Saturday 22 February 2014

CARDINAL NICHOLS - THE SOHO MASSES - SAME SEX MARRIAGE

CARDINAL NICHOLS - THE SOHO MASSES - SAME SEX MARRIAGE

Today, in Rome Vincent Nichols - the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, London, was created a cardinal in the Vatican by Pope Francis.


In some respects Cardinal Nichols is "sympathetic" to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community.

He has asked the Jesuit Order in Farm Street in London to have a special ministry to the gay community and allow them to join in with others at Sunday Masses there. Nichols has also appointed a priest - Monsignor Seamus O'Boyle to be the go-between him and the gay community.

However Nichols has also closed down the "Gay Mass" church in Soho and given it over to high church Anglicans who left the Church of England over the ordination of women.

Nichols has also strongly opposed the British Government's decision to introduce Same Sex Marriage into England and Wales.

I think that Nichols himself is probably sympathetic to the Gay community. As a 68 year old priest, bishop and now cardinal, he must realise that most of the Roman Catholic priests in England today are gay - whether or not they are actively gay is another matter.

Nichols' own diocesan seminary- Allan Hall - has a great name among priests and seminarians for being a very gay friendly establishment :-)


In 2000 the seminarians from Allen Hall visited Ushaw College and sang:

"WE'RE FROM ALLAN HALL AND WE'RE OK"

To which the other seminarians present responded in song:

"YOU'RE FROM ALLAN HALL AND UR ALL GAY"

We do not know what Nichols own sexual orientation is - but hopefully he has a sexuality and is capable of attraction to other human beings - whatever their gender.

However Nichols is also a "professional" Roman Catholic church man and he did not get to where he is today by challenging Catholic Church teaching or laws. To become a cardinal you have to "toe the line" and not be a "revolutionary" in any way.   

I think that Nichols felt under pressure - expressed or unexpressed - to close down the Gay Soho Masses. I think that had he not he would not be receiving his red hat today.

Same Sex Marriage is none of Cardinal Nichols business. If the government and the people of England and Wales want civil Same Sex Marriage - and they do - then Nichols and the Roman Catholic Church should mind their own business.

There are 65 million people in the UK. Only 5 million of them are Roman Catholics. 5 million must not be allowed to dictate to 60 million.

If the Roman Catholic Church wants to preach against homosexuality and same sex marriage in their own buildings on Sundays that is their own business.

If they want to reserve THEIR Sacrament of Marriage for so called Straight people that is their own business also.

But our government is about creating and maintaining CIVIL LAW.

The CIVIL LAW of the UK is none of the business of the Roman Catholic Church.


It would answer that Church better to concentrate on updating their own medieval Canon Law which is one of the most unjust laws in the world.

Even the UN Commission on the Rights of Children condemned the Roman Church recently.

I hope that Vincent Nichols enjoys his new red dress and his new gold ring.

But let him keep out of dabbling in the politics of the UK - which is a modern democracy

Bishop Pat Buckley
22.2.2014

7 comments:

  1. I think Nichols becoming a cardinal has more to do with the election of Francis, a gay-friendly pope "who am I to judge", as well as the eclipse (at last) of Nichols's predecessor in the post Cormac Murphy O Connor. There is little love lost between the men, and its rumoured that CMOC used his influence in Rome to stop VN getting the red hat while he was still eligible to vote in a Conclave (CMOC turned 80 in August 2012). Nichols is a compassionate and realistic man. He is probably gay himself, and certainly has promoted gay priests in his former diocese and current one. As a young, bright, ambitious and handsome priest he was "spotted" by Archbishop Derek Warlock who rapidly promoted Vin. Older priests of the Liverpool diocese will tell you that the Old Queen Warlock was besotted with Vince. Warlock himself had been Private Secretary to two Cardinals of Westminster, though no "looker" himself. He was desperate for Westminster, but was so hated by the clergy that they did everything to prevent it. Hume got the top job and soon after poached Vin for Bishops Conference work. What Warlock never achieved his prodigy has now. Thus the Roman traditions are perpetuated. One final point: Vin is know to have no friends, and no favourites and keeps his cards very close to his chest. Ambition has been the driving force in his life, and perhaps that is where he has sublimated his sexual drive. Nest stop the Papacy? I wouldn't rule it out, and there re some who say that Cardinal Vin will not be content 'til he wears the white.

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  2. I am a priest of Westminster diocese and I am gay with a partner of many years. I first "came out" to Cardinal Hume over afternoon tea at Archbishop's House. He never even blinked an eye lid. At the end of our meeting, as he walked me to the door, he touched my elbow and said: "You will be discreet Father?" I think that Basil was "musical" himself and he certainly had plenty of experience as a Benedictine abbot of dealing with gay priests and monks.The English Catholic priesthood is now a gay profession. If they threw us all out the Church would be in a crisis. If they sacked all the gays too - they would have a number of dioceses to find bishops for.

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  3. You will be discreet Father. Thats the mentality that has ruined and is ruining the R C Church. As for gay masses and a gay church, there is no such thing. Mass & Church is what it is. It is demeaning to define church in terms of sexual orientation. People are what they are and sexual orientation is an attribute of how they relate to the world-Sean

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  4. It's very interesting that the new Cardinal has launched in to Government policy about welfare etc. only once he was assured of his red hat. He has been conspicuously quiet for the last 18 months or so about everything, except perhaps about gay marriage, although even that he did as a corporate thing with the rest of the bishops. My reading of it all is that +Vincent, prior to the news of his red hat, was being very cautious about what he was saying so that he would not put in jeopardy his red hat. Which indicates to me a man who is very ambitious, but also very manipulative as to how he manages his interventions for his own advantage. One has a sense that + Vincent is interested in himself and his advancement, rather than the advancement of issues which he should be addressing. And only when he has made sure that his position is secure will he then turn his mind to other things. Not very attractive.

    As to + Vincent and the gays. Well, I'm not sure that he himself is 'musical', to use the euphemism of an earlier correspondent (or 'a friend of Dorothy' to use another); his closest companion is Sister C, isn't she ? Weekends in caravans together and all that kind of stuff, well at least according to newspapers a few years ago. I put my money on her accompanying him to Rome for the celebrations. However, + Vincent, while on occasions being seemingly sensitive towards the gay community, has been known to drop them and that issue when he sees that it isn't going to do his position any favours. As evidenced a year or so ago when the Soho Masses were stopped. His support, or lack of it, for such issues is all sifted through the prism of his own ambition to get the red hat.

    Clergy friends tell me that + Vincent is good to you and nice to you when he has a use for you. But, when that use is at an end, then he will just stare through you. Another indication of the ambitious and rather cold character he is. I don't believe that anything he says or does is not done without first weighing up its advantage to him and his ambitions. Red hat today ? White cassock tomorrow ? Watch that space. + Vincent has not exhausted his ambitions.

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    1. What a load of horse manure! In all likelihood, in 10-15 years from now, Cardinal Nichols will be dead and his rotting carcass sealed into a sarcophagus in Westminster Cathedral. Where will his ambitions be then???

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  5. Up the fekkin Swanny as are the ambitions of all who trust in mammon-to quote from the puritanical brotherhood'sisterhood

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