Therese Coffey The MP who loves the traditional Mass

INTERVIEW, PAGE 7

Garry Wills My favourite holy place

FEATURE, PAGE 9

Anthony Symondson Leonardo’s amazing studies of the unborn ARTS, PAGE 14

No. 6558

Bishop urges priests to drop the Hail Mary from Masses

BY DAVID V BARRETT

THE HAIL MARY should not be part of the bidding prayers at Sunday Mass, Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton has told his clergy.

Bishop Conry wrote to his priests, saying: “Questions come up again and again about the inclusion of Marian prayers with the Prayers of the Faithful. There should be no Marian prayer at this point.”

But a liturgical scholar has suggested that the use of the Hail Mary may be an acceptable “local expression of prayer”.

Parish priests in Bishop Conry’s diocese have asked those who prepare the bidding prayers to exclude the Hail Mary. “However, this should not in any way undermine the importance of devotion to Mary and we strongly encourage the use of Marian prayers in the home and other non-Eucharistic liturgies,” said the newsletter of the parish of the Nativity of the Lord in Redhill, Surrey.

A spokesman for Bishop Conry said: “Bishop Kieran has recently reminded his clergy that the Hail Mary should not be included in the Prayers of the Faithful in line with the sample prayers provided in the Third Edition of the Roman Missal, the guidance provided by the bishops’ conference liturgy office, and his own previous Guidelines for Prayers of the Faithful issued in 2005.”

The guidelines state: “The Roman Rite does not, in fact, envisage the inclusion of devotional prayers in the Prayer of the Faithful. Following a medieval practice in England, the Hail Mary has been customarily said after the final intercession. Properly understood, a set of prayers directed to the

“

In offering his advice Bishop

Kieran is endeavouring to follow the mind of the

Universal Church

”

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Father, through the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit, contains no obvious place for prayers to the saints. This is why, some years ago, the Holy See wrote to the Bishops of England and Wales advising that such devotional prayer should not have a place in the Prayer of the Faithful. The Holy See asked that the, by then, widespread practice be gradually and gently discouraged.”

Bishop Conry also told his clergy that “when the papal Masses for Pope Benedict’s visit in England were being prepared any set of Intercessions that were sent to Rome that included the Hail Mary were returned with this prayer removed”.

The diocesan spokesman added: “In offering this advice to his clergy Bishop Kieran is endeavouring to follow the mind of the Universal Church and encouraging them to do likewise.”

Prof David Fagerberg, author of Mary in the Liturgy, said that because the practice of including the Hail Mary was widespread in England but not elsewhere, there was a tension between national and universal practices.

He said: “Need things be the same in all countries? In matters of popular piety and devotion, certainly not. But the case of the official liturgy is different. So the question turns on this: is the use of the Hail Mary a local expression of prayer, or does it become a liturgical formula, part of the cultic act of the Church?”

He added: “We have suffered many decades of a false opposition between liturgy and devotion, with some liturgical scholars looking down their noses on Marian devotion. I would hope none of that is involved here.” Editorial Comment: Page 13

CatholicHerald.co.uk

May 18 2012 £1.50 (Republic of Ireland €1.80)

Seminarians go head to head in cup final

THE PONTIFICAL North American College has won the seminarians’ Clericus Cup for the first time.

To the cheers of fans in superhero costumes in the stands, the NAC Martyrs beat last year’s champions, the Pontifical Gregorian University, 3-0, in the final.

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney sat with the US players to lend his support to the sole Australian on the predominately American team. Also cheering the Martyrs on were a pirate, Captain America, Spiderman, Wolverine, a Native American chief, a fluffy chicken and a Ninja Turtle.

Future of the SSPX hangs in balanceBYMADELEINETEAHAN

MEMBERS OF the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) were expected to meet in Rome this week to decide whether to accept the “doctrinal preamble” as modified by the Society of St Pius X (SSPX).

Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the SSPX, signed the preamble set out by the Holy See in April but suggested some amendments, which the CDF was due to respond to this week.

The CDF will then refer its response to Pope Benedict XVI and the dialogue between the Holy See and SSPX is then expected to conclude once and for all, regardless of whether the SSPX is fully reconciled to the Church.

In an interview last week Bishop Fellay said that following the meeting with the CDF this week a split within SSPX was possible.

“There are some discrepancies in the Society,” Bishop Fellay told the American Catholic News Service. “I cannot exclude that there might be a split.”

The Society clashed with Rome in 1988, when its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, ordained four bishops without the authorisation of Blessed John Paul II. The ordinations were a protest against changes in the Church following Vatican II.

Tension among the leaders of the SSPX has intensified following the publication online of private letters between Bishop Fellay and three other SSPX bishops. The letters show that the three bishops – Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta and Bishop Richard Williamson – oppose reconciliation with the Holy See, which might take the form of establishing the SSPX as a personal prelature, answerable to Pope Benedict XVI.

