Receiving Former Anglicans

The New Year is going to be very much about the beginnings of Ordinariate, keep it in your intentions.
from Fr John Boyle's Blog

I have heard on the grapevine that five former Anglican bishops, their wives and three former Anglican nuns from Walshinghas are to be received into the full communion of the Catholic Chuch at 12.30pm tomorrow, New Years Day, at Westminster Cathedral.

I presume that the former bishops concerned (and their former dioceses) are: Andrew Burnham (Ebbsfleet), Keith Newton (Richborough), John Broadhurst (Fulham), Edwin Barnes (assistant bishop, Winchester) and David Silk (assistant bishop, Exeter).

Bishop Burns: Paedophiles and Clericalism

One Bishop I know lives in the age of the Inquisition and will happily tell his priests, and anyone else who will listen to him, that complaints have made against them but then will neither tell the priest of the substance of the complaint nor who the complainant was. It can be like Spain during the Inquisition!

The bishops' role is primarily to be the foundation of unity and love within their diocese, principally by being the "Father in God" to their clergy it is sad when he becomes the source of suspicion and rumour.

Here is a rather strange sermon from one of our Welsh bishops, Bishop Tom Burns of Menevia, it starts off reasonably well, if a little confused, then becomes a rant.

Now which was the Roman Emperor who used to publish laws but in a way that no one was able read them? It is full of accusations which are made but not really identified. The 50 plus priests in his diocese must wonder if they are guilty of "clericalism" which he connects directly to paedophilia.
The link was sent to me by one of his priests.
The sermon seems designed to create an air of suspicion and a culture of mediocrity.
The concerning passage begins:

For priests who offended, [through the abuse of minors] I'm not sure that their abuses grew out of the rule of celibacy; abuse happens within otherwise good families too. I'm more convinced that it grew out of the clericalism of the past.

He does not quite identify what he means by "clericalism". He certainly does not identify it as that gross distortion  by his brother Bishops who covered up sins against God and crimes against children. Nor does he see it as that distortion faith by individual priests or bishops under that cover all of abuse of the faith, the Spirit of Vatican II, nor is it the absence of transparency of the Episcopal Conference.

He says, "clericalism risks raising its head today ..." it seems to imply he is having a go at young clergy, especially those who see themselves in the Benedictine and JPII mould!

... among those who again are looking for identity in status, not service. They want to be treated differently. There are those who set high standards of morality for lay people, while they blatantly violate those same standards themselves.

Status rather than service would be very sad but younger clergy seem to identify themselves as first of all serving God and by their service of him, serve their people. Immoral clergy have always been a scandal and Bishops have a duty to root them out. The moral standard is set by Christ and his Church, not by individual priests, except by their sanctity. If he knows of those who "blatantly violate those same standards themselves", which he seems to imply he does, he must act, we have had enough of cover up and double standards.

There are those who go to extremes to express the Mass in a particular way, whether it is in the Ordinary Form or Extraordinary Form, in a so-called VAT II rite or Tridentine Rite, through the "People's Mass" or the "Priest's Mass".

I am not sure what he is saying here, I hope he is not saying that those who care about the Sacred Liturgy are paedophiles or exponents of clericalism. As far as the EF is concerned, how can you go to extremes, it is so controlled?

Some want to put the priest on a pedestal, whilst the people are consigned to be privileged spectators outside the rails.

 Pedestals? Who is he getting at? Doesn't Redemptorist Sacramentum speak quite clearly about people having clearly defined spaces and places in the Sacred Liturgy? Invariably it is laypeople who put priests on pedestals, most priests know they are sinners and hate anything that hints of a pedestal.

Flamboyant modes of liturgical vestments and rubrical gestures abound.

Ah yes, I hate potato printed chasubles, is that what he is talking about? But rubrical gestures? If they are rubrical then they are correct, it is the non-rubrical gestures that is problem.

Women are denied all ministries at Mass: doing the Readings, the serving, the Bidding Prayers, and taking Communion to the Sick.

 If he hadn't mentioned the Usus Antiquior earlier you might think he was talking about that, and of course all the Eastern Rites, where the sanctuary was reserved to men. Any priest has a right to restrict serving to males only and if a priest can take Holy Communion to all his sick, he should praised not linked to paedophilia!

To many in our Church and beyond, this comes across as triumphalism and male domination.

And to many, it might be seen as reflecting the male nature of the ministerial priesthood and an opposition to a particular form of feminism that is becoming rife in England and Wales and seems to be a deliberate move towards encouraging female ordination.

This clericalism conceals the fact that the Church as an institution has often acted in collusion with what I can only regard as structural sinfulness. It has paid dearly for it and is untrue to its humble Founder, Jesus Christ.

I always get worried by those who talk about "the Church as an institution", it stinks of "that Pope", "those Bishops" "that Curia" and as for "structural sinfulness" well, prostitution, slavery and poverty are "structural sins" but structures only become sinful because of sinful people.
There seems to be a bit of that 1970s fallacy that Christ instigated a Church without hierarchy here.

Sr Wendy on Icons

Sr Wendy Becket speaks about a Christmas icon on the BBC at one of my favourite London icon galleries.

Ramsgate moves to Chilworth

There has been news of the move of the Benedictines of Ramsgate to the Chilworth for ages, whilst negotiations were going on but here is the news in black and white. The move takes place in the spring.
Pray it goes smoothly.
I am so pleased they are coming to our diocese.

