“Some observations were formulated which will be kept in mind in further discussions,” said Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, following a meeting of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Those observations regarded the SSPX’s official response to a “doctrinal preamble”, prepared by the Vatican in September, outlining “some doctrinal principles and criteria for the interpretation of Catholic doctrine necessary to guarantee fidelity” to the formal teaching of the Church, including the teaching of the Second Vatican Council.

The response was submitted in April by Bishop Bernard Fellay, the society’s superior general. While Bishop Fellay has been generally positive about the possibility of reconciliation with Rome, leaked letters show that the society’s three other bishops have had serious reservations about the process.

“In consideration of the positions taken by the three other bishops of the Society of St Pius, their situation will have to be treated separately and individually,” Fr Lombardi said in a statement.

In addition to the hesitancy of the three bishops to support fully Bishop Fellay’s efforts, Fr Lombardi said, Bishop Richard Williamson’s public denials of the Holocaust and anti-Semitic statements would also require discussions separate from those of reconciliation with the SSPX as a whole.

“It is not that this is a process that necessarily will reach a solution that embraces all the positions” found among all the SSPX members, Fr Lombardi said.

Even if the SSPX as a whole is reconciled with Rome, he said, “the individual bishops each must make a commitment” to full communion with Rome. “It’s not as if there will be one solution that automatically extends to all.”

Many observers of the process had expected the May 16 doctrinal congregation meeting to mark the penultimate step in the reconciliation talks. It appeared that congregation members would review Bishop Fellay’s response and forward their opinions about it to Pope Benedict XVI for his final action.

Fr Lombardi, however, said officials at the doctrinal congregation informed the Pope of the results of the day’s meeting but did not believe the reconciliation process was nearing its end.

“Obviously, the decision is in the Pope’s hands” and he can act when and how he wants, “but despite how it may have seemed – that we were talking about a brief amount of time – it is a process that continues,” Fr Lombardi said.

“It would be premature to guess when the process will end,” he added.

Pope Benedict’s latest efforts to bring about reconciliation with the traditionalist group began when he lifted the excommunications imposed on Bishop Fellay and other SSPX bishops after they were ordained without papal permission. The Pope also established a Vatican committee for doctrinal talks with society representatives in 2009, and drafted the “doctrinal preamble” to explain the “minimal, essential” elements on which the society would have to agree for full reconciliation, Fr Lombardi had said.

Michael Novak is the author of twenty-five books, is much else besides and is almost always worth reading. The priestly scandal in question turned out to be one I have written about myself, but not for some time: the growing scandal of priests who are unjustly accused of child sex abuse, suspended by their diocese from all priestly functions and sent into a kind of ecclesiastical limbo, subsequently declared innocent by the civil authorities, and then totally ignored by the diocesan authorities who suspended them.

He writes of having dinner with a priest who greatly impressed him as a gifted and dedicated pastor.

He was unaware at first that this good man had been falsely accused of sexual molestation eight years before. He was effectively stripped of his priesthood (as Novak says, a scandal in itself) since in the Catholic Church today, it seems that the idea that a priest is innocent until proved guilty is a simple dead letter: what he finds, in effect, is that unless he can prove his innocence (an almost impossible task) he will be deemed guilty. This particular priest was in fact proved innocent. His accuser died of a cocaine overdose , but not before exonerating him by admitting the falsity of his accusation. His bishop, however, as Novak indignantly writes “has not moved – dared? – to reinstate this good man and return him to his proper standing in the priesthood, or even to give a public apology for his unjust treatment. Nor has the press that stirred up the atmosphere of high-tech lynchings revisited his case … to clear [him] of this horrible wrong.”

This story ought to be a one-off aberration: but I am coming to the conclusion that “this horrible wrong” is not only not a rare occurrence but is absolutely normal. There are, that is to say, hundreds and perhaps thousands of priests, world-wide, in this appalling situation.

I am not saying that the initial suspension shouldn’t take place. But a bishop who suspends a priest owes it to a man he has robbed of his vocation, even if in theory temporarily, to make sure that he really is guilty. The civil authorities have to do that: and in not a few cases the priest is found not guilty, or the DPP finds that there is no case to answer. The bishop ought then to reinstate him: but in many cases does not, even when it is clear that the initial accusation was fraudulent.

