Msgr. Steenson meets 3 Toronto-area Anglican Use Sodalities to Establish Ordinariate in Canada

On the Peregrinations blog there is a very full account of Msgr. Steenson's meeting with Toronto area Catholics. Several questions were raised and answered by the Ordinary, and it is well-worth the time of Ordinariate-interested readers to take a look.

An excellent meeting with Msgr Steenson was held this past Saturday in Toronto. He spent the morning answering many questions for people from the three local sodalities seeking membership in the soon-to-be established Canadian Deanery of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter (OCSP)...

1. Membership

Individuals in each small sodality (associations of Oridinariate-bound Catholics in the Archdiocese of Toronto and the Diocese of Hamilton) will be received into the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter once each person has completed and sent a form to Msgr Steenson stating their desire for membership and the facts relating to former Anglican status or family relationship to an Anglican Catholic i.e. anyone raised as an Anglican or married to or the child of such former-Anglican Catholics.

All Latin Rite and all other Catholics are welcome to worship with Ordinariate Catholics and are indeed invited to. However, those not from an Anglican background or related to a former Anglican may not officially be listed as member for purposes of holding an official position in an Ordinariate...

. Authority ?

Is there still a place for the voice of the laity in the Ordinariate?

There is to be a kind of synodical structure to the Ordinariates as provided for in Anglicanorum Coetibus (AC) and its attendant norms. Msgr Steenson indicated that lay participation is one of the distinctive patrimonial features of the Ordinariates. The Governing Council is now in formation.

There will be deanery and parish level structures to which lay people will contribute and participate in...

4. Liturgy...

In answer to questions about the forms of liturgy for the Mass, Msgr. Steenson clarified a number of issues relating to rites, practice and faculties for priests to celebrate the Anglican Use Mass in Canada.

First of all, there is a new form of the Anglican Use Mass which has been adapted for use in Canada and is now approved by Rome. The Book of Divine Worship (BDW) Mass is no longer authorized as printed due to changes in the Novus Ordo (3rd edition) and other practical issues.

All sodalities and parishes are to use the Canadian form of the Mass modified under the direction of Msgr Steenson and edited by the soon-to-be-ordained former Bishop Wilkinson. This is now the only authorized form for Anglican Use Mass in Canada...

Read the full report at Peregrinations.