Welcome Holy Father!

The excitement about the Holy Father being in the United Kingdom is immense! Our family have been watching it on our home projector and following every movement and word of Pope Benedict XVI on his historic visit to our country. The last time a Pope came to this country was in 1982, when I was still a baby in South Africa, and Wendy was a baby only Louis' age with her big sister being shown the event by her mother on the television. This visit is of national importance, and not just for Catholics but for everyone.

Wendy Receiving
Confirmation

The top photo is from the Holy Father's first day as Pope, having been elected in 2005. I remember this time so vividly because we were closely following this on the television too. During that time, of the death of Pope John Paul II and his successor's election, it was only a week after Wendy had been received into the Catholic Faith from Anglicanism. A year later, in Easter 2006, Wendy's mother followed suit. It was therefore most interesting to have us all together this evening, watching the Holy Father meet Dr Rowan Williams, and take part in joint Evening Prayer at Westminster Abbey and pray before the tomb of St Edward the Confessor, the great King of England. The Holy Father chose to reinterate the fact that he is the successor of St Peter, and charged with the task keeping Christendom unified. I see this unity as flowing from full Catholic Doctrine and Apostolic Tradition. Unfortunately, having chosen to reject the authority of the Pope, the Church of England has progressively fallen deeper into confusion, to the point where their Primate, the 'Archbishop of Canterbury', has no hope of keeping in unity his own communion, let alone striving for deeper unity with the rest of Christendom.

We have tickets to wait outside the Birmingham Oratory when the Holy Father comes there on Sunday. This is particularly exciting for us since it will be immediately after the Beatification of John Henry Newman, who we have been devoted towards for the last five years since the same 'Kindly Light' led Wendy towards the Church. It is unfortunate that his example is now being distorted to present him as a Patron of Conscientious Objection from the Church's teaching, as well as Homosexuality, and even Ecumenism. None of these agendas accurately reflects Newman's legacy, but as long as it is in the full glare of media attention, this is an inevitable drawback. History will surely see him, and the English Oratory, in its proper light, despite the short-term silence and lack of voice for the Truth.



Serving Mass in the Chapel
now dedicated to Newman

 So this coming Sunday afternoon, unfortunately during a period of night-shifts for me (starting tonight), we will be showing our support for the Holy Father outside our beloved Oratory, and cheering his arrival. We will also have the opportunity of being some of the first pilgrims after the Pope to pray in the newly renovated Shrine to Blessed John Henry Newman; a chapel previously remembered by us with fondness when it was dedicated to St Philip Neri, and when Fr Philip Cleevely used to say private Mass there with our noisy family in attendence!

If everything happens as it has so far, the support for the Holy Father in Birmingham will be immense. We have a wonderful Catholic History in this Archdiocese, and a large Catholic Population which has swelled in recent years to include lots of Eastern Europeans. We are honoured to have the Vicar of Christ here to celebrate it with us! And perhaps he will stop his Popemobile to bless a few more babies!