Pope meets Pushkin the Birmingham Oratory Cat...

but not Fr Dermot Fenlon, Fr Philip Cleevely and Br Lewis Berry.

L'Osservatore Romano has made some images available from the Pope's recent private visit to the Birmingham Oratory, which can be viewed at:

http://www.photovat.com/PHOTOVAT/VIAGGI%20BENEDETTO/UK2010WEB/26_UK2010ORATORIO/index.html

'Mean-spirited'

Catholic Family News - 26.9.2010
http://www.cfnews.org.uk/

In his Telegraph blog, Damian Thompson has commented on Father Fenlon's article about Newman's burial, published by STANDPOINT.

'Not by coincidence, I think, no sooner has the Pope left Britain than Fr Dermot Fenlon, one of the "Birmingham Three" Oratorians mysteriously sent into exile, has broken his silence in an article for next month's Standpoint magazine. . . . It's about Newman's burial and, reading between the lines, I'm guessing that a bitter dispute about the mortal remains of Blessed John Henry Newman formed part of this controversy. What isn't clear is whether Fr Fenlon thinks the Church did the wrong thing in attempting to transfer Cardinal Newman's remains to the Oratory church . . .Is Fr Fenlon trying to send a message to the Catholic world? It's hard to conclude otherwise, given that set into the body of his text is a short article by his Cambridge contemporary and friend Ruth Dudley Edwards. She has written before about the mystery of the "Birmingham Three", but on this occasion I can't believe that Standpoint would have printed her piece next to Fenlon's without his permission. [Update: Daniel Johnson, Editor of Standpoint, says in the thread below that Fr Fenlon didn't read Ruth Dudley Edwards's piece before publication and wasn't involved in the decision to run it. I'm assuming he didn't object to it, though.]

According to Dudley Edwards, Dermot Fenlon "gave up a glittering academic career to be a priest" and lived at the Birmingham Oratory for 20 years before being "suddenly ejected [and] banned from the Newman beatification". She adds:

Officialdom continued the policy of silence and concealment even as the blogosphere came alive with speculation and protest: a spokesman spoke opaquely of disunity within the community. Yet Roman Catholic insiders suggest that it was the Birmingham Three's defence of traditional teachings on sexual morality, and their belief that Church should challenge State, that posed an unwelcome intellectual challenge to the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, during his time as Archbishop of Birmingham . . .

One Oratorian has been transported to South Africa; another has been sent abroad for three years to study; Dermot Fenlon, who is 68 and in frail health, is rumoured to have been banned from his home for five years . . . (G)iven that Fr Fenlon is a distinguished Newman scholar, long-standing member of the Birmingham Oratory and furthermore in frail health, it seems mean-spirited indeed to have excluded him from the beatification and the Holy Father's visit to his community'.

'Catholic Voices' Blog discusses Standpoint articles

Catholic Voices Media Monitor - 24.9.2010

http://catholicvoicesmedia.blogspot.com/2010/09/birmingham-three-priest-breaks-his.html

Standpoint Magazine - Ruth Dudley Edwards - September 2010

http://standpointmag.co.uk/features-september-10-newman's-last-mystery-cardinal-newman-birmingham-three-dermot-fenlon (see bottom of page)

For the last 20 years, Dermot Fenlon, who gave up a glittering academic career in Cambridge to be a priest, has lived at the Birmingham Oratory. He has devoted himself to the study of its founder, Cardinal Newman, and the tending of parishioners. In the September issue of Standpoint, I told how, in May, with two other Oratorians, he was suddenly ejected, banned from the Newman beatification ceremony conducted last month by the Pope, and gagged.



Officialdom continued the policy of silence and concealment even as the blogosphere came alive with speculation and protest: a spokesman spoke opaquely of disunity within the community. Yet Roman Catholic insiders suggest that it was the Birmingham Three’s defence of traditional teachings on sexual morality, and their belief that Church should challenge State, that posed an unwelcome intellectual challenge to the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, during his time as Archbishop of Birmingham. One Oratorian has been transported to South Africa for at least a year; another has been sent abroad for three years to study; Dermot Fenlon, who is 68 and in fragile health, is rumoured to have been banned from his home for five years.

Attempts have been made to turn Newman into a gay icon on the grounds that he chose to be buried with his friend Father Ambrose St John. Fr Fenlon’s essay looks at the burial from Newman’s point of view.

Article by Fr Dermot Fenlon in Standpoint

Standpoint Magazine - Fr Dermot Fenlon - September 2010
"Friends and saints: Newman's last mystery".

http://standpointmag.co.uk/features-september-10-newman's-last-mystery-cardinal-newman-birmingham-three-dermot-fenlon

'Birmingham Three' priest breaks his silence. Was this a bitter dispute about Newman's remains?

Damian Thompson - Telegraph Blogs - 23.9.2010

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100055002/birmingham-three-priest-breaks-his-silence-was-this-a-bitter-dispute-about-newmans-remains/

"...given that Fr Fenlon is a distinguished Newman scholar, long-standing member of the Birmingham Oratory and furthermore in frail health, it seems mean-spirited indeed to have excluded him from the beatification and the Holy Father’s visit to his community".

'Free the Birmingham 3' campaign is world news!

