THE CATHOLIC HERALD MARCH 2 2012

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More parishes prepare to join ordinariate

Three ex-Anglican clergy and over 200 lay people plan to cross the Tiber in Holy Week

BY ED WEST

OVER 200 former Anglicans are preparing to be received into the Catholic Church through the personal ordinariate in Holy Week.

Events are planned for three parishes in England as the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham welcomes former Anglicans for the second year.

And in Rome last week around 100 members of the ordinariate went on a pilgrimage of thanksgiving, led by the Ordinary Mgr Keith Newton. Anglican hymns, chants and prayers reverberated off the marble walls of St Peter’s Basilica as some members of the world’s first ordinariate for former Anglicans celebrated their coming into the Catholic Church.

Fr Len Black, a Catholic priest who served as an Anglican pastor in the Scottish Highlands for 31 years, said in his homily at the place where the Apostle Peter gave his life that: “Wonderful is not a strong enough word to express how we feel to be here, and where his successors guarded the faith for generations.”

He said that Mass at the basilica and the pilgrimage to Rome generated “a feeling of coming home”.

After celebrating morning Mass last Friday in a side chapel, the group moved to the centre of the basilica and stood in front of the Confessio, the Chapel of the Confession that honours St Peter’s confession of faith that led to his martyrdom, and recited the General Thanksgiving, a traditional Anglican prayer.

Mgr Newton told the American Catholic News Service: “That was very moving, thanking God for all we received this year and for the pilgrimage.”

The week-long Lenten pilgrimage highlighted the season’s call to conversion but was also an opportunity to thank Pope Benedict XVI for establishing a structure for welcoming former Anglicans into the Catholic Church. Mgr Newton also met the Pope at the end of his general audience last week.

The group of pilgrims included a dozen priests who have joined the Church since the ordinariate was established in January 2011 for former Anglicans in England and Wales. This followed the Pope’s 2009 apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus.

Mgr Newton said that ecumenical dialogue seemed no longer to have full and visible corporate union as its goal, and had become more of an exercise in finding common ground and ways to cooperate, while the Anglican Communion fell further away from seeking revealed truth.

He said that Blessed John Henry Newman saw himself engaged in a battle against liberalism, or rather, “that view that it didn’t really matter what you believed, they were all

Members of the ordinariate visit St Peter’s Basilica during their pilgrimage last week Photo: Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham equally important and that there was no such thing as revealed religion”.

Mgr Newton, who was an Anglican bishop, said the underlying motive for him and many others to break with the Anglican Church was “because we believe in revealed truth” and obedience.

The creation of an ordinariate, he said, was a particularly Catholic way of building reciprocity between traditions in which each shares and contributes its own unique gifts with the other.

“That seems to be exactly the way that ecumenism should go,” he said. “It’s the

Holy Father’s vision and we’ve got him to thank for it.”

The ordinariate in England and Wales recently celebrated its first anniversary while the personal ordinariate in America was officially inaugurated in February.

Last Monday Cardinal

Bernard Law celebrated and preached for the group at Santa Maria Maggiore, recalling in his homily the devotion of Anglo-Catholics to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the evening the group celebrated the traditional Anglican service of Evensong in Santa Maria in Trastevere, singing words from the Book of Common Prayer. On Tuesday the Ordinary presided at the Eucharist in San Girogio in Velabro, the titular church of the ordinariate’s patron, Blessed John Henry Newman.

Deacon James Bradley, communications officer for the ordinariate, said of the

Rome trip that “there were particular highlights but more generally it was good for the lay faithful to get to know each other and see the clergy, the size of a parish and spread across Britain. In terms of the laity meeting the officials, it made such a difference.

“The Holy Father greeted us specifically during the general audience, which I know many groups get but it was nice to be recognised nonetheless. We were very warmly greeted.”

He added: “We sang two Newman hymns, and that was a particularly poignant moment. Newman would have never imagined that a group of former Anglicans would be singing his hymns in his church.”

