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FR ALEXANDER LUCIE-SMITH ON WHY THE ROYAL WEDDING MAY RENEW BRITAIN PAGE 8

FREEEIINNSSIIDDEE

THE CATHOLIC HERALD

Easter magazine

APRIL 2011

TOWARDS EASTER

WITH JOHN PAUL II

with Fr Michael Collins,

Anna Arco, George Weigel, Caroline Farrow,

and others

YYOOUURR 2200--PPAAGGEE CCOOLLOOUURR EEAASSTTEERR MMAAGGAAZZIINNEE

No. 6503

CatholicHerald.co.uk

April 22 2011 £1.50 (Republic of Ireland €1.80)

Nearly a thousand new Catholics join the ordinariate in Holy Week

BY ANNA ARCO

ALMOST 1,000 former Anglicans were expected to be received into the Catholic Church this week, forming the first wave of members entering the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Across Britain ordinariate groups were poised for reception and confirmation during a historic week for the newly created ordinariate. During Holy Week the new structure, which was established in January, was due grow from fewer than 20 people to nearly 1,000 members, including over 60 former Anglican clergy.

MAZUR/CATHOLICCHURCH.ORG.UK

Together with Mgr Newton and the ordinariate’s existing clergy, the society will distribute the money to clergy and religious according to their needs during the period between their reception and ordination.

The St Barnabas Society, which was set up to help former clergy from a number of denominations, is funded by donations from Catholic congregations. The organisation helps priests who enter the Church and lose homes and incomes as a result of the move. It spends almost half a million pounds annually to support them.

The receptions were spread out over the week, with most groups being received and confirmed in Catholic parishes on Holy Thursday before or during Evening Mass of the Last Supper. At the time of writing Church officials were making last-minute checks to ensure that all the candidates had been baptised and marriages were valid ahead of confirmation.

The first ordinariate groups were received on Monday evening and were predominantly from the greater London area. Mgr Keith Newton, the ordinary, or leader, of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, received approximately 40 people during Mass at St George’s Cathedral in Southwark on Monday night. They were led by Christopher Pearson, the former parish priest of St Agnes, Kennington.

In Birmingham, Archbishop Bernard Longley was due to preside over the reception around 100 people. They are members of the four groups in Birmingham archdiocese, which include groups from Coventry and Worcester.

The highest concentration of ex-Anglican priests and lay people taking up the ordinariate is in the south of England. The Diocese of

Mgr Newton pictured after the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion of Candidates and Members of the personal ordinariate at Westminster Cathedral

Brentwood had the largest group of receptions in Holy Week with over 250 people expected to join.

Mgr Newton, a former Anglican bishop who was received and ordained in January, said that this Holy Week was especially poignant.

He said: “Until now the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has numbered fewer than 20 people. By next Sunday, as we celebrate the great feast of Easter, it will be close to a thousand. The pilgrimage of faith upon which many of you have embarked this year – the repentance of Ash Wednesday, the desert of the Eucharistic Fast during Lent, and the renewal of reception this coming week – is a model, a type, of every Christian’s journey toward the fullness of faith in the kingdom of heaven. As this year we return once more to the fullness of faith found in Christ’s victory over death we do so in the knowledge that by responding to the call for unity, we deepen our communion with Christ and one another.

“Those of you who will be received into the full communion of the Catholic Church this week, especially for the ordinariate, will be very much in my thoughts and prayers as you take this significant and joyous step. I am looking forward to being with many of you as you make this journey and,

though I can’t be with all of you in person, you should know that my prayers, and those of many thousands, come with genuine love and respect for the decision you are making.”

Mgr Newton asked for those following the historic events to keep those joining the ordinariate in their prayers.

Former Anglican clergy hoping to be ordained as Catholic priests have already undergone mandatory psychological testing. After their reception with their congregations they will continue their preparation for ordination in the period after Easter Sunday. They are due to be ordained at Pentecost, but must then engage in continuing formation.

Meanwhile, the St Barnabas Society has donated £100,000 to help former Church of England clergy joining the personal ordinariate.

In addition to the sum, the Society expects to provide further funds to address future needs. The Society expressed its hope that “the unfailing generosity of the Catholic faithful will underwrite this continuing support for those whom God calls into full communion with the Catholic Church and help to replenish its reserves”.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster said: “It is a very generous gesture and one that will be widely appreciated. It is a concrete expression of the generosity which the Holy Father asked us to show towards those who are seeking full communion in the Catholic Church.”

Readers can support the ordinariate by making out a cheque to “CaTEW (Ordinariate)” and sending it to 39 Eccleston Square, London SW1V 1BX. They should enclose a note with the cheque to indicate that the donation is for the restricted fund for the ordinariate.

Readers can also make a donation to the ordinariate via the website Ordinariate.org.uk. William Johnstone: Page 8 Letters to the Editor: Page 13

Vatican unveils details of Pope’s trip to homeland in September BY JOHN THAVIS IN ROME

POPE BENEDICT XVI’S Septem- ber trip to Germany will include meetings with politi- cal leaders, Lutherans and Orthodox Christians, German Church officials have said.

The German bishops’ conference released the schedule of the Pope’s September 22-25 visit, which will take him to Berlin, and the cities of Erfurt and Freiburg. It will be the Pope’s third visit to his homeland.

The papal visit will begin in Berlin, where he will meet the German president Christian Wulff at the Bellevue Palace. Later in the day, the Pope will address civil and political representatives at the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, and meet Chancellor Angela Merkel. In the evening, he will celebrate Mass in front of the Charlottenburg Palace, the former royal residence.

On September 23 the Pope will fly to Erfurt in central

Germany. There he will meet leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at the Augustinian monastery where Martin Luther took his monastic vows in the early 1500s.

Later, the Pope will preside over an evening prayer service in the nearby town of Etzelsbach.

The next day, the Pope will celebrate Mass in the Cathedral Square in Erfurt, and then travel to the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg. In Freiburg, he will meet Orthodox representatives and hold an evening encounter with young people.

On the final day of his visit, the Pope will celebrate Mass at Freiburg airport, meet with German bishops and address Catholic leaders at the city’s concert hall before returning to Rome in the evening.

The German bishops said that during his visit the Pope will also meet Jewish and Muslim representatives.

Bar opens in honour of Pope John Paul II BY STAFF REPORTER

A BAR named in honour of John Paul II will welcome pilgrims visiting Rome for the late pope’s beatification.

The GP2 bar, short for Giovanni Paolo II, situated beneath the Basilica of St Charles on the Via del Corso, is sponsored by the Rome diocesan office of youth ministry and Catholic Action’s youth section. The pub’s mission statement says it is a place for Catholic youth to gather in a safe environment, enjoy a beer or coffee and share in the joys of being Christian.

The idea for the bar came about after Rome hosted World Youth Day for the Jubilee Year 2000, when an information and meeting point for young people was set up in the basilica crypt.

Priest to defy council ban on procession BY ED WEST

after Brent Council refused them permission.

A LONDON priest was expected to defy his local council’s attempts to stop a traditional Good Friday procession on health and safety grounds today.

Fr Hugh MacKenzie, of St Mary Magdalen church in Willesden, north-west London, said marchers would still walk the 400-yard route

Previously, organisers of the procession had only needed to inform police of their route, but new rules mean they must receive permission from Brent Council. Officials said they banned the walk because they were contacted too late to carry out a “consultation” to close the roads.

INSIDE

Daniel Kawczynski The unlikely scourge of Col Gaddafi PAGE 6

Mary Kenny The benefits of being a minority PAGE 12

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