Catholicsm in C21

The closing of the month long, worldwide synod in Rome a week ago seems an apt time to have regard to that Vatican meeting affecting the world's 1.3 billion catholics.

From the perspective of western Europe, the restriction of the catholic priesthood to men, seems wrong somehow, though the need to have regard to the slowest ships in the convoy must be correct.  Still using that metaphor, the slowest ships in the convoy many of which come from Africa, tend to frown on the possibility of women priests as well as for example, those within the acronym LGBT.

Yet Anna Rowlands  in the Times newspaper, who attended the synod, reports how positive it was. The need for Catholic women deacons will be reviewed carefully over the coming months having regard too to the existing presence of women deacons in some orthodox churches, so there are prospects of progress being made in that area at last. 

I recall too reading that during WWII,  some women in what was then  Czcechoslovakia, became priests to keep the Church alive there during those dreadful times. Canonically therefore there should be no bar to more progress being made in that area.

The Church locally at the Sacred Heart Wimbledon, has I think at last recovered from the replacement of our local priests from the Society of Jesus by those from the catholic Archdiocese of Southwark. We are also at least recovering, from the  huge affects of  the Covid-19 pandemic  on the congregation. 

We  now have  new parish priest and assistant priest, both of whom give good sermons. The PP is I believe a convert from Anglicanism and his sermons so far, are both clear and not too long which I hope continues. 

We are also fortunate enough to have an excellent (male) deacon who  gives first class sermons, no doubt benefitting from his day job as a barrister.

The size of the congregation too is increasing, with more Chinese people perhaps from Hong Kong, attending mass  than previously, as well as the diminution of the effects of Covid-19.

Overall then  both Internationally and locally, the Catholic Church  seems quietly, to be doing well though could of course do better.