O MY! DO YOU THINK CARDINAL NICHOLS COULD HAVE COME UP WTH A BETTER APOLOGETIC, LIKE GIVING OFFENSE TO GOD AND GOD’S PEOPLE, NOT TO MENTION THE WORD OF GOD, SACRED TRADITION AND DIVINE TRUTH?

 

WELL, AT LEAST THE GOOD CARDINAL CONDEMNS IT, BUT JUST BECAUSE OF RITUAL? WHERE DOES GOD FIT INTO THIS SECULAR LAMENT? 

This is from LaCroix:

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the United Kingdom's most senior Catholic cleric, has criticized the rendering of the traditional "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" Christmas carol to include women and queer persons.

"I think what Christmas does, and many other moments, it tells us the importance of ritual. Ritual helps us to step outside of our own little bubble and connect with something we have received, inherited and that we hope to pass on. Those values are the continuation of musical repertoire, of the ability to sing together, of looking at the rituals that have been fashioned over centuries, Those are probably for me more important than particular sensitivities which come and go," the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster told Times Radio.

Cardinal Nichols comments came after a recent Church of England carol service at the All Saints with Holy Trinity Church in Loughborough, Leicestershire, updated verses of the 17th-century carol to include the lines "God rest you also, women, who by men have been erased/ Through history ignored and scored, defiled and displaced/ Remember that your stories too, are held within God's grace" and "God rest you, queer and questioning, your anxious hearts be still/ Believe that you are deeply known and part of God's good will/ For all to live as one in peace; the global dream fulfilled." This version, which was written by an American minister Jeffrey Wilsor was previously used by the Hollywood United Methodist Church