Ordinariate: Ordination to the Diaconate
The above photo of 17 new Catholic deacons – soon to be priests - is up on the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham website.
Their making took place at Westminster Cathedral earlier today.
Congratulations.
Antiochian Church Interested In St Alban’s Site
And pray that they get it: yet another a disused Anglican Church building. That, or it it becomes a block of flats.
The Antiochian Orthodox Church has expressed an interest in taking over the St. Alban’s Church site as a base for its congregation.
A group of representatives from its Council of Management visited the Acton Green site yesterday (Thursday, May 24th).They were accompanied by a representative of the London Diocese of the Church of England who own the land.
The property is the subject of a controversial planning application by a developer who wants to turn the disused church building into ten flats. Local residents want it to be retained for community use and say they have three parties interested in the site, either for use as a church, theatre, or new primary school.
In a letter to Ealing Council last month, the Hon. Sec of the Council of Management of the Antiochian Orthodox Church (a Christian church with roots in the Middle East), Mr. Simon Abdel-Nour said that the church had 500 members on its books many of them living in Ealing, but others local to the site.
If the Antiochian Orthodox Church acquired the premises it would build a community hall on its southern side to replace the temporary one already there. This would be made available to the local community for use-it is used as a nursery at present.
As the church building would be mainly used on Sundays, there would not be an issue of parking congestion, the letter stated. It called upon Ealing Council to reject the application to transform the church premises into residential units .
A decision on the controversial development was expected to be made at a planning committee meeting at Ealing Town Hall last November but deferred. A report by a council official has recommended granting planning permission to the developer, subject to conditions, but the Chiswick-based group,SACA has collected a petition of 4,500 signatures opposed to the plan, and wants the building to be kept for community use.
St. Alban’s, a Victorian red-brick structure which was built in 1888, ceased to be a functioning Church of England parish church in the late 1990s and was then used by evangelical mission the Oak Tree Anglican fellowship, which relocated to Acton in 2006, finding it unsuitable due to the need for renovation and difficult accessibility.
In recent years there has been a growing fashion for former churches to be converted into residential accommodation as the church-going population declines throughout the UK.
The current application before the council is for conversion of the disused church building into ten residential flats and the demolition of the former church hall building and second outbuilding, currently occupied by the Caterpillar Montessori group. This would be replaced with two two-storey’ pavilion’ type structures, one to provide a replacement nursery school facility and the other a detached house. It is understood there is a contract for sale subject to planning permission between the Church of England and a local developer. In 2006 when the vicarage of St. Alban’s was sold it fetched a price of £3.2million, the highest price ever paid for residential property in Chiswick at that time.
The application to convert the building was made last December.
Defending its decision to sell for residential development at the time, the London Diocese issued a statement to Ealing Council explaining that the Church of St. Alban’s, one of three in the parish of Acton Green (the others are St. Peter’s in Southfield Road, and the All Saints Church Centre in Bollo Bridge Road) was no longer required for worship due to “diminishing attendances”.
April 3, 33
Is the supposed date of Christ’s crucifixion.
That’s according to geologists working around the Dead Sea.
The International Geology Review investigated an earthquake that was said to have occurred the same date as Jesus’ crucifixion; which was most likely Friday April 3, 33 A.D.
In Gospel of of Matthew, Chapter 27 says: “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open.”
According to Discovery News, geologist Jefferson Williams of Supersonic Geophysical and colleagues Markus Schwab and Achim Brauer of the German Research Center for Geosciences, analyzed earthquake activity in the area by studying three cores from the Ein Gedi Spa beach.
The research confirmed that two major earthquakes have hit the area specified, one during the period between 26 BCE and 36 CE, and could be the one referred to in the Gospel of Matthew.
All good and well, right? Until,
However, the earthquake data alone doesn’t fully confirm the date. Williams, Schwab, and Brauer admit that the earthquake implied in the gospel could be allegorical, referring to the earthquake that occurred sometime before or after the crucifixion.
This earthquake would have been powerful enough to break apart the sediments of Ein Gedi but not enough to have warranted “a still extant and extra-biblical historical record.”