In the 133 days since Fr Dermot Fenlon, Fr Philip Cleevely and Br Lewis Berry were sent away from the Birmingham Oratory, this blog has had over 15,000 visitors, from countries including:

UK    USA      Vatican City State        Australia      Canada  

    France      Germany      Greece      India       Ireland

Italy        Poland       Malta        South Africa     Switzerland
    

Fr Paul Chavasse returns to the Birmingham Oratory

Mass of Thanksgiving for the Beatification of Blessed John Henry Newman.

http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2010/09/mass-of-thanksgiving-at-birmingham.html



Photo by James Bradley - IMG_1782

The special Mass took place on the evening of Monday 20th September and was celebrated by Archbishop Bernard Longley with a number of Oratorians from the various English Oratories, including Fr Paul Chavasse.

Does this mean that Fr Dermot Fenlon, Fr Philip Cleevely and Br Lewis Berry will also be allowed to return to their home?

Archbishop Burke's endorsement of Newman Legacy Project is encourageing news.

Archbishop Raymond Burke, the Vatican's Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, endorses 'Newman Legacy Project'.

Spero News - 21.9.2010
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=33&idsub=124&id=40182&t=Cardinal+Newman+Society+seeks+funds+to+preserve+legacy+of+John+Henry+Newman

According to Archbishop Raymond Burke... "The Newman Legacy Project will help, in an essential way, to bring the fruits of the heroic holiness of life of the Venerable Cardinal to as many of the faithful as possible, and also to non-believers who sincerely seek to know the truth and live accordingly..."

"Because of the importance of Cardinal Newman, of his life and his writings, the Birmingham Oratory, which he founded and which was his home in the last period of his life, is rightly dedicating itself to creating a fitting archive of his numerous writings, including his correspondence, and of important books and other objects used by him. Clearly, the creation of the Archive requires the generous support of many. I thank The Cardinal Newman Society for its work to garner imporant funds for the Archive."

Open letter to Fr Felix Selden from Mrs Hiltrud Knab, Bavaria

On Friday Mother Hiltrud made a pilgrimage to Altötting to pray for Fr Dermot and for his cause - the sanctity of life - at the Chapel of the Miraculous Image.  Back in April this year Fr Dermot took a pilgrimage to Altötting as well.


Dear Fr Selden


I will begin, if I may, by introducing myself: my name is Hiltrud Knab, and I was born on 30th July 1930 in Marktbreit. I am the mother of eight children: Barbara Hiltrud (born 1953), Stefanie Maria (1955), Martin Theodor (1956), Claudia Elisabeth (1957), Christine Margarete (1959), Michael Helmut (1961), Ingrid Marie (1962), and Monika Eva (1963). My youngest daughter Monika died from viral encephalitis in 1983.

In gratitude for my eight children, and in the knowledge that every human life, from conception to natural death, is a gift from God, and that the fifth commandment “Thou shalt not kill!” holds true for every life, I founded the “Prayer Circle for Life” (Gebetskreis für das Leben) in 1982. I was inspired by the theme of the Day for Catholics in Essen in 1982: “Choose Life” (Deuteronomy 30:19). Since then I have brought my intention for the “protection of unborn children and their mothers” to the Mother of God every week in the Rosary in one of the churches in our town.

In the spring of this year I came to know Fr Dermot Fenlon of the Birmingham Oratory through my son-in-law Jakob Knab. For two weeks he stayed as a guest of the Franciscan nuns at their Convent of St Crescentia. Almost every morning I came across him at Holy Mass, which he concelebrated with the convent chaplains. I found Fr Dermot to be a devout, prayerful and God-fearing priest. I met him in person at the home of my daughter Stefanie and her husband Jakob. Here, too, I sensed how deeply imbued he was by his faith in Jesus Christ. With a combination of my own knowledge of English retained from my schooldays in Marktbreit and Fr Dermot’s broken German we managed to enjoy a very cordial conversation.

He was pleased that I knew of Mary Ward, the great lady of English church history. I told him of the tragic destiny of Mary Ward, who became caught up in the machinery of the hierarchy. The responsible officials of that time were unable to recognise Mary Ward’s charismatic trail-blazing gifts. Whilst I was relating this moving story, Fr Dermot gave me his full attention. It is only in the past few days that I have been made aware that decades ago he was a historian of some repute in the University of Cambridge (Gonville and Caius College).

Fr Dermot also listened with immense sympathy when I told him about my mother, who recited the prayer of John Henry Newman with us when we were children during the dreadful days of the Second World War. It remains one of my best-loved prayers today: “O God, these days are full of affliction, the cause of Christ lies in its final agony ….”.

You, Fr Selden, with your mysterious machinations, have sent a trustworthy and honourable priest into the wilderness. A priest, whose mission and heart’s desire are to preach the word of God and to advance the Kingdom of Heaven. Why have you silenced him? What is the real reason for that? What purpose do you have in mind? Do you really want to destroy the “cause of Christ” in the world and thereby to sacrifice a human being? A verse from St John’s Gospel comes into my mind, when the Jews say to Pilate “We have a law – and by that law he must die” (John 19:7).

Fr Dermot argues unceasingly for the sanctity of human life. It must be respected from conception until natural death as a gift from God. Fr Dermot stands as a symbolic figure for the sanctity of life. What motives do you have, Fr Selden, for banishing one of your brethren, one who speaks out for the protection of human life out of his own deep faith and conviction?

I say to you: whoever kills a human being, whether yet unborn in his mother’s womb or old and no longer in control of his faculties, that person kills the love of God, which strengthens and blesses the person in every phase of his life.

