The Catholic Herald has yet another Ordinariate piece by William Oddie, this time taking a critical view of the BBC's portrayal of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham on yesterday's Sunday program (or programme, in the traditional idiom.) Here's the opening:
Well, it was only a matter of time before the BBC (or rather, the intelligentsia of Radio 4) came out against the ordinariate, following its usual tactic of maintaining a bogus appearance of impartiality while actually setting everything up to arrive at the wished-for conclusion. Hence, Edward Stourton on this week’s Sunday programme asked one Professor Tina Beattie to comment on the new body, without actually telling his listeners that Ms Beatty represents a very particular (and extreme) point of view within the Church. This is how the interview began.
UPDATE: Damian Thompson and Fr. Ray Blake have added their own thoughts to the mix.
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There is a special kind of Catholic called a BBC Catholic. Some of the names are: Oliver McTernan, Edward Stourton, Catherine Pepinster, Peter Stanford, Clifford Longley, Julian Filochowski, Tina Beattie, Lord Patten, Baroness Helena Kennedy, and Peter Hennessy, and strangely they are all closely linked to a publication called 'The Tablet'. The BBC-Tablet axis is something that has grown, is growing, and ought to be diminished.
You can add Elena Curti and Bobby Mickens to that list too.
About 20 years ago, I heard a Catholic graduate student in theology observe that there were "a lot of Anglicans converting, and," she continued in a voice of distress, "they're all the wrong ones!" I give her credit for being honest. (Though it struck me as odd that she often preached diversity.)
I always thought that Graeme Garden was the best looking of the three.
Could someone please explain this convoluted sentence from Dr Beattie:
"The Catholic Church has a unity that’s not based on likemindedness or sameness, and it’s very puzzling to know how this very homogenous, small group of likeminded people, offered a quasi-independent place within the Catholic Communion, is going to fit in and become part of us."
Any logicians here want to take this apart?
I would try but I fear my head would explode.
Perhaps Prof Tina would like to swop?
She might like to be part of a tightly -knit group rather than what I take her to mean as the more wide-spread reach of the Catholic Church. I wonder how much research she has done on the Ordinariate seekers? She obviously views them all as single-issue dogmatists who will join for all the wrong reasons and perhaps (SHOCK, HORROR) they might not even take out a sub to the Tablet!
Question to Prof Tina…… which of the following three are wrong (since they can't all be correct)
i) The Holy Father for setting up the Ordinariates
ii) The CDF for overseeing their formation and the admission of priests and laity
or iii) Yourself for clearly doubting the whole venture