Reflections from Fr. Longenecker

Some of the more prominent "online" Pastoral Provision priests have been pretty quiet about the new Constitution; but it's no mystery why. As it turns out, Fr. Christopher Phillips is on a pilgrimage with students from his school in Rome itself. Many other Pastoral Provision priests are on retreat in Florida. One of them, Fr. Dwight Longenecker writes:

The group of us who are gathered here have all made our own way from various denominational backgrounds through the Anglican Church to be ordained as Catholic priests. Naturally, the place is buzzing with excitement and interest over the Apostolic Constitution. Copies are printed out for us and we'll be going over it together in detail. Over the next few days I will be interviewing some of my colleagues, and hope you will enjoy learning about their various conversion stories and their paths to ordination. I also hope to interview Mgr. Stetson--the priest who oversees the pastoral provision.

We began with a celebration of Mass together and none of us missed the fact that on this day when the Apostolic Constitution was published was also the Feast of the foundation of St John Lateran. The great church in Rome which is the Pope's cathedral and the location of his teaching authority. It is this authority which has brought all 'home to Rome'.

So be sure to keep checking his blog Standing on My Head for more reflections on the new Apostolic Constitution.

Vatican opens its doors to married Anglican clergy

November 10, 2009
by Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent


The Pope has made it as easy as possible for traditional and “continuing” Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism while retaining key elements of their ecclesiastical heritage.

The eagerly awaited Apostolic Constitution, published by the Vatican yesterday, will enable hundreds of thousands of disaffected Anglicans to become Catholics.

Married Anglican clergy will be allowed to train for the priesthood in seminaries set up within the new Anglican Ordinariates — as long as their marital state is not “irregular”. The constitution states that the admission of married men will be considered “on a case-by-case basis”...

Read the rest on The TimesOnline.

Vatican Keeps Celibacy in Rules on Anglicans

November 9, 2009
By RACHEL DONADIO

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican said on Monday that its new rules facilitating the conversion of Anglicans, including married Anglican priests, did not “signify any change” in its rules for priestly celibacy.

The announcement seemed aimed at dampening recent debate about whether in creating a new Anglican rite within the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican had brought in a kind of Trojan horse — married former Anglican clergy — a practice that might someday normalize the acceptance of married Catholic priests...

Read the rest in The New York Times.

A first reaction to today's publication of Anglicanorum Coetibus

Nov 9, 2009

The Chairman of Forward in Faith, Bishop John Broadhurst, has issued the following interim statement to those clergy who look to him, as Bishop of Fulham, for episcopal care at the present time and he is happy to share it with the membership of Forward in Faith worldwide.

I had thought the original notice from Rome was extremely generous. Today all the accompanying papers have been published and they are extremely impressive. I have been horrified that the Church of England while trying to accommodate us has consistently said we cannot have the jurisdiction and independent life that most of us feel we need to continue on our Christian pilgrimage.

What Rome has done is offer exactly what the Church of England has refused...

Read the rest at the web site of Forward in Faith-UK.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller, reporting for Virtue Online

RC v CofE: One marriage, two churches

October 28, 2009
by Charles Moore and Caroline Moore

I wish the Pope’s new offer to Anglicans had been available when I became a Catholic 15 years ago. It would have helped avoid many misunderstandings.

In modern times, most Anglicans converting to Roman Catholicism are not trying to repudiate their existing beliefs. Instead, they are recognising that the logic of those beliefs leads them to become Catholics...

Read the rest of Moore's reflections at The Spectator.

hat tip to Deacon Michael Connolly.

Pope: Married Bishops in all but Name

Ruth Gledhill writes about the Apostolic Constitution on her TimesOnline blog:

Tremendous day. The Apostolic Constitution has been published. It is all that Catholic Anglicans hoped for and more.While it officially keeps the door closed on any relaxation of the norms on celibacy - former Catholic priests who became Anglicans, married or no, will not be permitted to join the new Ordinariates - it is clear from Article 11 that former Anglican bishops can become Catholic bishops in all but name, even where they are married. They will officially retain the status of presbyter, but will be allowed to be the Ordinary or head of the Ordinariate, will be allowed to be a member of the local Bishops' Conference with the status of retired bishop and, significantly, will be allowed to ask permission from Rome to use the insignia of episcopal office. This leaves the path clear for Bishop of Fulham Father John Broadhurst, married father of four, to head the new Ordinariate in Britain. Heady stuff indeed - and I mean that theologically and metaphorically...

