Joseph Pearce Saving a saint’s priceless letters FEATURE, PAGE 8

Robin Baird-Smith Silence makes you happy CHARTERHOUSE, PAGE 20

Julie Etchingham The Church versus the traffickers FEATURE, PAGE 9

No. 6556

Benedict XVI gives £150,000 to Britain’s ordinariate

BY MADELEINE TEAHAN

POPE BENEDICT XVI has donated over $250,000 (£150,000) to the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, in what is described as a “great help” by the ordinary.

The Apostolic Nuncio for Great Britain, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, who is said to have been instrumental in securing Pope Benedict’s assistance, said: “The Holy Father’s gift of $250,000 i s a clear s ign of his personal commitment to the work of Christian unity and the special place the ordinariate holds in his heart. I pray for the continuing success and development of the Ordinariate.”

Speaking after the announcement of the gift, the nuncio spoke of the need for further fund raising: “I urge all those who share our Holy Father’s vision to lend their spiritual and material support to the ordinariate, especially in these early days.” When addressing the bishops of England and Wales at their plenary conference last week, Archbishop Mennini referred specifically to the ordinariate and appealed to the bishops to continue to offer their support and generosity.

He said: “I know that the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has already been mentioned but, this year, as you probably know, Mgr Keith Newton kindly invited me to preside at their Chrism Mass, an occasion which I must say that I found moving and prayerful. Do please continue to be generous in your support of their endeavours. In a time of recession and of diminishing resources we are all finding ourselves

“

The Holy Father’s gift is a clear sign of his commitment to the work of

Christian

”unity

For the latest Catholic education news, visit CatholicHerald.co.uk having to take difficult decisions, and not just financial ones.”

Responding to the gift, the ordinary Mgr Keith Newton said: “I am very grateful to the Holy Father for his generosity and support. This gift is a great help and encouragement as we continue to grow and develop our distinctive ecclesial life, whilst seeking to contribute to the wider work of evangelisation in England and Wales.”

Mgr Newton expressed his gratitude for the Apostolic Nuncio’s vocal support. He said: “The support and encouragement given to us by the Apostolic Nuncio has been very significant.

“We were very pleased to welcome him as the principal celebrant of our Chrism Mass: a clear sign of our deep desire to remain closely united the Holy Father,” Mgr Newton said.

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was established in January 2011 to enable Anglicans to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church. It comprises around 1,200 lay faithful and 60 clergy spread across the Britain.

The ordinariate welcomed over 250 new members this Easter, and two men in their 20s were ordained. Auxillary Bishop Alan Hopes of Westminster will ordain deacons for the ordinariate later this month at Westminster Cathedral.

Although the sum of money donated by Pope Benedict is substantial the cost of running the ordinariate on an annual basis is estimated at £1 million, including the cost of supporting priests’ families. In July 2011 a charity, Friends of the Ordinariate, was established to support the ordinariate faithful.

CatholicHerald.co.uk

May 4 2012 £1.50 (Republic of Ireland €1.80)

Nigerian militants shoot 12 dead at Mass

Blind pro-lifer escapes captivity

NIGERIANS in the northern city of Kano were in mourning this week after gunmen killed at least 15 people attending a Mass.

The attack, the latest in a string of violent incidents against Christians in the predominantly Muslim north, came during a Sunday morning Mass at a school theatre hall. The masked gunmen, who had arrived on motorcycles, threw improvised explosives in drinks cans into the congregation before opening fire on those fleeing the scene.

Security officials suspect the Islamist terror group Boko Haram of being behind the massacre. The group, which aims to establish sharia law in the country, is held responsible for over 1,000 deaths since 2009.

On Christmas Day a suicide bombing of a Catholic church in Madalla, near Nigeria’s capital, killed at least 44 people.

Vatican spokesman Fr Lombardi called the Kano attacks “horrific” and “despicable” and expressed the Holy See’s closeness to the communities who “peacefully celebrate a faith which proclaims love and peace for all”.

BY MADELEINE TEAHAN

AN ITALIAN cardinal has appealed for compassion in the wake of a brewing diplomatic incident, after the escape of a pro-life Chinese dissident from house arrest last Friday, one week before a US state visit to China.

