First Anglican Ordinariate Established in Britain

From Catholic World News

Former Anglican bishops (L-R) John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton stand during their ordination as Roman Catholic priests at Westminster Cathedral in central London, January 15, 2011. Three former Anglican bishops were ordained as Catholic priests on Saturday, to become the first priests of the Ordinariate of former Anglicans to join the Catholic Church, local media reported.  REUTERS/Andrew Winning (BRITAIN - Tags: SOCIETY RELIGION)

The Vatican has established the first personal ordinariate for Anglicans entering the Catholic Church. 

On January 15, as 3 former Anglican bishops were ordained to the Catholic priesthood, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a statement establishing an ordinariate for England and Wales. 

Rev. Keith Newton, one of the three former Anglican bishops, was named by Pope Benedict XVI as the first ordinary. The Vatican statement said that he, along with the other former Anglican bishops, “will oversee the catechetical preparation of the first groups of Anglicans in England and Wales who will be received into the Catholic Church together with their pastors at Easter, and will accompany the clergy preparing for ordination to the Catholic priesthood around Pentecost.” 

Rev. Newton said that the appointment was “not an honor that I have sought or expected but I pray that God will give me the wisdom and grace to live up to the trust the Holy Father has placed in me.” 

The personal ordinariate is a new ecclesiastical structure, established by Pope Benedict with his apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus as a means of welcoming those Anglicans who wish to enter the Catholic Church. The ordinariate will allow Anglican communities to maintain their distinct liturgical and pastoral traditions, while being fully in communion with the Holy See.The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith explained:

A Personal Ordinariate is a canonical structure that provides for corporate reunion in such a way that allows former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their distinctive Anglican patrimony. With this structure, the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus seeks to balance on the one hand the concern to preserve the worthy Anglican liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions and, on the other hand, the concern that these groups and their clergy will be fully integrated into the Catholic Church.

The ordinariate will provide pastoral care for former Anglicans entering the Catholic Church in England and Wales, stretching across the lines of existing dioceses. The new structure will be known as the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, under the patronage of Blessed John Henry Newman. 

The ordinary exercises many of the administrative powers of a bishop. However Rev. Newton, who is married, will not be consecrated as a bishop. The Vatican statement pointed out that while married men can sometimes be ordained to the Catholic priesthood, and the ordinariate allows for married priests, the Catholic Church never consecrates married men to episcopal office. All three of the former Anglican bishops who were ordained as Catholic priests on January 15 are married. 

During the ordination, Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, who presided at the ceremony, said: “We offer a warm welcome to these three former bishops of the Church of England. We welcome those who wish to join them in full communion with the Pope in the visible unity of the Catholic Church.” 

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Erection of a Personal Ordinariate for England and Wales (VIS)
• Pope Benedict establishes world’s first ordinariate (Catholic Herald)
• Press Statement from Keith Newton - First Ordinary (Total Catholic)

Mark Helprin: The Way Out of the Wilderness

Mark Helprin was raised on the Hudson and in the British West Indies. After receiving degrees from Harvard College and Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, he did postgraduate work at the University of Oxford, and he has served in the British Merchant Navy, the Israeli infantry, and the Israeli Air Force. He was published in The New Yorker for almost a quarter of a century, and his stories and essays appear in The Atlantic Monthly, The New Criterion, Commentary, The New York Times, American Heritage, Forbes ASAP, and many other publications here and abroad. A Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal, and former Guggenheim Fellow, he has been awarded the National Jewish Book Award and the Prix de Rome. Translated into more than a dozen languages, his books include Refiner’s Fire, Ellis Island & Other Stories, Winter’s Tale, Swan Lake (with illustrations by Chris Van Allsburg), A Soldier of the Great War, and Memoir from Antproof Case.

Mr. Helprin delivered the following speech at the first annual Hillsdale College Churchill Dinner, held on Tuesday, December 5, 2000, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia.

Mark Helprin

I believe that we are in the wilderness, that we are in the wilderness because of too many lies told and too many lies believed, and that, if left unchecked, this habit of untruth will destroy us.

I was born in 1947, and in my lifetime have seen three American political crises. Of these, two have come in the last two years. Whereas European political crises are almost always about power, American political crises are almost always about truth, which is why Europeans almost always mis-translate and misapprehend us. It is also why Winston Churchill, wholly British and half American, was able to save the West. As a European he understood power, but as an American he brought into history’s consummate struggle for power the idea of truth as the consummate weapon. In those great moments when the world depended on his every word, it underlay every word he spoke. It was the foundation of the nearly metaphysical strategy into which he marshaled the allies to destroy the enemies that had nearly overwhelmed them. It enabled him to see when others could not, to speak when others would not, and to record his times with majesty, elevation, and wit.

