A new website has been launched in the name of the Bishops of Scotland.
Click here to view BeingCatholic.org
What do you think of it? Is it likely to help visitors either to be better Catholics or, if they are not Catholics, to want to be a Catholic? What’s good about it? What (if anything) is lacking?
Click on ‘comments’ with your thoughts…
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I’ve just had a quick look at this website. I tried to be open minded and look for the good points because I didn’t want to be a predictable Traditionalist and slag it off just because it was endorsed by the Bishops Conference of Scotland. But really, they should try to make it harder for us to tear it to shreds. It’s about as Catholic as a Cornflake box. I really don’t know where to begin.
The first thing that caught my eye was an advertisement for a “Churches Together” prayer service, which is, of course, completely forbidden. My guess is that the bishops have deliberately watered down Catholicism to make it acceptable to heretics.
In the section “Sharing Our Faith” I found it appalling that only SOME of the material represented the teachings of the Church. The bishops are becoming quite blaise about their dissent! It beggars belief that bishops would allow questionable material on a website about being Catholic.
I found it very sad that there was no mention of the Holy Souls, especially in this month of November. There’s no mention of the Mass or the Rosary. Indeed, I don’t think Our Lady is mentioned at all, same goes for the Saints. Very sad.
Compare this website to http://www.fisheaters.com. Can anyone deny that we have two different religions, fighting it out to the death?
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Well said Petrus.
It only took about 3 seconds for me to determine that it was Catholic in name only. The photos gave it away!
Just for the heck of it, I typed in the quick search the terms- Traditional Latin Mass, Scapular, and Latin. I’m sure you can guess what happend.
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http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/ Dutch seminary to offer a course on the TLM
Maybe the Scottish Bishops should be adding this to their list of courses, If they have any seminarians to put on the course in the first place..??
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It’s a bland website. I thought at least there should be an image of Our Lord, the Blessed Mother, or a saint at the top, rather than having random people staring out reading a book (the Bible?)
Water-downed Catholicism….even on an Anglican site, you are likely to see an image of a ‘bishop’ properly dressed. Nothing Catholic about this site at all.
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Stuart, if only “bland” was the only problem.
I checked out a few pages, and visited the Events section. Top of the list is a ‘Tony Hickey Weekend’ (whoever Tony Hickey might be). There is no explanation of who he is or what the weekend is about and there are no clues in the programme. However, at the foot of the page there’s an advert for a “Medjugorje Mass”
http://www.beingcatholic.org/tony-hickey-weekend.htmlBlatant defiance of the local Bishop’s (responsible for the Medjugorje parish) clear instructions NOT to promote this hoax as a place of pilgrimage. Shocking defiance on the part of the priest in Uddingston, who regularly hosts Medjugorje events and Bishop Devine for permitting it not to mention whoever included it in this new website. See page 13 of our current newsletter for the most recent, very explicit, instructions from Bishop Peric.
Off to a dissenting start.
Miles Christi Sum, I typed in Catholic Truth to the search engine and I’m sure YOU can guess what happened! Or, rather, what didn’t happen!
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Editor, That was a good/funny one!
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Petrus beat me to it in going straight for “Churches Together”. As soon as I saw that, my wish to look further just evaporated. Reading others bloggers’ views confirmed my suspicions.
Perhaps we ought to set up a site called “OnReallyBeingCatholic” and put the record straight. Any one willing to contribute some input for it – nothing spectacular – just the Traditional alternative to each of the points they have made?
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leprechaun, there is not a lot to reply to – certainly not enough to set up a new website. Really ,that is the purpose of this thread, leppy, so get to it!
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Tony Hickey from Manchester was a big-time pusher of Medjugorje. If he’s giving a weekend talk which contains a “Medjugorje Mass” (whatever that is meant to be) then it’s reasonable to assume that he hasn’t rejected this falsehood. He has an “official website” called “The Word Was With God – Teaching according to the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church”. http://www.tonyhickey.org He now gives retreats all over the world apparently. Personally, I wouldn’t want to receive spiritual advice from a man who has been instrumental in helping to spread one of the greatest religious hoaxes of our time.
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Editor
I agree. This website, blog, the links section and the Catholic Truth Newsletter is enough. Incidentally, why not link fisheaters website? That is a cracker!
