THE
P RTAL
March 2012
Page 3
Coming Home
by Arnold Herron
It was
one year ago on Ash Wednesday 2011 that we all
started to worship at our local Catholic Church. The welcome
we all received was warm and humbling. How fitting that
just one year later, Mgr Keith Newton, our Ordinary, led our
Thanksgiving Pilgrimage, sponsored by The Portal , to Rome.
a whole week in Rome
What a week it was! Nigh on one hundred
members of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady
of Walsingham, together with the Ordinary, spent a
whole week in Rome. Mass every day was celebrated
at one of the beautiful churches in the city, and on
one evening we sang Evensong in the church of Santa
Maria in Trastevere. What an honour for The Revd
James Bradley to lead our evening Office!
welcome to the faithful of the Personal Ordinariate
of Our Lady of Walsingham on the occasion of their
pilgrimage to the See of Peter ... and I thank the choirs
for their praise of God in song. With prayerful good
wishes for a spiritually fruitful Lent, I invoke upon all
of you God’s abundant blessings!
We took many pictures, some of which are displayed
here; others are on the various web sites. Make sure
you see them all, as well as the many press reports -
some of the links are listed below.
We celebrated Mass at the basilica of Santa Maria
Maggiore; the church of San Giorgio in Velabro
(Newman’s church); Santa Spirito in Sassia; and Santa
The pilgrimage was a really historic occasion, and
Maria del Popolo. A day out meant we could celebrate
Mass at Santa Speco, Subiaco; and of course, we were The Portal is proud to have been associated with it.
We thought it might be the first Ordinariate Pilgrimage
able to celebrate Mass in Saint Peter’s itself.
of many. I wonder?
Cardinal Law, and Cardinal Levada honoured us
with their presence at Mass on a couple of days, and
Fr Edwin Barnes, Fr Christopher Pearson and Fr Len
Black preached for us, as did the Ordinary.
Audience with the Holy Father
No pilgrimage to Rome would be complete without
attending a General Audience with the Holy Father.
Ours was no exception! Together with over seven
thousand pilgrims we all crammed into the hall.
Each group was introduced to the Holy Father,
many sang to him as well! The pilgrims were of all
ages and came from every continent of the world. This
church is a truly international one, yet each group and
nationality is so different in culture.
When our turn came, we sang part of Blessed John
Henry Newman’s hymn “Praise to the holiest in the
height”. Pope Benedict waived to us and applauded
our efforts, while we all cheered and clapped.
The Pope addressed us about Lent and how we could
keep the holy season better, and then said, “I greet
all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s
Audience, especially those from England, Belgium,
Norway, Canada and the United States. I offer a special
Rome Pilgrimage: the Pilgrims gather around the Confessio of
St Peter to pray the General Thanksgiving from the Prayer Book
The Holy Father’s Ash Wednesday address to the
English speaking Pilgrims and his Greeting the
Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham at:
www.tiny.cc/ord-pilg-1
The Vatican TV report at: www.tiny.cc/ord-pilg-2
Msgr Keith’s excellent interview with Vatican Radio:
www.tiny.cc/ord-pilg-3
and the Catholic News Service report at:
www.tiny.cc/ord-pilg-4
You can also read about our visit in a report from the
Catholic News Service at:
www.tiny.cc/ord-pilg-5
and, of course, all the Ordinariat e Flickr photos at:
www.tiny.cc/ord-pilg-6