MUSLIM BILLBOARDS RENDER THOSE RESPONSIBLE LESS MUSLIM!!

Who could forget the violent reactions by Muslims to the Holy Father's Regensburg Lecture where Benedict quoted an unfavorable remark about Islam made in the 14th century by Manuel II Palaiologos, a Byzantine emperor. Mass street protests were mounted in many Islamic countries, the Majlis-e-Shoora (Pakistani parliament) unanimously called on the Pope to retract "this objectionable statement"

More of the same, including death threats amidst the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in 2005. Flemming Rose, Jyllands-Posten's culture editor, commented that "the modern, secular society is rejected by some Muslims. They demand a special position, insisting on special consideration of their own religious feelings".

So should Christians living in a traditionally Christian country, where theirs is the overwhelmingly dominant religious observance, be just a little surprised and upset by billboards diminishing Christ Jesus to a mere prophet of Islam?

Bear in mind too this is no mere error but a targetted campaign where those responsible make no secret that they intend to follow up with similar ads bearing slogans as “Holy Quran: the final testament” and “Muhammad: mercy to mankind” - on buses traveling through the Sydney CBD and Hills district.

Those responsible say they want to encourage Christians and Muslims to find common ground by raising awareness that Islam believed in Jesus Christ. Perhaps a good place to start might have been in truly honoring Muslim belief and tradition... 

With Muslim's residing in Australia advocating the State's recognition of Sharia law it is perhaps interesting to note that Sharia does not allow freedom of speech in such matters as criticism of Muhammad. Such criticism is blasphemy and punishable by death. Interesting too, that among the five main branches of Sharia law is Adab, a prescribed Islamic etiquette defined by refinement, good manners, morals, decorum, decency, humaneness. Accordingly, an honourable Muslim is demanding of respect and in exhibiting Adab bears witness to proper discrimination of correct order, behavior, and taste.

Jesus may well be considered by Muslims to be a Prophet of God, but should we consider those with such disregard for Sharia and who are without Adab to be Muslims!!

COULD OUR GOOD FRIEND ARMIDALE NOT GET WITH THE TIMES BEFORE HE GETS GOING...

On the eve of an announcement of the 10th Bishop of Armidale it remains a sincere disappointment that almost three years after it was first raised the Catholic Diocese of Armidale unlike Lismore is STILL without a substantial 'web' presence.

Certainly, the Catholic Schools Office has a website and the diocesan section has continued to grow, nourished by such historical pearls as this fine photo of the second bishop of Armidale.

Just last week the Prime Minister visited Armidale and with the assistance of some Presbyterian students turned on that $56B white elephant, the National Broadband Network. That said however, with all that internet grunt at your disposal now it seems almost sinful not to have a state of the art diocesan website.

Dare I say... the clock is ticking My Lord and how would you have us remember you?

CAPTION COMPETITION

That whirling dervish of the aCatholic sect, Brian Coyne, discusses the latest aCatholic storm in a teacup with the 10% he alleges are all that is left in the pews!

aCATHOLIC CONCERN THAT COMENSOLI MAY HAVE MODELLED HIMSELF ON THE POPE...

Less than a month ago that whirling dervish of the aCatholic sect, Brian Coyne, was praising the selection of Bishop elect Comensoli as not a Pell promotion claiming reliable sources...

Time will tell, My Warden Friend (sounds like the name of someone in charge of an asylum, doesn't it?), who made the right call. My information comes from pretty reliable sources. Personally I don't know Fr Peter at all and was only vaguely aware of his name before last night. I do though have confidence in my sources as they have generally been spot on in their assessments in the past.

You see gentle pilgrim the 'Pell' test is the aCatholic litmus for the soundness of episcopal appointments in Australia.

So its significant that now there seems to be some concern over at aCatholic central that Comensoli might have modelled himself on the pope... Benedict XVI that is and not John XXIII.

Christians universally know what's to be done when salt loses it's saltiness... or a source its reliability!

TOOWOOMBA CLERGY SHOULD MAKE A STATEMENT... BURN THOSE TIES!

A document, entitled “Summary History of Bishop Morris' dispute with the Roman Dicasteries” has emerged as part of a deliberate campaign to represent Bishop Morris as a victim of injustice at the hands of the Vatican.

Prepared by two of the eight priests who comprise the diocese' consultors, the summary document sets out a detailed timetable which inadvertantly points to a structured process whereby high-ranking Vatican officials, including Pope Benedict XVI, devoted a great deal of time and energy in trying to convince Bishop Morris of his errors and to keep him in office.
First in the summary is the following:

Feb. 1993: On Feb. 10, Bishop Morris is installed at Toowoomba’s St. Patrick's Cathedral. He immediately introduced dramatic changes in the liturgy and government of the Church. According to the consultors’ document, he also “broke with tradition and wore a tie, embroidered with his coat of arms, rather than the Roman Collar.” The consultors added: “The Bishop offered each priest a black tie with the Diocesan Arms and indicated that the wearing of the tie was to be considered clerical dress, along with the collar and the white shirt with crosses, the choice being left to the individual cleric.”

Babyboomers should well recall that in the fight for justice the burning of distinctive clothing can achieve lasting recognition of key liberating issues. But should there be need of further convincing let us not go past the timeless words of the Exultet...