It is clear that there are many such false accusations, especially when there is the prospect of financial “compensation” from a vulnerable diocese. In his new book Catholic Priests Falsely Accused, David Pierre writes that “one can examine the number of Boston priests who were found to have committed abuse versus the number of those whose cases were studied and found to be false. In the end, one can demonstrate the sobering figure that one-third of accused priests in the Archdiocese of Boston were accused falsely. (I provide all of the supporting numbers in my book.)”

And as he also says, such priestly victims, nearly always, have been unable to return to the exercise of their priestly vocation: “the media is far too willing to adopt a tone of ‘guilty until proven innocent’—if not ‘guilty until proven guiltier’—when reporting cases of individuals coming forward to claim abuse by Catholic priests decades ago… [and] in many instances these accusations later turn out to be false. Yet the damage to the accused cleric’s reputation has already been done. His name remains plastered on the Internet as a ‘credibly accused molester,’ and enemies of the Church have no fear in using these bogus accusations to attack the Church.”

As I wrote here about a year ago, not for the first time, genuine and proven child sex abuse by priests has of course undoubtedly happened, and something had to be done about it (it should be added in parenthesis that the Church is practically the only organisation in society which actually has done anything about it, even though it it is clear that the minority of clergy involved in this appalling crime is numerically no greater than the percentage of abusers in the male population at large). So those very few children and teenagers actually in danger from Catholic priests obviously had to be protected. But as I also pointed out, “Catholic hierarchies, having erred in one direction in the past, had to make sure they were immune from such accusations in the future. So they set up procedures so rigorous that they have now erred in the other direction: in other words, without necessarily having any evidence of any kind, they now immediately suspend any priest accused, whether the accusations are believable or not. Innocent or guilty, this has often been enough to wreck his priestly ministry for ever: after all, everyone knows that there is no smoke without fire.”

And as I also pointed out, there has been a considerable number of false accusations, particularly when it has been possible to mount some kind of legal demand for “compensation”: where a priest is known to be wealthy or to be a member of a wealthy family this vile phenomenon has been particularly flagrant (I am personally acquainted with one such case: the priest in question was clearly innocent, but his bishop still covered his back by flinging him to the wolves).

Something of a fightback is now underway. As the National Catholic register reported recently in an article entitled “Priests in Limbo”

advocates for accused priests contend that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop’s “zero tolerance” policy has also spawned an unjust system that tramples on the rights of priests. In many cases, priests who have been found innocent remain barred from active ministry, while others who appeal their cases to the Vatican can be sidelined for years….

Father Michael Maginot, a canon lawyer who works with the clergy support group Justice for Priests, said he knew of no case where a priest that had been tried and cleared by a diocesan tribunal was then fully reinstated in active ministry.

There is, as I say, now something of a reaction under way (the internet is full of it), sometimes organised by a priest’s own people. I conclude with a splendid American website called “in support of Fr Ed”, which insists that “Our Fr. Ed is not the only priest with a stellar reputation to fall victim to an accusation of this nature and a questionable USCCB procedure that is bound to invite false allegations. The zero tolerance policy creates a situation in which priests are considered guilty until proven innocent and even subjects them to double jeopardy (both situations contrary to US law), making every priest and bishop a potential target for those motivated by revenge or greed or, in some cases, with distorted memories.”

Exactly so; and more and more ordinary Catholics are becoming aware of this shameful and unjust situation. Our bishops, judging by their behaviour, are still not aware of it. It is high time for this to change, and for bishops to undo the gross injustice many of them are still doing to hundreds of falsely accused priests, who want nothing more than to be allowed to minister to their people, from whose service they have been so brutally torn.

The chief celebrant was Fr John Leahy SSCC who described Mrs Bowman as a “champion of the most vulnerable”. Fr Leahy said that there was a “big bucket of words to describe Phyllis”, and continued: “The greatest thing I could say is that she was child of God, a woman of faith, a woman of prayer”.

He described Mrs Bowman’s sufferings and works as “Christ-like”, saying: “She was slapped and put down and yet she always ran the race with courage to do what was right.” He said later that “we didn’t really recognise how great she was”.

