English Ordinariate visits the Vatican

One hundred members of the new Catholic Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England have been visiting Rome and the Vatican this past week on a pilgrimage of thanksgiving. The week long tour has included Mass at St Mary Major and at Cardinal Newman’s titular church of St Giorgio in Velabro, evensong at Santa Maria in Trastevere and a meeting with Pope Benedict at the Wednesday general audience.

The Ordinariate was officially established in January 2011 with the ordination to the Catholic priesthood of three former Anglican bishops, followed later in the year by over a thousand priests and lay people who were received into the Catholic Church under the terms of the Apostolic Constitution 'Anglicanorum Coetibus' issued by Pope Benedict in 2009.

Leading the pilgrimage to Rome was one of those former Anglican bishops, Mgr Keith Newton, who heads the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham – Philippa Hitchen caught up with him to find out more about the challenges of the past year and his hopes for the future ....

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