Thursday 24 March 2011

What is to become of Fr Dermot Fenlon?

Catholic Pater Familias blog - 24.03.2011

The Free the Birmingham Oratory Three blog posted the cartoon below yesterday.

I'm copying the cartoon without asking their permission so may yet get a letter from them or a lawyer asking me to remove it. That said, unless that blog is actually a front for the Middlesbrough Diocese I'm guessing I should get away with it.

The cartoon does raise a serious issue. Here we have a man who is a renowned academic and known by many to be a holy and good priest who has been expelled from his home by a process which might, if all the reports in the public domain are correct (see James Preece's blog and the Free the Birmingham Oratory Three blog), at best be referred to as unusual. The less charitable might describe the process used against Fr Fenlon as an abuse of process and politically motivated.


They may not like it but Fr Felix Selden, Fr Ignatius Harrison and Fr Gareth Jones are going to find themselves continually facing questions about what has happened to Fr Fenlon (and their involvement in it). The treatment received by Fr Fenlon is a scandal that will only serve to undermine their individual authority and that of the wider Oratorian community.

As to what will become of Fr Dermot Fenlon, I wish I knew the answer. Having done nothing wrong, he certainly doesn't deserve the treatment he has received so far.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

The Birmingham Oratory - what a difference a year makes

Catholic Pater Familias blog - 9.3.2011

Take a look at the links below:

Birmingham Oratory newsletter 6 March 2011
Birmingham Oratory newsletter 12 March 2010

Pretty much a year apart but on 12 March 2010 we had:

"only the Catholic Church also teaches, clearly and consistently, the wrongness of contraception, homosexuality and abortion. What is at stake is her right, in her own schools, to continue to do so, free from State censorship and control."

On 6 March 2011 we get:

"This is because they would refuse to endorse a homosexual lifestyle for children entrusted to their care. They would not stop loving these children. They could not stop them doing what they wanted once they were of age. They simply would not say, as Christians: “This is something we can approve.” Many parents are in the same position on all kinds of issues."

Whilst I appreciate the subject being dealt with in each newsletter is different, there seems to be something of a change of tone. In one we have a clear and concise statement of the Church's position and in the other a degree of vagueness.

I'm not certain where the "all kinds of issues" comes into it unless one is trying to equate religious views on homosexuality with parental views on body piercings and tattoos.

Oh yes, I forgot, Fr Dermot Fenlon, Fr Philip Cleevely and Br Lewis Berry were removed from the Birmingham Oratory a couple of months after the March 2010 newlsetter.

Selective Hearing

Catholic & Loving It! blog - 9.3.2011

http://www.lovingit.co.uk/

Let me get this right...

Fr Dermot Fenlon is banished from his home at the Birmingham Oratory with absolutely no notice at all mere months before the Papal Visit while Jack Valero tells the world that there's nothing to worry about and it's all perfectly normal for members of a religious community to dissapear mere months before one of the most important events in that communities history even though they've done nothing wrong.

The "visitor" shifts people out and moves a new provost in and the stream of pro-life, pro-family press releases stops. The community has been taken over and silenced.

Austen Ivereigh has nothing to say.

Lesley Anne Night, secretary generral of Caritas International doesn't get to renew her contract and suddenly he's talking about a "Vatican coup".

Update: Today marks 300 days of unjust exile for Fr Fenlon.

300 days of exile for Fr Dermot Fenlon

http://www.catholicpaterfamilias.blogspot.com/ - 9.3.2011

This Ash Wednesday marks Fr Dermot Fenlon's 300th day of unjust and enforced exile from his home.

My prayers are with him and also for those who unjustly removed him from his home.

Sunday 6 March 2011

Day 295 of Fr Dermot Fenlon's exile

http://www.catholicpaterfamiliasblogspot.com/ - 4.3.2011


The counter on the Free the B3: Justice for Fr Dermot Fenlon blog for the number of days of exile for Fr. Dermot Fenlon is a running indictment against those responsible for his exile.

He is in my prayers.