The Hermeneutic of Continuity

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.

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...

From today's Vatican Bollettino : Il Santo Padre ha accettato la rinuncia al governo pastorale dell’arcidiocesi di Southwark (Inghilterra), presentata da S.E. Mons. Kevin McDonald, in conformità al can. 401 § 2 del Codice di Diritto Canonico. The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral government of hte Archdiocese of Southwark (England) presented by His Grace Kevin McDonald, in conformity with canon 401 § 2 of the Code of Canon Law. Here is the Press Release issued by the Archdiocese of Southwark : At 11am (GMT) The Holy Father accepted the accepted the resignation of Archbishop Kevin McDonald of Southwark in accordance with Canon 401 §2. The Archbishop submitted his resignation to the Holy Father having taken account of medical advice. The Archbishop has had a triple heart bypass and also suffers from severe osteo arthritis. This has already necessitated surgery and the Archbishop envisages further surgery in 2010. Archbishop McDonald said, “I feel great sadnes...

A priest friend of mine kindly sent me a set of CDs of the bible as a gift on the occasion of my silver jubilee. It is the King James Bible and we know that is not ideal but we are waiting for someone to record the Vulgate... I have started listening to the Bible during my frequent moderately lengthy car journeys. Well - an hour or so is moderately lengthy by UK standards; by US standards, I suppose that would just be just like popping out to the shops. At any rate, I am now half way through the book of Leviticus. This morning I met my new Sacramental Theology class at Wonersh. The majority are in the fourth year of seminary training and in the final year of the theology degree. I also have two former Anglican students for occasional tutorials. I enjoyed getting back into the swing of talking about the theology of the sacraments and I think that my experience of teaching other courses at Parkminster helps to round things out a bit, especially with regard to Christology and the Theology...

The Southwark Vocations website has had a makeover with some good photos (including some of my parishioners on one page) and the blog integrated into the website. (When looking at people's website, I often check the page source to see whether any particular tool was used to build it, what the html is like and so on. This one has clean, valid markup and was generated by iWeb-Build so I had a look on google to see what that was. Then, of course, I remembered that Fr Langridge is a Mac man!)

Mgr Richard Moth and I were fellow students at Wonersh in the first year in 1976 and it was fun to see the Italian language announcement the other day (complete with misteaks) telling of his appointment as Bishop of the Forces in succession to Bishop Tom Burns who has gone to Menevia. Mgr Moth is a respected Canon Lawyer, has been Vicar General in Southwark since 2001, has served in the Territorial Army, and is a Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. He has been the Spiritual Director to the Order's pilgrimages to the Holy Land for some years. Richard is at home with the forces, enjoys horse-riding and has been known to engage in the odd bit of huntin' and shootin' and I am sure will have the respect of officers, men, and fellow-chaplains. I wish him every blessing in his ministry. More information at the Archdiocese of Southwark website, where there is a short bio , and a press release . Please remember Bishop-elect Moth in your pray...

This morning's post brought a pleasant surprise: the book "Priesthood. A Life Open to Christ" compiled by Canon Daniel Cronin. The book came as a gift from my Archbishop, Kevin McDonald, who has sent the book to all his priests to help us to engage with the Year of the Priesthood. This is a kind and thoughtful expression of the Archbishop's fatherly care for his priests, and I greatly appreciate it. The book is a collection of short articles written by a wide variety of contributors; priests and bishops. Although the English contributors predominate, there are articles by, for example, Cardinals Pell and DiNardo. Some of us might take issue with one or two of the articles but there is a lot of good, sincere and prayerful material, including a fine article by Archbishop McDonald reflecting on the priesthood as it runs "directly counter to the prevailing culture" and offers a sure reference point bringing stability here and now, and hope for the future. Please...

