On the primacy of the Pope

St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. " And so the same is of course true for the apostles. In John's Gospel, Jesus bestows the name Peter on Simon during their first meeting. This name is representative of the gift that Peter will be given as leader of the apostolic college, which is further explained later in John's Gospel when Peter is commanded to "feed my sheep" and in Luke's Gospel where Jesus assures Peter that he has prayed for him so that he will be able to strengthen his brethren.

In his article on the Joint International Catholic-Orthodox Theological Commission, meeting in Ravenna, Italy, Msgr. Daniel Hamilton looks at the primacy of Peter and of his successors in the Apostolic See, that same seat of unity which Father Paul of Greymoor felt so key to the unity of the Church.

Read it at the Anglican Embers web site on the Anglican Use Society site: http://www.anglicanuse.org/AE_2_07_Hamilton-Ravenna-Primacy.pdf

Habemus Papam

The newly elected pope, Jorge Bergoglio, has taken the name Francis. Archbishop of Buenos Aires and Ordinary for Catholics of the Easter Rite in Argentina. Like many Argentines, he is of Italian descent. There is a biography of him on Wikipedia.

Pope makes donation to Ordinariate

Pope Benedict XVI has offered a generous donation to the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham to help support its clergy and work. The Vatican nuncio to Great Britain, Archbishop Antonio Mennini said the gift "is a clear sign of (the pope's) personal commitment to the work of Christian unity and the special place the ordinariate holds in his heart.”

A May 1st press release announcing the donation said that “the gift will help establish the ordinariate as a vibrant part of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.”

Msgr. Keith Newton, who heads the Ordinariate, said, "This gift is a great help and encouragement as we continue to grow and develop our distinctive ecclesial life, whilst seeking to contribute to the wider work of evangelization...

Read the rest at the site of Vatican Radio.

Hat tip to Charles Gilman.

Australian bishop: Have no illusions about classical Anglo-Catholics

By Anthony Barich
Catholic News Service

PERTH, Australia (CNS) -- Traditionalist Anglicans who remain in the Anglican Church rather than taking up Pope Benedict XVI's offer of an Anglican ordinariate are wasting their time and spiritual energy clinging to a dangerous illusion, said the Vatican's delegate for the Australian ordinariate.

Melbourne Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliott, a former Anglican, urged Anglicans at a Feb. 26 festival in Perth to take up the pope's offer of "peace."

"I would caution people who still claim to be Anglo-Catholics and yet are holding back," he told The Record, Catholic newspaper of the Archdiocese of Perth, Feb. 26. "I'd say 'When are you going to face realities?' because there's no place for a classical Anglo-Catholic in the Anglican Communion anymore."

In November 2009, Pope Benedict announced his decision to erect personal ordinariates for former Anglicans who wanted to enter into full communion with Rome while preserving liturgical and other elements of their Anglican heritage, including a certain amount of governing by consensus.

Those coming into the ordinariates are the "last fruits" of the Anglicans' Oxford Movement started in 1833 by Blessed John Henry Newman to restore Catholic identity in the Anglican Church, Bishop Elliott said...

Read the rest at Catholic News Service.

Hat tip to Rev. Kendall Harmon at Titus 1:9.

Every parish to receive image and candle blessed by the Pope

Three thousand images blessed by the Pope will be distributed to parishes in England and Wales as a legacy of the papal visit, the bishops’ conference has announced.

The images, copies of the pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt’s Light of the World, will be distributed to parishes in England and Wales, with 145 being sent to prison chaplains...

Read the rest of this story in The Catholic Herald

Papal Speeches & Homilies in the United Kingdom

The Vatican has posted all the speeches and homilies of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI during his apostolic visit to the United Kingdom. Take the time to read them.

Address to Authorities at Holyrood House
Homily in Glasgow on Religion and Liberty
Address at Westminster Hall: The example of St. Thomas More
Homily at Mass in the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood (Archdiocese of Westminster)
Homily on the eve of the beatification of Newman
Homily at the Mass of Beatification of John Henry Newman
Meeting with the Bishops of England, Scotland and Wales

BENEDICT XVI TO VISIT UNITED KINGDOM FROM 16 TO 19 SEPTEMBER

VATICAN CITY, 5 JUL 2010 (VIS) - Holy See Press Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. released the following declaration at midday today:

"Accepting the invitation of Her Majesty Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, and of the Bishops' Conferences of England and Wales, and of Scotland, His Holiness Benedict XVI will make an apostolic trip to the United Kingdom from 16 to 19 September.

