Plenary Indulgences available during Holy Week

BLOGS | APR. 16, 2019

Here are the Plenary Indulgences Available During Holy Week
 

We all have the opportunity for receiving a plenary indulgence each day of Holy Week. Then Easter Octave. Here’s how to gain them for ourselves and loved ones in purgatory.

Joseph Pronechen for National Catholic Register

The plenary indulgences that we can receive on every day of Holy Week actually are of two kinds. Certain ones are specific to Holy Week itself. Certain ones we can actually gain anytime.

They’re listed in the Norms and Grants in the official Manual of Indulgences, fourth edition (1999), the latest and most up-to-date edition of the Manual, or Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, the one that replaces all others.

First, let’s look at the plenary indulgences specific to Holy Week. Next, we’ll look at those also available during Holy Week plus any time of the year. Then we’ll review the basic mandatory conditions that must be fulfilled for any plenary indulgence. Then we’ll check on “extras.”

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Holy Week & the Notre Dame fire

HOLY WEEK & THE NOTRE DAME FIRE
M. Jean Duchesne
via Catholic News Agency

"Notre Dame on fire and perhaps unusable for months if not years is undoubtedly a trial. But faith does not allow to see this as a punishment or the confirmation of a decline and fall. There is some comfort to be found in the massive sense of affliction and solidarity of non-believers, since it proves that for them, however irreligious they are, the visible Church is not a mere remnant of the past, but a vital part of the scenery, without which they themselves miss something. Yet, in the end, this support does not make that much of a difference.

"What is decisive is the knowledge that Jesus Christ the Groom will never abandon his bride the Church – which does not mean that her faithfulness will never be tested. The Temple on Mount Zion was destroyed, rebuilt and destroyed again. St. Peter’s in Rome was plundered several times. The crusaders lost Jerusalem.  What ultimately matters is not the signifier (the cathedral), but the signified (God’s glory) which remains forever fertile and will forever inspire those who long for it." Read the entire article.

In new essay, Benedict XVI addresses sex abuse scandal

In new essay, Benedict XVI addresses sex abuse scandal

Vatican City, Apr 10, 2019
 

In an essay published Thursday at CNA, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI offered his thoughts about the sex abuse crisis facing the Church. Benedict reviewed the sexual revolution of the 1960s, and examined its effects on priestly formation and life, before suggesting the Church's proper response.

“Today, the accusation against God is, above all, about characterizing His Church as entirely bad, and thus dissuading us from it. The idea of a better Church, created by ourselves, is in fact a proposal of the devil, with which he wants to lead us away from the living God, through a deceitful logic by which we are too easily duped,” Benedict wrote in “The Church and the Scandal of sexual abuse,” published April 11.

Read the whole article

Pope approves updated norms for former Anglicans/Episcopalians

9 April 2019
By Devin Watkins for Vatican News

Released on Tuesday, the updated Complementary Norms for the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus were approved by Pope Francis on March 8th and signed by Cardinal Luis Ladaria and Archbishop Giacomo Morandi, Prefect and Secretary of the CDF, respectively, on March 19, 2019.

Anglicanorum coetibus governs the institutions and Personal Ordinariates that minister to the lay faithful originally of the Anglican tradition, known as Episcopalians in the United States.

The updated Complementary Norms integrate the experience of the past 10 years and seek to make their application more in tune with the spirit of the Apostolic Constitution. [...]

The new Norms introduce several modifications to those promulgated in November 2009.

[Read the whole article]

Priest of the North American Ordinariate chosen to lead Australian Ordinariate

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
To the Clergy and Faithful of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter
HOUSTON, TEXAS, March 26, 2019

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It is my privilege and joy to share with you the happy news that our Holy Father, Pope Francis and has appointed our own Father Carl Reid as Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia. This comes as the Holy Father has accepted the retirement of Monsignor Harry Entwistle, who headed the Ordinariate there since its founding in 2013. [...]

