Wednesday, July 18, 2007

CTS Conference 2007

On Saturday I attended this historical event (the first CTS Conference in a long time and the first of many). The speaker was Prof John Haldane of St Andrew's University (btw can anyone tell me if St Andrew's is a Catholic University?) and he spoke on Christianity in Britain today.

He said Christianity faces four main problems in Britain today:
Atheism
Secularism
Liberalism
Ignorance

This is the reason there is such a negative reaction in the secular press concerning the CDF's latest document Responses to some questions regarding certain aspects of the Doctrine on the Church.

He also spent some time speaking about relations between Rome, Constantinople and Canterbury. He reminded us that Rome and Constantinople have told Canterbury that unless they give up ordaining women and active homosexuals their is no place for them at the table of ecumenical dialogue. He also said it is very important that Anglicans who want to be Catholic without joining Rome, stop, and Catholics who want to be Anglicans without joining Canterbury, stop. You cannot be both, you must choose one or the other!

It was a very good day and I look forward to next year.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

How do you mean, 'is it a Catholic University?'? I need some help to answer the question.

Anonymous said...

St Andrew's is a state university in Scotland - however it was founded by a Papal Bull in 1413 by Benedict XIII.

Anonymous said...

He may well be right, but, Anglo-Catholics (who are orthodox on the questions you note) have a history a culture a roll-call of heroes and a sense of place in the Church they serve. They are proud of the tradition they serve and proclaim it with some measure on integrity (see the blog site of St Silas Kentish Town or the Peterite blogspot for examples near FSSP Anglicans !) they hope against hope that God will make it all come right in the end.
Roman Catholics who seem to share a liberal Anglican persepctive on faith and morals (much much more liberal than the Anglo-Catholics) are sure that they are the true heirs of 'the spirit of Vatican 2'They will assure you that the Church has only just begun to explore the real radical meaning of the council and that the present regime in Rome is a temporary blip, to be expected, and that the Pope after next will make the big changes..Women, sexual morality, liturgy. And they too are sure it will all be ok if they hang on to the spirit of 1968.
Tough problem.

Orthfully Catholic said...

Mark

Just as we have Catholic schools we also have Catholic universities, I went to Heythrop which is a semi-Catholic university - apparently the Jesuits are still Catholic in some parts of the world.

Orthfully Catholic said...

Anon

Thank you for your help. So basically it used to be Catholic, is now state owned (which is how Prince William was able to study there) but with a strong Catholic ethos (centre of the Faith Movement and with Professors like Prof Haldane).

Anonymous said...

'centre of the Faith Movement ...'

You know about the Faith Movement? Is that because you came from it or came to it in the Seminary? Either way, will you be attending the Summer Session?

Anonymous said...

Orthfully,

Thanks; I knew about Heythrop. I still have an open place to do a B.D. there.

However I wasn't sure how to work out if St Andrew's was a Catholic University in modern times.

Anonymous said...

Orthfully,

I'm sorry, maybe you cannot respond to my questions because it may threaten the anonymity of your site. But do please think about attending the Summer Session, it doesn't matter if you are 30+, seminarinas are always made to feel very welcome.

Orthfully Catholic said...

Summer

Sorry I didn't respond to your first comment, I forgot but thank you for reminding me. Indeed we will be attending the Summer Session.