Please keep Deacon Nick Donnelly in your prayers. His blog was created in the run-up to the visit of His Holiness, Benedict XVI, to the UK (Protect the Pope was a blog response to the "Protest the Pope" movement).
The following day, this post was published:
Can we know the full truth please?
Can we know the full truth please?
This is the question that Amanda asks in her post and it is one that particularly resonates with me. Especially in this time of Lent we consider Christ who was silent before his accusers and the CCC tells us. “The right to the communication of the truth is not unconditional. Everyone must conform his life to the Gospel precept of fraternal love. This requires us in concrete situations to judge whether or not it is appropriate to reveal the truth to someone who asks for it. Charity and respect for the truth should dictate the response to every request for information or communication”. (CCC2488-9)
However, at the same time I wonder if I am just being cowardly because I do not like conflict and normally stay private – you may have noticed I never posted or commented on Protect the Pope before yesterday. But St Paul tells us “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God” (2 Timothy 1:6-8).
Over three and half years Nick published 1,900 posts, received 36,000 comments, 1 million views per annum and Protect the Pope was read in 188 countries around the world. Everyone was welcome to engage in debate, including dissenters, homosexuals, secularists, and atheists. Nick received critical comments, which he posted, from Peter Tatchel, Terry Sanderson, Clifford Longley, and Fr Iggy Donovan, who became a frequent contributor. Nick believed that Protect the Pope was a forum through which traditional Catholics were safe to express their hopes and concerns about the Church and protest and challenge the advance of secularism and immorality in society.
In Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis advises bishops that in order to foster the ‘missionary communion of the Church’ that they should ‘listen to everyone and not simply to those who would tell him what he would like to hear’. I know that Protect the Pope, helped enable ordinary Catholics to speak and enter into dialogue.
St Bridget prayed: “O Jesus, Son of God, You Who were silent in the presence of Your accusers, restrain my tongue until I find what I should say and how to say it.” I pray too that we may find this right balance between loving silence and speaking the truth in love.
I checked out some of the other blog posts on that site. It seems like things in Ireland and the UK are pretty bad for the Church.
Who was it who asked Deacon Nick to step down?