A Daring Decision Fulfils a Newman Prayer
Feb 8th
The article below appears in the current edition of Faith Magazine. In 1997, Dr. William Oddie, a biographer of G. K. Chesterton and former editor of The Catholic Herald, wrote the then controversial book, The Roman Option: The Realignment of English Christianity, in which he described a possible future development whereby Anglicans abandoned by the Established Church might enter the Catholic Church en masse. Here is an extract from the back cover of the book:
The Church of England’s historic decision to ordain women to the priesthood has forced a dramatic realignment of Christianity in the English speaking world. In the space of five years, it has brough irreversible change into the heart of Anglicanism, and transformed its relationship with the Roman Catholic Church.
In this radical book, William Oddie gives an insider’s account of the origins and possible future development of the ‘Roman Option’, in which disaffected Anglicans seek to move en masse to the Catholic Church, and argues that the Catholic bishops must be ready to respond boldly to the real crisis for Anglicanism which lies ahead…
Of course the Catholic bishops were not ready (and many are still not ready) to respond boldly to this crisis in Anglicanism, and it ultimately took the revolutionary thinking of Pope Benedict XVI to see such a “Roman Option” realized.
In this current article, Dr. Oddie reflects on how the Holy Father and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith boldly sidestepped the “unapostolic” English bishops to finally guarantee to Anglo-Catholics a place of refuge in an often unwelcoming Catholic Church.
My emphases and comments in blue.
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William Oddie FAITH Magazine January-February 2010
A Daring Decision Fulfils a Newman Prayer
I very much hope that Catholics in this country and elsewhere will warmly welcome into our communion the members of the new ordinariates. Nevertheless, in terms of the relations between Rome and the bishops’ conferences affected, the way in which these ordinariates have been invented is disgraceful.
The present Apostolic Constitution is indeed a godsend, but had the Catholic bishops been more receptive of dispossessed Anglo-Catholics, corporate reunion could have been achieved years ago — and reconciled far more Anglicans to the Church than may now be immediately possible. Instead, ideology was allowed to triumph over apostolic mission and the Lord’s prayer for the unity of His Church was ignored. This is a disgrace!
Thus, Nicholas Lash – in, of course, The Tablet - on the Apostolic constitution which has authorised and enabled the setting up of jurisdictions under which Anglicans may become Roman Catholics not individually but collectively. The Tabletatura, of course, hate the whole thing; and they object particularly to the reception of communities rather than individuals, quite simply because far more will come, numerically, under this dispensation than under what previously obtained: i.e., special fast-track arrangements for clergy wanting reordination (this has helped substantially with the shortage of priests) but the old business of “individual submission” for the laity, and off with them to some denatured liturgy at the ghastly concrete Catholic barracks down the road. Quite simply, the Spirit-of-Vatican-ll boys don’t want the converts at all, because they know that they are coming not for the English bishops, and certainly not for The Tablet, which they loathe and despise, but for the Pope. [Precisely.]The Tablet would like smaller numbers to come, one by one, in a way which provides the opportunity to acclimatise them into the kind of reductionist belief-system they favour. Thus The Tablet’s weaselly suggestion that
They do have an alternative …. they could, as countless converts to Roman Catholicism have done before them including many former Anglo-Catholics, apply to enter into full communion through the normal processes. Nowadays that usually means enrolling in the parish-based scheme called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, or RCIA, which includes a rite for baptised Christians who want to become Catholic.
After a journey of faith involving instruction from a parish catechist, candidates follow a series of public steps leading to a ceremony of admission, with others who have made the same journey. … A simple formula of doctrinal assent is required … far less elaborate than adherence to every one of the Catholic catechism’s 2,865 paragraphs which the apostolic constitution envisages.
Why implicitly accept the entirety of Catholic teaching by joining a personal ordinariate (which defines the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a doctrinal standard) when you can recite a simple formula with mental reservations like the rest of your RCIA class?
Well, there you have it: what The Tablet wants for any convert is the half-cock reprocessed seventies Catholicism you get in RCIA (I speak from personal experience) rather than the full-blooded total Catholicism of The Catechism of the Catholic Church (which many of them already know far better than most cradle Catholics).
We’ve recently had a bit of controversy about the appropriateness of RCIA for the reception of Anglicans — indeed any Christians — into full communion. Even when applied appropriately, RCIA is very often deficient — and there appears to be a good deal of defensiveness of the part of some commenters when this fact is observed. Are there good RCIA programs out there? Of course there are. Have Anglicans (or others) being received into the full communion of the Catholic Church had positive experiences in RCIA? No doubt they have. But I would caution our Roman Catholic readers not to form their impression of the state of Church from web sites like the New Liturgical Movement or What Does the Prayer Really Say? These sites often focus on a few — and there still only a few — “showcase” churches. Most parish churches in North America and the UK are a liturgical and catechetical wasteland. If you are in a conservative parish with an orthodox priest where the Faith is taught in its integrity and experienced “in the beauty of holiness,” then you are most assuredly in the minority. Of course the times are changing, and there is a reform of the Reform afoot, but as Fr. Z says, “brick by brick.” There is a very long way to go. There is a reason that The Tablet is keen on subjecting Anglo-Catholics to RCIA: they are fairly certain that it will destroy their faith.
But you can understand The Tablet’s hostility and confusion. The fact is that the whole thing has been an enormous shock: not only to those who hate it all but to those who are still glowing with delight, for whom the words “personal ordinariate” induce not the slightest irritation at the usual graceless Vaticanese but on the contrary, sheer joy at the generous fulfilment the Pope has granted of their deepest hopes : these include many former Anglicans like myself and many more now preparing for the journey they have always longed to make, together with their whole ecclesial community. Of that, more in a while: but first, we need to get back to that extraordinary announcement: extraordinary both in its content and in its timing, as well as in its modus operandi. Why so very unexpected?