“If the last possibility is true, this would mean that the report of an earthquake in the Gospel of Matthew is a type of allegory,” they write in the International Geology Review…
It’s best if I at this point defer to the outstanding biblical archaeology blog Bible Places:
A recent study of seismological activity carried out in the Dead Sea region by geologist Jefferson Williams claims to have found evidence for an earthquake that can be dated to April 3, 33 CE. This study then goes on to make the claim that this earthquake relates to the crucifixion earthquake mentioned in Matt. 27:51. However, later in the article Williams concedes that the earthquake could have happened some time “before or after the crucifixion” at which point it was “borrowed” by the “author of the Gospel of Matthew”…
What’s the point of arguing for the calendar week and day in which Jesus was crucified if you are going to say it could have happened any time in 33 CE? Moreover, the fact that he is looking for naturalistic ways of explaining the phenomena mentioned in Matt. 27 reeks of the formula used in “The Exodus Decoded.” So prepare yourself for a Discovery channel documentary in the near future. That said – if the report is to be trusted – it is quite interesting that there is seismological activity in the period in question. In fact, this lines up quite well with the late Harold Hoehner’s chronology in Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (see pg. 95-114). However, given the caveat of the geological analysis proving to be accurate, this evidence still proves relatively nothing. I suspect scholars will line up along party lines with inerrantists claiming infallible evidence and the rest claiming allegorical etiological explanations (e.g. Arad, Ai/Et-Tell, Sodom and Gomorrah, etc.)
Former Anglican Priests Make History as First Ordination Class for Catholic Ordinariate
Mobile, Alabama man to be first of 30 priests ordained for U.S.-based Ordinariate
The Anglican Use of the Roman Rite:
A former Episcopal priest, Matthew Venuti of Mobile, Alabama, will make history when he becomes the first priest ordained for the Catholic Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. The U.S.-based ordinariate was created by Pope Benedict XVI to welcome Anglican groups and clergy seeking to become Catholic while retaining elements of their Anglican heritage. It is equivalent to a diocese, but national in scope.
Mobile Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi will ordain Venuti a priest on Saturday, June 2, 10 a.m. at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, 2 South Claiborne Street, Mobile, AL 36602, along with four priests for the Archdiocese of Mobile.
Venuti’s ordination will be followed by 29 more ordinations of former Anglican priests across the United States this summer. They include hospital executive Jon Chalmers on June 3 in Greenville, South Carolina, followed by a father and son in Fort Worth, Texas; an editor of a major Catholic website in Virginia; military chaplains; and former Anglican priests in Arizona, California, Iowa, Maryland, Pennsylvania and other states.
The ordinariate is led by former Episcopal bishop, Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson of Houston, Texas. Only one other exists, in England, and a third will be established in Australia on June 15. Dozens of communities are in the process of joining the U.S. Ordinariate and 60 Anglican priests are in formation, including the 30 to be ordained this summer.
Archbishop Rodi noted, “Matthew’s ordination is both a joy and a sign of hope that the unity Jesus prayed for at the Last Supper may one day be fully realized. We welcome him to serve the people both of the Archdiocese of Mobile and the Ordinariate.”
In speaking about the ordinations nationally, Msgr. Steenson said, “These ordinations mark a significant moment in the history of Catholic unity. Our expedited formation program, approved by the Holy See, has been a wonderful testimony to the deep respect that the Catholic Church has for the former Anglican ministries of these men.”
“They will continue to engage in ongoing formation and it is my hope that our brother priests throughout the Catholic Church will come along side us as mentors and friends. Together we will strive to lay a good foundation for this apostolate of unity that Pope Benedict has made possible,” he added.
“Coming home to the Catholic Church has been an amazing experience. I am ever grateful to the Holy Father for calling Anglicans back home and extending such pastoral generosity,” said Venuti.
Matthew Venuti, 31, received an undergraduate degree from the College of St. Rose in Albany, NY in 2002. He worked in the music industry, in the jazz and pop music fields, before entering Virginia Theological Seminary. After receiving a master of divinity degree in 2010, he was ordained an Episcopal priest.
He served as curate for the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Dothan, Alabama until entering the Catholic Church in September 2011. He currently serves as the coordinator of faith formation for St. Mary Catholic parish in Mobile. He also leads the Society of St. Gregory the Great, an Anglican use group that is based at St. Mary’s and is online at www.stgregorymobile.org. He and his wife, Minerva, have been married for five years and have a young son. Special permission has been given for those former Anglican priests who are married to be ordained Catholic priests.
