Friday 22 October 2010

The patron saint of the misunderstood



Does anyone know who he or she might be? A few prayers wouldn't go amiss.
It's an occupational hazard for bloggers, but I wish people would read carefully what has been written (however imperfectly expressed) rather than just respond - not on this blog - either with sarcastic questions or with a flood of emotionally charged rhetoric.
O.K., trying to find common ground and keep the peace (even more than slightly tongue- in- cheek, something which seems to have gone completely unnoticed) was probably a silly thing to do, you just get shot at by both sides.
I haven't made any secret about where my ultimate loyalties now lie, but I still maintain that the things we have in common are more numerous than the ones which divide us, and that trying to keep doors open is far more productive than just slamming them shut. To put it crudely, where do we think the 'second wave' of the Ordinariates is going to come from - those who have taken temporary refuge with SSWSH (because there is nowhere else for them to go) or from the members of WATCH?
But the only sensible response is just to shut up and bite my tongue - permanently seems quite a good idea at the moment. That's far too thin-skinned, I know, but expect a few more photos of autumn foliage in the Wye valley for a while...

3 comments:

  1. You could try William Blake Father- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3644423/Loving-William-Blake-for-being-bonkers.html
    but I don't think that will be much help.

    Steering the middle way is unpopular with both sides as I have discovered myself but simply standing with one side or the other implies a rigidity of thought which can be unhelpful.

    I prefer the voice of reason to the rantings of the combatants any day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hang in there, Father. Your voice is very valuable. When you were offline on vacation, I was deprived of one of my favorite reads.

    ReplyDelete

Anonymous comments will not be published