Pallium and Diaconate

This post is, with permission Your Grace, an opportunity for all within our parish who have been praying for Padraig on his route to priesthood. Padraig is a good friend and, when visiting the parish, has been prayed for fervently within our community. Just recently he came to visit and cooked a wonderful lunch. A great gift to share with needy priests busy about the Lord's work. When I looked, today, at the diocesan website it was great to see Padraig on the front page. So for the many readers within the parish we have the satisfaction of knowing our prayers have been answered and Padraig is, indeed, now a deacon.

We pray, also, for our Archbishop and this photograph is further evidence of an answer to prayer in seeing His Grace with the pallium; bestowed by the Pope last Tuesday.

Archbishop to receive the Pallium from Pope Benedict

This from zenit noting Archbishop Bernard will receive the Pallium from HH Pope Benedict on the feast of Peter and Paul. As will, of course, Archbishop Peter Smith. Do pray for them as they journey to the Eternal City.

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 22, 2010 (Zenit.org).- This feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Benedict XVI will bestow the pallium on 38 metropolitan archbishops, including 14 from Europe and six from North America.

The Vatican announced today that the Mass in which the prelates will receive the honor will take place at 9:30 a.m. on June 29.

The pallium is a white band embroidered with six black crosses and worn over the shoulders. Worn by the Pope and by metropolitan archbishops, the pallium symbolizes authority and expresses the special bond between the bishops and the Roman Pontiff.

The metropolitan archbishops who will receive the pallium are the following:

South and Central America (6)

-- Luis Cabrera Herrera of Cuenca, Ecuador
-- Fernando Saburido of Olinda e Recife, Brazil
-- Alberto Taveira Corrêa of Belem do Para, Brazil

-- Ricardo Tobón Restrepo of Medellin, Colombia
-- José Domingo Ulloa Mendieta of Panama, Panama
-- Luis Madrid Merlano of Nueva Pamplona, Colombia

Africa (8)

-- Alex Kaliyanil of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
-- Gerard Tlali Lerotholi of Maseru, Lesotho
-- Gabriel Mbilingi of Lubango, Angola

-- Samuel Kleda of Douala, Cameroon
-- Joseph Atanga of Bertoua, Cameroon
-- Stephen Brislin of Cape Town, South Africa

-- Désiré Tsarahazana of Toamasina, Madagascar
-- Matthias Kobena Nketsiah of Cape Coast, Ghana

North America (6)

-- Albert Legatt of Saint-Boniface, Canada
-- Constancio Miranda Wechmann of Chihuahua, Mexico
-- Carlos Garfias Merlos of Acapulco, Mexico

-- Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
-- Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati, Ohio
-- Thomas Wenski of Miami, Florida

Europe (14)

-- Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia-Citta della Pieve, Italy
-- Andrea Bruno Mazzocato of Udine, Italy
-- Antonio Lanfranchi of Modena-Nonantola, Italy
-- Luigi Moretti of Salerno-Campagna-Acerno, Italy

-- Juan José Asenjo Pelegrina of Seville, Spain
-- Jesús Sanz Montes of Oviedo, Spain
-- Ricardo Blázquez Pérez of Valladolid, Spain

-- Bernard Longley of Birmingham, England -- Peter David Smith of Southwark, England
-- Anton Stres of Ljubljana, Slovenia

-- Andre-Joseph (Mutien) Leonard of Mechelen-Brussels, Belgium
-- Dominik Duka of Prague, Czech Republic
-- Jozef Kowalczyk of Gniezno, Poland
-- Bernard Bober of Kosice, Slovakia

Asia (4)

-- Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan, Philippines
-- Francis Kallarakal of Verapoly, India
-- Hyginus Kim Hee-jong of Kwangju, Korea
-- Pierre Nguyen Van Nhon of Hanoi, Vietnam.

Ss Philip & James

Today, on this Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles, I was looking for a picture of the two together - for the blog. This website, which I happened upon, is really great. Go take a look. There's an awful lot of good Catholic information to view as you while away a few minutes on an otherwise lazy Bank Holiday weekend. Unless you're not in England and don't have any idea what I'm talking about (lazy bank holidays, not good Catholic information) in which case take some time from your busy schedule and be renewed in your faith.

REFLECTION. --The Church commemorates on the same day Saints Philip and James, whose bodies lie side by side at Rome. They represent to us two aspects of Christian holiness. The first preaches faith, the second works; the one holy aspirations, the other purity of heart.

