The Holy See has announced a forthcoming Apostolic Constitution which will establishPersonal Ordinariates which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony. Under the terms of the Apostolic Constitution, pastoral oversight and guidance will be provided for groups of former Anglicans through a Personal Ordinariate, whose Ordinary will usually be appointed from among former Anglican clergy.The Note from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith specifies that the Apostolic Constitution "provides for the ordination as Catholic priests of married former Anglican clergy" but that Bishops will have to be unmarried men, in accord with the historic tradition of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. However, the possibility is left open for the Ordinary to be a priest rather than a Bishop.
The "Background Information" given with the note mentions Henry VIII, the growth of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the work of ecumenism. It also says:
In the years since the Council, some Anglicans have abandoned the tradition of conferring Holy Orders only on men by calling women to the priesthood and the episcopacy. More recently, some segments of the Anglican Communion have departed from the common biblical teaching on human sexuality—already clearly stated in the ARCIC document "Life in Christ"—by the ordination of openly homosexual clergy and the blessing of homosexual partnerships. At the same time, as the Anglican Communion faces these new and difficult challenges, the Catholic Church remains fully committed to continuing ecumenical engagement with the Anglican Communion, particularly through the efforts of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.The joint statement from Archbishop Nichols and Archbishop Williams focuses particularly on the ecumenical question. This rather cuts both ways. If the new arrangement is "consistent with" (CDF) and "one consequence of" (Nichols/Williams) the ecumenical dialogue of the past forty years, then this is something of a "Summorum Pontificum moment" in that the post-conciliar ecumenical dialogue is seen something that can lead to a canonical structure under the authority of the Holy See. This is consistent with the understanding of Vatican II according to a hermeneutic of continuity but one could be forgiven at some times during the past forty years for thinking that ecumenical dialogue was not actually intended to lead in this direction.
The new structure will, of course, open up the possibility in England of "Anglican Use" Churches in communion with the Holy See, providing a further option for Catholics wishing to fulfil their Sunday obligation.
I am pleased at the news and offer my warmest congratulations to all those Anglicans who have been longing for such an arrangement. I wonder whether the development of the "Anglican Use" ordinariates will help in the recovery of at least some elements of our distinctive English Sarum use that were lost at the Reformation alongside those that were preserved in the Church of England.
19 comments:
The liberal theologians have opened up a hole and this pope is driving the truck of evangelism right through it.
There is nothing more refreshing than an unapologeticly Catholic Pope
I have seen articles stating that the Traditional Anglican Communion has 400,000 or 500,000 adherents, only 5,000 in the United States.
Are the others concentrated in any particular locations?
If they continue with the Anglican Missal we can look forward to the Tridentine Rite in English!
I reckon this is the type of model for eventually letting the SSPX have jurisdiction – it's all very closely based on Opus Dei's "personal prelature" model.
Basically, the Pope is saying his role is as a shepherd: the sheep can be blue, green or pink, but if they're sheep they belong to him. (And if they can "do" liturgy in the traditional manner he's especially interested!)
So happy about this, for all those excellent Catholic-minded Anglicans; and for others too. I know of Roman Catholics (using the term for clarity's sake here) who became so disillusioned with their experience of the post-Concilar Church that they began attending Anglo-Catholic churches. Some, in their anxiety about this step, went so far as to ascertain whether the particular Anglican priest had received illict-but-valid orders, which some CofE clergy have for many years been particularly concerned to do.
I do not agree with the decisions they made, but my heart has always gone out to them. I have prayed - and have wept - for a long time.
Thank God for our dear Pope Benedict, and may this work out for the good of many, many sincere people.
Good news.
The 'Anglican Use' has much to commend it from what I can see in this excerpt from the Book of Divine Worship that pastoral provision parishes in the USA use:
http://www.walsingham-church.org/mass.htm
Makes our present ICEL texts look even more inadequate ...
Our Lady of Walsingham pray for us!
As a former member of the Church of England who was received into the Church but six years ago, this act of true ecumenism is excellent news!
I look forward to our mutual enrichment, sharing what is good and true within our traditions.
Dear Fr. Tim, I wonder whether this new canonical structure, personal ordinariate, might work also for the SSPX? If I understand the news correctly, military ordinariates can keep/found their own parishes in different dioceses quite easily, whereas a personal prelature is not able to work in a diocese without the permission of the local bishop. Is it so? -- Naturally one could imagine that there are quite a few bishops around who would not allow the SSPX, reconciled as a personal prelature, to work in their dioceses.
You wrote
" one could be forgiven at some times during the past forty years (for believing) that ecumenical dialogue was not actually intended to lead in this direction."
From the NY Times (Europe Edition)
"Noticeably, no one from the Vatican's ecumenical office on relations with Anglicans attended the news conference; Levada said he had invited representatives to attend but they said they were all away from Rome."
I'm sure there's a metaphor lurking somewhere here - but I'll leave it to the discerning readership of this blog to work it out
I too congratulate Anglicans who feel thay will be at home in the RC church, as well as any who might want to swim the Tiber hte other way.
What I welcome about this announcement is that it's valuable in opening the way to ordination of women bishops in the CofE, which was a certainty once we had women deacons, and it avoids fudges about women being almost-but-not-quite bishops. It would be in the interests of neither institution for one to fly apart acrimoniously.
I hope sincerely that anybody who moves from one body to the other finds wht they're looking for.
I am curious as to whether or not any future priests if not already married will be given a "gimmee."
I hope not. i.e. if they are already married, then okay, but NOT along the lines of the eastern rite Catholics. Because if you do it for one western rite, then all the priests should have the privilege -- I don't think any of the not-already-Anglican priests should get a pass.
Fifteen years ago we were assured that a canonical structure like this was impossible! I wonder how many in the UK will run with it, my suspicion is that it will be used as a bargaining chip to get a better quality fudge over Women Bishops.
Here's a different perspective:
http://www.liturgy.co.nz/blog/end-of-anglican-communion/1756
I am an episcopal priest and have always held a traditional view of the Holy Eucharist and the incarnational theology of the Roman Catholic communion. I have not yet understood the relatively recent concept of papal infallibility, or the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin, given the scriptural references to the brothers and sisters of Jesus.Still yet I am hopeful that union will take place
Fr Tim: In what respects did the Sarum Rite differ from the Roman Rite?
We await the fine details. One aspect I'm not happy about is the notion of an "Anglican Rite". How can this be Catholic, given that the Anglican liturgy was designed as an explicit denial of the Catholic Mass? Have we forgotten the 1549 Prayer Book Rebellion? By all means welcome our separated brethren into the One True Fold, but not on their terms! The impression I've got in recent months is that the Catholic Church is looked upon as a port of convenience by some Anglicans. That simply won't do. When Anglican clergy are ordained as Catholic priests, they should be given training in celebrating the Catholic Mass (and I agree with gemoftheocean's point on celibacy).
I have a sugesstion. Given that many "traditional" Anglicans are keen on all things supposedly English, why don't they all agree to celebrate the rite of Mass that St. Augustine of Canterbury would have celebrated: the Gregorian Rite. That same rite which, over 14 centuries later, many of we English Catholics are still assisting at each week...in the language that St. Augustine would have celebrated it in.
"scriptural references to the brothers and sisters of Jesus"
Cousins? Many eastern societies don't make distinctions between members of the immediate family and those of the extended family.
Many thanks - I missed that. Good information on questions such as this at Catholic Answers.
On this specific question, see: Brethren of the Lord.
I'm Catholic, and I would rather go to an Anglican Communion church that has a traditional Mass than mine, which has the happy-clappy, hand-holding type of Mass.
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