Canon Andrew White on the situation in Iraq

Dear Friends,

 

Things are so bad now in Iraq, the worst they have ever been. The Islamic terrorists have taken control of the whole of Mosul which is Nineveh the main Christian stronghold. The army have even fled. We urgently need help and support.

Please, please help us in this crisis.

Iraq is now in its worst crisis since the 2003 war. ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Group), a group that does not even see Al Qaida as extreme enough, has moved into Mosul, which is Nineveh. It has totally taken control, destroyed all government departments. Allowed all prisoners out of the prisons. Killed countless numbers of people. There are bodies over the streets. The army and police have fled, so many of the military resources have been captured. Tankers, armed vehicles and even helicopters are now in the hands of ISIS.

Mosul residents fleeing the ISIS takeover.  

The area is the heartland of the Christian community. Most of our people come from Nineveh and still see that as their home. It is there that they return to regularly. Many Christian's fled from back to Nineveh from Baghdad, as things got so bad there. Now the Christian centre of Iraq has been totally ransacked. The tanks are moving into the Christian villages destroying them and causing total carnage. The ISIS militants are now moving towards Kirkuk, major areas to the Oil fields that provide the lifeblood of Iraq. We are faced with total war that all the Iraqi military have now retreated from.

People have fled in their hundreds of thousands to Kurdistan still in Iraq for safety. The Kurds have even closed the border, preventing entry of the masses. The crisis is so huge it is almost impossible to consider what is really happening.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

The summer is by far our worst time of the year for support. Both our Foundation in the UK and US have seriously had to reduce our funding. We are in a desperate crisis. So many of our people had returned their homes in Nineveh for the summer now they are stuck in this total carnage unable to even escape. We desperately need help so that we can help the Christians of this broken land just get through this new crisis. Please can you help us, we are desperate.

The terrible fact is that ISIS are in the control now of Fallujah in the South and Mosul in the North they could now move down towards Baghdad between the two and cause a total crisis there. So to be honest I don't know what to do, do I stay or go back? I have a huge amount of commitments here. If I go back, I cannot change the situation but I want to be with my people. Here we are with this huge crisis and need and we do not even have the resources to help those most in need. So the crisis is huge and we need help, will you please help us?

With much love and grace,

 

"The milk of grace, doctrine, and guidance"

“When a calf is hungry he goes to the cow, his mother, for milk. However, the cow does not give it to him immediately; it almost seems as if she keeps it for herself. And so what does the calf do? He nudges the cow's udder with his nose, and in this way the milk comes. It is a beautiful image. And this, says the saint, is what you must do with your pastors: always knock at their door, at their heart, so that they give you the milk of doctrine, the milk of grace and the milk of guidance. I ask you, please, to trouble your pastors, to disturb them, all of us, so that we can give you the milk of grace, doctrine and guidance. Bother us! Think of that beautiful image of the calf who nudges his mother to feed him."--Pope Francis

Bishops fix date for ending use of musical settings according to the old translation of the Missal

The Bishops of England and Wales have fixed the end date of the transitional period for implementing music in the new translation of the Roman Missal which was introduced in 2011. As from Pentecost Sunday, 8 June 2014 only settings of the Ordinary of the Mass using the new translation are permitted to be sung at Mass. Settings using the previous translation or paraphrased texts may no longer be used in our parishes, schools and communities.

