Catholic leaders remember Queen Elizabeth II’s Christian faith

Katie Yoder   By Katie Yoder for CNA

September 8, 2022 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 1 Print

 

Queen Elizabeth II films her traditional Christmas broadcast to the Commonwealth from Buckingham Palace on Dec. 19, 2001 in London, England. / Anwar Hussein/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 8, 2022 / 14:56 pm (CNA).

Catholic leaders worldwide mourned the death of Queen Elizabeth II — the longest-reigning monarch in British history and the head of the Church of England — after she passed away at the age of 96 on Thursday. They called for prayers while remembering the late queen’s Christian example.

“At this time, we pray for the repose of the soul of Her Majesty,” Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said in a statement. “We do so with confidence, because the Christian faith marked every day of her life and activity.”

Nichols went on to cite her Christmas message from 2000.

“To many of us, our beliefs are of fundamental importance,” he quoted her as saying. “For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ’s words and example.”

Nichols expressed gratitude and admiration for the queen’s service and called her faith an inspiration.

“The wisdom, stability, and service which she consistently embodied, often in circumstances of extreme difficulty, are a shining legacy and testament to her faith,” he said.

He asked for prayers for the queen and her son, the new king — King Charles III.

Bishop Patrick McKinney of Nottingham also expressed admiration for the queen’s faith.

“We also want to pay our respects to the Queen as a woman of faith, as a Christian, whose faith always inspired and shaped the way she lived,” he said in a statement. “We pray that Christ Jesus, whom she faithfully served throughout her whole life, may now welcome her into His Kingdom with these words: ‘Well done good and faithful servant.’”

Bishop Hugh Gilbert, president of the Catholic bishops’ conference in Scotland, where the queen passed away, promised that the bishops there “will remember her in our prayers and pray for all those who mourn her loss.”

“Her determination to remain active to the end of her long life has been an example of Christian leadership, which demonstrated her great stoicism and commitment to duty and was undoubtedly a source of stability and continuity in times of great change,” he said in a statement.

He also emphasized that they would pray for the new king and the royal family.

As head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, one of five popes the queen met during her lifetime, remembered her faith in a telegram.

“I willingly join all who mourn her loss in praying for the late Queen’s eternal rest, and in paying tribute to her life of unstinting service to the good of the Nation and the Commonwealth, her example of devotion to duty, her steadfast witness of faith in Jesus Christ and her firm hope in his promises,” he said.

Throughout the day other bishops and church leaders around the world continued to remember the queen and ask for prayers.

In the United States, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco tweeted, “May she rest in peace.”

Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare and Leighlin in Ireland wrote, “May she now enjoy the eternal rest she richly deserves for her life of impeccable service.”

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The Dispatch

FSSP says Pope Francis has issued decree confirming its use of 1962 liturgical books

February 21, 2022 Catholic News Agency 7
June 22,2013: The prostration of the ordinands during the Litany of the Saints at the Fraternity of St. Peter’s Roman parish, Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini in Rome / CNA

Vatican City, Feb 21, 2022 / 04:49 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has issued a decree confirming that the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) can continue to use the liturgical books in force in 1962, according to the traditionalist group.

In a communique published Feb. 21, the FSSP said that Pope Francis met with two members of the priestly fraternity for nearly an hour, a week before he promulgated the decree.

“In the course of the audience, the pope made it clear that institutes such as the Fraternity of St. Peter are not affected by the general provisions of the motu proprio Traditionis custodes, since the use of the ancient liturgical books was at the origin of their existence and is provided for in their constitutions,” it said.

The FSSP is a canonically approved community of priests dedicated to the “formation and sanctification of priests in the cadre of the traditional liturgy” and the care of souls and pastoral activities in the service of the Church.

The group has more than 50 personal parishes in North America and is active in 39 dioceses across the United States. It also has 85 apostolates in France and Belgium and 79 apostolates in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

The decree gives the FSSP full permission to offer the Traditional Latin Mass, carry out the sacraments, and fulfill the Divine Office, according to the Missal, the Ritual, the Pontifical and the Roman Breviary that were used in 1962.

This faculty is limited to the FSSP’s own churches and oratories, unless there is consent from the local Ordinary, with the exception of private Masses.

The FSSP said that Pope Francis signed the decree, issued in Spanish and Latin, on Feb. 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and the date that the group was solemnly consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The Holy See press office had not responded at the time of publication to a request from CNA to confirm the text of the decree.

According to the group, the pope received Father Benoît Paul-Joseph, the superior of the FSSP district of France, and Father Vincent Ribeton, the rector of St. Peter’s Seminary in Wigratzbad, Germany, in private audience on Feb. 4.

“During the very cordial meeting, they recalled the origins of the fraternity in 1988, the pope expressed that he was very impressed by the approach taken by its founders, their desire to remain faithful to the Roman Pontiff and their trust in the Church. He said that this gesture should be ‘preserved, protected and encouraged,’” the FSSP said.

The meeting took place more than six months after Pope Francis issued Traditionis custodes (“Guardians of the tradition”), a motu proprio that restricted the use of the Traditional Latin Mass and prohibited it from being celebrated in parish churches without the permission of the local bishop.

The priestly fraternity said in July 2021 that it was surprised and deeply saddened by the reasons given for limiting the use of the Missal of Pope St. John XXIII.

The group noted that the Traditional Latin Mass had prompted “many people” to discover the Catholic faith or return to the Catholic faith.

“How can we fail to notice, moreover, that the communities of the faithful attached to it are often young and flourishing, and that many Christian households, priests or religious vocations have come from it,” it said.

FSSP was founded by 12 priests who were formerly members of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), a group that has a canonically irregular status.

The FSSP’s constitutions reference the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, and the fraternity says that it “has always sought to be in accord with what Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI called in 2005: ‘the hermeneutic of reform in the continuity of the Church.’”

“Grateful to the Holy Father, the members of the Fraternity of St. Peter are in thanksgiving for this confirmation of their mission,” the FSSP said on Feb. 21.

“They invite all the faithful who feel close to them as a spiritual family to attend or join them in prayer at the Mass tomorrow, on the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, and to pray for the Supreme Pontiff.”

[…]

1 Comment

  1. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was a much loved and respected Queen of Hearts. “When I spoke to you last, at Christmas, I asked you all, whatever your religion, to pray for me on the day of my coronation — to pray that God would give me wisdom and strength to carry out the promises that I should then be making. Throughout this memorable day, I have been uplifted and sustained by the knowledge that your thoughts and prayers were with me” – Queen Elizabeth II during her coronation in Westminster Abbey June 2, 1953.

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