On Saturday 15 January 2011, Keith Newton, John Broadhurst, and Andrew Burnham, three former Anglican Bishops, were ordained to the Catholic priesthood at Westminster Cathedral by the Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. They are the founding members of the world’s first Personal Ordinariate for Anglicans coming into full communion with the See of Peter, erected on the same occasion. Two brothers of the Heralds of the Gospel were present at the historic event. Their comments are reproduced below, as many of our readers throughout the world wish to know our opinion about this highly significant moment in the life of the UK.
"Witnessing this unprecedented event made us feel that we were touching Church history with our own hands. The Cathedral was full to capacity, with some 1,500 to 2,000 people. The congregation was not composed, as usual, only of Catholics; there were also a large number of Anglicans in attendance.
There were hundreds of priests from the Diocese of Westminster, along with Bishop Alan Hopes, Archbishop Bernard Longley from Birmingham, and some seminarians. Three former Anglican nuns who were also recently received into the Catholic Church took part in the event: Sister Caroline Joseph, Sister Jane Louise and Sister Wendy Renata.
A message from the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, His Eminence Cardinal William Levada was read at the start of the Mass, establishing the first Personal Ordinariate, known as “The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.” Fr. Keith Newton was announced as the first Ordinary.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols began his homily saying: “Many ordinations have taken place in this Cathedral during the 100 years of its history. But none quite like this. Today is a unique occasion marking a new step in the life and history of the Catholic Church. This morning the establishment of the first Personal Ordinariate under the provision of the Apostolic Constitution ‘Anglicanorum Coetibus’ has been announced in our hearing. So I too salute John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton who are to be the first priests of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. In particular I offer my prayers and best wishes to Keith, chosen by the Holy Father to be its first Ordinary. This is indeed an historic moment.”
The Archbishop, who became visibly moved at moments, added: “I thank so many in the Church of England who have recognised your sincerity and integrity in making this journey and who have assured you of their prayers and good wishes[…] We thank our Holy Father Pope Benedict for not only placing this Ordinariate under the protection of Our Lady of Walsingham but also for giving it Blessed John Henry Newman as its patron.”
During his homily he quoted Blessed Newman: “In January 1863 he wrote in his diary these distressing words: As a Protestant, I felt my religion dreary, but not my life – but, as a Catholic, my life dreary, not my religion.”
He also said: “The Pope’s ministry to the visible unity of the Church is central to the faith of the Catholic Church. It is central to the faith of those who enter into full communion in this Ordinariate. It is central to the welcome, encouragement and support the Catholic community in England and Wales gives to this development and to all who seek to be part of it […]
“The mission they receive, the mission of reconciliation, comes from the wounds of Christ. This is the mission we share and at every Mass we once again gaze on the wounded, broken body of the risen Lord. Our mission is characterised by woundedness: a mission to a wounded world; a mission entrusted to a wounded Church, carried out by wounded disciples. The wounds of sin are our business. The wounds of Christ, even though we have caused them, are also our consolation and strength.”
He concluded by saying: “The first to witness these wounds, the first, perhaps, to grasp their true significance, was Mary, Mother of Jesus. Standing at the foot of the cross she witnessed the inflicting of those wounds. Holding his dead body she must have been marked by the blood shed from them. Now she looks down on our new priests from the other side of this Cathedral crucifix above me. Mary always holds before us her Son, presenting him to us as our hope and salvation. Nowhere does she do so with more grace and elegance than in the image of Our Lady of Walsingham. As this Ordinariate, her Ordinariate, comes into being so may we entrust to her the work of bringing it to fulfilment.”
The prolonged applause with which the whole congregation at Westminster Cathedral greeted the newly ordained Catholic priests at the close of the celebration expressed the joy and happiness which filled our hearts. The stirring ceremony called to mind a vision that St. Dominic Savio received regarding England, which marked him deeply. His words to St. John Bosco are written in the famous book, The Life of St. Dominic Savio:
“If I could speak to the Pope, I would tell him that in the midst of the great trials that await him, he should not cease to work with special solicitude for England. God is preparing a great triumph for Catholicism in that Kingdom. [...] Listen carefully. One morning as I was making my thanksgiving after Communion, a very strong distraction took hold of me. I thought I saw a great plain full of people enveloped in thick fog. They were walking about like people who had lost their way and did not know which way to turn. Someone near me said: ‘This is England’. I was just going to ask some questions, when I saw Pope Pius IX just like I have seen him in pictures. He was robbed magnificently and carried in his hand a torch alive with flames. As he walked slowly toward that immense gathering of people, the leaping flames from the torch dispelled the fog, and the people stood in the splendour of the noonday sun. ‘That torch’, said the one beside me, ‘is the Catholic Faith, which is going to light up England.’”
And, out of the mists of history, comes another story, which dates to the first conversion of England: One day Pope Saint Gregory the Great (540 – 604) was walking through the Roman market when he saw some slaves for sale. They were prisoners of war, very fair and of a good appearance. The Pontiff inquired about the ancestry of those men. He was informed, “sunt angli” (“they are Anglos”). And the Pope exclaimed, “non sunt angli, sed angeli” (“they are not Anglos, but angels”). Shortly afterwards, Saint Gregory the Great sent a mission to convert the Anglos, led by St. Augustine of Canterbury.
Nearly a thousand years later, Henry VIII caused an awful wound in the beautiful face of this land, through his role in the separation of the Church of England from the Universal Church. Yet for everything there is a season, and now the time for healing is nigh. So let us continue to pray fervently for its second conversion, that is, for the complete return of the former ‘Island of Saints’ to the bosom of the Mystical Spouse of Christ.
The Ordinariate seems to be the first big step in that direction. Benedict XVI speaks of its establishment as “a prophetic gesture”, allowing Anglo-Catholics to fulfil their long cherished dream of coming corporately into full communion with the Universal Church.
Together with the more than 6 million Roman Catholics of the UK, the Heralds of the Gospel wish to express their joy and tell these brothers and sisters in Christ: “Welcome home!”
Our Lady of Walsingham: pray for us.
Blessed John Henry Newman: pray for us.
Br. Arturo Hlebnikian,
Sr. Beth MacDonald
Br. José M.L. Brandao
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