New Liturgy

Cardinal George Announces Vatican Approval of New Roman Missal English-Language Translation, Implementation Set for First Sunday of Advent 2011

WASHINGTON—Cardinal Francis George, OMI, Archbishop of Chicago and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has announced that the full text of the English-language translation of the Roman Missal, Third Edition, has been issued for the dioceses of the United States of America.

(No date has yet been given by the Bishops of England and Wales for the publication and use of the new translation in England and Wales. However it is expected publication will take place sometime before the summer of 2011.)

Papal Masses in England will use new English texts

Catholic News Service reports that

People attending Pope Benedict XVI's Masses in Scotland and England in September will get a chance to hear and sing a few of the newly translated Mass texts, according to the pope's chief liturgist.

Msgr. Guido Marini, papal master of liturgical ceremonies, told Catholic News Service Aug. 19 that the prayers sung in English at the papal Masses in Great Britain will use the translations from the new Order of the Mass approved by the Vatican in 2008.

Mgr Marini seems to draw a distinction between those texts that have already been approved:

"The songs from the Order of the Mass -- for example the Gloria -- will be from the new translation, which was approved a while ago," he said.

and those that have not already been approved:

The words for the rest of the Mass prayers "will be from the text currently in use," he said, because when the papal Masses were being planned, the Vatican had not yet granted final approval to the bishops of Scotland, England and Wales for the complete English translation of the Roman Missal.

St Peter, Scarborough

Today, on the feast day of St Bridget of Sweden, I have been to mass at St Peter's for two reasons - to accompany my friend Dorothy celebrating her 90th birthday but also to persue the relationship between Cardinal Newman and the first priest Canon Walker.

St. Bridget of Sweden

The most celebrated saint of the Northern kingdoms, born about 1303; died 23 July, 1373.

Early life

She was the daughter of Birger Persson, governor and provincial judge (Lagman) of Uppland, and ofIngeborg Bengtsdotter. Her father was one of the wealthiest landholders of the country, and, like her mother, distinguished by deep piety. St. Ingrid, whose death had occurred about twenty years beforeBridget's birth, was a near relative of the family. Birger's daughter received a careful religious training, and from her seventh year showed signs of extraordinary religious impressions and illuminations. To hereducation, and particularly to the influence of an aunt who took the place of Bridget's mother after the latter's death (c. 1315), she owed that unswerving strength of will which later distinguished her.

Marriage

In 1316, at the age of thirteen, she was united in marriage to Ulf Gudmarsson, who was then eighteen. She acquired great influence over her noble and pious husband, and the happy marriage wasblessed with eight children, among them St. Catherine of Sweden. The saintly life and the greatcharity of Bridget soon made her name known far and wide. She was acquainted with several learned and pious theologians, among them Nicolaus Hermanni, later Bishop of Linköping, Matthias, canon ofLinköping, her confessor, Peter, Prior of Alvastrâ, and Peter Magister, her confessor after Matthias. She was later at the court of King Magnus Eriksson, over whom she gradually acquired great influence. Early in the forties (1341-43) in company with her husband she made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella. On the return journey her husband was stricken with an attack of illness, but recovered sufficiently to finish the journey. Shortly afterwards, however, he died (1344) in the Cistercianmonastery of Alvastrâ in East Gothland.

Widowhood

Bridget now devoted herself entirely to practices of religion and asceticism, and to religiousundertakings. The visions which she believed herself to have had from her early childhood now became more frequent and definite. She believed that Christ Himself appeared to her, and she wrote down therevelations she then received, which were in great repute during the Middle Ages. They were translated into Latin by Matthias Magister and Prior Peter.

St. Bridget now founded a new religious congregation, the Brigittines, or Order of St. Saviour, whose chief monastery, at Vadstena, was richly endowed by King Magnus and his queen (1346). To obtain confirmation for her institute, and at the same time to seek a larger sphere of activity for her mission, which was the moral uplifting of the period, she journeyed to Rome in 1349, and remained there until her death, except while absent on pilgrimages, among them one to the Holy Land in 1373. In August, 1370, Pope Urban V confirmed the Rule of her congregation. Bridget made earnest representations toPope Urban, urging the removal of the Holy See from Avignon back to Rome. She accomplished the greatest good in Rome, however, by her pious and charitable life, and her earnest admonitions to others to adopt a better life, following out the excellent precedents she had set in her native land. The year following her death her remains were conveyed to the monastery at Vadstena. She wascanonized, 7 October, 1391, by Boniface IX.