Archbishop McMahon's Installation Sermon - 1 May

I chose to be installed as Archbishop of Liverpool on the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker because Joseph teaches us that we are part of God’s creative plan for the world, and that we are all called to work together to fulfil that plan.
At the beginning of his pontificate, Saint John XXIII said:
The secret of everything is to let yourself be carried by the Lord and to carry the Lord.
That is a secret which Saint Joseph also understood. He was carried by the Lord in his acceptance of God’s plan for him, and he literally carried the Lord as the guardian, teacher and guide of Jesus. There are three aspects to Joseph’s life which help us to live our Catholic faith, to be carried by the Lord and carry the Lord, in the months and years ahead in this great Archdiocese which is placed under his patronage.
First of all, Joseph teaches us to dream. According to Saint Matthew’s Gospel, when he found that Mary, his betrothed, was pregnant, he made up his mind to do the right thing by her; although espoused to her, he thought it would save her reputation if he were to break this promise quietly. However, in a dream, the Angel told him not to be afraid to take Mary home as his wife, because she was pregnant with the One to be called Jesus, the Saviour who would save his people from their sins.
In doing this, the Angel encouraged Joseph to abandon the conventions of first century Palestine and marry Mary – which he did. It is thanks to his kindness, his obedience to the will of God, his being a ‘man of honour’ that, from the moment of his conception, Jesus could be loved, cared for and kept safe.
This Jesus is my Saviour, our Saviour – my Lord, our Lord; how easily can we forget that? Our principal task as Christians is to make that message known, to make Jesus present in the world of today. To do this, we must be ready, like Joseph, to break with convention, and do things differently. Joseph teaches us that everything we say and do in our personal and family lives, our parishes and schools, our convents and chaplaincies, must have as its purpose and its end the proclamation of Jesus as Lord, for he is the source and the summit of our lives.
Taking risks to proclaim the good news of salvation is the task before us as much here in the Archdiocese of Liverpool as elsewhere. Breaking with structures and conventions that give us comfort, that feed our complacency and dull our sensitivity to the demands of being a Christian, is what it means to be a missionary disciple.
This afternoon, I want all of us in the Archdiocese of Liverpool to make our own the words of Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium:
In virtue of their baptism, all the members of the People of God have become missionary disciples. All the baptized, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization, and it would be insufficient to envisage a plan of evangelization to be carried out by professionals while the rest of the faithful would simply be passive recipients. The new evangelization calls for personal involvement on the part of each of the baptized.
The task of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ is for all of us. We are all called to carry the Lord and be carried by the Lord. The Archdiocese, in Leaving Safe Harbours, has already begun the ‘resolute process of discernment, purification and reform’ which Pope Francis demands of each Diocese, but this cannot be left to others. Guided by the Holy Spirit, we must work together, as Bishop, priests and people, to continue to hand on the Deposit of Faith, to build up the Body of Christ, to worship God in spirit and truth, and to serve our brothers and sisters.
So let us dream together about how we can better proclaim Jesus as Lord in our own lives, in our parishes, and in our Diocese. And we are called to dream this dream joyfully, filled with the hope which the Risen Lord gives his Church, and never giving in to the temptation to misery or despair, even when it seems we are swimming against the tide. As Pope Francis reminds us:
One of the more serious temptations which stifles boldness and zeal is a defeatism which turns us into querulous and disillusioned pessimists, ‘sourpusses’. [Quite how they translated that into Latin is anyone’s guess!] Nobody can go off to battle unless he is fully convinced of victory beforehand. If we start without confidence, we have already lost half the battle and we bury our talents. While painfully aware of our own frailties, we have to march on without giving in, keeping in mind what the Lord said to Saint Paul: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’
So, our dreams invite us to share more deeply in the life of God himself.
Second, Joseph was a worker, a carpenter; the reason why Pius XII established the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker on 1st May, ‘Labour Day’ in many countries, was to demonstrate that God blesses and sanctifies the ordinary.
Each and every person on this earth is born with an unalienable dignity which is rooted in our being made in God’s own image and likeness, as the Book of Genesis reminds us. But that dignity is a gift which has been given to us by God, and it is a gift to be realized, and the place where we realize it is work. As Saint John Paul II said in his Encyclical Letter Laborem exercens, ‘work is a fundamental dimension of our existence on earth’:
Work is a good thing for us – a good thing for our humanity – because through work man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfilment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes ‘more a human being’.
Just as the people of Israel were freed from slavery and made a nation by their experience in Egypt, as a result of his second and third dreams Joseph, by his response and actions in protecting Jesus and Mary, shows that we too will be made free and become a nation, the new People of God. That is a special dignity given at our creation, lost by our sins and restored by Jesus.
We are temples of the Holy Spirit, brothers and sisters of Jesus, children of the Most High – it is a dignity that is given to us by God. But it is by work that we discover it and deepen our awareness of it.
As we care for the world around us, develop earth’s resources for the good of mankind, feed our families and ourselves, we truly realize our identity as being loving, and loveable, children of God. In a changing society we must not lose this insight. Finding fulfilment for our God-given gifts of creativity and service, not giving in to pastimes and leisure activities, chasing the false gods of materialism and self-satisfaction, but being mindful of the obligations of social justice, is a challenge that faces the whole of society and not just the Church.
Third, Joseph was a family man. We all belong to different families, beginning with our parents, and as we go through life we gain, and lose, relatives and friends. We can see that in today’s Mass. You are all here today because you are part of my family – and I am part of yours: my brothers and their families, my cousins and personal friends; my brethren from the Dominican order; my brother Bishops; representatives from the Diocese of Nottingham, where I have been blessed to have been Bishop for the last thirteen years; and finally my new family – the Bishops, priests, deacons, religious and laypeople who make up the Archdiocese of Liverpool, together with our friends from other Churches and faith traditions, civic society, and all people of goodwill.
God has endowed the people of Liverpool, Lancashire and the Isle of Man with many great gifts, not least constancy in our Catholic faith, a living heritage which should inspire us and challenge us. The Martyrs of Lancashire testify to their love of Jesus name’ and their fidelity to the truth. Father Nugent, with his plea to ‘save the child’, and his extraordinary efforts to alleviate poverty, promote the welfare of children and establish prison chaplaincy, spoke to us of the need to serve our brothers and sisters, in particular the poor and the vulnerable. That mission has carried on over the years – people have been welcomed to this area from all over the world, and left Liverpool to travel and settle throughout the world.
That search for truth continues in the Hillsborough inquest, as at long last a true picture of the causes of this terrible tragedy become clear and responsibility is taken for it. It is our hope and expectation that the inquest will uncover and explain the truth of what happened so that justice will be done for the 96 and for their families, whose dignity over these last 25 years has been an example to us all.
I am honoured and humbled to be standing here in this beautiful, iconic Cathedral dedicated to Christ our King as your new Bishop, and I hope that I will repay the trust which Pope Francis has placed in me by appointing me as your Bishop, and which now you are asked to place in me as we begin to work together to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. According to John XXIII:
The sublime work, holy and divine, which the [...] Bishops must do each in his own diocese, is to preach the Gospel and guide men [and women] to their eternal salvation, and all must take care not to let ant other earthly business prevent or impede or disturb this primary task.
My prayer today is that all of us, each and every one of us, will make the preaching of the Gospel our primary task. Just as the vocation to be holy, to be saints, is not for the chosen few but for the multitude for whom Christ shed his Blood, so too is the proclamation of Christ in the world in which we live. We proclaim it in our words, in the way in which we speak to and about one another; in our actions, in the way in which we treat other people and serve them; and in our worship, when we gather in the awesome presence of God to worship him in spirit and truth.
So today’s Feast, and this Mass, invite us to place our trust more firmly in Jesus our Saviour; we are asked to dream his dreams, to do his work and to be his family.
To be a Christian is a real challenge in the world in which we live, but it is a joyful, hope-filled and life-giving challenge for which we are prepared by Christ, who gives us the grace of the sacraments to give our lives in his service to the greater glory of God. Together let us accept that challenge, and promise Christ, whoever we are, that we will be carried by him, and carry him, in every moment and aspect of our lives. Amen.