Read the rest at Articles of Faith

Key points of the Apostolic Constitution

Fr. Zuhlsdorf outlines some key points of the Apostolic Constitution:

Some key points of the document:

• The document first lays out theological starting points.
  
• Note that the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith is setting up the Ordinarites.
  
• The Ordinariates are "within the confines of the territorial boundaries of a particular Conference of Bishops in consultation with that same Conference" and there can be more than one within those territories.
  
• The ordinariates are juridically comparable to dioceses.
  The CCC is the reference point for what those who belong must profess to believe...

Read the rest at his blog What Does the Prayer Really Say?.

Fr. Hunwicke on "Facing Facts"

It is very important that we consider the exact wording of the Apostolic Constitution carefully. After all, God has made us rational beings. But it is even more important that we Anglican Catholics face up to the fact that we are at a historical turning point.

For most of my lifetime, the Ecumenical Movement seemed (I put it like that because it is arguable that it was already flawed and leaky below the waterline) to be going places. However messy things might be, there seemed to be gradual convergence. ARCIC did say some remarkable things; and, at the ground level, there was indisputable liturgical convergence.

The plain fact is that things are now wholely different. The Anglican elite has set out, knowingly, on a path of divergence...

Read the rest of Fr. Hunwicke's analysis of the current state of ecumenical affairs and of Pope Benedict XVI's initiative on his blog Liturgical Notes.

Some Very Initial thoughts on the Apostolic Constitution

Brother Stephen, O.Cist., himself a convert from Anglicanism, has some initital thoughts on the Apostolic Constitution. Read them in full at his blog Sub Tuum.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION

by FR. GIANFRANCO GHIRLANDA, S.J.
(RECTOR OF THE PONTIFICAL GREGORIAN UNIVERSITY)

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS
The Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus of November 4th 2009, provides the essential norms which will govern the erection and the life of Personal Ordinariates for those Anglican faithful who wish to enter, either corporately or individually, into full communion with the Catholic Church. In this way, as it says in the Introduction, the Holy Father Benedict XVI – Supreme Pastor of the Church and, by mandate of Christ, guarantor of the unity of the episcopate and of the universal communion of all the Churches – has shown his fatherly care for those Anglican faithful (lay, clerics and members of Institutes of Consecrated life and of Societies of Apostolic Life) who have repeatedly petitioned the Holy See to be received into full Catholic Communion...

Read the rest at the Vatican web site.

Apostolic Constitution: married ex-Anglican bishops may keep insignia of episcopal office

November 9th, 2009
By Damian Thompson

I’m going to analyse the Constitution in detail later, but let me draw your attention to an intriguing detail which demonstrates just how far Rome is prepared to go to make special provisions for ex-Anglicans. Married ex-Anglican bishops will not be ordained Catholic bishops – but, if they become Ordinaries, they will be able to join Bishops’ Conferences with the status of retired bishops, and may be allowed to use “the insignia of the episcopal office”. This is from the Norms...

Read the rest of Damian's reflections at his blog Holy Smoke.

Apostolic Constitution: ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS

BENEDICT XVI

APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS

PROVIDING FOR PERSONAL ORDINARIATES FOR ANGLICANS
ENTERING INTO FULL COMMUNION
WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

In recent times the Holy Spirit has moved groups of Anglicans to petition repeatedly and insistently to be received into full Catholic communion individually as well as corporately. The Apostolic See has responded favorably to such petitions. Indeed, the successor of Peter, mandated by the Lord Jesus to guarantee the unity of the episcopate and to preside over and safeguard the universal communion of all the Churches,[1] could not fail to make available the means necessary to bring this holy desire to realization.