Prior to ordination, the men must go through an extensive process that includes submitting detailed background information to, and receiving approval to move forward from, the Vatican; undergoing a criminal background check and psychological assessment; receiving an endorsement from the local Catholic bishop; participating in an intensive formation program; passing an examination; and receiving a rescript from the Vatican permitting ordination. Ordinations are being scheduled as rescripts are received.
Online:
· U.S. Ordinariate: www.usordinariate.org and www.facebook.com/CSPOrdinariate
Vatican Police Arrest Suspect Over Leaking of Documents
UPDATE: The butler did it?
The butler, identified as Paolo Gabriele, 40, was held by gendarmes after a special commission of three top senior cardinals had been appointed by the Pope to identify the source of the leaks which have caused severe embarrassment.
Mr Gabriele, who has been at the Pope’s side for six years, is one of the German born pontiff’s closest members of his inner circle which totals just four lay people and four nuns and he is always at his side.
It is believed that Mr Gabriele, who is known by the nickname Paoletto (little Paul) was held as he arrived for work at the Papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace behind St Peter’s and on Friday he was being held in custody – the first time in years the Vatican jail had been used.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said a man had been detained with “documents in his possession” adding that he was not supposed to have them and he went on to describe him as “a lay person and not a member of the clergy”…
The Vatican police have arrested an individual in possession of private Vatican documents in connection to the so-called “VatiLeaks” scandal that began in January.
Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said: “This person now is being questioned by the Vatican magistrates for further information.” He declined to name the individual.
He told reporters that the Vatican gendarmes “identified a person illicitly in possession of private documents”. The committee of three cardinals Pope Benedict XVI appointed in April to look into the leaks had asked the gendarmes to investigate.
In response to questions, Fr Ciro Benedettini, assistant director of the Vatican press office, said the suspect was “under arrest”. However, he declined to say if or where the person was being held.
Dozens of private letters to Pope Benedict and other confidential Vatican correspondence and reports, including encrypted cables from Vatican embassies around the world, were leaked to an Italian journalist, Gianluigi Nuzzi. He published the documents in a book, Your Holiness, released last week.
In a statement two days later, Fr Lombardi called the publication of the letters for commercial gain a “criminal act” and said the Vatican would take legal action. The publication, he said, violated the right to privacy and the “freedom of correspondence” of Pope Benedict, the letter writers and the pope’s closest collaborators.
In the book’s introduction, Nuzzi said his main source for the texts said he was acting with a “small group” of Vatican insiders concerned about corruption and a thirst for power within the Vatican. According to the source, Nuzzi said, none of the people giving him documents knew who the others were.
Wycliffe Hall Principal Out
The Principal of one of the Church of England’s leading evangelical theological colleges has taken a leave of absence. While this week’s announcement by the Wycliffe Hall council that Dr. Richard Turnbull’s duties would be assumed by Vice-Principal Simon Vibert follows reports of discord within the school, Anglican Ink has been told the principal’s departure is not related to the wider Anglican Communion’s political wars.
The last six years have been difficult for the school, Anglican Ink was told, and concerns over leadership style and management – not churchmanship – had led to this announcement.
Founded in 1877 to train Anglican clergy, Wycliffe Hall is a permanent private hall of Oxford University, that been able to matriculate its own theology students as members of the university since 1996. Among its former members are Lord Coggan, the late Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. N.T. Wright the former Bishop of Durham, and the Rev. Nicky Gumbel of Alpha Course fame…
A press release from the bishops on the college council, Bishops James Jones of Liverpool, Peter Forster of Chester and David Urquhart of Birmingham stated:
“We regret that the inspectors have judged it right to declare that they have no confidence in one area of the Hall’s life, in relation to aspects of Practical and Pastoral Theology. We doubt that the evidence which the Inspectors adduce merits such a stark assessment, but we will ensure that the recommendations which are made in relation to this area are given speedy and particular attention.”
Dr. Turnbull’s leave of absence came as a surprise to many outside observers as the college appeared to have recovered from its difficulties. However, an insider who asked not to be identified as he was not authorized to speak on behalf of the council said the departure of Dr. Turnbull centered round issues of trust and management.
On 23 May the council, led by the Bishop Forster of Chester, released a statement saying:
“Staff and students at Wycliffe were told last week that Principal Richard Turnbull is to take a leave of absence from the Hall. The Council wishes to make it clear that the Principal has not been dismissed. The Council and Richard are now in ongoing discussions over his future role at Wycliffe, with Vice-Principal Simon Vibert assuming the position of Acting Principal. We have every confidence in Simon, and in the rest of the staff, to ensure continuity and the efficient functioning of the Hall during this time.