Fr Leahy lamented that Mrs Bowman’s work for the unborn did not always receive support from the people she should have expected it from. He said: “Support from churches and priests wasn’t as forthcoming as it should have been. It didn’t stop her at all, it just fired her on.”

He said that although Mrs Bowman appeared to be a “crushed reed” on the outside she was “a volcano on the inside – utterly determined to carry on”. He also said that, ironically, the safest place for any baby should be in its mother’s womb and he paid tribute to Miss Bowman’s work to defend the unborn child.

Mourners attending the Mass included her husband Gerry, her brother, Monty, and her sister, Betty.

After Holy Communion her godson, nephew and close friend the Rev Alan Rabjohns paid personal tributes to Mrs Bowman. Rev Rabjohns described Phyllis Bowman as “a great campaigner for the beauty and dignity of human life”.

Rev Rabjohns also spoke of Miss Bowman’s love and devotion for her husband Gerry Canty, who she described as her “Canty King.”

Phyllis Bowman was born on March 14 1926 and died on May 7 2012 aged 85. On the day her death was announced parliamentarians praised the former Fleet Street journalist, who originally founded the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children in 1967 and subsequently founded Right to Life.

Catholic peer Lord Alton of Liverpool, who attended Bowman’s Requiem Mass, described her as “an indefatigable champion of the unborn child and for the sanctity of human life”. He said: “Her tireless efforts, right up to her final illness and last days, serve as an inspiration to the next generation. She was an extraordinarily talented woman, utterly dedicated, highly articulate, politically shrewd and the possessor of an encyclopaedic memory.

“Her early training as a Fleet Street journalist never left her short of things to say. Her Christian faith and her beloved husband, Gerry, kept her strong throughout years of having to fight endless battles against abortion, embryo experimentation, human cloning and euthanasia. Her name deserves to be associated with some of the great women who have given their lives to great causes – Elizabeth Fry, Florence Nightingale, Emmeline Pankhurst, Cicely Saunders, Mother Teresa and Sue Ryder.”

Throughout the Mass personal tributes portrayed Miss Bowman as a highly organised and energetic woman. Following the news of her death last week Catholic MP Ann Widdecombe said: “She is probably already getting the heavenly hosts organised. Right to Life has lost a much-loved founder and all of us a much-loved friend. The biggest tribute we can pay her is to ensure her vigorous defence of the helpless unborn child continues unabated.”

As Mrs Bowman’s godson Nicholas described her final days he explained that as she lay in hospital, barely able to speak, she overheard a family discussing if they would be allowed to care for their sick relative at home. At this point Miss Bowman found her voice and asserted that indeed they could before sinking back into silence.

The first reading was from Ecclesiastes 3:1-13, beginning “to everything there is a season”, and later continuing, “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance”. This was followed by Psalm 23 and the Gospel reading was John 14: 1-4, during which Christ says: “There are many rooms in my Father’s house, and I am going to prepare a place for you.”

Bowman was known for her great devotion to Mary and her love of the rosary. Fr Leahy explained that she would often stop work in the middle of the office and recite three Hail Marys. As mourners received Holy Communion they sang the hymn “Holy Virgin, by God’s decree”.

St Paul teaches that “prayer is above all the work of the Holy Spirit within our hearts”, Pope Benedict said at his general audience today (full text of English remarks, video).

The Vatican and the clothing firm Benetton have reached an out-of-court settlement after the Vatican objected to an advertising campaign that showed the Pope kissing a Muslim leader.

Fr Thomas Williams, a prominent American member of the Legionaries of Christ, has admitted that he fathered a child.

Carl Olson, editor of Catholic World Report and Ignatius Insight, tells Brandon Vogt why he loves Fr Robert Barron’s Catholicism series.

Anne Butler argues that tension between bishops and American women religious dates back to the 19th century.

And a 21-year-old Catholic mother has beaten lung cancer after rejecting doctors’ advice to abort her unborn child.

