I expect it's been a busy week for Bishop Drainey after his appearance in The Tablet last week. I've certainly had a few emails asking my opinion but I've not gotten around to blogging about it because, honestly, I thought it was a bit of a none story and I've been busy.

An English Bishops calls for a "radical re-examination of human sexuality" which could lead to "development" and that's a none story? Really? Well yes, of course, because it could mean anything. The Gospel is radical and it would be a "development" if the Church in England and Wales promoted it.

So what has prompted me to find time in my busy schedule to regale you fine people with my views on the subject? Well, I received an email today that really grated.

Good news! It proclaimed. Good news! Bishop Drainey has really given The Tablet what for! He's written a letter! There's a full page letter on the Diocesan website! Well done Bishop Drainey!

No. Stop it. Most certainly not well done to Bishop Drainey.

There have been lead articles in The Tablet calling for the Church to "reconsider" her position on abortion. Articles attacking Church teaching on Marriage, contraception and womens ordination. Articles questioning the divinity of Jesus Christ.

Where was Bishop Drainey then? Nowhere. Silent.

But somebody writes something that makes him look bad and it's all outraged letters and pages on the Diocesan website. This is supposed to be good news? Give me a break. Bishop sticks speaks out for self. Big woop.

Bishop Drainey ends his letter by asking "does the Tablet try to report and respect the truth or does it just massage facts to support its own agenda?".

Seriously? You ask that now?

As Joseph Shaw rightly points out, it's been busy weeks in busy parishes and people may have been away on holiday and not got the letter etc. We absolutely cannot read anything in to who didn't sign the 1000 strong letter to The Telegraph.

That said, I think it's only right and proper to recognise that of the handful Bishops whose name are on the list - one of them is Bishop Terence Drainey of Middlesbrough.

Thank you Bishop Drainey. We really appreciate it.

I'm going to risk a run in with Terms and Conditions Man to bring you the following from Bishop Terence Drainey of our very own Middlesbrough Diocese...

Recently you will have seen, heard and read much about the “consultation” the Government is holding in order to change the legal definition of marriage so as to open the institution of marriage to same sex partnerships. You will also have listened to the Pastoral Letter sent out on behalf of all the Bishops of England and Wales concerning the Catholic vision of marriage. As your Bishop I think it is important that you know and understand the Church’s teaching on marriage and that you share some of the concerns that are implied by changing the definition of marriage. Many people ask why does this concern you? The Government is only talking about civil marriage. I would reply simply by saying marriage is marriage. You can enter it by a civil or a religious route, but it is the same thing. My concern is for the good the institution of marriage delivers to society as a whole: I don’t just care about Catholics. If you change the definition of marriage so that it no longer involves any consideration of children or the family as a unit, bonded across generations, you are embarking on an extraordinary social experiment with consequences that no one can even guess at.

In a marriage the relationship is oriented to and uniquely apt for the coming into being of children. It is because the meaning of marriage holds together both the couple and the openness to children that society places such value on it. There are many sorts of relationship – business partners, friendships, colleagues – but marriage has a special place in culture and society because of what it stands for. Many young people aspire to marriage, because they see this.

It is the job of Parliament to make the laws and in doing so it has the duty to make an informed judgement. What the Church is doing now is to help inform that debate. It is important to remember that this proposal was not in the party manifestos at the last election. There has been no real consultation on whether people want such a change in the law at all. There has been no Green Paper or White Paper to explore the issues. Instead we simply had a party conference announcement, backed by the Prime Minister, that the Government were simply going to do this anyway, subject only to a consultation on how to do it, not whether we should do it.

When people complain that the Catholic Church is making a fuss about matters that don’t concern it, my bottom-line is this: This is not about ‘religious’ marriage; this is about the meaning of civil marriage for the whole of our society. Marriage has always meant a bond of one man and one woman, for life, creating the best environment in which their children can learn to become adults. Marriage exists not just for the couple, but for the common good of society; it is popular because it works. The Government should leave it alone. The meaning of marriage embraces not just the couple but also their children. We should value and treasure marriage as it is because it is key to family stability. There is no need for change.

[link]

My thanks to Bishop Drainey.

You can read what I had to say about last year's pilgrimage here and here.

This year it will be in St Wilfrid's Church and Bishop Drainey himself will be presiding. All the details are on the poster...

I will definitely be there with the fambly that day and it doesn't start until 1.30pm. York is terribly easy to get to by train even for southerners and it's lovely - anybody want to meet up beforehand for an awkward moment where we're all not sure if we are allowed to be seen eating lunch even if it is a couple of hours before the Mass? I don't know what the traddy rules are?!