In 1835 Canon Walker was appointed to Scarborough, and for 40 years devoted himself to the work of the mission. He opened a school for the children of the congregation in his own house, and enlarged the chapel. Finding the accommodation still insufficient, he decided to erect a new church, and convert the old chapel into schools. The church was begun in 1856, and comprises a nave, apsidal chancel, and lateral aisles terminated by chapels. One of the most striking features of the interior is the chancel arch, the piers of which are square, moulded on the angles, and set back to the line of the arcade, so as to afford the best possible sight of the chancel, The chancel is lighted on the sides by windows of two lights each, filled with medallions. There are two side chapels. The one on the east is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. The window is of stained glass, representing in the centre light the Blessed Virgin of the Immaculate Conception. On the right is represented an incident in the life of St. Edward, and on the left the legend of St. Elizabeth. The tracery is occupied by angels, and the armorial bearings of the donor of the window, E. Petre, Esq., on the right, and on the left, those of Lady G. Talbot, his wife. The chapel on the west side is dedicated to St. Michael. The nave is a bold arcade of five bays, circular columns and arches of two orders, with a clerestory pierced by two-light windows of pattern glass. The aisles are lighted by geometric windows of varied design. The church was opened in 1858, when the late Cardinal Wiseman preached. The church, though opened, was not completed in all its details for some years afterwards. First it was enriched by the gift of the present noble high altar, the gift of the late W. Potts Chatto, Esq. The altar is of Caen stone, and contains, in the centre, a medallion of the Crucifixion, with angels on each side. The tabernacle is surmounted by a richly carved Baldacchino and pinnacles rising to the height of about 25 feet, and has a handsome brass door, richly engraved, and inlaid with precious stones. There are several stained glass windows, and a very handsome pulpit, as well as a baptismal font, all in keeping with the rest of the furnishings of the church.

Vatican on women priests

Vatican says women priests a 'crime against faith'

The ordination of women as Roman Catholic priests has been made a “crime against the faith” by the Vatican and subject to discipline by its watchdog. by By Fiona Govan in Telegraph today.

The new rules issued by the Vatican puts attempts at ordaining women among the “most serious crimes” alongside paedophilia and will be handled by investigators from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), considered the successor to the Inquisition.

Women attempting to be priests, and those who try to ordain them, already faced automatic excommunication but the new decree goes further and enshrines the action as “a crime against sacraments”.

The unexpected ruling follows Pope Benedict XVI’s open-armed welcome to Anglican clergy dissatisfied with General Synod attempts to compromise over calls for the ordination of women as bishops.

Under current plans the first women bishops could be ordained in the Anglican Church as soon as 2014, a move which has caused a deep schism between reformers and traditionalists, who threaten to leave the Church of England in droves and defect to Rome.

A group of 70 disgruntled clergy met with a Catholic bishop on Saturday to discuss plans to defect to the Roman Catholic Church and hundreds are said to be poised for an exodus to Rome.

Earlier this year three bishops travelled to the Vatican to talk over an offer made by Pope Benedict XVI inviting disillusioned Anglicans to convert to Catholicism, while still keeping tenets of their own faith.

Within the Roman Catholic Church itself there have been growing calls to allow women to become priests in the wake of the widespread paedophilia scandal.

A demonstration staged in St Peter’s Square last month saw calls for the Pope to open the ranks of priests to women to renew the Church and solve a chronic shortage in ministries around the world. Women priests have been allowed in the Anglican Church since 1992.

But the Vatican made its stance clear on by comparing such actions to child abuse crimes and issuing new rules for investigating both by the same disciplinary body.

Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, underscored how the ordination of women is “a crime against sacraments,” while paedophilia should be considered a “crime against morals” and both would fall under the jurisdiction of the CDF.

The organisation, which was once known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition, was previously headed by the current Pope when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has been outspoken in his support for an equal role for women within the Anglican Church. “My hope and prayer is that we shall see women ordained as bishops in the Church of England,” he said recently.

“My hope and prayer is also that we do that in a way which does not so violently disrupt some of our common life and some important features of it, that we actually lose one another in the process.”

The Church of England would not comment on the move by Rome. “It is not our policy to comment on the affairs of other Churches,” a spokesman said.

The raft of new rules from the Vatican includes the fast tracking of the investigation process of priests accused of child abuse following widespread criticism of the Church’s handling of recent scandals.

The CDF will accelerate investigations of paedophile priests and extend the statute of limitations by 10 years to 20 years after the victim’s 18th birthday. It could defrock priests but would not be forced to hand over abusers to the civil courts.

Victims’ groups said the new measures fell short because the investigations were to be carried out behind closed doors.

The Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said the measures could be “summed up in three words: missing the boat”.

”Clergy sex crimes must be reported to police and the Vatican must make this a binding policy that is uniformly enforced,” SNAP executive David Clohessy said in a statement.”Today’s action doesn’t do that.”