Fr Selden, what heavy guilt could Fr Dermot have brought upon himself, to make you separate him so hard-heartedly and mercilessly from his familiar life in the Birmingham Oratory? Why have you silenced him? What severe offence can you prove against him, that would warrant such an unjust sentence? Do you have an answer to my question? An answer for me, and for all the faithful who “serve life”?

When we read the Bible with an open heart and mind we will discover that the devil attacks those people and those places where the Kingdom of God begins to grow. Do you, Fr Selden, wish to act as the henchman of this bringer of denial and confusion? That would surely be a triumph for Hell! In your capacity as a Catholic priest, you are charged with fighting evil!

So I ask you – no, I beseech you as Delegate of the Apostolic Visitation for the Confederation of the Oratories of St Philip Neri – to prepare a way for grace and justice.

Trusting in the intercession of the tender and immaculate heart of Mary, I beseech you:

Stop the persecution and oppression of Fr Dermot!

Listen to the words of the Judge of the World:

“I was homeless, and you gave me shelter.” (Matthew 25:35)

Listen to your priestly conscience:

Fr Dermot must come home this very week to the Birmingham Oratory!

MARIA MIT DEM KINDE LIEB
UNS ALLEN DEINEN SEGEN GIB!

(MARY, WITH YOUR LOVING CHILD,
GIVE US YOUR BLESSINGS!)

Hiltrud Knab

Pope pays tribute to Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory

The Catholic Herald - Papal Visit 2010: Pope’s homily at Cofton Park on Sunday 19th September.

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2010/09/19/papal-visit-2010-popes-homily-at-cofton-park-full-text/


"I pay tribute to all who have worked so hard over many years to promote the cause of Cardinal Newman, including the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory".

Open letter to all Oratorians in the United Kingdom

To Fr Felix Selden, Fr Ignatius Harrison, Fr Richard Duffield & all Oratorians in the United Kingdom.

With just hours to go before the Holy Father beatifies Cardinal John Henry Newman at Cofton Park, we beg you to allow Fr Dermot Fenlon, Fr Philip Cleevely and Br Lewis Berry to attend this most important event in the life of the Birmingham Oratory.

One can only imagine the humiliation, the pain and the mental torment that these three men are suffering at not being allowed to attend the beatification of the man they have made it their vocation to follow. 

Please look deeply into your heart and ask yourself afresh:-

• 
  
  what is it that these three men have done?
• 
  
  do they deserve to be punished so severely?
• 
  
  is there no way that they can be afforded the dignity of standing beside their brothers at the beatification of their founder?

With every good wish, 

Friends & Supporters of the 'Birmingham 3'  

Letter of support from Dr. Frank McDonough

To Whom it may Concern,

I first met Father Dermot Fenlon in August 2009 when he showed me around Newman’s study at the Oratory. I was deeply impressed by him as a person, a committed man of God and a scholar.

I invited him to the launch of my critically acclaimed book entitled: Sophie Scholl: The Woman Who Defied Hitler in Liverpool in February 2010, which tells the story of one of Germany’s most brave and important resistance figures who died fighting the unjust and inhumane Nazi regime.

I find the extended exile of Father Fenlon to be completely unjustified. This decision needs re-thinking urgently as it infringes the basic human rights and the free movement of a good and decent man. His continued enforced exile and the publicity surrounding it which is growing does no credit to the reputation of the Catholic Church in the broader community in Britain and it damages its international reputation.

I urge you to re-think this decision and allow Father Fenlon - who is serving a sentence, but has committed no crime, to return to the Oratory to carry on his good work.

Yours sincerely

Dr. Frank McDonough

Author of ‘Sophie Scholl’

Liverpool

15 September 2010

Press Release: "... In the Corridors of Death"

PRESS RELEASE – Jakob Knab - 15 September 2010

... in the Corridors of Death.


All his life Rev. Dr. Dermot Fenlon C. O. has been preaching and fighting for the sanctity of life. Now his frail health is deteriorating. Those nefarious structures of authority are going to ruin his life in the “corridors of death”.

But at the same time the initial step has been taken for an appeal at the Cour Européenne des Droits de l'Homme - European Court of Human Rights by faithful friends of Father Fenlon. They are fighting for the life of Fr Dermot Fenlon.

Let us pray to Our Lady of Sorrows:

Help your humble servant Father Dermot Fenlon.

Bring him home to his beloved Birmingham Oratory.

SUB TUUM PRAESIDUUM CONFUGIMUS

Warning to all those little “devils in disguise“ round the globe:

We will not be silent.

We are your bad conscience.

We will not leave you in peace!

Vatican newspaper helps Tony Blair steal Newman's legacy

John Smeaton's Blog - 15.9.2010
http://www.spuc-director.org.uk/

L'Osservatore Romano, the semi-official Vatican newspaper, has today published an article by Tony Blair entitled "The Pope and Newman". The "Whispers in the Loggia" blog has published its own English translation of the Italian edition. Here is the key content from the article:

• It's evident that for the life of the Church today, the reflections of Newman on the development of ideas have implications of no small significance."
•  " ... Newman defined the consensus of the entire 'body of the faithful' on doctrinal questions as 'the voice of the infallible Church.' I ask myself if this voice is likewise taken seriously enough or if we have we have understood fully the implications of these ideas. The tendency of some religious leaders to insert a great number of differing ideas in one big package with the label of 'secularism' and then consider it as something of the Left creates divisions in pluralist societies. This precludes the Church from possibilities of new developments of thought."
• "Newman, like Pope Benedict, himself fierily opposed relativism. But the interreligious activity of my Faith Foundation produces the opposite of relativism, confirms people in their different faiths, and maintains respect and understanding for the faith of others."