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NOTICE…
I’ve posted an update on the Apostolic Constitution for the Anglicans.
http://www.catholictruthscotland.com/blog/?p=2579#comment-20469
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Just a further addition to my 11.22am post – a little more exploration has confirmed that Tony Hickey is in fact currently running the “Manchester Medjugorje Centre” from an address – 5, Oaklands Drive, Prestwich, Manchester – which is featured at the top of the home page for this organisation:- http://www.manchestermedjugorjecentre.org Obviously, the allegiance to the “teaching of the Magisterium” that he claims on his other website, doesn’t include obedience to the local Ordinary, or the National Bishops’ Conference on matters of alleged supernatural occurrence under their jurisdiction. Clearly, no-one is vetting what is being put on to this Scottish “being.catholic.org” website.
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Just had a look at the website but I can’t work up much enthusiasm for other religions. At least I now have an idea what constitutes a “beingacatholic”.
Petrus,
Fisheaters has some good content – particularly on apologetics. The discussion forum though has, of late, become seriously infested with those of a liberal inclination and a number of traditional Catholics have jumped ship. There appears to have been some serious concerns about the irregular living arrangements of the site owner, Quis, and his “partner”. You might want to take a look at some back-postings there.
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Miles Christi Sum and editor, I keyed in ‘Original Sin’ and ‘Hell’ to their search engine. Guess what? No matches found.
BeingCatholic.org advertise fun loving events on the theme of hope, and hell knows what else. How about teaching and understanding the Dogmas of the Catholic faith.
Sorry this website is a loser.
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kevin1, many thanks for all that illumminating information on Tony Hickey. Fr. Dominic Towey is a very defiant priest, who has continued to promote Medjugorje despite our reports on his dissent. Clearly, Bishop Devine either shares Fr Towey’s defiance or has no control of this priest. Either way, he’s failing in his duty to protect the people of St John’s Uddingston from this hoax. I am continuing to give some thought to this matter. I do not like to see people being conned. We may have to do some educating up there in Uddingston.
cateran, thank you, too, for the information about fisheaters – I’m very disappointed. They have some very good pages on their website, to which I’ve linked in the past. Any chance you could send me a link (or post it here) to one of the back posts you mention?
gloria, I think we’ve now established that this new site is not about being a Catholic at all, so thanks for your research effort which confirms my own (and Miles Christi Sum’s) experience of their anything-but-Catholic search engine.
leprechaun managed to trace the name of the person in whose name this new website is registered; not that it means anything to me, but odd that it is billed as being “an agency of the Bishops Conference of Scotland”.
This is one registrant who seems to have friends in high places…
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Editor et al
What, you didn’t do a search on “climate change,” “carbon footprint,” “spirit of Vatican II,” and “universal salvation”? Shame on you!
Crouchy
Believe it or not, I just last night discovered where your blogger name comes from: Guy Crouchback, the main character in Evelyn Waugh’s trilogy Sword of Honor.
(recommended in the latest issue of The Fatima Crusader) Have you read this trilogy?
(Oops, sorry Editor, I just veered off the topic completely)
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Gloria, yes, it’s a loser!
“They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true faith.”
—St. Athanasius -
cateran
Thanks for the information about fisheaters. I never look at the forum. All I know is that the information pages are excellent.
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Kevin1
Very good piece of sleuthing, there. There is no telling what goes on behind a cloak of apparent respectability. As my late father-in-law would have said: “They would build a nest in your ear . . . “
If only the Holy Ghost would cast an eye over the revelations in the Catholic Truth blog – what a caseload of work He would have to do were He to follow them up! And when is He going to start, we ask ourselves?
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leprechaun, hopefully the Holy Ghost will start at precisely 6pm this evening. See our homepage!
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editor,
I’ve just emailed you a couple of links re the FE forum.
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Many thanks, cateran.
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cateran, those links never arrived – help!
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editor,
Strange! I’ve just checked my mailbox and my original mail to you has disappeared. I’ve no idea how that happened. I’d have to search again as I didn’t save all of the links but I’ve just now re-sent you a couple.
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Many thanks, cateran – the second email arrived. I hope you received my emailed reply.
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