WORLDWIDE ORDINARIATE

Walsingham was the right place for clergy of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham to meet the three Ordinaries of Australia, the  US and Canada, and our own Mgr Keith. As a bonus we also had with us Fr Tad, from the CDF in Rome, who was able to bring us news of how the Ordinariates are viewed by the Vatican.

USA,  Australia & UK ordinaries: Mgr John Armitage, and Fr Tad of CDF
Photo courtesy of Fr Ellis

There were about forty Ordinariate priests present from England and Wales, together with a number of priests' wives. A scholarly presentation on the theology of Thomas Aquinas was the first major event on Tuesday, after the Noon Mass which we concelebrated in the Shrine Basilica on arrival. Others will post on Facebook and elsewhere and you need to read these to gain a balanced view of the twenty-four hours in Walsingham. For me, the absolute highlight was the morning session on Wednesday when the three Ordinaries and Fr Tad addressed us, and even better responded to our questions and comments.

What struck the loudest chord for me was Bishop Lopes' insistence that the Ordinariate can only flourish,  develop. attract new members and become a real weapon for evangelisation when it has its own buildings. We heard from priests who felt themselves hamstrung by being obliged to another diocese for their place of worship. In private conversation with fellow priests this restriction is plainly a real burden for many. Diocesan priests are afraid their congregation might be attracted to this rival concern of the Ordinariate and some of them go to extreme lengths to ensure this cannot happen. For instance, they run an Alpha course, several Anglicans join in, but they are never even told that there is a local Ordinariate - they have to go through the RCIA, though it is often not the best tool for bringing former Anglicans into full communion.

There are times when Ordinariate pastors have a celebration which would usually be according to the Ordinariate Use, with the celebrant facing East; but because it is a day (perhaps some day of Obligation) when it will be convenient for members of the parish congregation to join them, the pastor is fearful of upsetting the parish priest and so uses Novus Ordo and adopts the bartender position at the altar. Small wonder that many of the catholic laity say such things as 'I don't know whay you can't just be ordinary catholics .. there doesn't seem to be any difference'. Where the Ordinariate has its own building (as in Torquay or Portsmouth) or even where its pastor is also the parish priest, but has some control over the way the building is used, as at Pembury or London Bridge) then catholics begin to see the point of the Ordinariate, and it is able to undertake its real purpose of evangelisation.

We were also profoundly saddened by the revelations of sexual immorality in the Church, and even more by the very inadequate response so far given from Rome. Here the American Church seems to be giving a lead in ensuring that this  is dealt with firmly and consistently.

The challenges of Australia have to do with the immense size of that country, and the distances between Ordinariate groups.Yet there are New Zealanders looking to see the Ordinariate working in that excessively 'liberal' region, and even small beginnings in Japan. Little wonder that, past retirement age, Mgr Entwistle is looking for the day when a younger successor will be appointed.

In the formal question and answer sessions, and in conversations with other clergy and clergy wives, we learned a great deal about the way the Ordinariate works; and why in some places it seems not to work so well. It is a very young plant; the first of us only came into communion with the See of Peter  a little over seven years ago. Under God, we are deeply indebted to all those who have encouraged and supported us, above all our former Pope, Benedict; we still have great support in Rome itself, as Fr Td witnessed. Most of all though it is our three Ordinaries who have borne and are bearing the heaviest burden. They deserve our  thanks - but even more our constant prayers.

A Timely Warning

The past few days I've been on Retreat at the Oratory School, led by the Rector of the Shrine at Walsingham, Mgr John Armitage. Five of the priest retreatants were members of the Ordinariate, which was a good proportion. The addresses were good, the prayer time very helpful, but as always I took a book or two along.

Mgr John Armitage

One of  those (plucked at the last minute seemingly at random from our bookshelves) was Leslie Paul's "Sir Thomas More" - a short biography which my wife had when she was still at school - so it is not in the forefront of  Thomas More scholarship. One paragraph though caught my attention. Maybe it is because years ago I went to Romania with one of our St Stephen's House Ordinands, to attend the ordination of a young Orthodox priest who had studied with us in Oxford for a year. In one of the churches in Brasov was a map of Europe - England out on the edge, at the centre Romania. During that visit we went up into the mountains of Transylvania. All I knew about that part of Europe was the name of Vlad - whom we called "The Impaler". In Romania though he is a national hero, who saved Christendom from the invading Turks.

This came back to me as I read a page in Paul's book  on Thomas More - here it is:
"The Papal supremacy was, in More's eyes, the guarantee of the spiritual unity of  Christendom. It was useless to pretend that the Bishop of Rome was just as other bishops; to assert this was to discredit Christ's word to Peter. And if Christendom rally existed, then it must have a head for the same reason that a country had a prince; the head was either Pope, or General Council, or Pope appointed by General Council. If the unity was broken by denying the papal supremacy, then, no matter what justifications might be produced for it, the victory was one for the forces of darkness.They needed little encouragement. More asserted that the surrender to the 'great Turk' within a nation meant ultimate victory for the infidel who was fighting his way up from Constantinople into the heart of Europe in More's own lifetime; and whose menace was so little understood that one Pope at  least was prepared to make an alliance with the Turks in order to defeat his European enemies, and the Lutherans would rather the Turks had Rome than the Popes.Such was the measure of European folly. The papal supremacy and European unity went together,destroy the one and it would be impossible ever again to guarantee the other; disorder and dissension would increase everywhere, and Christ's church itself be endangered. In disowning his debt to Europe, Henry VIII was turning his back on European civilization, and More was virtually the only layman in England who saw what it all implied for the future."

Hagia Sophia debased with Minarets: so what of St Paul's in London?

We need a new Statesman of More's calibre to tell our politicians that any deal which would let Turkey into the European Union would be madness; that to speak of "Christian Ideals" without mentioning Christ or his Church is purest fantasy; and that we should discriminate carefully which 'refugees' we allow into the country - persecuted Christians first, then other minorities suffering at the hands of Muslims. Remember history.