The SSPX general house issued a statement condemning the leak, saying: “This behaviour is reprehensible. The person who breached the confidentiality of this internal correspondence committed a serious sin.” Editorial Comment: Page 13

TYBURN CONVENT

GLORIA DEO A Film Documentary An unique inside portrait of the world of Tyburn Nuns written, narrated and co-produced by the Tyburn Nuns.

GLORIA DEO A Film Documentary An unique inside portrait of the world of Tyburn Nuns written, narrated and co-produced by the Tyburn Nuns. Programme running time approximately 90 minutes

Programme running time approximately 90 minutes

Have you ever wondered what life in a cloistered Benedictine community is really like? Let the Tyburn Nuns transport you to their nine monasteries. From the London streets along which martyrs were once drawn, to Atlantic harbours, Pacific fishing villages and Andean peaks, witness the nuns’ holy life of prayer and work, centred on devotion to the Eucharist, in this remarkable and beautiful film. Filmed and Edited by Michael Luke Davies

2011 Benedictine Congregation Adorers of the Sacred Heart, Tyburn

Special thanks to: Decca Music Group Ltd. for the use of Hayley Westenra’s “Quanta Qualia.”

Special thanks to: Decca Music Group Ltd. for the use of Hayley Westenra’s “Quanta Qualia.”

Tyburn Convent Gloria Deo oooo is available for purchase at Tyburn Convent:

Tyburn Convent Gloria Deo is available for purchase at Tyburn Convent priced £15.92 including postage.

priced £15.92 including postage.

Please send me a copy of the DVD. Name: Address:

Cheques can be made payable to Benedictine Congregation. To order online, please visit our website on www.tyburnconvent.org.uk. Please reply to: Mother General Tyburn Convent, 8 Hyde Park Place London, W2 2LJ Telephone: 020 7723 7262

Hildegard of Bingen is declared a saint 800 years after her death BY CINDY WOODEN

POPE BENEDICT XVI has added Hildegard of Bingen to the Church’s formal list of saints and permitted Catholics worldwide to celebrate her feast day with a Mass and special readings.

The Vatican announced last week that the Pope had formalised the Church’s recognition of the 12th-century German Benedictine mystic, “inscribing her in the catalogue of saints”.

The Pope’s order regarding St Hildegard recognises her widespread reputation for holiness and that Catholics have venerated her for centuries.

In a 2010 series of audience talks about women’s contributions to the Church, Pope Benedict dedicated two talks to St Hildegard. He said that she was a worthy role model for Catholics today because of “her love for Christ and his Church, which was suffering in her time, too, and was wounded also then by the sins of priests and lay people”. In St Hildegard’s time there were calls for radical reform of the Church to fight the problem of abuses by the clergy, the Pope said. But she “reproached demands to subvert the very nature of the Church” and reminded people that “a true renewal of the ecclesial community is not achieved so much with a change in the structures as much as with a sincere spirit of penitence”.

In addition, the Pope noted,

modern Catholics can learn from her “love for creation, her medicine, her poetry and music that is being re-created today”.

The Pope also signed 17 decrees furthering the Causes of dozens of individuals, including 19th-century American Bishop Frederic Baraga and Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, of the Sisters of Charity of St Elizabeth in New Jersey, who died in 1927. Editorial Comment: Page 13

Mother risks her life to save unborn child BY STAFF REPORTER

A CATHOLIC woman has given birth after doctors advised her to have an abortion so that they could treat her for lung cancer.

Daniella Jackson, from Nottingham, was told she must have a termination to allow her lung tumour to be removed before it killed her, but the 21year-old Catholic refused.

Towards the end of her pregnancy she had daily asthma attacks. A month after giving birth to Rennae, now four months old, the mother of two, a non-smoker, had an operation to remove half a lung and has now been declared cancer free.

She said: “I was always determined to have my baby. I felt such a close bond with her, I couldn’t let her go.”

Players join Mancini at Mass on day of victory BY MADELEINE TEAHAN

FOOTBALL manager Roberto Mancini attended Mass with two team players before leading them to victory in the Premier League on Sunday.

Manchester City’s boss, a devout Catholic, attended 7.30am Mass on the morning of Manchester City’s triumph.

Although initially things looked bleak for Mancini’s team in the match against QPR, his players managed to score two goals in injury time, making them Premier League champions.

The parish priest said that the 47-year-old, who recently visited Medjugorje, spent an extra 15 minutes praying at the end of Mass before greeting fans outside the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus in Manchester.

INSIDE

Andrew M Brown Memo to pushy parents: a Lexus isn’t everything PAGE 12

Peter Mullen The Devil was busy at my theological college PAGE 20

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