The Anglican Use: Some Historical Reflections (Anglican Embers 2006;1(11):297-305)

From our Holy Cross 2006 issue (volume 1, number 11), this reflection on the meaning of the Pastoral Provision (the harbinger of the Ordinariates) by Fr. James Moore takes the long view, beginning with the survival of Catholic faith within members of the Church of England from the earliest days in the 16th century. Read it online at: http://www.anglicanuse.org/Moore_AnglicanUseHistoricalReflections_AngEmb0I11.pdf

Quad Cities man to enter Davenport Diocese as its first married priest

By Deirdre Baker
March 22, 2014

The 29-year marriage of Chris and Jody Young will continue, even after he is ordained as a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport this summer.

"I get to keep my wife, and I am keeping my wedding band on," Chris Young says.

Although the Catholic Church historically has prohibited priests from marrying, the 53-year-old Davenport man is joining the clergy thanks to a special 1980 dispensation from Pope John Paul II called The Pastoral Provision, which applies only to former clergy of the Episcopal -- or Anglican -- church.

This will make Young a rarity. It's estimated that about 100 Catholic priests in the U.S. have made the same conversion that he has.

Young, a lifelong Episcopalian until eight years ago, previously served as the priest at Christ Episcopal Church in Moline.

His entry to the Catholic faith brings a different dimension to the priesthood, Bishop Martin Amos of the Davenport Diocese said.

Amos, who has led the diocese since 2006, agreed with Young's quest for the priesthood and sponsored him in a 26-step process that has taken six years.

Young will be made a transitional deacon — one who intends to become a priest — in a ceremony Tuesday at Davenport Assumption High School, where he has taught religion classes for two years.

Then, on June 7, Young will be ordained by the bishop at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport. Two other men also will be ordained as priests at that time, but both are following the more traditional path...

Read the rest of this article at the web site of The Quad Cities Times.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller

Blogger's Note: We posted about the ordination of Rev. Young a few days ago, but this is a new story, and worth your while. While the frequently reported "fact" that there are about "100 Catholic priests" with wives is routinely reported in stories like this, given the many ordinations for the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, along with continued Pastoral Provision ordinations such as this one, the number should clearly be bumped up to at least 150. Still a tiny percentage of the more than 45,000 priests serving the Catholic Church in the US, but a large increase all the same.

Ordination as Catholic priest for Iowa diocese brings man's vocation full circle

By Barb Arland-Fye

DAVENPORT, IOWA  -- Chris Young will become a pioneer in the Diocese of Davenport this summer when he is ordained to the Catholic priesthood by Bishop Martin J. Amos.

Young, 53, is a married, former Episcopal priest, and Pope Francis has given Bishop Amos permission to ordain for the diocese him under a 1980 pastoral provision admitting former Episcopal priests who have become Catholic into the Catholic priesthood.

Under the provision, more than 100 men have been ordained to the Catholic priesthood in U.S. dioceses since 1983.

For Young, it's been a long, arduous process prolonged by the historic resignation of one pope and election of another.

On Feb. 3, while teaching his fifth-period religious class at Assumption High School in Davenport, he took a phone call from Father Thom Hennen, diocesan vocations director, with the good news about ordination.

Bishop Amos anticipates ordaining Young as transitional deacon before Easter and as a Catholic priest June 7, along with two other men studying to be priests for Davenport.

When Young called his wife, Jody, "she was ecstatic. ... She's so grateful to Pope Francis and to Bishop Amos that I have this opportunity," Young told The Catholic Messenger, Davenport's diocesan newspaper.

The pastoral provision requires she agree with her husband's ordination as a Catholic priest.

"It's like I'm giving him away to my Church, which gives me joy," said Jody Young, a cardiopulmonary rehabilitation nurse. "It's a sacrifice; there's a lot of sacrifice in this role (as a priest's wife). But it's a beautiful sacrifice."

...

Read the rest of the article in the St. Louis Review at: http://stlouisreview.com/article/2014-02-26/ordination-priest

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller.

