Morning Catholic must-reads

The Pope will beatify Cardinal Newman in Birmingham rather than in Coventry and tour the Birmingham Oratory during his visit to Britain, it emerged yesterday.

The Russian Orthodox Church and Poland’s Catholic Church promised yesterday to help their nations seek reconciliation.

Pope Benedict has told cloistered nuns at the Dominican convent of Santa Maria del Rosario in Rome that their prayer helps to sustain the Church (full text).

Benedict XVI has blessed a 29ft-tall restored statue of the Virgin Mary at the Don Orione Centre (full text).

The Diocese of Brooklyn is promoting the Cause of a priest who welcomed black people into the Church in New York in the 1920s.

The organisers of World Youth Day 2011 have launched a new promotional advert (video).

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver has said the methods of the professional liturgical establishment have led to “a dead end” (full text).

Michael Sean Winters offers a “final note” on the controversy over the alleged fabrication of quotes at a USCCB meeting.

Fr John Trigilio Jr argues that Fr Marcial Maciel duped Pope John Paul II.

And Louis Ruprecht praises the “eminently modern institutions” of the Vatican Library and the Vatican Museums.

Morning Catholic must-reads

Rocco Palmo publishes the liturgical texts for the feast of John Henry Newman, rumoured to be October 9.

Every Catholic should be a disciple of St Thomas Aquinas, Pope Benedict XVI said at his general audience yesterday (full text).

The Pope received some 20,000 text messages of support after the general audience.

Bishop Walter Mixa has reportedly agreed to stand by his decision to resign.

Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark has said he hopes the Lautsi case will not force “all European countries to conform to a model of secularism that is antagonistic to any manifestation of religion in the public sphere”.

The registered number of Catholics in Japan has fallen by half a per cent in a year.

John Allen discusses Christian-Muslim relations with Cardinal Angelo Scola, Patriarch of Venice.

William Van Ornum asks if the Church is losing good potential priests because of psychological testing.

The Saint Barnabus’ Blog says it is now too late for Anglo-Catholicism to survive.

Fr Dwight Longenecker reflects on the “brilliantly annoying style” of GK Chesterton.

Patrick Madrid says Marcial Maciel is to the Legion of Christ what the Deepwater Horizon rig is to the Gulf of Mexico.

And Rome Reports showcases the worst-dressed priests in the world (video).

Morning Catholic must-reads

Benedict XVI described priests as “a gift from the heart of Christ” before the Angelus in St Peter’s Square yesterday.

The Age suggests that Cardinal Pell’s appointment as prefect of the Congregation for Bishops was “blocked by elements in the Vatican”. Rorate Caeli considers the other candidates for the post.

A Slovenian student who was tortured and killed by Communists during World War II was beatified on Sunday.

Danish police are hunting a Dutch nun in relation to the death of an elderly Sister in 1993.

Some 2,000 people have taken part in a march accusing Kerala’s Catholic bishops of political “meddling”.

Rome Reports examines preparations for the beatification of Cardinal Newman (video).

Mark Miravalle reflects on Benedict XVI’s “turn towards Mary”.

Maureen Mullarkey challenges the “popular myth” of idyllic coexistence between Muslims, Christians and Jews in Spain.

And Bishop Crispian Hollis of Portsmouth has laid the foundation stone of one of the world’s first environmentally friendly parish churches.

Morning Catholic must-reads

The official website of Newman’s Cause responds to John Cornwell’s effort to debunk the miracle that will lead to the cardinal’s beatification in September.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children is questioning the legality of Channel 4’s decision to broadcast an advertisement promoting abortion, the first of its kind in Britain.

Belgium’s Catholic bishops have asked sexual abuse victims for pardon in a pastoral letter issued after their ad limina visit to Rome (full text in French).

An Orthodox archbishop in Cyprus has warned critics of the Pope’s visit to the island on June 4 that they are placing themselves outside the Church.

Benedict XVI reflected on his trip to Portugal at his general audience yesterday (video, full text of remarks in English).

Pope Benedict will visit the Don Orione Centre in Rome to bless a statue of the Virgin “Salus populi romani” on June 24.

A survey finds that 66 per cent of Polish Catholics pray for the intercession of Pope John Paul II.

Jon Kraushar considers what President Barack Obama could learn from John Paul II.

Fr Ray Blake defends the “pre-emptive use” of the new English translation of the Mass.

