Clearing out my desk has made me wistful and a wee bit sentimental. As I pack away books, photographs of Pope Benedict XVI and articles about World Youth Day in Sydney, the Holy Father’s visit to Africa, his social encyclical Caritas in veritate and hundreds of other subjects, I realise again how much his papacy has shaped my time at this newspaper.

Covering a Church under the guidance of Pope Benedict has been a privilege, even in its darkest moments, because the Holy Father continues to take people by surprise. From his first encyclical, Deus caritas est, to his first meeting with abuse victims during his visit to the United States, this Pope is able to say and do things which cut over the din of the media and the often shambolic chatter of his Curia, and change the tenor of public discourse.

When I started on what the Americans would call the “religion beat” a good friend took me aside and told me I was mad. In his opinion I would see so much of the Church’s dark side that I would be in grave danger of losing my faith.

Rather surprisingly, it has had the opposite effect. I belong to the lost generation which grew up before a new Catechism had been devised and which was never properly catechised. Being constantly exposed to Pope Benedict’s “positive orthodoxy”, the emphasis on building a friendship with Christ has taught me so much more about a faith I thought I knew. And the dark side – the suffering that members of the Church have caused, the corruption, the sin – well, that was counterbalanced by getting the opportunity to meet and interview the labourers in the vineyard: parish priests, religious, nuns who hid Jewish families during the War, the dedicated parish Sisters who do the accounts, the lay people, the enthusiastic youngsters who all work tirelessly in the service of Christ.

The Pope’s visit to Britain was definitely one of the highlights. Sleep-deprived as we were at the Herald offices, it was hard not to feel the ebullience, the hope and the joy that Benedict’s visit brought. The beatification of Pope John Paul II was another such moment and a wonderfully poignant final assignment.

Meanwhile, I never expected, when I made my first phone call to the Anglican “flying bishop” Andrew Burnham in 2008, that I would stand as a sponsor to a young former Church of England curate who was received into the Church for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham on Holy Thursday.

Readers, colleagues and the people I have met through work have taught me more about the Church than I thought possible. I’ve also developed an unhealthy taste for religious kitsch and tat, and cannot help myself from buying ever more weird religious figures, rosaries and prayer cards. I really have learned so much in these last three years.

Anna is now editor-at-large of The Catholic Herald

He writes:

Many of the blogs have been buzzing with reports about preparations for the Ordinariate in Canada being “on hold,” as far as the Anglican Catholics are concerned. Some bloggers have incorrectly reported that this was a decision made by the Holy See; others have tried to make the case that the ACCC was having second thoughts about the whole thing. None of that’s true.

Fr Phillips writes that he had the chance to speak to Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins about the ACCC, and sets the record straght. Please go here
to read the full story

Rocco Palmo over on Whispers at the Loggia has also got an interesting post on the United States ordinariate over here. He says the decree establishing it is expected out before the Curia’s summer recess and the US ordinariate up and running by the autumn.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols addressed Universae ecclesiae in the press conference covering the biannual Bishops’ Conference meeting, drawing attention to paragraphs 13, 15 and 19 of the document: which respectively assert the bishop’s authority, define that enigmatic “stable group” and spell out that the Mass in the Extraordinary Form cannot be requested by people who are against validity or legitimacy of the ordinary form or who suggest the Pope is not the Church’s supreme pastor.

When asked whether seminaries in England and Wales would teach the Extraordinary form as is recommended by the Vatican document, Archbishop Nichols answered that this depended on the phrase “where pastoral need suggests it” and said the requirement was “provisional” not “absolute”. He added that the document was the product of a “process of consultation conducted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in which every bishop around the world was asked, how this was going, and was asked to assess to the needs”. The diocese of Westminster, he continued, asked if any priests were willing to learn—and there were “plenty”—and therefore the needs were met.

He said: “Personally I don’t think it needs to be added to an already crowded seminary programme because it’s a skill that can be learned later in a priest’s life.”

Meanwhile there have been some interesting snippets of news for the local Church. As promised the Bishops have followed up their emphasis on Lent as the season of penitence by renewing emphasis on Friday penance. The practice, which was never abrogated—the faithful continue to have an obligation to do some sort of penance on Fridays—has fallen out of use since it was changed from abstinence from meat to any sort of penance. So the bishops hope to remind the faithful about their obligation by restoring the tradition of Friday fish days, to begin on September 16 in commemoration of the Holy Father’s visit last year. This certainly seemed to delight the mainstream hacks at the press conference.

