[Not clear who signed the letter - possibly from SJB Cathedral] Talk and slide presentaion on 10 November in Parish Hall. Will do some publicity at St Georges and Holy Apostles. Stewards help in 1994 - Cardinal and Apostolic Nuncio may attend the Bishop Alan's 25th Anniversary on 14 May 1994, many other clergy expected. Usual stewarding for Holy Week. Considering how to launch a Norwich branch of the Friends.
Archbishop Poupard, Pro-President of the Secretariat for Non-Believers, is asking the BCEW to find ten candidates for the office of Consultor to the Secretariat. Please forward a lost of candidates to Archbishop Heim for forwarding to Mgs Poupard.
Cardinal unable to grant an interview with Le Figaro (weight of numbers). Asking Bishop Clark to help draft responses which the Cardinal can make his own.
An announcement of the departure of Bishop Butler from the role of Area Bishop for Hertfordshire; his successor is Mgr James O'Brien; arrangements, etc.
Returned from Canberra, Australia, after heading up the Vatican delegation for VII Assembly of the World Council of Churches - chaotic but epic. Thanks the Cardinal for his leadership in the debate on the Gulf Crisis. Francis Selman: happy for the Cardinal to see him (provides a short pen picture) - thought he had settled at Quidenham - but that is obviously not the case. Fr Andrew Morley at Dersingham: Asks the Cardinal to withdraw him as he has caused offence and gone to the provincial press.
BCC [British Council of Churches) Working Party's work is independent of the Pope's visit. Its constitution [composition?] to be an Archbishop, diocesan Bishop and an Auxiliary. We are committed to exploring a way ahead with the BCC. WP needs to listen with integrity to measured arguments. Clark suggests himself as secretariat to the group of three - names he suggests are Archbishop Worlock, Bishop Lindsay, Bishop Henderson.
The Joint Working Group WCC/RCC plenary in Rome will have been concluded in time for the Ad Limina on 16 March. A week just spent in West country and then going for a 2 week cruise round Britain.
Final text is nearly identical to the first draft - the mood is quite different. Some questions arose which he's not the time to develop. "What I believe in is the Church which Christ founded which entailed a ministry.. slowly revealed in the New Testament... the famous 'hierarchy of truths'". "After all, the question of validity is largely obsolete, whereas the question of authenticity of ministry is right up to date and requiring resolution."
Personal: thanking the Cardinal for presiding over the debate. Concerned about the ability of colleagues to rise to the occasion and avoid the charge of "Fortress Catholicism", otherwise "we'll dwindle (yes, we)". Perhaps Bishop Clark's remarks were a spill over form the days of ARCIC in the 70s; but, need to those with imagination and initiative to pursue the aims and objectives of ARCIC and unity as a whole.
Cannot duck the new Joint Working Group's first plenary [re dates for Ad Limina]. Assures the Cardinal he has been consistently fit until the virus came along - spent a week in "Hope House" in Cambridge and apart from catarrh is back on form.
Confidential: Marist Provincial confirmed that within the Constitution of the Congregation Marist priests cannot become Bishops - exceptionally a missionary diocese may be allowed.
Suggested arrangements for the Cardinal to attend in Norwich for a Great High mass at St John the Baptist Cathedral. Also mentions Christopher Jenkins (Chaplain at Fisher House, Cambridge) whose article criticising the major schools that their products arrived, mostly lapsed, caused a furore; reactions were: Ealing Furious, Ampleforth defensively pompous, Downside jocose and philosophical, Worth & Belmont very concerned.
Thanks for the advice not to move with regard to the LMS [Latin Mass Society]. Have received another letter - not brash, kind - but still not inclined for a change of mind. Send any information which would influence the decision.
His Beatitude Maximus V (Hachim), Melchite Patriarch of Antioch (Jerusalem and Alexandria) is to visit 1 to 6 September 1982 after his visit to Ireland. Bishop Clark has become unwittingly involved in the (complicated) preparations for the Patriarch's visit and wishes to visit London after Ireland before returning to Syria. The emissary, Mgr Jena-Clement Jeanbart, and the Bishop have agreed some ground rules (5 of them). However, the dates are wrong because Catholic Authorities are still "en vacance" at the time of the visit. Could the Cardinal help and ask a home Bishop to host the visit and provide suitable accommodation for the Patriarch and his entourage?
Agreed to be patron - sensitive to the needs of the Choir School. Has his own problems with St John the Baptist but that will not interfere with his encouraging support for the Cathedral of Westminster.