“You expect me to believe that?”
Feb 8th
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
889 In order to preserve the Church in the purity of the faith handed on by the apostles, Christ who is the Truth willed to confer on her a share in his own infallibility. By a “supernatural sense of faith” the People of God, under the guidance of the Church’s living Magisterium, “unfailingly adheres to this faith.”
890 The mission of the Magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant established by God with his people in Christ. It is this Magisterium’s task to preserve God’s people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God abides in the truth that liberates. To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the Church’s shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals. The exercise of this charism takes several forms:
891 “The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful – who confirms his brethren in the faith he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals. . . . The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops when, together with Peter’s successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium,” above all in an Ecumenical Council. When the Church through its supreme Magisterium proposes a doctrine “for belief as being divinely revealed,” and as the teaching of Christ, the definitions “must be adhered to with the obedience of faith.” This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself.
892 Divine assistance is also given to the successors of the apostles, teaching in communion with the successor of Peter, and, in a particular way, to the bishop of Rome, pastor of the whole Church, when, without arriving at an infallible definition and without pronouncing in a “definitive manner,” they propose in the exercise of the ordinary Magisterium a teaching that leads to better understanding of Revelation in matters of faith and morals. To this ordinary teaching the faithful “are to adhere to it with religious assent” which, though distinct from the assent of faith, is nonetheless an extension of it.
From a comment on a blog discussing Anglicanorum coetibus:
“Papal Infallibility for me is the dogma that prevents me from joining the Roman Catholic Church.”
In my work with potential converts to the Catholic faith, I can’t remember how many times someone has told me, “I just can’t accept ______” (fill in the blank). It might be the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, papal infallibility, transubstantiation, or some other Catholic doctrine. My response is always, “Tell me what you think the Church teaches about that.” When they tell me, it’s not surprising they’re having trouble accepting it. I wouldn’t be able to, either.
Taking just the matter of papal infallibility, it’s remarkable how many people confuse it with impeccability, thinking we’re claiming that the Pope can’t sin. Or they imagine that it applies to every single thing he says, and every random thought that crosses his mind. Frequently, people have a too-narrow idea of it, not understanding that it belongs to the whole Church, and flows from an adherence to the Magisterium.
Some people think it gives a kind of super-power to the Pope, when in reality it limits him simply to teaching the truth.
So if someone says they can’t accept infallibility, or the Marian dogmas, or any other aspect of the Faith, let’s make sure what they “can’t accept” is what the Church really teaches.
Apologia for Christianity
Feb 8th
One of my favourite quotes from Pope Benedict XVI is in The Ratzinger Report, published in 1985, pp. 129-30:
The only really effective apologia for Christianity comes down to two arguments, namely, the saints the Church has produced and the art which has grown in her womb. Better witness is borne to the Lord by the splendour of holiness and art . . . than by the clever excuses which apologetics has come up with to justify the dark sides which, sadly, are so frequent in the Church’s human history.
A couple of months ago, I sent a few articles to The Anglo-Catholic about the liturgy. I have been somewhat dismayed to find discussions on liturgy bogged down in discussions on how liturgical texts express this or that doctrine. I found some strings of comments on the epiclesis quite boring! I wrote the posting to invite discussion from a strictly liturgical and historical point of view – and much of it swung to apologetics and the usual single-issues.
I would love to see us moving away from “armchair apologetics” and to the contemplation of God through liturgy and beauty. Has anyone read any of Dom Odo Casel’s works? The most well-known has been translated into English under the title The Mystery of Christian Worship. Dom Casel was a German Benedictine monk and died in 1848 as he bore the triple candle on Holy Saturday to the chant of Lumen Christi. He wrote some of the most beautiful theology of the liturgy I have ever read along with Fr Alexander Schmemann.
Has anyone reading The Anglo-Catholic been converted through the beauty of the liturgy, and can you relate your experience?
What American Roman Catholics Can Learn from Anglicans
Feb 8th
This post is reproduced with the gracious permission of Br. Stephen, O.Cist. Please note that the church referred to in the article is home to a “broad church” Episcopalian congregation.
The very Richardsonian Christ Church, La Crosse.
It was a year ago yesterday, long before the announcement of Anglicanorum Coetibus, that I wrote the piece below on what American Catholics might learn from Anglicans.
Much has been written of late about the Anglican patrimony and what it offers to Roman Catholics in terms of liturgy. This piece is a bit broader in that it looks more at what some of us have been referring to as the “Anglican Ethos,” to identify those important intangibles that aren’t as easily cataloged or debated as the more concrete elements of the Anglican Patrimony such as prayers and hymns.
No Alternative Oversight for Faithful Anglicans
Feb 7th
Ruth Gledhill has leaked the statement the Bishop of Manchester is set to deliver to the Church of England’s General Synod on Monday concerning women in the episcopate. In a nutshell, the Revision Committee’s recommendation will be that no statutory alternative oversight be provided for congregations unable to accept women bishops. At best, it seems that any accommodation would be totally at the discretion of the diocesan bishop.
There are some in FiF UK that insist that, before they go over to Rome, this process must be allowed to play out, that perhaps there is yet a future for faithful Anglo-Catholics in the Established Church. Personally, I fail to see how the decisions of the Church of England General Synod enter into the question at all: either Anglicanorum Coetibus is a movement of the Holy Ghost or it is not. Either we ought to be in communion with the Successor of St. Peter or not. But were one to take a less spiritual, more pragmatic approach to things, honestly, does ANYONE really think this is going to end with Catholic Anglicans being able to remain in the Church of England in good conscience?
10. Where have we got to? It was only at our tenth meeting on 26 November that the Revision Committee completed the first phase of its work, namely considering whether to substitute a significantly different approach for the one reflected in the initial draft of the Measure. What we had done in our earlier meetings was to adopt a ‘traffic light’ system of red and amber.
