The big news today is of course the announcement that five Anglican bishops have tendered their resignation to the Archbishop of Canterbury with the intention of joining the Ordinariate envisaged by Anglicanorum Coetibus as soon as it is established. They are Bishops Andrew Burnham, Keith Newton, John Broadhurst, Edwin Barnes and David Silk.
Anna Arco has a good report on the Catholic Herald's website today. The report includes the full statement of the five Bishops and the statement of Bishop Alan Hopes who is the Catholic bishop responsible for liaison regarding the Ordinariate. The Catholic News Service has a couple of brief quotations from Fr Lombardi, Director of the Vatican Press Office confirming the announcement.
Speaking to the BBC, Bishop Andrew Burnham explained the important point that it is not simply a question of the ordination of women bishops:
Women bishops is a presenting issue, but it’s the question of whether the Anglican church is, as it says it is, is part of the universal church going back to the time of Jesus or whether it is going off in its own way and making its own rules. We think it is going off in its own way and making up its own rules and we therefore need to belong to the older body.Spin it how you like, this is a truly momentous and unprecedented event. I have been rather more optimistic than some about the prospects for the Ordinariate but I did not imagine that five Bishops would together announce their resignations and their intention to come into full communion with the Holy See.
Today's announcement is an act of genuine and courageous leadership on their part. It will, I am sure, be of great encouragement to other Anglican clergy and people who have been pondering the question over the past few months. Congratulations to all those who have been working hard to bring about the Ordinariate. Please pray for all those who are involved in the continued preparations to establish it.
8 comments:
We should also remember that these five bishops are not the first. A former assistant bishop of Newcastle converted a few weeks ago as did a former Bishop of London some years ago.
This is essential reading. Don't get too excited!
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/
I think, to be fair, that there are quite a number of the Faithful who have already decided to do the same thing; but I understand that it has been decided to keep them very quiet and confidential until the actual arrangement is in place . . . which makes sense.
Let us all pray for this development, and for all those involved in it.
EtExpecto: this is indeed the case, and there have been at least two others (back in the 1990s) that you have not mentioned. What is remarkable and newsworthy about these five is not only their departure and their destination, but the means by which they intend to reach the latter.
Dominic Mary: indeed so. My parish priest keeps dropping veiled references to shadowy meetings in London at which things are discussed that he is not supposed to tell me about. It's all very mysterious and very exciting! I heard that there are 24 groups, and the ones I know of have about twenty people in them. This thing is going to roll and roll.
The BBC's fascinating take on this is that existing Anglican bishops are already validly connected to the unbroken line of Apostolic Succession. See the 4th paragraph of Robert Pigott's 'Analysis' at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11709148
I have submitted the following complaint about this, and thought others may like to do likewise. If so, feel free to PARAPHRASE any of my complaint if you wish, but please dont copy/paste part or all of my submission, otherwise it's likely to invalidate both my complaint and yours!
Also, when submitting a BBC complaint, it always carries more weight if you click on the 'Offence' option, rather than 'Bias', or 'Factual Error or Inaccuracy'. The 'Bias' one is especially useless as they just produce a generic response, banging on about total balance across the whole range of BBC output etc.
The BBC complaints site is at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/homepage/
My submission:
"Your report about 5 Anglican bishops joining the Catholic Church contains a statement in the Analysis section by Robert Pigott which is offensive to Catholics and factually incorrect. It concerns the 4th para in that section, which states: 'a bishop has a special place in the Church of England - a position of leadership for which his authority has been passed down by the laying on of hands from bishop to bishop over the 2,000 years since the time of Jesus and his apostles formed the first, universal, church.'
This is both offensive to Catholics and factually incorrect in that, at the Reformation, the 'Apostolic succession' which is referred to here, was completely severed: at that time, any bishop who was spared his life, had to renounce his Roman vows, and swear on Henry VIII's Oath of Supremacy instead, declaring that Henry was head of God's church on earth. As such, Anglican Episcopal orders do not go back 2000 years (as your piece states), but only go back less than 500 years, and more importantly (for reasons stated), they do not possess the indelible mark of ordination originating from the Apostles. IF THEY DID, THEN ANGLICAN CLERGY WOULD BE, SACRAMENTALLY, THE SAME AS CATHOLIC CLERGY, and that is why your statement is offensive to Catholics.
This sacramental break (of Anglican clergy) at the Reformation is clearly stated by the Universal Church in the Papal Bull, Apostolicae Curae, issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1896 declaring that Anglican Orders (ie Ordination) were ‘absolutely null and utterly void’, because of a double effect of form and intention in Anglican ordination rites. The [Anglican] changes had been introduced with the explicit intention of excluding the idea of a sacrificial ministerial priesthood exercised in the Eucharist.