Advent Lessons & Carols in Boston, December 1, 2013

On Married Priests: Our Sunday Visitor Looks at the new reality

On the web site of Our Sunday Vistor there's a long article that looks at married men who are priests; most of these, of course, being Pastoral Provision and Ordinariate priests. The article begins:

Understanding married priesthood
Since the pastoral provision, the Roman Catholic Church has permitted some men with wives and families to become priests. Here’s an in-depth look at the issue.

By Brian Fraga - OSV Newsweekly, 11/18/2012

There are widened eyes, some confused looks and questions.

Many knowledgeable, faithful Catholics are taken aback for the first time when they meet a Catholic priest — and his wife.

“For some, it’s a surprise. For others, I think, there is a sense that this is something they have thought is a direction the Church should head in,” said Father John Lipscomb, a former Episcopalian bishop who entered the Catholic Church five years ago with his wife of 44 years.

“I think people see this as something very positive in the life of the Church,” said Father Lipscomb, 62, the spiritual director of the Bethany Retreat Center in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Fla.

Father Lipscomb is one of about 70 married Catholic priests in the United States. Most of them were ordained priests in the Episcopal Church, but eventually left that denomination and were allowed to become priests in the Catholic Church, thanks to a 1980 pastoral provision approved by Blessed Pope John Paul II.

Earlier this year, the Vatican expanded the provision by creating ordinariates — similar to dioceses — where entire Anglican parishes can enter into communion with the Catholic Church. In the United States and Canada, the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter includes 18 parish communities...

Read the rest at the OSV.

Hat tip to Deacon Greg Kandra at the Deacon's Bench.

Revised Book of Divine Worship Soon to Arrive

In remarks at the annual Conference of the Anglican Use Society on Friday, November 9th, Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter said that work was nearing completion on a revision of the Book of Divine Worship. Following guidance from the Congregation of Divine Worship in Rome, this revision will include only the Rite I services; congregations wishing to use contemporary language are directed to use the Roman Missal, third edition, in the translation released in 2011.

Commenting on the new version of the BDW, Msgr. Steenson said that this was not the final version of the liturgy being prepared by the Anglicane Traditiones interdicasterial commission, but an update with three purposes:

1) The correction of errors in the first printed edition of the BDW.

2) The updating of texts that taken from the Roman Missal, such as the Prayer over the gifts at the Offertory.

3) The restoration of certain prayers, such as the Prayer of Humble Access, to their original versions.

The new text is expected to be in the hands of parishes of the Ordinariate and the Pastoral Provision in time for Advent. Once made available, this version will be mandatory for use in all the parishes using the Anglican Use liturgy.

===========

November 12, 2012 UPDATE: In the comments, you'll see I've clarified that this revision to the BDW is only to the liturgy of the Mass, and it is by way of corrections and bringing certain texts into conformity with the new translation of the Roman Missal. It will not at this time include the Daily Office or other services.

I've been informed by a member of the ad hoc committee that has worked on this that it will not, at this time, include the older text of the Prayer of Humble Access or other prayers; that is apparently being considered for the definitive liturgy that will be promulgated by the interdicasterial commission.

Reporting on Recent Events on Patheos

Kathy Schiffer reports on some Ordinariate events of the past week at her blog on Patheos.

A few days ago, I announced the wonderful story of Orlando’s Cathedral of the Incarnation. On Sunday, September 16, the entire congregation of 140—including a bishop, clergy and laypeople—were received into the Catholic Church.

And in the same week, it was announced that St. Mary the Virgin Parish in Arlington, Texas—currently part of the Diocese of Fort Worth—will join the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. (Here in the United States, the Pope has established the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter to serve the needs of Anglicans who seek reunion with Rome, but who want to retain some elements of their Anglican worship.)

On Monday I spoke by phone about these events with Fr. James Bradley, a priest of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, in England and Wales, who was visiting here in the U.S. and who attended the Mass of Reception at Incarnation Parish...

