The Parishioner - Edition 18

NEWS IN
PICTURES
Blessed Margaret of Castello
Picture and words by Charlotte Cassidy
A GENEROUS OFFER
Fr Michael Woodgate, Spiritual Director at St John’s, Wonersh
Members of both St. Francis choirs were treated to a
delicious spread at the home of Geraldine Sowerby
on a sunny afternoon last summer.
To mark the end of the Parish Mission, a Social was
held at St Simon Stock School on Saturday 17th
October. Parishioners danced to the band ‘Highly
Strung” and there was an excellent Finger Buffet,
a licenced bar and Raffle. It was a very happy
occasion. Many thanks to Martin Sexton for
arranging everything.
Bishop John Hine celebrates the 10.30 am Mass on
Sunday 18th October for the 150th Anniversary of
the founding of St. Francis’Parish.
After the Anniversary Mass parishioners pack the
Parish Hall for a delicious reception prepared by
ladies of the parish.
Members of the choir team look pleased with their
prizes after coming first (by one point!) at the
Quiz Evening in the Parish Hall on Saturday, 23rd
January. Proceeds of the evening went to the
Maidstone Day Care Centre
☺Father Joe walked
into his church and
spotted a man sitting
cross-legged on
the altar.
“My son”, said the priest,
“What are you doing? Who
are you?
“I’m God,” said the stranger.
“Pardon?”
“I’m God”, he repeated. “This
is my house!”
Father Joe ran into the presbytery
and, in total panic,
rang the Archbishop.
“Archbishop,” he said, “I hate
to trouble you but there’s a
man sitting on my altar who
claims he’s God. What shall I
do?”
“Take no chances,” said the
Archbishop, “Get back in the
church and look busy!”
In the spring of 1287, the townspeople of
Metola in Umbria, Italy, were excited by the
news that Lord Parisio and his wife Lady
Emilia, were expecting their long awaited first
child. To mark the forthcoming birth, lavish celebrations
were in preparation. Lord Parisio and his
wife were elated as they anticipated the birth of a
healthy son and heir to the family wealth or a beautiful
daughter who would eventually marry into a
noble Italian family.
The child born to the couple was a dwarf. Her
right leg was shorter than her left, she was totally
blind, her face slightly disfigured. She was not a
pretty baby. Her parents were devastated! In those
days, many aristocratic families considered a
handicapped child unacceptable.
Lord Parisio immediately cancelled all
planned festivities. Ashamed of their newborn
infant, the couple entrusted the baby to a servant
girl to care for the child secretly. Lord Parisio
announced to relatives and friends that the baby
was stillborn.
The servant girl named the baby Margherita (later known to the word as
Magaret) and as Margaret grew she remained small for her age. Because of
her shorter leg she walked with a pronounced limp and she also developed
a hunchback. She was allowed to walk around the castle as long as she
avoided the areas frequented by her parents. Margaret quickly learned her
way around and would often hobble to the castle’s private chapel to pray.
One day as Margaret was praying alone a family friend met her by chance
and almost discovered her true identity.
When her father learned of the incident he decided that Margaret could
no longer remain within the castle and so he had a small, secluded cell built
for her in the forest next to the parish church of Santa Maria. The cell had
two windows, a narrow window with bars through which food could be
passed to her and a second window into the chapel which would allow
Margaret to hear Mass and to receive Holy Communion from the parish
priest, Fr. Silvestro. When the cell was completed, six-year-old Margaret
was placed into it and the doorway walled up. Her only visitors were the castle
servants, who brought her food each day, and Fr. Silvestro who pitied her
immensely. Her parents never visited her.
For the next fourteen years the little girl lived alone and confined in this
small stone cell. Fr Silvestro befriended her and taught her prayers, psalms
and the Holy Scriptures. She was a pious, intelligent child with a happy disposition
and he was amazed by the depth of her spirituality. In her small cell,
Margaret’s love for Jesus deepened and later, speaking to Fr. Silvestro, she
said, “ Father, as you know, Jesus was rejected even by His own people, and
God is letting me be treated the same so that I can follow Our dear Lord
more closely.”