The outcome of the discussions with Richard will be communicated to staff and students in due course. However, our overriding priority is to ensure Wycliffe remains unequivocally committed to equipping men and women as leaders, preachers, church planters and evangelists in the mission of proclaiming and living the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, with a deeply biblical understanding of the nature of the Kingdom of God.”
Studying the Bible with Benjamin Netanyahu
On Wednesday afternoon in Baghdad, a few thousand kilometers away from the Prime Minister’s Jerusalem Residence, the world powers known as the P5+1 – the US, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany – sat down for much anticipated talks with the Iranians about their nuclear program.
At the same time, just a few hundred meters away from the Prime Minister’s Residence, 100 or so people loudly demonstrated for the rights of Ethiopian immigrants and against discrimination.
And all the while, for two hours on a mild afternoon, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – with a small black kippa on his head – sat in the covered courtyard of his home with 16 rabbis, academics, Bible scholars, archeologists and linguists, and discussed the meaning of the Book of Ruth, which will be read on Shavuot on Sunday in synagogues around the world. His wife, Sara, sat next to him, and his two sons sat on a bank of chairs set to the side.
There was something at once heartening and slightly humorous about Netanyahu setting aside precious time in the late afternoon to talk about Biblical figures Tamar and Yehuda, Naomi and Boaz, Ruth and David, while Iran loomed so large, and domestic issues beckoned so seriously.
It was heartening in that it is uniquely elevating seeing the prime minister of the Jewish state taking time out to study the Bible, the heart of Jewish existence. One cannot talk about Jewish historic rights to this place, which the prime minister does constantly, without appreciating and understanding the Bible…
Read on in the Jerusalem Post here.
A Bit More on the Bethlehem Bulla
[Background here.]
From Joseph I. Lauer via e-mail:
1. Yesterday, Zachi Dvira (Zweig) forwarded some information about the bulla and the work of the Temple Mount Sifting Project members. Zachi and Dr. Gabriel Barkay (the “Gaby” below) direct the Project.
Zachi wrote: “This bulla was found a few months ago at the sifting site by Rachel Nahum, which the sifting site office manager. It was found during the time we were working on Gibeon LMLK bulla essay. Gaby saw this bulla and identified it immediately as a fiscal bulla mentioning the town Bethlehem. We’ve been giving sifting services to Eli’s Shukrun excavations for over a year, but recently we have significantly increased the number of staff members working this material and it will take place for some time. We expect many more unique finds from this material to show up in the future.”
The IAA release quotes Eli Shukron stating, in part, “The bulla we found belongs to the group of “fiscal” bullae – administrative bullae used to seal tax shipments remitted to the taxation system of the Kingdom of Judah in the late eighth and seventh centuries BCE.”
Those interested in fiscal bulla should see Dr. Barkay’s report, “A Fiscal Bulla from the Slopes of the Temple Mount – Evidence for the Taxation System of the Judean Kingdom,” at http://templemount.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/finds-from-the-first-and-second-temple-period-city-dumps-at-the-eastern-slopes-of-the-temple-mount/ and his essay at http://www.echad.info/articles/fiscal_bulla.pdf [pp. 151-77 in Hebrew, and two English pages].
2. The expanded AP news report, at PhysOrg and other sites, states: “Shmuel Achituv, an expert in ancient scripts at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University who did not participate in the dig, said the discovery was the oldest reference to Bethlehem ever found outside of the Bible. Apart from the seal, the other mentions of Bethlehem, Achituv said, ‘are only in the Bible.’” In addition, the article stated, “Hebrew words often do not have vowels, which are understood from the context, making several interpretations of the same word plausible. Some of the letters are crumbled, or were wiped away. Three experts interviewed by the AP, one involved in the text and two independents, concurred the seal says Bethlehem. There are only some 40 other existing seals of this kind from the first Jewish Temple period, said Achituv, making this a significant find, both because such seals are rare, and because this is the first to mention Bethlehem.” See “Ancient Bethlehem seal unearthed in Jerusalem” at http://phys.org/news/2012-05-ancient-bethlehem-unearthed-jerusalem.html
There’s also a video of Eli Shukron speaking about the bulla in English, including at http://www.3news.co.nz/Ancient-Bethlehem-seal-unearthed-in-Jerusalem/tabid/1216/articleID/255380/Default.aspx
And see four pictures at http://news.yahoo.com/ancient-bethlehem-seal-unearthed-jerusalem-092659029.html
3. In my earlier “Is Bethlehem on the bulla?” e-mail I mentioned that “Some scholars have already indicated that they take issue with Eli Shukron’s reading of the bulla’s text (Bishv’at Bat Lechem [Lemel]ekh = in the seventh / bet lehem / lm[lk]) but see, instead, a person’s name or other wording.”