11. Having heard representations in favour of creating additional dioceses the Committee decided before the summer to give the idea the red light. But proposals for a recognised society, some sort of transfer or vesting, or for adopting the simplest possible legislative approach all got initial amber lights, that is to say, we agreed to consider them further.
12. We then did some serious work on these models, particularly to tease out the pros and cons of the society model and to understand exactly what it might mean in terms of who exercised what jurisdiction and on whose authority. After much discussion we came to the point of decision on 8 October. The Revision Committee voted by a clear majority to reject the society option but, by a similarly clear majority to go for the transfer or vesting route. This meant that, in relation to petitioning parishes, certain functions – though the Committee had not agreed which – would be exercised by bishops by virtue of the Measure rather than by way of delegation from the diocesan bishop.
13. We were then confronted with a dilemma over what if anything to say about such a significant decision. We had confirmed at the outset of this exercise that we would not offer a running commentary on progress. Nevertheless, we have no sanctions to enforce confidentiality. With 19 members we are a big Group and in addition there are usually several other Synod members present at our discussions. We were also conscious that people would be attending subsequent meetings and would need to know the changed context in which they were presenting their proposals.
14. So, it was clear that news of what we had decided would get out, not necessarily accurately. After discussion there was agreement across the Revision Committee that the least bad option was to put out a short factual press release.
15. Even with the benefit of hindsight I’m not sure that we could have done differently. But it did, in the event, create difficulty for us and necessitate a further statement when, on 13 November, further work resulted in all the specific proposals for the vesting of particular functions being defeated. The Revision Committee was simply unable to identify a basis for specifying particular functions for vesting which could command sufficient support both from those in favour of the ordination of women as bishops and those unable to support that development.
16. This meant that after more than six months work we had rejected all the options which would have involved conferring some measure of jurisdiction on someone other than the diocesan bishop. The legislation that the Revision Committee sends back to the Synod will, therefore, be on the basis that any arrangements that are made for parishes with conscientious difficulties about women’s ordination will be by way of delegation from the diocesan bishops. That much is already clear.
Read the entire statement below.
Former Seventh-Day Adventist Corrects Anglican Detractors
Feb 7th
Frequent commenter Hugo Mendez, contributor to a unique blog that explores the conversion of Seventh-Day Adventists to the Catholic Faith, has written to inform me of a series of posts he has written to combat the disinformation being spread by certain “Continuing Anglican” detractors of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.
Is the Archbishop of York a “Proper Anglican”?
Feb 7th
With Archbishops like these, who needs enemies? The “Continuing” sectarians claim that those of us who go over to Rome have no right to call ourselves “Anglicans” and now the Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, says that we won’t be “proper Catholics” either! The Archbishop made the following remarks to BBC Northern Ireland presenter William Crawley.
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.”
William Crawley: “Anglican Émigrés?”
Archbishop Sentamu: “(Laughter) Well, if I was a Roman Catholic bishop and I had this group within my diocese being looked after by an Ordinariate whose reference was back to the Vatican, I’d have to ask a number of questions.”
As to the method of “conversion,” Dr. Sentamu is welcome to his opinion, I suppose. Any Anglican desirous of becoming Roman Catholic may go to the nearest Catholic Church, demean himself (Ed. Please see comments #5 and #20 below) by participating in RCIA (which is properly for non-baptized persons even though Christians — including Anglicans — are routinely subjected to it), and be assimilated into the mainstream Novus Ordo culture; he may cease to be Anglican. Thankfully, the Holy Father has recognized the beauty that subsists in the Anglican tradition, and he has provided a means for us to remain truly Anglican whilst being in full communion with the Holy See. The Vicar of Christ desires us to be Anglicans and Catholics. And despite Dr. Sentamu’s provocative statements to the contrary, Anglican Catholics of the personal ordinariates, in union with the Successor of St. Peter and sharing a common faith with the rest of the Church, will be every bit as Catholic as the Pope himself — and for the Archbishop of York to suggest otherwise is truly offensive. Indeed, protected in their faithful Anglican enclaves under the patronage of the Holy Father himself, I suspect that those same Anglican Catholics will stand a good chance of being more genuinely Catholic than many of their brethren who are subject to the corrupting, demoralizing influences of faithless, modernist bishops and priests in the regular dioceses!
The Anglo-Catholic calls upon Dr. Sentamu to apologize for these insensitive, ignorant, and grossly erroneous remarks immediately!
Vital Distinctions
Feb 6th
Last November, I was invited to contribute to the discussions of a “round table” organised by the French traditional Catholic association Reunicatho. About 200 persons turned out to this get-together at the Palais de Congrès, just next to the magnificent Château of Versailles built in the glorious years of the French Kingdom under Louis XIV. As I walked past the magnificent Royal Chapel, I could not help hearing Marc Antoine Carpentier’s Te Deum in my mind.
I did not prepare anything in advance. I merely had the idea that I would give a brief introduction to the Catholic movement in Anglicanism and a positive appreciation of the Apostolic Constitution. As I listened to people’s contributions, priests and laity alike, the more I saw a completely new spirit in the French traditionalist milieu. Of course I write about the part of the traditionalist world that is in communion with Rome and loyal to the Church’s magisterium. There was the Abbot of Randol, an eminent French Benedictine Abbey founded by Fongombault, priests from several dioceses, the Fraternity of Saint Peter, the Institute of Christ the King, several religious communities, from all over. No one from the Society of St. Pius X was present, not that they weren’t invited. I definitely saw a will to pull down the walls of shame, and not a few comparisons were made with the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago. John Paul II brought down Communism, and Benedict XVI is bringing down the causes of disunity and conflict in the Church.
