Franciscans return to Walsingham after 480 years

Photo: Catholic Herald

Catholic Herald
Friday, 28 September 2018
 

‘We feel we’ve come home’: Franciscans return to Walsingham for first time in 480 years

The new community of Greyfriars comes amid a flourishing of vocations
 

Franciscan friars have returned to England’s national Marian shrine for the first time since the Reformation.
 
Three Greyfriars – members of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor – arrived at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in June.
 
Fr James Mary McInerney, the guardian of the community, said: “It’s a great joy for us. We feel we’ve come home.”
 
He and two other Franciscan priests will welcome pilgrims, hear Confessions and oversee a daily Holy Hour, as well as assist in the work of the shrine in whatever way is needed.
 
Franciscans first came to Walsingham in the 14th century. They ministered there for 201 years, looking after lepers and giving poor pilgrims a place to stay.
 
During that time the shrine became one of the most significant pilgrimage sites in Europe, but in 1538 it was dissolved.
 
The Holy House was burned to the ground and the priory attached to it was left in ruins.
 
The site has never been restored....

[Read the whole article here]

Fr Jonathan Mitchican on being ordained in the midst of scandals

Photo credit: supplied to Aleteia.org

Newly ordained Ordinariate priest Fr Jonathan Mitchican shares his experience of being ordained to the priesthood in the midst of scandals in this article on Aleteia.org. 

I have had a devotion to St. Mary of Egypt for a long time. I see in her story a powerful narrative of grace that resonates with my own sense of gratitude for the way that Jesus has changed my life. She ran about as far away from God as she could and she wounded herself deeply in the process. Her transformation from sinner to saint was not instantaneous but took humility and a willingness to suffer over a long period of time. It is that kind of humility that we need in the Catholic Church today if we are going to heal from decades of dark secrets and broken promises. It is a patient, slow stripping away of our defenses that will be the only cure for what ails the willful and battered Bride of Christ.

As the news stories began to break during the week of my ordination, I wondered if I was really in the right place. Yet as a new priest, I remain hopeful—optimistic even—for the future of the Catholic Church in my lifetime.

Click to read the entire article.

USCCB: Turning to the Lord

September 19, 2018

WASHINGTON--The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Administrative Committee has issued the following statement today in response to the recent sex abuse scandals.  In the statement, the bishops say they pledge to "heal and protect with every bit of the strength God provides us."

Turning to the Lord

"When each of us was ordained as a bishop, we were told:

'Keep watch over the whole flock in which the Holy Spirit has appointed you to shepherd the Church of God.'

We, the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, assembled last week in Washington at this time of shame and sorrow.  Some bishops, by their actions or their failures to act, have caused great harm to both individuals and the Church as a whole.  They have used their authority and power to manipulate and sexually abuse others.  They have allowed the fear of scandal to replace genuine forgiveness from both the Lord and those who have been harmed.  Turning to the Lord for strength, we must and will do better.

The Administrative Committee took the following actions within its authority:
...

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Passion to Evangelize Drives New Ordinariate Catholic Communities

NATION | SEP. 17, 2018

Passion to Evangelize Drives New Ordinariate Catholic Communities
 

Young Catholics, invigorated by the ordinariate's English-Catholic expressions of faith, are actively 'church-planting' and inviting people into their fledgling Catholic communities.

Peter Jesserer Smith

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- At 22 years old, Sarah Rodeo, a Catholic graduate student at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, is engaged in work more associated with evangelical Protestants than Catholics in the Northeast: building a new church community from the ground up.

Rodeo belongs to the Ordinariate Fellowship of Connecticut, one of the nascent groups that aspire to become an official community-in-formation for the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, a diocesan structure established by Benedict XVI that reunited the Anglican patrimony to the Catholic Church.

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is one of three established dioceses under the Holy See that reintegrate the Anglican patrimony with the Catholic Church.  In North America, the ordinariate began with a wave of Anglican and Episcopal communities that entered into full communion with the bishop of Rome.  But the ordinariate is seeing its own communities grow, and new communities develop, through active evangelization built on common prayer, fellowship, hard work and perseverance.

...

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Ordinariate Community in the News

image by Jeff Witherow for Catholic Courier

Bishop Lopes recently visited the Fellowship of St Alban, an Ordinariate community in the Rochester, NY, area. The Catholic Courier covered the visit:

Among the distinct liturgical elements in the Aug. 26 Mass were Bishop Lopes facing ad orientem(liturgical east) rather than toward the congregation for most of the prayers; a large portion of the Mass being sung; worshipers kneeling in the first row of pews to receive Holy Communion; and prayers featuring the words “thee,” and “thy” in place of “you” and “your.” For instance, “The Lord be with you” was followed by the response “And with thy spirit.”

Father Simington said the Fellowship of St. Alban comprises approximately 10 families, and that an average of 30 people attend the fellowship’s weekly 11:30 a.m. Sunday Mass at St. Cecilia. However, he said many lifelong Roman Catholics “who have sort of found an attraction to what we do” also have become connected with the fellowship. The Aug. 26 Mass attracted more than 100 people, and the Meet the Ordinariate event drew about 80.

Read the full article here.

Benedict, Viganò, Francis, and McCarrick: Where things stand on nuncio’s allegations

J.D. Flynn, Catholic News Agency
 

In a testimony released Aug. 25, Archbishop Carlo Viganò wrote that in 2006, he sent a memo to his Vatican superiors, which said that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had a history of sexual misconduct with seminarians and priests and that an example should be made of him for the good of the Church.

Viganò claimed that his memo was ignored, and so he sent a second one in 2008. That one, he said, had its desired effect. His testimony said he was told that Pope Benedict XVI imposed “canonical sanctions” on McCarrick in 2009 or 2010, forbidding him from living in a seminary, celebrating sacraments publicly, and from making other kinds of public appearances.

Finally, Viganò alleged that Pope Francis knowingly ignored Benedict’s sanctions on McCarrick, and made the cardinal one of his closest advisors. For that, Viganò said, Pope Francis should resign.

The story is simple, but the the fallout from the Viganò testimony has become quite complex... (keep reading)

Altar Rails

Of Altar Rails...

We are grateful to have found a home at St Mary's for many reasons, one which is that St Mary's is one of the few parishes in the area to have retained its altar rail following the liturgical reforms which came in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. The removal of these rails was not mandated (nor even envisioned) in these reforms, and now there seems to be a growing movement to restore the rails. There was a piece about the movement this week in the National Catholic Register:

In many parishes, a once-standard sanctuary staple is making a comeback: the altar rail.

“Having an altar rail has really brought back a sense of reverence,” said Laurie Biszko, a parishioner at Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Tiverton, Rhode Island.

Receiving Communion this way, she said, “You have a chance to focus, make an act of contrition, make an offering, and think about what’s going on. It contributes to making this a much more holy occasion.”

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What are Mass Intentions?

What are Mass Intentions?

And why do we have to pay for them?

by Philip Kosloski  Sep 02, 2017

One part of Catholic culture that is sometimes hard to understand and very often misunderstood is the custom of offering Mass intentions.

When a priest celebrates Mass each day, he offers each celebration of the Eucharist for a particular person, or intention. By doing so he applies special graces from God upon that person or intention.

Similar to how we are able to intercede for others by our personal prayers, the Church is able to intercede for us through the celebration of the Mass. However, since the Eucharist is the “source and summit of the Christian life” the Mass possess a power that our personal prayers do not.

The practice of offering Mass for particular intentions is an ancient one, dating back to the early Church.

Click to read the entire article.