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, December 1, 2009

ANGLICANS/Personal Ordinariates as an Expression of Vatican II Ecumenism

lunedì 30 novembre 2009
by Fred Kaffenberger, ilsussidiario.net (http://tinyurl.com/ygfvs3u)


The recent apostolic constitution on Anglicans seeking full communion with the Catholic Church, Anglicanorum Coetibus, has stirred up a wide range of reactions among Catholics, Anglicans, Protestants, and the Orthodox churches. As the Bishop of Rome, the Pope has an apostolic responsibility to all baptized Christians, even if their ecclesial communion does not accept Roman primacy. And so, when groups of Anglicans approached the Vatican seeking union, Pope Benedict XVI responded with a pastoral gesture to enable groups to be admitted corporately — even retaining as much as possible their historical character and pastoral structures. This corporate provision is thus a practical expression of Vatican II documents: Lumen Gentium (the dogmatic constitution on the Church) and Unitatis Redintegratio (the decree on Christian ecumenism)...

Read the rest on Virtue Online

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller
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