The Queen to attend a Roman Catholic service
MANY of the Queen’s loyal Protestant subjects are dismayed that she has accepted an invitation to attend, for the first time, a full Roman Catholic service in Westminster Cathedral on November 30.
It is no ordinary Roman Catholic service — that were serious enough — but a service to mark the 100th anniversary of the cathedral — a cathedral which Rome regards as “the mother church of Catholicism in this country” and a striking symbol that it reentered British public life after an absence of centuries following Henry VIII’s breach with Rome.
There will be no mass at the service (for, as the Palace has announced, “The Queen does not attend Catholic Mass for constitutional reasons.”) but we are in no doubt that Rome will regard the presence of the Queen as a significant victory in its strategy to increase its power in the nation.
The Queen’s decision, in which she was advised by the Archbishop of Canterbury who “warmly supported the idea”, continues the process of developing ties between the Royal Family and the Church of Rome. This causes us deep concern.
The IRA has not gone away
AS Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams addressed a crowd in Belfast recently someone shouted, “Bring back the IRA!” To loud applause Adams said, “They haven’t gone away, you know.” His remark confirms again that Sinn Fein is backed by terrorist force and that violence will ensue if our Government does not make concessions to it. Republicans view the peace process as vindicating their violence of the past 25 years.
The retaining of huge stocks of arms by the IRA shows that violence is still on its agenda. Last month the Northern Ireland minister, Mr Michael Ancram, asked: “Why, if a party (the republicans) says it is committed to exclusively peaceful methods, does it need to retain its arms?” Well does he know the answer. Therefore, it is not only folly but a betrayal of loyal British subjects in Ulster for the Northern Ireland Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, and Mr Ancram to have talks with Sinn Feinn.
“But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets.” He will yet bring fully to light the hand of Rome in Ulster’s troubles, and the cooperation she has received from within Westminster. Therefore let the Lord’s people in Ulster continue to look to Him for deliverance and vindication.
Criticism of the vow of celibacy
YET another leading Roman Catholic, Victor Guazzelli, the Bishop of East London, has called on his Church to consider ending the 800-year-old rule for priests to remain celibate. “Priests have left the Church to get married,” he said. “The question being asked is, ‘Should we insist on celibacy?'” His view is held by several Roman Catholic bishops in Britain and Ireland despite Cardinals Hume and Daly reaffirming Rome’s policy of compulsory celibacy for its priests.
Rome teaches that the celibate condition “is holier than that of marriage”. Far from being “a gift of the Catholic Church to the enrichment of Christianity throughout the world,” as Cardinal Daly says, celibacy has been the root of much immorality among numerous priests and nuns, as the history of the Church of Rome has proved. Increasing revelations of present day cases of fornication, homosexuality and child abuse by Roman Catholic priests confirm this verdict of history.