A Low Mass in the usus antiquior will be celebrated St Raphael's, Surbiton (Portsmouth Road KT6 4EL) for the Feast of the Sacred Heart this Friday at 7.30pm, followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament to celebrate the beginning of the 'Year of the Priesthood' called by Pope Benedict XVI. Surbiton is the other side of Southwark Diocese from me so I hope that this information will be useful to those of you over that way. The Church is a magnificent Italianate Church designed by Charles Parker and built in 1846; it is well worth visiting. Here is a photo from the parish website of the altar prepared for Benediction:

On Sunday 14 June at 6pm. Fr Stephen Fisher, parish priest at St Ethelbert and St Gertrude's Church in Ramsgate , will celebrate a traditional Latin mass in the Extraordinary Form, the first of a monthly 2nd Sunday EF sung mass in his parish. The music will be sung by a choir of music scholars from the local university of Kent, and the mass setting will be Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli , motets include Tallis' O Sacrum Convivium and Duruflé's Tantum Ergo . It is great to hear of a polyphonic Mass being sung in Kent. The photo is from the parish website .

The Rt Rev Kevin McDonald, Archbishop of Southwark (my own Archbishop), has written to the Times to offer clarification on the question lifting of the SSPX excommunications and the Church's commitment to Catholic-Jewish relations. The website of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales carries the full text of the letter and here is the edited version published by the Times. The Archbishop wrote in his capacity as Chairman of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales Department of Dialogue and Unity. His letter gives the necessary reassurances regarding Catholic-Jewish relations (in response to the recent rant on the leader page) without being negative about the initiative of Pope Benedict. When Summorum Pontificum was issued, Archbishop McDonald said to the Council of Priests that he welcomed it, cautioning only that it should be implemented with pastoral sensitivity. There are several parishes in the Archdiocese that offer the Extraordinary Form every Sunday an...

The annual High Mass organised by the Latin Mass Society in St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, was celebrated last Saturday 6 December by Fr Andrew Southwell, assisted by Fr Peter Gee as Deacon and Fr Christopher Basden as Sub-deacon. The cathedral Dean, Canon James Cronin, preached about the life of St Nicholas and how Christians, inspired by St Nicholas, must never lose hope. The music was provided by the Cathedral choir under the direction of Nick Gale and the organ was played by Thomas Wilson, Precentor of Westminster Cathedral. Over 200 people were present at the Mass. John Medlin, LMS General Manager, said: “It’s wonderful to come back to St George’s which is such a vibrant hub of Catholic life in South London. Canon Cronin makes us very welcome and it’s pleasing to see how easily the Extraordinary Form and Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite can work alongside each other to build up the liturgical life of the diocese. We’re looking forward to our next visit!”

For the past five years, Mulier Fortis has organised a group of women and girls to hand out holy cards to the priests processing into St George's Cathedral on Maundy Thursday for the Chrism Mass, to thank the priests for their work and assure them of the prayers of women from the diocese. There used to be a group of feminists protesting outside in favour of the ordination of women and I know that many of my colleagues were very pleased to see such a " counter demo " from women - although as Mac points out, it is not really a demo, just an expression of support for priests. The prayer cards for this year include text from the Holy Father's address to the Roman Major Seminary in February this year and the picture is the one of Our Lady of Trust which the Holy Father referred to in his address. They will be meeting outside the Cathedral at 10.45am. The Mass starts at 11.15am. Gathering afterwards in the Three Stags pub from about 1.15pm.

Fr Stephen Fisher, canon lawyer and parish priest of the Church of Saints Ethelbert and Gertrude in Ramsgate, has started a blog called Semper eadem . Regarding Summorum Pontificum , he writes "We have certainly taken advantage of the new situation here in Ramsgate." Canadians will be interested in his photos of Vimy Ridge - which he can easily get to on a day off. Fr Fisher has used the wording from the "Disclaimer (of sorts)" in my sidebar, hoping that I don't mind. Not at all - given his legal expertise, I regard this it a compliment.

