Posts Tagged ‘Pope Benedict XVI’
'Universae Ecclesiae' will strongly urge seminaries to teach the Traditional Latin Mass, say Vatican sources
That’s what I gather, anyway. We’ll know by noon tomorrow, when the Vatican’s long-awaited Instruction on Summorum Pontificum is published, but my understanding is that, while Unive... Read More
Blessed John Paul II saved the Catholic Church from going the way of the Anglican Communion
I’ve been asking myself what future secular historians and sociologists of religion will make of Blessed John Paul II’s long stewardship of the Catholic Church. Let us set aside for the mo... Read More
Did Lambeth Palace block the reform of the Act of Settlement? Or was it Buckingham Palace?
There’s something slightly odd about the claim that the Church of England has blocked Nick Clegg’s attempt to reform the 1701 Act of Settlement so that the heir to the throne can marry a R... Read More
The Ordinariate faithful have arrived in the Catholic Church. What difference will they make?
By the end of Holy Week, nearly 1,000 former Anglicans will be members of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, an entirely new structure within the Roman Catholic Church. For an indicat... Read More
10,000 traditional Catholics appeal to the Pope not to water down Summorum Pontificum
My first ever blog post, four years ago, reported that Catholic traditionalists were worried by the non-appearance of a Motu Proprio removing restrictions on the celebration of the Tridentine Mass. B... Read More
Summorum Pontificum 'under threat', say Roman sources
A priest friend emails me to draw my attention to an extraordinary post on the Rorate Caeli blog suggesting that a forthcoming “clarification” to Summorum Pontificum will severely limit fr... Read More
Is the so-called 'Spirit of Vatican II' finally waning?
“The Spirit of Vatican II” isn’t so much a concept as a slogan. For over 40 years it’s been used to justify innovations ranging from Mass in the vernacular (like it or not, an ... Read More
The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham
The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, under the patronage of Blessed John Henry Newman, was set up by decree of the Vatican today as three former Anglican bishops were ordained Catholic ... Read More
The Pope on Thought for the Day: 'mere Christianity' without the toe-curling whimsy
The first Thought for the Day message by a Pope was what C S Lewis would have called “mere Christianity” – a Christmas Eve reminder of who Jesus was and why he was born, presented withou... Read More
Christmas hilarity as National Secular Society goes nuts over Pope's Thought for the Day
It’s always hard to maintain a straight face when the National Secular Society starts fulminating against the Catholic Church, and this week they’re keeping audiences in stitches with a tw... Read More