Editor’s Note: I have added a question mark to the title of this article, because, as written, this tweet is ambiguous, in its reference made in the second sentence, where “him” should be referred to the subject of the previous sentence, in accord with the rules of English. But where the author of this tweet may have erred, intended the object of the previous sentences, or at least, erred by intending both possible readings. — I have worked and studied with clergy and seminarians on both side of the Atlantic, from the USA, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, England, Australia, S. Africa, Kenya. And I can tell you one thing for certain: the homos in the clergy use equivocation all the time.
I pray that the Ordinariate remove this tweet. But they won’t because they want to appear to praise Pope Francis, as is obvious.
As for the rank and file of the Ordinariate — I am assured they detest Bergoglio. But I can also assure the laity, and clergy, that when the HQ of an organization puts out tweets like this, it is a very bad sign. And when they are not corrected, it is the worse possible interpretation which was in fact intended. This is how the rot shows itself. And you personally might not realize it for 5, 10 or 20 years. But that is how the Church is devolving. I have 30 years of experience watching it. And so, I will add a Question mark, but I will not remove the title of the Article. I urge readers rather to insist that the Tweet be erased and corrected.
Sorry I don’t get your headline. What has this to do with St John Henry Newman? Pope Benedict has beatified him, and always thought highly of his writings although I confess except for the Apologia pro Vita Sua, they are too intellectual for me, and I’ve never been able to get into them. I am a member of the Ordinariate and I love the reverent, ad orientem liturgy, historically informed sermons, and emphasis on frequent Confession and Marian devotion. ???
It’s their gushing praise of Bergoglio that is the key for interpretation here.
You’re misread the modifier.
Read it like this:
“Three years ago today, our Holy Father
@Pontifex
canonised the patron of the Personal #Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, Saint John Henry Newman. We rejoice in having him [NEWMAN, not Bergoglio!] as our guide, leading us from shadows and darkness into the truth of Jesus Christ!”
If one does not have access to the author, it cannot be known what the intentions are of a person writing, other than the grammar and syntax of what they write. The personal pronoun when used in reference to a noun of the previous sentences is held by custom to refer to the subject of the previous sentence. If one intends to refer to the object or the nearest other noun, then a specification must be had. The ambiguity of the tweet as written is not my fault. But you may have guessed correctly their intent.
X made Saint John our patron. We rejoice in this Saint as our guide….
is the proper format.
But if you say,
X made Saint John our patron. We rejoice in him…
you are refering to X.
Or you are at least intentionally writing an equivocal phrase to send a signal to your audience.
Questions pertinent to “saint” John Henry Newman
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWvFaBBgW0E
… when Ambrose Saint John died Newman threw himself on the bed by the corpse and spent the night there. So this not only increases the level of scandal caused by this manifestly
sketchy saint, it also increases the revulsion Newman inspires by his extremely aberrant behaviour.
Actually this is significantly beyond aberrant.
Can you name just one person in all of recorded history who slept the night curled up to a corpse of the same sex ?
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYXJag4jnik
Well, it would not be aberrant if the other was ones father, grandfather, son or brother, but a fellow religious? As a monk who has seen a lot, I would presume this means they were gay lovers, because yes, it is abberrant. In fact, it is contrary to the perfection of a religious to have particular friendships. This is the very first lesson in the monastery. You forsake all human friendship to dedicate yourself purely to the cause of Our Lord. This is my reason why I find it doubtful that this Newman can be considered a Saint. And Our Lord gave us strong evidence, when after he put in his will to be buried on top of this saint in the same grave! both bodies were found to be utterly corrupted and in no trace discoverable having completely returned to the humus of the earth. That is the Holy Spirit’s way of adding an exclamation point.
So now reread that tweet, and you will see what I see.
If any leadership of the Catholic Church would be more interested in studying and resolving the questions of Pope Benedict XVI so called renunciation, should be the leadership of the three dioceses of the Ordinariate. It was Pope Benedict XVI that finalized it as a personal Ordinariate and made it possible for it to flourish. I too have attended mass at Ordinariate churches and it is refreshing, but once I realized that Pope Benedict XVI is still the true and only Pope, I cannot condone their treason in still allying Bergolio the pope. It makes the Ordinariate at the same level of the other institutions that have the Latin Mass but have Bergolio as their pope.
The others and you 🙂are right, but not those ones and those others. 😉