Negotiating the move

Wynne-Jones writing in the Sunday Telegraph today:

In a move likely to raise tensions between the two Churches, a group of Church of England bishops met last week with advisers of Pope Benedict XVI to set in motion steps that would allow priests to convert to Catholicism en masse.

They are set to resign their orders in opposition to the introduction of women bishops and to lead an exodus of Anglican clerics to the Catholic Church despite Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, urging them not to leave.

It would be the first time for nearly 20 years that large numbers of priests have crossed from the Church of England to Rome, and comes only weeks ahead of a crucial General Synod debate on making women bishops.

The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that bishops travelled to the Holy See last week to hold face to face discussions with senior members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the most powerful of the Vatican's departments.

The Rt Rev John Broadhurst, the Rt Rev Keith Newton and the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, the bishops of Fulham, Richborough and Ebbsfleet respectively, are understood to have informed senior Catholic officials that Church of England clergy are keen to defect to Rome.

It is the first significant response to the Papal offer made last year, which opened the doors for Anglicans to convert while retaining key elements of their tradition.

The Most Rev Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, was unaware of the summit, which is likely to prove embarrassing to the Catholic Church ahead of the Pope's visit to Britain later this year as it will rekindle fears that it is trying to poach Anglican clergy.

One source close to last week's discussions said that the Anglican bishops raised concerns with the Vatican officials that there is opposition to them defecting from Catholic bishops in England.

Nevertheless, they made clear they have become so disillusioned with the Church's liberal direction that they are keen to accept the Pope's offer if they can finalise plans to implement it.

The Vatican summit will raise the stakes at the General Synod in July when the Church of England's parliament will vote on how to treat traditionalist clergy opposed to the introduction of women bishops.

Although the number of priests who have openly said that they plan to defect has been small so far, the group is likely to grow if they are not given adequate provisions.

A leading Anglican cleric said: "This will seriously embarrass the Pope.

"It's a plot within the Vatican that they are desperate to keep quiet until they are ready to go public.

"Many will see this as proof that the Catholic Church is intent on poaching clergy from the Church of England despite its reassurances to the contrary."

Thompson blog:

[Update: A leading Anglo-Catholic source contacts me this morning naming several English Catholic bishops whom he thinks were in Rome for this summit. He confirms that "very few people on our side" (ie, the C of E) knew it was happening.]

A fascinating update on the Ordinariate story tonight from Jonathan Wynne-Jones: the Church of England bishops of Fulham, Richborough and Ebbsfleet have basically said yes to the Pope’s offer. They were at the Vatican last week to discuss the details, apparently. The RC Bishops of England and Wales are hopelessly divided on the Ordinariate scheme, so Bishops John Broadhurst, Keith Newton and Andrew Burnham have gone to the top. Very wise.

The Sunday Telegraph story says Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster was unaware of the Vatican meeting. That implies a serious collapse of confidence in the English Catholic hierarchy on the part of the Anglicans – you would expect +Vin to be in the picture even if his colleagues weren’t. But see update above: senior Anglo-Catholic sources reckon at least one member of the English hierarchy was in Rome, so that makes it inconceivable that Archbishop Nichols didn’t know. But, as Jonathan writes: “One source close to last week’s discussions said that the Anglican bishops raised concerns with the Vatican officials that there is opposition to them defecting from Catholic bishops in England.”

At which point it’s time to sound a note of reassurance. The CDF isn’t going to allow the likes of +Kieran Conry to demolish this historic new structure. The more trouble the English bishops cause, the less influence they will have over the Ordinariate. I wonder: given that anyone attending an Ordinariate Mass will fulfil his or her Sunday obligation, is this an escape route for cradle Catholics, too?

Pusey House Conference

It has been good this past week to share in this high powered, over subscribed conference, via internet audio recordings:

DOUBTS have been raised about whether former Church of England clerics would have distinctive “transferrable skills” to bring to the Roman Catholic Church, if they ceased to be part of the Anglican Communion.

At a meeting on Saturday at Pusey House in Oxford, the Revd Jonathan Baker SSC, Principal of Pusey House, said that a group was gathering to reflect on what was the “distinct tradition” within the Anglican Church, fostered since the Reforma tion, which was “potentially capable of finding its way to enrich the life of the wider Catholic Church”.

Under the norms of Benedict XVI’s Anglicanorum Coetibus, clergy trained in seminaries in the pro­posed Ordinariate (News, 23 Octo ber) would be tutored in “those aspects of Anglican patrimony that are of particular value” to the RC Church.

One speaker, Eamon Duffy, Pro fessor of the History of Christianity at Cambridge, and an Irish Roman Catholic, asked what “transferrable skills” Anglicans would bring. He said that what was distinctive was that they had been “shaped” by the Royal Supremacy, which had had a “moderating impact” on the differ ences in the Church of England between Catholics and Protestants.