Since then, one scholar has posted the details of his disagreement and another has withdrawn his reservations about the “bet lehem” reading but with important caveats.
A. Today, May 24, Dr. George Athas posted “A New Seal that DOES NOT refer to Bethlehem” at his site, at http://withmeagrepowers.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/a-new-seal-that-does-not-refer-to-bethlehem/
In it, besides making a political judgment, he explains in detail how he would read the lines differently and states his belief that the letter in the second line read as a het is actually a heh, negating a reading of of “lh(.)m” (= “lechem”). In a comment, Dr. Peter van der Veen agreed in part with Dr. Athas but took issue with the heh reading (“I do think that it is a het as the left vertical line can be detected but it is rather damaged.”). Dr. Athas explained why he was not convinced and concluded that, “In any case, this is why we need another pair of skilled eyes to inspect this bulla. I simply don’t trust photos enough to make definitive judgements.”
(Interestingly, on May 23, a reader (“Sarah”, not an epigrapher) of Duane Smith’s “A ‘Fiscal Bulla’ From Bethlehem” posting wrote, “looks like a he not a cheth in ‘Bethlehem’.” See http://www.telecomtally.com/blog/2012/05/a_fiscal_bulla_from_bethlehem.html)
However (and more on that below based on Dr. Ahituv’s observations), when you look closely at a greatly enlarged photo of the bulla, such as the IAA’s high-resolution picture at ZIP file http://www.antiquities.org.il/images/press/iaa_2205.zip, do you see what could be an almost completely effaced left stroke of a het?
(Unless my eyes are playing tricks on me, and subject to stereoscopic microscope analysis, it seems to be there when observed at very great enlargement.)
Or do you see a heh? (The shading at the left between the horizontal lines and to the left above the top line would disqualify the heh.)
Ha’aretz also has a not-quite-as-large picture (that is further enlargeable when clicked upon with the mouse cursor) at
http://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.432168.1337787270!/image/121356148.jpg
B. Dr. Victor Avigdor Hurowitz of Ben-Gurion University initially expressed reservations about the reading of the bulla in the IAA’s press release.
However, in an e-mail and a posting at his Facebook page he wrote the following about an hour ago: “Retraction about Beytlehem bulla. Friends, I must retract the statements I made a few days ago about the newly found bulla mentioning [b]yt lh(.)m בית לחם. Why? It turns out that my objections were based on a mistaken press release of the bulla issued by the IAA. They offered a transcription and transliteration which were erroneous. My colleague Shmuel Ahituv, an epigrapher, saw the bulla itself and he informs me that the signs on the right which the IAA transcribed as ב are in fact on close examination of the object remnants of a yod. Also, the letter transcribed as ח is indeed such. On the photo it looks like a ה because the down stroke on the left seems to be absent. Ahituv tells me that traces are still visible. In other words, the text reads [ב]ית לחם This is obviously Bethlehem and I have no objections to the identification. In summary, if Ahituv’s transcription and decipherment are correct this bulla is an attestation of this place in an extra-Biblical, Iron Age source. But if the IAA has correctly transcribed the text, my objections stand. So I retract my objection but will not accept blame.”
Archbishop Vincent Nichols Hostile to the Ordinariate?
That’s the inference made in the Catholic Herald:
At Westminster Cathedral this Saturday, another milestone for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham will be reached, with the ordination of another 17 former Anglican priests as deacons on their way to the Catholic priesthood. The ordination Mass will be celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Alan Hopes of Westminster. “I have been informed”, says the author of the excellent A Reluctant Sinner blog, “that it has been quite some time since Westminster Cathedral will have witnessed the ordination of so many men at the one Mass.”