Read the rest at Seasons of Grace.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller.

Pastoral Provision Delegate heading West

Bishop Kevin Vann is the third delegate for the Pastoral Provision, following Bernard Cardinal Law and Archbishop John Myers. Bishop of Fort Worth since 2005, he has been selected as the new bishop of Orange, California.

Blogger Rocco Palma shares the story:

Over recent years, it’s hard to think of a national project on which Bishop Kevin Vann hasn’t been intimately involved.

From serving on the three-member USCCB team that oversaw the Stateside implementation of Anglicanorum coetibus and mediating the bench’s oft-delicate relations with the nation’s Catholic hospitals, to filing suit against the Federal government over the contraceptive mandate of the Obama administration’s sweeping health-care reform, the 61 year-old prelate has cris-crossed considerably more ecclesial turf than the sprawling 28 counties of Northwest Texas he’s overseen since 2005.

Now, however, the latest task comes via Rome... and given its centerpiece, well, it’s worth its weight in Crystal.

This morning, the Pope named the energetic head of the booming Fort Worth church to lead the diocese of Orange, succeeding Bishop Tod Brown at the helm of the 1.3 million-member fold in Los Angeles’ southern suburbs...

Read the full story at Whispers in the Loggia.

Read Bishop Vann's blog at Shepherd of Fort Worth.

St. Mary Parish in Arlington, Texas to Become Part of New Ordinariate

Parish started as an Episcopal Parish; Became Catholic in 1994

St. Mary the Virgin Catholic Parish in Arlington, Texas, currently part of the Diocese of Fort Worth, will become part of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter within the next few months, the pastor announced at Masses today.

St. Mary's, which has 400 members, was founded as an Episcopal church, but became part of the Catholic diocese in 1994 under the "Pastoral Provision" which granted limited approval for Episcopal parishes to become Catholic and married Episcopal clergy to be ordained as Catholic priests. St. Mary's was one of a handful of parishes to enter the Catholic Church under this option.

On January 1, 2012, in response to repeated requests from Anglican clergy and groups seeking to become Catholic, Pope Benedict XVI broadened the opportunity for them to do so by creating the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. The ordinariate is equivalent to a diocese, though national in scope. Its communities, while fully Catholic, retain elements of their Anglican heritage and traditions, particularly in the liturgy.

Since January, nearly 20 former Anglican parishes or communities have joined the ordinariate, and 22 former Anglican or Episcopal priests across the United States and Canada been ordained Catholic priests. Six of these priests were ordained by Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann in June.

The parish's transition to the ordinariate has the full support of Bishop Vann, who has been instrumental in the formation of the ordinariate and who oversees the pastoral provision for the Catholic Church in the United States.

Reverend Allan Hawkins, the long-time pastor of St. Mary, shared with parishioners a letter from the head of the ordinariate, Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson, which said in part, "I am very pleased that, thanks to the steady and wise leadership of Bishop Vann and Fr. Hawkins, you have come to the threshold of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. We rejoice that you will soon become part of the Ordinariate, the culmination of the journey commenced in 1994 when your parish was received into the Catholic Church under the Anglican Use."

Fr. Hawkins has led the parish for 32 years; the transition will occur upon his retirement. St. Mary the Virgin was established in 1961 as St. Bartholomew's Episcopal mission church, and became a full parish in 1969. In 1986, under the direction of Fr. Hawkins, the parish was renamed St. Mary the Virgin. In 1994, it became the first Episcopal parish in the United States to transfer corporately into the Catholic Church, and to retain its property in the transition. That same year, Fr. Hawkins was ordained a Catholic priest.

The Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is based in Houston, Texas. Its principal church is Our Lady of Walsingham, a former pastoral provision parish in Houston. Ordinariate communities are located across the United States and Canada, including Florida, where 140 parishioners at the former Anglican Cathedral of the Incarnation in Orlando, Florida, were received into the Catholic Church today as part of the ordinariate.