I don’t plan to answer this last statement in this blog, except to say that the Church always defends the true conjugal dignity of couples wanting to space their children and that the late Dr John Billings (for whom I had great respect and with whom I used to correspond) and his wife, Dr Lyn Billings, found a willing receptiveness in Communist China, both from local officials and couples, in teaching their method of natural family birth regulation in accordance with Church teaching. The same is true of Mother Teresa’s nuns among the Hindu poor in Calcutta.

I might add that according to a report from the C-Fam News agency, the “injectable contraceptive favoured by the Gates Foundation is Depo-Provera, which can cause early abortions by preventing a newly conceived zygote from attaching to the uterine wall”. Gates’s goal is to make contraceptives available to 120 million women by 2020, using a $4bn budget.

However, what interests me here about Mrs Gates’s campaign, launched at a recent conference in Berlin, is that she appears to be supported by the nuns of the Ursuline Academy of Dallas where she received her education. It seems the nuns contacted her after her conference speech by a phone call to her hotel room to say: “We’re all for you. We know this is a difficult issue to speak on, but we absolutely believe that you’re living under Catholic values.” Mrs Gates found this support “just so heartening”.

A formal statement was then issued by the president of the Ursuline Academy, Sister Margaret Ann Moser, which said that the nuns “are proud of Melinda French Gates, her dedication to social justice, her compassion for the undeserved and the great work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.” The president added that “Melinda Gates leads from her conscience and acts on her beliefs as a concerned citizen of our world”. She emphasised that “the mission of the Ursuline Academy of Dallas is to educate young women for such leadership.”

Sister Moser also said that the Ursuline order is committed “to the social and doctrinal teachings of the Catholic Church”. While recognising that “Melinda’s beliefs on birth control are different from those of the Catholic Church”, the Sisters “respect her right to speak from her research and experience of the world we live in”.

What is there to comment about all this? Briefly, the phrase “Catholic values” used on its own can mean what you want it to mean; the question is: does Mrs Gates believe the Catholic teachings from which right values flow? Again, the phrase “social justice”, divorced from Catholic social and moral teaching, can mean anything; in this case it involves a deep injustice towards Third World couples. The same comment can be made about the word “compassion”; once you have used it, any criticism infers a lack of compassion – ie how dare those nasty Catholics talk about “compassion” when they want to keep Third World women in the Dark Ages, and so on.

Further, use of the phrase “leads from her conscience” begs other questions: how do we discern if our conscience is telling us the truth? Has it been formed by fidelity to Church teachings or by the secular world? Finally (a breathtaking contradiction), the Ursulines both recognise that Mrs Gates dissents from Church teaching while at the same time respecting “her right to speak from her research and her experience of the world we live in”. This of course suggests that such “research” is obviously valid and that the Church has little “experience” of the real world (run as it is by elderly celibates in the Vatican and so on). One could hardly invent such a hotchpotch of vagueness, suggestiveness and plain disingenuousness if one sat down and tried. No wonder Mrs Gates commented: “You know, the nuns who taught me were incredibly progressive.”

After reading Sister Moser’s statement I checked out the “mission, core values [that word again] and philosophy” of the Ursuline Academy of Dallas. It speaks of the “total development of the individual student through spiritual formation, intellectual growth, service to others and building of community…Dedicated to the Church’s mission of communicating the Gospel, the academy seeks to foster the message of God’s love… in support of Gospel truths and values” (what a loaded little word this is becoming). There is also mention of “communal openness to truth in all its forms”. It all sounds like James Murdoch describing, in his Harvard Business School kind of jargon, the “core values” of his father’s media empire.

A priest I used to know was sent to a parish that had slowly been taken over by lay committees dedicated to compassionate values; it had inevitably become a hotbed of liberal heresies. He immediately nailed to the door of the church the motto “Ubi Petrus Ibi Ecclesia” (“Where there is Peter, there is the Church”) ie where there is fidelity to the teaching authority of the successor of St Peter, the first Pope, there is the Church.

Perhaps when they use the word “Church” so freely, the Ursuline Sisters of Dallas and Melinda Gates should remember this?

The ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, under the patronage of St Augustine of Canterbury, will be established on June 15 by the Vatican.

Holy Cross church in Melbourne is the first church to be designated for the ordinariate.

Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliot of Melbourne, project delegate for the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said there had been a “beautiful response” from Catholics welcoming new members to the Church.

