Too Great A Burden To Bear?

This is your weekly reminder that there has been a liberal coup in the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. This time last week, all talk of a "sex party" had been abandoned, leaving only the suggestion that there may have been some kind of drinks party that had breached the lockdown, a phenomenon hardly confined to that venue. No evidence even of that has been produced, however.

A week later again, and the reasons being openly cited for the forced removal of Bishop Robert Byrne CO, entirely seriously in the minds of those proffering them, include that he was short, that he was fat, that he read books, that he liked opera, that he was insufficiently keen on football, that he was related neither to Ant nor to Dec, and that he was too posh by the ludicrous standards on which all too many people in the North East are determined to damage the place by insisting. School bullying, basically. And it has succeeded.

If there really has been an allegation to the Police against Bishop Byrne, then it was of a single instance of sexual assault by one adult upon another, and it was made before Christmas. We are now halfway through February, so has His Lordship been charged? Or even arrested? He should sue for defamation. But as with the nonexistent "sex party" or even drinks party, and as with the allegation that was deliberately used to drive Canon McCoy to suicide, the damage is done.

Therefore, brook no compromise. Disregard the possibility that any of this may be genuine, and do not allow any development whatever to dissuade or distract you. Pray for the repose of the soul of Canon McCoy. Pray for Bishop Byrne. And console yourself that the Evil Ones may not be praying, but ought at least to be hoping, that there will be another liberal Pope after this ailing 86-year-old, because otherwise the Oxford Oratory would be as well-connected as it was possible to be, and there would be hell to pay for what they had done. As there should be.