A few years ago readers of this blog were very generous in helping to raise money to help send young people from West Hull to World Youth Day in Madrid. Thanks again to all who supported us.

This year's World Youth Day is in Brazil and not many people from England and Wales are going for understandable financial reasons. However, my good friend Zosia is working hard with Fr Luke Goymour to raise money for the Diocese of East Anglia pilgrimage to World Youth Day in Rio.

One of the ways they have come up with to raise money is selling books and icons. You can see the range of icons for sale here. I am particularly impressed by the effort Zosia and Fr Goymour have put in to their book: The Path of Life which has been specially written to raise funds for this year's World Youth Day pilgrimage.

I was expecting a rubbishy little effort at bodging together a book and I only bought it to support my friend, but actually, Zosia and Fr Goymour have put together a sizeable collection of art, prayers and reflections. It's a bit mushy for my taste in places (this is what happens when you let girls write books!) but all in all it's not bad at all.

Anyway, time is scarce because your lazy blogger has been sat on this for months like some kind of idiot. World Youth Day starts in 70 days! Please support Zosia and Fr Goymour by buying their book! It's only £4.50 (inc postage) and you will be helping send a young person to World Youth Day.

If you want to skip the book and just send that big pile of cash you just found down the back of the sofa, fire off an email to james@lovingit.co.uk and I'll hook you up with some contact details.

A couple of days ago I reviewed what I referred to as "the Pope Francis book" probably because the official title "On Heaven and Earth" is simply not very descriptive or even very memorable. Yesterday I looked at some of Cardinal Bergoglio's thoughts on the liturgy while today I'm looking at Cardinal Bergoglio's thoughts on power in the Church.

I should make clear that these are the words of Cardinal Bergoglio before he was elected Pope. These words do not carry any sort of Papal authority. I reproduce them here because they offer an insight in to the thoughts of the man who became Pope Francis.

Cardinal Bergoglio tells us a joke. It's not a very funny joke, in fact, I only know it's a joke because he says so...

A very intelligent Jesuit told this joke: There was a person who came running asking for help. Who was pursuing him? Was it an assassin? A thief? No ... a mediocre person with power. It is true, how sad for the people that are under a mediocre leader, who thinks too highly of himself. When a mediocre person thinks too highly of himself and gets just a little power, I am sorry for those under him.

[On Heaven and Earth - Chapter 19 - On Politics and Power (p149)]

Perhaps bit about the "very intelligent Jesuit" is supposed to be the joke? Ha ha. See what I did there...

Joking aside, these comments are very interesting in light of the sort of men we know hold a lot of the power in the Church and how Cardinal Bergoglio might look upon those men if, say, he were to become Pope.

Often when one speaks of mediocre leaders in the Church on is told to be charitable and the charity is always for the mediocre leader. Always "the poor man tries his best, it's mean to criticise him" and so on.. never "I am sorry for those under him". Cardinal Bergoglio's concern is pointed in the right direction.

So what does he think mediocre leaders should do...?

Authority comes from above; now how it is used is another thing. It gives me goose bumps when I read the Book of Kings because there are only a few just men in the eyes of the Lord, but the vast majority are not. When one reads the things that our religious kings did, he feels like pulling his hair out. They even killed: the holy king, David, is not only an adulterer but also, to cover up what he did, he commands that the spouse of the woman be killed. But he has humility, when he is rebuked by the prophet Nathan, he recognizes that he has sinned and asks for forgiveness. He moved aside and told the Lord to bring someone to replace him.

[On Heaven and Earth - Chapter 19 - On Politics and Power (p149-150)]

"He moved aside and told the Lord to bring someone to replace him."

There it is - there is Cardinal Bergoglio's answer to the mediocre leader. Have humility, be rebuked, ask forgiveness and then move aside. We know that Pope Benedict may have quietly removed two or three Bishops per month. One wonders if Cardinal Bergoglio will continue along similar lines.

there are ambitions in the men of the Church; there is, sadly, the sin of careerism. We are humans and we tempt ourselves; we have to be very alert to take care of the anointing that we received because it is a gift from God. The circles of power, those that existed and exist in the Church, are a result of our human condition. But at some point, one stops being the one chosen to serve and becomes the one that chooses to live as he wishes, and his intentions are contaminated by his own flawed character.

[On Heaven and Earth - Chapter 19 - On Politics and Power (p150)]

Circles of power? Would that be magic circles? Oh stop...

At any rate, I can't help thinking that Cardinal Bergoglio is a man who knows how things are and, because he feels compassions for those "under" a "mediocre person" might actually feel compelled to do something about it.