“The journey hasn’t been easy for them,” he said.

“We must not be triumphalist about it; we must respect the sensibilities of other Anglicans who do not choose to make this step,” he said. “I would invite Catholic people to reach out and welcome these men and women who are choosing unity.”

Kevin Parsons, 85, and his wife, Judith, are two such people.

They belong to a small parish in suburban North Turramurra and made the decision to enter into communion with the Catholic Church after Pope Benedict’s announcement of Anglicanorum coetibus in 2009.

Mr Parsons said he had been dissatisfied with the “overwhelmingly evangelical” nature of the Anglican diocese of Sydney and canonical changes, including the ordination of women, in other dioceses.

“That’s the sort of trigger which set off many changes in the Anglican Communion,” he said. “The Anglican Communion has lost, in my opinion, much of the tradition on which it was based.”

He said it was a “pivotal point” that the personal ordinariate will allow former Anglicans to retain their own liturgy and traditions.

“I’ve been an Anglo-Catholic all my life, as far as I can remember, and it’s always been in the background for myself and many of my friends that, sooner or later, Anglo-Catholics and Roman Catholics should have an arrangement for some sort of union.”

It will be a “homecoming” and a “dawning of a new age” for Anglican Catholics, he said.

Fr Warren Wade, 78, a grandfather who was ordained 50 years ago, will lead at least 10 of the 15 members of the North Turramurra community into the ordinariate after they undergo instruction. He said that some Anglicans had been “praying for unity for a long time” and “their prayers have been answered”.

In the United States, Mgr Jeffrey Steenson, head of the US-based Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, welcomed the news of the Australian ordinariate.

Mgr Keith Newton, leader of the ordinariate in Britain, said: “This is great news for the Church in Australia, and for those from the Anglican tradition who are seeking to fulfil the goal of full visible unity with the Apostolic See, whilst maintaining essential elements of our Anglican tradition.

“A close bond already exists between the ordinariate here in Britain and our brothers and sisters of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter. It is my hope that similarly strong ties can be established with our Australian counterparts, especially as we look forward to the publication of a common liturgical use.

“The news that the Holy Father will establish a personal ordinariate in Australia, the third in the world, is truly wonderful, as it marks another important step toward Catholic unity.

“I offer my prayers, good wishes and encouragement to all those who will become part of the personal ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross,” he said.

Vietnamese officials have refused to allow Redemptorist priests to visit a jailed blogger who needs the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.

The first exhibition centre in China dedicated to Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci has opened in the city of Zhaoqing.

The orchestra and choir of the Neocatechumenal Way has performed a Holocaust “Symphonic Homage Prayer” to an audience including 30 New York rabbis.

Rocco Palmo tracks the global expansion of the Personal Ordinariate for groups of former Anglicans.

John Allen says that allies of Pope Benedict are expressing reservations as he prepares to reconcile the Society of St Pius X.

Michael Kelly considers whether Cardinal Seán Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, can resist renewed pressure to resign.

Michael Novak laments a less well-known priestly scandal.

And E J Dionne Jr explains why he’s not leaving the Catholic Church.

The order developed from a group of hermits who lived on Mount Carmel in Palestine during the 12th century. Around 1210 St Albert of Jerusalem drew up a Rule. This enjoined strict obedience to the prior, residence in individual cells, constant prayer, a life of poverty and toil, daily celebration of the Eucharist and rigorous fasting.

In 1238 the Carmelites, troubled by disorder in Palestine, settled in Cyprus and Sicily, and from thence established themselves throughout western Europe.

The precise point at which Simon Stock joined the order is not clear. He is said to have been an Englishman, born in Kent, where he spent much of his youth living in the hollow trunk, or “stock”, of a tree. According to one account, he was with the Carmelites in Palestine. According to another he became the first member of the order to receive a degree from Oxford University. Still another tradition places him as a monk at Hulme in Northumberland.

More certainly, he became the sixth prior-general of the Carmelites in 1245. Soon afterwards he is said to have called a general chapter at Aylesford in Kent and to have instituted a revision of the Rule, better adapted to monks who were now rather mendicant friars than hermits.

