Posted on 10/29/2009 10:34:26 AM PDT by NYer
What are ordinariates and what is an ordinary? And how can anything be entrusted to a priest without it being entrusted to a bishop under whom a priest operates? Do Catholic priests work independent of bishops? In Eastern Churches, a priest without a bishop has no authority. Pleas clarify.
But, overall, from what you are saying it seems like the Anglican Rite will be a separate body under special provisions that are neither here nor there with respect to anything else in the Latin Church. Is that close?
An ordinariate is an ecclesial structure that is governed by an ordinary. An ordinary is the chief hierarch of an ordinariate. The bishop of a diocese is the ordinary of the diocese. Any auxiliary bishops that he may have to assist him are not ordinaries of the diocese. However, here the term is used a little more narrowly. I haven’t seen a formal definition, but I’ll provisionally define it as being an ecclesial structure that is governed by an ordinary, but is not a territorial diocese, territorial abbey, or other structure.
The example that folks have given is that of military ordinariates. There is a military ordinariate in the Catholic Church for the United States Armed Forces. The ordinary of this ordinariate is usually an archbishop. All the priests who serve as chaplains within the US military are incardinated in this ordinariate, and report to the archbishop of the ordinariate. Thus, if you’re in the military, and you’re Catholic, you belong to the military ordinariate, and you follow the specific law for the military ordinariate, your priest would ordinarily be a military chaplain, and his bishop would be the archbishop of the military ordinariate.
A structure like the military ordinariate is established to meet the needs of a specific Catholic community that isn’t territorial in nature. Thus, the ordinariate can make its own legislation concerning church disciplines such as the Eucharistic fast, Lenten fasts, observance of Holy Days, Sunday Mass assistance, etc. As an example, the miilitary ordinariate might exempt soldiers in battle from the Eucharistic fast, because the demands of their circumstances make it impossible to safely keep the fast.
By having all members of the armed services belong to the ordinariate, military chaplains can apply to one bishop for guidance, direction and law, rather than having to engage each individual ordinary [bishop] of each individual diocese through which they might travel.
Other ordinaries include abbots of territorial abbeys. These are abbeys where surrounding territory is attached to the abbey, and the parishes, priests and Catholic laity in that territory are subject to the authority of the abbot. These are dramatically reduced in number in the Catholic Church from previous centuries, but there still are some around. The abbot of a territorial abbey isn’t a bishop, nonetheless, he has the jurisdiction within his abbey of a bishop, or rather, of an ordinary.
The new personal ordinariates, thus, will include those priests, parishes and laity of the Anglican tradition who attach themselves to these ordinariates.
The ordinaries of these structures can be bishops or priests. There will be some canonical and theological differences between bishop-ordinaries and priest-ordinaries.
The following is my understanding of things, and we’ll have to see the details of the Apostolic Constitution to see how correct is my understanding.
As you know, a bishop is a successor to the apostles, and teaches and acts of his own authority, equal to any other bishop in the world, save that he must not teach heresy or intentionally harm the Church. His ministry and authority derive directly from Christ, and are not delegated to him from another.
But a priest-ordinary, although he would have full authority in his ordinariate to govern, to teach, to sanctify, his authority would be a delegated one from another. I imagine this delegation will come from the pope himself, or perhaps in conjunction with a local territorial diocesan bishop.
I also imagine that priest-ordinaries will be unable to ordain other priests or consecrate bishops. They will likely have delegated to them the faculties to perform the sacrament of Confirmation (which is a faculty that is inherent to bishops) and to forgive sins that are usually reserved to bishops.
It may seem odd, or even wrong that the ordinariy of a diocese-like structure might not be a bishop. But at least in the Catholic Church, this happens regularly under certain circumstances. When the bishop-ordinary of a diocese dies or must resign suddenly, the Church may not provide immediately for his permanent replacement. Nonetheless, the work of the diocese must continue, and the Church may appoint a priest who is not a bishop as an apostolic administrator of the diocese. This person governs the diocese until a bishop may be appointed as the new ordinary of the diocese. In the interim, the apostolic administrator functions as the ordinary, although if this person is not a bishop, his authority is delegated rather than intrinsic.
Hope that helps a little.
sitetest
“But, overall, from what you are saying it seems like the Anglican Rite will be a separate body under special provisions that are neither here nor there with respect to anything else in the Latin Church. Is that close?”
Sort of, I guess, maybe. We’ll have to wait for the Apostolic Constitution to actually be released to get more precise answers.
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