Elsewhere in the article Mr Blair pays lip-service to the role of the Church's Magisterium (teaching authority). In this Mr Blair is clearly attempting to fool Catholics into viewing him as a moderate conservative, one who acknowledges the Church's teaching authority whilst being open to modern developments. Anyone inclined to believe Mr Blair can simply read his newly-published memoirs, in which he says:

"Politicians are obliged from time to time to conceal the full truth, to bend it and even distort it".


The truth is that Mr Blair is cleverly abusing the nuances of Newman's opinions on the primacy of conscience and on the development of doctrine. Mr Blair is trying to steal Newman's clothing in order to leverage a change to Catholic teaching on homosexuality (and no doubt on other pro-life/pro-family issues). In April last year Mr Blair told the gay magazine Attitude that the Catholic Church must change its "entrenched attitudes to homosexuality".

As Monsignor Michel Schooyans, one of the Vatican's leading scholars, has pointed out in a masterly analysis, Mr Blair, with an anti-life, anti-family agenda, is in fact seeking to undermine the Catholic faith and religion generally:

"The fresh 'convert' [Blair] does not hesitate to explain to the pope not only what he must do, but also what he must believe! ... So now we are back in the time of Hobbes, if not of Cromwell: it is civil power that defines what one must believe ... [T]he nanny state [which] has multiplied subjective 'rights' of attribution, for example in the areas of divorce, sexuality, the family, population, etc. ... Religious institutions must also be reformed to adapt them to the changes. Some religious figures must be taken hostage and made to approve the new secularized 'faith', that of the 'civil partnership' ... In the case of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation [JS: see my blog about it], this is also a matter of promoting one and only one religious confession, which a universal, global political power would impose on the entire world".

Mr Blair has been ably assisted in his assault upon Catholic teaching by his wife Cherie (pictured) and her vocal campaigns in favour of contraception and leading pro-abortion organisations.

I am disgusted by L'Osservatore Romano's decision to give such prominence to Mr Blair and his manipulative agenda.This is not the first time that the newspaper L'Osservatore Romano has betrayed the pro-life movement. In September last year it published an effusive double-page spread interview with Mr Blair; and earlier in 2009 it published articles favourable to Barack Obama, with the editor even declaring that "Obama is not a pro-abortion president".

To my mind it is no coincidence that Tony Blair's shameful attempted theft of Newman's legacy follows so soon after Fr Dermot Fenlon, one of the world's leading expert defenders of Newman's authentic legacy, has been sentenced to five years' exile from his home, Newman's Birmingham Oratory. Fr Fenlon, along with the other Birmingham Oratorians, were at the forefront of warning Catholics about the Blairs' agenda. As the Newman Cause blog said in November:

"Newman is indeed the great teacher of the rights and duties of conscience. It is of the greatest importance that his teaching is not used to make him the patron of Catholics, like Cherie Blair and others, who in the name of conscience practice dissent from the Church’s teaching ..."

And as the Newman cause blog said in October:

"Since becoming a Catholic, Mr Blair has refused every invitation [JS: see my blog about this] to disown and repent of [his anti-life/anti-family political record] ... [S]ome commentators, including Catholics, have sought to justify it by saying that Mr Blair’s silence is because his support for abortion, embryo experimentation, civil partnerships and gay adoption has always been for him, and remains now, a matter of conscience. Now this is the danger in The Tablet’s association of Newman and conscience with the case of Tony Blair. If as a Catholic Mr Blair thinks that his conscience directs him to support such positions, to invoke Newman in defence of his stance would be a travesty. For Newman, no Catholic can be in good conscience in supporting the positions Mr Blair espoused. The impossibility of conscience, enlightened by Faith, justifying adherence to evil is one of the most important of Newman’s lessons for our times."

Since the removal of Fr Fenlon and the Birmingham Three from the Oratory, the Newman Cause blog has had no substantial articles (in fact, the blog stopped altogether in July); and the posts on the Oratory website (12 March, 20 March) which so powerfully challenged episcopal policies on abortion and sex education have also stopped. The ending of these articles coincided with the parachuting in of Jack Valero by the Catholic bishops' conference of England and Wales to be press officer for the Newman Cause and who reports to Archbishop Nichols's press secretary.
 
Yesterday's edition of Zenit contains an extraordinary interview with Andrea Tornielli, a noted Vatican watcher. Here is a key extract:


Zenit: According to the Archbishop Giampaolo Crepaldi of Trieste, there exists a parallel magisterium among ecclesiastics, professors of theology in the seminaries, priests and laypeople who "muffle Benedict XVI's teachings, do not read the documents of his magisterium, write and speak arguing exactly the opposite of what he says, launch pastoral and cultural initiatives, on the terrain of bioethics or in ecumenical dialogue, for example, in open divergence with what he teaches." Is this true or is Archbishop Crepaldi mistaken?
Tornielli: I believe that Archbishop Crepaldi is right. It is obvious -- just take a look at many parishes, participate at conferences, cultural gatherings, etc., and you will see how Benedict XVI's magisterium (but this happened before too, with other Popes) is not transmitted to the faithful, but is instead sometimes openly contradicted.