Simon has also been credited with establishing Carmelite houses in Oxford, Cambridge, Paris and Bologna, as well as in Ireland and Spain.

In 1251, he was granted a vision in which the Virgin Mary instructed him to introduce into the order the wearing of the scapular. This consists of two strips of dark cloth, worn on the breast and the back, and fastened at the shoulders. Anyone who died in this garment, the Virgin assured him, would never be lost at the day of judgment.

Curiously, though, Simon Stock is not even mentioned in William of Coventry’s De adventu Carmelitarum in Angliam, which dates from around 1365.

Simon Stock died in Bordeaux. According to a 15th-century Carmelite catalogue of saints he had lived more than 100 years. It is hardly credible, though, that he would have been an octogenarian when elected prior-general of the Carmelites in 1245.

A local cult developed around his tomb in Bordeaux. The story of the scapular, however, seems to derive from the Low Countries.
In the 1860s a bone from one of his legs was given to the Carmelite church in Kensington Church Street. And in 1951, part of his skull was transferred to Aylesford, where the tradition of his presence has been strong for more than seven centuries.

But after a request from a reader we are also publishing the missing clues online.

To win a book of the editor’s choice, please send completed crosswords by Thursday to the address below. There is a prize for both the cryptic and quick crosswords. Please mark envelopes either “cryptic” or “quick”. Address: Letters to the Editor, Catholic Herald, 15 Lamb’s Passage, London EC1Y 8TQ

CRYPTIC Across
1 Strand of dark red? (6)
4 University site American theatrically exaggerated over (6)
9 Hit a martial arts expert fast (7)
10 Gem of an instrument, taken aback from the first note (5)
11 Kind of van to find in town (5)
12 It’s upon them and it’s looking black for priests? (7)
13 Two boys read quietly in school a letter by Paul (11)
18 He prophesied a church being established in a part of W Africa… (7)
20 …and his book socks America (5)
22 Interest evened out over the year on the stage, kind of (5)
23 Paul’s fellow composer of hit –Tom – is an unknown quantity (7)
24 Pose in the sea around Nice gets covered up (6)
25 Appropriate for every golfer, say, being in the lead (6)

CRYPTIC Down
1 Doctor’s right to drink for the state of mind (6)
2 Pay for a retro clock (5)
3 Service book, it’s a kind of test for row in the middle (7)
5 Pedestrian crossing left out the flashing light (5)
6 Fanatic put Iran in trouble (7)
7 Grand Turk’s stopped dried fruit (6)
8 Pat abstains, another of those that don’t want to wet the baby’s head (11)
14 Little Phil, a Russian, becomes the 46th Pope (7)
15 Issue of Aaron’s Martha and I get involved with (7)
16 Conserve eastern oil around the centre of Amman (6)
17 Brief winter wrapped in blanket (6)
19 Transport, the first from Canada and north of Europe (5)
21 Assemble system with a link (3,2)

QUICK Across
1 Person who rebelled against Moses with Abiram and Korah (6)
4 Found fault with (6)
9 Vestment formerly worn over the left arm of those performing the Mass (7)
10 Large humped bovid of N America (5)
11 Disorganized, bewildered (2,3)
12 Adherent of the early 15th century Bohemian religious reformer influenced by Wycliffe (7)
13 Concerning religious instruction generally (11)
18 Jacob’s favourite grandson (7)
20 Disinclined (5)
22 Priest who, it’s said, was a friend of Job (5)
23 Marine dike (3,4)
24 Bubble away (6)
25 Get to the bottom of (6)

QUICK Down
1 Along with St Cosmas, the patron saint of barbers (6)
2 Alternative name for biblical Zoan, one-time capital of Egypt (5)
3 Placate by offering concessions (7)
5 Rounded subdivisions of a bodily organ or part (5)
6 Sicilian port, a crossroads of the Med; arguably an important embarkation point for the Crusades (7)
7 Does a jig (6)
8 Site of Jehoash’s victory over Amaziah of Judah (4-7)
14 Doctrine or belief that there is no God (7)
15 Eastern female dignitary (7)
16 Alcove (6)
17 Jewish salutation used at meeting or parting (6)
19 Perspicacious (5)
21 Welsh saint, disciple of St Kentigern (5)