Yesterday I reviewed what I referred to as "the Pope Francis book" probably because the official title "On Heaven and Earth" is simply not very descriptive or even very memorable. I should make clear that these are the words of Cardinal Bergoglio before he was elected Pope. These words do not carry any sort of Papal authority. I reproduce them here because they offer an insight in to the thoughts of the man who became Pope Francis.

While the book carries precious few insights in to Pope Francis' liturgical views, there is a chapter entitled "On Prayer" which contains two brief passages that I find very interesting. The first deals with Cardinal Bergoglio's discomfort about liturgical acts turning in to social events...

When liturgical acts slide in to social events, they lose force. A good example is the celebration of marriage, which in some
cases might lead someone to ask what is religious about that ceremony, because the minister preaches values, but many people are tuned in to a different frequency. They get married because they want God's blessing, but that desire seems hidden and does not become visible. In some churches - and I do not know how to cure it, honestly - in the weddings there seems to be a ferocious competition between the bridesmaids and the bride, for example with regards to the fashion or the dress. These ladies do not perform any religious act; they go to show off. This weighs on my conscience. As pastor, I am allowing it and I am not sure how to stop it. I give the example of weddings because it is where this issue is most evident.

[On Heaven and Earth - Chapter 7 - On Prayer (p56)]

For a moment, I thought I was reading Fr Ray Blake's blog - he writes along these lines from time to time.

I find this very comforting - that Pope Francis might be looking at the Church and worrying about the way "liturgical acts slide in to social events", that he worries about "how to stop it". I wonder how this concern about people coming to Church "to show off" might apply to Papal liturgies?

A few pages later Cardinal Bergolio gives us a clue...

It is true that among the faithful there are those who have not only killed intellectually or physically, but also who have killed indirectly through the poor use of resources by paying unjust wages. In public they may form welfare societies, but they do not pay their employees a wage corresponding to their work or they hire them "under the table." That is hypocrisy, that is the schizophrenia that I was referring to. To be certain, we know their resumes, we know that they pretend to be Catholics, but they have the indecent attitudes of those who never repent. That is why, in certain situations, I do not give communion myself; I stay back and let the ministers give it because I do not want those people to come to me for the photo op. One could deny communion to a public sinner who has not repented, but it is very difficult to check such things. Receiving communion means receiving the body of the Lord, with the awareness that together we constitute a community. But if a man, rather than uniting the people to God, warps the lives of many people, he cannot receive communion; it would be a complete contradiction. Those cases of spiritual hypocrisy occur in many people who hide within the Church and do not live according to the justice that God proclaims. They do not show repentance either. This is what we commonly call living a double life.

[On Heaven and Earth - Chapter 7 - On Prayer (p64)]

"those who never repent" he says "they do not show repentance" - when was the last time you heard a liberal talking about repentance? Pope Francis is no liberal.

"we know that they pretend to be Catholics" he says, that is why "in certain situations, I do not give communion myself; I stay back". This is exactly what has been happening in Rome? Pope Francis has been staying back, not allowing the "photo op" because he suspects that many who come only "pretend to be Catholics".

This idea of a Bishop who looks upon his people and says to himself that he doesn't like the way they are living their lives. Who "judges" them. Who tries to think up ways to get them to change. Who talks about "repentence". Is this not what sheperds are supposed to do? If this is what Pope Francis is all about, then I'm loving it.

I only hope some of it rubs off on England and Wales.

I've been trying my hardest but I just can't help it. The fact is, I'm feeling very smug because I have a copy of the Pope Francis book and you can't buy it until this Thursday. Fortunately, I've been reading it over the weekend so I can tell you about it.

Pope Francis has been Pope for almost two months now but to most of us he's still something of a mystery so this book is a very welcome opportunity to read a big chunk of his thoughts on a wide range of subjects in order to get to know him a little bit. The book takes the form of a 'conversation' between Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis before he was Pope Francis) and Rabbi Abraham Skorka. I admit, I pretty much skipped everything Rabbi Skorka had to say. I was trying to read the book in a weekend.

First and foremost, this book shows that Pope Francis is that he's no lefty liberal - he is very definitely a believer in absolute truth, in God, the devil and prayer - his theology isn't built around trying to talk himself in to being allowed to do things... but then... he's not "of the right" either, by which I suppose I mean his theology isn't built around trying to argue with liberals.

I'm reminded of those American Catholic apologetics websites which list "The Deutrocanon" high up in their list of Catholic teachings. It's because they are caught up in regular arguments with fundamentalist protestants so they think it's important but most Catholics have never heard of it. I think there's something similar going on here - the issues we consider important our arguments with liberals in the United Kingdom just don't seem to be on Pope Francis' radar screen.