As I listened to the magnificent contributions of Professor Luc Perrin, a specialist in church history from Strasbourg University, Fr. Chanut, a diocesan priest with decades of hands-on pastoral experience and devout laymen anxious for their children to have a proper Catholic education, I began to put my notes together and find inspiration. These are white-hot devout souls, anxious to serve God and the Church they clearly love.
I began by underlining that Benedict XVI is the Pope of Catholic Unity, and Christian Unity, because he is doing everything to give Catholics the traditional Latin Mass they love, reaching out to the Orthodox, and especially laying everything on the line for us Anglicans who want to leave the Reformation mess and bring the positive and Catholic aspects of our Anglicanism into the Church, so that everyone can benefit from it.
Listening to many poignant tales from French Catholics in the dioceses and religious communities, I was struck by the parallel pilgrimage of these traditional Catholics and our years of combat as Anglicans. These are two aspects of a single and same combat for the soul of Christ’s Church. This was an utterly moving experience to come to this awareness!
I outlined the conflicts in 16th century England, against which the combat of Archbishop Lefebvre against the Marxist-inspired rebel clergy of the dioceses was but a mere picnic. We Anglicans have seen this all before, and were doctoring up the Prayer Book to make a Mass of it 150 years before the reform of the reform was ever thought of. Our Anglican priests in the late 19th century, Fr. Mackonachie and Fr. Stanton, among many other heros of those days when Ritualist priests were persecuted, were the precedents of the Mass centres in the 1970’s and 80’s, Archbishop Lefebvre and the seminary of Ecône. I quickly traced the history of the Catholic movement in the Church of England, referring my audience to the many books and web sites from which they can learn a general history of Anglicanism. Those French people have hard heads, and it takes a lot to get the message through!
Then I brought up the subject of the Continuing Anglican Churches, some of which formed the TAC in 1992, and ever since, there has been an off-and-on dialogue with Rome in the person of Cardinal Ratzinger. I described our big meeting in October 2007 in Portsmouth, in that beautiful Victorian church of St Agatha near the Royal Navy dockyard, and our warm relations with Bishop Broadhurst and Forward in Faith.
I see this whole thing with Rome as a kind of triptych: the announcement made on 20th October by Cardinal Levada, the Apostolic Constitution and Complementary Norms released on 9th November, and – finally – the specific response to Archbishop Hepworth and the entire TAC Episcopate that signed the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is now possible to talk business. No one in the Catholic Church is telling us that the Apostolic Constitution is a tablet in stone to take or leave. There will be meetings and talks, and then the final approach to establishing the first Ordinariate like the pilot who finely adjusts the controls of his aircraft before reaching the runway for landing.
It is essential to realise that this is not about us individuals or saving our own vocations and little lives we have built up over the years. This is about the Church and the re-evangelisation of the apostate “post-Christian” western world. We can help this wonderful new movement in the French traditional Catholic world, Tradiland as they nickname themselves, to look for harmony, peace and forgiveness after so many years of conflict fed by a certain unscrupulous sensationalist media. We can also help other movements all over the world who have doggedly kept the Faith, and have also kept Hope and Charity! The Church has been wounded by conflict for so long. We are here to help you. I believe this is our vocation as Anglican Catholics (or Catholic Anglicans if you prefer) in the mission of the Universal Church.
Now, as that sweet day of closeness to the good Summorum Pontificum Catholics remains in my memory, we are still faced with meanness and stinginess in the columns of blogs more or less near the Society of Saint Pius X position. We read from an Italian source that Bishop Fellay said the talks were useless, and that no agreement would ever be reached in human terms. What is wrong with these people? I can give an example of what is wrong, what Bishop Peter Elliott said – They distort the Pope’s offer because they cling to small fiefdoms and purist enclaves.
I see less and less difference between the position of sectarian “classical Anglicans” and the faithful of the Society of Saint Pius X who trash the Catechism and every positive move and piece of teaching that came out of Vatican II. I sometimes wonder what would happen if some of the former category actually met up with the Maurrasian Action Française skinheads from Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet! I suppose it would be like a “friendly” meeting between the supporters of Manchester United and Arsenal after the match and a good number of pints of beer.
Why are people so intent of throwing away the gifts of God’s generosity and that of the first Pope to give us hope in a long time? What do they want, for the Holy Father to pack it all up and say it was a joke? They would say, as did a character in Robert Bolt’s The Mission describing the destruction of the Jesuit missions in South America and the enslavement of the natives – You must work in the real world. And the real world is thus. Do we not cast our mind to some who say on their blogs that Bishop Elliott doesn’t know what he is talking about? Cardinal Altamirano replies – Oh no. Thus we have made it.
I have a feeling that those few who make it home to Holy Mother Church will be those who have understood. Those who stay out in the cold will be those who wanted just that.
While the world disputes, I believe.
Feb 6th
The following prayers are taken from The Private Devotions of Dr. William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Martyr, edited by the Rev. Frederic(k) W. Faber, B.A., Fellow of University College, J.H. Parker, Oxford, 1838, a reprint of A Summarie of Devotions, Compiled and used by Dr. William Laud, Sometime Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Now Published according to the Copy written in his own hand, and reserved in the Archives of St. John Baptist’s Colledge [sic] Library in Oxon., printed by William Hall, anno Dom. 1667.
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Almighty God and most merciful Father, give me, I beseech thee, that grace, that I may duly examine the inmost of my heart, and my most secret thoughts, how I stand before thee. Lord, I confess all my sins, and my unworthiness to present myself at thine altar. But thou canst forgive sin and give repentance; do both, gracious Father, and then behold I am clean to come unto thee. Lord, make me a worthy receiver of that for which I come,–Christ, and remission of sin in Christ: and that for his own mercy sake and thine. Amen.