In 1307, when Margaret was twenty, news came to Metola of a shrine
in the nearby city of Castello where many sick and crippled pilgrims had
been miraculously cured at the tomb of Br. Giacomo, a saintly Third Order
Franciscan monk. Margaret’s parents, who were still unable to accept their
daughter’s physical imperfections, decided to take her to the shrine in the
hope that she would be cured of her disabilities.
On arrival at the church of the shrine Margaret’s parents told her to join
the sick and crippled pilgrims at Br. Giacomo’s tomb and to pray for a miracle.
After two days they observed her still in prayer at the tomb and realising
that she had not been cured they decided to return home without her
vowing never to see her again.
That evening when all the pilgrims, except
Margaret, were gone, she came outside and sat in
the church doorway to wait for her parents to take
her back to Metola, and she fell asleep. When she
awoke at dawn the following morning she managed
to make her way to the nearby inn where her
parents had stayed and was told they had left. It
was then she realised that they had abandoned her
completely. Although free at last from the cruel
confines of her small cell she was now homeless,
penniless and alone in Castello, a city totally unfamiliar
to her.
That afternoon some beggars befriended
Margaret. She joined them, lived their harsh way
of life and begged on the streets of Castello with
them. She would always offer to pray for the
passers-by who gave alms to her and her beggar
companions and she became known for her kindness.
Some of the women of Castello then decided
to take Margaret into their homes. She helped the
women with domestic chores and she especially
loved the company of their children. She would
teach the children psalms, prayers and passages of the Bible that Fr.
Silvestro had taught her as a child. A kind peasant woman named Grigia,
with a large family of her own, adopted Margaret and soon Grigia’s home
became a meeting place for townspeople seeking Margaret’s prayers and
spiritual guidance.
Throughout all the difficult times of her life Margaret’s love for Jesus
never wavered. She found strength through prayer and she would always
unite her interior and physical sufferings to the suffering of Christ on the
Cross. Although she had never had sight she often received heavenly visions
of scenes from the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. She would describe these
visions to Grigia saying, “Oh, if only you knew what I have in my heart”
Inspired by Margaret’s holiness, the Mother Superior of a Dominican
convent in Castello invited her to join the Sisters in the convent. Margaret
accepted and was clothed in the habit of a Third Order Dominican nun. She
lived an exemplary life of charity, prayer and penance and dedicated her life
to the care of the poor people of the city. She made prisoners her special
ministry and each day would bring them food, clothing and medicine and
prayed with them.
When the Mother Superior of the convent died Margaret returned to the
home of her friend Grigia where she continued her charitable work for poor
people and prisoners until her death on April 13th 1320. She was only thirty-three
years old.
When the townspeople learned of Margaret’s death they converged in
the parish church of San Domenico and demanded that Margaret be regarded
as a saint and buried in a tomb within the church. At first the parish priest
opposed this, but when a crippled girl was miraculously cured at her funeral,
he immediately gave his approval. In 1558 Margaret’s remains were
exhumed. Her body was found to be incorrupt and transferred to a new
ornate glass tomb. She was beatified on October 19th 1609 by His Holiness
Pope Paul V.
Today the body of Blessed Margaret of Castello lies beneath the high
altar in the church of San Domenico in Castello. Throughout almost eight
centuries since her death, many miracles have been attributed to her intercession.
She has become a worldwide inspiration to many Pro-Life campaigns,
to blind and handicapped people, to people impoverished, rejected,
alone and abandoned, to those faced with physical challenges and to parents
of children with special needs.
Putting it into perspective
Margaret Emerson
Last November the Holy Father issued a long-awaited document. Long-awaited, that is, by various
groups of Anglicans around the world who had been petitioning the Holy See for some kind of corporate
reunion. When the same kind of request was presented in the early 1990s it was made
very clear that this was not possible and Anglicans who wished to become Catholics must go by the usual
route and, whether ordained or lay, be received individually. However, that did not mean that some Anglican
incumbents and their congregation (or a large section) could not be received at the same time and, in two
or three cases in England, even be able to attend a Catholic Mass in their Anglican parish church celebrated
by the local Catholic priest, until such time as their previous incumbent was ordained a priest. In fact,
this arrangement did not last long and no former Anglican, so far as I know, went back to his former (now
Catholic) parishioners to minister to them. During the mid-1990s some two hundred or more Anglican clergy
were received and eventually ordained as priests and two of these have served at St Francis and one at
Iam writing this piece during the cold,
and perhaps it makes us more grateful for
snowy weather in early January when
the food and utility supplies we usually
getting out and about has been more difficult.
