The Bishop's Weekly Column from the Parish Bulletin

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

CATHOLIC CHURCH

Okay I'm Back
(By "popular" demand)....

September 8, 2006

Last Sunday I published the following quotation from Pope St Pius X:

In order that the desired fruit may be derived from this apostolate and this zeal for teaching, and that Christ may be formed in all, be it remembered, Venerable Brethren, that no means is more efficacious than charity. "For the Lord is not in the earthquake" (III Kings xix., II)—it is vain to hope to attract souls to God by a bitter zeal. On the contrary, harm is done more often than good by taunting men harshly with their faults, and reproving their vices with asperity. True the Apostle exhorted Timothy: "Accuse, beseech, rebuke," but he took care to add: "with all patience" (11. Tim. iv., 2). Jesus has certainly left us examples of this. "Come to me," we find Him saying, "come to me all ye that labor and are burdened and I will refresh you" (Matth. xi., 28). And by those that labor and are burdened he meant only those who are slaves of sin and error. What gentleness was that shown by the Divine Master! What tenderness, what compassion towards all kinds of misery! Isaias has marvelously described His heart in the words: "I will set my spirit upon him; he shall not contend, nor cry out; the bruised reed he will not break, he will not extinguish the smoking flax" (Is. xlii., 1, s.). This charity, "patient and kind" (1. Cor. xiii., 4.), will extend itself also to those who are hostile to us and persecute us. "We are reviled," thus did Saint Paul protest, "and we bless; we are persecuted and we suffer it; we are blasphemed and we entreat" (1. Cor., iv., 12, s.). They perhaps seem to be worse than they really are. Their associations with others, prejudice, the counsel, advice and example of others, and finally an ill-advised shame have dragged them to the side of the impious; but their wills are not so depraved as they themselves would seek to make people believe. Who will prevent us from hoping that the flame of Christian charity may dispel the darkness from their minds and bring to them light and the peace of God? It may be that the fruit of our labors may be slow in coming, but charity wearies not with waiting, knowing that God prepares His rewards not for the results of toil but for the good will shown in it.

E Supremi - On the Restoration of All Things in Christ - 4 October 1903

I then announced the column was closed. I was not exactly prepared for the reaction. In any case I have decided to keep the column going but have deleted several entries since they did not match up with the heart of the quotation above. The column will continue but I will try to avoid the "bitter polemics" to which all Trads ultimately succumb. One e-mail (with the subject line: "let the column advance" was most complimentary and it was this above all the rest that got me thinking:

Dear Terence,

With respect, what's all this nonsense about stopping your Bishop's Column? I know 'if thy eye offends thee' pluck it out', but what if 'thy column' does some good? What if 'thy column' provides a little steady, sensible, reflective light in what is an extremely silly season on the internet and in the world, and quite a few people - as I gather from your website hit-counter - tune in to see what the Bishop's Column has to say this week?

Alright, maybe at times you might have given in to a little too much carping - who in your position hasn't? - but your posts are not usually underhanded, and certainly a million times healthier than the snide bile
issuing from XXXXXXXX.com. In fact, you very often put your finger on important points since your familiarity with sources in English and other languages allows you to bring facts to your readers' attention that they might not otherwise read. You often help confirm quite sensible instincts. I was mulling the other day over what Benedict must think of the SSPX and how frustrated he might be at the back-woods dunder-headedness of Pian theologians, and then I got home and read Cardinal Journet's delicious put down on your column!

So, what I'm saying is you can still follow Pius X's spirit without giving up on the column. After all, was it not that good pope who encouraged Catholic journalism? No, you would do your readers a disservice to stop it all now. You've incurred responsibilities since John Paul's demise, and the only thing for it is to fulfil them! And if you'd rather not do it on the website, then do it elsewhere on your own blogsite. But do it. That's my view, and I bet it is a view shared by quite a few of your readers.

This is not posted out of some spirit of self-congratulation but merely to make the point that if any of these columns are of any use to anybody then just maybe there is some usefulness after all. By the way I haven't written back to all of you who wrote - it would take too long and my typing skills are limited to say the least - but I thank you all for your kindness and thoughtfulness !

+TF

P.S. An amusing anecdote - chatting to a friend in London he mentioned that he had shared the above quotation with a priest friend in Australia who dryly observed: "Imagine that those words flowed from the same pen of one who wrote Lamentabili Sane and Pascendi !"