O Lord, into a clean, charitable, and thankful heart, give me the grace to received the blessed Body and Blood of thy Son, my most blessed Saviour, that it may more perfectly cleanse me from all dregs of sin; that being made clean, it may nourish me in faith, hope, charity, and obedience, with all other fruits of spiritual life and growth in thee; that in all the future course of my life, I may shew myself such an ingrafted member into the Body of they Son, that I may never be drawn to any thing that may dishonour his name. Grant this O Lord, I beseech thee, even for his merit and mercy sake. Amen.
O Lord God, hear my prayers, I come to thee in stedfast faith; yet for the clearness of my faith, Lord, enlighten it; for the strength of my faith, Lord, increase it. And, behold, I quarrel not at the words of thy Son my Saviour’s blessed Institution. I know his words are no gross unnatural conceit, but they are spirit and life, and supernatural. While the world disputes, I believe. He hath promised me, if I come worthily, that I shall receive his most precious Body and Blood, with all the benefits of his Passion. If I can receive and retain it, (Lord, make me able, make me worthy), I know that I can no more die eternally, than that Body and Blood can die, and be shed again. My Saviour is willing in this tender of them both unto me: Lord, so wash and cleanse my soul, that I may now, and at all times else, come prepared by hearty prayers and devotion, and be made worthy by thy grace of this infinite blessing, the pledge of earnest and eternal life, in the merits of the same Jesus Christ who gave his Body and Blood for me. Amen.
Complete Fidelity to the Church’s Magisterium
Feb 6th
On Friday, the Holy Father addressed the bishops of Scotland at the conclusion of their ad limina visit. In a terms reminiscent of his address to the bishops of England and Wales just four days before, Pope Benedict XVI exhorted the Scottish bishops to insist upon complete faithfulness to the teaching office of the Church.
If the Church’s teaching is compromised, even slightly, in one such area, then it becomes hard to defend the fullness of Catholic doctrine in an integral manner. Pastors of the Church, therefore, must continually call the faithful to complete fidelity to the Church’s Magisterium, while at the same time upholding and defending the Church’s right to live freely in society according to her beliefs.
Read the entire address below.
Bishop Elliott Clears the Air
Feb 5th
In his article United in Communion, but Not Absorbed: Understanding the Pope’s Welcome, Bishop Peter Elliott helps set the record straight, confirming the public statements of Archbishop Hepworth and the analysis of The Anglo-Catholic which have been questioned by armchair theologians and Internet controversialists, who, through their own study of the Apostolic Constitution, have concluded that the TAC’s characterizations of the scheme provided by Anglicanorum Coetibus were unsupported by the plain reading of the texts. The Apostolic Constitution, we are told, is but a slightly more generous revision of the Pastoral Provision in the USA, now extended throughout the world — and those who believe otherwise are simply deluding themselves (or else falling into a popish trap!). Bishop Elliott, the delegate of the Australian Catholic bishops’ conference for the implementation of Anglicanorum Coetibus, a former curial official and distinguished liturgist, has gone on the record to support the genuine interpretation of the Holy Father’s most gracious invitation to Anglican Catholics.
The Pastor of the nations is reaching out to give you a special place within the Catholic Church. United in communion, but not absorbed – that sums up the unique and privileged status former Anglicans will enjoy in their Ordinariates.
Catholics in full communion with the Successor of St Peter, you will be gathered in distinctive communities that preserve elements of Anglican worship, spirituality and culture that are compatible with Catholic faith and morals.
The detractors of the Apostolic Constitution interpret the injunctions requiring cooperation between the Anglican ordinary and the local Roman Catholic bishop as the subordination of the personal ordinariate. The local bishop will interfere with the personal ordinariates at every step, they say, preventing their erection wherever he is able, vetoing the decisions of the Anglican ordinaries, and generally making things as difficult as possible. The “converts” will only begrudgingly be allowed to retain a few incidentals of Anglicanism. There will be no honored place for a genuine expression of our tradition in the Catholic Church.
Bishop Elliott echoes the words of Dom Lambert Beauduin at the Malines Conversations: “The Anglican Church united but not absorbed.” We are to have a “unique and privileged status” in the Catholic Church.
Each Ordinariate will be an autonomous structure, like a diocese, but something between a Personal Prelature (as in Opus Dei, purely spiritual jurisdiction), or a Military Ordinariate (for the Armed Forces). In some ways, the Ordinariate will even be similar to a Rite (the Eastern Catholic Churches). You will enjoy your own liturgical “use” as Catholics of the Roman Rite.
This is reminiscent of Archbishop Hepworth’s characterization of the personal ordinariate structure at the 2009 Forward in Faith UK National Assembly.
There will be an Anglican leader who relates to the Holy See on behalf of the Anglican Catholics. Thus establishing a body that is Anglican Catholic as distinct from Roman Catholic, Ukrainian Catholic, Maronite Catholic, or whatever. It’s not a rite but it looks awfully like one…
Legally, the personal ordinariates will be part of the larger Latin Rite, governed by the Code of Canon Law, but the provisions for our unique Anglican liturgical use, elements of our synodical tradition, and our practice of married clergy, for examples, will give the new structures many of the distinguishing characteristics of a ritual church.
There is no “hidden agenda” here, no popish trap! So beware of warnings from certain traditional Anglican bloggers or pamphleteers. They distort the Pope’s offer because they cling to small fiefdoms and purist enclaves – where they do as they wish. Indeed, the Ordinariates come under the discipline of the Church and her laws, but the Code of Canon Law is also a detailed charter of our rights as clergy and laity.
And we know who these folks are, of course… unless… wait… could Bishop Elliott himself be part of the papist plot?
In the end, I am sure that Bishop Elliott’s analysis will prove true. Few of our people will reject the Holy Father’s offer on theological grounds. These are almost always a cover for meaner excuses. It’s much easier to “cling to small fiefdoms and purist enclaves” — where everyone’s a canon, a bishop, or even a metropolitan — than to sacrifice for the unity of Christ’s Church. It’s much less demanding when everyone’s his own pope.
