Canadian Ordinariate could be up by Christmas says mentor priest

Father Bill Foote, the mentor priest for Ontario parishes interested in joining the Ordinariate, visited the Ottawa Cathedral of the Annunciation this evening. The meeting began with Evensong.

After Bishop Carl Reid introduced Fr. Foote downstairs in the parish hall, he won us over by saying, “”I hope you appreciated that in good Anglican style, I sat in the back.”

He spoke of his journey from the United Church to the Anglican Communion, then to the Anglican Catholic Church (Original Province) a non-TAC Continuing Anglican body in the United States. For years, he believed in the Branch Theory that saw three branches of the Catholic Church: Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican. But as Anglicanism began to fracture and the Continuing Church continued to fragment into ever smaller groups, he said he came to the realization there is no unity within the Catholic Church without Peter.

He stressed it was essential to understand that unity exists within the Catholic Church by virtue of being in communion with the successor of Peter. The Roman Catholic Church is not saying you lack anything less than the fullness of the Catholic faith; no one is saying you don’t believe the right things, he said, but belief is not the whole equation, he said.

This is what we mean by Catholic–profession belief in the Catholic faith and communion with Peter...

Read the rest of this encouraging post at the English Catholic blog.