“A fundamental part of the nature, identity, and patrimony of Anglican ism comes from the enforced co-existence of the Catholic dimension of Anglicanism within other more Protestant streams within an estab lishment,” Professor Duffy said. There would be “big problems ima gining how it would retain its coherence and Anglican identity outside those constraints. . . Could choral evensong survive in a min ority uniate Church . . . within Roman Catholicism?”

Canon Robin Ward, the Principal of St Stephen’s House, said that the Pope, when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, had seen in Anglicanism “a significant Catholic potential — a self-renewing Catholic principle”. Part of the Pope’s motivation in Anglicanorum Coetibus was to find a “juridical and theological way” in which this worthwhile distinctive ness could make a contribution to the greater communion of the catholica.

Anglican moral theology within an Ordinariate would not provide different answers to contested questions (such as contraception, divorce, and homosexuality), but it could bring “the virtue of religion”, the way in which, in Anglicanism, worship, piety, and external religion were formed into a national “sacral landscape”. Anglicans could demon strate that “a moral ethic based on custom does not mean disorder”.

The Revd Philip North, Team Rector of Old St Pancras, London, warned that the opportunities for mission would be reduced because “we have the furniture of the Church of England,” which occupied a legal and cultural role. This was part of the nation’s self-understanding, respon si ble for whole communities. “Is that patrimony importable?” he asked.

Clergy in the Ordinariate would have to be in secular employment because the Roman Catholic Church could not raise the money — £64,000 in his case in London — to keep them in a house and stipend. Fr North said that the Ordinariate could become irrelevant: “If we reach a point where staying is not an option, then traditional conversion is far more likely to offer the kind of enrichment and ministry that we know now.”

Anglican Catholics

The news that 100 traditional Anglican parishes in America are joining the Ordinariate is yet another indication that Pope Benedict’s scheme is beginning to take off, and it led me to a recent speech by Bishop Peter Elliott, Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne, who helped persuade the Australian branch of Forward in Faith to vote to convert en masse.

Bishop Elliott is a world-renowned liturgist whose work is admired by the Pope. “The Anglo-Catholic”, a traditionalist US website, has the text of his address to FiF Australia, and I learned more from it about the Ordinariate than I have from any other non-papal document.

Including this rather startling fact: according to Bishop Elliott, members of the Ordinariate are perfectly entitled to call themselves “Anglican Catholics”. Here’s the reference:

… while legally being Catholics of the Roman Rite (i.e. “Roman Catholics”), the distinctiveness of the Anglican patrimony — which is much more comprehensive than mere liturgical deviations from the norms of the Latin Rite — will truly justify the appellation “Anglican Catholic” for our people.

Anglican Catholic? You don’t find that term being bandied about by the Bishops of England and Wales, so desperately afraid are they not to upset their Anglican counterparts. Is Bishop Elliott basing his observation on any precedent? Yes, he is: that of Cardinal William Levada, head of the CDF, who referred to “Anglican Catholics” in January when he quoted TAC Archbishop John Hepworth’s initial letter to Rome.

I urge anyone interested to read the full text of Bishop Elliott’s talk, which emphasies the generosity and possibilities of the Ordinariate in a way that our timid hierarchy has not done. More on this subject later. Meanwhile, I must say I rather like the idea of Rome appropriating the word “Anglican”; it makes up for Protestants calling themselves Catholics. (Damian Thompson)

The Bishop clarifies:

I have had a friendly letter from Bishop Peter Elliott of Melbourne pointing out that the term “Anglican Catholic”, which I ascribed to him, was actually part of a commentary by someone else woven into his speech on “the Anglo-Catholic” website. Does this leave me with egg on my face? Yes, it most certainly does – although I could throttle the author of the website for not making sufficiently clear what was and wasn’t commentary. Anyway, here is the bishop’s letter, which I urge you to read carefully, followed by the unedited text of his address. I apologise to him for the embarrassment I must have caused. He is an inspiring bishop; what I wouldn’t give to have his equivalent over here.

Dear Damian

First of all thank you for your sterling work in promoting the Ordinariate Project.

However, in an article sent to me yesterday you quote me as saying that members of the Ordinariate can call themselves “Anglican Catholics”. In fact I did not say that in the paper I gave on February 13th. Those words form part of a commentary on my paper, interspersed through my text, by the man in charge of the “Anglo Catholic” website in the United States.

The terms are an inference he may wish to make, but for the record, this is not something I said in my original text, which I attach.