Catholics in this country, who have bemoaned the feasts and Holy Days which have been transferred to the Sunday, will be pleased to learn that this was a topic of discussion during the bishops’ plenary meeting. According to Archbishop Nichols, the bishops discussed the merits of celebrating on the Sunday—allowing more people to take part in the celebration—or on the actual feast which allowed for the rhythm of the life of the Church. No body was pleased when the feasts were moved. Now it seems that bishops are going back to their dioceses to “reflect” on the merits of returning the celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany and Ascension back to their proper days in the liturgical calendar. There is hope.

Another interesting aspect of the meeting was the General Secretary Fr Marcus Stock’s plan for the Bishops’ Conference. Looking at the Church documents which define the purpose of a bishops’ conference and the Holy Father’s talks during his visit to Britain, Fr Stock has listed the principle purposes and core objectives of such a structure. The bishops have agreed on the three priorities he has set “Proclaiming the universal call to holiness in Christ by promoting a culture of vocation in the Church”, “Proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom by supporting integrity in public life, cohesion and mutual respect in society and serving the marginalised an vulnerable people and lastly “Proclaiming Christ and his Gospel as saving truth by fostering and encouraging a culture of dialogue and solidarity”. Fr Stock has been tasked with now creating a practical framework, one which looks at the actual existing structures at Eccleston Square and examines whether they are fit for purpose. He will then propose budgets, allocate funding, set concrete targets and so on for the next three to five years at the November plenary session.

While the objectives are quite nebuolous at the moment it will be interesting to see how this develops. It appears to be the first time the bishops’ conference has gone about planning its objectives in such a structured and organised way. This is something to watch out for and could be very good.

It was Mgr Keith Newton’s first meeting of the Bishops’ Conference as the leader of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and he had to give the first report of the plenary session. He’s very British and funny about the situation. They still haven’t got a principal Church and are still looking to house all the clergy but he remains optimistic.

But this morning we learned that the leader of the Traditional Anglican Communion has thrown his toys out of the pram and warned that the British structure may well be the first and last ordinariate, as negotiations in Canada have come to a standstill.

Archbishop John Hepworth – a flamboyant and outspoken former Catholic turned Anglican who leads the TAC – wrote a letter to Bishop Peter Elliot, a former Anglican who is the Vatican’s appointed delegate for the Australian ordinariate, in which he accused the Vatican’s Canadian point man for the ordinariate of derailing the process. He said he would put talks with the Church on hold. He added that the Canadian development would have an effect on the potential establishment of ordinariates around the world, including in Australia. The TAC is the largest umbrella group for Anglo-Catholic continuing churches around the world who have broken with the Anglican Communion.

He wrote: “I warned you last July that the English Ordinariate may well be the first and the last. That outcome is now more certain.”

The Canadian situation, like the States, is somewhat complicated. Not only is it an alphabet soup of different acronyms for various continuing churches, but there is also internal dissent over the decision to take up the ordinariate.

Added to this, the Church has decided to adopt the process that was used for the ordinariate in Britain, namely requiring the clergy submit to its dossiers for approval and having the people begin a Eucharistic fast while receiving formation and asking them to worship alongside local Catholics. One difference between Britain and Canada (and the United States) is that many of the groups own their buildings, which understandably makes the idea of worshipping in the neighbouring Catholic parish less appealing.

Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto, who was appointed to be the Vatican’s delegate to the ordinariate appointed mentor priests who were due to visit the parishes this month. Before Archbishop Hepworth’s letter was made public, the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, a member of the TAC, asked for these visits to be put on hold.

The TAC’s chief gripes seem to be the idea that these Anglican parishes would be closed for the period preceding reception, that the clergy formation has been considered inadequate by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and that the TAC must cede its property to the ordinariate:

Archbishop Hepworth wrote:

“These priests are to announce, on behalf of Archbishop Collins, that the parishes will close forthwith, that the laity and clergy will attend a Catholic parish for from four to six months, that they will not receive the sacraments during this time, that they will be catechised adequately during this time since any catechesis from the Catechism of the Catholic Church done by the Traditional Anglican Communion is inadequate because only Catholics understand the Catechism, that the dossiers submitted by Traditional Anglican Communion clergy show an inadequate training since they have not attended Anglican Communion Theological Colleges, and therefore those selected by the Ordinary and approved by the CDF will have to attend a Catholic Seminary for an as yet unspecified time, at the end of this process, new parishes for Anglicans along the lines of the Anglican Use in the United States may be established, but not necessarily in the former Traditional Anglican Communion churches, and that during this process the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) must cede its property to the Ordinariate.”

