Saturday, January 15th not only saw the ordination of three former Anglican bishops as Roman Catholic Priests, but also one of them, Father Keith Newton, was appointed by the Holy See as the first Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
Decree of
erection of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham
The supreme law
of the Church is the salvation of souls. As such, throughout its history, the
Church has always found the pastoral and juridical means to care for the good
of the faithful.
With the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus,
promulgated on 4 November 2009, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, provided
for the establishment of Personal ordinariates through which Anglican faithful
may enter, even in a corporate manner, into full communion with the Catholic
Church. On the same date, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
published Complementary Norms relating to such Ordinariates.
Continue reading Decree of erection of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham
From the Website
Abbot Paul Naaman, a Maronite scholar and former Superior General of the Order of Lebanese Maronite Monks, wisely places the study of the origins of the Maronite Church squarely in the midst of the history of the Church. His book, The Maronites: The Origins of an Antiochene Church, published during the sixteenth centenary of Maron’s death, offers plausible insights into her formation and early development, grounding the Maronite Church in her Catholic, Antiochian, Syriac, and monastic roots.
Patriarch Nasrallah Peter Sfeir, 90, the 76th head of the Maronite Church is said to have submitted a resignation a few months ago to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI. The Daily Star has stated this move of Sfeir’s, but the paper has several facts wrong, so the reliability of specifics is questionable.
The lay –and married– canon lawyer Ed Peters wrote a piece indicating the permanent deacons are to be sexually abstinent (continent) permanently. This is the teaching and law of the Church. Men in studies seeking ordination to the Diaconate, that is, to be a permanent deacon, should have been taught this by the formators but lets concede the fact that those in charge of the diaconate program skipped or mis-represented the Church’s teaching in this matter. It is widely seen, however, to an unenforceable church law. Ed Peters quotes the phrase, “perfect and perpetual” from Canon 277 §1 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law to explain the behavior of the permanent deacon. The first premise is paragraph 1, even with the presence of a possible dispensation seen in paragraph 3. The expectation is that all clerics are sexually continent. Conclusion: all men called to holy orders are expected to refrain from sex! The Catholic Church doesn’t have a double standard, one for priests and one for deacons. For the 15K deacons in the USA: amend your life.
Workers at Saint Peter’s Basilica have begun their work to move the body of the soon to be beatified Pope John Paul II from the grottoes to the main basilica. He’ll be moved to the Chapel of Saint Sebastian where currently Blessed Pope Innocent XI (seen left) is resting (he was beatified by Pope Pius XII on 7 Oct 1956). I guess we’re tired of the silver faced Innocent of the 17th century in favor of John Paul II, Pontiff.
“Enlarged
material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of
the soul. When the ‘without’ of man’s nature subjugates the ‘within,’ dark
storm clouds begin to form in the world.”
In the days
since Christmastide mysteries of faith many theological matters come to mind in
knowing Jesus. All of the spiritual masters tell us that it’s crucially
important for us to come to personally know Jesus Christ, our Lord, in his true
light. The image of Christ as a light is reinforced in the baptismal rites
where we talk about the sacrament bringing us into inexpressible light. It is
also recalled in the Creed. Our enlightenment into the mystery of Jesus’
divinity continually needs our reflection, especially when the gospels of the
Transfiguration and the Resurrection are proclaimed. As Jesus is transfigured
and resurrected, so us: are Children of the Light. We know that Jesus really
lives in the light of the Trinity. There, the ultimate grace given by God the
Father is having Jesus revealed to us in his true Light. The recognition
(awareness) of this grace can only be given to those who are willing to ask for
it: “ask and it will be given to you,” the Lord says.
The Maronite Church
proclaims the joy Christmas and the belief in Christ as Light of the Cosmos at
the Sedro for the Sundays of Epiphany:
You have clothed us with your baptism: the robe of glory and the seal of the
holy Spirit. You have called us to be spiritual children through our second
birth in baptism.May the Light of Christ, the Risen Lord, continue to be the Light
of our lives every day; May it
never leave any corners of darkness in us untouched; May the forgiveness and
healing his Light brings fully transform us; That we too, the children of the
Church, may truly become the Light of Christ for the world, as we pray before
the altar at the end of our Eucharistic Celebration.
Many ordinations
have taken place in this Cathedral during the 100 years of its history. But
none quite like this. Today is a unique occasion marking a new step in the life
and history of the Catholic Church. This morning the establishment of the first
Personal Ordinariate under the provision of the Apostolic Constitution
‘Anglicanorum Coetibus‘ has been announced in our hearing. So I too salute John
Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton who are to be the first priests of
the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. In particular I offer my prayers and
best wishes to Keith, chosen by the Holy Father to be its first Ordinary.
Continue reading Vincent Nichols’ homily at the ordination of former Anglicans
In the hours before and after the Holy See’s announcement that the famous Pope John Paul II would be beatified on May1st, lists of reasons John Paul matters have shown up. Dan Gilgoff of the Belief Blog at CNN has a list that in my mind is too thin to get excited about. Numbers 1 and 9 on his list, for example, bear neither weight nor content. There’s Rome Reports’ review of John Paul’s astonishing record and how he changed history. John Allen’s analysis is worthy of our consideration because of the context Allen frames for us.