That said, I do know that when I break traddy rules they usually tell me I'm going to Hell for offences against lace (they love a bit of hyperbole) and then we have a good laugh together, unlike some "friendly" liberals who say that God loves me and then never speak to me ever again.

This is my annual Mass in Latin (we don't get them in Hull) - I'm really looking forward to it.

Only yesterday I was writing about Bishop Drainey doing good.

Now this.

Come on!

My congratulations to Bishop Drainey who was front page news today in Hull for all the right reasons. Let's have more of this sort of thing.

Meanwhile, shame on you Hull Daily Mail.

Church blocks Hull 'free' school for poor kids

CHURCH leaders have scuppered plans to build Hull's first free school in the north of the city.

The Mail can reveal the Bishop of Middlesbrough has refused to support proposals for the McAuley College Academy, which was planned for the St Mary's College site in Cranbrook Avenue.

Sources told the Mail Bishop Terry Drainey, whose Middlesbrough diocese covers Hull, made the decision after the Department for Education, which supports the plan, could not give assurances about "basic Catholic values and ethics."

The Bishop, therefore, refused to allow the free school on the site, which the diocese owns.

A church spokesman told the Mail: "The Diocese of Middlesbrough can confirm that the Bishop and his trustees do not support the establishment of a free school at St Mary's College site in Hull and have informed the head, chair of governors and Department of Education of this decision."

The Mail understands that the diocese has been looking at the plans in detail since January as well as consulting lawyers.

A source told the Mail that for a Catholic school to establish a free school would be a "major departure" for the diocese.

Ged Fitzpatrick, head at St Mary's, is driving the free school forward and has declared children receiving free school meals would be given priority. He says he will not be defeated and is looking elsewhere in the city to set it up.

[link]

The spin the Hull Daily Mail puts on this is incredible. School for poor kids? Honestly? Are we living in Victorian England? Look at the earlier articles on this.. here and here. See any mention of "poor kids"? See any mention of free school meals? No. Nothing. Nada. It's all spin.

This school was all about university and aspiration. The information for parents [pdf] says that "we will require all our students to work exceptionally hard" and "We will require a high standard of effort, behaviour and appearance at all times". The motto is "excellence - no shortcuts, no excuses".

Is that the kind of language you use when you're opening a school for the children of struggling single parents? or kids with behavioral difficulties? Dear Parents, this is going to be really hard... I don't think so. If you want to open a school for "poor kids" then you say "can't afford a school uniform? we'll get you to university anyway" or more likely "we'll make sure you can find a job".

This was always going to be a school for affluent parents who are frustrated every year to find that the best school in Hull is oversubscribed. Ged Fitzpatrick is a businessman and he saw an opportunity and he went for it. Free schools are not allowed to make a profit but they are allowed to pay their staff as much as they like... kerching?

Opening a new school is expensive, the Hull Daily Mail should be asking Ged Fitzpatrick how much money he expected to save by using the resources of another school rather than relying on financial investment and loan repayments. The Hull Daily Mail should be asking how much of the excess cash he intended to spend on the head teacher's salary.

Bishop Drainey hasn't blocked Hull from having a school for "poor kids", we already have several schoolsin areas that are far from affluent - this is Hull we're talking about not the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Ged Fitzpatrick doesn't care about helping disadvantaged kids, if he did he wouldn't have closed Cornerstone. If he did, he would be applying for a job at Endeavour instead of trying to open his own cushy school for well behaved kids.

What Bishop Drainey has done is taken steps to ensure that Catholic resources cannot be used to build a secular school with no "basic Catholic values and ethics".

Thankyou Bishop Drainey, Thankyou.

I know Bishops are busy, but I sent this to Bishop Drainey on February 8th - over a month ago...

Bishop Drainey,

Is it ever acceptable for a chalice which has been used to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to subsequently be used in a protestant celebration?

James

It is a difficult question?

If you don't know what this is about you can click here for the story so far...

For those who missed the story so far... a Catholic school in Hull is planning to open a "free school" in the grounds of the existing one. The new school will benefit from the resources and expertise of the existing school with one exception - the new school will not be a Catholic school.

According to the McAauley College Academy twitter feed...

Business case now submitted to DfE and we hope to get approval to move to pre-opening stage in about two weeks.

[link]

If you have applied for a place at MCA we cant formally offer this until March/April so please accept place from Local Authority for now.

[link]

The clock is ticking. They hope to get government approval in two weeks. They hope to be offering places to parents in March. If Bishop Drainey has any intention of pulling the plug on this he needs to do it yesterday. Once parents start turning down places at other schools it's going to be very difficult to do anything without a major PR disaster.

