Today, 7th May, 2013, a small group of Catholic Truth supporters went along to St Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow with the intention of distributing some leaflets advertising our forthcoming conference after the 1pm Mass. We hoped to encourage some of the good people exiting Mass to attend. We were prepared to hand out the leaflets and explain that our conference aimed to encourage us all to keep Faith in these very difficult days when there is not only a crisis in the wider Church but a very serious crisis here in Scotland, as evident in the current scandal caused by Cardinal O’Brien.
Our group was comprised of my unworthy self, another Golden Oldie and three young people, a lad aged 22 and two girls both 16 – all booked to attend the conference and happy to help us encourage other young people to do the same. In the event, almost inevitably, there were very few young people AT the Mass. Still, parents and grandparents are important influences in the lives of their young people so we were determined to encourage as many people as possible to book up.
Only a couple of people had exited the cathedral and accepted leaflets, before Father Joseph Walsh, Assistant Priest in the cathedral, who had “celebrated” the Mass, came out and asked one of the 16 year old girls (who was nearest the door) what we were distributing. She handed him the leaflet and said we were telling people about the Catholic Truth conference in June. He told her/us that we had no permission to hand out the leaflets at which point I told HIM that we didn’t need permission, we were on the pavement. He disagreed, claiming this was cathedral property.
Outraged and showing it, I pointed out to him that dissenters by the dozen were regularly invited and welcomed onto Catholic property right across the archdiocese in order to attack and savage the Faith, so how dare he tell us that we had no permission to encourage people to attend a conference which would be truly Catholic. This all took place in a matter of seconds, by which time he had stretched up and begun to close the cathedral door in our (amazed) faces. I raised my voice in the hope of being heard in Inverness, and repeated HOW DARE YOU! at least half a dozen times including after the door was well and truly slammed in our thoroughly astonished faces.
The others went round to the side door from where the Mass-goers were now exiting, and I headed for the archdiocesan offices next door to the cathedral, where I asked to speak to the Chancellor, Monsignor Murray. I was not – not remotely – in the kind of frame of mind essential to “dialogue”… which is why I decided to go into the Lion’s Den and speak my uncensored mind. I instructed the receptionist to summon the Chancellor as a matter of urgency, and soon, Monsignor Murray – the only person to show me the slightest courtesy through all of this debacle – arrived at reception. He invited me to follow him somewhere to speak in private, which I did, while announcing as loudly as I could manage, that I was perfectly happy for all and sundry to hear what I have to say.
Monsignor Murray guided me to a nearby lift where we ascended four flights to reach the office of the Vicar General. This journey up four flights will become significant later – it’s one of those “you gotta be kidding” stories, so be patient…
The Vicar General – Monsignor Paul Conroy – joined us and I presented both priests with one of our leaflets, explaining that Father Walsh had closed the cathedral door unceremoniously in our faces when we sought to invite exiting Mass-goers to think about attending our conference. We hadn’t brought handcuffs, nobody was going to be forced to sign up for the conference, remember, this was merely a little advertising session. I asked the Vicar General what he intended to do about Father Walsh’s disgraceful behaviour.
It was all downhill from there. Don’t ask me the order of proceedings but below is what transpired thereafter… and take note: I was anything but polite. Far from it: I was very deliberately NOT polite. I could have been playing the lead role in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the character in rash and impulsive mode…
In no particular order, then, I pointed out the following…
* that dissenters are regularly invited onto Catholic premises, shipped in both from various parishes and places outside Scotland, given a platform to attack Catholic Faith and Morals, with each and every event well advertised within the archdiocese and beyond. Yet a small group of Catholics seeking to advertise a small conference is insulted and physically blocked from letting parishioners know about the meeting.
* that the faithful are confused and the Faith has been lost in Scotland due to the negligence of priests and bishops, that the Cardinal O’Brien scandal did not happen in a vacuum, that everything we’d witnessed in the cathedral Mass just now was in blatant disregard for Vatican Instructions on the role of the laity (as usual there were almost more women in the sanctuary than in the pews) and the episcopal scandals we are witnessing have to be understood in that context.
