Fr Ray Blake renames his blog...
Blogged by James Preece on 5th November 2010
From this week's The Tablet...
SOMETIMES outspoken and often boasting thousands of readers, priests have a significant presence in the Catholic blogosphere.
Now, one of the best-known priest bloggers, Fr Ray Blake, has been asked to change the name of his blog by his bishop, Kieran Conry, to make it clear that it does not officially speak for the parish. Previously, Fr Blake described his blog as the "online magazine" of the parish of St Mary Magdalene, Brighton; now it is simply "Fr Ray Blake's blog".
Bishop Conry told us that the blog reflected Fr Blake's personal opinions and not that of the parish. "I asked him to change the name and he obliged," said the bishop. He explained that some parishioners had complained, but also that the diocese is liable if an individual is defamed in a parish blog.
Fr Blake was recently threatened with legal action by Mgr Basil Loftus, a respected priest with a column in The Catholic Times, after readers' comments under a blog posting about the Catholic press had accused Mgr Loftus of heresy. Mgr Loftus also threatened legal action against Fr Michael Clifton -who blogged under the name "Fr Mildew" -who said that views expressed by Mgr Loftus on the Mass after the Second Vatican Council were "proximate to heresy".
Fr Clifton, a retired priest living in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, has since apologised and closed his blog.
The key line is this one "the diocese is liable if an individual is defamed in a parish blog". In other words: Priests who speak out are are their own.
Don't rock the boat!
Reader Comments
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Uwe Vuvuzela said...
Blake's blog is one of the best in the UK and always more entertaining than Hermeneutic which can be turgid and dull rather like the Faith magazine.
The Tablet is seeing this as a victory which is interesting. Fisking this article should be fun for someone out there.
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Auricularis said...
Funny - I wonder if Bishop "Call me Kieran" Conry would have taken the same action, if there was a priest spouting off dissent on a blog, in his diocese?
Fr. Blake has always been proud of how loyal he is to his ordinary - I wonder how he feels now personally after this? Instead of the bishops coming to the defence of one of his priests, he tells him to basically have nothing to do with the diocese in terms of blogging? Surely the bishops is well aware of Msgr. Loftus' views? Could the reason possibly be that Bishop Conry actually shares Msgr. Loftus' views on the church? After all this was the same bishop who disparaged frequent confession, in the Catholic Herald, over a year ago.
Nothing surprises me more in the post conciliar church...
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Richard Collins said...
Bishop Conry needs to step up and reaffirm his loyalty to the Holy Father and the magisterium.
Perhaps ++ Nichols will give him a good spiritual kicking; but then, pigs might fly!
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Chris said...
Oh no not another priest Conry doesn't get on with, there seem to be many in his diocese.
I thought Fr Ray liked him, rare in A&B. When I was a seminarian there were plenty of priests in his diocese who loathed him or thought he was a joke.
At seminary events he would always do his best to avoid contact with his priests. He was known for his coldness to them and his warmness to women of a certain age.
He is also the most complained about Bishop in the country, and possibly the most rebuked by Rome. After his debacle in the Herald over Confession he was made to write a Pastoral letter rectifying it, that was so unsatisfactory he had to write another.
Then he had the temerity to to write to his clergy complaining few of them read his Pastorals.
They don't read them because the say nothing.
Some of his clergy speak about the See being vacant, so disinterested is he in being a Bishop.
How noteworthy he uses the Tablet to publicly rebuke a priest, even though the priest "obliged" obediently with a request made by his Bishop. Noteworthy too that Fr Blake is not quoted in Tablet, presumably they contacted him and he kept silent.
Conry is a nasty piece of work!
Lions ruled by a donkeys comes to mind!
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Jonathan said...
Nail on the head. Bishop Conry has no charity towards those that don't dissent. The only good thing is that he has more interest in "the finer things of life" than he does in Christ's Church and this limits the mega damage he would create if he actively did something. His peak of teaching in pastoral letters is discussing love in relation to Brokeback Mountain.