One example that worried me was in the section on poverty where he speaks about the "dignity of work". He's not wrong, but he seems to stray dangerously close to saying that a man's dignity depends on his ability to work. That's a problem for those of us living in countries where some people are talking about killing those who "lack dignity" because they are no longer useful. I don't think Cardinal Bergoglio agrees with those people, but he isn't "guarded" against them. He doesn't choose his words carefully in this area.

This may be in part because Pope Francis is simply not the intellectual giant that Pope Benedict was. I mean no offence, Pope Francis is no idiot, but he's just not working at Pope Benedict's level. Everybody has been talking about how Pope Francis likes to give homilies "off the cuff", well, having read this book I would say the homilies are not so "off the cuff". Take those Church as NGO comments - they are in the book. Twice. These "off the cuff" homilies are mostly things he has said before. Many priests do this - revisiting the same themes - my guess is we should expect more of this.

A big weakness of the book is that it is a conversation between two men in Argentina which means the reader must keep reminding himself that when they talk about "the government" they are not talking about Tony Blair or David Cameron. It also means there are references to historical events that I'm less than familiar with. Better educated men and I will not be bothered by this.

That said, all in all, Heaven and Earth is a good introduction to the thought of Pope Francis and I recommend it. While you can't have it until Thursday, you can read quite a bit of it via Amazon's "look inside" feature.

I think Marty McFly must have taken me back to the 1980's...

Seriously?

This is what they think is needed right now?

As the then Cardinal Ratzinger put it in "The Ratzinger Report"...

Christianity is not a philosophical speculation; it is not a construction of our mind. Christianity is not 'our' work; it is a Revelation; it is a message that has been consigned to us, and we have no right to reconstruct it as we like or choose. Consequently, we are not authorized to change the Our Father into an Our Mother: the symbolism employed by Jesus is irreversible; it is based on the same Man-God relationship he came to reveal to us.

[link]

I don't expect somebody as important as Elizabeth Davies (Marriage & Family Life Project Officer at Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales) to listen to a nobody like Joseph Ratzinger.

If you were to go to Rome recently and happened to pop along to Mass at the Vatican, you might have noticed something interesting..

Not so very long ago, this would have been unthinkable.

The word on the street is that priests who distribute Holy Communion at papal liturgies have been instructed to distribute only on the tongue. Some priests are ignoring the instruction, but others are taking it seriously.

Oh dear.. I thought Pope Francis' humility was only going to affect the lives of nasty rich people.

h/t Kneeling Catholic

It's interesting how history repeats itself... 

A few years ago one Austen Ivereigh was the victim of false allegations in the Daily Mail. A newspaper called the Catholic Herald took those allegations at face value a printed them - an easy mistake to make. However, as the allegations turned out not to be true the Catholic Herald were forced to issue an apology and to pay damages to Austen Ivereigh.

That's only fair you see because the information they published damaged Austen Ivereigh's career and also caused him considerable personal inconvenience and distress. It's only right that those who make the mistake pay for the damage. Kids who smash windows with footballs and newspapers alike.

Fast forward a few years to the present day where "traddies" have just been the victims of false allegations of "gloom mongering". Statistics were published by the National Office for Vocation and an organisation called Catholic Voices took those statistics at face value and published them - an easy mistake to make. However, as the statistics turned out not to be true the Catholic Voices were forced to issue an apology and... oh wait.

It doesn't look like Catholic Voices plan to pay any damages.

Having slandered "traddies" with allegations of "gloom mongering", having forced Joseph Shaw, Stephen Morgan and others to spend valuable time on the tedious process of looking up information from numerous old paper directories, plotting charts, writing blog posts and so. Having caused inconvenience "traddie" community" they don't think they owe anything for the damage.

Maybe they think that because it was a mistake, therefore they shouldn't have to pay for the damage? Kids who smash windows with footballs and Catholic Voices alike. Personally, I think a cheque made payable to the Latin Mass Society is in order. I'm sure Austen Ivereigh, who coordinates the Catholic Voices project, would agree?

Somebody will point out that Austen Ivereigh was the victim of serious allegations, that he suffered considerable personal distress and invonvenience over several years and that the damage here is nowhere near on the same scale.

Very well then. Send a cheque that is nowhere near on the same scale.

Somebody else will argue that Austen Ivereigh had a legal right to damages and that the "traddie" community perhaps hasn't. So what? I'm sure there's something in the Gospels about doing the right thing even when the law doesn't force you to.

If Austen Ivereigh and his Catholic Voices want to argue that mistakes are mistakes, that an apology is adequate reparation and that nobody should have to compensate anybody for the time and and effort put in to setting things right... well...

That would be very interesting to see...

I've been meaning to post Philip Chidell's wonderful video for a while now.

Someday, I will have to explain to my children what a liberal parish used to look like. There won't be any left. Their children don't go to Mass and their priests are getting old.

If you want to see the future, look at who is actually opening Churches.