My paper was dealing with the essentials of the new structure. Currently “Anglican Catholics” a term used by themselves to described those Anglo Catholics who take a pro-papal stance. This term may survive to describe members of the Ordinariate, but at this stage, it is too premature to say what language will be used.

Your promotion of the Ordinariate is much appreciated, especially to dispel misunderstandings about the generous provisions made by our Holy Father.

In Dno.

Most Rev Peter J Elliott

Titular Bishop of Manaccenser

Auxiliary Bishop, Melbourne

Credo Cymru

Welcome! Croeso! to Forward in Faith Wales A voice for traditional believers in the Church in Wales FOR LATEST INFORMATION GO TO OUR NEWS AND EVENTS PAGE NEW: SUBMISSION TO BENCH AND RESPONSE READ IT HERE PLUS REPLY TO BENCH We uphold: the faith handed down from Christ by the apostles: the faith of St. David and all the saints of Wales: the faith of the historic mainstream of Anglican Christians

WE CONFESS JESUS CHRIST
AS THE ONE AND ONLY SAVIOUR AND LORD.
WE PROCLAIM HIM AS THE GOOD NEWS FOR ALL PEOPLE

• And so we affirm traditional Christian teaching on life and behaviour. We are committed to the sacredness of life, the holiness of marriage, and to an approach to human sexuality consistent with the teaching of the Lord and his apostles as passed down in Scripture and the tradition of the Church.

• We believe that men and women are equal in Christ, but have different roles and responsibilities. We stand by the teaching of the universal and undivided Church on Holy Order, and are unable to accept the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate.

• We work and pray for the reunion of all Christians on the basis of the Catholic faith of the undivided Church as received from Christ through the apostles, based on Scripture as the Word of God for all times.
  

• We join with all men and women of good will in striving for a just and harmonious society, and the right stewardship of God's creation.

We take as a summary of our aims the words of St David, Patron of Wales:

BE JOYFUL: KEEP THE FAITH !

Fr Alan Rabjohns (Chairman)

Extract from letter to Welsh Bishops January 2010

As you know the initiative of Pope Benedict XVI with regard to traditionalist Anglicans emerged during our meeting with you. It is still too early to say what the reaction of members of Credo Cymru will be to this but many have commented on the contrast between the generosity of another communion and the provision offered by our own.

Statement at launch of

'Friends of the Ordinariate'

We are Anglicans in the UK who are members of The Church of England - The Church in Wales The Scottish Episcopal Church - The Church of Ireland and we invite you to join with us as Friends of the Ordinariate in order to signify your interest in the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.

By joining us you will not be committing yourself to any course of action, present or future.

We are a group of concerned Anglicans and we guarantee complete confidentiality and will not share your details with anyone else.

Friends of the Ordinariate

(I have signed up immediately, without hesitation.)

Friends of the Ordinariate

We are Anglicans in the UK who are members of
The Church of England - The Church in Wales
The Scottish Episcopal Church - The Church of Ireland
and we invite you to join with us as Friends of the Ordinariate
in order to signify your interest in
the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.

By joining us you will not be committing yourself
to any course of action, present or future.

We are a group of concerned Anglicans
and we guarantee complete confidentiality
and will not share your details with anyone else.

We may occasionally send you an email
inviting you to visit this website for further news.

You are also free to unsubscribe and remove your details at any time.

Chair of Peter

Day of Prayer on 22nd February 2010

THE DAY of Prayer on 22nd February, the feast of the Chair of Peter, is an

opportunity to reflect, pray, and discern the way forward for each of us, our

priests and our parishes.

The Day should focus on the Blessed Sacrament exposed. This will happen in

different ways in different places. Some congregations, I hope, will join with

their Roman Catholic brothers and sisters locally, in the Roman Catholic

parish church. Others will not have this opportunity and will keep vigil in

their own church. Some people, inevitably, will be restricted to taking part in

their own homes, though we hope that the Day will be organised so that those

who are at work have an opportunity for half and hour or so, on the way to

work, during a lunch break, or during the evening.

In this anthology of readings and prayers, much is about the Chair of Peter

and the place of the papacy in the life of the Church. Nonetheless not all the

readings and prayers are on these subjects and some Scripture and some

material from the Anglican and Reformed tradition, is included, particularly

on the subject of discipleship.

Despite press reports, this is not a day of decision. The Apostolic Constitution

(Anglicanorum coetibus) is not a crisis point but the opening up, permanently,

of a new way into unity with the See of Peter. Decisions about how and

whether this should happen for each of us will take place in different ways,

and at different times. The time now is a time of prayer and discernment.

May God bless us in and through it and further reveal his saving grace.