Maniples, Amices and Cassocks (from New Liturgical Movement post)

Fr. Richard Cipolla has done us all a great service by translating a fantastic article by Alessando Gnocchi: "Traces of the Hegelian Guillotine in the Liturgical Reform." Gnocchi is speaking primarily about the sudden disappearance of the maniple, the amice, and the cassock after the Council, and what this says about our attitude towards the world, the Church's (and the clergy's) place in the world, and the veneration of tradition. Because each vestment carries, by the force of long-developed tradition, an inherent theological meaning and is a true component of the spiritual profile of the Christian and of the priest as alter Christus, it follows that changing or discarding such vestments amounts to a redefinition of one's identity and mission. Vesture is a form of anthropology: it is not mere clothing but, in some sense, constitutes the wearer as a certain 'what' and a certain 'who'.

On the maniple:

For obscure reasons, it seems as if someone wanted to erase the memory of this vestment that originated from the mappula, the linen handkerchief that the Roman nobility wore on their left arm to wipe away tears and sweat. It was used also to give the signal to begin the combat games in the Circus.  Merear, Domine, portare manipulum fletus et doloris; ut cum exsultatione recipiam mercedem laboris, says the priest as he puts it on while vesting.  “O Lord, may I be worthy to wear the maniple of tears and suffering, so that I may receive with joy the reward of my labors.”  And once again the battle begins against the world and its prince, in which mystically the priest sweats, cries, bleeds, and does battle in so far as he is on the Cross as the alter Christus. But there needs to be that painful and manly interpenetration in the sacrifice, of which the maniple is the sign and instrument.  Meanwhile, instead, if the memory of it has been lost willingly so that one can dedicate oneself to the festal banquet of a salvation lacking any sweat and toil, then there is no place for the signs of the battle to which one must consign one’s own body.

On the amice:

Impone, Domine, capiti meo galeam salutis, ad expugnandos diabolicos incursus.  Place on my head, O Lord, the helmet of salvation so that I may conquer the assaults of the devil”. So prays the priest when, preparing for the celebration of Mass, he puts on the amice, another vestment that recalls the battle and the sacrifice, fallen into disuse in the reformed Mass.  Today, in the post-Conciliar Church, one speaks to speak, one dialogues to have a dialogue, to have an amiable conversation with the world, all made drunk by the illusory and seductive power of chattering.  There is no need any longer for a vestment like the amice that, in addition to symbolizing the helmet of the warrior, symbolizes also the castigatio vocis, or “discipline of the voice”, and banishes from the act of religion every word that is not part of ritual and, therefore, inexorably, too many.   

On the cassock:

The capacity for ritual has been lost, and, therefore, the aptitude for command has been lost, and for this reason priests have abandoned the practice of wearing the cassock as a rule.

And more generally, on the "militancy" of the Christian:

The idea of giving orders and of battle, of arms and the armature of the spirit, have been dismissed by the Christians who love to be rocked in the cradle of acedia, the most perverse of the capital sins. ... Having succumbed to the sickness of acedia, the Church has ended up seeing herself and presenting herself as a problem instead of a solution to the deepest ill of man.  When she speaks of the world she lets show forth her awareness of her incapacity to point to a way of salvation, as if she is excusing herself for having done so for so many centuries.  She has doubts about fundamental and ascetical principles themselves, and, at the very time she proclaims that she is opening up to the world, she declares herself to be incapable of knowing it, defining it, and, therefore, incapable of educating and converting it.  At the most, she makes herself available to interpret it.
        But it is not in becoming like the world or in being wedded to the language of the world that one wins over the world. It is not in the exaltation of the gesture and the word of which ritual is the “castigatio” (correction) that the world is conquered.  For the world has above all an abhorrence of itself, and it is not by secularizing himself that the Christian conquers the world.

(H/t to Fr. Z)

I will say that, although one can sympathize with Gnocchi's pessimism, there are heartening signs of a rediscovery of all of these vestments on the part of younger clergy, at least in certain parts of the Catholic world. I know (and many NLM readers know) quite a few priests who wear the cassock regularly and who don the amice even for the Ordinary Form. In fact, there is a steadily growing number who tie on the maniple, too. But there can be no question that this practice of the hermeneutic of continuity is found predominantly, almost exclusively, in the traditionalist milieu. It is truly a moment of opportunity for all the clergy in the West, even in the context of the Ordinary Form, to rediscover their soldierly part in the apocalyptic battle by wearing the symbolic vestments that remind them of who and what they are.

