Fr Tony writes.....

25th April 2009

Last Sunday, April 19th, was the fourth anniversary of the election of Pope Benedict. Three days earlier, April 16th, he celebrated his 82nd birthday. Much has happened since that election in 2005. I remember being asked to speak about the new Pope on BBC Southern Counties radio on the morning after his election. I said then that the popular image of Cardinal Ratzinger was far removed from the reality. He had been portrayed as “God's Rotweiller”, but has turned out to be a “German Shepherd”. During his many years in Rome at the side of Pope John Paul II he was responsible for maintaining the authentic teaching of the Church. He was required by his job to be something of a policeman: Now he was being called to become the Mayor. I spoke in 2005 about his gentleness and courtesy, qualities that were recognised by many who came into contact with him during his time as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. These same qualities have become much more widely known over the past four years, but there has been a great deal of mis-representation in the media. It is certainly true that the Vatican needs to re-think its' approach to the media, and that a number of matters could and should have been handled differently, but that does not excuse the serious distortion of what the Pope has said on a number of important questions. We would be wise to treat anything we read in the press with some caution. I have found myself in recent months having to point out on radio programmes that the Pope had never said many of the things he was quoted as saying. Meanwhile please remember the Holy Father in your prayers.

ARCHBISHOP VINCENT NICHOLS

April 7th 2009

My dear friends,
As you will have heard, the Holy Father has appointed Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham to be the new Archbishop of Westminster as successor to Cardinal Cormac Murphy- O'Connor. Archbishop Nichols becomes the 11th Archbishop.
The first Archbishop was appointed by Pope Pius IX in 1850 when he restored normal church government to the Catholic community in England and Wales. The old Catholic Hierarchy came to an end under Queen Elizabeth I. From then on the persecuted Catholic minority were served by “Vicars Apostolic”, who were bishops but without dioceses. The years after the accession of Queen Elizabeth in 1558 saw a long drawn out persecution of those who remained loyal to the ancient Faith, and it was only in the mid 18th century that the situation began to improve. Several acts of parliament opened the way for Catholics to live openly and to worship freely. Since 1850 we have had a number of outstanding Cardinals at Westminster. I am thinking of Manning, Hinsley Heenan and Hume to name but four.

Cardinal Cormac remains a Cardinal. He still has responsibilities in Rome, and he retains the right to vote in a conclave until he is 80 years old. Archbishop.Nichols does not automatically become a Cardinal, but it is almost certain to happen in due course.
Please pray for the new Archbishop as he takes on this daunting responsibilty.

Read more »