acquire so easily. It should make us think
The news reports have been full of sto-
more about our brothers and sisters in
by Deacon Tom Coyle
ries of people stuck in cars for many hours,
Africa and other poorer, less developed For some years now, work has been going ahead on a new translation of the Roman changes which will affect the people’s responses. There is not space to list them all but these
shortages of food, power cuts, possible
areas of the world where daily life is a
Missal. Over the last 36 years we have become used to the present translation and it are a few examples:
issues with gas and milk supplies and so on.
struggle to survive, or those places that
has become very much a part of our prayer life. However, in that time, there have The response to ‘The Lord be with you’ will be ‘And with your spirit’.
This started me thinking and I feel it changes
have suffered natural disasters which, once
been changes to the Missal. These include many of the saints canonised by Pope John Paul The wording of the Confiteor (I confess) will be changed to: I confess to almighty God
our attitude to life. People start to talk to one
out of the headlines, still give their communities
II.
and to you, my brothers and sisters that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my
another more as they shovel snow off their
much hardship day by day. Even in
There was a feeling that the translation should be closer to the original Latin texts and words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my
front path for the umpteenth time, share a
this country those who were flooded out
so the opportunity was taken to produce a completely new translation by the International fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the
few words to chat, as we inevitably do about
late last year are still in temporary homes
Committee for English in the Liturgy. This translation is sent out to all the English-speaking
Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.
the weather in the UK, people look in on
and will be for some months yet, but how
Bishops’ Conferences throughout the world for their approval. This process has now The wording of the Gloria is almost completely changed and there is a number of
friends and do what they can to help, families
easy it is to forget.
been completed. Our bishops have approved the new translation and it is now being submitted
changes to the Creed, which will begin I believe.... The ‘Lord I am not worthy’ becomes:
get together and build snowmen or take children
Perhaps we should stop and think and
to the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship in Rome for its approval. It is antic-
Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and
sledging.
be more grateful for the many gifts we have; a roof over our heads, plentiful
ipated that this will soon be given and then the work of producing new Missals and people’s my soul shall be healed.
Looking in your larder, fridge and freezer, you see supplies dwindling. food, heating, lighting and water on tap and when these things are scarce and
books can begin. It is hoped that the new books can be brought into use within the next If you are interested in finding out more, the US Bishops have a special website:
When will I be able to get to the supermarket or local shop next? Will my milk under threat for us we should put things into perspective and offer an extra
18 months. It is also intended to bring in a new translation of the Sunday Lectionary (the www.usccb.org/roman missal.
last for another couple of days? There have, no doubt, been some cases of real prayer of thanks to God and remember those who are far less fortunate than
book of Readings for Mass) at the same time as the new Missal; so it may not be a very good Before the changes are introduced our Education and Liturgy Committees will be holding
hardship around the country, especially for those struggling to pay heating ourselves, both in our prayers and when we are able, from our wallets too.
idea to buy a Missal until the new books appear!
special study sessions on the new Missal.
bills or those in remote communities, as well as the results of panic buying,
Most of the changes in the Mass will affect the priest but there will be a number of
6 7
Holy Family, Park Wood.
In the Westminster Archdiocese, which received more than any other, one has since been ordained
a bishop and another is Dean of the Cathedral.
For whom is it intended?
However, Anglicanorum Coetibus, which is what this new document is called (meaning:“Groups of Anglicans”) will probably
appeal more to those Anglicans in Australia and the U.S.A., and a few other countries, who took themselves out of communion
with the see of Canterbury some time ago and set themselves up as “continuing Anglicans” forming new bodies, one
of the most prominent being The Traditional Anglican Communion. In the U.K. most Anglicans who cannot accept the ordination
of women to the priesthood because it is contrary to Catholic tradition, which they hold dear, have remained in what
they would call “impaired communion” with Canterbury. Special arrangements were made so that they could have a
bishop who shares their view, caring for them sacramentally. Such a man might be a suffragan (auxiliary) of their diocese
or a so-called “flying bishop”, not of their own diocese but assigned to them. With the likelihood of the ordination of women
to the episcopate in England, this arrangement would no longer be adequate. Not only would they regard all women’s
ordinations as invalid but also all men ordained by a woman, and how would one know without enquiring? The General
Synod of the Church of England has been asked to make new arrangements for those who cannot accept women bishops,
but there is much opposition to this, not least by ordained women themselves who see it as further discrimination. Just as
it seemed that there might be a solution to this, the Holy See published this new Apostolic Constitution, as it is called.