The Church, a people gathered into the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,[2] was instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ, as “a sacrament – a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all people.”[3] Every division among the baptized in Jesus Christ wounds that which the Church is and that for which the Church exists; in fact, “such division openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages that most holy cause, the preaching the Gospel to every creature.”[4] Precisely for this reason, before shedding his blood for the salvation of the world, the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father for the unity of his disciples.[5]

Read the full constitution at the Vatican web site.

See also the Complementary Norms for the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, also to be found on the Vatican web site.

Deacon Jack Sullivan visits England

Deacon Jack Sullivan, whose miraculous healing in 2001 is the basis for Newman’s Beatification next year, has arrived in England on a short visit. Later this week he will visit the Birmingham Oratory (UK), in a event which the Boston deacon has said will be ‘the greatest moment of my life’. His wife Carol will be accompanying him throughout the visit. His wife Carol will be accompanying him throughout the visit.

On Monday and Tuesday, Jack Sullivan is visiting London, the place of Newman’s birth, where the Archbishop of Westminster Most Rev Vincent Nichols has invited him to a press conference and Mass at Westminster Cathedral this evening...

Read the rest on Independent Catholic News.

Resolutions of the Episcopal Diocese of Ft. Worth Annual Convention...

Resolution 5

"WHEREAS on the 20th of October 2009 we received the news that the Holy See has very graciously offered an Apostolic
Constitution to those desiring to avail themselves of this historic opportunity, and
WHEREAS the details of this Constitution are not yet published, be it therefore
RESOLVED that the 27th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth commends this historic announcement
to the people and clergy of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth for prayerful reflection and response in the months ahead,
and be it further
RESOLVED that the 27th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth commends the Response of The Rt.
Rev. Jack Leo Iker of October 20, 2009, concerning the Vatican announcement of “personal ordinariates” for Anglicans, and
be it further..."

Read in full at the web site of the Fort Worth Episcopal diocese

Traditional Anglican Church in UK accepts Pope's offer

Resolutions Passed

That this Assembly, representing the Traditional Anglican Communion in Great Britain, offers its joyful thanks to Pope Benedict XVI for his forthcoming Apostolic Constitution allowing the corporate reunion of Anglicans with the Holy See, and requests the Primate and College of Bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion to take the steps necessary to implement this Constitution.

That this Assembly is of the respectful opinion that Bishop Robert Mercer CR might be considered for the position of Ordinary in Great Britain.

from the web site of the target="_new">Traditional Anglican Church-UK.

Damian Thompson also comments on this in "Pope's Anglican offer accepted by Traditional Anglican Communion in Britain" on the blog Holy Smoke.

I love the Pope: Why the Apostolic Constitution is a Good Thing

Monday, November 2, 2009 • 7:53 am
Matt Kennedy

I've frankly been surprised by the reaction to Pope Benedict's recent Apostolic Constitution offering a Personal Ordinariate to Anglicans who wish to reunite with the Roman church. Some have accused the pope of "poaching". Others have been angered at a move they anticipate will weaken the orthodox witness in the Communion by pulling Anglo-Catholics away. Still others, apparently, just don't like the pope and leap at any excuse to criticize him.

Personally speaking, as a Calvinist Anglican, I love Pope Benedict. I am thankful for the Apostolic Constitution. I will never take up his offer but I think it good, generous, and were I not committed to the five solas of the reformation, as I am, I would be Roman in a heartbeat. There are so many things I admire and respect about the Roman Catholic Church in general and this pope in particular. Let me just list several right off the top of my head...

To read the rest of Rev. Kennedy's reflections, visit his blog Stand Firm.

Community marks centennial of reception into Catholic Church

November 2, 2009

By Beth Griffin

One hundred years before Pope Benedict XVI captured headlines by establishing a special structure for Anglicans who want to be in full communion with the Catholic Church, the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement became the first religious group to be received into the church in its entirety. Archbishop Pietro Sambi, Vatican ambassador to the United States, said the pope's recent overture to the Anglicans could be seen as a fruit of 100 years of prayers offered for the unity of the church by members of the Society of the Atonement.

