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Posted on 10/22/2009 3:44:16 PM PDT by NYer
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Parishioners at Our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio, the largest Anglican-use Catholic parish in the U.S., have plenty to talk about these days.
"Everyone is excited, but they have lots of questions," said the pastor, Father Christopher Phillips, about the Vatican's Oct. 20 announcement of a special structure for Anglicans who want to be in full communion with the Catholic Church.
Father Phillips -- once an Episcopal priest and now a Catholic priest who founded Our Lady of the Atonement 26 years ago -- doesn't have detailed answers yet for the parish's 500 families. He said more details will be known once the pope's apostolic constitution and norms for implementing it are revised and published, which was to take a few weeks.
In the meantime, he told Catholic News Service he couldn't be more pleased.
The priest has been telling parishioners that they should view the new provisions "as a confirmation that what we've been doing has been found worthy."
The Anglican province in the United States is the Episcopal Church.
Other Anglican-use Catholic parishes are located in Houston and Arlington, Texas, and in Columbia, S.C. In addition there are Anglican-use congregations sharing the facilities of regular Catholic parishes in Corpus Christi, Texas; Scranton, Pa.; Kansas City, Mo.; Boston and Phoenix.
These communities began forming after the Vatican approved a pastoral provision for the United States in 1980 allowing the retention of some elements of Anglican identity in liturgy when a number of Episcopalians from the same congregation or area entered full Catholic communion. That provision also allowed a special procedure to admit former Episcopal priests who had become Catholic into the Catholic priesthood.
The new Vatican provisions will make the permission granted in the United States universal.
Anglican priests who are married may be ordained Catholic priests, but married Anglican bishops will not be able to function as Catholic bishops in keeping with the long-standing Catholic and Orthodox tradition of ordaining only unmarried clergy as bishops.
The new provisions also will establish new church jurisdictions called "personal ordinariates" --similar to dioceses -- to oversee the pastoral care of those who want to bring elements of their Anglican identity into the Catholic Church.
Father Phillips was thrilled with the concept of ordinariates but also felt bittersweet about not being as connected with the San Antonio Archdiocese that he loves.
Ultimately, he sees these new jurisdictions as beneficial for all Anglicans who have joined the Catholic Church or wish to do so, saying it "gives them a bridge to walk across."
Or put another way, he compares it to going from "living in an apartment to owning a house," because previously Anglicans who wished to join Catholic parishes while retaining elements of the Anglican liturgy could only do so if the bishop of the Catholic diocese had approved of such congregations. Some did; others did not. Also, some of these Anglican-use parishes ceased to exist once their pastor went elsewhere.
"Now we have our own house and we're responsible for it -- a house within the big house of the Catholic Church," Father Phillips said.
The personal ordinariates will be led by former Anglican bishops or priests and also could include houses of formation to train future priests.
Joseph Blake, president of the Anglican Use Society, called the Vatican's announcement a "long-expected and prayed-for moment" stemming from the requests of Anglicans who have requested full communion with the Catholic Church.
Recent changes within many Anglican provinces, including the ordination of women priests and bishops and the acceptance of homosexuality in some areas, have prompted members who disagree with the changes to join the Catholic Church.
Blake, based in Bethlehem, Pa., said he had been an Episcopalian until the late 1970s but left for a variety of reasons including the Episcopal Church's stance on abortion and women's ordination.
He told CNS the new provisions will "hopefully make the process (to join the Catholic Church) less difficult," noting that to date it has been complicated and subject to the decision of the local bishop.
Blake, like Father Phillips, is waiting to see the Vatican document in its final form, but said that, "given all the issues the church had to balance -- the Catholic Church tradition and needs of Anglicans -- it couldn't get much better than this."
In announcing the new provisions, U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said Pope Benedict was responding to "many requests" submitted by individual Anglicans and by Anglican groups to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.
At the same time, Cardinal Levada said the new provisions do not weaken the commitment of the Vatican to promoting Christian unity.
Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the U.S. church "stands ready to collaborate" with the Vatican in implementing the provisions. In a statement released in Washington Oct. 20, he also emphasized the U.S. Catholic Church would continue to work toward Christian unity with Episcopalians.
An Oct. 20 statement by Bishop Christopher Epting, deputy for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations in the Episcopal Church, stressed that Episcopal leaders would "continue to explore the full implications" of the Vatican statement.
He also said the announcement reflects what the Catholic Church "has been doing for some years more informally" through Anglican-use parishes.
"We in the Episcopal Church continue to look to the Holy Spirit, who guides us in understanding of what it means to be the church in the Anglican tradition," he said. He also noted that Episcopal officials would "continue to remain in dialogue" with Catholic leaders through "participation in the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Consultation and the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue in the USA."
In Canada, the Vatican's announcement received mixed reaction. Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec called it an "extraordinary" event while Anglican Archbishop Fred Hiltz of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, primate of Canada, said it would cause tension.
Bishop Peter Wilkinson of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada was overjoyed by the news.
