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

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Habemus Ordinarium!



The day is finally here! When I first posted this I hadn't yet seen the story anywhere else, but it is beginning to appear all over the place. A news bulletin posted this morning on the website of the Holy See, the headline of which says something like this (please pardon my amateur Italian translation: "Erection of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter and Appointment of the First Ordinary." The new U.S. ordinary, who will function as bishop of this non-territorial diocese, is Msgr. Jeffrey N. Steenson. Msgr. Steenson resigned episcopal orders in September of 2007 as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande to become a Catholic...

Read the rest at Heide Seward's blog Seward's Folly.
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