The Hermeneutic of Continuity

Marcel at Aggie Catholics has posted a list of US Bishops who blog . They range from Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York all the way to Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles. (I mean that they range geographically of course.) Go over to Marcel's post to check whether your own blogging bishop is there. It would be good if someone built up a list of Bishop bloggers worldwide. I don't think we have any in England yet, but do correct me if I am wrong.

Shane has started an interesting new blog called Lux Occulta in which he has posted scans of the covers of various old Catholic Truth Society (CTS) pamphlets. Many have an advert for the old CTS bible (Douai Rheims) on the back, priced 6/- for the blue cloth bound version and 8/6d for the maroon leatherette version. I have a copy of the blue cloth version but do remember as a child wondering if I might be able to afford the luxury leatherette version one day! These pamphlets are an important part of our Catholic history, showing the hermeneutic of continuity in practice. The CTS always engaged effectively in promoting the lay apostolate - the decree of Vatican II on the Lay Apostolate Apostolicam Actuositatem affirmed this work that was a strength of the life of the Catholic Church in Britain long before the Council. Pope Benedict spoke of its importance in his Ad Limina address to the Bishops of Scotland earlier this year (as I mentioned in February): Hand in hand with a prop...

Bishop John Jukes has written a powerful and inspiring personal reflection on celibacy on the occasion of his 87th birthday. He might have issued this via the Catholic Communications Network or something, but he has shown considerable media savvy in sending it directly to Damian Thompson who has posted it in full on his blog, thus gaining the venerable Bishop and his important article quite a lot more readers than the official path might have secured. I hope that it is picked up and posted on official channels as well. See: A Catholic bishop looks back gratefully on 87 years of celibacy . (I have further reason to be grateful to Bishop Jukes since it was he who had the temerity to ordain me in 1984.) An amusing reference to this story was unwittingly provided a few minutes ago by Our Sunday Visitor on Twitter ( click to enlarge ): Don't tell Damian!

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III assumed office on June 30 and the Philippine Bishops have wasted no time in calling on him not to promote a contraceptive mentality. In a previous post , I gave some of the figures from the UNAIDS report showing the enormous difference between the Philippines and Thailand, in numbers of people living with HIV. It is not surprising that the Philippine Bishops should be concerned to avoid the same disastrous policy in their country. Speaking on behalf of his brother bishops, Bishop Nereo Odchimar of Tandag, the president of the bishops’ conference, said: Among the many concerns, the media has shown a particular concern on sex education and reproductive health bills. There are no changes in the stand of the Church. Human life starts at conception, and conception takes place at the fertilization of the egg by the sperm. Human life is a gift of God and has to be respected and protected from conception till natural death. The Church is always conc...

The Good Counsel Network's blog Maria Stops Abortion reports on the faithful support of Bishop Thomas McMahon of Brentwood for the pro-life peaceful prayer vigils of the Helpers of God's Precious Infants outside the Marie Stopes Abortion facility at Buckhurst Hill, Essex. They point out that 100% of the Bishops of Brentwood attend while only 5% of priests do, and 1% of laity. So the invitation goes out to you to attend if you are in reach of Buckhurst Hill next Saturday 10 July. For more details, see: Bishop does 99% better than his lay faithful for praying at abortuary See also the important post looking at the supercilious question " Why do these girls keep getting pregnant? " One significant factor is the aggressive promotion of contraception. The Good Counsel Network deal on a daily basis with women in crisis because of an unwanted pregnancy. The vast majority of their clients have been using one or more forms of contraception.

Today's Rinunce e Nomine section of the Bollettino is quite full, with some significant appointments. There is a new Bishop for Spokane (Mgr Blase Cupich), new auxiliaries for Boston (Frs Arthur Kennedy and Peter Uglietto), a new Rector for the Lateran University (Rev Enrico dal Covolo SDB), and a new member of the team of Pontifical MCs (Fr John Richard Cihak) Archbishop Celestino Migliore has been appointed as Apostolic Nuncio for Poland. Up to now, he has been the Permanent Observer for the Holy See at the United Nations. Mgr Ignacio Carrasco de Paula has been appointed as President of the Pontifical Academy for Life. I know that some will be very pleased to hear of these moves. As widely expected, and now officially announced, Archbishop Fisichella has been appointed as President of the newly formed Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation, and Cardinal Marc Ouellet ( above ) has been made Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

Photo from Reuters pictures at www.daylife.com Archbishop Peter Smith, recently installed as Archbishop of Southwark (and therefore my Ordinary) received the pallium this morning from Pope Benedict XVI during the Mass celebrated at St Peter's for the feast of St Peter and St Paul. This is his second pallium, since he was formerly Archbishop of Cardiff. Here is a photo of Archbishop Longley ( right ) wearing his new pallium as Archbishop of Birmingham: Photo from CNS Facebook album Please remember Archbishops Smith and Longley in your prayers.

