For UK parishes:
One million pocket liturgies
for the papal visit
August 24, 2010
A million copies of the ‘
Magnificat – Liturgies and Events of the Papal Visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom’ are due to be distributed to parishes across England, Scotland and Wales.
The handbook contains the texts for the times the Holy Father will participate in public prayer, together with a series of brief articles about the Visit. It comes in a hard-wearing, pocket-sized format which makes it easy to carry around and ‘pray as you go’. It's also a key companion for the Papal liturgies.
Papal Visit Co-ordinator, Monsignor Andrew Summersgill said: “Although [a million copies] isn’t enough for everybody who regularly attends Mass, it is enough for each household, certainly, to have a copy. And also of course for those people who are going either to Bellahouston, to Hyde Park, or to Cofton Park. It will also be helpful for those who will be following the Pope from home, or from gatherings in their own parish, it’s designed to help across the board.
“We will be asking people if they would like to make a donation towards the costs. That would be really helpful and information will be given by local priests as to how to do that.”
The publication has been produced by the Bishops’ Conferences of England and Wales and Scotland in co-operation with Gabriel Communications, the Catholic Truth Society and Magnificat. It also includes texts for the Liturgy of the Church (Morning and Evening Prayer, and the Mass) for some days before and after the Papal Visit.
Launched in France in 1992, then in other European countries and in the United States, Magnificat has proved a rich resource for laypeople in many countries.
With this special issue for the Papal Visit, and beginning on a monthly basis in November, it is available for the first time with readings, texts and calendar appropriate for the British Isles.
Weekly audio update
on the Papal Visit
by Mons. Andrew Summersgill
Coordinator of the papal visit for
the Catholic Bishops of England Wales
Transcript from
August 23, 2010
There's been a lot of interest in the timeline of events for the Papal Visit, can we go over the main parts of this?
Yes, by all means. The itinerary is more or less as it was when an outline was published a month ago, but in keeping with its normal practice the Holy See has now published a much more detailed and timed itinerary of what Pope Benedict will be doing while he’s in the UK.
As we know, he’ll be going to Edinburgh where he’ll begin his visit by meeting with Her Majesty The Queen and there will be a reception in Holyroodhouse. And then in the afternoon Pope Benedict will travel to Glasgow to celebrate Mass in Bellahouston Park.
On the Friday the Pope spends the day in London and will be in St Mary’s University College, beginning the day with prayer with representatives of religious congregations. Then he will meet with children and young people to celebrate Catholic education. That will be broadcast on the internet and the invitation is there to all Catholic schools and colleges, and indeed any school and college, to participate in that and to be part of that at the beginning of the academic year.
And then Pope Benedict will conclude the morning by meeting with representatives of other religions and people of faith, to reflect together on the importance of faith in society.
Then in the afternoon Pope Benedict will have his meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury. He will then go to Westminster Hall to speak to representatives of British society, before concluding the day with prayer, with evening prayer in Westminster Abbey.
Saturday begins with courtesy calls from the political leaders of this country. Then the celebration of Mass in Westminster Cathedral during which there will be a particular moment for young people and also a greeting to Wales, because as we know, sadly the Pope can’t go to Wales because of the pressures of time.
In the afternoon Pope Benedict will go and visit older people at the St Peter’s residential home, and then join the Vigil which will have started in Hyde Park. He will join for the end part which will include, while he is there, his address and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction.
The final day of the Visit sees the Pope travelling to Birmingham to celebrate the beatification of Cardinal Newman in Cofton Park, followed by a brief personal visit to the Birmingham Oratory. He will then travel to Oscott College where he will have lunch with the bishops of England, Scotland and Wales. He will meet with them and then move to Birmingham airport for the departure and farewell ceremony before returning to Rome.
So it’s quite a detailed programme, and then within that there will be times when Pope Benedict will be travelling in the Popemobile - these will be published in due course and will offer the opportunity for people to see him and greet him as he travels around.
What do you think are some of the most significant events?
I think for all those concerned they are all significant. The beatification of Cardinal Newman is clearly a highlight, and it’s the "Church" reason if you like for Pope Benedict coming here.
In terms of the other parts of the visit, I think at the very beginning, the meeting between Pope Benedict and The Queen will be particularly significant and I’m looking forward to listening to what both of them have to say.
And the series of things on the Friday afternoon, the Pope going to Lambeth and then travelling back across the river, to Westminster firstly to the Palace of Westminster to speak in Westminster Hall, and then to pray in Westminster Abbey - I think those will be lovely moments as well.
The Missal has been published for the Papal Visit - what are the plans for sending this out to the parishes?
Yes, the Missal has been prepared and is now with the distributors. The plan is that towards the end of this week and the beginning of next it will be distributed to parishes across England, Scotland and Wales. There are approximately one million copies of the Missal available.
Although that isn’t enough for everybody who regularly attends Mass it is enough for each household, certainly, to have a copy. And also of course those people who are going either to Bellahouston, to Hyde Park, or to Cofton Park. They need to get their copy from their local parish as well so that they can take them with them, because it has all the details of the liturgy that they will need. They will be available in time for 5 September which is two weeks before the visit and we hope that it will be a helpful aid for those who are attending the papal gatherings.
It will also be helpful for those who will be following the Pope from home, or in parish gatherings - it’s designed to help across the board and a lot of hard work has gone into it. It looks really good I think and we'll be asking people if they would like to make a donation towards the costs. That would be really helpful and information will be given by local priests as to how to do that.
So it’s a great step forward really, it shows us that the Pope’s on the way and that the excitement’s really rising.
And we hear this week that some organisations are planning prayer campaigns for the Holy Father and for the success of the Papal Visit - did you hear about that?
