Posted on 10/20/2009 6:35:50 AM PDT by STARWISE
The Vatican has made it easier for Anglicans to join the Catholic Church, responding to the disillusionment of some Anglicans over the election of openly gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions.
Pope Benedict XVI approved a new church provision that will allow Anglicans to convert while maintaining many of their distinctive spiritual and liturgical traditions, Cardinal William Levada, the Vatican's chief doctrinal official, told a news conference Tuesday.
In the past, such exemptions had only been granted in a few cases in certain countries. The new church provision is designed to allow Anglicans around the world to access a new church structure if they want to convert.
The decision immediately raised questions about how the new provision would be received within the 77-million strong Anglican Communion, the global Anglican church, which has been on the verge of a schism over divisions within its membership about women bishops, gay bishops and gay unions.
The new Catholic church structures, called Personal Ordinariates, will be units of faithful established within local Catholic Churches, headed by former Anglican prelates who will provide spiritual care for Anglicans who wish to be Catholic.
They would most closely resemble Catholic military ordinariates, special units of the church established in most countries to provide spiritual care for the members of the armed forces and their dependents.
"Those Anglicans who have approached the Holy See have made clear their desire for full, visible unity in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church," Levada said. "At the same time, they have told us of the importance of their Anglican traditions of spirituality and worship for their faith journey."
The new canonical structure is a response to the many requests that have come to the Vatican over the years from Anglicans who have become increasingly disillusioned with the progressive bent of the Anglican Communion. Many have already left and consider themselves Catholic but have not found an official home in the Catholic Church.
The divisions in the Anglican Communion have prompted its spiritual head, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, to suggest that in order to avoid a schism, the Anglican Communion may have to accept a "two-track" system in which churches can hold different opinions about gay clergy and same-sex unions.
Levada declined to give figures on the number of requests that have come to the Vatican, or on the anticipated number of Anglicans who might take advantage of the new structure.
The new canonical provision allows married Anglican priests and even seminarians to become ordained Catholic priests – much the same way that Eastern rite priests who are in communion with Rome are allowed to be married. However, married Anglicans couldn't become Catholic bishops.
The Vatican announcement immediately raised questions about how the Vatican's long-standing dialogue with the Archbishop of Canterbury could continue. 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.
However, the Vatican's archbishop of Westminster and Williams issued a joint statement saying the decision "brings an end to a period of uncertainty" for Anglicans wishing to join the Catholic Church. The statement said the decision in fact could not have happened had there not been such fruitful dialogue between the two.
"The ongoing official dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion provides the basis for our continuing co-operation," the joint statement said.
Nevertheless, Williams' representative in Rome, the Very Rev. David Richardson, said the Vatican's decision was "surprising," given that the Catholic Church in the past had welcomed individual Anglicans in without creating what he called "parallel structures" for entire groups of Anglicans.
"The two questions I would want to ask are 'why this and why now,"' he told The Associated Press. "Why the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has decided to embrace that particular method remains unclear to me."
Also unclear, he said, was the Vatican's target audience: those Anglicans who have already left the Anglican Communion, or current members. Levada said it covered both, and the documentation explaining the new structure speaks of both Anglicans and "former Anglicans."
"If it's for former Anglicans, then it's not about our present difficulties, then it's people who have already left," Richardson said. If it's current Anglicans, "There is in my mind an uncertainty for whom it is intended."
The announcement was kept under wraps until the last moment: The Vatican only announced Levada's briefing Monday night, and Levada only flew back to Rome after finalizing the details at midnight.
~~PING!
This is so rich on so many levels. The Anglicans’ church leaves them, the Roman Catholic church says come home, there is a place for you here; you believe what we believe. And the Anglican archbishop embraces the whole idea so as to avoid “schism.” Guess what. It’s already happened. And it was your doing. I am happy for the Anglicans.
It's for former Anglicans. This was done to accommodate the Tradtiional Anglican Communion. It's being presented in broader terms so that others still in the "official" Anglican Communion have a path as well.
