Counting Our Blessings

If God is for us, who can be against us?

I must do some writing for Catholic papers today on last night's excellent Catholic Christian Outreach event where Cardinal Levada spoke, so I must be brief. I posted some pictures from yesterday over at my blog, which I have been neglecting of late. I also put up a link to the article I wrote about the Cardinal's talk on Anglicanorum Coetibus as edited and published by the Catholic News Service in the United States.   So please head on over to take a look, but if you want to make comments, come back here.

Here are a couple of other things to call your attention to.  Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, who is an indefatigable blogger, wrote the following, giving the Traditional Anglican Communion and our Ottawa suffragan bishop a nice mention. Archbishop Prendergast has been most kind and generous to us, even though our cathedral is a humble place and our congregation, in Roman Catholic terms, miniscule.

He writes:

CCO FUNDRAISER FEATURES CARDINAL LEVADA AS SPEAKER

After speaking at the Consecration of the new seminary for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), who are present in our archdiocese at St. Clement's Parish, Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has come to assist with the evangelizing work of Catholic Christian Outreach (www.cco.ca) headquartered at the Diocesan Centre (and on whose board I am pleased to serve).

Last evening he spoke at the St. John Fisher Dinner to benefit CCO at Queen's University on Anglicanorum coetibus, the Holy See's proposal of a Personal Ordinariate (a type of diocese on a larger scale, somewhat akin to military ordinariates) in response to the request by bishops of the Traditional Anglican Church around the world (Bishop Carl Reid heads up a diocese in our city).

The Canadian bishops, I believe, will greet the Ordinariate with generosity.  But Damian Thompson seems to think the opposite will happen in England. He writes:

Reading Australian Bishop Peter Elliott’s magnificent exposition of the Ordinariate plan, I thought (as did many of you): why don’t we hear similarly imaginative responses from the Bishops of England and Wales? Here are two of my fears. Do you share them?

1. The English and Welsh bishops fundamentally don’t like the Ordinariate scheme, so will come up with the least they can get away with.

Someone told me the other day that the TAC has its detractors in Rome, people who say it exists only on paper.  Yet this individual said that they keep meeting members of the TAC who are vibrant and alive.  "Yes, we are small," I admitted. "But the Ordinariates will be like mustard seeds."  I added that when the graces begin to flow through our being part of the Church Catholic, those seeds will sprout and the Ordinariates will flourish.  This individual agreed.  I know we also have friends in the Vatican, including someone special who lives inside the Apostolic Palace.

Yet we can be tempted sometimes to get a little chippy and defensive because of the negative things that have been said about us over the years.  Even in my short time — ten years — as a TAC member, I have seen some elements of the Anglican Communion treat us as the off-scouring of the earth, evil schismatics and cultists who deserve to gnash our teeth in outer darkness until we come back to Canterbury suitably chastened, our tail between our legs, begging for mercy.  Alas, there have been some Catholic bishops who have built warm friendships with Canterbury bishops who have come to share the view that we are insignificant, highly annoying and do not deserve to be welcomed anywhere, least of all as members of the Catholic Church.

But I exhort us to be generous now.  Let us shine with the love of Jesus Christ, confident that, through the Holy Father, God has opened up a way for us to come home.  Last week I attended a lecture on ARCIC talks by Saskatoon Bishop-elect Donald Bolen, who worked for several years in the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity in charge of relations with Anglicans and Methodists.

Over the years, he had developed warm relationships with his Anglican ecumenical partners and they clearly love him and he them.  But upon meeting him for the first time, I realized this about him.  He loves. Period.  This is a man who loves everyone because Jesus Christ is alive and he knows it. There is nothing wobbly about his faith.  He knows what he believes.  But out of that faith, he is generous and kind and welcoming to everyone and consequently everyone trusts him.

He was as warm and kind and welcoming to TAC Bishop Carl Reid, who also attended the event.

Can't we all be like that?  We can afford to be generous now. And that generosity of spirit is what will win people to us. There is no need to be defensive or chippy or snarky (I remind myself!) because God will open up a way for us.  We can rest in Him.

The picture shows Bishop-elect Bolen, who will be installed on March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, as Bishop of Saskatoon.