Online:
U.S. Ordinariate: www.usordinariate.org and facebook.com/CSPOrdinariate
St. Mary the Virgin Parish: www.stmarythevirgin.org
Diocese of Fort Worth: www.fwdioc.org

Final Issue of The Link is published

The final issue of "The Link", a newsletter for the Pastoral Provision has been posted. Msgr. Hamilton writes, in his opening article:

Ave atque vale: This is the last (current) issue of The Link. Begun in 2008 as a re-start of a newsletter for the Pastoral Provision priests that had existed several years earlier, The Link was intended as a means to keep PP priests, spread all over the country, aware of the continuing program by which they had been received into the Catholic Church, became Catholic priests and were incardinated (incorporated) in various Latin Catholic Church dioceses throughout the country...the time for this newsletter, originally intended for the PP, has passed on and the new forms and the new more efficient and instant forms of communication must take hold. I hope this newsletter during its relatively short life—it was suggested by Archbishop Myers of Newark, the then ecclesiastic delegate, and Msgr. W.H. Stetson, the then secretary for the PP, to keep the PP priests informed of developments—as it now cedes to the communication sources established by each unit (i.e., the Pastoral Provision and the individual Ordinariates). Let us pray that the general movement—small as it is currently but growing rapidly from that even smaller beginning in 1980 - will prosper. I have been associated with it in one way or other since the beginning, even before that intellectually. I will continue to be a helper and a supporter.

Many thanks to Msgr. Hamilton and his staff for their years of service. The entire archive of The Link is available on the Articles and Tracts page of the web site of the Anglican Use Society.

Maine Catholic convert brings wife, children to priesthood

The Rev. David Affleck, pastor of three churches in York County, is one of two new priests in the state.
By Eric Russell erussell@pressherald.com

When David Affleck was ordained earlier this month as Maine's newest Roman Catholic priest, his wife, Katherine, sat in the pews at Portland's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

Two of his four grown children were there as well.

Wait, what?

A Catholic priest who's married? With children? That can't be right.

Except it is.

Affleck, 62, of York, is a former Episcopal priest who took advantage of a 1980 papal provision that allows him and others like him to become priests in the Catholic Church.

Only a handful of such ordinations take place in the U.S. each year. In Maine, it's happened just three times in 32 years, and Affleck is the only current convert. One died, and the other has left the church.

"It is indeed rare for a pastoral provision to be sought and granted," Bishop Richard Malone said in a statement. "The Church takes a great deal of time and energy to know that the man in question is truly being called to the priesthood and completely understands the responsibilities and ministry within the Catholic Church."

The trend, however small, is less a reflection of relaxed requirements of the Catholic Church and more a sign that fewer men are joining the priesthood, said Monsignor Michael Henchal, a Catholic priest in Maine for nearly 40 years. Aside from Affleck, only one other priest has been ordained this year. There are now more retired priests in Maine (86) than active priests (69). Affleck is needed.

That's not to diminish his resume. He has a master's degree, a doctorate and more than 15 years of priesthood under his collar. When parishioners of St. Raphael in Kittery, St. Christopher in York or Our Lady of Peace in Berwick see Affleck at the front of their church, reading Scripture and offering Communion, they see a man of distinction and conviction...

Read the full story at The Portland Press Herald.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller.

David Affleck Ordained in the Diocese of Portland under the Pastoral Provision

Fr. Affleck giving a talk to children at St. John's Episcopal
Church in Saugus, Mass. during his ministry there.

On Sunday, June 3, Deacon David Affleck was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Richard Malone at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, Maine. Fr. Affleck, 62, is originally from Long Beach, California and earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Business from California State University, Sacramento. He also attended the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley where he received his Masters of Divinity in 1995. Affleck became an ordained minister in the Episcopal Church in 1995 and served Woodland, Folsom and Sacramento, California churches as well as St. John’s Episcopal Church in Saugus, Massachusetts.

In 2008, Affleck made his profession of faith to the Catholic Church and after taking a number of written and oral exams was considered for the diaconate and the priesthood under the Pastoral Provision.

