Pope Benedict XVI - a Pope of Christian Unity

Give praise to God today. It's Sunday!

• Senior Anglican bishop reveals he is ready to convert to Roman Catholicism (UK Telegraph)
• Bulgarian Orthodox Bishop to Pope: "We Must Find Unity" (Zenit)
• Vatican could convert Lefebvrists into personal prelature, says Fellay (CNA)

On an interesting note, Scott Richert has made an entry about the date of the announcement of the Holy Father's approval of the Apostolic Constitution (h/t Edward Pentin):

As I have discussed before ("Pope Benedict: A Pontiff With a Plan"), Pope Benedict XVI is very sensitive to the message that certain dates send. Summorum Pontificum, for instance, was signed on June 29, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, when the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch sends representatives to Rome each year to take part in the celebration of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (and sometimes comes himself). The Orthodox have long been concerned about the decline of the liturgy in the Western Church, and the revival of the Traditional Latin Mass was seen as a major step in the right direction.

So is there any significance in the date of today's announcement that Pope Benedict has signed an Apostolic Constitution which will allow entire Anglican communities to reenter the Catholic Church en masse? I think so.


October 20 is the feast day of Saint Paul of the Cross (1694-1775), the founder of the Passionists. Though Saint Paul spent his life in Italy, the Catholic Encyclopedia notes that "For fifty years he prayed for the conversion of England, and left the devotion as a legacy to his [spiritual] sons." Almost 65 years after his death, the Passionists were first introduced into England, and the Catholic Encyclopedia declares that "They came in the spirit of Apostles without gold or silver, without scrip or staff or shoes or two coats," yet they "soon revived without commotion several Catholic customs and practices which had died out since the Reformation. They were the first to adopt strict community life, to wear their habit in public, to give missions and retreats to the people, and to hold public religious processions."

More opinion pieces on the Anglican matter:

• Roman Catholics and Anglo-Catholics: this is the moment of truth (Damian Thompson - UK Telegraph)
• Ironing Out the Apostolic Constitution (Edward Pentin, NC Register)
• A “back door ecumenical gesture” (Fr. Z analyzes a piece from The Times)
• St. Therese, the Anglican Ordinariate, and more...(Catholic Key)
• Bold, Benedetto, and Bello (Robert Royal - The Catholic Thing)
  
  

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The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!