Bishop’s House, Dry Sandford, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 6JP

Tel: +44 (0) 1865 390746 www.ebbsfleet.org.uk

"All-powerful Father, you have built your Church on the rock of Saint Peter’s

confession faith. May nothing divide or weaken our unity in faith and love."

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.)

Sentamu and Rome

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has suggested that ex-Anglicans who join the Roman Catholic Church as part of the Pope’s Ordinariate Scheme will not be “proper Catholics”. He made this claim in an interview with BBC Northern Ireland journalist William Crawley, who has put the transcript on his blog.

Dr Sentamu is displaying what appears to be deplorable ignorance. To put the record straight: any Anglican joining the Ordinariate will be as Catholic as the Pope. It’s as simple as that. Hat-tip to an Anglican friend who intends to follow this course of action and, like me, is outraged at Dr Sentamu’s misrepresentation.

Here’s the relevant section of the interview:

Archbishop Sentamu: “If people genuinely realise that they want to be Roman Catholic, they should convert properly, and go through catechesis and be made proper Catholics. This kind of creation [the Apostolic Constitution] — well, all I can say is, we wish them every blessing and may the Lord encourage them. But as far as I am concerned, if I was really, genuinely wanting to convert, I wouldn’t go into an ordinariate. I would actually go into catechesis and become a truly converted Roman Catholic and be accepted.”

William Crawley: “So those Anglicans who take advantage of the Apostolic Constitution, you’re saying, would not be ‘proper Catholics’?”

Archbishop Sentamu: “Well, I mean, I’d be very surprised –”

William Crawley: “What would they be if they are not ‘proper Catholics’?”

Archbishop Sentamu: “They would be what they are: an ordinariate of the Vatican.”

Dr Sentamu is perfectly entitled to criticise the Pope’s offer and to discourage Anglicans from leaving the Church of England. What is he is not allowed to do is mislead the public about the status of those people who convert under the provisions of Anglicanorum coetibus, for they will be true converts and true Catholics.

He should apologise immediately. (Damian Thompson)

The Queen and Rome

In a surprising departure from protocol, the Queen has sent the Lord Chamberlain, the most senior official of the Royal Household, to see Archbishop Vincent Nichols, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, to discuss Pope Benedict XVI’s offer to Anglicans wanting to convert to Rome en masse.

My source says Her Majesty – who is expected to meet the Pope when he visits Britain this autumn – was “unhappy” about aspects of the scheme as she understood it. So, late last year, she dispatched Lord Peel with a list of questions for the Archbishop. The nature of the questions has not been revealed, but Archbishop’s House confirms that the meeting took place and was “mutually beneficial”.

The Queen – a somewhat “Low Church” Anglican who feels it is her solemn duty to preserve the Protestant identity of the Church of England – appears to have been alarmed by press reports of Pope Benedict’s Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum coetibus. This allows groups of ex-Anglicans anywhere to convert to Rome together, retaining aspects of Anglican worship. Some members of the Church of England have expressed interest in doing so, but are very keen to carry on worshipping in their former Anglican parish churches. Possibly the Queen felt that this process might conflict with her Coronation Oath to maintain all the “rights and privileges” of the bishops, clergy and churches of England.

My source was surprised that the Queen should ask one of her courtiers, the Ampleforth-educated but Anglican 3rd Earl Peel, to quiz Archbishop Nichols on the subject. The source felt that the meeting – thought to have been held in November at Archbishop’s House, Westminster – could be seen as a breach of protocol: one would expect the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to represent the Church’s Supreme Governor in such a discussion.

There have been rumours that the Queen is dismayed by the Anglican drift towards homosexual blessings and women bishops. Perhaps she felt that she needed an adviser answerable only to her to convey information impartially – particularly given that she will probably meet Pope Benedict in Scotland, either at Balmoral or Holyrood, when he visits Britain in September. (The discussion between Lord Peel and the Archbishop is unlikely to have been about this meeting, however, since the Scottish Catholic Church is independent of England and Wales.)

At any rate, the spokesman for Archbishop Nichols insisted tonight that the meeting was a success. “It gave the Archbishop the opportunity to correct some of the misunderstandings about the Apostolic Constitution created by misreporting in the media,” he told me. “It was a very successful meeting and mutually beneficial.”

What the spokesman couldn’t tell me – and indeed, didn’t seem to know – was why the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales should have been asked to see the Lord Chamberlain, of all people, to discuss what is essentially a theological and constitutional question.

The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales have been asked by Rome to discuss a provisional structure for the ex-Anglican “Ordinariate” (a quasi-diocese). Archbishop Nichols is a key figure in this process, and I don’t envy him. On the one hand, some of his bishops hate the Pope’s proposal and will work to make its provisions as ungenerous as possible; on the other, he has to report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is ultimately in charge of the Ordinariate scheme on behalf of the Pope, and which does favour generosity.