Yet you do not come to the Ordinariates with empty hands. As I learnt forty two years ago, you will lose nothing – but you will regain an inheritance stolen from us four centuries ago. That heritage was largely recovered by the giants of the Oxford Movement. I believe they smile on us now. In these early days, let us keep praying with them, so that together we may patiently work out how Pope Benedict’s project can be achieved.
I do hope we’ll lose a few things, actually. While valuing all that is good and true in the English Reformation, we must forever lose our sectarianism and anything and everything that does not accord with the Catholic Faith that comes to us from the Apostles. Above all, we must lose our pride — and finally submit to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church in humility and with filial obedience to the Successor of St. Peter, to whom we owe a tremendous debt for allowing us to finally achieve that goal of “united but not absorbed” that we have so long desired.
United in Communion, but Not Absorbed
Feb 5th
UNITED IN COMMUNION, BUT NOT ABSORBED
Understanding the Pope’s Welcome
By Bishop Peter J. Elliott
Auxiliary Bishop, Melbourne
AT their November Meeting, 2009, the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference appointed me their Delegate for the Australian project of establishing “a Personal Ordinariate for Anglicans who wish to enter full communion with the Catholic Church”, to use the words of Pope Benedict’s Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus.
Before I explain what this involves, I should introduce myself. I was born into Anglicanism, in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. My father, Rev. Leslie Llewelyn Elliott, was for some time President of the Australian Church Union. While studying theology at Oxford, in St Stephen’s House, I followed my conscience and was reconciled to “Rome” in 1968. I then studied for the priesthood in Melbourne and was ordained in 1973. After parish appointments, work as a bishop’s secretary and doctoral study in Rome, I served for ten years in the Roman Curia, Pontifical Council for the Family. I returned to Melbourne in 1997 to work for Archbishop Pell in preparing the religious education texts, To Know, Worship and Love. Then I served as a parish priest and Director of the John Paul II Institute before ordination to the episcopate in June 2007.
Am I grateful for my Anglican heritage? Yes, I am. Where did I first learn the Catholic Faith? At home, in the vicarage.
Therefore I rejoiced when news of the Ordinariate came from Rome. I have been hoping for something like this for years, having addressed Forward in Faith Australia on the “Roman option” in 2006. As that talk indicates, I never imagined such a generous provision would be made in response to traditional Anglican appeals to Rome.
But what does Pope Benedict’s welcome and offer involve? You have to be clear about this before saying “yes”, “no”, even “maybe”.
The Pastor of the nations is reaching out to give you a special place within the Catholic Church. United in communion, but not absorbed – that sums up the unique and privileged status former Anglicans will enjoy in their Ordinariates.
Catholics in full communion with the Successor of St Peter, you will be gathered in distinctive communities that preserve elements of Anglican worship, spirituality and culture that are compatible with Catholic faith and morals. Each Ordinariate will be an autonomous structure, like a diocese, but something between a Personal Prelature (as in Opus Dei, purely spiritual jurisdiction), or a Military Ordinariate (for the Armed Forces). In some ways, the Ordinariate will even be similar to a Rite (the Eastern Catholic Churches). You will enjoy your own liturgical “use” as Catholics of the Roman Rite. At the same time your Ordinaries, bishops or priests, will work alongside diocesan bishops of the Roman Rite and find their place within the Episcopal Conference in each nation or region.
There is no “hidden agenda” here, no popish trap! So beware of warnings from certain traditional Anglican bloggers or pamphleteers. They distort the Pope’s offer because they cling to small fiefdoms and purist enclaves – where they do as they wish. Indeed, the Ordinariates come under the discipline of the Church and her laws, but the Code of Canon Law is also a detailed charter of our rights as clergy and laity.
The decision to be reconciled through an Ordinariate can only made through following personal conscience, that is, after prayer, study and reflection. This is a step of faith in Jesus Christ and his Church. It involves accepting all the teachings of the Church on faith and morals.
Such a personal assent of faith needs to be formed and informed. To use an Anglican expression, please “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This summarises the Faith “once given”, embodied in one Word of God that comes to us, as the Second Vatican Council teaches, through Scripture and Tradition.
There will be sacrifices, but humility and suffering are parts of a faith journey – and many of you have already suffered much for the sake of conscience.
Yet you do not come to the Ordinariates with empty hands. As I learnt forty two years ago, you will lose nothing – but you will regain an inheritance stolen from us four centuries ago. That heritage was largely recovered by the giants of the Oxford Movement. I believe they smile on us now. In these early days, let us keep praying with them, so that together we may patiently work out how Pope Benedict’s project can be achieved.
Source: The Messenger (www.themessenger.com.au)
The Martyrdom of St. Agatha
Feb 5th
An excerpt of The Life of St. Agatha from The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints, compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275, first edition published 1470, Englished by William Caxton, first edition 1483.
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On the morning Quintianus made her to be brought tofore him in judgment, and said to her: Agatha, how art thou advised for thy health? She answered: Christ is mine health. Quintianus said: Reny Christ thy God, by which thou mayest escape thy torments. S. Agatha answered: Nay, but reny thou thine idols which be of stones and of wood, and adore thy maker, that made heaven and earth, and if thou do not thou shalt be tormented in the perpetual fire in hell. Then in great ire Quintianus did her to be drawn and stretched on a tree and tormented, and said to her: Refuse thy vain opinion that thou hast, and thou shalt be eased of thy pain; and she answered: I have as great dilection in these pains as he that saw come to him that thing which he most coveteth to see, or as he that had found great treasure. And like as the wheat may not be put in the garner unto the time that the chaff be beaten off, in like wise my soul may not enter into the realm of heaven, but if thou wilt torment my body by thy ministers. Then Quintianus did her to be tormented in her breasts and paps, and commanded that her breasts and mammels should be drawn and cut off. When the ministers had accomplished his commandment, then said S. Agatha: Over felon and cruel tyrant, hast thou no shame to cut off that in a woman which thou didst suck in thy mother, and whereof thou wert nourished? But I have my paps whole in my soul, of which I nourish all my wits, the which I have ordained to serve our Lord Jesu Christ, sith the beginning of my youth.