Father Carl will be installed as Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross on Tuesday, August 27, at 7pm at the Cathedral of St. Mary’s in the Archdiocese of Sydney by the Archbishop, Most Rev. Anthony Fisher, O.P. Archbishop Fisher will be joined by Archbishop Augustine DiNoia, O.P., Adjunct Secretary of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Monsignor Keith Newton from the UK Ordinariate and I will be representing our respective Ordinariates at the Installation celebrations. All of our clergy and faithful are welcome, though admittedly it’s a long way to go for Mass! [...]

With prayerful best wishes, I am
Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Rev. Steven J. Lopes

Read Bishop Lopes' entire message here.

How to pregame Lent: Septuagesima, Carnival, and Shrovetide

How to pregame Lent: Septuagesima, Carnival, and Shrovetide

by Mary Rezac for Catholic News Agency
 

Sunday, Feb. 17 is Septuagesima Sunday, followed by Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays. Sunday kicks off Carnival season, which comes right before Shrovetide, which culminates in Shrove Tuesday - more popularly known as Mardi Gras.

“Septuagesima is kept in the personal ordinariates established by Pope Benedict XVI for former Anglicans, now within the full communion of the Catholic Church,” said Father James Bradley, a priest from the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom.   “Septuagesima is still marked in the older Anglican prayer books, and is part of the Anglican patrimony preserved by Divine Worship: The Missal, used by the ordinariates,” Bradley told CNA.

Read the whole article

Holy See: McCarrick dismissed from the clerical state for abuse

The Congresso of the CDF, which investigated the accusations, has issued a decree finding McCarrick “guilty of the following delicts while a cleric: solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power”.

The Congresso has imposed the penalty of “dismissal from the clerical state”. 

This decision, following the recognition by the Holy Father, is definitive and admits of no further recourse or appeal.

Read the entire article on the Vatican News site

Blessed John Henry Newman to be Canonized

Blessed John Henry Newman by Sir John Everett Millais, public domain

by Edward Pentin for NCRegister.com

13 February 2019

Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman is to be canonized following a Vatican announcement on Wednesday that the Pope had formally approved a miracle attributed to his intercession.

The date of the canonization of Blessed John Henry, who will become England's first post-Reformation saint, has not yet been announced, but it is expected to take place later this year. “We are now hoping that it will be sooner rather than later,” Father Harrison said.

The founder of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England, Cardinal Newman was one of the most prominent converts to the Catholic Church from Anglicanism in the 19th century and was a renowned preacher and theologian. 

Read the entire article

The Liturgy is for (Little) Kids

written by Timothy P. O'Malley for Church Life Journal

published on January 31, 2019

The Liturgy Is for (Little) Kids

"The young child is looking at the altar because the young child is always looking, perceiving, and imitating. No, the young child is not able to comprehend the sermon that is given or the particular meaning of the opening collect or why there is a pelican or Lamb on the altar. But the young child is discovering in the act of Eucharistic worship according to his or her capacity that this act really matters. The child perceives the facial features of adults, who are ideally engaged in contemplative wonder at the Eucharistic mystery. They hear the reverberant notes of the organ and they see and smell incense. They are learning the very meaning of what it means to be a liturgical creature even as they sleep in their mother’s or father’s arms during the Eucharistic liturgy."  Read the whole thing!

Discerning a Vocation to the Priesthood

Discerning a Vocation to the Priesthood

The Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter will be hosting Discernment Days June 26-29, 2019 in Houston. These days are for young men (age 16 and a Junior in High School to age 30) who are open to discerning a call to the priesthood. The Days will include presentations on such topics as Seminary Life and the Life of Prayer, the Life of ministry, the Gift of Celibacy, and the Missionary Life of the Ordinariate. Centered in prayer, there will be daily Mass and Eucharistic Holy Hours. The time spent together will also include time for conversation and recreation. The Discernment Days will conclude on Saturday by being a part of the congregation at the Mass of Ordination to the Priesthood at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham.

In order to provide the attention that discerners need, participation is limited to 12 young men who will be selected from among the applicants. A Pastor’s letter of recommendation will help determine their acceptance to the program. Attendees will be responsible for their own transportation to/from Houston, otherwise they will be guests of the Ordinariate.