Now, it would seem, the Archbishop has also to bear in mind the Queen’s early misgivings about a scheme which could see a few parish communities moving from the Church that she governs – and that she promised to protect at her Coronation – to the jurisdiction of the Holy See. (Damian Thompson)

Messages from Rome

Third phase of ARCIC to start in 2010

AFTER informal talks between the Pontifical Council for Promoting Chris tian Unity and Anglican Communion representatives in Rome, it has been announced that a preparatory committee has met to set up the third phase of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC). It has been decided that this phase will begin next year and deal with “funda mental questions regarding the Church as communion”, and “how in com munion the local and universal Church comes to discern right ethical teaching”. Members of the Commission will be nominated shortly.

RC bishop withdraws offer to host Anglican ordinations

THE Vatican ordered the Roman Catholic bishop of a regional diocese in Victoria to with draw his offer to host an Anglican ordina tion in a church in his diocese because four women were among the seven ordinands.

The Bishop of Sandhurst, the Rt Revd Joe Grech, had, some weeks ago, offered the use of St Kilian’s to his Anglican counterpart, the Bishop of Bendigo, the Rt Revd Andrew Cur now, for an ordination of deacons to be held at the end of November. The service took place in St Andrew’s Uniting Church in stead.

Bendigo Anglican Cathedral was closed earlier this year because of safety consider ations: the diocese does not have the estimated $5 million required to effect the necessary repairs. Sunday services are being held in a hall.

Bishop Grech told the press that he had checked widely before offering the use of St Kilian’s, the oldest RC church in Bendigo, and had had the approval of the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto. But, after a complaint was lodged with the Vatican, he withdrew his invitation.

The Vicar General of Sandhurst, Mgr John White, said that “there was no way we were endorsing their [the Anglicans’] theological stance for the ordination of women — it was a generous offer to help when they could not use their own facility.”

The Anglican Dean of Bendigo, the Very Revd Dr Peta Sherlock, said that Roman Catholics in Bendigo were shocked by the reversal. “It was a fantastic good-news story, and now it’s gone,” she said.

Hate and Fear

The vicar of an Anglo-Catholic church has received a threatening phone call warning him of violence if his parish goes over to Rome – and his noticeboard has been defaced with the words “C of E No Pope” daubed across it in white paint.

Fr David Waller of St Saviour’s, Walthamstow, discovered the vandalism on Sunday morning as he prepared for Mass. Then he found the a message waiting for him on his answering machine threatening him with physical violence. But, when I spoke to him a few minutes ago, he didn’t sound remotely intimidated. “The message was distorted – it sounded drunken and I don’t want to make too much of it,” he said.

St Saviour’s is a Forward in Faith parish and, although no decision has been made, Fr Waller is very encouraged by the Pope’s offer of a Personal Ordinariate. “The key players in the parish, including the churchwardens, are completely disillusioned with the Church of England and see the Ordinariate as the solution. I can’t speak for all the silent folk in the pews, but a significant number of them are Eastern European Roman Catholics, so I don’t think it would be a problem for them.”

Fr Waller sounds like a terrific priest: he and his parishioners would be welcome arrivals in the Catholic Church. It really does sound as if the only big obstacle to corporate reunion is an arrangement whereby an Ordinariate community (presumably with Fr Waller still as parish priest) could carry on using the church. We shall see.

But this threatening incident has upset the parish, of course – and also other priests thinking of taking the same route. Here’s a quote from the excellent blog of Fr Ed Tomlinson, a leading Anglo-Catholic:

Pray today then for our common future amd spare a thought for Anglo-Catholics who cannot accept the ordination of women. It really does feel horrid being in the Church of England currently. Father Waller’s board expresses what many of us are starting to fear – that we are actually hated within our own family, who have no real desire to help us, but will seek to hurt us if we stay and hurt us if we go. Pray God that this fear is entirely unfounded.

(from Damian Thompson blog)

Rowan goes to Rome

When the Archbishop of Canterbury first heard that the Apostolic Constitution was pending, he telephoned Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, in the middle of the night to demand what was going on. Edward Pentin and other blogs have covered this, which came from an interview with Kasper in L'Osservatore Romano. As we report in The Times today, Dr Rowan Williams flew into Rome this morning, as did I, and this afternoon I hope to hear him speak at an ecumenical conference at the Gregorian university with Cardinal Kasper. Read the full interview with Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, blaming Anglican bishops and not the Pope for keeping the Archbishop of Canterbury in the dark, in tomorrow's Tablet.

In a brief comment piece, fresh from reading Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall on the Tudor dealings of Thomas Cromwell, I dreamed of inspiring some slightly more muscular leadership the Archbishop of Canterbury. But the comments posted already this morning make clear that this dream might be hopelessly naive.