As I have already written in this column, I am beginning to wonder if the warm welcome with which even formerly hostile members of our hierarchy greeted the establishment of the ordinariate was genuine. Was their conversion authentic? Or were they being devious? Is the truth that their warm words were what they knew the Pope wanted them to utter, but that their true intention, hidden this time, in contrast to their open hostility to the original “Roman Option”, was to allow the whole thing to get under way and then quietly and over time to strangle it? I think that is the real truth.
If it is not, why, unlike the new American ordinariate and the even newer Australian ordinariate (who were both assigned a church building on their erection), has the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham still not been given a principal church? In the words of Damian Thompson: “The failure to address the matter is so morale-sapping that I really can’t blame those Anglicans who are hesitating to take the plunge…”
This is not the first time I have voiced these anxieties…
This certainly looks like a convincing answer to Damian Thompson’s question: “where is the London church that will serve as the ordinariate’s headquarters?” The answer is that it exists in the imagination and the aspirations of the Ordinary and his entourage: but that it has no existence in reality and never will without the firm intervention of the Pope. The following is the answer that Archbishop Nichols gave at a press conference, to a question about the provision of an ordinariate “cathedral”: “I think that is something probably beyond their resources at the present time, and I don’t think the ordinariate would thank us, actually, to simply give it responsibility for a church that it would have to then maintain and upkeep.
The fact is, however, that those who have crossed the Tiber to the ordinariate do regard a main church as a priority. The fact is also that those 17 new deacons (so many more than are usually ordained at Westminster Cathedral) weren’t being ordained for the Archdiocese of Westminster but for the ordinariate: they ought to have been ordained at the ordinariate’s principal church. The reason that they haven’t got one is simple: it is that Archbishop Nichols has decided that he will not make one available — not because he hasn’t got one but because he is hostile to the ordinariate . To say he won’t give them one because of the costs of maintenance is utterly ridiculous: the archbishop could easily help with that problem for a year or two out of petty cash: it would make up just a little for the extreme meanness of the financial help given by the mainstream English Church thus far. I would not be at all surprised if the very unusual recent gift by the Holy Father of £150,000 wasn’t at least partly intended by him as a rebuke to the English church for its parsimony, and also a way of reminding them of his own very strong support for this brave venture.
There is something else going on. I have a suspicion that there is a hidden ecumenical agenda here, behind the policy of keeping the ordinariate homeless. And behind that lies another intention. At the same time as the Anglican Bishop of London was making it plain that he would sooner demolish an unused Anglican building or turn it into a carpet warehouse than allow an ordinariate parish to use it, Archbishop Nichols was saying that the natural place for ordinariate Catholics to worship would be their local Catholic parish church. Well, it would certainly be the best place if you just want to absorb them within the local parish, while hijacking their clergy – at first to “help out”, and then, who knows? – rather than give them the independent ecclesial existence envisaged in Anglicanorum coetibus.
I really do hope that the nuncio Archbishop Mennini is keeping his eye on this one. For, if he isn’t, and if Rome simply assumes that Archbishop Nichols is doing everything that is necessary for the Pope’s vision to be realised, I fear that the whole enterprise may run into the sands. Everything depends on its maintaining its momentum. But it cannot do that entirely alone in the early stages. In the US and in Australia, the local hierarchy is getting behind the ordinariate. Not here. Why is that?
Read it all here.
The hostility aimed at the Ordinariate is palpable in parts – both from within (certain Catholic quarters) and from Anglican sources. This is my personal opinion. In fact I would go as far as to suggest that pretence is a common response which frequently gives way to veiled persecution. It is exacting and regrettably now a notable aspect of the history of the Ordinariate.
As this great work of ecumenical unity continues to unfold, pray that all opposition and resentment will soon come to pass…
Men Charged In Bible Snatching
Police say two western Pennsylvania men mistook a woman’s Bible carrying case for a purse when they tried to snatch it from her, knocking her to the ground.
Police charged Ludwig earlier this month before he told police that it was Stephenson who physically grabbed the Bible, knocking the elderly woman to the ground. Stephenson was arrested Tuesday.
Online court records don’t list an attorney for Stephenson, and Ludwig’s attorney didn’t immediately return a call Thursday.
Police say the incident happened about 7 p.m. outside the rural Robin-dale Union Church in East Wheatfield Township, about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh.
How wicked.
