VIDEO: Ordinariate Vicar General Receives Papal Honors

On May 10 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham, Bishop Steven Lopes of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter conferred papal honors in the name of Pope Francis on Msgr. Timothy Perkins, the ordinariate’s vicar general, that name him a Chaplain of His Holiness and grant him the title “monsignor.”

“This recognition by the universal Church demonstrates that a priest has undertaken great work and sacrifice for the benefit of the whole Body of Christ,” Bishop Lopes said in his remarks during Solemn Choral Evensong at the cathedral. “In a particular way it honors monsignor’s decisive role in the movement that led to the publication of the apostolic constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus, and establishment of this very diocese and its cathedral. It is therefore a recognition the Ordinariate itself makes a contribution to the life of the Catholic Church that should be celebrated.”

Bishop Lopes mentioned Msgr. Perkins’s long-standing commitment to ecumenical unity, and how the vicar general had shared with him what a privilege it was to lead the St. Peter the Rock community into the Catholic Church as the Ordinariate’s first community. While the St. Peter the Rock community no longer exists, the bishop mentioned its faithful are now part of the St. John Vianney parish community in Cleburne Texas and St. Mary the Virgin in Arlington, Texas, both of which are flourishing.

The bishop read the decree in Latin and in English, which was dated 23 December 2020 and signed by Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the substitute of the Vatican Secretariat of State. It stated, “The Supreme Pontiff Francis names among his own chaplains the Rev. Timothy Perkins of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, and decrees the same be called Reverend Monsignor.”

In introducing the papal honors, Bishop Lopes mentioned that he remembered first conferring papal honors in 2015 on the cathedral’s Dr. Clinton Brand, a papal Knight of St. Gregory and one of the original Anglicanae Traditiones commission members, and then in 2020 conferring the Benemerenti Medal on Laurie Miller, Carolyn Barnett, and Deacon Jim Barnett for their service to the Ordinariate.

“Each of those moments honors pioneering work of so many people and so many priests,” he said. The bishop emphasized that all the good work the Ordinariate can rejoice in and looks boldly toward in its future is “because we stand on the shoulders of some wonderful men and women.”

“This is a foundation we can and must continue to build upon,” Bishop Lopes said, “and they give us a witness of faith and fidelity that is eloquent indeed.”
 

Watch the conferral of papal honors below: 

Conferral of Papal Honors from Ordinariate on Vimeo.