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Liberal Traditionalist said...
Holier than Thou!! He who is without guilt casting the first stone??
Perhaps Bishop Conry may wish to place the phrase "A Personal View" any time an article or pronouncement goes out in his name.
Surely he isn't so smug as to think his frequently-amplified views represent those of the Catholic Faithful of Arundel & Brighton.
Sometimes our Bishops in E&W create a very strong argument for bringing back the Inquisition.
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Paul Priest said...
Ah +Conry bless him!
Remember when summorum pontificum came out and he declared it was merely a Pope's opinion which contradicted previous popes - ergo it could be ignored.
His sniggers over Catholic teaching on women priests.
His dismissal of confession and teaching on contraception.
Always one of the lads...
Poor sod : All that time and effort to become a Bishop - and yet he adamantly refuses to be one...except when he can put the boot in.
Fr Ray has been nothing but unswervingly loyal and promotive of his Bishop - never once has he joined in with other blogs which condemned his oafish comments and outrageous behaviour; but rather has publicly thanked and expressed gratitude at +Conry's familiariy and pastoral concern....
Yet the moment things get tough and Lofty and the Tabletista start throwing their weight around?
That's when +Conry puts on the pressure...
Thank God for Fr Ray !!!
Bishop Conry should either start acting like a Catholic and perform his apostolic duties and responsibilities or get out of the way for his devoted priests who do his job for him!!
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EditorCT said...
I wonder just how informed Fr Blake really IS about his bishop's "familiarity"?
http://www.christianorder.com/features/features_2002/features_jan02.html
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Genty said...
Well, now. Here's a funny thing. My excellent parish priest in A&B was kicked out by Conry after complaints by "some" parishioners. His fault appears to be that he spoke his mind, which upset "some" activists. Of course, one never knows how many "some" represents. Two, three, half-a-dozen?
He celebrated the NO Mass reverently and an excellent choir and organist flourished during his tenure. What's to complain about? He has been replaced by a priest more to the bishop's liking. Say no more, except the last time I attended Mass there the new incumbent sang some sort of Gloria (circa 1970?) which seemed to have a lot of Allelujahs in it and not much else. Anybody know that one?
I did wonder when the boot would come down on the estimable Fr. Blake's neck. At least he's still in post. We cannot underestimate the strands of power still extant among the liberal faction. They are legion.
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Pat said...
While sadly lacking in any theological or ecclesiological expertise, he doesn't seem to possess much in the way of episcopal regalia, either. Never seen wearing the skull cap and only wears a cassock when in the presence of the pope.
Contacts in his home See of Birmingham didn't seem to mind his move to A&B. A&Bs loss was Brum's gain.
Sad really that a supposed successor of the apostles has so little apparent apostolic virtue. We should all pray for his conversion.
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shane said...
Good for Fr Ray. There's no such thing as bad publicitly.
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SunnaB16 said...
Spot on!
It`ll only make Fr. Blake better known among faithful Catholics (i`m Australian).
Don`t these poor excuses for bishops ever think about Saint John Fisher...contrasted with Judas?
Maroon should be replaced by yellow.
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Seraphic Spouse said...
"Respected"? I hope the Tablet can back that up... Personally, I'd never heard of him until he started threatening to sue Fr. Ray and Fr. Mildew.
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Campion said...
The critics seem to be a sad lot of losers - O how those Christians love one another - God bless the bishop & confound the ill-informed & uncharitable morons who keep bleating about the bishop's correct & prudent comments.
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Brian said...
Why have you got the quote about bringing peace but a sword at the top of the page?
Are you advocating violence?
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James said...
Jesus said it - not me. Was he advocating violence?
I think he was explaining the reality that the truth (and He is the truth) causes division.
The quote is there because of all the people who say "your blog causes arguments so it must be unchristian" - those people are clearly not familiar with the New Testament.
For what it's worth, it was always my plan to have loads of different quotes on a random shuffle but I never got around to it.
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