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stumbler
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By Ruth Gledhill
Religion Correspondent
Times Online (UK)
A popular parish priest with a record as an enthusiast for building bridges with Protestant churches has been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as Bishop of Northampton.
The choice of Monsignor Peter Doyle to head a prominent diocese with more than 170,000 Roman Catholics is the first episcopal appointment in Britain made by the Pope.
A Catholic source said: “The new Pope is not too different from John Paul II in terms of his theology but from the point of view of the appointments he is making, they tend to be forward-thinking, loving people rather than head-in-the-sand dogmatic types.”
The Pope is understood to have taken a close interest in the appointment. Another source said: “The last Pope and previous ones tended to rubber-stamp episcopal appointments and move on to the next business. This Pope is asking to look at them all and is scrutinising them closely before he signs them off.”
A former rugby playing prop forward and a hopeless but enthusiastic golfer, Canon Doyle has been parish priest of St Peter’s, Winchester, since 1991.
He is traditional in the sense of belonging firmly within the centuries-old tradition of the Catholic Church in England and is one of just 24 priests who in the elite Old Brotherhood chapter, an organisation set up after the Reformation in 1623, when there was no Catholic episcopal administration in this country and never formally recognised by the Pope.
Since 1850, when the hierarchy was re-established, the brotherhood’s main role has been to distribute charitable funds. . . .
Full article
Religion Correspondent
Times Online (UK)
A popular parish priest with a record as an enthusiast for building bridges with Protestant churches has been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as Bishop of Northampton.
The choice of Monsignor Peter Doyle to head a prominent diocese with more than 170,000 Roman Catholics is the first episcopal appointment in Britain made by the Pope.
A Catholic source said: “The new Pope is not too different from John Paul II in terms of his theology but from the point of view of the appointments he is making, they tend to be forward-thinking, loving people rather than head-in-the-sand dogmatic types.”
The Pope is understood to have taken a close interest in the appointment. Another source said: “The last Pope and previous ones tended to rubber-stamp episcopal appointments and move on to the next business. This Pope is asking to look at them all and is scrutinising them closely before he signs them off.”
A former rugby playing prop forward and a hopeless but enthusiastic golfer, Canon Doyle has been parish priest of St Peter’s, Winchester, since 1991.
He is traditional in the sense of belonging firmly within the centuries-old tradition of the Catholic Church in England and is one of just 24 priests who in the elite Old Brotherhood chapter, an organisation set up after the Reformation in 1623, when there was no Catholic episcopal administration in this country and never formally recognised by the Pope.
Since 1850, when the hierarchy was re-established, the brotherhood’s main role has been to distribute charitable funds. . . .
Full article