I wrote in June:


"Could it be that external forces [JS: outside the Birmingham Oratory but inside the Church] who want a Catholic Church which is inclusive of the Blairs' anti-life, anti-family positions are bringing pressures to bear in [the Birmingham Three] situation? How very convenient it would be, especially in the run-up to Pope Benedict's visit, if uncomfortable issues such as the teaching of the Church on contraception, abortion and on homosexuality were also safely hidden away?"

It seems to me that the Blairs, Archbishop Nichols and the Catholic bishops' conference of which he is president are key players in this "parallel magisterium". (Jack Valero, in his bishops' conference role, has even denied the very existence of such a "parallel magisterium"). Ownership of the interpretation of Newman is one of the "parallel magisterium's" key goals. It would suit the purposes of the "parallel magisterium" to move to divide and conquer at the Birmingham Oratory, especially targeting Fr Dermot Fenlon, the champion of the true Magisterium's authentic interpretation of Newman's legacy.
Concerned readers of this blog are therefore heartily urged to join the faithful Newman experts who are standing up for Fr Fenlon: Dr Roman Siebenrock of the German International Newman Society, and Jakob and Dr Stephanie Maria Knab.

More support for Fr Dermot Fenlon

Catholic & Loving it! Blog - James Preece - 15.9.2010
http://www.lovingit.co.uk/

From the president of the German International Newman Society...

PRESS RELEASE - ROMAN SIEBENROCK (Internationale Deutsche Newman Gesellschaft)


As president of the German International Newman Society, founded by Günter Biemer (Freiburg), and in the name of a lot of members of our Society, I must express my and our deep anxiety about the situation of Father Dermot.


I met Father Dermot at a Newman-Conference at Milano last year and I was deeply impressed by his personality. He invited me and my son in April to come to the Oratory while we stay for the beatification of Cardinal Newman.


And now this!


I want to express our solidarity with Father Dermot and ask the responsible persons to change this very strange and dolorous situation of this respectable priest.


Sincerely


Roman Siebenrock

Also, Jakob Knab expert on the life of Sophie Scholl writes...

All his life Fr Dermot Fenlon CO has been preaching and fighting for the sanctity of life.


But now his frail health is deteriorating.
Those "structures of authority" are going to ruin his life.
Our Lady of Sorrows please help your humble servant Father Fenlon!
JAKOB KNAB
KAUFBEUREN

Fr Dermot has the support of the president of the German International Newman Society, a leading expert on the influence of Newman in the life of Sophie Scholl, the director of SPUC in the UK, noted journalist Ruth Dudley Edwards as well as many parishioners at the Birmingham Oratory.
Jakob Knab has asked me to tell you that he has taken the first steps of an appeal at the European Court of Human Rights. I wonder if the Apostolic Visitor to the Birmingham Oratory has the stomach for a long, drawn out, very public fight?
Perhaps Fr Dermot could just be allowed to go home now?

Fr Fenlon Exiled for Five Years

Catholic & Loving It! Blog - James Preece - 13.9.2010
http://www.lovingit.co.uk/

I'm sure this is old news to most of you but some of us really have been living a field for the last two weeks and are just catching up.

According to the Catholic Herald, Fr Dermont Fenlon the oldest of the Birmingham Three has been "forcibly exclaustrated" for at least five years because, well, there is no "because"...

Under the Code of Canon Law, a priest cannot be exclaustrated for more than three years unless there is a “grave reason”. A prolonged period must also have either the direct approval of either the Holy See or the local bishop, who, in the case of Fr Fenlon, is Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham.


Yet no Church figure has publicly given any reason why Fr Fenlon has been subject to such severe canonical penalties in the first place.

Read John Smeaton's excellent coverage of this including his list of questions for the Newman Cause spokesman Jack "the Church is not against condoms" Valero.

Message from Jakob Knab

Jakob Knab is a leading German historian on Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Resistance Movement

Dear friends of Father Fenlon,

Please send your complaints, petitions and supplications to:

          Father Felix Selden C.O., Delegate of the Apostolic See, Confederation of the Oratory
          p.felix@oratorium.at

At the same time send a copy to:

          P. Edoardo Aldo Cerrato C.O., Procurator Generalis
          cerrato@oratoriosanfilippo.org

And finally send a copy to Simon Caldwell (Catholic Herald)
          simon@catholicherald.co.uk

One of the fundamental rights of European citizens: Any citizen, acting individually or jointly with others, may at any time exercise his right of petition to the European Parliament under Article 194 of the EC Treaty.
Contact:

          European Parliament

          Committee on Petitions
          The Secretariat
          Rue Wiertz
          B-1047 Brussels

And please pray with me:

We fly to thy protection, O holy Mother of God.
Despise not our petitions in our necessities,
but deliver us always from all dangers
O glorious and blessed Virgin.

Letter of complaint from Dr Stefanie Maria Knab

Confoederatio Oratorii Sancti Philippi Nerii
P. Edoardo Aldo Cerrato C.O., Procurator Generalis
Via di Parione 33
I - 00186 R o m a
REGISTERED MAIL

Very Reverend Father!

I hereby place a complaint against Fr Felix Selden C.O., Delegate of the Apostolic See for the Confederation of the Oratory. See the enclosed copy (Catholic Herald).