After 10 months of careful deliberation, the Benedictine monks of St Augustine’s Abbey in Ramsgate, have voted to purchase the Franciscan Friary at Chilworth, Surrey, as their new home.

On 15 October last year, the Community of eleven monks announced their decision to vacate the monastery on the Kent coast which has been their home for 149 years, and to relocate to smaller premises. Only four months after taking that decision, their brief initial search for a new property came to an end when the Order of Friars Minor made public their own similar decision to leave their Victorian Friary on the outskirts of Guildford, and suggested that the building might be suitable for the Benedictines of Ramsgate.

For almost 120 years Chilworth Friary, a Grade 2 listed building designed by Frederick Walters and constructed in 1892, has served as the Franciscans’ Novitiate house, a place of studies for the training of new entrants to the Order. As a purpose-built religious dwelling with its own church and cloister, it seems an ideal location for a monastic Community.

Fr Michael Copps OFM, Minister Provincial of the Friars Minor, commented: “One of the most difficult things I have had to do as Provincial was to come to the decision that we could no longer sustain our house at Chilworth. Most of the Friars in the Province started their religious life there, and have fond memories of a monastic building that managed to be homely, with a beautiful church set in woods on the top of a hill. I had been thinking with horror that it might become a hotel or health spa, until I was shown the information on the Internet that the Ramsgate Benedictines had decided that they had to leave Ramsgate and look for a smaller monastery.

Reading their ‘wish list’ for the place they were looking for, I saw that Chilworth ticked nearly all the boxes. We see it as providential that it is going to continue as a building housing men dedicated to seeking God’s will in living the monastic life. St Francis found shelter in a Benedictine Monastery at the beginning of his calling. Though the Friars are sad, it is good to be helping the Ramsgate Benedictines continue their life in a new home.”

Dom Paulinus Greenwood OSB, Abbot of Ramsgate, concurred saying: “We have been extremely fortunate in finding a suitable new home within such a relatively short period of time, and will always be grateful to the Franciscans for alerting us to the availability of their Friary. Since making the difficult decision to move from Ramsgate just over a year ago, we have been encouraged and supported by the goodwill, prayers and benefactions of many people, and we do not forget them. We feel that this is God’s will for our Community at this time, and hope to forge ahead in the coming months to re-establish our monastic life and witness in this beautiful, tranquil setting.”

Becket: The hooly blisful martir

According to the Ordo today is the "optional commemoration" of St Thomas Becket the Patron of the English Pastoral Clergy, how sad his memory has been laid aside so easily.
Chaucer reminds us of the centrality he had in the Medaeval Chuirch for the faithful

Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

The destruction of every image of Thomas in the country, the erasure of his name from the Missal was one of the first marks of Henry VIII's break from Rome.
Pray today for the English clergy: bishops, priests and deacons.

As a mark of devotion you could watch Becket, which is Youtube here in 15 parts.

Polish Vestments from Zygzak

Zygzak the Polish vestment house sent me their catalogue, their vestments have available for some time in Britain, I have never bought directly from them but their vestments are good quality.



Ambrosian "Hodie in Bethlehem puer natus est"

I found this on Youtude, it is Ambrosian Chant, of which I know little. If you share my ignorance you might find this by the clip's poster micrologus2 useful:

Ambrosian chant (also known as Milanese chant) is the liturgical plainchant repertory of the Ambrosian rite of the Roman Catholic Church, related to but distinct from Gregorian chant. It is primarily associated with the Archdiocese of Milan, and named after St. Ambrose much as Gregorian chant is named after Gregory the Great. It is the only surviving plainchant tradition besides the Gregorian to maintain the official sanction of the Roman Catholic Church.
Ambrosian chant is largely defined by its role in the liturgy of the Ambrosian rite, which is more closely related to the northern "Gallic" liturgies such as the Gallican rite and the Mozarabic rite than the Roman rite. Musically, however, Ambrosian chant is closely related to the Gregorian and Old Roman chant traditions. Many chants are common to all three, with musical variation.
Like all plainchant, Ambrosian chant is monophonic and a cappella. In accordance with Roman Catholic tradition, it is primarily intended to be sung by males, and many Ambrosian chants specify who is to sing them, using phrases such as cum Pueris (by a boys' choir) and a Subdiaconis (by the subdeacons).
Stylistically, the Ambrosian chant repertoire is not generally as musically uniform as the Gregorian. Ambrosian chants are more varied in length, ambitus, and structure. Even within individual categories of chant, Ambrosian chants vary from short and formulaic to prolix and melismatic, and may be freely composed or show significant internal melodic structure. Its most distinctive feature compared with other plainchant repertories is a significantly higher amount of stepwise motion, which gives Ambrosian melodies a smoother, almost undulating feel. In manuscripts with musical notation, the neume called the climacus dominates, contributing to the stepwise motion. More ornamental neumes such as the quilisma are nearly absent from the notated scores, although it is unclear whether this reflects actual performance practice, or is simply a consequence of the relatively late musical transcription.
The Gregorian system of modes does not apply to Ambrosian chant. Although there are no b-flats indicated in the musical notation, it seems likely that they were understood, based on Guido d'Arezzo's description of the "more perdulcis Ambrosii."
Nearly all of the texts used in Ambrosian chant are biblical prose, not metrical poetry, despite Ambrose having introduced Eastern hymnody to the West. Ambrosian chant serves two main functions in the Ambrosian liturgy: to provide music for the chanting of the Psalms in the monastic Offices, and to cover various actions in the celebration of the Mass.

And here is something even more esoteric: A Mozarabic Gloria.