This is very late but I`ve been rather tied up with Tenebrae and sick Communions and confessions as well as the usual Triduum. I thought this interview yesterday with the archbishop yesterday gave hope. Yes, he side-stepped the difficult question of the `husband with Aids` case but his response to Mr Blair`s attempt to lecture the Pope was worth waiting for. Particularly enjoyable was his statement that he will follow Pope Benedict: we wait to see if that includes the liturgical agenda. Perhaps one of the more hopeful recent episcopal appointments?
6 comments:
I very much enjoyed reading Archbishop Nichols' comments about Mr. Blair. I thought he handled it very well and as you say, his response to Tony's attempt to boss the pope around was great. However, I wouldn't expect anything less from Archbishop Nichols' - his response to the result of the conclave (along with Cardinal O'Brien) was much more positive and hopeful than comments made by certain other people.
Perhaps!
Anonymous is exactly right, maybe the Holy Spirit has been at work in this appointment. His response to Blair was certainly worth waiting for. Maybe this is the start of something good for the E & W Church.
Archbishop Nichols and Cardinal O'Brien together - a strong force for Christianity in this increasingly fractured nation.
Christus resurrexit!
Vere resurrexit!
Alleluia!
Happy Easter Father.
Re the question of the husband with AIDS - doesn't the Vademecum For Confessors provide a pastoral way out there on a case by case basis?
I was worried by the sidestep as well, but the more I thought about it, the more I suspected he might simply have been refusing to give up a hostage to fortune. If he'd have said something about chastity in marriage, that would have been the story, ('New Head of Catholic CHurch in England and Wales says married couples with AIDS must avoid sex' or something like that) and nothing else he said would have been heard. As it was, VN deftly sidestepped and got in his wonderful curler about Blair and the Pope. Which was priceless. At least, I hope that's what he did. So far, he doesn't look like being someone who avoids saying something out of human respect.
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