Tag: Protestantism

Archbishop Comensoli, won’t you ever learn?

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Catholics gushing over Archbishop Peter Comensoli’s recent slightly-bishopy comments about the sacking of Essendon’s CEO, should perhaps have remained a little more circumspect. One pro-life comment maketh not the man!

For those who may not know, Andrew Thorburn was sacked from his position as CEO of the football club due to his supposedly conservative Christian worldview. (Thorburn’s rather colourful – and less than Christian – past seems to escape the notice of the majority of commentators.)

Premier Dan Andrews continued the public pile-on, then our favourite Bishop put in his two cents worth and was suddenly hailed as the new JPII.

Comensoli’s statement was released via the Melbourne Catholic website on October 5th, then later republished in mainstream media. That was only three days before the annual March for the Babies, so it would have been reasonable to expect that the Lion of Melbourne would lead his flock of pro-life warriors through the streets to boldly protest the scourge of abortion. The Greek Bishop certainly did. And Protestant pastors, bless their hearts, were out in force. A few Catholic priests dotted the landscape, in low-key fashion.

But sadly, Archbishop Peter was nowhere to be seen. Whether the good prelate had a prior engagement, or whether he was simply putting his feet up in front of the fire at Gembrook, is something unknown to this author.

However, a pattern began to emerge after it was confided to me that His Grace was, on two separate occasions, invited to celebrate Mass for a pro-life group on October 22nd, and not only did he not acquiesce, but he did not even respond.

So, to recap Archbishop Comensoli’s track record, he:

* allows pro-abortion Dan Andrews to receive Holy Communion at a State Funeral

* employs a pro-abortion feminist in his inner circle

* doesn’t attend his Archdiocese’s biggest pro-life event of the year

* won’t celebrate Mass for dedicated Catholic pro-lifers (and impolitely won’t even answer them)

So …… maybe he’s not very pro-life after all. At least, not in any meaningful way.

But believe it or not, the comments above aren’t really what this article is about. That’s just my preambular gripe. This article is actually about an upcoming Mass to mark 175 years since the Archdiocese of Melbourne was established. In a nod to Melbourne’s multi-cultural society, the Mass features music and prayers from various nations – a Filipino Lamb of God, a Torres Strait Islander Great Amen, a Croatian Psalm, and so on it goes.

The opening hymn was specially written for the anniversary, but – get this – it was composed for the combined 175th anniversary of the Anglican and Catholic Dioceses of Melbourne. It’s a catchy little ditty about God and justice and a treaty. There’s a didgeridoo solo to make the point even clearer.

The Mass setting, including the cosmopolitan hymns and prayers, is an entirely new one called The Melbourne Mass – also jointly commissioned for the 175th anniversary of the Anglican and Catholic Dioceses of Melbourne by both churches! Yes, for use in both Catholic and Protestant churches!

Mind-boggling. (On a lesser note, how much did this – the composition of a Mass – cost the Archdiocese?? It would not be cheap. No wonder parishes are being consolidated.)

Now remember, it wasn’t long ago that Archbishop Comensoli, whilst casually suppressing a few local TLMs, said that it was incumbent upon him and all of his priests to offer the Mass worthily and decorously. And yet now he has gone ahead and had a sacrilegious Mass composed for himself and his heretical Anglican buddies.

Archbishop Comensoli, won’t you ever learn?

A couple of Melbourne’s Anglican “bishops’ – they are biological siblings. Reminds one of the old adage, “the family that schisms together, chrisms together.”

Australia’s Bishops want Protestants to teach them how to be Catholic?

Published on by anonymouscathLeave a comment

Yes, you read that correctly. Since Protestants have been doing “synodality” far longer than we Catholics have, we need to study them to see how it’s done.

Or something like that.

Here’s what the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference put out this week:

To help better understand the place of synodality in the Catholic Church, ecumenical leaders will attend national Uniting and Anglican gatherings this month to see how synodality works in those communities.

The global Synod on Synodality has encouraged engagement with ecumenical and interfaith groups as part of the process leading towards the gathering in Rome in October 2023.

Cardinals Mario Grech, general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, and Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, recently said: “Conscious of our need for the accompaniment and the many gifts of our brothers and sisters in Christ, we call on them to journey with us during these two years and we sincerely pray that Christ will lead us closer to him and so to one another.”

ACBC Media blog May 4th.

So let me get this right: to learn how to be better Catholics, we need to learn from Protestants. Right.

Maybe we should send our teenagers to carjacking school to make them better drivers? Or send our daughters to Marie Stopes to make them better mothers? (Oh, I forgot – Archbishop Comensoli has already tried something like that.)

The article goes onto say that the Australian Synod of Bishops committee is sending “key ecumenical leaders” (Catholics) to the Uniting Church’s Assembly and to the Anglican Synod, which are both being held this month. This is where some of your hard-earned church-offerings are ending up, friends: sending Catholics to take notes from the Protestants.

One of the participants is a Fr Trainor, a priest from Adelaide. He said that “One of the key lessons I’ve learned is that open and friendly dialogue is at the heart of communion in faith …. The core of our communion is Baptism, which leads us to see each other as sisters and brothers in faith.”

So which is it, Father? Is it Baptism or is it “dialogue” that is the basis of our alleged communion with heretical churches? It matters not – neither would pass the Syllabus test, would they?

One good thing could come of this kind of meeting, though. If Catholics hear from their Protestant peers about the numerous difficulties involved in being a married priest, or the practical challenges of being a female priestess, or the lack of acceptance for (God forbid) an openly sodomite bishop, they just might have second thoughts about their own radical plans for the Church.

But until then, be prepared for more of this nonsense as the increasingly irrelevant Plenary movement morphs into the far more fashionable Synodality movement.

At least that’s what the Bishops are trying to convince us of, anyway.