According to Fr John Lumley, the diocese has "major issues" with the project, yet so far they have done nothing about it? Why not. I think the answer is pretty clear - they cant do anything about it. The people who are supposed to represent diocesan interests in the school, foundation govenors and suchlike, are the very people who are driving this project!

So what is Bishop Drainey going to do? The steering wheel has come of in his hands and the car is hurtling towards a cliff.

The school didn't ask the diocese for permission, the school just went ahead and did it, the school will continue just going ahead until Bishop Drainey steps in and makes them stop. But how? What can he do?

He could ask them? He probably already has - but that's not going to work. You see, St Mary's College is not really a Catholic school - we've spent the last ten years pretending.

Oh sure, St Mary's has a Mass once a month and raises some money for Cafod and I'm sure they even have some dusty old crucifixes still up on some of the walls but the fact is that if St Mary's College were a Catholic school then none of this would have happened in the first place. The head teacher and governing body would never have dreamed in a million years of building a non-Catholic school in the grounds.

The diocese have lost control. The only real power available to Bishop Drainey is to sack the govenors - but what then? How is he going to find new ones? How is he going to do it without major public embarrassment? He could threaten to remove the "Catholic" status of St Mary's College but we all know he won't do that.

So he will do nothing. The govenors will continue with their plans and when the new school opens in September the Diocese will give us assurances that they have spoken to the school and come to arrangements that made the "major issues" go away.

But to anybody who is paying attention it is clear - St Mary's College is only pretending to be Catholic, the Diocese of Middlesbrough is only pretending to have a say in what goes on there.

The emperor has no clothes on.

This must be some other Bishop Drainey...

The Bishop of Middlesbrough, Terence Drainey, said marriage could only be between a man and a woman, and that to allow civil partnerships in Catholic churches would go against 2,000 years of Christian teaching. He made the comments after it was revealed the Government is considering lifting the ban on same-sex couples celebrating their civil partnerships in religious places of worship in England and Wales.

...

Bishop Drainey explained: “Of course we would resist this, not just in this diocese but in the Catholic Church as a whole. “If the Government went ahead with this, it would simply put us in a position where we had to say no, but this is not a new position. This has been the Church’s position on marriage for the past 2,000 years. Marriage is only between a man and a woman as far as the Catholic Church is concerned.”

[The Tablet - 19th Feb]

I'm sorry but I just don't buy it.

There are priests in the Diocese of Middlesbrough trampling all over the Catholic faith right now and Bishop Drainey does nothing.

So when Fr Fun down the road blesses a same sex "marriage" what exactly is Bishop Drainey going to do about it? What has Bishop Drainey done the last several hundred times Fr Fun has openly attacked the faith? Nothing.

I don't see how the next time is going to be any different.

I've been keeping an eye on Archbishop Patrick Kelly for a little while now - he's the Archbishop of Liverpool and therefore the big fish in the Province of Liverpool of which our Diocese of Middlesbrough Diocese is a part. Archbishop Kelly is a trustee at Ushaw and it just so happens that the rector of Ushaw was made our Bishop.

I wonder if perhaps Archbishop Kelly recommended him? Magic circle and all that... It's hard to imagine somebody making the rector of Ushaw a Bishop and not asking the opinion of a trustee who happens to be a neighbouring Archbishop.

So I keep an eye on Archbishop Kelly because whatever happens in Liverpool is likely to be happening here. I mean, somebody must decide what happens in our diocese and Bishop Drainey has made it abundantly clear that it isn't him!

So... what's happening in the Archdiocese of Liverpool?

The following video is not a joke, it was made by the Diocese of Liverpool as propaganda material to convince parish catechists to go along with the latest zany scheme.

Archbishop Kelly appears to believe in earnest that pre-concilliar Baptism was completely pointless. His mother wasn't there, his God-parent's were not his God-parents and the priest spoke only to him. I mean - he's scarecely Baptised at all! God forbid the rite of Baptism might have some point above and beyond getting everybody together for a party.

Then there's the amazing contradiction between the lady telling us that we wouldn't expect the school to potty train our children so we should't expect the school to train them in the faith and then saying that the sacrament of reconcilliation will be introduced gradually at primary schools! What?

The decision to move confirmation is interesting and I'm not necessarily opposed. I'm not convinced by their arguments but I think there are arguments to be made. I think the best option might be to taylor it to the development of individual children but that might mean *gasp* discrimination. Nope. Better to treat all the children exactly the same - then we can tell the parents exactly what is going to happen and when whether they like it or not because they are the first teachers or something...

P.S. Not married? Who cares...

h/t Fr Simon Henry