Miles Rowley wrote: 'Surely Cromwell never envisaged constitutional monarchy, let alone synodical government, let alone women bishops. Moreover, he had a very clear policy in mind that he could devote himself to. A modern AoC has to have the dexterity of a juggler, the suavete of a diplomat, but those skills will go only so far in what has now seems to have become a cold and determined war. The CoE is imv too well loved to go under, but its eventual shape is probably anyone's guess.'

We also carried a brief report of one convert who went to Rome when women priests were ordained and came back a year later to resume his Anglican ministry. His sponsor, also a former Anglican vicar, returned as well to Church of England pastoral duties. One of these priests said to me he wished the Church of England's flying bishops, in particular the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, had spent less time flying back and forth to Rome for talks with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and more time looking after their Anglo-Catholic flock at home base.

In fact, more than one in ten Church of England priests who converted to Roman Catholicism over the ordination of women priests has returned to ministry in the established Anglican church.

The possible defection of large numbers of traditionalist Anglicans increased last week when the General Synod committee examining the consecration of women bishops decided there should be no statutory provision for Catholic Anglicans.

Last time, the Synod agreed a generous compensation package, the year after the vote to proceed with women priests in 1992. Since then 441 priests received payments totalling £27.5 million. Of these, 260 went to the Catholic church. Some, although not all, were ordained Catholic priests.

What is less well known is that 33 have now returned to stipendiary ministry in the Church of England.

Others who did not qualify for the compensation but also left have subsequently returned as well, although figures on them are harder to establish because the Church Commissioners has only kept data on those who received the compensation, which covered resettlement grants for these clergy, plus periodical payments which were subject to reduction if and when they started earning elsewhere.

The Rev Peter Bolton, 51, unmarried, who resigned in 1994 and then came back a year later and now ministers in Weston-super-Mare, received a diminishing series of payments for three years.

He believed the Synod did not have the right to make the unilateral decision to ordain women, going against the wider Catholic and Orthodox Church traditions. One member of his congregation at a Victorian neo-Gothic parish church at Royton near Oldham, Lancashire also converted and has also since returned.

Father Bolton was received by the then Bishop of Salford, Patrick Kelly, now Archbishop of Liverpool. He was interviewed by the diocesan vocations officer about becoming a priest but was offended to be treated 'like a 17-year-old.'

He said: 'I thought, I can't do this. I never felt welcome.'

His 'sponsor' was aanother ex-Anglican, under who he served one of his curacies, the Rev Roger Alderson, who had converted to Catholicism two years before and who received no compensation.

Father Alderson has also since returned to Anglican ministry although is now retired. Father Bolton added: 'I could not fault Archbishop Kelly. He was superb. But I never really felt part of the Catholic Church. I remember going to Mass on Sunday morning. In the Church of England, you expect people to talk to you. But in the Catholic Church, not a priest, not a man in the congregation, no-one spoke to me. I felt so isolated and lonely. I recognised that I had really hurt people I loved very much and who loved me. They had stayed and I think they felt betrayed by me. I did not like where I was, and wanted to be back in communion with people I loved.'

He went to a Catholic priest who was helping him, who told him to 'go back home'. Father Bolton said the two churches were culturally different. 'While I desired communion with the Catholic Church, it did not quite seem to happen for me.'

He still opposes women priests and bishops and described the Pope's offer as 'incredibly generous'. He added: 'It is a great idea. Anglican congregations can be in communion with the Holy See without having to become Roman Catholic in England. In practice, I do not see that there are going to be that many who do it.'

His sponsor Father Alderson, 62, who was married with four daughters and who supported himself while he was a Catholic by teaching RE in Catholic schools, said he found the pressures 'intolerable'. His difficulties were compounded when his wife left him. He did not wish to be ordained because he believed it would be unfair on cradle Catholic priests who were not allowed to marry. He loved the 'ordinary' nature of being a Catholic.

'In practice it was not that different from the Church of England.' Once he realised that he also spoke to a priest who was a close friend, who advised him to go back.

He ministered in the Durham diocese until he retired two years ago.

Christina Rees, of the pro-women's ordination lobby group Watch, said many in the Church were thinking of and praying for the Archbishop of Canterbury this week. 'We want Rowan Williams to know that he goes to Rome with the full support and authority of our church and we believe him to hold that authority. Anglicanism thrives on diversity. It is not always easy but it does mean our tradition has been dynamic and our understanding of that is always growing and changing, unlike the Catholic Church which is unable to live with diversity. Truth is more important than unity. That is a message the Archbishop really needs to hear.' (Ruth Gledhill)