Just back from Bishop Andrew's First RC Mass in the Oratory ...
Well, it must still be All Right to refer to him as "Bishop Andrew" because Fr Aidan Nichols did so in his brilliantly characteristic homily. Fr Aidan has been House Theologian to the Ordinariate during all those many long years before The Project actually turned into The Ordinariate; he first sketched the theological meaning of an Anglicanism united but not absorbed in his The Panther and the Hind. Since then, there have been meetings of the FIF theological group with him in the cellars at Gordon Square; Fr Aidan always so gracious, so sympathetic, so helpful, so erudite, so generous. The first time I read a paper - a very poor one - in his presence, I remember how nervous I felt; but there was no need to.
Fr Aidan returned, today, to the great enterprise of gathering up the fragments that none be lost; of appropriating, for the good of all the church, the Anglican inheritance discerned through the purifying prism of Catholic Orthodoxy. He mentioned that Bishop Andrew is engaged in the liturgical side of that - but made clear, referring especially to Blessed John Henry and the Tractarian Fathers, that there is much more to it than Liturgy. His homily, I think, counts as the Programmatic Statement of the Ordinariate as far as theology is concerned. I hope he stays involved.
If Fr Aidan's homily was characteristic, so was Bishop Andrew's liturgy. Fine music (Byrd; Morales); Latin from the Sursum corda until the Communion. We had examples of what the American blogosphere now calls Common Sense and Mutual Enrichment. Sanctus covered the (silent) first half of the Canon Romanus and Benedictus the second half; we were spared those horrid 'Acclamations' after the Consecration. At the Invitation to Communion, Bishop Andrew continued his custom of using the New ICEL translation of Ecce Agnus Dei.
I arrived home to hear the end of the celebratory peal rung on the S Thomas's (ten) very fine bells. That's Patrimony, too.
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25 comments:
It was also noteworthy that the pew sheets put 'first mass' in quotation marks, just like that.
Oratorian subtlety ....
Reverend surname is just bad English and incorrect, whoever uses it and in whatever circumstances. However it rather fits with a culture that can put clashing nylon carpet against faded Comper pink silk which I have seen in a former Anglican religious house now a RC conference centre.
By the way, the celebration was Eastward-facing versus populum, since the Oxford Oratory is 'back to front'.
I'm extremely impressed that you managed a table at Gordon's. It says something for the wordly practicality of the Dominicans and those involved in the Project.
@AndrewWS: I'm afraid I can confirm the quotation marks were purely because he technically celebrated his first Mass yesterday at his ordination. I heard this from the horse's mouth, so to speak, in the sacristy before Mass.
@AndrewWS: I'm afraid I can confirm the quotation marks were purely because he technically celebrated his first Mass yesterday at his ordination. I heard this from the horse's mouth, so to speak, in the sacristy before Mass.
... he technically celebrated his first Mass yesterday ..
Technically.
Referring to him as Bishop Andrew might be premature, but hopefully not very much.
See part 11.3 of the Complementary Norms to Anglicanorum Coetibus; the Bishops' Conference of England & Wales may admit him as a member "with the equivalent status of a retired bishop".
It would seem somewhat bad mannered if they failed to do so.
Is the text of Fr Aidan's homily available online? Where?
Ta.
Ah, apologies, I missed a bit.
Under Article 2.1 of the Norms, the Ordinary is automatically a member of the Bishops' Conference.
So let's cross-reference that to Article 11.3 (any former Anglican Bishop in the Ordinariate who is invited to join the Conference has the status of a retired Bishop).
Sounds good enough to me; Bishop Andrew it is.
If the words "first Mass" were indeed put into quotation marks, that is absolutely horrible.
The obvious solution is to give Fr Andrew the title of a Bishop but without calling him "Bishop"; I'm not sure what the normal title is in England, but in Rome it would by Your Excellency.
Well, Bishop Andrew was called 'Father' when he was a practising bishop so now he's 'acting down', he'll carry on being referred to as 'Bishop Andrew' and addressed as 'Father', I'd have thought.
Fr Aidan Nichols OP will indeed remain involved; he's been roped in formally by the CDF as an advisor on the Ordinariate.
Actually, I assumed that ordinary at least would be called "My Lord". And am I correct in assuming that he is essentially an archpriest? That seems to be the correct title as he exercises ordinary jurisdiction.
Rev. Burnham is not a Bishop nor can he be since he is married. Therefore he is entitled Rev or Fr. Neither is he the Ordinary of the Ordinariate since the Holy Father appointed rev. Newton to this post. Not all ordinaries are Bishops, just as not all bishops are ordinaries. The use of inverted commas is correct since the newly ordained celebrates the first Mass at his ordination; it would be more correct to say that rev. Burnham presided at Mass for the first time yesterday.
bishop in partibus anglicanorum
Let's clear this up once and for all. Burnham is not a bishop and in the eyes of the Church not only was he never a bishop but as he ia married he never can be.
He may have the status of a retired bishop, but he has neither the title nor the sacral functions.
Let's clear this up once and for all.
That is the kind of bossy comment that usually finishes with the words "end of".
Aidan Nichols OP's homily
http://ordinariateportal.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/fr-aidan-nichols-op-homily/#more-820
"[T]he quotation marks were purely because he technically celebrated his first Mass yesterday at his ordination."
But that applies to all First Masses. Is it, then, standard practice for First Masses (whether at the Oratory or elsewhere) to have scare quotes placed around them? And if not, what was the reason to do so on this occasion?
"XOL"and "afcote" are concise and precise. "Bossy"is all in the head of the person using the term. God bless the Ordinariate, its Ordinary and the other two new Priests.
Naughty! Here are Fr Aidan's actual words...
Bishop Andrew – I’ve known Andrew so long and closely under that description I find it hard to break the habit – is celebrating today his first Mass in full union with the Catholic Church.
I suspect he will manage to break the habit somewhere along the line. Fr Burnham, excellent man though he may be, is not a bishop of the Catholic Church. God bless him, you, and all those entering the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
"his first Mass in full union with the Catholic Church" is a careful piece of phrasing - and I've noticed similar in other places, e.g. New Liturgical Movement - which at the very least avoids pronouncing on the status of the many masses he celebrated previously.
Certainly Fr Newton as the Ordinary, might be addressed courtesously and customarily as "Monsignor" in the same way Vicar Generals who are not Bishops may be similarly addressed (if they are not already, actual Monsignori).
One wonders, if, as the Complimentary Norms mention, with a petition for and permission granted, a former Anglican Bishop of the Ordinariate wears Pontificals, he might also be honorarily addressed as "Monsignor"?
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