Benedict XVI has authorised ‘severe cautionary and disciplinary measures’ against Father Tomislav Vlasic, the former ‘spiritual director’ to six children who said Our Lady was appearing to them at Medjugorje in Bosnia.
The Franciscan priest has been suspended after he refused to cooperate into claims of scandalous sexual immorality ‘aggravated by mystical motivations’.
He has also been accused of ‘the diffusion of dubious doctrine, manipulation of consciences, suspected mysticism and disobedience towards legitimately issued orders’, and is suspected of heresy and schism.

Read more: Pope finally launches crackdown on world’s largest illicit Catholic shrine and suspends ‘dubious’ priest

A well-connected Rome source reports that Forward in Faith, the umbrella group for conservative Anglo-Catholics in the C of E, is talking to the Vatican about corporate union. Here’s the odd thing about the rumour: it claims that Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna is meeting with Bishop John Broadhurst of Fulham at the suggestion of the Holy Father.

The model for the move to Rome could be the proposed reception of the Traditional Anglican Communion into the Catholic Church. But Broadhurst has very firmly denied that Forward in Faith is throwing in its lot with the TAC, a rebel Anglican group that has already submitted to the Magisterium. [I assume that should read "has already made a submission"?? Or did I miss something??]

Now, if there’s one thing I know about Bishop Broadhurst is that he’s a wily old fox. He blows hot and cold on the subject of Rome, perhaps because he was baptised a Roman Catholic. I’m sure he wouldn’t dream of joining the TAC in any shape or form – but he’ll be jolly interested in the details of any deal it does with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

But why involve the Archbishop of Vienna, Count Christoph Maria Michael Hugo Damian Peter Adalbert von Schönborn? (OK, so he doesn’t use his aristocratic title, but what a cool name.) I don’t know. Perhaps it was just a suggestion that Vienna and Fulham should meet. But my source is close enough to high-level figures in the curia for me to be sure that there’s something significant going on.

As there should be. For crying out loud, there is no future at all for theologically literate Anglo-Catholic opponents of women bishops in the Church of England. Some of the gutless ones can stick their fingers in their ears and pretend not to hear the resounding, overwhelming support for women bishops coming from the Church’s ruling elite; they can build their own Wendy House “jurisidiction” that allows them to keep on claiming their stipend inside a liberal Protestant denomination.

The more honest ones face a simple choice: where do they go next? If they can’t stand Catholics, they can become Eastern Orthodox. They can found or join an independent Anglican Church (there are hundreds out there). [How is that option any different than staying??] Or they can seek union with the See of Peter, reasonably confident that the power of the trad-hating RC “Magic Circle” is waning and that the Pope is on their side.

Source: Forward in Faith ‘in talks with Vatican’

Far be it for me to comment but …

The above illustrates the deep devisions even within those who would consider themselves of the same party. One wonders if the cult of personality has something to do with it?!

The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said the Anglican church may have to accept a “two-tier” or “two-track” communion for believers to remain united while in disagreement over matters such as gay clergy.

He wrote on his website on Monday that there are “two styles of being Anglican” and both sides should work together to maintain the church, WA Today reported.

In the formal response to the move this month by the Episcopal Church, the US branch of the Anglican Communion, to welcome gay bishops and blessing same sex couples, the Los Angeles Times quotes Archbishop Williams saying that those who remain part of the communion’s “covenantal structure,” would take one path and another with “fewer formal expectations” for those who value autonomy.

“It helps to be clear about these possible futures, however much we think them less than ideal, and to speak about them not in apocalyptic terms of schism and excommunication but plainly as what they are, two styles of being Anglican, whose mutual relation will certainly need working out,” Williams wrote.

For those within the Communion who disagree, he says, paraphrasing Matthew’s lines about heretics, “there is no threat of being cast into outer darkness, existing relationships will not be destroyed that easily.”

The Episcopal church in the US caused an uproar among some Anglicans in 2003 by consecrating the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Williams has struggled since to keep the communion unified, the WA Today report said.

Source: Two paths for Anglicans: Williams

Cardinal John Henry Newman will be beatified in Birmingham, England on May 2, 2010, reports say.

The date and venue have been proposed by the Vatican Congregation for Saints’ Causes and are expected to be accepted soon by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, a church source has told Catholic News Service.

The source said the cardinal will be beatified in the Birmingham Oratory, which he founded following his conversion to Catholicism in 1845 at age 44.

May 2 is seen as a favourable date because it is the feast of St Athanasius, the fourth century “champion of orthodoxy” admired by Cardinal Newman, CNS says.

Pope Benedict signed the decree authorising the beatification earlier this year after Vatican medical and theological experts approved the 2001 healing of Deacon John Sullivan of Marshfield, Massachusetts in the US, who was ” bent double” by a severe spinal condition, as a miracle attributed to Cardinal Newman’s intercession.

The decree was made public by the Vatican July 3.

Source: Newman beatification date fixed for 2010

The Church of England has blocked the sale of a disused church, St George’s Church in Gorton, east Manchester, to the Society of St Pius X (SSPX).

The Diocese of Manchester said it had received 100 letters of objection to the sale from MPs, peers, Manchester City Council, the Council of Christians and Jews and the Roman Catholic Church.

“We welcome the decision by the Church Commissioners to prevent the sale of St George’s church to the Society of St Pius X,” said a Diocese of Manchester spokesman.