Archbishop Sambi spoke at Mass Oct. 30 celebrating the centennial of the society's reception into the church. The Mass was concelebrated by New York Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan at Graymoor, the society's headquarters. In remarks to some 400 people after the centennial Mass, Archbishop Sambi said, "Your charism is a charism of the future." From its founding in 1900, the Society of the Atonement has dedicated itself to Christian unity...

Read the rest at Catholic News Service.

Clarification on the Apostolic Constitution

Fr. Phillips posts the text of a clarification issued through the Vatican Press Office on the issue of celibacy in the forthcoming Apostolic Constitution:

This important clarification has been issued:

CLARIFICATION BY THE DIRECTOR OF THE HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE, FR. FEDERICO LOMBARDI, S.I., ON SPECULATIONS ABOUT THE CELIBACY ISSUE IN THE ANNOUNCED APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION REGARDING PERSONAL ORDINARIATES FOR ANGLICAN ENTERING INTO FULL COMMUNION WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

There has been widespread speculation, based on supposedly knowledgeable remarks by an Italian correspondent Andrea Tornielli, that the delay in publication of the Apostolic Constitution regarding Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church, announced on October 20, 2009, by Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is due to more than "technical" reasons. According to this speculation, there is a serious substantial issue at the basis of the delay, namely, disagreement about whether celibacy will be the norm for the future clergy of the Provision...

Read the full post at Atonement Online

Here's the Vatican link.

Cardinal Seán O'Malley's blog on the Apostoloic Constitution

Seán Cardinal O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, produces a weekly blog, which goes out by email to anyone who wants to sign up. He begins his email this week with a discussion of the initiative of the Holy Father in response to requests by Anglicans for reception into the Church.

Greetings to you all.
Before I begin with the events of my week, I want to briefly comment on the news that the Holy Father is going to issue an Apostolic Constitution in order to accommodate Anglicans who wish to join the Church, and at the same time, preserve some of their Anglican traditions.
In the years immediately following the Second Vatican Council there was a great optimism about the possibility of the Anglican Church being reunited with the Roman Catholic Church. I had many Anglican friends who were very positive and very hopeful about this...
I know people are saying that this threatens the practice of celibacy in the Catholic Church. But, I look at it as being actually a better solution than the one that we have had — particularly in England — where scores of Anglican priests have been ordained as Catholic priests. This resulted in presbyterates wherein you have both married and celibate clergy. I think that was a much greater challenge than the current decision that will establish a separate jurisdiction for the Anglican priests who would become Catholic priests....

To read the rest go to the Cardinal Seán's blog.

Local Anglican-use Catholics hail Vatican move

10/30/2009
By Jim Lockwood

Members of a local congregation of former Anglicans who joined the Roman Catholic Church years ago, support the recent move by the Vatican that will establish a worldwide structure for Anglicans who want to be in full communion with the Church, while preserving distinct aspects of their liturgy and culture.

Father Richard Bradford, chaplain of the Congregation of St. Athanasius, the lone Anglican-use congregation within the Archdiocese of Boston, praised the action by the Vatican.

“It wasn’t the Catholic Church looking to steal from other Christian communities. It was a response to Episcopalians who wanted to be reunited with the Holy See,” Father Bradford said. “It shows the Church at her best. In her zeal for souls, she’s leaving no stone unturned.”

To read the article in full (including quotes of yours truly), see The Boston Pilot.

Anglicans ponder Pope’s ‘generous’ offer

30 October 2009
by Anna Arco

Traditionalists in the Church of England have welcomed the news of a papal decree offering a new legal structure for Anglicans wishing to be in communion with Rome.
Members of Forward in Faith - a group of conservative Anglo-Catholics within the Church of England - met for their annual National Assembly last weekend, only days after the news broke that the Holy See was welcoming Anglicans into communion with the Catholic Church with a new canonical structure. During the assembly members of the group, including some of its bishops, welcomed Pope Benedict XVI's gesture with "gratitude", calling it "mind-blowingly different", "generous" and the "answer to our prayers".
But it was far from clear that a majority of its 1,000 clergy will accept the offer in the short term. They will wait to find out more about the "Personal Ordinariates" set out by the Apostolic Constitution, which is yet to be published. It is expected to provide details of a new structure similar to that of military dioceses. This would accommodate Anglicans who wished to be in full communion with Rome but to retain aspects of their liturgical and spiritual heritage...