This was later reaffirmed in the 1964 Vatican document UNITATIS REDINTEGRATIO; followed in 1994 by the Catechism of the Catholic Church - Para 1400; then by the document One Bread, One Body, issued by the UK Catholic bishops in 1998; and finally in 2000 by the Vatican document Dominus Iesus.
Your Religious Affairs Correspondent needs to a) do some homework, and b) to try to stop continuing to offend Catholics, WHO ARE LICENSE PAYERS!"
The BBC's fascinating take on this is that existing Anglican bishops are already validly connected to the unbroken line of Apostolic Succession. See the 4th paragraph of Robert Pigott's 'Analysis' at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11709148
I have submitted the following complaint about this, and thought others may like to do likewise. If so, feel free to PARAPHRASE any of my complaint if you wish, but please dont copy/paste part or all of my submission, otherwise it's likely to invalidate both my complaint and yours!
Also, when submitting a BBC complaint, it always carries more weight if you click on the 'Offence' option, rather than 'Bias', or 'Factual Error or Inaccuracy'.
The BBC complaints site is at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/homepage/
My submission:
"Your report about 5 Anglican bishops joining the Catholic Church contains a statement in the Analysis section by Robert Pigott which is offensive to Catholics and factually incorrect. It concerns the 4th para in that section, which states: 'a bishop has a special place in the Church of England - a position of leadership for which his authority has been passed down by the laying on of hands from bishop to bishop over the 2,000 years since the time of Jesus and his apostles formed the first, universal, church.'
This is both offensive to Catholics and factually incorrect in that, at the Reformation, the 'Apostolic succession' which is referred to here, was completely severed: at that time, any bishop who was spared his life, had to renounce his Roman vows, and swear on Henry VIII's Oath of Supremacy instead, declaring that Henry was head of God's church on earth. As such, Anglican Episcopal orders do not go back 2000 years (as your piece states), but only go back less than 500 years, and more importantly (for reasons stated), they do not possess the indelible mark of ordination originating from the Apostles. IF THEY DID, THEN ANGLICAN CLERGY WOULD BE, SACRAMENTALLY, THE SAME AS CATHOLIC CLERGY, and that is why your statement is offensive to Catholics.
This sacramental break (of Anglican clergy) at the Reformation is clearly stated by the Universal Church in the Papal Bull, Apostolicae Curae, issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1896 declaring that Anglican Orders (ie Ordination) were ‘absolutely null and utterly void’, because of a double effect of form and intention in Anglican ordination rites. The [Anglican] changes had been introduced with the explicit intention of excluding the idea of a sacrificial ministerial priesthood exercised in the Eucharist.
This was later reaffirmed in the 1964 Vatican document UNITATIS REDINTEGRATIO; followed in 1994 by the Catechism of the Catholic Church - Para 1400; then by the document One Bread, One Body, issued by the UK Catholic bishops in 1998; and finally in 2000 by the Vatican document Dominus Iesus.
Your Religious Affairs Correspondent needs to a) do some homework, and b) to try to stop continuing to offend Catholics, WHO ARE LICENSE PAYERS!"
The BBC's fascinating take on this is that existing Anglican bishops are already validly connected to the unbroken line of Apostolic Succession. See the 4th paragraph of Robert Pigott's 'Analysis' at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11709148
This states: "a bishop has a special place in the Church of England - a position of leadership for which his authority has been passed down by the laying on of hands from bishop to bishop over the 2,000 years since the time of Jesus and his apostles formed the first, universal, church."
Now, I bet you never knew that!
I have submitted a complaint about this, pointing out the Papal Bull, Apostolicae Curae, issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1896 declaring that Anglican Orders (ie Ordination) were ‘absolutely null and utterly void’, because of deficiency of intention and of form of the Anglican ordination rites; and that this was later reaffirmed in the 1964 Vatican document UNITATIS REDINTEGRATIO; followed in 1994 by the Catechism of the Catholic Church - Para 1400; then by the document One Bread, One Body, issued by the UK Catholic bishops in 1998; and finally in 2000 by the Vatican document Dominus Iesus.
I felt others may also like to complain.
The BBC complaints site is at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/homepage/
Also, when submitting a BBC complaint, it always carries more weight if you click on the 'Offence' option, rather than 'Bias', or 'Factual Error or Inaccuracy'. The 'Bias' option is especially useless as they just produce a generic reply on the basis of: 'there is total balance across the whole range of BBC output', blah blah blah.
Fr Tim: my comment re the "Ordinariate picking up steam" / BBC has appeared on your site 3 times! I think this is because it told me the longer version (1st post) was too long. I then tried a slightly shorter one which it also said was too long, and then I posted a much shorter one which it accepted. But then, mysteriously, it's allowed all 3 to go up!
Clearly the 2nd and 3rd can be deleted.
Best regards,
Geoff
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