Anyway, just do yourself a favor and read Gnocchi's essay...

Bishop Mark Davies - Pastoral Letter for the Canonisation of S John XXIII and S John Paul II

Today in Rome two, great Saints will be recognised by the whole Church.  Two saints whose lives belong, not to a distant era, but to our own times: Saint John XXIII who died little more than half a century ago, and Saint John Paul II who died just nine years ago on the eve of this Divine Mercy Sunday.  I am aware that much will be said this weekend of the historic events of which they were part.  However, I would like us to reflect on how both of these men - from different times and places - responded wholeheartedly to their calling.  I want us to glimpse in what their greatness really consisted and how we can hope to imitate the faithfulness of these two new Saints.  

I have no doubt history will give to Saint John Paul II the title ‘John Paul the Great’ in recognition of his part in the momentous events which shaped both the world and the mission of the Church at the end of the last century and beginning of this Third Christian Millennium.  I am sure many miracles will continue to flow from his prayer for us.  However, one of his closest collaborators said the greatest miracle of Pope John Paul’s life was the way he lived each day: how he worked and used his time, his constant good humour, even during times of stress and suffering.  (Interview with Dr Joaquin Navarro Valls, 4th April 2014.)

“We see the saints praised for their great works,” a spiritual writer observed (Dom Eugene Boylan) but the only greatness which mattered to them was to live everyday in union with Christ “by faith, by love, by humility, and by a complete abandonment to His will”.  It is in such everyday faithfulness that the “miracle” of true holiness is always to be found.  The Acts of the Apostles reminds us that it was by such daily faithfulness that the first Christians made so great an impression on a hostile world (Acts 2: 42-47).

After Pope John XXIII’s death, his Secretary recorded not a list of public achievements, but rather Pope John’s

“radical humility … superhuman trust sustained by intense prayer … unquenchable and burning faith and I came to the conclusion” he wrote, “that only with Christians, priests made in this mould could the Second Vatican Council carry out its work, avoid the pitfalls, recognise the voice of the Spirit and light new Pentecostal fires”.  (Cardinal Loris Capovilla, ‘Reflections on the Second Vatican Council’.)

The words of the Apostle Peter could be repeated of both our new Saints: their faith was indeed “tested and proved like gold – only it is more precious than gold …” (I Peter 1: 7).  It was surely in the faithful living of their vocation that we can glimpse their true greatness.

Our Lord’s words in the Gospel have echoed down the centuries, and been heard anew in many hearts:

“As the Father sent me, so am I sending you” (John 20: 21).

Angelo Roncalli, who was to become Pope John, could never remember a time when he did not want to give his life in the Priesthood.  Karol Wotyla, who became Pope John Paul, had other plans; he hoped for marriage, becoming an academic and a teacher.  Gradually, however, he recognised amidst the terrors of the Nazi occupation of Poland that God was calling him to the Priesthood.  Today we must give thanks that these two men responded wholeheartedly to their vocation.

This Sunday, I ask you to pray for the priests of the future, the priests on whom the future of our Diocese depends.  I hope that in our time many young men will - like Saint John and Saint John Paul - be ready to respond wholeheartedly to this wonderful calling.  This Easter I have sent prayer cards to all the parishes with some words of Pope Francis and my own prayer for this intention.  I announced at the Chrism Mass last week the plan to establish at Shrewsbury Cathedral a ‘house for discernment’ for men considering a vocation to the priesthood.  This house will open its doors in September 2015 creating a community at the heart of our Diocese where the vocation to the Priesthood can be discerned in a year-long programme.