Andrew Brown compares and contrasts Ireland’s two most prominent Catholic leaders: Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and Cardinal Seán Brady.

And the people of Flint, Michigan, remember a feisty nun known as “Sister Bingo“.

Morning Catholic must-reads

Benedict XVI described Mary as “the perfect disciple of Jesus” in his address before the Regina Caeli yesterday (video).

The Pope’s four-day trip to Portugal will begin tomorrow despite the closure of some Portuguese airspace because of volcanic ash (video).

Pope Benedict accepted the resignation of Bishop Walter Mixa of Augsburg on Saturday.

The Pontiff urged Belgian bishops to promote vocations when he met them on their ad limina visit on Saturday (video).

China’s state-approved Church has begun to ordain Vatican-approved bishops after a break of more than two years.

The All India Christian Council says that communal violence against Christians is continuing (audio).

A politician has urged the Dutch Church to open an independent investigation into claims of clerical abuse from 1945 to the present day.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has appointed a new child protection officer for the Archdiocese of Dublin.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols revealed more details of the Pope’s visit to Britain during a question-and-answer session with journalists last week.

John Cornwell claims that Cardinal Newman “was utterly opposed to the idea of his own beatification”.

The Very Rev Colin Slee, the Dean of Southwark, urges disillusioned Catholics to join the Church of England.

Francis X Clooney SJ praises the latest teaching document of the Bishops of England and Wales.

The New York Times profiles Fr Robert Bowers, a priest at the “intersection of faith and doubt”.

Mgr Paul Tighe, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, discusses the ethics of journalism.

Jamie Manson lays down a challenge to “old progressives” in the Church.

And Marcel LeJeune names the Church documents that every Catholic ought to read.

Morning Catholic must-reads

Pope Benedict XVI has named José Gomez as the next Archbishop of Los Angeles.

We must seek to be messengers of God’s love, Pope Benedict said on Easter Monday (video).

Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham has urged Catholics to pray for the Pope following “intense and unjustified” criticism. Meanwhile, a new website has been launched for Catholics to show their support for Pope Benedict.

Victims of clerical abuse who met Benedict XVI in 2008 have appealed for an October summit on the issue in Rome.

Fr Thomas Brundage has acknowledged that he was aware of an order to halt the trial of Fr Lawrence Murphy, but says that Murphy’s death two days later “made the matter moot”.

A priest accused of abuse in America is working in India and refusing to return to face charges. The Vatican’s lawyer has issued a statement on the case.

Michael Sean Winters says the Vatican needs to call in Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston to tackle the abuse crisis.

In a sneak preview of his new book, John Cornwell argues that Cardinal Newman was a critic of the Vatican.

It is not inevitable that euthanasia proponents will win the day, says Arland Nichols.

Rome Reports visits the Pontifical Beda College in Rome (video).

And Madeleine Bunting says the New Atheists have not dented the growth of religion across the world.

We will present Newman as a great Englishman and priest, says Archbishop Nichols

Photo: Archbishop Nichols celebrates Mass in the Chapel of the Three Kings in Rome, where Newman was ordained a Catholic priest (Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk)

There’s an interesting interview with Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster in the latest English edition of L’Osservatore Romano.

The interview, which took place during the ad limina visit, is wide-ranging. But the section about the beatification of Cardinal Newman caught my eye.

The Archbishop sets out, in more detail than ever before, how the Church in England and Wales intends to present Newman to the wider British public.

If I read the Archbishop correctly, it seems the Church will not present Newman primarily as a theologian and Catholic convert, but as an Englishman and a parish priest. See if you agree.

The Archbishop said:

We are looking forward very much to the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, who everybody knows as a scholar, as a famous convert to the Catholic Church, and we would very much want to present him as a man of English culture, as a man who has great stature within the cultural and literary life of our country.

We would very much want him to be appreciated as a parish priest because for over 30 years he was a parish priest and his beatification comes at the end of the Year for Priests. So we have the beatification of an English parish priest just as we close the Year for Priests. We hope that will lead to a greater understanding of the role of the Catholic faith, how it is really part of an English way of life, and perhaps a flowering of new vocations to the priesthood.

I think our hopes would go wider than that as well, because we hope for continuing fruitful dialogue with the Church of England and other Christian partners, and we are very pleased to see the announcement of the third set of International Anglican Roman Catholic Dialogue, ARCIC III, and obviously the outflowing of that into a refreshing of a vision about what a good modern society stands for.