Given the situation, there is some speculation that Canadian groups still wanting to take up the ordinariate despite the TAC grumblings may be included in a US ordinariate. Archbishop Hepworth’s railing seems unlikely to derail American progress. The new ordinariate does not appear to be dependent on the TAC’s good will as it is set to include already existing Anglican-use parishes which had taken advantage of the already existing pastoral provision as well as individual groups of continuing churches.

My first few impressions of the Vatican blogmeet follow. There may be a later analysis piece about the Church, web 2.0 and the new media generally if I can find the time to think about it more deeply.

It was a thrill to meet the fellow travellers in the Catholic blogosphere, even if the Vatican conference was not about Catholic blogging but about the Church engaging with blogging in general. The brainchild of Richard Rouse of the Pontifical Council for Culture – apologies again to Richard for taking his name in vain in an earlier post—the blogging conference was a joint effort between his department and the Pontifical Council for Social Communication, but apparently had input from the different parts of the Vatican’s communications branches.

The first half of the conference featured bloggers: including a wonderfully Benedictine talk (in the tradition of the OSB and also B16) by Elizabeth Scalia which you can find here, one by Fr Roderick Vonhogen who started to blog about Starwars but was soon using the internet to evangelise, and an interesting talk by Francois Jeanne-Beylot who said that the blogosphere was somewhere where people were all trying to shout the loudest and that Catholics had something worth shouting loudly about.

The second half, chaired by La Civilta Cattolica’s cultural editor Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ, featured the institutional panel, which opened with remarks by the director of the Sala Stampa, Fr Federico Lombardi SJ. The speakers were all very positive about blogs and the blogosphere (OSV has a report here).

Thomas Peters, the American Papist who runs CatholicVote over in the States, got up and asked when the Vatican would give bloggers accreditation. James Bradley, a young member of the Ordinariate who runs the Ordinariate Portal tweeted in reply: “Can’t bloggers just apply for accreditation?”

Mr Peters’ question and comments by Fr Lombardi about the Vatican Information Service’s blog illustrated one of the problems, which hampered the discussion: namely that the term “blog” was never defined. It seemed to me that for the members of the institutional panel, including Fr Lombardi, a blog was predominantly a source of alternative news as provided by the excellent Rocco Palmo who was chairing the first panel or Paolo Rodari, an expert Vaticanista and journalist who provides news and analysis. Their impression was probably not vastly helped by the presence of quite a few journalist bloggers (yes, your ‘onour, guilty as charged). Fr Spadaro’s Cyberteologia was the exception.

We all know the blogosphere is a whole lot more complex—which is something that was made clear in the speeches of the first panel but then not really taken up again later—there are news blogs, opinion blogs, evangelisation blogs, humorous blogs, blogs which describe religious life or offer a take on daily life.

Fr Lombardi did allude to personal aspect of the blog when he began speaking. The personal side of a blog is both its strength and weakness in terms of the Church’s ability to harness the energy of the bloggers who write about their personal lives, their thoughts and their faith. Something I’ve been thinking about a lot became clearer as the result of the meeting. I think that it is probably impossible for the institutional communications structures of the Church to use the blog effectively— precisely because the official structures of the Church must by definition represent something, must by definition, be magisterial.

And yet, the blog—even if it was declared passé by Wired Magazine as long ago as 2008—has had an incredible impact on the Church’s ability to communicate with people on the outside.

This is why the news, presented by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications’ Thaddeus Jones, of a new Vatican website, which gathers the Vatican’s different sources of communication in one place, is brilliant. When it is launched in a month or so, it will help bloggers communicate about the Church better because the information will be more easily accessible.

According to Beylot, French bloggers were quoted more in the French press in the last year than the official spokesman of the Catholic bishops.

A recent article in The Economist described the vibrancy entrepreneurship and enthusiasm of the young French IT sector, which was evident in the attitudes of those who took part in the conference. The French bloggers who I met at the conference: Fr Stephane Lemessin, Sophie LeBrun , Gwenola de Coutard and Paul who writes a Theology of the Body blog, bear testament to that. They are organised and joyous. French Catholic bloggers have a network of Sacristains, which is effectively a group blog. They may not agree on everything but have hefty and friendly debates and continue to use the web to evangelise. The Fraternity of the Apostles of Saint Medard, a group of young Catholic bloggers and tweeters who like beer, hosts regular meetings.

The Vatican’s blogging meeting has provided a starting point, a meeting place between the bloggers and the Church’s communications’ media. I shall be curious to see where it goes—if there is another Vatican sponsored meeting of bloggers and users of web 2.0, I hope we will see friends from Africa. They were missed.

