THE P RTAL


March 2012 Letters to the Editor


From Stephen Bond I was greatly moved by Teresa Smith’s letter


describing her and her father’s (Ray White) reception into the Catholic Church via the Ordinariate. Anthony Prescott and I would have met them on A.C.S. preaching visits to S Francis Bournemouth. S Francis Church was a great supporter of the Additional Curates Society. I wonder if the Holy Father realises just how much joy he has brought to so many? I am sure the Holy Spirit who worked such wonders for the early Christians is working overtime in our own day. God bless you all.


Stephen Bond St Nazaire, France


From Monica Johnson Re letter in February edition of THE PORTAL by Mrs.


Teres Smith of Bournemouth. An active member of the Salisbury Ordinariate Group is aged 9l years young!!


Monica Johnson Salisbury


From: Graham Combs I’m unaware if it has been noted that both the


UK and the US Personal Ordinariates have begun during significant anniversaries for Anglicans across the world. Te Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham began during the 400th anniversary of the Authorized Version or King James Bible. Te Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter begins in the year we celebrate the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.


I entered the Catholic Church at Easter Vigil, 2009; a convert from the Episcopal Church. But my religious heritage is rooted firmly in England. My father served on a US Navy destroyer on the Atlantic during World War II (escorting convoys of materiel and supplies to Britain). Aſter the war, her returned from England and coverted to Episcopalianism. I was consequently baptized at St. George’s Church in Louisville, Kentucky.


Tere are a few Catholics priests in Michigan where


I now live who have entered the Church under the pastoral provision. Unfortunately, so far, there are no ordinariate parishes. Interestingly, most of these parishes are located in the American South. As you know, the principal church of the ordinariate is Our Lady of Walsingham Church in Houston, Texas.


Tey recently built a Shrine to Our Lady modeled on shrine ruins in Walsingham, England.


I still have my late father’s Book of Common Prayer


which he received upon his confirmation and which I was given at mine. Like you I feel a special gratitude to His Holiness Benedict XVI for Anglicanorum Coetibus both for its reality and its promise. He may well be the pope known for Christian unity. And like you I pray that those American parishes which have broken away from the Episcopal Church will make a final home in the Church of Rome and the personal ordinariate. And thank you all in the UK ordinariate for showing the way no matter the obstacles.


Graham Combs Royal Oak, MI, USA


PS Tere is an editorial in the Friday, Feb. 3, 2012


US edition of the Wall Street Journal by Fr. Richard Cipolla entitled Being A Catholic Priest -- and Married. He entered the Catholic priesthood under the pastoral provision in 1984. He writes of his 28 years as a priest, the challenges for him, his family, and the Church -- and why the are worth engaging.


From The Revd Fred Beddow I am a Catholic deacon who leſt the Anglican


Communion in the 60s. In several places in this month’s Portal it is regretted that many ordinary Catholics are ignorant of the Ordinariate. Tis is unfortunately true but for most Catholics it is a difficult concept for them to grasp as I have found on several occasions. For them to be a Catholic is synonymous with belonging to the Roman Rite. Tey know nothing of the other ancient Rites in full communion with Rome.


When I have the chance I speak of the Church as a


communion of Rites, of which the Roman, while the largest, is but one. Having got this across, the idea of Ordinariates, while not quite the same, becomes easier to accept. (Is it too much to look forward to an Anglican Rite?).


In our Cathedral Parish in Shrewsbury, it has


been easier. I had known the Anglican priest for a long time and was, by chance, one of the deacons of the Mass when he was ordained to the Catholic diaconate. He was welcomed by our Dean, and presided at the main Sunday Mass following his priestly ordination and later celebrated the anniversary of his Anglican ordination. He ministers regularly in the parish.


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