The document in outline
The document is quite brief and gives no details. The Holy Father introduces it with these words: “In recent times
the Holy Spirit has moved groups of Anglicans to petition repeatedly and insistently to be received into full Catholic communion
individually as well as corporately....The successor of Peter, mandated by the Lord Jesus to guarantee the unity of
the episcopate and to preside over and safeguard the universal communion of all the Churches, could not fail to make available
the means necessary to bring this holy desire to realisation.”
Without using all the Vatican-type language, the provisions are these:
• The scheme is for “Personal Ordinariates” to be set up for Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic
Church within the territory of each Bishops’ Conference where a request has been made. Each ordinariate will be
juridically comparable to a diocese and will be composed of lay faithful, clergy and those in religious life who were
formerly Anglicans.
• The authoritative expression of the Catholic faith professed by members of the Ordinariate will be the Catechism of
the Catholic Church.
• Each Ordinariate will come under the Code of Canon Law and be subject to all the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia.
It will be governed by Complementary Norms as well as any other specific Norms given for each Ordinariate.
• Because this is one of the most striking innovations, we quote it in full: “Without excluding liturgical celebrations
according to the Roman Rite, the Ordinariate has the faculty to celebrate the Holy Eucharist and the other Sacraments,
the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical celebrations according to the the liturgical books proper to the Anglican
tradition, which have been approved by the Holy See (italics mine), so as to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral
traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the
members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared.”
• Each Ordinariate will have the pastoral care of an Ordinary appointed by the Holy Father. Such a person would normally
be a bishop. His pastoral care and office will be exercised jointly with that of the local Diocesan Bishop. The
Ordinary will be assisted by a Governing Council with its own statutes.
• Those who formerly ministered as Anglican bishops, priests or deacons and who fulfill the requirements of Canon Law
and not impeded by irregularities or other impediments (e.g. an unacceptable lifestyle) may be accepted as candidates
for Holy Orders in the Catholic Church. Married men must seek dispensation and promise not to re-marry on the
death of their spouse and unmarried men must submit to the norm of clerical celibacy.
• Those hoping to be ordained as Catholic priests will be prepared alongside other seminarians, especially in areas of
doctrinal and pastoral formation. But there will also be the need to cater for formation in Anglican patrimony.
• Every five years the Ordinary must go to Rome for an ad limina Apostolorum visit.
There are a number of other provisions which can be found in the document. Then there are Complementary Norms,
consisting of 14 Articles which put a little more flesh on some of these provisions, but space precludes their being set out
here.
Some questions and comments.
The following comments concern only members of the Church of England. For other Anglicans, the issues are to some
extent different. Obviously, an offer such as that contained in Anglicanorum Coetibus raises many questions and interested
Anglicans in this country who support the Forward in Faith movement are, apparently, meeting shortly to
discuss the document. The movement has one thousand priest members and most of these would have
members of their congregations who also belonged or sympathized with its aims.
Perhaps the most important question is: where will members of the Ordinariate worship? Will
the Anglican authorities allow a priest and those of his congregation who join, to keep their building? If
so, what about those who choose not to join - will they not feel aggrieved at having to find an alternative
Anglican place of worship? Alternatively, will the local Catholic church be offered for an Ordinariate
Mass each Sunday, rather in the way that an Eastern rite Catholic congregation may use it? What about
weekdays? If so, will there be a real attempt to weld the two congregations so that they will do as much
as possible as one, e.g. social functions, extra-liturgical devotions in Lent such as making the Stations of
the Cross, joint confession times, producing a joint parish newsletter?
One can also foresee possible tensions in two rites worshipping in the same building. The Ordinariate congregation
might, e.g., have music and a choir for their Mass which will attract resident Catholics who will begin to attend that Mass
rather than one of their own. After all, they will be in full communion and the differences will not be that great so far as
the rite is concerned. In some places, will it be necessary to hire a building, especially if the local Catholic church is some
distance away and the local Anglican church is not offered?
