Anglican Ordinariate Pilgrims from U.K. Say Thank You to the Holy Father

Lenten Pilgrimage An Opportunity for Group's Thanksgiving

The highlight of their week-long visit was the celebration of an Anglican Use Mass at St. Joseph's Chapel in St. Peter's Basilica. Complete with hymns, liturgies and prayers familiar to Anglicans, the Mass was led by Msgr. Keith Newton, Ordinary for the Ordinariate that covers England, Wales and Scotland.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - A little over a year after their establishment as the first Ordinariate, pilgrims from the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham journeyed to Rome for a Lenten visit and to say "Thank you " to the Holy Father for this new work. The group included approximately 100 people including a dozen priests.

The highlight of their weeklong visit was the celebration of an Anglican Use Mass at St. Joseph's Chapel in St. Peter's Basilica. Complete with hymns, liturgies and prayers familiar to Anglicans, the Mass was led by Msgr. Keith Newton, Ordinary for the Ordinariate that covers England, Wales and Scotland.

"I think our musical heritage is as strong part of our patrimony," 28-year-old Michael Vian Clark told the Catholic News Agency after CNA Mass. They reported that he became Catholic in 2007 and is now the Director of Music at Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England. His highlight of the week was attending Mass at the basilica of San Giorgio in Velabro, which was Cardinal Newman's titular church in Rome.
 
"It was very, very moving for us to celebrate Mass there with some of the texts Blessed John Henry might have known, but also, importantly, to use two of his hymns as the offertory and post communion, which was really moving and touching in that particular place."

In his homily during the Mass, Fr. Len Black stated, "'Wonderful' is not a strong enough word to express what we all feel at being together here. I am certain that, like me, this week you have all experienced the feeling of coming home.

"Nowhere can we truly experience this other than being here, so close to the place where the apostle Peter gave his life for the faith and where his successors have guarded the faith for generations."

Fr. Black, now a Catholic Priest, had served for 30 years in the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Following the celebration at one of the side altars, the group moved to the center of the Basilica and stood in from of the "Confessio," the lower chapel that honors the confession of St. Peter that culminated in his martyrdom. There, they prayed the General Thanksgiving from the Anglican Prayer Book - a familiar prayer to all Anglicans - in honor of the gift of the Ordinariate by the Holy Father.

In this prayer, they were representing the 57 priests and over 1,000 members throughout England, Wales and Scotland that make up the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. There is no doubt that those who are a part of the new U.S. Ordinariate could identify with this prayer.

On Ash Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI personally welcomed the group during his weekly audience in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall. In response to his greeting the group all stood and sang "Praise to the Holiest," which was a hymn by Blessed John Henry Newman, patron of the Ordinariate.

During the week of pilgrimage, Holy Mass was offered for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham by H.E. Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and H.E. Cardinal Bernard Law.

Msgr. Keith Newton, presided at the celebration of the Eucharist on other days and Monday evening saw a celebration of Evensong in Santa Maria in Trastevere.

As other Ordinariates are at different stages of being established, I'm sure this journey will duplicated many times over. With almost 50 priests currently in formation and parishes being received by the U.S. Ordinariate, the next Lent may see some American and Canadian pilgrims offering similar expressions at the Basilica.

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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online and the CEO/Associate Publisher for the Northern Virginia Local Edition of Catholic Online (http://virginia.catholic.org). He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

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