Today is the feast day of one of my patrons, St John Fisher, who is also one of my favourite saints. He shares the day with the great St Thomas More who tends to secure more attention so I make no apology for focussing on the holy Bishop of Rochester. There are some famous episodes from his life such as the reply that he gave to Bishops Stokesley, Gardiner and Tunstal, whom Thomas Cromwell had sent to the Tower to persuade him to submit to King Henry VIII, which includes the memorable words: "The fort is betrayed even of them that should have defended it." There is also King Henry's outburst on hearing the news that Pope Paul III had created Fisher a Cardinal. (See my post for the feast day in 2006 ) This year, I have searched out another episode in Fisher's life. In 1529 King Henry issued a warrant to permit the legatine court to open at Blackfriars, near the palace of Bridewell. The King's purpose was to deny the legitimacy of the papal dispensation given for ...

La Ciguena de la Torre and Andrea Tornielli , both of whom have proved right in the past about Vatican appointments, are stating that Cardinal Pell's appointment as Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops has now been decided and will be announced in the coming weeks. If so, I think that is very good news indeed. Damian Thompson has a quotation from a letter written by Cardinal Pell to the Tablet in 2002 “… I have long been disappointed by The Tablet’s persistent subversions of some Catholic teaching and mystified by the inability of the English bishops to nudge it towards a more productive line of witness …” On one occasion I happened across Cardinal Pell at St Peter's. I was flattered that he remembered me and said Tim - remember my advice. Keep your guard up and keep moving round the ring.

Archbishop Peter Smith has been appointed as Archbishop of Southwark. You can see some basic information at his entry on Catholic Hierarchy website. Archbishop Smith was ordained a priest for the Southwark Archdiocese in 1972 and served as Rector of St John's Seminary, Wonersh. He was appointed as Bishop of East Anglia in 1995 and Archbishop of Cardiff in 2001. I prepared this post last night after receiving the Ad Clerum by email. Fr Philip Glandfield, the Archbishop's Secretary for Archbishop McDonald, introduced this on an "opt in" basis and I must say that I found it a very welcome development. The news was embargoed until 11am today so the post was scheduled to go up then. Now the announcement has appeared on the Vatican Bollettino . Here is my translation of the notes given there: His Grace Mgr Peter Smith was born in London, in the Archdiocese of Southwark on 20 October 1943. He studied at the secondary school of Clapham College or the Xaverian Brothers...

In August 2007, Bishop Edward James Slattery visited Merton College Oxford, to attend the training conference and to celebrate Pontifical High Mass at the close of the proceedings, having humbly accepted some tuition himself. I had the privilege of meeting him at the conference. Last year, he announced that he had returned to the practice of celebrating Mass in his Cathedral in Tulsa, Oklahoma, facing towards the East. In 2004, Eastern Oklahoma Catholic gave a summary of all that Bishop Slattery had done to combat and prevent the scourge of child abuse, leading to praise from the Child Abuse Network in particular for his co-operation with the civil authorities. In addition to these various actions, Bishop Slattery ordered a Holy Hour of Reparation to be held at the same time in all the Churches of his diocese. He was therefore an ideal choice for celebrant of the Solemn High Mass at the National Shrine at Washington DC last Saturday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the elec...

On Sunday, Archbishop Bernard Longley celebrated Mass at the Oxford Oratory, in the Church of St Aloysius which is dear to me since I attended daily Mass there when I was an undergraduate. You can see the "Benedictine" altar arrangement for the Mass in the Novus Ordo , facing the people. There are more photos at James Bradley's Flickr set .

The Most Rev. Jose H. Gomez has been appointed as coadjutor Bishop to Los Angeles with the right of succession to Cardinal Roger Mahoney who reaches the age of 75 next February. Archbishop Gomez was ordained as a priest of Opus Dei at Torrecuidad in 1978 and holds a Doctorate from the Opus Dei faculty at Pamplona. There is some more background at Te Deum Laudamus . On an entirely unrelated note, I found this YouTube video:

