THE P RTAL
March 2014
something that is just of interest to a very small part
of the Catholic Church. It needs to be something
that people around the country see growing and
understand why it exists.
Priests Affiliate
“One of the things we’ve done is to establish this
group called Priests Affiliate which has about seventy
members who are Parish Priests, not Ordinariate
Priests. They support us. An Ordinariate Priest will
go, preside at Mass or preach and have a retiring
collection. There are two purposes; one is asking for
money, but also, very importantly, the other is to raise
awareness.
Page 9
Pope Benedict for having refocused people’s attention
on this, and indeed Pope Francis. The focus of the
Mass is the presence of the Lord in the Sacrament and
this is very important and therefore should be done
with spirituality - with beauty, with music, whatever is
needed to make it meaningful. It’s not a casual event.
a little more English
“It’s very important to look at the longer term, the
next 50 years, and look at the Roman Catholic Church
in England. I think the Ordinariate is in a position
to have a major effect on the Church in England by
improving the quality of music, by adding a little
Anglican Patrimony so it becomes a little more English.
A lot of Catholics have no concept of the musical
“The money raised is for the Friends, who spend tradition in England which goes back way before the
that money supporting the Ordinariate. We have Reformation. We believe that this is a very important
helped various clergy and given money to a fund for part of the New Evangelisation.
retired clergy. There have also been small amounts like
£300 for this or that. Our job is to raise money for the
“At Warwick Street there is a director of music, an
Ordinariate, rather than for specific projects.
organist, a soprano, a counter tenor, a tenor and a bass.
Just four singers who do a wonderful job. In a small
“The Trustees make the decisions but we try to do space you can do a lot with a few people.
so in accordance with what the Ordinary thinks is
London focused
appropriate.”
“I’m very conscious that the Friends are in London
Anglican Patrimony
and focused on London. If there were other groups of
I asked Nicolas about Anglican Patrimony. “It’s Friends, it would make sense. It’s difficult for us, being
a low level thing. It’s Anglican friendliness; a parish based here, to try and organise events in the North
friendliness. The musical tradition is extremely of England or the South West. We are supporting the
important. If you look at the tradition of music in Ordinariate and that is of course based in London
England in the last 500 years, it is the most superb so it tends to be very London focused and I’m very
corpus that has been maintained.
conscious of that.
“It is very much part of our heritage and that’s
“If we can help Ordinariate groups elsewhere in the
something, particularly in the context of what country we will do that, but perhaps there needs to be
happened in the Catholic Church 40 years or so ago some other groups of Friends. You only need four or
where music became disregarded. We have to thank five people to get together and raise some money.”
The Friends and members of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham
after the Epiphany Carol Service organised by the Friends