Posted on 11/24/2015 7:05:49 PM PST by marshmallow
Vatican City, Nov 24, 2015 / 07:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has appointed Msgr. Steven Lopes, a Catholic priest from California, as the new bishop who will head the Anglican Ordinariate in the United States and Canada.
Bishop-elect Lopes, 40, is originally from the Archdiocese of San Francisco in the United States, and currently serves as an official for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith
He will be taking over for Msgr. Jeffrey N. Steenson, a former Episcopal bishop appointed by Benedict XVI in 2012 to shepherd the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.
The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is a special diocese-like structure that allows entire Anglican communities to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while retaining certain elements of the liturgy and other customs.
Ordinariates are similar to dioceses but typically national in scope. Pope Benedict authorized the creation of ordinariates for Anglican communities seeking to enter the Catholic Church in his 2009 apostolic constitution, "Anglicanorum coetibus."
Based in Houston, Texas, the Ordinariate has more than 40 Roman Catholic parishes and communities across the United States and Canada.
A married Anglican priest can be ordained a Catholic priest but not a bishop. Instead, as in the case of Msgr. Steenson, they become an "ordinary," who carries all the authority of a bishop except that of being able to ordain priests.
Msgr. Lopes' appointment, then, marks the first time a Roman Catholic bishop has been named for any of the world's three Personal Ordinariates: Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom; the Chair of Saint Peter in the United States and Canada; and Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia.
The announcement that bishop-elect Lopes will be taking over for the retiring.......
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
When does the FSSP get their own bishop(s)?
Is there a reason he should?
All great news. I attend OLW in Houston and met Bishop-elect Lopes in Rome last year at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He is a leader and inspirational servant, smart man, very connected to Pope Francis, as well as Benedict/Ratzinger who put all of this in motion after John Paul II got things moving. This is good for the anglican use mass in America, and coexistence with Cardinal Dinardo’s diocese in Houston has been excellent. There is a close connection with University of St Thomas / St Mary’s Seminary also. It is nice to see a story in the news about good things coming together, and to be a part of it. Glad I swam the Tiber a few years ago, with the whole family: my daughter in the lead. Faith, Family, Freedom: that is what they preach: works for me.
FE
“Is there a reason he should?”
Yes, FSSP should have its own bishop for its protection - just like Opus Dei and now the U.S. Ordinariate.
So, does Bishop Lopes “get” the Anglican Patrimony/ethos?
Steenson isn’t retirement age, is he? I didn’t think he was that old.
The FSSP is a religious order. Religious orders do not usually have bishops at the head. The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is not an order. It is more like a diocese.
Because I am a cradle Catholic I cannot join the Ordinariate, but I am a member of an Ordinariate parish in Baltimore that celebrates the Divine Worship exclusively.
If you are a Traditionally minded Catholic but can’t find a Tridentine Mass to attend, I think you would be very pleased with an Anglican Use (a.k.a. Divine Worship) parish.
My spiritual director is a priest of the FSSP and he thinks very highly of the Mass celebrated according tomthe Divine Worship Missal.
According to my pastor, who is a former Anglican priest, now a Catholic priest of the Ordinariate, Bishop-designate Lopes very much “gets” the ethos. He was the driving force behind the Catholicization of the Anglican liturgy for the ordinariates, as well as for the creation and development of the ordinariates themselves. My pastor told me this long before Msgr. Lopes’ appointment as bishop of the Ordinariate, so he’s not just being a loyal soldier speaking well of his new commanding officer.
The general concensus is that he was the right man for the job, and that this appointment strengthens the ordinariate’s position as a permanent reality and puts it on an equal footing with the “other” dioceses of the U.S. and Canada.
“So, does Bishop Lopes “get†the Anglican Patrimony/ethos?”
Yes, I think he does. I just looked him up online. He’s been involved in all of this for some years now.
“Steenson isn’t retirement age, is he? I didn’t think he was that old.”
Steenson is 63. I was surprised he retired. The fact that Lopes was named on the same day means this was in the works for some time. Lopes, by the way, is only 40 years old! The pope picked someone young - I’m sure - because the travel demands are really overwhelming. Bishop Lopes will be in charge of parishes all over North America. He also will be the only Roman bishop I can think of who will be a voting member of the USCCB and the Canadian Bishops’ Conference as well. I hope he likes air travel.
“It is more like a diocese.”
In a sense the FSSP is like a diocese too. Since is says only the old Mass it is in a similar position to Eastern Catholics in “Roman” dioceses. We have different liturgies, music, preaching styles, and, sad to say, different traditions. And there is most certainly a different atmosphere. In some respects I would feel more at home at the Anglican Use or the Divine Liturgy (at a Ruthenian parish, for instance) than at a “modern” Roman parish.
*** He was the driving force behind the Catholicization of the Anglican liturgy for the ordinariates, as well as for the creation and development of the ordinariates themselves. ***
http://www.anglicanuse.org/ObituaryforFrBrown.htm
I thought the Anglican Use liturgy, the work of Fr. St John Brown preceded the Divine Worship missal the Ordinariates use.
Thanks for those links. Posted my comment on Fr. St John Brown prior to reading the links.
Episcopal to RC....frying pan to fire.
“I attend an FSSP parish.”
As do I.
“Yes, the Mass is from the 1962 Missal, but other than that, the parish is part of the Archdiocese.”
Yes, but it is different than any parish in the diocese and is more akin to an Eastern Catholic parish or Anglican Use parish than a “typical” 1970 Paul VI Mass parish.
Look at the facts:
- different liturgy.
- different liturgical language.
- different liturgical calendar. You and I celebrated the Feast of Christ the King weeks ago. Everybody else just did it this past weekend. On January 1st you and I will be celebrating one feast day and everyone else will be celebrating another. You can’t tell me that doesn’t matter.
- different music
- and different language used in music
- different texts used (Douay-Confraternity Bible, Baltimore Catechism, Roman Catechism, often different prayer books, always different Breviary).
- priests are NEVER ordained by the ordinary of that diocese.
- order priests, never diocesan priests.
- order directly dependent on the pope and not any ordinary.
- specially designated parishes which are completely unique in the entire diocese (except for Eastern Catholic or Anglican Use parishes).
“The Bishop administers Confirmation, just as in any other parish in the Diocese.”
Only because we have been denied our own bishop. If we had our own bishop, then that wouldn’t be the case. Your point then doesn’t make much sense. Anglican Use Catholics in North America have their own Bishop now. How about Latin Mass Catholics - people who have always been Catholic - having a Bishop for themselves? Seriously, if a “Western Orthodox” group that used the Sarum liturgy decided to become Catholic we would welcome them with open arms. And they would have their own Bishop soon enough - as they should. And we don’t have one?
“frying pan to fire.”
More like Purgatory to Heaven.
It would be nice! :) There’s no reason why we couldn’t do something like what they did in Brazil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Apostolic_Administration_of_Saint_John_Mary_Vianney
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