Henry Purcell: Funeral Sentences
Feb 5th
Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay.
In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased?
Yet, O Lord most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts; shut not thy merciful ears unto our prayers; but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, though most worthy Judge eternal, suffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death, to fall away from thee.
– Sentences sung at the Grave from the Book of Common Prayer (as revised by Henry Purcell)
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Here is the March from H. Purcell’s Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary.
What Man Needs Most Cannot Be Guaranteed to Him by Law
Feb 4th
The Holy Father’s Message for Lent 2010 offers reflections on the theme of justice, using as a starting point the affirmation of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, “The justice of God has been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ. (cf. Rm 3, 21-22)”
First of all, I want to consider the meaning of the term “justice,” which in common usage implies “to render to every man his due,” according to the famous expression of Ulpian, a Roman jurist of the third century. In reality, however, this classical definition does not specify what “due” is to be rendered to each person. What man needs most cannot be guaranteed to him by law. In order to live life to the full, something more intimate is necessary that can be granted only as a gift: we could say that man lives by that love which only God can communicate since He created the human person in His image and likeness. Material goods are certainly useful and required – indeed Jesus Himself was concerned to heal the sick, feed the crowds that followed Him and surely condemns the indifference that even today forces hundreds of millions into death through lack of food, water and medicine – yet “distributive” justice does not render to the human being the totality of his “due.” Just as man needs bread, so does man have even more need of God. Saint Augustine notes: if “justice is that virtue which gives every one his due … where, then, is the justice of man, when he deserts the true God?” (De civitate Dei, XIX, 21).
The Gospel shows us the Christ, the Justice of God.
What then is the justice of Christ? Above all, it is the justice that comes from grace, where it is not man who makes amends, heals himself and others. The fact that “expiation” flows from the “blood” of Christ signifies that it is not man’s sacrifices that free him from the weight of his faults, but the loving act of God who opens Himself in the extreme, even to the point of bearing in Himself the “curse” due to man so as to give in return the “blessing” due to God (cf. Gal 3, 13-14).
Read the entire message below.
New Serbian Patriarch Seeks Dialogue with Catholic Church
Feb 4th
The newly-enthroned patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church has called for dialogue to overcome differences with the Catholic Church and is open to the possibility of a papal visit to Serbia in the near future. Even before he was elected, Bishop Irinej signalled his desire to see the Serbian Church improve ties with the Vatican. The 80-year old Patriarch Irinej, a moderate churchman in the very conservative Serbian Church, has proposed 2013, the 1700th anniversary of the promulgation of the Edict of Milan under Constantine the Great, as a “good opportunity … to meet and talk,” saying that, “with God’s help this (dialogue) would continue to overcome what had happened in history and take a new, Christian road.” He has suggested a joint ceremony to commemorate this event, to involve the Pope and Orthodox leaders, and has proposed the Serbian city of Niš, Constantine’s birthplace and his former bishopric, as the location.
The Pope (at least in modern times) has never visited Serbia. Until now, the Serbian Orthodox Church had opposed such a visit, and the Balkan wars of the 1990s largely fought between Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats exacerbated the tensions. The recent past “was not the right moment (for the papal visit) and we decided to postpone it for more peaceful times,” said Patriarch Irinej.
May Light Perpetual Shine upon Her
Feb 4th
In your charity, please pray for the soul of Eudora Campese, the wife of Bishop Louis Campese, Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of the Eastern United States (ACA/TAC), who died quite unexpectedly this morning.
Please pray also for the Bishop’s family, the Cathedral Parish of the Incarnation, Orlando, FL , and all those who love Eudora and have today suffered a terrible loss.
Announcements about Eudora’s Requiem Mass and other arrangements will be forthcoming.
Reflections on Tolerance
Feb 4th
One of man’s greatest difficulties is learning from history. When history reveals what is most grisly, inhuman and cruel about murderous humanity, we tend to go into denial. There has to be another reason for what goes wrong, a class, a category of people defined by their race, culture or intimate convictions. I had a few annoying distractions as I was saying Mass this morning. One was on account of an article I read – Christianity Lite. I find it hard to believe the extent to which we are polarised to extremes, on one hand advocating a merciless and intolerant religion returning to Victorian morals (and hypocrisy), and on the other hand, the revisionist lobby of the Lefty revisionists, based on destructive ideologies, which has alienated us all from the “mainstream” Churches. I was brought to consider that here in France during the first four years of the 1940’s, few resisted the Nazis other than Communists! Some good decent people did what they could, discreetly, helping Jewish people and escaped prisoners to get away from the horrors of the Gestapo and the concentration camps. Others hedged their bets, hoping to escape retribution from the victor at war’s end. Others still made a nice tidy profit from the war!
Archbishop Hepworth so eloquently spelled out in his recent Pastoral Letter:
The healing of religious division has been one of the most welcome features of 20th century Christianity. The great conflicts of the last century between Christianity and communism, and between Christianity and Fascism, that turned that century into one of the most persecuting since the great persecutions of the Roman Empire, diminished the sense of division and emphasised the wisdom of unity.
O blessed Fault that merited for us such a Redeemer! – the deacon sings on Holy Saturday.
One characteristic of Anglicanism, conservative tolerance or tolerant conservatism, comes to some extent from our English philosophy of the Age of Reason, Matthew Locke in particular. The theme was taken up by Voltaire in France and adopted to some extent by Pope Benedict XIV. It is the age-old problem of faith and reason. Since The Anglo-Catholic was set up, we have often had thought-provoking comments from traditionalist Catholics, some of whom would like to see us fit into their mould rather than follow the ideas of the earlier twentieth century ecumenical movement (Lord Halifax, Fr Portal, Archbishop Fisher, etc.).
