Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Catholic Communion: Archbishop Hepworth of the Traditional Anglican Communion

By Deacon Keith Fournier
12/30/2009
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Catholic communion is not an idea. It is standing together at the Altar of God, affirming one faith and receiving together the one Body and Blood of Christ.


(Archbishop John Hepworth of the Traditional Anglican Communion) 'Pilgrimage must have a goal. Our goal was the healing of catholic disunity, that Anglicans had sought and then abandoned.'

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - We have followed the amazing, Spirit inspired, work of authentic ecumenism which resulted in the promulgation of the historic Apostolic Constitution entitled Anglicanorum Coetibus.

There is no doubt that when history records the watershed breakthrough which this extraordinary moment in Church history portends, Archbishop John Hepworth of the Traditional Anglican Communion will be a vital part of the story. We present a wonderful message from the TAC Archbishop to update our readers around the world as well as to invite them to pray Ut Unum Sint.

Men of prophetic stature are never perfect, they are humble and show a willingness to be perfected by the Lord whom they love. They allow the mistakes and difficulties of life to become the tutors of time. They respond in their brokenness to the invitation of history being written by the One who broke into history to transform it from within.

In this Octave of Christmas, as we approach a year of extraordinary possibility for the coming full communion of the Catholic Church, we present the Archbishop's recent reflections on the progress of the TAC's response to the invitation of the Holy Father. When it all comes down to it, there is only the Church.It is God's plan for the whole human race:

A Message from Archbishop Hepworth

The Octave of Christmas is a time of richness and of confrontation. Richness because of the great liturgical and popular tradition that takes us day by day into events and places that deepen our faith in the Christ Child.

The feasts of Stephen, John, Holy Innocents, and the saintly martyr Archbishop Becket, all follow one another in a tumble of carols and remembrance. But these are also days of martyrdom and mass murder.

The Child was laid in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. These were the clothes in which the Jewish dead would be buried. They were kept in the stable so as not to be within the realm of the living. “His death cast a shadow over His birth, because his death was the reason for His birth.”
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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 12:26 PM