My name is Fr Hugh Somerville Knapman OSB, and I am a Benedictine monk and priest. I am 50 years old and am a native of Sydney, Australia. If you would like to discuss anything you have read in this blog feel free to contact me. Pax!
My name is Fr Hugh Somerville Knapman OSB, and I am a Benedictine monk and priest. I am 50 years old and am a native of Sydney, Australia. If you would like to discuss anything you have read in this blog feel free to contact me. Pax!
Dominus Mihi Adjutor 
Dear Father,
While much of your observations in your most recent commentary about Bp Williamson may be true, I say may, I must ask you just what exactly you are referencing here when you say:
So he has discerned, it would seem through private revelation…etc
Just what do you mean by this? Where do you have any factual knowledge that he has discerned this by “private revelation”. Or do you mean it in some manner of sarcasm?
I would greatly appreciate your response and clarification.
In the Heart of Christ
JD
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Salve.
No, I was not being sarcastic but deadly serious. How else could he have arrived at the conclusion that “God wants” a loose association of “pockets of resistance” served by him as their “flying bishop”, and so free from the hierarchy of the Church and its “false structure of obedience” – rather than the Church as founded by Christ on the rock of Peter? We have the scriptures and Tradition to tell us that this cannot be God’s judgment. So it can only be W’s private judgment. And since he would surely not claim that it is only his opinion, the only other conclusion is that he has received a revelation to this effect, which is strongly implied by the “it seems” he employs. The conclusion must be drawn from his statement that he feels that God is speaking to him, calling him to a ministry outside the Church in order to defend what he determines to be the true Faith. My friend Brian, at the blog to which I link, has a more recent post that elaborates W’s position in greater detail and insight.
Pax.
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SYDNEY!!! 🙂 (Sorry Father, just had to celebrate the fact!)
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Indeed! Gotta love her. 😀
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Hello Father–I was just looking at a fellow blogger’s posting regarding today being the feast day of St Bonaventure and happened to wander onto your blog—I’m an out of pocket Episcopalian who has grown weary of the liberal direction the Episcopal church is running–leaning more towards my Catholic roots–those which the Anglican Church is founded upon….always needing some Spiritual direction, I’m looking forward to “following” along with your inspiration and joy–
thank you for sharing and thank you—blessings–Julie
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Dear Julie,
A thousand welcomes! Your unease with the direction of the Anglican communion is understandable, though no one region of that communion can be said to be typical any more! And that, perhaps, is at the heart of the problem. Each does its own thing. This is one of the fundamental flaws of Protestantism: the self becomes its own authority. And when we rely on the self to that degree we should know we are in trouble.
My little blog my not always be helpful to you, but any bits that are so, please use as stepping stones to peace of heart which for you, I feel sure, is to be found in the bosom of Mother Church, where the self is mostly certainly not one’s final authority.
Peace upon you, and blessing.
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Father you are so very correct—growing up it was always a little funny and awkward when other kids would ask my denomination–living in the south, Baptists and methodists are the norm for mainstream Christianity—so trying to explain the whole Henry VIII starting his own church left many wide-eyed—so, their best understanding was..”oh, so you’re kind of a Catholic….with my response being “sort of”—-that should have been my first clue :)—I think the spiraling away from Catholicism has sent Protestantism on an endless splintering–I read a very nice book not long ago—Rome, Sweet Rome….I know I’m most likely on that same road 🙂
Hope all is well down under —this is proving a very wet wet summer here in the south
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Hello! Did you mean “Rome, Sweet Home”, by Scott and Kimberley Hahn? If so, great choice. Following a Christian who knows his Bible backwards as he discovers it only really makes sense within the Catholic Church is a great way to get to know the Church. He is also honest enough to make it clear that conversions entails sacrifice – but never in vain, even in this life.
Protestantism was doomed to endless splintering (70,000+ denominations in the world today) as soon as it established the principle of private judgment over ecclesial authority. In other words, every one can be his or her own pope. If I think my church is wrong, I will join another, or even start my own, with the delusional assertion that mine is the church with the the truth. I struggle in vain to find any precept in the New Testament advocating, or even allowing, this approach. It cannot be what Christ wanted.
Pax!
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Yes–Rome, Sweet Home—my bad 🙂
Happy Sunday Father—
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Don’t worry – we all do typos. And for all I know there is a book of that title!
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I enjoyed your article on the liturgy in the Catholic Herald. Always refreshing to see a priest with an open mind on the issue!
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Thank you! Being open-minded does not come easily. 😉
Pax.
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