A Righteous Branch

This Advent begins with rapture indeed, as we finally have the Lectionary in English. God is good even after the week in which I had been given the legal advice that I was indefensible before a jury in the North East because it was bound to be full of people who would take one look at anyone as well-dressed, well-spoken and well-read as I was, hate me on the spot, and convict me out of spite, entirely regardless of any evidence or lack of it. That happened to me last time, and it would happen again, so my only hope was to plead guilty for the reduced sentence, despite there being literally no evidence against me, and pray that that might finally placate the person whose only remaining life's work was to drive me to suicide, a person who was obviously well enough connected to have me arrested and charged at will.

Of course I had already lost quite enough elections here to have known these things for decades, but it was still quite something to be given them as counsel in that sense, to be told that bookishness and articulacy were "sinister" and "deviant" to my peers by whom I was to be judged. This next bit is strictly mine, but I have no expectation that a judge might intervene in the face of the total lack of evidence, since that has never happened to me yet. After all, a judge is a salaried employee of the same State that brings the prosecution, and a judgeship in a criminal court is a salaried and pensionable reward for 30 years of success as a contracted freelance prosecutor. Anyone who has ever dealt with the Crown Court has seen how weighted towards the Crown it was. A judge would have to authorise an assisted suicide, indeed.

Bringing us back to the person whose only remaining life's work was to drive me to suicide. Do the four known suicides of wronged subpostmasters prove their guilt? Here is your weekly reminder that this could not have been an executive summary of this. That would have been impossible, since they bear no resemblance to each other. It is all here, including on the ludicrous definition of "grooming" that was used to hound Canon Michael McCoy to his death, and including on the nonsense about Fr Timothy Gardner OP. Something has changed since 3 May 2023. What is it? And where is the original report?

I have no qualms about styling Fr Gardner OP as such, since he has not been laicised, nor, unless I am very much mistaken, has he been dismissed from the Order of Preachers. It has been 29 weeks since I emailed the Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Susan Dungworth, in the following terms: "I appreciate that this is not strictly your responsibility, but I have been completely unable to find an email address for Northumbria Police, so please forward this to them. Fr Timothy Gardner OP is due back before Newcastle Crown Court in July. As set out below, ... the case against Fr Gardner needs to be halted immediately. At the very least, his solicitor and barrister need to be made aware of these facts. Very many thanks."

I do not resile from this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this or this. Rather, I reiterate every word of each and all of them. There was no cathedral sex party. The move from the old Bishop's House to the new one made a profit. There was no allegation of sexual assault against Bishop Robert Byrne CO, who should sue every media outlet that had suggested one.

Although I am often asked, I know neither where nor how Bishop Byrne is. But I am often asked. I am not doing Marko Rupnik, because that would involve siding with the people who had done nothing for Bishop Byrne. They and Rupnik can all go to Hell in the same handcart. Nor am I interested in anything that you might have to say about Bishop Joseph Strickland unless you had fought for Bishop Byrne.

I may not, but I may, accept the present report when Bishop Byrne had done so, and to the extent that he had done so. His Lordship has yet to do so to any extent. At least while that remains the case, then I reject the whole thing out of hand, and so should you. The sum total of the charge sheet against Bishop Byrne is that he did not automatically do as he was told by the hired help. But Pat Buckley, who died in May, did not like Bishop Stephen Wright, so Bishop Wright must be all right.

Indeed, His Lordship preached well at his Enthronement. He clearly has a deep spirituality. There was also a speech by a self-identified survivor of clerical sexual abuse, one Maggie Vickerman. Neither her case, nor those to which she referred, had anything to do with Bishop Byrne, if they really happened at all. How do we know? At most, they were long before his brief time in this Diocese. If anything, certain people with some responsibility for them were in that sanctuary. Nor did Ms Vickerman make any attempt to disguise her theological agenda. Well, nor do I make any attempt to disguise mine.