Then there is the whole question of motivation. Some Catholics are already asking whether some Anglican lay
people will choose to belong to the Ordinariate simply because their fellow-congregants are doing so, and not out of conviction
that God really is calling them to be in full communion with the Catholic Church? Will they have reservations about
some aspects of Catholic teaching (the fact some so-called “cradle” Catholics do, is no reason for allowing this!)? One might
even ask the same question about some Anglican priests who decide to join. People in an irregular marriage whose previous
one cannot be annulled, might find themselves unable to receive the sacraments, whereas in the Church of England this
has not been a problem.
But there is another question which the document raises. Ironically, many Anglo-Catholic parishes use the Roman Rite
for their Mass and their priests recite the Roman Divine Office. Will they be expected now to use the Anglican liturgical
forms approved for use by the Holy See? If not, why do they not become Catholics according to the Roman rite, in the
way that so many other former Anglicans have done? Actually, the document does suggest that priests of the Ordinariate
might use the Roman Rite, but will they need to use any Anglican forms to belong to it, or not?
What next?
There are obviously a number other questions to be asked and answered, but these seem to be the main issues at the
moment. As Archbishop Nicholls has said: “The Apostolic Constitution (Anglicanorum Coetibus) has given us the end game but
not the process. It is up to us, working with the Church of England, to look at the process”. Apparently, the (Catholic)
Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has already agreed to appoint a commission to try to iron out obstacles such as
we have outlined above. That commission will include Bishop Alan Hopes, an auxiliary of Westminster and former Anglican
priest. Of course, the hierarchy of the Church of England might take the line that the Holy Father is actually relieving them
of the intractable problem of how to contain clergy who maintain they are in “impaired communion” and will be even more
so once women are ordained to the episcopate. But they must still face the fact that a not inconsiderable number of
Anglicans, clergy and laity, simply do not wish to be in full communion with the Catholic Church, yet remain implacably
opposed to the ordination of women.
Amazingly prophetic.
Despite all these questions, the Holy Father’s offer is a very generous one. Such expressions as “poaching” or “a dawn
raid” or “driving the papal tanks on to the lawns of Lambeth Palace” are ridiculous media hype and grossly unfair to a pontiff
who is making his mark by his various efforts for reconciliation with the Church. In the case of Anglicanorum
Coetibus , it is amazingly prophetic, for so many attempts have been made throughout the last 450 or more years to
restore the Church of England to full communion with the Holy See. Admittedly, this will only serve to bring back a small
number, but who knows what the future might hold?
Anglican patrimony
The document speaks of “formation in Anglican patrimony”. One of the outstanding points in Anglicanorum Coetibus,
whether any Anglicans take it up or not, is that the Holy Father is clearly affirming that there is much in Anglican tradition
to be valued. Pope Paul VI alluded to this from time to time, not least in his homily on the occasion of the canonization
of the English Martyrs. Anglican scholarship has made an enormous contribution to the Christian Church as a whole
and many of its biblical scholars, e.g., have been outstanding. The Shape of the Liturgy by an Anglican Benedictine, Dom
Gregory Dix is a fine work of scholarship, as is The Vision of God by a former Bishop of Oxford, Dr Kenneth Kirk. The late
Archbishop Michael Ramsey produced a number of books on Scripture, theology and spirituality with which no orthodox Catholic
could find fault and his homilies on priesthood are recommended to seminarians. Archbishop William Temple was another
distinguished scholar. One of the literary and musical treasures of the Church of England is the English Hymnal. Its eucharistic
section alone puts most modern Catholic hymn books in the shade! In the field of spirituality, writers lay, religious
and ordained have made significant contributions. The work of Evelyn Underhill, who founded a retreat house and gave
retreats in the first half of the 20th century, is still highly acclaimed. In fact, the Church of England has done much to
promote the retreat movement and this is still one of its strengths. Many Anglican clergy are much concerned with mission
and evangelization and a fine organization named The Church Army, one of whose women officers was (is?) working
as a night club chaplain in Maidstone, was founded for this very purpose. We could go on and on, but it would fill a book!
If you wish to read Anglicanorum Coetibus it is published by C.T.S. at £2-50.
THE ROMAN MISSAL - A NEW TRANSLATION