There are Polish flags everywhere, bobbing over the umbrellas and plastic rain slickers, while young Polish pilgrims sing songs with drums and tambourines. There are more different orders of nuns and religious than I have ever seen in one place at one time. People have taken their rucksacks, sleeping bags, mats, bottles of water with them on their backs. Although there are young and old, the number of young people who seem to be in the different groups is surprising, though given how much the late John Paul II did for the young it should probably not be.

Just from the languages I’m hearing on the streets it seems that the majority of foreign pilgrims are Poles, followed by the French, Spanish and Germans. There also a number of African pilgrims and I’ve spotted a couple of groups of young people from the Philippines. St Peter’s Basilica will be cleared for preparation from 13:00 and much of the area around will be closed. The religious tat sellers are having a field day. John Paul II’s face is everywhere – on posters around Rome – on mugs, flags, T-shirts.

There is no clear figure on the numbers. The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi apparently expects three million pilgrims while an insider told me Vatican officials are now expecting around two million pilgrims but that it is likely to be closer to 1.25 million pilgrims plus around 250,000 Romans.

At least 16 heads of state are attending the beatification and a Vatican official said that there were 87 delegations from around the world who were taking part in tomorrow’s ceremonies. Five of Europe’s reigning houses will be represented with the Duke of Gloucester fresh from the Royal Wedding, the Spanish Crown Prince Felipe with his wife, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, his wife and hereditary prince, the Prince of Liechtenstein and the King Albert and Queen Paola of Belgium.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor flew in from London this morning having attended the Royal Wedding yesterday while Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham and Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds were already in Rome yesterday.

Zimbabwe’s infamous President Robert Mugabe, who once had a stint in a seminary, has also travelled to Rome for the beatification, despite an EU travel ban.

The atmosphere is pretty amazing even though official events don’t start for another eight hours, with tonight’s prayer vigil in the Circo Massimo which will be led by the Vicar General of Rome Cardinal Agostino Vallini.The late pope’s communications director Dr Joaquin Navarro-Valls will be speaking about working with Pope John Paul II, while Sister Marie Simon Pierre, the nun who was miraculously cured through the intercession of the late pope, will also give her testimony. Then eight Roman churches will be open all night for a White Night of Prayer. At 5:30am tomorrow St Peter’s Square will open for pilgrims attending the beatification.
Vatican Radio has released useful numbers for pilgrims, here

Mgr Andrew Burnham, the former Anglican bishop of Ebbsfleet, preached at the reception at the Oxford Oratory. His homily outlined two future scenarios for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham: one in which the structure would be simply forgotten with the passage of time, the other one in which the ordinariate played an important role in enriching the Church through the mutual exchange of gifts. It was a very interesting homily, so here it is in full:

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?’ Matthew 26:17

The visit of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict, last September continues to inspire us and, this Easter, unsurprisingly, the Catholic Church in this country has the largest number of recruits for some time. Many of these will be baptised and confirmed at the Easter Vigil, in cathedrals and churches up and down the land, and, of those baptised, most will be converts to Christianity as well as converts to the Catholic Faith. The Pope, reflecting on his visit, remarked how ‘deep a thirst there is among the British people for the Good News of Jesus Christ’.

What has undoubtedly swelled the figures is the coming into the Catholic Church this week of between 900 and 1,000 former Anglicans, such as those being received this evening, here in the Oratory. Strictly speaking, none of these people is a convert: although such is the custom that, until our dying day, we former Anglicans will be called ‘converts’. A convert is someone turns to Christ, rather as St Paul did on the Damascus Road. Most of us have been Christians all our lives.

But what we are learning to ask again is the question ‘Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover’? the question the disciples asked of Jesus. We have come to believe that the Lord asks that we should share his Passover here in the Catholic Church. Only in the Catholic Church, we have come to believe, is the full meaning of the Paschal mystery revealed, safeguarded, and celebrated. Supper, Sacrifice, Death, Burial, Resurrection, Transformation: these are themes that we shall continue to reflect on in the coming days.

Tonight I would have us reflect not on these themes but on the question of numbers. Twenty or thirty groups of former Anglicans, perhaps 60 clergy and 900 or 1,000 people nationally. This is surely small beer. None of these figures is statistically significant. Every time we hear a set of national statistics, even the statistics for rare diseases, the numbers seem to be in the 1000s and tens of thousands. What significance have twenty or thirty, 60, 900 or 1000?

There is clearly a scenario – a dangerous one – that, like the many converts this Eastertide, the groups of incoming Anglicans will simply melt into the crowd. This church, and several like it, may have a slightly larger roll, but nothing too dramatic, and the Pope’s imaginative and prophetic gesture in Anglicanorum cœtibus will have come to nothing. The most that will be said, in years to come, is that it became a bit easier for Anglicans to convert, for former Anglican clergy to become Catholic priests.

