Confraternity of Catholic Clergy

I'd delighted that their meeting went so well, and that their numbers are so buoyant - 100 priests this year, double the number of last year. This is a very positive development for the Church in England and Wales. The next time The Tablet talks about half a dozen aging hippies demanding ex tempore Eucharistic Prayers or whatever, we can remember that there is another gang in town, with superior numbers, arguments, and friends in Rome.

See reports by Fr Tim Finigan, Fr Ray Blake, and Fr Simon Henry.

And here's a photo of Mgr Keith Newton preaching, at Mass at the meeting. When the Ordinariate was set up, it was said he would have the privilege of wearing an episcopal ring, cross, and (on appropriate occasions) a mitre, although he's not a bishop (there are various precedents for this of course). I've never seen him in a mitre, but here it is, from Fr Finigan's Flickr set.

For old time's sake see my post about a letter of mine The Tablet published, shortly after the first meeting of the CCC, responding to a claim that the CCC's theology of the priesthood led to paedophilia. They were rattled then; what are they thinking now?