Bishop Malone has appointed Fr Affleck as parochial vicar to the churches in Kittery/South Berwick/York.

During his years of ministry at the Episcopal parish of St. John's in Saugus, Mass, Fr. Affleck wrote a column called "The Pastor's Corner". Several of these columns are still available on the web site of the Saugus Advertiser, including "Valuing customs and conventions" a column he wrote for Christmas in 2005.

Portions of this story were gleaned from the web site of the St. John's Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Portland, Maine. Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller for pointing out an earlier story on Fr. Affleck

EWTN interviews Fr. Allan Hawkins and Sr. Elaine, ASSP about the Ordinariate

This video's first 8 minutes is an update from the CEO of EWTN about the lawsuit they have filed against the government about the HHS insurance mandate. The interview with Fr. Hawkins and Sr. Elaine, ASSP begins at 9:15.

Pastoral Provision web site Relaunched

A Message from Most Rev. Bishop Kevin Vann
Dear Friends of the Lord,

Welcome to the new and recently refurbished web site for the Pastoral Provision. I hope that this newly updated website will help anyone seeking answers to questions about the Pastoral Provision. As many of you may not know, the origins of the Pastoral Provision is attributed to the vision of Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman and his foresight towards complete unity by Anglicans with the Church. It is also a fruit of the Second Vatican Council and the Pontificates of Pope Paul VI and Blessed John Paul II. The Pastoral Provision has over a thirty year history of assisting individual Episcopalian priests answer the call to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church, and as part of that journey, to priestly ministry in the Church...

Visit the renewed Pastoral Provision web site.

FROM THE PASTORAL PROVISION OFFICE

Ft. Worth, TX—Bishop Kevin W. Vann of Ft. Worth and his newly appointed Secretary for the Pastoral Provision, Mr. Marlon De La Torre, M.A., M. Ed., who is also Diocesan Director of Catechetical Formation and Children’s Catechesis, are busy sifting and setting up records and files dating from 1980 (shipped from Newark) in their new home in the Fort Worth Catholic Center (800 West Loop 820 South, Fort Worth, TX 76108-2913, tel.1-817– 560-3300, fax– 1-817-244-8839; www.fwdioc.org)

Since our last report some months ago prior to the sad and early death from pancreatic cancer of Monsignor James M. Sheehan, then a Pastoral Provision Secretary, Mr. Marlon De La Torre, the new Secretary indicates that the Pastoral Provision Office has made two assessments, five certifications (completion of step one and permission to go on to step two) three new inquiries from Episcopal clergy and one authorization from the Holy See to proceed to ordination.

The authorization to ordain is given to the candidate’s sponsoring bishop, who in this case is Bishop Richard J. Malone of Portland, Maine for DAVID MICHAEL AFFLECK. David M. Affleck has already been ordained a transitional deacon on January 7 by Bishop Malone in Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Portland...

Read the rest in Volume 3, No 1 of The Link newsletter.

A Day to Remember

Some things happen in life, and they are of such a nature that you not only remember them, but you also remember where you were when they happened. For instance, my earliest memory is of the Texas City explosion in 1947. I remember where I was, and with whom, when we heard in Houston the noise from the explosion all the way down in Texas City. Most people old enough remember where they were when they learned that President Kennedy had been killed.

This Sunday should prove to be one of those days that we remember, not just for one event, but for four. It is the First Anniversary of Deacon John Denson's ordination to the diaconate. I am sure that you join me in congratulating John and in thanking him for all his outstanding and faithful service to the Church and to this parish, especially during this past year in the Office of Deacon.

The second event commemorated Sunday is the Eighth Anniversary of the Dedication of our church building. It is hard to believe eight years have passed since we gathered on that Saturday morning back in 2004 as then Bishop Fiorenza was with us for the dedication liturgy of our church building, which seems to impress all who enter with its beauty and sense of the Spirit of Holiness.