The problem of religious freedom is a hot and controversial subject, presently a subject of dialogue between the Society of Saint Pius X and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. I cannot and will not presume how this difficulty might be resolved. It is not germane to my subject. Recently, I affirmed that religious freedom is a fundamental human right, but our freedom has its limit where the freedom of other people begins. This is the basis of tolerance, what Diderot in eighteenth century France called the “social contract”. You would be right to observe that I take some of my inspiration from the Enlightenment and the roots of the French Revolution. Surely, that makes me a liberal! No, it does not, because I do not take my thoughts on tolerance to the extent of saying tolerance except to all who are enemies of tolerance. The French revolutionaries said – Liberty, equality, fraternity or death! By that last word, they negated all the three positive words they had uttered.
Prayers of Archbishop Laud for the Church
Feb 4th
The following prayers are taken from The Private Devotions of Dr. William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Martyr, edited by the Rev. Frederic(k) W. Faber, B.A., Fellow of University College, J.H. Parker, Oxford, 1838, a reprint of A Summarie of Devotions, Compiled and used by Dr. William Laud, Sometime Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Now Published according to the Copy written in his own hand, and reserved in the Archives of St. John Baptist’s Colledge [sic] Library in Oxon., printed by William Hall, anno Dom. 1667.
From the Preface to the 1838 reprint:
His martyrdom saved the Church at the time. The evil spirit was cast out; and though outside her walls it raged violently, and did her much harm, yet it was not able then to re-enter, so long as his body lay across the breach. If there are any symptoms in these days of the revival of like spirit, it may bring to our minds very fearfully those words of Jeremiah, (xxvi. 15.) which the venerable Martyr quoted so emphatically on the scaffold:
“But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the Lord hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears!”
Somehow these prayers seem just as apposite today as they were in the 1640s. The “rents of the Church” are indeed grievous and “we have done wickedly,” but let us pray with Archbishop Laud that God will “let not all the trouble seem little before [Him] that hath come upon us” and finally grant unto us the unity that Our Blessed Lord desires. Ut omnes unum sint!
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ECCLESIA.
DOMINICA V. POST EPIPHANIAM.
O LORD, we humbly beseech thee to keep thy church and household continually in thy true religion, that they which do lean only upon hope of thy heavenly grace, may evermore be defended by thy mighty power; and that I may humbly and faithfully serve thee in this thy Church, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gracious Father, I humbly beseech thee for thy holy Catholic Church, fill it will all truth, in all truth with peace. Where it is corrupt purge it; where it is in error, direct it; where it is superstitious, rectify it; where any thing is amiss, reform it; where it is right, strengthen and confirm it; where it is in want, furnish it; where it is divided and rent asunder, make up the breaches of it; O thou Holy One of Israel. Amen.
O merciful God, since thou has ordered me to live in these times, in which the rents of thy church are grievous, I humbly beseech thee to guide me, that the divisions of men; may not separate me either from thee or it that I may ever labour the preservation of truth and peace, that where for and by our sins the peace of it succeeds not, thou wilt yet accept my will for the deed, that I may still pray, even while thou grantest not, because I know thou wilt grant it when thou seest it fit. In the mean time bless, I beseech thee, this Church in which I live, that in it I may honour and serve thee all the days of my life, and after this be glorified by thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
O Lord, thou hast brought a Vine out of Egypt, and planted it (Psalm lxxx. 8.); thou madest room for it, and when it had taken root and filled the land. O why hast thou broken down her hedge, that all which go by pluck off her grapes? The wild boar out of the wood rooteth it up, and the wild beasts of the field devour it. O turn thee again, thou God of hosts, look down from heaven, behold, and visit this Vine, and the place of the vineyard that thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest so strong for thyself. Lord, hear me, for Jesus Christ his sake. Amen.
O Lord, except thou buildest the house, their labour is but lost that build it: and except thou, O Lord, keep the city, that watchman waketh but in vain. It is but lost labour to rise early, and take late rest, and to eat the bread of carefulness (Psalm cxxvii. 1, 2.), if thou bless not the endeavours that seek the peace and welfare of thy Church. Therefore, O Lord, build thy Church and keep it, and take care for it, that there may be no lost labour among the builders of it.
Ecclesia Angl. post Possessiones direptas. O Lord our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God; O thou which keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee that hath come upon us, upon our priests, upon the houses built and dedicated to thy name, upon the maintenance from them that serve at thy altar, upon our kings, state, and people since that day of affliction. Thou art just in all that is brought upon us: for thous hast done right, but we have done wickedly (Nehemiah ix. 32, 33.). Yet, O Lord, have mercy, and turn to us again, for Jesus and his mercy sake. Amen.
The Sacrament of Penance: A Few Thoughts
Feb 3rd
Over the years of his ministry, a priest hears many thousands of confessions. It is one of his great privileges, to pronounce the words of absolution which free a penitent from those chains which have bound him. There is perhaps no other time that the priest feels so deeply the sense of that fatherhood which gives him his title. A child of God speaks the words, “Bless me, father, for I have sinned…” and in the quiet of the confessional the power of Christ is stirred for the renewal of the soul. That which was broken is healed. What was so heavy at the time of coming is lifted. It is its own magnum mysterium as new birth is once more imparted to the penitent. The Divine hears through the human ear. The fruits of Calvary are applied, and it is as though the waters of baptism flow once again over the sullied soul.
In the confessional we are made young again. Just as a child is brought to the font, so the soul is presented to our Lord for Him to do His work. And when it is done, those happy words: “Go in peace, for the Lord has taken away your sins.”