I did, yes. I think the one you’re talking about is Aid to the Church in Need who’ve organised that. I’m also aware of a spiritual bouquet that has been prepared by the Catholic Women’s League. I’m sure those prayers join with lots and lots of others who are praying both for Pope Benedict and also for the success of the Visit. I know certainly in the parish I was in this weekend helping out, the bidding prayers included a prayer for the success of the Papal Visit, so that was lovely.
The following item is a virtual press release for a Catholic disident group - and I am only posting it for the record. No names except one are mentioned, but in any case, their members will likely not be familiar or mean anything to those of us who do not live in the UK. Besides, it is not as if they will have anything new to say, although they will surely think of numberless ways to be offensive to the Pope.
Reformist Catholic media group launched
to rival Catholic Voices sponsored
by the bishops of England and Wales
by Riazat Butt
August 24, 2010
A Catholic speakers' bureau is being launched ahead of next month's papal visit to provide alternative views on controversial church issues such as child abuse, women's ordination, married priests and homosexuality.
Catholic Voices for Reform will go head to head with Catholic Voices, an established group which has recruited and trained 20 media-friendly "ordinary" Catholics to articulate traditional Church positions before and during Benedict XVI's four-day tour.
The original Catholic Voices is backed by life peer and barrister Lord Brennan, president of the Catholic Union of Great Britain, and a celebrity monk, Abbot Christopher Jamison, of Worth Abbey, West Sussex. Its team of speakers includes a parliamentary researcher, several lawyers, an pro-life campaigner, a commodity buyer, a scientist and a management consultant.
Recruits to the original bureau have spent six months preparing to explain and present Church teaching on subjects that the wider public "often find baffling or offensive". They have received "briefings from experts and training in how to carry off an effective short interview" and can comment on the papal visit in "clear, human language."
The new organisation, unlike its older and more conformist counterpart, will call for a wholesale transformation of the papacy and the Vatican. It will offer the media a chance to hear the views of Catholics who are "deeply concerned at the present state of the church".
"These people, women and men, have formed the backbone for the call for the change in the church, some for many years but others more recently," the group said in a statement. "They are its loyal opposition who have remained within the church calling for reform. All our members are people with different experiences who have found a conflict between these experiences and the official teachings of the church."
It said the word "reform" was to differentiate itself from the "official" group, which has the blessing of the bishops of England and Wales.
A spokesman for the group described the reformists as "a lobby, not a communications exercise on behalf of the church". But one of the founders of Catholic Voices for Reform, Myra Poole, who supports the ordination of women, was not overawed by the academic and corporate pedigree of the rival lineup.
She said: "I'm not frightened of them. They are the official group, they're very with it, but we're not daft. We all have experience and know about theology. It's going to be hard because as the trip gets nearer, we're going to be up against them."
Poole also revealed that a prayer vigil will be held in central London on the eve of the papal visit and that two letters will be hand-delivered to the residence of the archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols.
She said: "One will be for the archbishop and the other will be for the Pope. We will be asking six very simple questions on reform. We're working on them now."
But what about the internal dissesion within the Church in England, Wales and Scotland itself? I have only formed an impression of that dissension from the ongoing commentaries of 'orthodox' British Catholics like Fr. Tim Finigan and Damian Thompson, but the folowing manifesto posted today by the man behind the site Protect the Pope spells out, through some appalling specifics, the degree and extent of that internal dissension, which in the past, was represented for me, as an outsider reading about Catholicism in the UK, only by the scant support - and even overt opposition - from UK bishops for Summorum Pontificum.
Three hopes for the visit
by Rev. Nick Donnelly
Permanent Deacon, Diocese of Lancaster
Founder of
August 24th, 2010
I have three hopes for the Holy Father’s visit to the UK.
The first is that in his speeches to this secular state he witnesses to the splendour of the objective, perennial truth, in order to challenge the blight of subjectivism, and utilitarianism in our culture and politics.
It is only the truth of the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person made in the image of God that can set us free from the culture of death that has this society so firmly in its grip.
My second hope is that in his homilies to the Church in this country Pope Benedict exhorts us to be 100% faithful to the doctrines of the Church, to remain loyal to the Holy See and to have the courage to witness to the faith come what may.
My third hope is that Pope Benedict will challenge the damaging disunity in the Church in this country.
The days must be over when an official of the Catholic Education Service, an employee of the Bishops’ Conference, publicly demeans a bishop in a national newspaper for teaching the faith of the Church.
The days must be over when Catholic schools are encouraged by the CES to co-operate with Connexions, a government agency that promotes contraception and abortion.
The days must be over when CAFOD, the development agency of the Bishops’ conference, has a not-so-secret policy to promote the use of condoms in its work throughout the world.
The days must be over when the Tablet publishes an article by a Catholic theologian that not only advocates abortion but mocks the Church’s teaching and no one challenges it, let alone criticises it.
The days must be over when a diocese is met with opposition and hostility by professional catechists and clergy of other dioceses for promoting the use of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The days must be over when seminarians are summoned to the rector’s office to be berated for kneeling during the consecration.
The days must be over when the Maryvale Institute is mocked and derided by Catholic clergy for teaching the theological tradition of the Church and the fullness of the truth.
The days must be over when the governing body of a Catholic adoption agency votes down the recommendation of its bishop to follow the Church’s teaching on gay adoption.
The days must be over when a bishop of England and Wales is called a ‘fundamentalist’ by a Member of Parliament and summoned before a House of Commons select committee and no one speaks out in his defence or stands by him when he faces his accusers.
Jesus teaches us that a house divided will fall. I pray that the Holy Father’s visit will save us from this headlong fall.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 24/08/2010 19:51]