It is, I have been reminded, a brave plan in present conditions.  However, it is a venture I entrust to the prayer of Our Lady, Help of Christians and of St John Vianney.  Today I also entrust all our hopes for the new evangelisation of our country, for a new generation of priests and for a renewed faithfulness in all our vocations to the prayer of two Popes many of us knew and loved: Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II, pray for us!  Amen.

Wishing you the great joy of Easter,

+ Mark

Bishop of Shrewsbury        

Bishop Mark Davies - Homily for Easter Morning

Homily for Easter Morning 20th April 2014

The first disciples made their way to the tomb “very early on the first day of the week.” It was “still dark,” St. John observes (Jn. 20:1). Yet, the darkness in which they walked was not merely the last shades of night; it was surely the shadows of their own despair. Before the emptiness of Christ’s tomb, as the sun rose on that first Easter morning, those women and men came to see and believe. “Till this moment,” St. John notes, “they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead” (John 20: 10).
The English people came similarly to see and believe some fourteen centuries ago in a way which changed the way we, today, see the whole of human life. The historian Sir Arthur Bryant observed that, “The most important of all Britain’s invaders were those who came armed only with a Cross and the faith and courage that Cross gave” “they converted a savage tribal people and their rulers to Christ’s gentle creed of love and sacrifice, and to the revolutionary belief, inherent in Christianity, that every individual was a … soul of equal value in the eyes of God” (A History of Britain & the British People 1984). This was, indeed, a change from darkness to dawn. In the light of the Easter faith, the English people came to recognise the eternal value and dignity of every human person. How easily we have taken for granted the Christian civilization which was established in the earliest years of our nation. The Second Vatican Council reminded us “once God is forgotten” we are left in darkness (Gaudium et Spes n. 36) and without this faith respect for the inherent sanctity of human life and the God-given dignity of every person cannot long survive.
Today in our country many consciences struggle amid the shadows as they try to distinguish between good and evil in everything which concerns the value of human life itself. In a matter of weeks, a Bill will be brought before Parliament aimed at legalising assisted suicide. This Bill will seek to change long-established laws which uphold the sanctity of human life and protecting some of the weakest in society. It is hard to understand that, at a time when there has been so much public concern about the care of the most vulnerable in our hospitals and care homes, we would be contemplate weakening, rather than strengthening the legal protection offered to some of the weakest and most vulnerable. How much we need what Blessed John Paul II described as that “ever new light” shed by Christ on the true way of love and mercy “which our common humanity calls for” (Evangelium Vitae n.67)
In the run-up to Easter this year, the Prime Minister and other political leaders have each acknowledged publicly the difference Christianity makes to our country. At a time when the Christian contribution to our past – and, indeed, our present – is often air-brushed from memory, this is surely a welcome recognition. It is also a brave acknowledgement as an increasingly, intolerant secularism seeks to impose its grim orthodoxy on society. And yet, the difference Christianity makes must not simply be confused with the effectiveness of community projects and the generous spirit of service which Christian faith certainly inspires. Pope Francis insists the Church can never be regarded as a sort of NGO, a merely humanitarian agency. “If we do not confess Jesus Christ” the Holy Father says, we would no longer be the Church; everything we built would be like sandcastles if it were not based on our faith in Christ (Pro Ecclesia Mass 14th March 2013). So many good works flourish in our society today because they are rooted, built on Christian faith.
On Easter morning, we gather to renew the promises of our Baptism. As Christians, we are not first invited simply to do things but rather to believe something, in fact, to believe Someone! This is the faith, which in St. Paul’s words, has “brought us back to true life” (Col.3:1). Pope Francis recently wrote “I never tire of repeating the words of Pope Benedict XVI: “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a Person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (Evangelli Gaudium n.7). Christianity is that meeting, that encounter with Christ; the same meeting with His Cross and Resurrection to which the English people came at the beginning of their history. It is to this encounter that you and I are called anew today, as the light of our Baptismal candles are re-kindled and we stand together to profess the faith we share with all the Church.
+ Mark
Bishop of Shrewsbury