Australians go first

from Damian Thompson's blogs:

Revealed: Anglo-Catholic bishop in talks with CDF to stop English bishops 'smothering' Pope's Anglican plan

Somebody has leaked to the Guardian a sensitive email from the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, “flying” Bishop of Ebbsfleet, to Bishop Peter Elliott of Melbourne, the Catholic auxiliary bishop in charge of implementing Anglicanorum coetibus in Australia.

In it, Bishop Burnham – an outstanding and inspiring Anglo-Catholic leader – confirms what we’ve all long suspected: that there are forces in the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales who hate the Pope’s plan and want Anglicans to stay Anglican. Or, as he puts it, “who think that Anglicans are best off doing what they are presently doing”.

Bishop Burnham will be embarrassed by this leak, which reveals that in order to make sure that the Ordinariate project is not “smothered” he has been talking privately to Mgr Patrick Burke at the CDF (another great priest, by the way).

The Anglican exodus begins…

… in Australia, where, as my colleagues Bonnie Malkin and Martin Beckford report, Forward in Faith Australia has voted to join the Ordinariate.

We’re not talking about a large group, not everyone is going, and it’s led by a retired bishop. But the psychological impact of official Anglicans bearing the Forward in Faith logo voting to convert to Rome under the new corporate scheme will be significant. I wonder if it explains the malicious leak of an email from Bishop Andrew Burnham to the Australian Bishop Peter Elliot: did someone want to distract us from this development?

Incidentally, I like the quote from the FiF bishop, the Rt Rev David Robarts: “I love my Anglican heritage, but I’m not going to lose it by taking this step.”

Church of England bishop converts to Rome

The former assistant Bishop of Newcastle, Paul Richardson, has been received into full communion with the Holy See, I am pleased to reveal. Richardson – also a former Anglican bishop in Papua New Guinea and diocesan bishop of Wangaratta in Australia – was received into the Church at the chaplaincy at Durham University last month.

He tells me that his conversion is not the product of recent controversies. “I would have become a Catholic even if the Church of England wasn’t ordaining women bishops,” he says. “In a sense I feel it’s what I’ve always been, so this is like coming home.”

Richardson, 63, is not planning to join the Ordinariate, but hasn’t ruled out ordination as a Catholic priest – “You can’t just jump in and say ‘I want to be ordained’. I think I have to let the Church guide me over that,” he says.

Why it doesn't matter if the Pope's Ordinariate for ex-Anglicans is small at first

Here’s the start of my op-ed article on the Anglican ordinariates from this week’s Catholic Herald:

On Monday, Anglo-Catholics across England will be holding a day of prayer to help their bishops, clergy and laity decide how to respond to the Pope’s provision of a self-governing Ordinariate for former Anglicans. Many members of our Church will be praying with them; in Oxford, Anglicans are joining the members of the Oratory for a Holy Hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament.

There is a lot to pray about, and a lot to pray for. Anglo-Catholics interested in the Holy Father’s offer will be praying for gifts of discernment not only for themselves but for their fellow Anglican Catholics and Catholic Anglicans. (The two terms are not quite interchangeable, which gives you some idea of the complexity of the situation.)

Australia

First review of Australia the movie

Cliches abound in an Australian tale of love in the outback.

Local critics had worried that the much-anticipated film Australia would present to the world a series of time-honoured Antipodean clichés. Their fears were well founded.

Within the first five minutes, Luhrmann offers up a medley of Australiana.

First there are aboriginal children playing with boomerangs as the sun sets over the outback, then a crystal-clear billabong teeming with fat fish in the middle of a bone dry desert, then mean whitefellas, mystical blackfellas and an uptight English aristocrat who gets her knickers in a knot over the brutish behaviour of the unreconstructed Australian male.

The hero, Hugh Jackman's rugged "Drover", doesn't say much, but one of the first words uttered from his sunburned lips is "Crikey". This is the kind of movie, you would imagine, that Steve Irwin would have loved.

Nicole Kidman's ridiculous Lady Sarah Ashley fulfils another unashamed stereotype - that of the witless Brit abroad. She huffs and puffs and missteps from the outset, making a royal fool of herself at every opportunity. She coos dozily over a mob of kangaroos - like many a British tourist before her - before one is promptly shot dead for dinner. She tries to comfort a bereaved Aboriginal boy, sobbing over the death of his mother, with a handshake and the words: "I would like to extend my sincerest condolences". She attempts to move a herd of 2000 stubborn cattle with a wave of her hand and a sternly spoken "shoo!"

But it is Australia's opening scene that gives the overseas audience a flavour of what to expect from the film.

The Drover gets into a fight in a pub on the way to meet Lady Ashley from her plane in Darwin. Somehow, her prim set of luggage is swept up into the maelstrom of fists, until a man's head is punched through one suitcase. Her flimsy underwear flies into the air, lacy pants and slips and corsets white against the deep blue sky, she is paralysed with anger and embarrassment.

There's a pause in the action. Covered in blood, sweat and dust and panting from exhaustion, the Drover turns slowly to Lady Ashley, looking at her as he wipes his mouth with a single silk stocking and says, in a thick, irony-laden drawl: "Welcome to Australia". (Bonnie Malkin in Sydney)