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".
Showing posts with label The Catholic Herald. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Catholic Herald. Show all posts
Monday, 20 September 2010
Sunday, 12 September 2010
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.”
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.”
Friday, 10 September 2010
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?
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?
Sunday, 5 September 2010
Jack Valero uses Blair-style tactics on Birmingham Three crisis
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
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.
Friday, 3 September 2010
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?
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/
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2010/09/03/oratorian-calls-for-protests-over-his-removal-to-end/
Friday, 27 August 2010
The Birmingham Three protests harm the Church
The Catholic Herald - Jack Valero - 27.8.2010
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/
The Campaign to 'free' three Oratorians is based on bizarre conspiracy theories, says Jack Valero.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/
The Campaign to 'free' three Oratorians is based on bizarre conspiracy theories, says Jack Valero.
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