“The Bishop of Manchester made it clear in his submissions that such a sale was not in the interests of community cohesion, ecumenical relations or inter-faith work.”

The decision followed a period of consultation by the Church Commissioners, which manages Church of England assets.

The SSPX said it could not comment on the decision at this stage.

Source: SSPX bid to buy UK church fails

Much better than the Australian media version from the same vision. The word “old” seems to pop up on Australian TV repeatedly and no mention was made of the Holy Father’s words to PM Rudd – only that Mr Rudd mentioned the canonization of Blessed Mary MacKillop.

1. The duty to safeguard the unity of the Church, with the solicitude to offer everyone help in responding appropriately to this vocation and divine grace, is the particular responsibility of the Successor of the Apostle Peter, who is the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of the unity of both bishops and faithful. The supreme and fundamental priority of the Church in all times – to lead mankind to the meeting with God – must be supported by the commitment to achieve a shared witness of faith among all Christians.

2. Faithful to this mandate, following the act of 30 June 1988 by which Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre illicitly conferred episcopal ordination upon four priests, on 2 July 1988 Pope John Paul II of venerable memory established the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” whose task it is “to collaborate with the bishops, with the departments of the Roman Curia and with the circles concerned, for the purpose of facilitating full ecclesial communion of priests, seminarians, religious communities or individuals until now linked in various ways to the Society founded by Msgr. Lefebvre, who may wish to remain united to the Successor Peter in the Catholic Church, while preserving their spiritual and liturgical traditions, in the light of the Protocol signed on 5 May last by Cardinal Ratzinger and Msgr. Lefebvre”.

3. In keeping with this, faithfully adhering to that duty to serve the universal communion of the Church, also in her visible manifestation, and making every effort to ensure that those who truly desire unity have the possibility to remain in it or to rediscover it, I decided, with the Motu Proprio “Summorum Pontificum”, to expand and update through more precise and detailed norms the general indications already contained in the Motu Proprio “Ecclesia Dei” concerning the possibility of using the 1962″Missale Romanum”.

4. In the same spirit, and with the same commitment to favouring the repair of all fractures and divisions within the Church, and to healing a wound that is ever more painfully felt within the ecclesiastical structure, I decided to remit the excommunication of the four bishops illicitly ordained by Msgr. Lefebvre. In making that decision my intention was to remove an impediment that could hinder the opening of a door to dialogue and thus invite the four bishops and the Society of Saint Pius X to rediscover the path to full communion with the Church. As I explained in my Letter to Catholic bishops of 10 March this year, the remission of the excommunication was a measure taken in the field of ecclesiastical discipline, to free individuals from the burden of conscience constituted by the most serious of ecclesiastical penalties. However it is clear that the doctrinal questions remain, and until they are clarified the Society has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church.

5. Precisely because the problems that now have to be examined with the Society are essentially doctrinal in nature, I have decided – twenty-one years after the Motu Proprio “Ecclesia Dei” and in keeping with what I had intended to do – to reconsider the structure of the Commission “Ecclesia Dei”, joining it closely to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

6. The Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” will, then, have the following configuration:
(a) The president of the Commission is the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
(b) The Commission has its own staff, composed of the secretary and officials.
(c) It will be the task of the president, with the assistance of the secretary, to submit the principal cases and questions of a doctrinal nature for study and discernment according to the ordinary requirements of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and to submit the results thereof to the superior dispositions of the Supreme Pontiff.

7. With this decision I wish in particular to show paternal solicitude towards the Society of Saint Pius X, with the aim of rediscovering the full communion of the Church.

To everyone I address a pressing invitation to pray ceaselessly to the Lord, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, “ut unum sint”.

From Rome, at St. Peter’s, 2 July 2009, fifth year of Our Pontificate.

Source: EWTN: Motu Proprio Ecclesiae Unitatem

Latin:

• LITTERAE APOSTOLICAE MOTU PROPRIO DATAE ECCLESIAE UNITATEM

Link:

• Papal shake-up for Vatican office

An unprecedented inquiry into alleged misconduct of Anglican bishop Michael Hough could cost the Australian Anglican Church nearly a third of its financial reserves, a report said.

An independent investigator, Sydney lawyer Geoff Kelly, is set to probe into claims of bullying and harassment by the Ballarat diocese bishop against clergy and laypeople, according to The Age. It will cost an estimated $400,000.

Depending on his findings, the Episcopal Standards Commission will set up a tribunal with power to depose the bishop, also unprecedented in Australian history, which could cost another $350,000, the report adds.

The Anglican Church of Australia’s reserves were $2.5 million, said national treasurer John McKenzie.

The complaints from 13 past and present clergy and several senior laypeople have not been made public. In a report by the newspaper in January about the complaints, Ballarat Cathedral Council member Euan Thompson described the bishop as “a difficult, obnoxious, prickly person who has poor people skills and an abrasive manner.”

Hough had responded that the complainants were a small group of malcontents.

Yesterday, asked if he would resign to save the investigation costs, Bishop Hough told The Age: “I’m not sure why I would go. Whatever garbage went on at the synod, our business is preaching the gospel and building the church, and I’m an integral part of it. There’s a lot of exciting stuff going on.”

“I don’t have time to muck around with this. I’m too busy on God’s business,” he said.

Ballarat finance committee chairman Vernon Robson said the conflict had been divisive and had created uncertainty, and that “in the interest of all the parties,” the investigation should proceed. He added the church is making “the necessary resources available.”

Source: Costly inquiry into “bully” bishop