The way Fr Dr. Dermot Fenlon C.O. (The Oratory Birmingham) has been treated by Fr Felix Selden C.O. is a disgraceful infringement of his basic human rights. The faithful are afraid that Fr Dermot Fenlon may not survive five years of exile from the Oratory, since he is an old, not particularly robust man.

In April Father Dermot came to see us at our home. Since I am a doctor, he was asking me for medical advice. Very Reverend Father, you know about the frail health of Fr Dermot Fenlon. Why doesn’t Fr Felix Selden care about Fr Dermot’s state of health? Why doesn’t he show any compassion? Our Lord cares about our basic needs: “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you
gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you took me into your home.”

The faithful are looking forward to the Papal Visit in Great Britain. But at the same time the faithful feel that they are being treated with contempt by a Church which refuses to recognise the real grief and damage caused by Fr Felix Selden C.O. (and by Fr Ignatius Harrison C.O.).

Very Reverend Father, I beg you in the name of our Lord, please bring Fr Dermot Fenlon C.O. home to his beloved Birmingham Oratory.

May God bless you and the Oratory!

Yours faithfully

Dr Stefanie Maria Knab

Support from the German International Newman Society

Press Release - from Dr. Roman Siebenrock (Internationale Deutsche Newman Gesellschaft)
14 September 2010


As president of the German International Newman Society, founded by Günter Biemer (Freiburg), and in the name of a lot of members of our Society, I must express my and our deep anxiety about the situation of Father Dermot. I met Father Dermot at a Newman-Conference at Milano last year and I was deeply impressed by his personality. He invited me and my son in April to come to the Oratory while we stay for the beatification of Cardinal Newman. And now this! I want to express our solidarity with Father Dermot and ask the responsible persons to change this very strange and dolorous situation of this respectable priest.

Sincerely


Roman Siebenrock

Priest is excluded from the Birmingham Oratory

The Catholic Herald – Simon Caldwell – 10.9.2010
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/ (not available online)

A priest at the church founded by Cardinal John Henry Newman has been effectively expelled from his community.

Fr Dermot Fenlon has been excluded from the Birmingham Oratory just weeks before Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Britain.

The Oratorian priest is the most senior of the so-called “Birmingham Three”, a group of two priests and a deacon sent on enforced retreat as part of ‘internal house-keeping’ by Church authorities in May from the community founded by Cardinal Newman in 1847.

While two of the three have accepted immediate postings abroad – and will miss Cardinal Newman’s beatification on September 19 – Fr Fenlon is understood to be refusing to agree to disciplinary moves against him.

Sources close to the Oratory have told The Catholic Herald that Fr Fenlon, 68, is now in the process of being “forcibly exclaustrated” for at least five years, when he will be 74, because he is objecting to the way he is being treated.

This means that although he technically remains a member of the Birmingham Oratory, he is exiled from his community in a move that will effectively retire him. He will not be allowed to return to the Oratory and must live elsewhere, although the Oratory remains responsible for his upkeep.

“He is going to be away for a very long time,” said one source. “But the Oratorians can’t just cut him off. They have to go on supporting him. The Oratory has a big problem. Where is he going to live? What is he going to do? The bishops will be reluctant to take him because of his situation”.

Under the Code of Canon Law, a priest cannot be exclaustrated for more than three years unless there is a “grave reason”. A prolonged period must also have either the direct approval of either the Holy See or the local bishop, who, in the case of Fr Fenlon, is Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham.

Yet no Church figure has publicly given any reason why Fr Fenlon has been subject to such severe canonical penalties in the first place.

They have insisted from the outset that the action against him and the other two – Fr Philip Cleevely and Br Lewis Berry – was medicinal rather than punitive and that it did not concern any sexual impropriety. Jack Valero, spokesman for the Birmingham Oratory, has said, however, that the suspensions were partly as a result of “doctrinal tensions” – though none of these existed among the Oratorians themselves. The decision to exclaustrate Fr Fenlon was taken by Fr Felix Selden, the Apostolic Visitor to the Order who carries the authority of the Holy See, who has made just three brief visits to Birmingham in the last year.

As public disquiet mounted over the treatment of the men, the Vatican is said to have requested a speedy resolution of the crisis ahead of the papal visit. Authorities then offered to treat the three leniently as long as they accept a period of exile, agree to statements distancing themselves from criticism of the way they have been treated and drop any appeals they have lodged against the visitation.

Fr Cleevely, former spokesman for the Cause for Canonisation of Cardinal Newman, has agreed to go to Canada and Rome to research the influence of Newman’s writings on the Second World War martyr St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), while Br Lewis has gone to South Africa to undertake pastoral work. Both have issued statements denouncing criticism of the visitation.

But Fr Fenlon has refused not to appeal against his suspension.

The move to censure him may shock worshipers in Birmingham who know Fr Fenlon for his piety and his loyalty to the teachings of the Church. He has been particularly committed to preaching the “theology of conscience” of Cardinal Newman, a subject which has also been a great inspiration to Pope Benedict and John Paul II.

Fr Fenlon becomes the second Oratorian to be exclaustrated in less than a year, the first being Fr Paul Chavasse, the Provost, who in December was ordered from the Oratory until later this month after he entered a “chaste but intense” relationship with a 20-year-old man who had been rejected as a candidate to the priesthood.