"In the course of his trip, the Holy Father will visit Her Majesty the Queen at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, and preside at the celebration of the Eucharist in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow. In London he will meet representatives from the worlds of politics, culture and business in Westminster Hall, participate at an ecumenical celebration in Westminster Abbey, and preside at a celebration of the Eucharist in Westminster Cathedral and at a prayer vigil in Hyde Park. Finally, he will preside at the celebration of the rite of beatification of Venerable Cardinal John Henry Newman at Cofton Park, Birmingham".

from the Vatican Information Service Daily Bulletin

Benedict XVI after five years: time is running out for a great reforming Pope

Damian Thompson writes on his blog Holy Smoke:

How to sum up the particular vision of Benedict? In an article for Catholic World Report, the Ratzinger scholar Tracey Rowland quotes a line from the 1963 Hollywood film, The Cardinal: “The Church … thinks in centuries, not decades.” Fr Ratzinger is reported to have been a consultant for the film; he would certainly endorse that particular line. As Dr Rowland argues, Benedict wishes above all to lay the groundwork for healing the schisms that have torn limbs from Catholic Christianity, by purifying the worship of the Church in a way that enables Christians who are Catholics at heart to return into communion with Peter.

Read the rest of his thoughts at his blog at the Telegraph.

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet's Pastoral Letter - April 2010: Is RITA right?

FOLLOWING the wonderful Day of Prayer on the Chair of Peter on 22nd February, priests and parishes and people, up and down the country, are considering what the future direction should be for Anglo-catholics. Hardly a day goes by without me being asked by someone for comment. As I write, I am arranging a number of meetings with clergy and lay people to see quite where we are getting to. Meanwhile, in the back of our minds - and not always the back! - are the Pope's offer of an Ordinariate (the very framework which we were asking the Church of England for, and which they have said is impossible), and the forthcoming vote in General Synod in July. It will be the July Synod of 2010, it seems, right at the end of the synodical quinquennium, that decides whether or not to accept the recommendations of the legislative committee, recommendations which (we are already told) will not make proper provision for Anglo-catholics.

Anglo-catholics, for a generation at least, have talked about the priority being reunion with Rome and the Holy See. Faced with an offer from the Pope for a way forward into re-union - indeed the only way forward that will be possible for the foreseeable future - I think we have to consider that route on its own merits. It can't be a 'Plan B' or an emergency exit. It is an invitation into full communion with Peter, who, according to Catholic teaching, is the Vicar of Christ. It is RITA ('Rome is the answer'): 'Plan A' and the front door, for those who want it and understand its importance. And yet there will be plenty of Anglo-catholics who don't want it, preferring their own congregational independence, and some who, on principle, simply do not accept the central leadership role of Peter and his successor the Pope, at least as it is presently exercised. From this it follows that the July vote, however crucial it seems to us, in itself solves nothing. Whatever the result of the General Synod debate, the Holy Father's offer deserves to be considered in its own right. Whatever the result of the debate, those who cannot accept the ministry of Peter should not accept the Pope's offer. Amidst this, it is hard to see anything but a time of division, a 'parting of friends', though, thankfully, no one seems to be heading off to form or join anything new, or smaller: there are enough sects already.

I think the questions every Anglo-catholic need to ask are (1) 'is our understanding of the Church, her Faith, her Orders, and her Sacraments possible within the Church of England? and (2) is it possible (however unlikely it may seem) that the whole of the Church of England will embrace that understanding of the Church, her Faith, her Orders, and her Sacraments? If the answer to either question is 'no', then the Church of England is not part of the Catholic Church as we understand it to be and we Anglo-catholics ought to do all we can to become 'Anglican Catholics', that is, sign up one by one, but in our natural groupings, for the emerging Ordinariate. Those are the issues I am presently thinking through myself, and shall continue to think through as I celebrate the paschal mysteries of baptism and confirmation and the Petertide gift of ordination.

May God bless you as you celebrate the new life of Easter.