Fr Ralph Heskett CSSR has been appointed as Bishop of Gibraltar to succeed Bishop Caruana who has retired on reaching the age of 75. Fr Heskett was born in 1953, professed as a Redemptorist in 1971 and ordained priest in 1976. He has worked in a variety of offices in the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, particular in work for vocations. His appointment is of particular interest to people in the Archdiocese of Southwark since he was from 1998-2008 parish priest of the Redemptorist parish of Our Immaculate Lady of Victories (known as "St Mary's") in Clapham. ( pictured ) The official announcement is at today's Vatican Bollettino . Please remember bishop-elect Heskett in your prayers. UPDATE : That pesky Father John Boyle managed to find a picture of Fr Heskett for Caritas in Veritate . I couldn't find anything on google images. Ecce :

Today, the Holy Father addressed the Bishops of Scotland . One of the points that he made was to distinguish between lay ministry and lay apostolate: Hand in hand with a proper appreciation of the priest’s role is a correct understanding of the specific vocation of the laity. Sometimes a tendency to confuse lay apostolate with lay ministry has led to an inward-looking concept of their ecclesial role. Yet the Second Vatican Council’s vision is that wherever the lay faithful live out their baptismal vocation – in the family, at home, at work – they are actively participating in the Church’s mission to sanctify the world. A renewed focus on lay apostolate will help to clarify the roles of clergy and laity and so give a strong impetus to the task of evangelizing society. This struck a particular chord with me, and at the back of my mind, I knew that I had written something on the subject some years ago. Looking back through the list of editorials that I wrote when I was editor of Fai...

The Holy Father spoke of several key issues during his Address to the Bishops of England and Wales today. The MSM (e.g. Times ,  Telegraph ,  Independent ,  Daily Mail ,  Mirror , BBC ) have zoomed in on his remarks about equality legislation: Your country is well known for its firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all members of society. Yet as you have rightly pointed out, the effect of some of the legislation designed to achieve this goal has been to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs. In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed. I urge you as Pastors to ensure that the Church’s moral teaching be always presented in its entirety and convincingly defended. Fidelity to the Gospel in no way restricts the freedom of others – on the contrary, it serves their freedom by offering them the truth....

Many bloggers have already picked up on the video posted by Diane at Te Deum Laudamus . Bishop Scheider speaks about the reception of Holy Communion:

Thanks to the Dutch blogger "in caelo", who writes In Caelo et in Terra , for posting a link in the combox to an interview which Bishop Léonard gave to the Belgian news outlet Knack . See: “The Belgian Church has been too passive” . The interviewer is confrontational but his questions intelligent and to the point, giving the opportunity for Bishop Léonard to show his considerable acumen in answering under pressure. Sadly, it is a sign of the times that when a good Bishop, courageously loyal to the authentic Magisterium of the Catholic Church, is appointed, he is vilified in the press, and even by senior politicians in public statements. Thankfully, there is a petition to express support for Bishop Léonard. The explanation page is written in French (with an alternative in Flemish .) Here is my translation of the French page: Since the appointment of Mgr. Leonard as successor to Cardinal Danneels, journalists continue to spread negative reactions about his person. It is s...

On Monday, Bishop André-Mutien Léonard, of the Diocese of Namur, was appointed as the new Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussel (Malines-Brussels). He is the most traditional bishop of Belgium, has publicly defended Pope Pius XII against the allegation of "silence" made against him, and has often spoken out forcefully against abortion and euthanasia and on other moral issues concerning sexuality and bioethics. Regarding some comments that he made on television about homosexual behaviour, he said: I know that within a few years, I will risk prison by saying this, but it could offer me a little vacation. He was in fact charged with homophobia: the charges were dropped last April. He welcomed Summorum Pontificum with enthusiasm, arranged for a daily usus antiquior Mass in his cathedral of Namur and, as NLM reported , celebrated Pontifical High Mass at the Eucharistic Congress in Quebec in 2008 (see picture above.) Some years earlier, he took part in the 2001 conference at Fontg...

Archbishop Socrates Villegas was ordained priest in 1985 by the great Filipino Cardinal Jaime Sin whom I had the privilege to meet whilst studying in Rome. He was consecrated as an auxiliary Bishop in Manila in 2001 at the age of 40. Last year he was appointed as Archbishop of the diocese of Lingayen-Dagupan. On 31 December he wrote a pastoral letter to his priests on the celebration of Mass, entitled " That our sacrifice may be pleasing to God ." The Archbishop encourages his priests to celebrate Mass reverently, to keep the altar linens clean and distinct from each other, and to eschew secular love songs in the Mass. Fr Seán Coyle, a Dubliner from the Missionary Society of St Columban, works in the Philippines and has added his own comments on the letter in a post on his blog Bangor to Bobbio. Many thanks to him for drawing my attention to Archbishop Villegas' letter. The Archbishop was at the heart of the ESDA non-violent revolution which toppled Marcos, has fought fo...