The first principle of the Ordinariate is then about Christian unity. St. Basil the Great, the Church’s greatest ecumenist, literally expended his life on the work of building bridges between orthodox brethren who shared a common faith, but who had become separated from one another in a Church badly fragmented by heresy and controversy. He taught that the work of Christian unity requires deliberate and ceaseless effort...St. Basil often talked with yearning about the archaia agape, the ancient love of the apostolic community, so rarely seen in the Church of his day. This love, he taught, is a visible sign that the Holy Spirit is indeed present and active, and it is absolutely essential for the health of the Church.

- Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, Homily on the Occasion of his Formal Institution as Ordinary

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

MAKING ANGLICANS FEEL AT HOME IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Interview With Msgr. Stetson of the Pastoral Provision
October 26, 2009
By Karna Swanson

HOUSTON, Texas, OCT. 26, 2009 (Zenit.org).- News broke last week that Benedict XVI will allow groups of Anglicans wishing to enter full communion with the Catholic Church to do so through personal ordinariates, while preserving elements of the Anglican spiritual and liturgical tradition. The provision for the ordinariates is the Vatican's response to Anglicans who have expressed wishes to become Catholic. It is estimated that between 20 and 30 Anglican bishops have made such a request.

To understand how the personal ordinariates work and the significance of this move, ZENIT interview Monsignor William Stetson, a priest of Opus Dei and secretary to the Ecclesiastical Delegate of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for the Pastoral Provision for former Episcopal priests.

He maintains a Pastoral Provision Office at Our Lady of Walsingham parish, an Anglican Use congregation in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston...


Read the interview with Msgr. Stetson on Zenit: The World Seen from Rome.

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