The Rt Rev'd Andrew Burnham SSC,
Bishop of Ebbsfleet

Download this letter here.

Hat tip to Christian Campbell.

A Man Sent from God Whose Name is Benedict

TAC Bishop Robert Mercer has written a long reflection that begins with an appreciative sketch of Pope Benedict, but moves into concerns about the implementation of full communion between members of the TAC and the Catholic Church.

“Leading men and women to God, to the God Who speaks in the Bible: this is the supreme and fundamental priority of the Church.”

Three guesses as to who said this. Billy Graham, John Wesley, Martin Luther, or an evangelical Anglican like John Stott of All Souls, Langham Place, London?

No, Pope Benedict XVI.

It’s no wonder that this Pope appeals more and more to evangelical Christians, to Anglicans and to the Orthodox. Some of us have been deceived by the liberal media or even by liberal Roman Catholics into writing him off as “the rottweiler cardinal” or “the panzer cardinal”. But like another elderly pope who came to office late in life, John XXIII, this man is full of astonishing surprises.

For one thing, he wants us all to know and love the Bible as he himself does...

Read the rest of Bishop Mercer's reflections at The Anglo-Catholic blog.

Holy Father to beatify Cardinal Newman...

PRESS RELEASE
16 MARCH 2010, 12 noon

BEATIFICATION OF CARDINAL NEWMAN
BY POPE BENEDICT XVI CONFIRMED

The Fathers and many friends of the English Oratories are delighted by the official announcement that our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI will beatify our founder, the Venerable John Henry Newman, in the Archdiocese of Birmingham during his visit to Britain in September. Newman made his home in the Archdiocese for all his adult life, first in Oxford, where he lived as an Anglican and was received into the Catholic Church, and later in Birmingham itself where he founded and worked in the Birmingham Oratory for over forty years...

Read the rest at Fr. Phillips' blog Atonement Online.

Fessio talk on Pope & Anglicanorum Coetibus available

Christian Campbell at the Anglo-Catholic blog alerts us that the talk recently given by Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J. for the Institute of Catholic Culture is now available.

FRANCIS OF ASSISI, A GIANT OF SANCTITY

This isn't specifically "Anglican Use", but Benedict XVI's powerful teaching about Francis speaks about unity, charism, renewal...all elements that are important in the Holy Father's initiative for reuniting Anglican communities with the Catholic Church.

VATICAN CITY, 27 JAN 2010 (VIS) - Benedict XVI dedicated his catechesis during the general audience, held this morning in the Paul VI Hall, to St. Francis of Assisi (1181/82-1226), a "true 'giant' of sanctity who continues to enthral many people of all ages and religious beliefs".

Francis, the Pope explained, was born into a rich family and passed a carefree youth. At the age of twenty he took part in a military campaign and was taken prisoner. On his return to Assisi he began a process of spiritual conversion that gradually led him to abandon worldly life. In the hermitage of St. Damian, Francis had a vision of Christ, Who spoke to him from the crucifix inviting him to repair His Church.

This call "contains a profound symbolism", said the Holy Father, because the ruinous condition of the hermitage also represented "the dramatic and disquieting situation of the Church at that time, with her superficial faith that neither formed nor transformed life, her clergy little committed to its duties, ... and the interior decay of her unity due to the rise of heretical movements. Yet nonetheless, at the middle of that Church in ruins was the Crucifix, which spoke and called for renewal, which called Francis"...

Read the rest of this report at the Vatican News Service.

Fr. Hunwicke on "Facing Facts"

It is very important that we consider the exact wording of the Apostolic Constitution carefully. After all, God has made us rational beings. But it is even more important that we Anglican Catholics face up to the fact that we are at a historical turning point.

For most of my lifetime, the Ecumenical Movement seemed (I put it like that because it is arguable that it was already flawed and leaky below the waterline) to be going places. However messy things might be, there seemed to be gradual convergence. ARCIC did say some remarkable things; and, at the ground level, there was indisputable liturgical convergence.

The plain fact is that things are now wholely different. The Anglican elite has set out, knowingly, on a path of divergence...

Read the rest of Fr. Hunwicke's analysis of the current state of ecumenical affairs and of Pope Benedict XVI's initiative on his blog Liturgical Notes.

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.