This is the night when the pillar of fire destroyed the darkness of sin! This is the night when Christians everywhere, washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement, are restored to grace and grow together in holiness.  ...The power of this holy night dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy; it casts out hatred, brings us peace, and humbles earthly pride. Night truly blessed when heaven is wedded to earth and man is reconciled with God!

 Burn those ties brothers!

AND IN OTHER NEWS...

Since Sunday some 250,000 pilgrims had filed past the wooden coffin as it lay in state before the basilica's high altar. Later, in a private ceremony, it was transferred to the altar of St Sebastian located near the right-hand-entrance to the church.

Noble simplicity is a term that springs to mind!

ITS REALLY QUITE COMICAL IF YOU IGNORE THE VENOM...

That whirling dervish of the aCatholic sect, Brian Coyne is in a flap again over the identity of those members of the Coo-ees Chapter but as my old friend Hardman Window observed the poor man has become quite unhinged...

"like Osama bin Laden there was one escapee who has now set up an alternative site called "The Warden's Window"... Like all the taliban they operate from their caves and secret places and seek to constantly disguise who they really are."

"from the element in Catholicism that Benedict needs to urgently tell where to get off our bus. Benedict won't do it of course because I actually suspect the Warden is in fact Benedict Ratzinger"

Or then there was my personal favorite...

"I suspect he is either a young and quite cyber-literate priest or some kind of groupie priest that loves to hang around young boys."

Is it really such a stretch then to consider...

TOOWOOMBA CATHOLICS OFFERED A NEW APPRECIATION OF CHURCH...

VATICAN CITY, 2 MAY 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father removed Bishop William M. Morris from the pastoral care of the diocese of Toowoomba, Australia.

Finnegans Wake is a work of comic fiction by Irish author James Joyce, significant for its experimental style and resulting reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language.

Written in Paris over a period of seventeen years, and published in 1939, two years before the author's death, Finnegans Wake was Joyce's final work. The entire book is written in a largely idiosyncratic language, consisting of a mixture of standard English lexical items and neologistic multilingual puns and portmanteau words, which many critics believe attempts to recreate the experience of sleep and dreams.

Owing to the work's expansive linguistic experiments, stream of consciousness writing style, literary allusions, free dream associations, and its abandonment of the conventions of plot and character construction, Finnegans Wake remains largely unread by the general public.

The Pastoral Letter of the newly appointed Apostolic Administrator in Toowoomba is deserving of better treatment...

aCATHOLICS STIR TOOWOOMBA TEACUP IN FACE OF ECCLESIAL CLIMATE CHANGE...

Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd cautioned Australians that climate change was the "great moral challenge of our generation". The import of his observation may well have been lost on many of us until now...

In just the past fortnight the climate of the Church in Australia has certainly experienced change. But is this cause for panic or is it simply the proverbial storm in a teacup?

That whirling dervish of the aCatholic sect, Brian Coyne, has whipped himself and his followers into a frenzy over the recent Bishop Morris resignation...

What has been done to Bishop William Morris is a moral outrage of the highest order. It needs to be confronted and redressed as a matter of the utmost urgency... Your "eternal salvation" may well depend on it as much as the "eternal salvation" of the people who you are supposed to be guardians of in your flocks... This is about discerning the moral behaviour called for by none other than the Creator of Life itself!

Ably assisted by the likes of 'the people's pastor' and popularist tart, Frank Brennan, Coyne's cult are working to give voice to a defence of +Toowoomba's untenable position using secularist notions of a denial of natural justice.

It plays well with the 'unwashed' and is nothing new. Our aCatholic sisters and brothers struggle with an appreciation of Church which originates, not in banal self serving notions of social justice, but rather in the Magisterium and the Sacraments just think back to Peter Kennedy and the South Brisbane debacle.

Not unlike Kennedy, +Morris is alleged to have displayed flawed and defective pastoral leadership, invited discussion about the ordination of women contrary to the church's infallible teaching, and encouraged recognition of the orders of other churches. And so he did, didn't he? In his own words, in the service of his own pen, in a pastoral letter circulated widely by him in his name to draw upon just one example.

Our brother Coyne says "It is time for ordinary pew-sitting Catholics, and those who have already left the pews in silent protest over recent decades, to start standing up to this moral outrage. This is a deep moral issue calling for courage and intelligence on the part of the ordinary faithful as well as by our spiritual leaders"

But why Brian are you and yours the only victims ever. Why are those who moved to correct the bishop's flawed and defective pastoral leadership deemed neither "courageous, intelligent or ordinary faithful". Indeed this would seem to be at the very heart of why the 'remnant' cafeteria cult are so out of touch with their Catholicism and indeed their Church; and why they are so disturbed by developments which might to the otherwise ordinary faithful appear rather reassuringly predictable.

It may have escaped their notice but the ordinary pew-sitting Catholics, and those who have already left the pews in silent protest over recent decades, are standing up to this moral outrage! They want their Church returned to them and are tired of self important windbags telling them why the Faith of their Fathers is insufficient for today's "courageous, intelligent or ordinary faithful"

Perhaps what is called for here is a Heresy Trading Scheme or great big tax on Pious Polluting!

TOO MUCH FOR TOOWOOMBA?

Word is that the good bishop has announced early retirement...

Some may remember the grieving in 2006... now there will be wailing and nashing of teeth as well no doubt!

HAPPY MAY DAY! ... HOW WILL YOU REMEMBER HIM?

Thank's be to God!