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

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Baltimore Anglicans becoming Catholic -- but are they already more "Catholic" than most Catholics?

Wonderful news from the Baltimore Sun, where it is being reported that the Mount Calvary Episcopal Church in Baltimore on Sunday "became the first congregation in Maryland to vote to break ties with the Episcopal Church and take steps to join the Roman Catholic Church."

According to the paper of record in the oldest Archdiocese in the country: "The small Anglo Catholic parish ... was feeling increasingly alienated from the Episcopal Church as it accepted priests who did not believe in what most of the congregation saw as the foundations of the faith ... The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland issued a statement Monday about the vote, but both the bishop and the rector, the Rev. Jason Catania, declined to be interviewed. A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Sean Caine, said the Catholic Church would welcome the congregation."

Read the rest at Rorate Coeli.
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