The third and fourth events go hand-in-hand and will take place at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart on Sunday afternoon. In the presence of our own Cardinal DiNardo and of Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., the Anglican Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter will be officially inaugurated. At the same liturgy, Father Jeffrey Steenson will be installed as our first Ordinary. This weekend we keep in our prayers in a special way both the new Ordinariate and Fr. Steenson as he begins his new tasks of leadership for us.

For some of us the waith for this day has been thirty years in coming. It is something none of us could have ever imagined when Our Lady of Walsingham was begun as a house church in 1982 by Father Moore, myself, and about twelve people. With the Lord's blessing and the prayers of the Blessed Mother, and through much hard work, patience, and perseverance, we have arrived at today, a day which is truly historic: it marks the first time since the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century that the See of Peter has admitted a Reformation body back into its ranks while allowing us to retain our Anglican Patrimony.
Sunday is thus a day we should always be able to remember where we were when these events happened, as we echo the word of the angels at Bethlehem, "Gloria in excelsis Deo."

Fr. James Ramsey
Pastor

From the Sunday bulletin of the Church of Our Lady of Walsingham, Houston, Texas

New ordinariate and 1980 pastoral provision: An analysis

Jan. 23, 2012
By Jerry Filteau


WASHINGTON -- How are the new U.S. Catholic ordinariate for former Anglican groups and the 1980 U.S. pastoral provision for Episcopal (Anglican) priests who become Catholics different? What do they have in common? What does the presence of Catholics in the new ordinariate mean for other Catholics?
The pastoral, canonical, ecclesiastical and other questions posed by the new developments are numerous and challenging, but here is an attempt to sort out a few of the bigger ones.
To take the third question first, other Catholics -- Eastern or Latin rite -- who were baptized or confirmed into the church as Latin or Eastern Catholics can legitimately participate in the life and worship of an Anglican-use Catholic community, but ordinarily, they may not become a formal member of that community.
An exception is marriage, for which church laws similar to those applying to Latin-Eastern rite Catholic marriages would come into play: An Eastern or Latin Catholic marrying a Catholic in the new Anglican-use ordinariate could become a member of that ordinariate if the couple agrees on that decision.
Going back to differences and similarities between the 1980 pastoral provision and the new ordinariate, the 1980 provision was aimed chiefly at meeting requests of individual Anglican clergy. It allowed exemptions from celibacy for those who were married and sought to enter into full Communion with the Catholic Church but also wanted to continue their life commitment to ordained ministry, only now as Catholic priests...

Please read the rest of this analysis (Mr. Filteau seems to have a good grasp of the facts, although there are a couple of points that are open to interpretation and not settled) on the web site of the National Catholic Reporter.

Hat tip to Ordinariate Portal

The Ordinariate Rumour Mill

In the quiet that seems to fall in the interim period between the naming of the new U.S. ordinary for Anglicans and his consecration, there has arisen the customary worries and fears that have sadly become all to common to this process. I'm sure our Anglo Catholic brethren in England could attest to similar experiences, and our Anglo Catholic brethren in Australia should take note of this, as it will inevitably come to their shores.

At the centre of the controversy is a concern that 'dark forces' have infiltrated the ordinariate structure (which as far as I know consists of only two people right now) and are conspiring to thwart the work of the Holy Father by keeping admission to the ordinariate limited so as to insure its failure. The main concern right now seems to be the notion that the nominated Ordinary and his assistant will not allow Anglican Use Pastoral Provision parishes into the ordinariate.

Okay, I know I may have oversimplified things here, but I think I captured the essence of people's concerns. So let's break this down and analyse it a bit in a logical and dispassionate way.

First and foremost, the fears are understandable. I will not sit here at my keyboard and disparage those who come up with such worries. Considering the history from which many of these people came, their paranoia is justified...

Read the rest at the blog of The Catholic Knight.

A towering figure in the Anglo-Catholic movement dies

January 9, 2012
By Mary Ann Mueller

Retired Fort Worth Bishop Clarence Pope died Saturday in Louisiana


A towering leader in the current Anglo-Catholic movement has died. Former Fort Worth Bishop Clarence C. Pope succumbed to pneumonia in his sleep Saturday, Jan. 7.