A campaign is underway to reinstate Fr Fenlon. It includes Irish journalist and author Ruth Dudley Edwards, who was at university with him, and Jakob Knab, a German historian who worked with the priest in establishing the influence of Newman’s theology of conscience on Sophie Scholl, a student beheaded in 1943 for urging her fellow Germans to rise up against “Nazi terror”.

Dr Dudley Edwards said that her friend, formerly a Cambridge University don, had given up a “glittering academic career” to serve God through ministering to parishioners in Birmingham while devoting himself intellectually to the study of Cardinal Newman.

She said: “Then – at 68 and in indifferent health – he was thrown out of his home of 20 years, exiled indefinitely, banned from the beatification ceremony that would have been the highpoint of his life and forbidden to defend himself, although his reputation was being trashed in the blogosphere by those who assume that such brutal treatment must imply some grave sin. This good and holy man has been treated cruelly and unjustly.”

The Birmingham Oratory has declined to comment on Fr Fenlon’s case but Mr Valero, writing in The Catholic Herald last month, said: “the matter was entirely to do with relations between members of the community… sometimes a period of separation is necessary to restore perspective and calm nerves.”

Birmingham Three - still as clear as mud

Catholic & Loving It! Blog - Lovingit Locums - 11.9.2010
http://www.lovingit.co.uk/

See John Smeaton's blog for the most recent developments.


An innocent man of 68 has been expelled from his home for a minimum of 5 years.

This is a cruel and unusual punishment but for what?

Both Br Lewis Berry and Fr Philip Cleevely asked for Fr Felix Selden and others to be left alone. Well, that's exactly what is not going to happen. Fr Felix Selden & co have failed at every step to provide any answers.

Attempts by Fr Felix Selden & co to retreat behind this being 'a private internal matter' are fundamentally undermined by it having been them, through their ubiquitous spokesman, who leaked this story to the Tablet in the first place.

Fr Felix Selden, Fr Ignatius Harrison, Fr Gareth Jones and Mr Valero we do not believe you at all.

Until the truth comes out we will continue to ask questions. And, be assured, the truth will come out.

Innocent Fr Fenlon has been sentenced to five years' exile from the Birmingham Oratory

John Smeaton's Blog - 10.9.2010
http://www.spuc-director.blogspot.com/


According to a report in this weekend's Catholic Herald, Fr Dermot Fenlon, one of the Birmingham Three, has been sentenced to five years' exile from the Birmingham Oratory. Here are some key quotes from the report:


•"[Fr Fenlon] has been effectively expelled from his community."


•"Sources close to the Oratory have told The Catholic Herald that Fr Fenlon, 68, is now in the process of being "forcibly exclaustrated" for at least five years, when he will be 74, because he is objecting to the way he is being treated."

•"Yet no figure has publicly given any reason why Fr Fenlon has been subject to such severe canonical penalties in the first place."

•"[A]uthorities then offered to treat the [Birmingham T]hree leniently as long as they accept a period of exile, agree to statements distancing themselves from criticism of the way they have been treated and drop any appeals they had lodged against [Fr Felix Selden's] visitation [of the Birmingham Oratory]."

•"The move to censure him may shock worshippers in Birmingham who know Fr Fenlon for his piety and his loyalty to the teachings of the Church."
 
In the light of this report, I therefore have a number of questions to put to Jack Valero, spokesman for the Birmingham Oratory, who has also been appointed by the Catholic bishops' conference of England and Wales as spokesman for the beatification of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman:
 
•Why has Fr Fenlon been exclaustrated if, as you wrote in The Catholic Herald of 27 August, he is a "priest in good standing"?


•Why did you say, first that Fr Fenlon and the other Two were "entirely guiltless of any wrongdoing whatsoever", and then later declare them guilty of "pride, anger, disobedience, disunity, nastiness, dissension, the breakdown of charity"?

•Why did you say in June that the Three "can come back soon and continue as normal" when the Three have now been sent away from the Oratory for periods ranging from at least one to up to five years?

•Were the sending of Br Lewis Berry to the South African Oratory and of Fr Philip Cleevely to doctoral studies abroad concessions offered by the "authorities ... as long as they accept a period of exile, agree to statements distancing themselves from criticism of the way they have been treated and drop any appeals they had lodged against [Fr Felix Selden's] visitation [of the Birmingham Oratory]"?

•Why did you claim in The Catholic Herald of 27 August that "the disagreements which concerned the Visitor were not about Church teaching", whereas you are quoted in this weekend's Catholic Herald as saying that the removal of the Three from the Oratory was partly as a result of "doctrinal tensions"?

•Do you accept the Three's stance on government-led sex and relationships education was different from your employer's, the Catholic bishops' conference of England and Wales?

•Why have the posts on the Oratory website (12 March, 20 March) which so powerfully challenged episcopal policies on abortion and sex education stopped since the removal of the Three?

Statement from Fr Philip Cleevely, Birmingham Oratory

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=16675
Independent Catholic News - 6.9.2010

By agreement with the Apostolic Visitor and the Birmingham Oratory I shall be spending the coming year at the Toronto Oratory and preparing to begin doctoral studies in philosophy. I am very grateful to the Oratorian community in Toronto for receiving me, and greatly look forward to sharing fully in their life and work. I am also very thankful to the Apostolic Visitor and to my own community in Birmingham for the opportunity I have been offered to pursue further studies. I pray that in due course this will bear fruit both for the Birmingham Oratory and for the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

As a priest of the Birmingham Oratory in good standing I remain committed to the life and mission of the community founded and shaped by the soon to be Blessed John Henry Newman. So that the life and mission of the Birmingham Oratory may be protected and upheld, I hope and pray that adverse public speculation concerning the Apostolic Visitation, and above all personal attacks upon the Visitor himself and those who are assisting him, will now cease.