He also said that the trip would have lasting impact on the ordinariate’s members, who are scattered across the country.

He said: “There’ll be a constant getting together now, as fellow Catholics. We’ve now got this process of preparing people in Holy Week for the receptions.” There will be three major receptions in Holy Week, in Darlington, Harlow and Croydon, with a handful of smaller groups up and down the country.

Michael Vian Clark, director of music at the Benedictine Buckfast Abbey in Devon, said he had put together “a scratch choir” out of the pilgrims who came from different parts of Great Britain.

Mr Vian Clark said: “Good music in the liturgy is a slice of heaven. It’s a glimpse to heaven and it allows people to realise that the liturgy and the Mass is a gift which is not of this world.

MPs: rights of Christians are left at the bottom of the heap

BY MADELEINE TEAHAN

EQUALITY LAWS dealing with sexual orientatation have weakened the rights of religious believers, a group of parliamentarians have declared.

In a report by the parliamentary group Christians in Parliament MPs and peers said that since the implementation of the 2010 Equality Act, “early indications from court judgments are that sexual orientation takes precedence and religious belief is required to adapt in the light of this. We see this as an unacceptable and unsustainable situation.”

The report goes on to quote the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, stating: “Christians cannot hang up their faith as they enter the workplace. Thus a culture war has arisen out of primary legislation, which has been left to the courts to settle. And indeed the courts have gone about their business on an unfortunate trajectory that appears on the face of it to have left religious believers at the bottom of the heap.”

The authors of the report include Catholic Labour MP Jim Dobbin and Conservative MP Fiona Bruce.

Although the report asserts that Christians in Britain are not “persecuted”, it expresses fears about the marginalisation of Christian belief since the introduction of equality laws and highlight the need to amend the law so that Christians do not fear arrest for articulating their beliefs.

The report argues that the evidence they received shows there is a “hierarchy of rights” emerging in Britain, where the rights of the individual trump the greater good. It states: “Such a hierarchy involves some groups becoming politically and legally privileged at the expense of other groups. This was identified as particularly prevalent in relation to sexuality.”

The report states that evidence reveals widespread discontent with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

It said: “The evidence presented to the inquiry was overwhelmingly negative about the EHRC. Many saw it as embodying a secular humanist philosophy of equality and to be ideologically biased against religion and authentic diversity. Many submissions suggested that the EHRC was not fit for purpose.”

The report cites evidence of the

EHRC’s financial support for the gay couple who brought a claim against Christians who would not permit unmarried people to share a double room in their bed and breakfast.

It quotes evidence from Aughton-Ainsworth solicitors which states: “The EHRC has been so thoroughly ‘infiltrated’ by an anti-Christian bias that even when the EHRC tries to do the right thing it is ‘hijacked’ and forced to backtrack. In the case of potential Christian foster parents Mr and Mrs John and Derby City Council, the EHRC intervened in support of the council (this was not an Aughton Ainsworth case). Counsel for the EHRC said that Christian values are like an ‘infection’ that could harm children. Following complaints, the EHRC was forced to apologise and print a retraction on its website (March 3 2011).”

But the report also emphasises the importance of proportionali ty from Christian campaign groups in the way they approach issues and present their case.

It said: “The actions of some campaign groups can discredit the Church in Britain and result in perceptions that Christians are seeking unfair exemptions. By bringing highly emotive cases to the fore, they also can add to the feeling among Christians that they are more marginalised than they actually are.

“On some occasions we perceive that campaigning becomes inflammatory or even counterproductive to Christian freedoms. This is due to factors such as: the strategically unwise selection of cases; a distorted presentation of facts for manipulation of the media, and, most alarmingly, the deliberate misinforming of the church constituency in order to motivate support.”

Future of thriving Liverpool parish hangs in balance

BY STAFF REPORTER

A THRIVING parish in Liverpool serving 600 Catholics may soon be closed, it emerged this week.

The parish, St Austin’s Grassendale, is run by Ampleforth Benedictines who are preparing to withdraw later this year.

