Praise to the Holiest in the Height

Only someone with a head buried in the sand wouldn't know that John Henry Newman was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in Birmingham yesterday.

By happy coincidence the hymn for evening prayer last evening - (Sunday week 1 in the 4 week Divine Office cycle) - was the new Blessed's "Praise to the Holiest in the Height".

We also happened to sing the hymn at usual Sunday Mass yesterday but I have a sneaking suspicion that was more by design than by chance!

Praise to the Holiest in the height,
And in the depth be praise;
In all His words most wonderful,
Most sure in all His ways.

O loving wisdom of our God!
When all was sin and shame,
A second Adam to the fight
And to the rescue came.

O wisest love! that flesh and blood,
Which did in Adam fail,
Should strive afresh against the foe,
Should strive and should prevail.

And that a higher gift than grace
Should flesh and blood refine,
God’s Presence and His very Self,
And Essence all divine.

O generous love! that He, who smote,
In Man for man the foe,
The double agony in Man
For man should undergo.

And in the garden secretly,
And on the Cross on high,
Should teach His brethren, and inspire
To suffer and to die.

Praise to the Holiest in the height,
And in the depth be praise;
In all His words most wonderful,
Most sure in all His ways.

Oh dear!

Whenever I begin to moderate my feelings towards the Bishops Conference of England and Wales, they do something so spectacularly obtuse that it's back to square one. Every time. Without fail. This time it's a cracker.

The monstrosity that is the sanctuary for the beatification Mass for John Henry Card. Newman.

Shameful.

The Fishal website

Catholic and being stuck in the past

What is it with Anglicans and their desperate desire to be seen as Catholic? Richard Harries, the former bishop of Oxford, stakes his somewhat shaky claim in this article in The Times.

The premise of the article is, essentially, that as an Anglican he is already a Catholic, only better. The only better part is founded on the Anglican misconception that objective truth doesn't exist and that the church should accept the prevailing mores of society ie "move with the times". Artifical contraception - check. Abortion (in difficult cases of course) - check. IVF - check. Gay "marriage" - check. Ordination of women - check. And so the list goes on.

Moral relativism by leading Anglicans is nothing new. What is new is the outrageous attempt to legitimise the lack of doctrine or adherence to truth by suggesting that Cardinal Newman would somehow have approved of present state of Anglicanism.

I suspect the only sense in which Blessed John Henry Newman may have approved is that the present Anglican state of affairs is driving at least some of its members home to Rome.

Me? I'll take being "stuck in the past".

Fr Dwight Longenecker has a great rant about this same issue on his blog.