It is almost an axiom of the Left that the wound that cleaved America from Europe and in which we found our special nature will heal, and that our political culture will come to tolerate the corruption it was born to put to an end: in short, that, embarrassed by our exceptionalism, we will race to abandon it. Unfortunately, this is true, it is happening on the instant, and it is the source of the crises in our political life that, mistakenly and superficially, we perceive and address as contests of power. But they are not contests of power, they are arguments about truth.

Pope John Paul II to be Beatified May 1

Pope Benedict has set the beatification of Pope John Paul II for May 1.  The following video describes preparations that are already underway to move his body to a new chapel in Saint Peter's Basilica.

US Author Cites New Evidence of Communism's 'War' with the Church

From Catholic News Service
By John Thavis

That Pope John Paul II was a pivotal figure in the fall of European communism is accepted as a truism, but many details of that drama have remained hidden in archives.

A U.S. biographer of the late pope has now provided particulars of what he describes as the full-scale war by communism against the Catholic Church, and Pope John Paul's astute and successful counter-strategy.

The Polish pope displayed political savvy and "a shrewdness that combined steadiness of strategic vision with tactical flexibility," George Weigel told an audience of seminarians, diplomats and Vatican officials at the Pontifical North American College Jan. 9.

One of Pope John Paul's moves, Weigel said, was to appoint as his own secretary of state Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, the architect of the Vatican's "Ostpolitik" efforts to reach workable compromises with communist regimes.

By doing so, the late pope "created tactical advantages for the church: As the pope preached moral revolution over the heads of communist regimes, speaking directly to their people, Casaroli continued his diplomacy, thus denying the communists the opportunity to charge that the church had reneged on its commitment to dialogue," Weigel said.

Do Animals Go To Heaven?

The following was written by our friend, Gregory Benton, and is reprinted  from his spiritually rich and beautiful Piddingworth blog. His essay offers great comfort and hope for all those who have ever loved a pet.

 The relationship between humans & their pets.

Saint Francis of Assisi

'I'm sick and tired of people treating their pets like chldren', the talk-show host huffed, in response to a caller who spoke of taking their dog with them 'everywhere they go'; including dinners at friends. 'Dogs are not children. Leave them at home. The dog wasn't invited!

Of course, one could equally argue that people oughtn't to take their children with them to dinner parties unless they too are invited.

The confusion really is more of the nature of the relationship between the pet owner and the pet rather than of proper manners when replying to a social invitation. Of course, it would be discourteous to one's hosts and any other guests if one arrived with Fido or Pussy unannounced. Nevertheless, it's not Fido or Pussy's fault that their keepers have bad manners. And that leads to an important reality about animals that many either forget or simply do not understand: animals are innocent creatures!

It is perhaps ironic that, in a materialistic age, that in most respects does not recognise the metaphysical nature of creation, allows for things like 'animal rights' or 'pet cemeteries' with an allusion to 'pet heaven'. It is fairly common to find people who deny the nature and reality of their own souls but who 'feel' that their pets will go to 'heaven'. Indeed, it's quite possible in the Creator's scheme of things, that Fido might well be included in the beatititude of joy in heaven whilst his owner is left in the 'doghouse'.

Soul Creation

'Anima' in Latin means 'soul'. All animals are creatures with souls...including humans. This is where the animals 'rights' people find their authority toward advocating that all animals be accorded something akin to the United Nations declaration on Human Rights. Bunnies would, therefore, have a legal right to food, shelter and, one supposes, universal health care run by some union.

200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes

Hat Tip to Brits At Their Best

More about this program: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wgq0l

Hans Rosling's famous lectures combine enormous quantities of public data with a sport's commentator's style to reveal the story of the world's past, present and future development. Now he explores stats in a way he has never done before - using augmented reality animation. In this spectacular section of 'The Joy of Stats' he tells the story of the world in 200 countries over 200 years using 120,000 numbers - in just four minutes. Plotting life expectancy against income for every country since 1810, Hans shows how the world we live in is radically different from the world most of us imagine.

Vatican: Pope May Approve John Paul II's Beatification This Week

From Adnkronos

Pope Benedict XVI only needs to sign a document authorising the beatification of his Polish predecessor, John Paul II. Beatification is a major step towards sainthood.

That document may be presented on Saturday to the pontiff after a miracle attributed to the late Pope John Paul II was approved by both the medical and theological consultants for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints earlier in January, the Vatican said on Wednesday.

The consultants confirmed that French nun Marie Simon-Pierre was miraculously cured of Parkinson's disease through the intercession of John Paul II, who also suffered from Parkinson's and died aged 84 on 2 April 2005. 

One miracle is required for beatification and two are needed for sainthood. 

Prefect of the Causes for Saints, Angelo Amato, is due to present the committee's findings to Benedict on Saturday. If he signs a decree acknowledging the miracle as expected, the pontiff then sets a date for the beatification ceremony, most likely to be held this year.