Fr Philip Cleevely, Cong Orat

Jack Valero uses Blair-style tactics on Birmingham Three crisis

John Smeaton - 4.9.2010
http://www.spuc-director.blogspot.com/

I published a post earlier this week about The Journey, Tony Blair's memoirs, in which Blair admitted to:


"'bending and distorting' the truth as prime minister, but says a degree of manipulation and distortion are necessary to govern, and voters accept that. 'Politicians are obliged from time to time to conceal the full truth, to bend it and even distort it, where the interests of the bigger strategic goal demand it be done. Without operating with some subtlety at this level, the job would be well-nigh impossible.'"

Reading last week's Catholic Herald this morning I was struck by the mastery shown by Jack Valero (pictured), the spokesman for the Birmingham Oratory, of these Blair-style tactics in his article "The Birmingham Three protests harm the Church". Visitors will know that I have blogged a number of times about the Birmingham Oratory crisis caused by the sudden expulsion of three Oratorians from the Birmingham Oratory on the Catholic feast day of Our Lady of Fatima (May 13) this year.

Jack Valero says that the Birmingham Three campaign:

"has morphed into an attempt to drive a wedge between the so-called 'liberal' hierarchy and the 'orthodox' Oratorians by those who criticise the bishops for being too 'liberal'. As an orthodox Catholic I deplore this myth ... "

As a Catholic loyal to the magisterium of the Catholic church I deplore Jack Valero's shameful misrepresentation.

Catholic families in England and Wales are living under the yoke of a liberal hierarchy which pursues policies which are seriously harmful to the common good of Catholic families and non-Catholic families alike, for example:

• helping the government to promote abortion amongst schoolchildren under the age of consent, without parental knowledge or consent,
• the openness of Bishop Malcolm McMahon, the current Catholic Education Service chairman, to headteachers being in same-sex unions*
• Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster making clear his support for the prevailing government ideology on sex and relationships education, and defending the Catholic Education Service's appointment of Greg Pope, a former Labour MP with a lengthy anti-life/anti-family record
• and Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster failing to rule out the Catholic church sanctioning gay unions in the future

It's well-known that the three Oratorians suddenly expelled from the Oratory last May publicly opposed all such policies. It's also well-known, as I've mentioned before, that all the Birmingham Oratorians stood wholeheartedly behind this stand on pro-life issues. At the same time, the pro-life posts on the Birmingham Oratory website which so powerfully challenged episcopal policies on abortion and sex education have stopped since the sudden expulsion of the Birmingham Three.

There's a lot more to say about Jack Valero's article but there's no hurry. After all the Birmingham Three won't be coming back to the Birmingham Oratory "soon" as Jack Valero said on BBC radio West Midlands two months ago. No, they "are travelling the world, working as priests in good standing ... praying in monasteries, studying, writing, taking holidays, visiting friends and deepening their formation ... " as Jack now tells us in his Blair-style piece in the Catholic Herald.

* The late Pope John Paul II, the great pro-life champion, taught in paragraph 97 of his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae that it is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not offer adolescents and young adults an authentic education in sexuality, and in love, and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection.

The Birmingham Three - Pause for thought.

Catholic & Loving it! Blog - Lovingit Locums - 31.8.2010
http://www.lovingit.co.uk/

Br Lewis Berry’s statement of 30 August 2010 gives some pause for thought on the issue of the Birmingham Three.


In his article in the print edition of the Catholic Herald of 27 August 2010, Jack Valero stated it was time for the likes of this blog and others to “pack up shop” on the issue of the Birmingham Oratory. We would provide the link to the article but can't because the article is not available online. This is the best we can do just now.

It has already been said in comments here and elsewhere (and, before anyone suggests it, no we did not post the particular comment in the link), that it is rumoured that Br Lewis was to be ordained to the priesthood in October of this year. How that is reconciled with the reason given for his going to South Africa for at least a year as being that his formation “will best be met in an Oratorian community that will afford him greater opportunities for a varied programme of pastoral work, as the Church requires of a deacon” remains to be seen.

On the one hand ordination this year but on the other no reference to ordination any time soon?

When asked publicly to ‘pack up shop’ by a spokesman appointed by the Bishops Conference what is the correct response? Does one:

Shut up on the basis that an official spokesman has told one to?

Or

Continue asking questions?

On balance we think the correct response is to continue asking questions. That answer then does raise the question of whether steps will be taken to "shut the shop". As with the truth of the Birmingham Oratory situation, only time will tell the answer to that question.

Statement aside, if Brother Lewis is so firmly opposed to the behaviour of "intemperate bloggers and journalists" (as referred to by Jack in the same Catholic Herald article) then why didn't he just say so in the first place? Also, if The Three are entirely happy with the way things are going, why a statement from only one? The younger one... the one most likely to cave in to pressure?

Oratorian calls for protests over his removal to end

Catholic Herald – Tom Brookes-Pollock – 3.9.2010

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2010/09/03/oratorian-calls-for-protests-over-his-removal-to-end/