But there is a much more exciting scenario which could unfold. And here we need to go back to the first Easter. Even smaller numbers than now were involved. By the end of the Last Supper the disciples were down to eleven. By the time Jesus died on the cross there were only two there – Our Blessed Lady and John the Beloved Disciple. At the Garden of Resurrection there were ones and twos.

St Paul reports with great excitement that 500 of the brethren saw the Risen Lord. But even that larger figure is only half the number of those coming into the Catholic Church because of Anglicanorum cœtibus. From those small beginnings, Christianity moved from being a small suspiciously-Galilean, rather unfashionable Jewish sect to becoming the official religion of the known world. And not entirely successfully at first: there is no Epistle to the Athenians.

I don’t want to make claims tonight about the influence of incoming Anglicans. I pray that that elusive character – the’ mutual exchange of gifts from our respective spiritual patrimonies which will serve to enrich us all’ – as Pope Benedict put it – may indeed be a mutual enrichment. I pray that groups of former Anglicans, as here in Oxford, may grow and flourish within the fertile soil of the Catholic Church.

But the larger point is this – and it applies to every single Catholic, and every single convert this Easter time, as well as to former Anglicans – is the importance for the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ of the contribution of each one of us.

Blessed John Henry Newman, beatified by Pope Benedict XVI at Cofton Park last September, has been profoundly influential on the Holy Father. Newman was founder of the Oratory movement in England, and it is by his prayers that this Oratory Church has come into being. Formerly Vicar of the University Church, here in Oxford, Newman also longed to see his fellow Anglicans reconciled to the Church. In that sense, we can be sure that Anglicanorum cœtibus and all it entails is a miracle in response to his prayers. Indeed this may be the second miracle needed for a canonisation – not that a second miracle would be necessary if he were declared a doctor of the Church.

At this historic moment I hope that the sentiments of this prayer of Blessed John Henry Newman will be on the lips and hearts of all who come into the Church at this time.

God has created me to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission – I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am, a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do his work; I shall be a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep his commandments and serve him in my calling.
Therefore, my God, I will put myself without reserve into your hands. What have I in heaven, and apart from you what do I want upon earth? My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the God of my heart, and my portion for ever.

Today its numbers have already more than doubled and by Easter morning its numbers will have swelled to close to a thousand members. These will not only include more than 60 members of clergy, but also very importantly, the committed lay people who have followed their pastors into full Communion with the Catholic Church.

I found it very moving to be at St George’s Cathedral, Southwark last night to watch Mgr Keith Newton, the ordinariate’s head, receive one of the first, first wave groups into the personal ordinariate. It was clearly a emotional experience for the people who were there with their families, some of whom were already Catholics, others who would not follow them and even others who were being received with their families.

Christopher Pearson, the former parish priest of St Agnes Kennington, led the group, which was mainly from the parish. The Catholic priest of the parish where the group had been receiving instruction took part in the ceremony as did Fr Mark Woodruff, the acting director of the Catholic League and Canon James Cronin. Another nice touch was the presence of Catholic lay people from the parish in the congregation who had come out in support.

The whole process of reception and confirmation, when Mgr Newton welcomed each new Catholic into the Church by name, called the Holy Spirit down on them and then anointed their foreheads with chrism, was incredible. It always is, but there was also the sense, last night, of a whole community coming into the Catholic Church together.

Mgr Newton also seemed moved by the celebration at St George’s, which in effect marks the realisation of what he represents as ordinary. After the Mass he told the congregation and the new members of the ordinariate how delighted he was that they had come. He said that he had thought of himself as a leader of a flock when he had been an Anglican bishop. He said he had hoped people would follow his lead into the ordinariate but had been worried that he might turn around and find no one there and he thanked them for being there. (NB: This is a rough paraphrase as I had packed up pen and paper at this point).

The newly confirmed became members of the Ordinariate with their reception into the Catholic Church. Once the ordinariate has its mother church—Mgr Newton said that at the moment he is more concerned with finding housing for all his clergy than looking for the principal church—they will be registered there.

Dear Friends
By 8am Monday morning we had received over 400 requests.
On Wednesday 13 April we will close the application process and sort out requests into categories of language, geography, typology etc. and where necessary we will draw lots to make the final selection.
On Saturday a list of participants will be posted on www.pccs.va We are heartened by the widespread interest, and ask you all to be patient with this effort to increase dialogue with the blogging community, and also to support us with your prayers.

Richard Rouse and Ariel Beramendi

Fr Keith Newton, the Ordinary, said today that at present “it looks like over 60 priests and about 750 lay people” are set to join the ordinariate.