Cardinal Renato Martino, who is honorary president of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute said: “With a decision on Chen’s future likely to be decided in the next week, the Dignitatis Humanae Institute appeals for compassion and mercy for Chen and his family.”

Chen Guangcheng, a blind selftaught lawyer and outspoken critic of China’s aggressive one-child policy, was placed under house arrest in 2010 but managed an incredible escape last Friday with the help of friends and activists and took refuge with the US embassy in Beijing.

As The Catholic Herald went to press, Chen Guangcheng was understood to be at a hospital in Beijing for a medical check-up.

Following the annoucement that Chen Guangcheng was out of the US embassy, China’s foreign ministry demanded an apology from the US, stating their strong dissatisfaction that Chen Guangcheng had been taken to the US embassy by “abnormal measures.”

The 39-year-old, nicknamed the Barefoot Lawyer, came to prominence in 2005 when he filed a lawsuit accusing officials in the city of Linyi in Shandong of forcing women into late abortions and sterilisations.

His activism resulted in a jail sentence between 2006 and 2010 and after his release he was placed under house arrest.

Lord Alton, a crossbench peer who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Dignity said: “Chen Guangcheng and his family have a number of well-known medical issues that would reasonably justify a decision, on humanitarian grounds, to allow them to travel to the United States or Europe for medical treatment.”

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Parents ask diocese to help set up Catholic free school in London

BY MADELEINE TEAHAN

A GROUP OF parents in south London were to meet the Archbishop of Southwark this week to ask him to assist in their efforts to set up a Catholic free school in Clapham.

The Trinity Parents’ Group (TPG) was to meet Archbishop Peter Smith and Dr Anne Bamford, Southwark’s Director of Education, yesterday, to ask for their blessing and assistance. Lay parents who formed the not-for-profit group are pioneering the new school, which will be called Trinity School, under the Government’s free-school policy.

The TPG has been preparing the project for the past 10 months and its aim is to open the school in September 2014. Before that time they need to submit a detailed education plan and a five-year financial business case to the Department for Education. The grou is expecting an answer from Education Secretary Michael Gove by July 2013.

The Government’s freeschool policy is to establish schools on the basis of local demand. Dennis Sewell, chairman of the group said: “There is currently only one co-educational Catholic secondary in Lambeth, Bishop Thomas Grant’s, and that too is heavily oversubscribed. There is already evidence of a significant drift of pupils out of Catholic education.

“Under the free schools legislation, a free school with a faith designation is only able to give preference on the basis of faith for 50 per cent of its places. But this does not mean that Trinity would offer a watered-down version of Catholic education.”

He added: “It has been heartening in all the discussions we have had with non-Catholic parents interested in a new school to hear that they would welcome a school that is wholly Catholic in its ethos and culture. No one is asking us to tone the Catholicity down. Quite the opposite.”

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A D H E 2 0 1 2

Ex-girlfriend of PM enters religious life

BY DAVID V BARRETT

A FORMER girlfriend of the Prime Minister has become a Benedictine nun.

Educated at Cheltenham Ladies College, Laura Adshead met David Cameron at Oxford and dated him for a year in the early 1990s when they were both working at Conservative Party central office in London.

After Mr Cameron broke off the relationship she moved to the US and worked in advertising, but after the highpressure life turned to God and joined the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut, where she is now Sister John Mary.

She said: “You make a decision here to surrender your life to God. This is the only place I could see myself being – because this is where it’s at.”

Pub opens priest hole to public for charity BY DAVID V BARRETT

A PRIEST HOLE in a Surrey pub will be opened up to the public for a day in mid-May.

The priest hole, dating back to Tudor times, is in the Olde Red Lion pub in Cheam.

Previously used as a display cabinet, the hole has a secret staircase behind it which connects to a well at the bottom.

A recusant family, the Fromonds, lived at the nearby East Cheam Manor House and in the early 17th century were in trouble at least twice for “lodging” a Jesuit priest.

As part of the Cheam Charter Fair on May 19 visitors will be able to go inside it for a charity donation. An Anglican vicar was pictured in the local press sitting in the hole with a pint of bitter.

INSIDE

Michael Coren Ten lies about Christianity PAGE 8

Ed West Children change your politics for good PAGE 12

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