Anglicanorum Coetibus Society Blog

On April 21, 2018, Queen Elizabeth II turned 92. Eleven years older than Queen Victoria at the latter’s death, Her Majesty has exceeded both Victoria’s (reigned 1837 to 1901) and George III’s (1760 to 1820) tenures on the throne, having ascended at the death of her father in 1952. When she came to the throne, Churchill was Prime Minister, Truman president, and Stalin still master of Moscow – while Britain yet laboured under wartime rationing. The British and French Empires yet existed, and the new Queen reigned not only over Great Britain and its many colonies, but Canada, Australia, New Zealand (as she still does, and Pakistan, South Africa, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Elvis was not yet on the scene, there were no hippies, and the American South was still legally segregated. Pius XII was Pope, the Latin Mass reigned unchallenged (even the rites of Holy Week were unaltered), and Anglo-Catholicism appeared to be still on the road to triumph. C.S. Lewis, T.S. Eliot, Dorothy Sayers, and Dom Gregory Dix were all alive and working (although the learned Benedictine would die a few months after the accession). In so many ways, Her Majesty is a living link with all that went before – the last grownup, as it were, and the one constant in an age of flux. Alas, desegregation and the advances in medicine are among the few things one can say are truly better to-day. No one much under 65 years old can remember her father. Continue reading →

This is a marvelous article by Patricia Snow in First Things about her journey from a nominal Episcopalian upbringing, through a loss of faith and experiencing the consequences of being trapped in sin, to finding help in various charismatic ministries, and finally to the deeper conversion that led her to the Catholic Church.

It’s an amazing story and one that resonates so much with my personal journey.

In it she talks about the Pope’s image of the Church as a field hospital, and how she encountered field hospitals in Christian settings outside the Catholic Church.  She stresses the Church can’t reduce itself to being only a field hospital, as necessary as they are to meet the needs of those injured in the battle.

As an aside, we have people more at risk these days from equivalents of obesity, diabetes, chronic debilitating spiritual diseases where the field hospital metaphor may not work.   Continue reading →

While I still very much desire to see the revived shrine of St. David in the Welsh Cathedral that bears his name, as well as the Queen’s stall as a canon of the Cathedral (such Royal canonries were once common in Europe – the Holy Roman Emperor had and the French Heads of State and the Kings of Spain still have them; Felipe VI just asserted his right to one of them last year), I do hope to avoid meeting the new Bishopess. At least she seems pleased with herself! No doubt the new Bishopess of London – and Deanette of the Chapels Royal, when Bishops Chartres retires from that position – does as well. It is interesting, however, that Chartres shall be staying on as Dean “for the time-being.” It will be interesting to see is Her Ladyship of London does indeed replace him, or if the Deanery is separated definitively from the Diocese – for the first time since 1748. The Queen has accepted female chaplains since 1996, which has been seen as Her Majesty’s endorsement of the ordination of women. It remains to be seen if Chartres’ retention of his post reflects theological views – or a mere prference for his company; he is known to be popular among the Royal Family. We are a long way from the time of the sainted Graham Leonard.

On Saturday, as I cleaned house, I had had my eyes and ears half-tuned to a conference on Pope Francis’ papacy going on at Villanova University.  I listened to part of a talk by Massimo Faggioli, who is on the theology faculty there, and I’ve been watching some of the tweets by Faggioli and others.

Such as this one:

Faggioli was tweeting during Fr. Antonio Spadaro’s talk, so those words about opposition and hatred are Fr. Spadaro’s. Continue reading →

Sir Adrian Fortescue was well favored by King Henry VIII whom he faithfully served under arms. He was additionally honoured by his own cousin, Anne Boleyn, he was present when she was crowned as Queen in 1533. But Adrian held close and never lost sight of the Honour of God. 

In 1539 he was attainted of High Treason without trial, by an Act of Parliament. Sir Adrian Fortescue was beheaded on Tower Hill, London on Wednesday 9 July 1539.

The Order of St. John of Jerusalem has considered Sir Adrian as a martyr and has promoted devotion to him at least since the early seventeenth century as a member of the Order. Pope Leo XIII declared him Blessed on 13 May 1895. His Book of Hours with his Maxims is extant  and was recently presented to the Grand Priory of the order of St. John of England (aka, The Order of Malta) by his descendants.

Maxims of Blessed Adrian Fortescue

On this day in 1534, Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England, refused to take the oath to the English succession. One year later Henry VIII indicted him for treason and had him beheaded.

 A prayer of Saint Thomas More while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, awaiting justice under King Henry VIII.

Give me the grace, Good Lord.

To set the world at naught. To set the mind firmly on You and not to hang upon the words of men’s mouths.

To be content to be solitary. Not to long for worldly pleasures. Little by little utterly to cast off the world and rid my mind of all its business.

Not to long to hear of earthly things, but that the hearing of worldly fancies may be displeasing to me.

Gladly to be thinking of God, piteously to call for His help. To lean into the comfort of God. Busily to labor to love Him.

To know my own vileness and wretchedness. To humble myself under the mighty hand of God.

To bewail my sins and, for the purging of them, patiently to suffer adversity.

Gladly to bear my purgatory here. To be joyful in tribulations. To walk the narrow way that leads to life.

To have the last thing in remembrance. To have ever before my eyes my death that is ever at hand.

To make death no stranger to me. To foresee and consider the everlasting fire of Hell.

To pray for pardon before the judge comes.

To have continually in mind the passion that Christ suffered for me. For His benefits unceasingly to give Him thanks.

To buy the time again that I have lost. To abstain from vain conversations. To shun foolish mirth and gladness. To cut off unnecessary recreations.

Of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life and all, to set the loss at naught, for the winning of Christ.

To think my worst enemies my best friends, for the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favor as they did him with their malice and hatred.

These minds are more to be desired of every man than all the treasures of all the princes and kings, Christian and heathen, were it gathered and laid together all in one heap. Amen.