* that, just about everything we witness at a new Mass, such as that just celebrated in the cathedral, is akin to an Anglican Mass.
Unable to deny the truth of all that I’d said about dissent being promoted within the archdiocese, at this point, Monsignor Conroy, jumped to grab the high moral ground, as a drowning man clutches the proverbial straw, thinking he’d “got” me, asking, shock horror, if I’d attended an Anglican Mass (and this in a tone of “how COULD you?”) I assured him that I’d never attended an Anglican service but had seen one on TV, word for word what is heard in every novus ordo Mass, adding that he’d be far more likely than me to attend an Anglican service given the devotion of the modern clergy to ecumenism, something with which I’ll have no truck. Still, he kept repeating in utter horror, his question to me about attending an “Anglican Mass”. Gimme strength. I was tempted to tell him about the special offer on hearing aids in yesterday’s paper.
* In the midst of making the above points I referred to the “Vatican II baloney” which had so destroyed the Church in Scotland. Shock horror again.
Mgr Conroy: Did you say ‘Vatican II baloney’?
Me: Yip. Vatican II baloney. All that has destroyed the Church has been done in the name of Vatican II.
Mgr Conroy: “Baloney?” I can’t believe you just said that.
Me: Well, I did. Baloney.
Mgr Conroy: I’m just amazed.
Me: Obviously you’re not reading the right literature or you’d know that people far more expert than me call what goes on in the name of Vatican II a lot worse than ‘Baloney’.
Mgr Conroy: This is not Scriptural.
Me: St Augustine said we would not believe the Scriptures if we did not first believe the authority of the Catholic Church, so if you can find something in Scripture which defends what’s gone in in the Church since Vatican II, you are reading it with Protestant eyes.
SHOCK HORROR!
Mgr Conroy: did you accuse me of reading Scripture with Protestant eyes?
Me: Yes, I did.
Mgr Conroy: Let me get this straight: you accused me of reading the Scriptures with Protestant eyes?
Me: Yes, I did. If you can find anything in Sacred Scripture which supports the devastation caused by Vatican II, you are reading it with Protestant eyes.
Mgr Conroy, then stood up, indicating I was about to be flung out.
Me: Oh yes, if you don’t play the game…
We reached the door and I thanked him for his time (sarcastic to the end)…
But, hand on door, Mgr Conroy said: “what did you say?”
Me: I said “thank you for your time”.
Mgr Conroy: No, before that you said “oh yes if you don’t play the game…” what did you say after that?
Me: I said “thank you for your time.”
Mgr Conroy: No, you said something else… what was it?
Me: Well, let me see. I said “if you don’t play the game…” So, I probably added “you get thrown out.”
At which my prophesy came true. I turned to thank Monsignor Murray, pointing out that he was the only priest today in all of this debacle to show me any courtesy. He looked as if he’d sooner head the UKIP office in North Korea than spend another moment in my company but, hey, see if I care…
Having reached the elevator, I pushed the button, at which Monsignor Conroy said: “No, don’t go in the lift, use the stairs” adding (when he saw my questioning look) “you might get stuck in the lift” (a case of wishful thinking, if ever there was one…)
I took to the stairs, as instructed, and by the time I’d descended to the ground floor my opinion of Monsignor Conroy, standing at zero when I began my conquest of the stairs, had diminished palpably.
Is it, I asked myself, likely that the same lift which had taken Monsignor Murray and me up four flights, had, in the intervening half-hour or whatever it was, developed a fault and was out of use? Had they forgotten to put a “not in use” notice on the lift door? Or was this a gratuitous piece of nastiness? I mean, it’s not as if it’s Lent and I could offer it up.
So, folks, that’s what happened when a small group of mostly young Catholics sought to encourage other Catholics to come along to a conference where they could learn what lies behind the crisis in the Church in Scotland, meet other Catholics and forge wholesome friendships (something the clergy and hierarchy might like to try some day), ask questions and express their views about what is going on in the Church and maybe buy some religious objects, rosaries, statues, little holy pictures etc. Generally, enjoy a Catholic day out.
Surprised?
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