“Our priests are just like any other Catholic priests; you can attend Mass with an Ordinariate congregation with an Ordinariate liturgy and fulfill your obligation, just as you would by going to Mass in any Catholic church anywhere in the world”, he said, speaking of the great joy of Ordinariate members and of how its clergy were serving in the wider church as chaplains in prisons, hospitals and schools or as diocesan parish clergy. He quoted Pope Benedict’s description of the Ordinariate as a “prophetic gesture” to promote Christian unity.
Finally, the Apostolic Exarchate for Ukrainians serves the 15,000 Ukrainian Greek Catholics in Great Britain and the Lebanese Maronite Catholic Church, as well as the Eritrean, Chaldean, Syriac, Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara, and Melkite Rites – all in communion with Rome – are also present in England today.
As always, history is never far away from English Christians, however. A thousand years ago, another pope released St. Edward the Confessor from a vow — if the king built a monastery dedicated to the first bishop of Rome. Thus, St. Peter’s Abbey was rebuilt in Westminster.
Legend has it that as the abbey neared completion, St. Peter appeared to some Thames fishermen, asking to be ferried to the site. As they neared the structure, the entire building was suddenly filled with light. The Saint told them that he had consecrated the church and that they would be rewarded with a great catch of salmon. Then he instructed them never to work on Sunday, and disappeared.
Pope Benedict XVI gently stressed our common history during his visit to Westminster Abbey, “I thank the Lord for this opportunity to join you … in this magnificent abbey church dedicated to St. Peter, whose architecture and history speak so eloquently of our common heritage of faith. Here we cannot help but be reminded of how greatly the Christian faith shaped the unity and culture of Europe and the heart and spirit of the English people. Here, too, we are forcibly reminded that what we share, in Christ, is greater than what continues to divide us. …I thank the Lord for allowing me, as the successor of St. Peter in the See of Rome, to make this pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Edward the Confessor.
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