Read the rest in The Catholic Herald.

The Anglo-Catholic move to Rome will take time – and cost a lot of money. But it's going to happen

October 30, 2009

By Damian Thompson

When Pope Benedict XVI unveiled his scheme to create an entirely new structure for ex-Anglicans last week, over-excited commentators talked about the end of the Church of England. That’s nonsense: conservative Anglo-Catholics have been so marginalised since 1992 that their departure will hardly be noticed. It’s not true, either, that the traditionalist movement will march straight into the Ordinariate as soon as the Pope unlocks the gates. There is no possible scheme which could effect the mass transfer of most conservative Anglo-Catholics, clergy and laity, in a matter of months. I can’t see more than a handful of parishes voting overwhelmingly to accept the scheme in the short term – and, if they do, they will probably only be able to keep their parish buildings by borrowing them from the Church of England. Other Anglicans will take years to make up their minds. Many will never come...

Read the rest at Mr. Thompson's Holy Smoke blog.

Anticipated by a Hundred Years...

With all the talk about Anglican conversions -- who? how many? where? -- let's not forget a very important conversion anniversary which took place on 30 October 1909. On that day Fr. Paul Wattson, Mother Lurana White, and fifteen others (including friars, sisters and laity) were received corporately into the Catholic Church. Originally founded as a Franciscan community within the Episcopal Church, the Graymoor Friars and Sisters were, as Fr. Paul said, "the first-fruits of our prayer for unity." The previous year they had begun what was then called the Church Unity Octave, afterwards renamed the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Read the rest on Fr. Phillips' blog Atonement Online

Philadelphia Anglican church could be first to join Catholics

October 27, 2009

By Charles Lewis, National Post

Father David Moyer of the Church of the Good Shepherd in suburban Philadelphia was ecstatic last week when he heard Pope Benedict’s invitation to disaffected Anglican priests, parishes and individuals to join the Roman Catholic Church. “I was overwhelmed with joy and thanksgiving,” said Fr. Moyer in an interview. “I’m still in a state of shock.”

His parish could easily become the first Anglican church in North America to respond to Pope Benedict’s offer. But if it happens, he said, it will not happen quickly. “It has excited the majority of people here and now they see a secure future,” he said. “But there are others here who are saying, ‘Oh my God, I don’t want to be a Roman Catholic.’ Some find the idea frightening and repulsive.”

Fr. Moyer, an Anglican priest for more than 30 years, has had his fair share of skirmishes with his bishops over such issues as the ordination of women and same-sex blessings. Things got so heated in 2002 that he was defrocked when he refused to allow liberal bishops to make an official visit to his parish. He said the Archbishop of Canterbury reinstated him but the diocese still considers him deposed...

Read it all on the "Holy Post" blog of The National Post.

Variants of Anglican Worship

I blogged on Brother Stephen's posts at Sub Tuum a few days ago. He has expanded one of his posts, and added links to videos to illustrate his points.

With all the recent talk about the forthcoming provisions for Anglicans to come over to Rome, some former Anglicans have been attempting to provide some sense of both the possibilities and potentialities, as well the struggles. As part of that, some have been attempting to give us some sense of the various "schools" within Anglicanism, both doctrinally and liturgically, so that we might have a greater foundation in which to consider these questions -- particularly the complexities of the question.

Br. Stephen, a former Anglican who is now in the Cistercian Monastery of Our Lady of Spring Bank, specifically addressed the liturgical aspect of these sorts of divisions in a recent post on his blog, Sub Tuum...

Read the rest of this post "Variants of Anglican Worship: A Former Anglican Reviews" on The New Liturgical Movement.