Abbot Cuthbert Madden of Ampleforth told the parish this week that Archbishop Patrick Kelly of Liverpool, like the Benedictines, faced a “considerable” shortage of priests.

“At this moment,” he said, “I do not know the precise shape of things to come.”

Abbot Madden said there was an “urgent need” for parishioners to offer suggestions to the diocese’s Pastoral Area Working Group about the “future shape of sacramental provision”. These suggestions, he said, can then be passed to the archbishop.

He said that in the coming years Ampleforth Benedictines would be withdrawing from at least five other parishes in Lancashire.

“I need hardly say how sad both the community and I are that we have no choice but to leave parishes we have served for generations,” the abbot said.

Steve Dooley, a parishioner, said he was “staggered” that the parish was under consultation for closure.

He said: “Pope Benedict talks about increasing secularism, but a vibrant parish with five Sunday Masses is going to be abandoned. If this happens, then it is the end for us all. I see no hope.”

Speaking to parishioners, Abbot Madden said that in a meeting with Archbishop Kelly he had impressed upon him two of the parish’s key features.

He said: “Firstly, there is the commitment to the Mass. The Sunday Mass attendance and, even more, the weekday Mass attendance is a remarkable feature of the parish.

“Second, I believe that I have noted your real commitment to prayer and to each other. I am always impressed by the number of people who come before Mass and stay after Mass to pray, and I am impressed by the ministry to the sick and housebound which is another prominent feature of this community.”

Meanwhile, three other parishes in Liverpool may be closed by Easter. Our Lady of Good Help church in Wavertree, St Gregory, Netherley, and St Paschal Baylon, Childwall, are all earmarked for closure.

Parishioner Tracey Hassan told the Liverpool Daily Post that shutting Our Lady of Good Help was “absolutely wrong”.

“Every Sunday that church is full,” she said. “Generations of my relatives have been married there. It’s a lovely, welcoming church.”

Dozens of other churches are reported to be under review.

Minister: we can change definition of marriage

BY ED WEST

THE GOVERNMENT’S Equality Minister has criticised the role of churches in the debate over same-sex marriage, saying that Christians do not “own” marriage. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Lynee Featherstone said the Government had a right to change the definition of marriage and promises to challenge those who “want to leave tradition alone”.

Gay marriage could be implemented by the end of May under Coalition plans, which are supported by Prime Minister David Cameron.

Citing the words of the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, who is a prominent opponent of the Coalition’s plans, she said that how marriage is defined is up to “the people”.

She wrote: “We understand how strongly some religious groups feel about the issue, which is why we are listening and we want to work with them. But there is a range of other views we need to listen to as well.

“I want to urge people not to polarise this debate. This is not a battle between gay rights and religious beliefs. This is about the underlying principles of family, society and personal freedoms.”

Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, said that the Government had no mandate to introduce such legislation.

Athletes to address Catholics at Wembley

BY ED WEST

GOLD medal-winning Olympic athlete Jason Gardener will address a group of Catholic youths at Wembley Arena later this month.

Mr Gardener, who won gold at the 2004 Athens Games and is rated as one of Britain’s alltime best sprinters, will be joined by Paralympian long jump record holder Stef Reid at the Flame Congress, to be held on March 24.

The congress is being organised by the Catholic Youth Ministry Federation (CYMFed) and will be attended by over 7,000 young people from around the country.

Two young athletes from Kenya will also address the congress, as will former Olympians Sister Catherine Holum and Bridget Parker, as well as Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, Fr Timothy Radcliffe and Barry and Margaret Mizen.

The day will also feature prayer, dance, drama, and will aim to promote the Olympic values of “respect, friendship and excellence”.

Fr Dominic Howarth, Flame Congress coordinator, said: “The athletes have each got a story which is really inspiring for young people. Stef Reid had her leg amputated when she was 16 after an accident, and hers is a real story of grit and courage. That sense of discovered faith at a time of adversity will really inspire the young people.”

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