Bishop Peter Elliott discusses the Liturgy with the National Catholic Register

In an interview for the National Catholic Register, Bishop Peter Elliott, a member of the Anglicanae Traditiones commission (and chapter author in our book Anglicans and the Roman Catholic Church), speaks about the implications of the 50th anniversary of the promulgation of the constitution on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium.

Q:  What reforms did we see that were never intended by the document or were taken too far?What was never intended, or imagined, by the Council Fathers was Communion in the hand and receiving Communion standing. These practices began in the Netherlands soon after the Council, and, later, they were authorized, a shameful episode when breaking law led to making law. Can anyone seriously argue that these practices have deepened reverence for the blessed Eucharist?
Then we come to what was never mentioned in Sacrosanctum Concilium, but soon spread everywhere after the Council — Mass facing the people. I eagerly supported that change, and I celebrate most Masses that way.
But now, after much reflection, I have second thoughts. Has this overemphasized the priest? Does it rest on the erroneous opinion that the Mass is a meal? Have we lost something? The mystery? So what was gained by all that expensive renovation of sanctuaries? We moved altars — but did we move hearts?
In a broader perspective, what really set in was the secularization of the liturgy. That led to the degradation of language, rituals, vessels and vestments, design, architecture and music.
The Mass became a dialogue across a table, and Communion became a queue when people go and get something. Please do not tell me that a queue is a “Communion procession.”
Now, we face the urgent need to recover the sacred because Sacrosanctum Concilium never intended to secularize Christian worship, with all that dull ugliness and cold functionalism. As Pope Benedict taught, beauty is essential in all that pertains to the worship of the God, who is Beautiful, and that rests on Chapter 7 of Sacrosanctum Concilium.

Read the rest at the web site of NCR.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller.

Anglican Ordinariate Priestly Ordination and Mass of Thanksgiving

Recently, in Melbourne, Australia, Bishop Elliott ordained another priest for the Anglican Ordinariate. Congratulations to the Rev. Richard Waddell, who was ordained. He will now be leaving to study Canon Law in Rome. There are pictures of both the ordination at St Patrick's Mentone, as well as his Mass of Thanksgiving, which he celebrated at the Community of Bl. John Henry Newman.

I am also told that this was a historic  situation: while the Mass of Ordination was celebrated according to the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the Mass of thanksgiving was the very first use of the Interim Liturgy of the Anglican Ordinariate in Australia...


Read the rest of the article and view the many photos on The New Liturgical Movement.

Questions answered in new little Ordinariate catechism

by Robert Hiini

A great deal of natural curiosity surrounding the Anglican ordinariate has been answered with the publication of A little Catechism on the Personal Ordinariates for former Anglicans authored by Melbourne Bishop Peter Elliott, a former Anglican. Not only does the small tome answer the question of what the ordinariate is and can do, but also questions about who is able to join, whether ordinariate priests must be celibates and how ordinariate worship might be different to that in Western and Eastern Catholic churches.

Australia’s Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross came into being on June 15, 2012 and is one of three ordinariates established for former Anglicans throughout the world, along with those in England and the United States...

Read the full story at the web site of The Record.

More News on the Soon-to-be Erected Personal Ordinariate in Australia

From Melbourne, Australia comes the news:

POPE Benedict XVI will officially name Australia’s Personal Ordinariate Our Lady of the Southern Cross, under the patronage of St Augustine of Canterbury, on 15 June.

Bishop Peter Elliott, project delegate for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the name of the Ordinary, the person who will lead the Ordinariate, would also be announced that day.

“The Ordinariate is a national diocese for former Anglicans who will enter full communion with the Catholic Church and yet retain their own heritage and traditions,” Bishop Elliott said.

“Many requests had come from groups to Rome in recent years, that is from Anglicans in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, who were deeply distressed at the ordination of women as priests and bishops and also most unhappy about other liberalising trends in the Anglican Communion.

“They requested that rather than being reconciled to the Church individually they might come to some corporate style of arrangement.

“I would encourage all the Catholics in Melbourne to take an interest in this new venture. It is an historical moment, of course it is small but from small things bigthings grow and I think this will have a remarkable future.”

Two main sources will make up the Ordinariate in Australia: members of the Anglican Church in Australia, the official Anglican denomination; and members of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia, which is part of the breakaway Traditional Anglican Communion—people who left mainstream Anglicanism for the same reasons that they are now seeking ull communion with the Church.

...

“The Ordinariate is part of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church; it’s not a distinct rite. It will have the privilege of a liturgy of its own.

“I am a member of the international commission preparing that liturgy. We are preparing a liturgy which draws upon the Roman Rite, the new rite and the old, plus various books of Common Prayer. This liturgy won’t be obligatory but it will be an option.”

Read the entire article at the web site of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne.

THE ORDINARIATE - ALIVE AND GROWING IN ENGLAND

A Report from London

Most Rev Peter J. Elliott

The first birthday of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was celebrated fittingly on Sunday January 15^th 2012 at St James, Spanish Place, with Solemn Evensong, Sermon, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, Te Deum and Benediction. Together with other clergy, I assisted in choir at this act of thanksgiving on the last night of a fascinating two week visit to London.

The Ordinary, Mgr Keith Newton presided and preached. What I found most encouraging was not only his “upbeat” message, full of his own warmth and pastoral confidence, but the sense of achievement and joy among the large congregation who had gathered for the celebration.

The choir of St James brought forth the best of the Anglican Patrimony, wedded to the English Catholic heritage, We entered to Parry “I was glad when they said unto me” (vivid memories of the coronation in 1953). Stanford provided the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis. “Alleluia! Sing to Jesus!” accompanied the Eucharistic procession, while the canopy over the Sacrament was borne by four robed Knights of Malta. Stanford again gave us his Te Deum, while Elgar provided a limpid O Salutaris, not forgetting the traditional translation of Benediction used across three centuries by the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament.

What I discerned in London is an Ordinariate that is growing steadily, facing challenges, especially church sharing, yet moving ahead. Nevertheless, some Catholic journalists have claimed that undue control is being exercised over the Ordinariate by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. Frankly I do not share that concern.

The Bishops I talked to want the Ordinariate to flourish and are not overprotective. But, to be realistic, at this stage the Ordinariate is very young, a “nursling in arms”. It needs much support, care and encouragement as it gradually finds its place in the wider Church. It will not be absorbed and it will not be turned into an ecclesiastical nature reserve. Nor should we heed mischievous rumors that some people are reverting to Anglicanism out of disappointment. Long ago, that tale was spread about Blessed John Henry Newman himself. It is a standard fantasy, the gossip of those who feel insecure about other people’s choices. In fact, new groups are forming and emerging and individuals are quietly making their choice for unity...

Read the rest of Bishop Elliot's report at the web site of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham (UK).