I spent this morning at Amigo Hall, next to St George's Cathedral, Southwark. As Dean of Bexley, I was attending the meeting of the Archdiocese of Southwark's Council of Priests. There was mention today of the observations regarding the Community of the Divine Innocence by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. (Link to these observations and the Archbishop's statement at the Diocesan website.) Summorum Pontificum was on the agenda but only as an item for a brief announcement from the Archbishop. He welcomed the motu proprio and said that it needed the be implemented with common sense and pastoral sensitivity. Can't see how anyone could disagree with that. After the meeting, I made my way across London to the Good Counsel Network which offers counselling to women in crisis pregnancies and offers practical solutions to the problems that have led to them seeking an abortion. The work is based very firmly on adoration and prayer. In the chapel in the basement, t...

Another hat I wear is that of "Dean of Bexley". Two appointments today in this capacity. In the morning, after saying an early Mass I took the train up to Waterloo then walked round to Amigo Hall for the Council of Priests meeting. There was a chance over lunch to catch up with Fr Stephen Langridge who runs the Southwark Vocations blog. The mobile phone-computer makes it possible to use the travelling time to catch up on some blogs that I haven't read for a while. I plumped for the Dartford via Bexleyheath train back, hoping that it would not be too long a wait for a 51 bus to Blackfen. The good Lord sent one straight away so I was back in Blackfen just in time to visit to a local garage to test drive a youngish used Hyundai. This is a possible replacement for my current motor which is about to fall apart at the seams. MOT is up in June, service about due, tyres and exhaust nearing the end of their life, couple of dents to fix, and various innards probably due to fail so...

I used to be responsible for the website of the Archdiocese of Southwark . I was quite pleased with the design and the fact that the html was tightly written. However I was quite hopeless at keeping it updated and the one thing that everyone really wanted as a directory of parishes - obviously. Looking at the website the other day, I found that a Parish Directory this has now been provided on the website by the new team - and very good looking it is too.

Last week was the English "half term", a week long holiday in the middle of the school term. Priests often take some time off as there are no Governors' meetings or school duties. This certainly seemed to be true of Southwark clergy last week. In the sacristy of St Peter's, I met Fr James Clark and both Frs Boyle (Stephen and John - South Ashford Priest ) who were out with some altar servers. At the airport, I met Fr Southwell of the Latin Mass Society who was out on pilgrimage with the Society. In St Peter's Square, I bumped into Fr Martin Edwards so we each posed for a genuine tourist photo. Here he is: Another time in the colonnade, I met Fr Philip Gilbert and several others (including Bishop Howard Tripp) who were part of the same priestly support group, spending a few days at the Casa del Clero . Fr Gilbert estimated that 6% of the active clergy from the Archdiocese of Southwark were in Rome last week.

Flipping through my blogroll reminded me to tell you the news from the Archdiocese of Southwark. In a recent Letter Ad Clerum , Archbishop McDonald announced that he has appointed Fr Stephen Langridge as Vocations Director for the Archdiocese. This is very good news. Fr Stephen has done great work heading up the Vocations Promotion Team, pioneering Seekers Meetings and retreats for young men interested in the priesthood and keeping in touch with those who are at university. He also runs a Southwark Vocations Blog.

Up at Archbishop's House in Southwark today for a meeting called by Archbishop McDonald for all the Deans of the Diocese. We were discussing the process of consultation on a vision for the Archdiocese. It wouldn't be right to comment on the discussions themselves; not that there was anything terribly secret or earth-shattering, just that it was a preliminary consultation and I respect the process. The process itself is prompted by the possible future shortage of priests in the Archdiocese and the possible need for some "restructuring" (cutting of Masses, merging of parishes etc.) In Southwark, this is not an urgent need because we are relatively well off for priests. My own chief concern in such discussions (or "hobby horse" if you will) is that we should not see the shortage of priests as inevitable. There are many examples of good practice in the new ecclesial movements that demonstrate how fidelity to the magisterium and to the liturgical life of the Chur...