The website concludes by asking us to seek the intercession of Ss Philip and James for all priests. At Mass we chose to seek their intercession for our successor to the Apostles: Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham!

God bless our shepherd.

Archbishop Bernard Longley Welcomed

We were very honoured, within the parish, to welcome Archbishop Bernard Longley to a Mass celebrated with the clergy, religious and laity of the three deaneries of Rugby, Coventry and Warwick. The church was really busy and it was a great chance to meet and talk with people from the neighbouring deaneries. There has been nothing but great praise for the event and, of course, the Archbishop was a huge hit with all. If you would like to see photographs of the event, then you can view on the parish website, here.

Pastoral Letter from Archbishop Bernard Longley

PASTORAL LETTER

OF THE

ARCHBISHOP OF BIRMINGHAM

THE MOST REVEREND BERNARD LONGLEY

FOR 6^th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

14 FEBRUARY 2010

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ

This Sunday we find ourselves on the threshold of Lent. We still have a few days before we enter this great season of grace and these days give us a little time to prepare. As we do so I am conscious of being with you for the first time on our Lenten pilgrimage towards Easter. I hope that my few reflections following today’s Scripture readings may help us sense our unity in Christ as we approach the coming forty days. Writing my first Pastoral Letter certainly makes me conscious of my unity with you, within the family of the diocese, as we move together towards Lent.

Every threshold offers an important choice and the threshold of Lent is no exception. The choice lies before us every year as Ash Wednesday draws close. Are we ready to cross the threshold and go into this season following Christ so that we can enter more deeply into the mystery of his death and resurrection? Are we prepared to accompany him and one another into Lent so that we may eventually enter into the joy of Easter transformed and renewed?

The prophet Jeremiah illustrates the choice before us in terms of a curse and a blessing. It is a curse when we decide to trust in ourselves, for then we become like dry scrub in the wastelands. But when we agree to trust in the Lord we become like a tree by the waterside that never ceases to bear fruit. We can choose to trust in the Lord by consciously and wholeheartedly walking with him and depending upon him as we cross over the threshold into Lent.

St Luke reveals something fundamental about the choice before us in his account of the beatitudes. In our Lord’s teaching those who are truly blessed, although they suffer, are set alongside those who are really deprived, even though they have plenty. This is a reminder that God does not see as the world sees. Poverty and hunger, sadness and rejection by others can lead to a deeper happiness when they enable us to find and depend upon God (and we surely also have our part to play in showing God’s goodness and love to all who suffer in these ways). Riches and fulfilment, laughter and the good opinion of others will always deprive us of true happiness when they make us forgetful of God’s presence. Finding true happiness means seeing our lives in the light of God’s truth as we cross the threshold of Lent.

These are Lenten insights of faith that we want to share with the world around us. Lent is a season that we have to experience personally, yet it can never be something entirely private. In the Church we sense our unity with one another as we encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ to make a good beginning to Lent. But we also have an opportunity to give witness to others in the local community, especially as they see us gathering on Ash Wednesday for the symbolic moment that starts us on this Lenten journey.

We can begin Lent wholeheartedly if we choose today to renew our commitment to prayer, self-denial and almsgiving. Prayer underpins our trust in the Lord, holding us close to him as the foundation of our lives and giving us a clearer vision of the way ahead. Self-denial helps us to live the life of the beatitudes day by day, more readily aware of our dependence on God and of the blessings we can so easily take for granted. Almsgiving is a call to be generous, to notice the needs of others and to respond with a compassion that can deepen the likeness of Christ within us. These three help us to see ourselves and the world around us illuminated by the light of Christ.

In the days leading up to Ash Wednesday we have time once again to make our commitment to Christ as his disciples so that our observance of Lent may be of benefit not only to ourselves but also to others. Let us pray for one another within our parish community that together we may be strengthened and make good choices this Lent. Please pray for those who will assemble in the Cathedral next Sunday for the Rite of Election, when the Church recognises their desire to be fully part of our Catholic communities and calls them to be received into full communion at Easter. Pray also that the choices we all make this Lent will cause us to trust more and more in Christ so that each of us may become like a tree by the waterside that never ceases to bear fruit.

I pray that each of us may be blessed with a joyful and fruitful Lent. May we come refreshed and renewed to accompany our Lord in his death and resurrection in the Holy Week that leads to the joy of Easter.

XBernard Longley

Archbishop of Birmingham

Given at Birmingham on 11 February 2010 and appointed to be read in all Churches and Chapels of the Diocese on the weekend of 13/14 February 2010.