Tuesday 22 September 2015

Mitis Judex

As Judicial Vicar I`m trying to get to grips with the new procedures for decrees of nullity of  marriage. I thought we might have an avalanche of enquiries but this hasn`t happened. However as a short guide to what is involved I have found this from the diocese of Madison rather useful and offer it here for anyone interested. A novelty will be the personal involvement of the bishop in cases following the shorter procedure. I`m sure bihops will not be looking forward to another duty to addd to their routine but it looks like there is no escape as judicial power cannot be delegated unlike executive power. For more on this read Dr Peters here.

Sunday 20 September 2015

Brinkburn 2015: photos

All went well with the Brinkburn Mass. The Westland Singers provided beautiful music and even the weather was fabulous. We celebrated Solemn High Mass for the feast of St Januarius. I looked up Wikipedia beforehand and was interested to find this:

On March 21, 2015 Pope Francis during a visit to Naples Cathedral venerated the dried blood of Januarius, prayed the Lord's Prayer over it, and kissed it. The Archbishop of Naples Crescenzio Sepe then declared that "The blood has half liquefied, which shows that Saint Januarius loves our pope and Naples."[37]
Pope Francis than replied "The bishop just announced that the blood half liquefied. We can see the saint only half loves us. We must all spread the Word, so that he loves us more!"
It was reported that this is the first time that the blood has liquefied in the presence of the Pope since it did so for Pope Pius IX in 1848. Nothing similar occurred during the visits of St Pope John Paul II in 1979 or Pope Benedict XVI's visit in 2007.

Maybe St Januarius prefers liberal popes! (Pio nono started his papacy as what passed for a liberal in those days.)

Here are some photos. Thanks to everyone who made it happen, especially the team who helped me pack everything which was a novelty as I normally do it all myself.






Wednesday 9 September 2015

Brinkburn 2015

Somewhat later than usual the annual Solemn High Mass at Brinkburn will be held on 19th September at 12 noon. It`s normallly on the second Saturday of September for reasons I can`t remember but this was unavailable this year because of it being used for a wedding. So I have pencilled in a booking for next September already.

Saturday 5 September 2015

Thinking it through

So it seems during the Year of Mercy I can invite the local SSPX clergy round (their church is ten minutes walk away) to help with confessions but can`t invite them to say Mass. And their weddings are still invalid.