The first principle of the Ordinariate is then about Christian unity. St. Basil the Great, the Church’s greatest ecumenist, literally expended his life on the work of building bridges between orthodox brethren who shared a common faith, but who had become separated from one another in a Church badly fragmented by heresy and controversy. He taught that the work of Christian unity requires deliberate and ceaseless effort...St. Basil often talked with yearning about the archaia agape, the ancient love of the apostolic community, so rarely seen in the Church of his day. This love, he taught, is a visible sign that the Holy Spirit is indeed present and active, and it is absolutely essential for the health of the Church.

- Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, Homily on the Occasion of his Formal Institution as Ordinary

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Benedict's Trip to Britain: New Details Emerge

October 3, 2009
by Shawn Tribe

From the Catholic Herald today comes a story about the forthcoming visit of the Holy Father to Britain, where it is surmised he might visit London, Oxford, Birmingham and Edinburgh.

Within that story is the expected question of whether the Holy Father would himself beatify Cardinal Newman during the course of his visit:
Some Catholics are hoping the Pope will break with convention and beatify Cardinal Newman himself.
Fr Federico Lombardi, the Pope's spokesman, said such a trip would be an "obvious occasion" to beatify Cardinal Newman. A journalist in the Czech Republic noted that Benedict XVI had previously expressed a preference to allow beatifications to be carried out by the local Church rather than by the Pope. In response, Fr Lombardi said: "We have a year to figure that out."


Read the rest at The New Liturgical Movement blog.

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