Bishop Pope was the long-time rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge before being elected in 1984 as the bishop coadjutor in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. He stepped into the diocesan bishop's roll in 1986 as the second bishop of Fort Worth, taking over the diocesan croizer from Fort Worth's founding bishop, Donald Davies who died last October.

The retired bishop was always a staunch supporter of Anglo-Catholic spirituality in Anglicanism. St. Luke's is a strong Anglo-Catholic parish. Pope kept the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth tightly within that religious understanding.

Under Bishop Pope's leadership and guidance the Diocese of Fort Worth was one of the final four Episcopal dioceses that did not ordain women. The foursome included: Fort Worth, Quincy, Eau Claire and San Joaquin.

While Bishop of Fort Worth, Bishop Pope was instrumental in helping St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church in Arlington become a Roman Catholic Pastoral Provision parish. It is now known as St. Mary the Virgin Catholic Church. The former Episcopal parish is slated to become a part of the newly erected Anglican Ordinariate.

Bishop Pope was sympathetic with Arlington's sole Anglo-Catholic parish's Catholic leanings and was instrumental in helping the former Episcopal congregation keep its land and buildings when it became an established Roman Catholic Anglican Use church in the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth in 1994.

The Anglo-Catholic bishop was also the founder and first president of the Episcopal Synod of America, which eventually folded to Forward in Faith-North America where he served as the first president. Until his death, he remained an ex-officio adjunct member of the FiF-NA Council where he was listed as the President Emeritus.

Bishop Pope handed the reins of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth over to coadjutor Bishop Jack Iker in January 1995 so he could follow his conscience into the Roman Catholic faith. Bernard Cardinal Law received him and his wife, Martha, into the Roman Catholic Church.

However, the ecclesial transfer was not a good fit. In seeking to reclaim his priesthood as a Catholic under the Pastoral Provision, Bishop Pope was reportedly black balled by the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge Priests' Council and was not ordained a Catholic priest. He was devastated.

After some cajoling by then-Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning and his own successor Bishop Iker, Bishop Pope returned to The Episcopal Church and was reinstated into the House of Bishops. That, too, was not a good fit, and he returned to the Papal flock.

Bishop Pope continued to struggle with his place in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. His heart was Anglican but his soul was Catholic. He lived that tension for the rest of his life struggling to be faithful to the spiritual path God had laid out for him...



Read the rest of Clarence Popes' obituary at Virtue Online

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller

Anglican Ordinariate Established for North America

Wonderful news for all Christians in Canada and the USA January 1, 2012

Fr Jeffrey Steenson, formerly Episcopal (Anglican) Bishop of the Diocese of Rio Grande (New Mexico and NW Texas), has been appointed as of January 1, 2012 Ordinary or chief pastor for the Anglican Ordinariate of The Chair of St. Peter. The Ordinariate is a body in full communion with the Holy See and so in communion with more than one billion Roman and Eastern Catholic Christians around the world, the largest unified religious body on earth. This is indeed an answer to the prayers of many for whom the unity of the Church is essential.

The Ordinariate is erected in the United States but will apparently have oversight for Canadian groups as well so is effectively a continent-wide diocese for Catholic Anglicans in the United States and Canada allowing them to bring their Anglican heritage or patrimony into the full communion of the worldwide Catholic Church under the guidance of their own ordinary or chief pastor, Msgr. Steenson.

Like the Ordinary for the United Kingdom, Monsignor Keith Newton, who has authority for reconciled Anglicans in England, Scotland and Wales since last year, Fr. Steenson is a married Catholic priest and former Anglican bishop who will act in every jurisdictional way as a bishop save only for ordaining. Fr. Steenson will preside at the liturgy in episcopal mitre and vestments by the respectful provision of Pope Benedict XVI thus recognizing his previous ministry as an Anglican bishop...

Read the rest at the Peregrinations blog.