London. SE1 7HY. Speakers include Greg Cunningham, Greg Clovis, Father Kramer, Steve Mosher, Joel Bockrath, Father Linus Clovis and others. For further details contact Family Life International,431, Sidcup Road, London. SE9 4ET Tel. 0208 857 9950. Matrimony Session 24th-26th February by Father Armand de Malleray, FSSP at Douai Abbey. This is for married and single lay people . Further details from The Priestly Fraternity of St Peter, John Fisher House,17, Eastern Avenue, Reading. RG1 5RU. Or visit www.fssp.co.uk/england. “Wake up to God” John Reid, the author of this book has very generously offered to send a copy free to any Flock reader who would like one. See: Book Disciples, 7 Bradbourne Street, London SW6 3TF and please enclose 3 first class stamps to cover the postage. Eric Hester, retired Catholic teacher and now a Catholic journalist tells us that John has written the kind of book he felt, quite correctly, was missing: a book that gives the essential teachings of the Catholic Faith in a straight-from-the-shoulder-no-holds-barred way. Eric goes on to tell us that this wonderful book fills a real need and he points out that it is especially suitable for younger Catholics who missed out on this teaching at school. Fortunately John has made it very readable so it is easily available to anyone interested in learning more about our wonderful Faith. Although John is giving them away it might be kind to enclose a contribution to his postage with your order. “A Biblical search for the Church Christ founded “ £9.99 by Father Linus Clovis – who will be selling it at his brother's Conference on April 28th. Father Linus has given us an excellent picture of the Church from the perspective of the Bible. It will be a great help to teachers and to anyone enquiring into the teaching of the Church. Although it is scholarly it is so well written it is easily understood. Gracewing have published it and Father's brother Greg will be distributing it from his address given above. Speaking Truth to Power. We are very grateful to all of you who asked for more copies of this booklet so you could distribute them to priests, teachers and fellow parishioners. We still have copies left so if anyone would like to order more for distribution, just write to PEEP at 4, Fife Way, Bookham. Surrey. KT23 3PH. Dear Friends YOU will have noticed by now that this issue of “The Flock” is nearly all about passing the Truths of the Faith on to the next generation again. I make no apology for this because unless we get this right the Catholic Church has no future in this country and our children and grandchildren will be given no opportunity to know and love Our Lord and His beautiful teaching. I know sound teaching can be brought back because we once did it so well, but I also know it will not be easy. It needs a concerted and sustained effort from all of us lay Catholics. Prayer is obviously essential but so is determined action. I hope you will each write to your own Diocesan Bishop, using the material in this issue to point out the steps he can take to restore Catholic teaching in the schools and parishes he is responsible for. You may have to write more than once to get the desired result and he will probably not answer you but don't let that stop you. Do also remember to thank him for any steps he takes in the right direction. Catholics in Lancaster and Shrewsbury could write to support their Bishops who spoke out so bravely, even perhaps in letters to the Catholic papers. May I ask you to send a copy of each letter you write to : I am sorry to ask so much of you but the only way we will get this put right is by pressure so the more people exerting this pressure the better. It may help you if you remember that the time is more auspicious for this effort than any time in the last forty-two years. The situation of the Church in this country is now so very serious that, at last, more Catholic voices are clamouring for action in our schools before it is too late, see recent letters in the Catholic press. This concern has even reached the highest in the Church. We should remind our bishops that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI is opening a Year of Faith later this year and he has already told us he expects a review of the catechetical material used in schools and parishes for teaching the Faith. He wants bishops to ensure their “complete conformity with ‘The Catechism of the Catholic Church.' That means the material used in most of our schools will have to be replaced so now is a very good time to get things started. Also of course we are not alone. We can ask our English and Welsh Martyrs to pray for us and we can use the prayer enclosed with this mailing to ask Jesus' grandparents to pray for our children. I know you will all have devotions of your own as well so we can safely trust in your prayers and your determined action. Wishing you and your families every blessing. Daphne McLeod. Cut-out prayer card
Writing to Rome Please play your part to help turn around the desperate situation in this country. Remember when reporting abuses and dissent to Rome, keep letters factual and as brief as possible, giving places and dates where appropriate and enclosing any supporting documentary evidence where possible. On matters relating to Seminaries, Catholic Schools and Colleges: Contacting the Papal Nuncio for Great Britain (especially about proposals from the Magic Circle): His Excellency Archbishop Antonio Mennini TO ASSIST YOU WHEN WRITING TO YOUR BISHOP, FIND THE NAME AND ADDRESS HERE, LISTED ALPHABETICALLY BY DIOCESE.
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