Urbi et Orbi. ("to the City [of Rome] and to the World") denotes a papal address and Apostolic Blessing given to the City of Rome and to the entire world on certain occasions.
In addition it pretty much says a whole lot about where we all are located and what we should all be shinning our lights on.!
Because looks to me that Only The Holy Father and me know where we are and what we are doing here.
More on that later, first some brief background information.
A brief history of English speaking people and Rome is needed so here we are. Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54
BC as part of his Gallic Wars. He received tribute, installed a friendly king over the Trinovantes, and returned to Gaul. Planned invasions under Augustus were called off in 34, 27, and 25
BC.
In
AD 40, Caligula assembled 200,000 men at the Channel, only to have them gather seashells. Three years later, Claudius directed four legions to invade Britain and restore an exiled king over the Atrebates. The Romans defeated the Catuvellauni, and then organized their conquests as the
Province of Britain (Latin:
Provincia Britannia). By the year 47, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way.
Control over Wales was delayed by reverses and the effects of Boudica's rebellion, but the Romans expanded steadily northward. Under the 2nd-century emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, two walls were built to defend the Roman province from the Caledonians, whose realms in the Scottish Highlands were never directly controlled. Around 197, the Severan Reforms divided Britain into two provinces: Upper and Lower (
Britannia Superior and
Inferior).
During the Diocletian Reforms, at the end of the 3rd century, Britannia was divided into four provinces under the direction of a vicar, who administered the
Diocese of the Britains.
A fifth province, Valentia, is attested in the later 4th century. For much of the later period of the Roman occupation, Britannia was subject to barbarian invasions and often came under the control of imperial usurpers and Imperial pretenders. The final Roman withdrawal from Britain occurred around 410; the native kingdoms are considered to have formed Sub-Roman Britain after that.
The earliest confirmed written evidence for Christianity in Britain is a statement by Tertullian, c. 200 AD, in which he described "
all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ.
The Church in Britain seems to have developed the customary diocesan system, as evidenced from the records of the Council of Arles in Gaul in 314: represented at the Council were bishops from thirty-five sees from Europe and North Africa, including three bishops from Britain, Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelphius, possibly a bishop of Lincoln.
No other early sees are documented, and the material remains of early church structures are far to seek.
The existence of a church in the forum courtyard of Lincoln and the
martyrium of Saint Alban on the outskirts of Roman Verulamium are exceptional.
Alban, the first British Christian martyr and by far the most prominent, is believed to have died in the early 4th century (although some date him in the middle 3rd century), followed by Saints Julius and Aaron of Isca Augusta.
Christianity was legalised in the Roman Empire by Constantine I in 313. Theodosius I made Christianity the state religion of the empire in 391, and by the 5th century it was well established. One belief labelled a heresy by the church authorities — Pelagianism — was originated by a British monk teaching in Rome: Pelagius lived c. 354 to c. 420/440.
In 597 AD, the first authoritative papal mission, establishing a direct link from the Kingdom of Kent to the See of Rome and to the Benedictine form of monasticism, was carried into effect by Augustine of Canterbury.
In 597, Pope Gregory I sent Augustine of Canterbury and 40 missionaries from Rome to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons, a process completed by the 7th century. The Gregorian mission as it is known, is of particular interest in the Catholic Church as
it was the first official Papal mission to found a Church.
With the help of Christians already residing in Kent, Augustine established an archbishopric in Canterbury, the old capital of Kent, and, having received the pallium earlier (linking his new diocese to Rome),
became the first in the series of Catholic archbishops of Canterbury, four of whom (Laurence, Mellitus, Justus and Honorius) were part of the original band of Benedictine missionaries. (The
last Catholic archbishop of Canterbury was Reginald Pole, who died in 1558.)
During this time of mission, Rome pursued greater unity with the local church in Britain, particularly on the question of dating Easter. Columbanus, Columba's fellow countryman and churchman, had asked for a papal judgement on the Easter question as did abbots and bishops of Ireland.
Later, in his
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, Bede explained the reasons for the discrepancy: "He [Columba] left successors distinguished for great charity, Divine love, and strict attention to the rules of discipline following indeed uncertain cycles in the computation of the great festival of Easter, because far away as they were out of the world, no one had supplied them with the synodal decrees relating to the Paschal observance."
A series of synods were held to resolve the matter, culminating with the Synod of Whitby in 644. The missionaries also introduced the Rule of Benedict, the continental rule, to Anglo-Saxon monasteries in England. Wilfrid, a Benedictine consecrated archbishop of York (in 664), was particularly skilled in promoting the Benedictine Rule. Over time, the Benedictine, continental rule engrafted upon the monasteries and parishes of England, drawing them closer to The Continent and Rome.
The English Church continuously adhered to See of Rome for almost a thousand years from the time of Augustine of Canterbury. England remained a Catholic country until 1534, when it first officially separated from Rome during the reign of King Henry VIII. In response to the Pope's refusal to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Parliament denied the Pope's authority over the English Church, made the king Head of the Church in England, and dissolved the monasteries and religious orders in England.
The
English Church was brought back under full papal authority in 1553, at the beginning of the reign of Queen Mary, however, when Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558,
the Church of England's independence from Rome was reasserted through the settlement of 1559, which shifted the Church of England's teaching and practice, and in the Act of Uniformity, which caused a rift between Catholics and Queen. In 1570 Pope Pius V responded, in his papal bull
Regnans in Excelsis, calling on all Catholics to rebel against Elizabeth and excommunicating anyone who obeyed her.
The Parliament of England made the fact of being a Jesuit or seminarian treasonable in 1571. Priests found celebrating Mass were often hanged, drawn and quartered, rather than being burned at the stake.
The Catholic Church (along with other non-established churches Non- Conformist, more on this later) continued in England, although it was at times subject to various forms of persecution.
Most recusant members (except those in diaspora on the Continent, in heavily Catholic areas in the north, or part of the aristocracy) practiced their faith in private for all practical purposes. In 1766, the Pope recognized the English Monarchy as lawful, and this led eventually to the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829. Dioceses (replacing districts) were re-established by Pope Pius IX in 1850.
In the 2001 United Kingdom census, there were 4.2 million Roman Catholics in England and Wales, some eight per cent of the population. One hundred years earlier, in 1901, they had represented only 4.8 per cent of the population.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Cathedral
