FROM A ROME CORRESPONDENT
THE Vatican Congregation of Rites has completed preparations for St. Teresa of Avila, a loth century Spanish nun, to be proclaimed the first woman doctor of the Church.
A doctor of the Church is an ecclesiastical writer noted for greatness of learning and holiness. The Catho I ie Church has extended this honour to only 30 persons—so far. all men. Vatican sources said Pope Paul is holding up the proclamation until the Congregation also completes studies of St. Catherine of Siena, so that the two can be honoured together. St. Teresa underwent a long series of mystical experiences which she described in treatises which rank as classics of Spanish literature and which are regarded as textbooks of mystical prayer, She was proclaimed a saint in 1622.
WORK FOR UNITY St. Catherine was horn Catherine Benincasa in 1347 in the Italian town of Siena. She received the habit of the Third Order of St. Dominic at the age of 16. Catherine worked among the poor of Siena, and was active in the conversion of a large number of people. But her greatest fame derived from her attempts to reunite a divided Church. At 29 she went to Avignon. France, and persuaded the French Pope Gregory XI to return the Papacy to Rome. She tried unsuccessfully to persuade Gregory to carry out sweeping reforms in the Church. After his death she tried to heal the great schism of the West which was opened by the election of the anti-Pope
in Clement VII 1378. Catherine
rallied all of Italy behind the legally-elected Pope Urban VI.
Pope Urban summoned her to Rome in 1378 and she died there two years later at the age of 33. She was made a saint in 1461, and later Patron Saint of Rome and then of all Italy.
Although illiterate, Catherine dictated more than 400 letters and a "dialogue," which are regarded as among the most remarkable mysticworks of all
time. o
The Doctors of the Church Gregory the St, Augustine, the Great. St. Thomas Aquinas, Pope Leo the Great, St. Francis de Sales and Antony of Padua.
Common Communion in
NGLICANS in some of the Fijian islands will now be able to receive Holy Communion in Catholic churches and missions when their own clergy are absent for long periods, and provided their belief in the Eucharist accords with Roman Catholic Faith.
The ruling, issued in June by the Pacific Bishops' Conference, was later announced by Archbishop Pearce of Suva, who said it was based on the Directory on Ecumenism, issued by the Holy See in 1967. Bishop Guichet of the Gilbert Islands has given the same permission to four Anglicans in Nauru and Ocean Island, in response to a request from the Anglican Bishop in Polynesia.
THREE CONDITIONS
In all cases, three conditions must be fulfilled: The request for Communion must he spontaneous: the Anglicans must express a belief in the Eucharist consonant with Catholic teaching: and the request must arise from the absence of Anglican clergy for long periods.
Experiment at Westmi nster
MASS was celebrated in the Crypt Chapel at Westminster Cathedral on Friday evening, using an experimental form in line with the proposed changes to take place next Advent. The small chapel, which was full, and the semi-circular seating, added to the feeling of community, which was further enhanced by the manner in which the gesture of the kiss of peace was passed round among everyone. The Mass was celebrated by Fr. J. Galvin and afterwards many of the congregation stayed for discussion.