He said the Vatican's move could help promote much more important efforts at Catholic and Orthodox unity.
"Pope Benedict continually amazes me," he said. "Not only is he a genius and a holy man, but he can do something new, something that has not been done before."
"I hope that we can live up to expectations on how Anglicans can fulfill their role in the universal church," he added.
Ping!
With the coming of the Age of Islam we’d all better close ranks as soon as possible.
“Pope Benedict continually amazes me,” he said. “Not only is he a genius and a holy man, but he can do something new, something that has not been done before.”
True that.
What is happening is that Pope Benedict is offering a choice to these Anglicans. Whether they take it or not depends on them.
“Many are called; few are chosen.”
**Anglican priests who are married may be ordained Catholic priests, but married Anglican bishops will not be able to function as Catholic bishops in keeping with the long-standing Catholic and Orthodox tradition of ordaining only unmarried clergy as bishops.**
I said this from the very start. Glad to see it in an article.
What a beautiful church. In my opinion many Anglican churches outrank the Catholic Churches in beauty. (And often in reverence, too.)
With some delicate diplomacy, there is a possibility of a “Restoration”, a gradual recombination of Catholicism and Anglicanism. I can imagine some interesting parts of such a process.
One such effort would be “dual provinces”, leading to “dual dioceses”, with clergy freely intermingling. Guest services could then be offered to the laity, beginning at minor masses, so they as well could see the liturgical parallels.
Another effort would be a mutually acceptable mass that could be offered to either, by clergy from either faith. This already exists in some circumstances.
The Anglicans would need to expand their hierarchy to create parallel officers to engage their Catholic equivalents at that level. And while this wouldn’t seem like much functionally, administratively it would help things enormously.
The Anglican monastic orders, which few Episcopalians even know exist, somewhat parallel their Catholic counterparts, and I’ve no idea how those could integrate.
And SO English!
Only reason I know is that their chaplain (who converted also) used to be rector of our local more-Roman-than-Rome High Church Episcopal parish.
Beautiful!!!!
The church is is a work of art!
A few more steps towards full Christian unity.
I do hope this will happen. Visting Westminster Cathedral was an awesome experience. Imagine if it became Catholic again? I was surprised to learn it contains relics of at least one saint, St. Edward the Confessor, who was king before the Norman invation. The cathedral tour guide said there were more relics there but they were looted and thrown in the Thames by Puritan iconoclasts. THe remains of St. Edward were removed and safeguarded during that time.
Westminster Cathedral is Catholic.
http://www.westminstercathedral.org.uk/home.html
"Archbishop Vincent Nichols
Click here to read the Archbishop's Pastoral Letter.."
Catholic Westminster Cathedral built in 1903
Anglican Westminster Abbey origianlly built before 1066 as a Catholic Church and nationalized by Henry VIII in the 16th century. Imagine if Westminster Abbey became Catholic again?
It's a product of a (thankfully) brief craze in the U.K. and America for the High Victorian Richardson Romanesque.
Another example is Alexander Hall on the campus of my alma mater. The apocryphal legend is that the design was the Senior Thesis of an architecture student, who received a failing grade. Later, having prospered, he gave a ton of bucks to the University for a new building, on the condition that they use his design . . . . eek!
Ironically, one of the stumbling blocks are the “liberal Catholics”, sometimes called “social Catholics” or “Catholics in name only.”
The Vatican took an extraordinary step of surveying the non-cloistered nuns in the US, which was greeted with strong appreciation by most serious Catholics, if not by the minority of non-cloistered nuns who were in considerable variance with church doctrines. In turn, this raises the hope that a far more extensive survey might be conducted throughout North America, examining many other Catholic institutions for such variances.
Especially the Catholic school systems. A school like Notre Dame, that is seen to perform objectionable activities not only is deeply troubling to Catholics, but likewise to Anglicans searching for a more responsible religious education for their children.
Such a survey reaches beyond the United States with a close parallel in Canada, but is needed in a much more acute manner in Mexico, to contend with the clearly pagan Santa Muerte cult, which while already condemned, has a dangerous and parasitical association with that nations Catholics.
And while this does not appear on the surface to impact Catholic-Anglican relations, it evidences a need throughout the world for there to be subordinate branches of the Holy Office in the provinces of both churches, as well as in Africa, the heartland of Anglicanism, which must often contend with both Islam and pagan animism rooted in the local cultures.
Functionally, such “branch offices” would likely be associated with the Dominican Order, but could also join with the Anglican Order of Preachers, which is the St. Dominic associated equivalent to the Dominican Order in the Anglican church.
The purpose of doing so is to correct variances deeply inimical to Christian practice across the spectrum of religious and cultural heterodoxy, to clarify for first the clergy, then the institutions, and finally the laity, what are the acceptable practices for the faithful.
Doing so highlights the similarities between the churches, providing a firm ground for restoration.
I think w/ Westminster Cathedral, it's the stripes that bother me.
My taste runs more to the beautiful little parish churches of the English countryside, the earlier the better.
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