Those who think things in the "official" Anglican Communion are just fine will have no need of this option.
“The two questions I would want to ask are ‘why this and why now,”’ he told The Associated Press. “Why the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has decided to embrace that particular method remains unclear to me.”
Because man is created as a communal being.
One is only a true man if he loves other persons, especially God.
It seems that the Church has made the prudential decision that an existing “communio” that finds itself to be Catholic in essence - though not formally in name - will be best served by keeping that communio intact and allowing that already present Catholic essence to flourish openly as it fully and formally incorporates into the large communion of the Church led by the successor of Peter.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Does this mean we will get some people who have good church music?
(Another mass with Marty’s music at beginning and end. Ugh. My personal cross to bear, I guess.)
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Welcome home, brother and sister Anglicans!
There’s one ambiguity here: if these new structures are being established as havens for Anglicans, but if married Anglicans cannot become Catholic bishops, will the bishops heading them remain Anglican bishops or will Catholic bishops be assigned to lead the transferred congregations?
My bishop is quite married and his orders are rock-solid Apostolic. If our communion could be aligned with Rome in the way described and if my current bishop could be my bishop in the new structure, then I would be very content. Otherwise, this is just another press release adding confusion to an already-distressed situation.
I hear ya ...
Why can’t they play the hymns we
know and love ?
:)
It's my understanding that the personal ordinariates can be lead by a bishop or by a priest working under the local ordinary. I would guess that those married Anglican bishops will be ordained (probably sub conditione) and function as priests in charge of local personal ordinariates. Those un-married Anglican bishops will could potentially be consecrated and function as a bishop. I would expect at least a few would, anyway. I doubt Rome would want to make any more bishops than they have to in this case.
I expect this will be clarified when the Apostolic Constitution is actually released. Are you a member of an Anglican body now?
Married bishops won't be permitted in these new ordinariates.
I know that the married bishops in the TAC have already accepted that they will need to leave the episcopacy of their communion. I imagine many (most? all?) will be ordained (conditionally or not) as Catholic priests, but they definitely will not be able to serve in the office of bishop.
From what I've seen in the news, what will likely happen is that where an Anglican group has a married bishop, after he steps aside, the group will be able to select an unmarried priest from within their community to become the new bishop. If there aren't any unmarried men from which to choose, I read in one of the communications that a married priest from within the affected community will be permitted to serve in the role of heading the ordinariate without being consecrated a bishop.
I don't know how it works in your communion, but for us, this often happens when a bishop dies or resigns abruptly, and there is no one to immediately become the new bishop of the diocese. The diocese will be overseen by someone given a different title from bishop, and not necessarily consecrated a bishop, until such time that an arrangement can be made to install a new bishop in the diocese.
This may not be the ideal arrangement, but it may be a compromise that works for some Anglican communities who want to use this new structure and come into communion with Rome.
I'm speculating here, but perhaps your current bishop could continue to function in the role of the ordinary for your ordinariate (once in communion with Rome) as a Catholic priest.
Another option (again, my speculation) may be, at least for some smaller communities, to come into the Catholic Church under another group's ordinariate, where there are unmarried men who can be consecrated bishops.
sitetest
I’m wondering if this is a step toward allowing ALL priests to marry... with the limitation of no advancement to Bishop.
Dear sitetest,
You read it as I thought I read it. Both options are non-starters for communions such as ours, which long ago separated from the Episcopal Church. I am actually wondering why Rome is not considering autocephalous status for us. This would delay full integration, but it would shorten the ecclesial distance in the middle term, something I should think all of us really want.
Come East. No OCP ANYWHERE.
“I am actually wondering why Rome is not considering autocephalous status for us.”
I don't think that it would matter. The Catholic Church will not accept communion with a body that has a married episcopacy. It's just not in the cards.
sitetest
Yeah, the Catholic Church provides many opportunities, perhaps more than she intends, for penitential suffering ....
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