An Attempt to explain my silence: the problem of bishops who disagree with the pope

I'm sorry this isn't going to be very good. I'm tired and there's too much going on in my head and heart.

There is a reason, at least in recent months, why I have remained silent on the matter of dissident and/or silent bishops. During these difficult times I have fought hard to hang on to a belief in the Catholic way, that I should be obedient to my bishop. For a long time the problem has been, what if the bishop himself is not orthdox. What then?...................................................

Here in France, until the arrival of Pere Marchand, the bishop allowed a situation to develop in which I was more or less forced in diocesan churches to receive Commubion in the hand, standing up. In the local newspaper, he spoke out critically against the Summorum Pontificum. That was before the Pope's visit to France. He's been pretty quiet since then. But at least in France the Conference numbers 100 bishops, not including auxiliaries. There is room for the Pope's spirit to grow. As a result it IS growing, and it is healthy. In England and Wales, the Conference numbers 21 (excluding auxiliaries) and there, the SP was downplayed, or completely ignored, or misrepresented. They all seem of the same type. There is no room for a difference of opinion amongst the members of this hothouse. All follow the same road as regards appeasement of the government on matters of gay adoption, abortion, Catholic education etc. And it is unhealthy. It is definitely not Catholic. (apart from the three northern bishops)

Were I in England, I should have to be obedient to ++ Nichols. As Iam in the Diocese of Angouleme, it is now easier to be obedient to +Dagens because we have a priest not driven by considerations that influence his English counterparts. (I'm not yet sure how Pere Marchand was appointed or whether he is a member of an Order on loan to the diocese. I hope to find out during the coming week and will let you know.)

I would, with terrible pain, say goodbye to the Latin Mass for ever, if bishops would once again unite under the Pope, and say 'end of': abortion is murder; there is no such thing as marriage between same-sex couples within the Church; and whilst the Church says so, priestly celibacy remains the norm; and she does not have the authority to ordain women..

But in my heart I know that the Mass and moral Theology are connected, that is the old Mass and the understanding of it, which could have prevailed in the new Mass, had it not been hi-jacked. And it is why I understand what the Holy Father says about rupture and continuity. Not only that. It is why I have always known he is right about another thing, and it comes first above all else, from which so many, priests and laity, seem to have strayed. Priests can run all over the place, tiring themselves out, but if they are badly formed, if they do not start out with, and hang on to, that special relationship which alone in theirs with Jesus in His Eucharistic Presence on the Altar, all their works will be as second best.

Look around you now.

I know that everyone here will be praying for the Pope and praying for priests.