Scranton's St. Thomas More Society to buy historic church property

St. Joseph's Church, Scranton, Pennsylvania
Father Eric Bergman writes:

Those of you who assisted at Mass on Sunday, February 19th will remember that I called a surprise meeting that day for members and friends of the St. Thomas More Society. I announced then that Bishop Joseph Bambera had given me permission to poll our members and benefactors to determine how much money we might be able to raise for the purchase of a permanent home from which to conduct our ministry. Specifically he had asked me to get back to him in a couple of weeks to indicate whether we as a community could come up with the cash to purchase St. Joseph Church in the Providence section of the city of Scranton. Your response to my appeal was quick and generous, for which I offer my most heartfelt gratitude. By February 29th we had about $170,000 on hand, with thousands more pledged toward the purchase, a happy circumstance that I related to the Vicar General of the Diocese of Scranton, Fr. Brian Clarke. Within days I learned we would be able to purchase the entire St. Joseph Church campus, which includes the church (with the parish hall beneath it), the rectory (six bedrooms and five baths), four garages, 36 parking spaces, a convent vacated by the Sisters of Mercy on January 9th, and St. Joseph School (closed in 1984 but used by the parish for various ministries until July of last year). Our hope is to close on the property the third or fourth week of April and complete the necessary renovations over the summer, the goal being to be worshiping in our new setting and occupying our new rectory by the beginning of the school year.

For the property we must pay $254,000, though Fr. Cyril Edwards, the Pastor of Mary, Mother of God parish, fr rom which we will acquire the property, ha as kindly agreed to give us some time to come up with the full amount. In addition to the purchase price, we will have to sp pend a significant amount restoring the ch hurch to conform to our liturgical practices and disciplines. Plus, there will be some renovation work necessary for the other buildings on the campus. Therefore, we will shortly conduct a formal capital campaign, for which you should expect to receive a mailing, by which we will raise the necessary funds. How much we raise will determine what we are able to do over the coming summer months, and we will be sure to welcome pledges toward work that can be kicked down the road a bit, for those of you who do not have money immediately on hand. Thus, please begin to pray about what you may be able to donate, in anticipation of receiving a formal appeal for help with acquisition of the property and restoration of it...

Read the rest of Fr. Bergman's letter to his parishioners and the rest of the Society's news in this month's More News.

Former Anglican bishop turned Catholic priest is star of anti-apartheid musical

A former Anglican bishop ordained a Catholic priest is one of the stars of an anti-apartheid musical in South Africa, it emerged today.

Fr Robert Mercer, 77, was deported from South Africa in 1970 for his stand against apartheid, along with several other Anglican priests.

He and other members of the Anglican Community of the Resurrection defied segregation laws by running a multi-racial parish.

They were, says Fr Mercer, “deemed to be a corrupting influence on students” at Stellenbosch University, where they worked as chaplains. One of the Anglican priests was jailed.

Their stand has been dramatised in a multi-media pop musical called Brothers, which ran for five nights at Stellenbosch University, the country’s top Africaans university.

The musical was performed in September 2010 in a mix of Africaans and English and was directed by playwright Peter Krummeck.

Fr Mercer, who grew up in Zimbabwe, went on to become Bishop of Matabeleland, Zimbabwe, in the Anglican Province of Central Africa, in the midst of a civil war.

He was bishop for 11 years before leaving the Anglican Communion to join the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, part of the worldwide Traditional Anglican Communion. He served as metropolitan bishop from 1988 to 2005, when he retired to England.

Fr Mercer became a Catholic in January and was ordained a priest for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham on Monday.

He said today that Pope Benedict XVI’s offer of an ordinariate to Anglicans in 2009 was “an answer to our prayers, to our dreams”...

Read the rest at The Catholic Herald.

Hat tip to Fr. Stephen Smuts.

Former Anglican bishop now Catholic priest

from the web site of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham

26 March 2012

A sixth Anglican bishop has been ordained as a Catholic priest at a ceremony in Portsmouth today.

Fr Robert Mercer, who served as the Anglican bishop of Matabeleland and as a bishop within the Traditional Anglican Communion, was ordained to the Priesthood by the Right Reverend Alan Hopes in St John’s Cathedral in Portsmouth.

Fr Mercer will serve in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, in England and Wales. This is the first structure, set up in 2011, following the provision of Pope Benedict XVI to allow Anglicans, including members of the Church of England and the Traditional Anglican Communion, to become Catholics whilst retaining much of their own tradition and heritage.

Serving within the Isle of Wight & Portsmouth Ordinariate Group, Fr Mercer will minister especially to those worshipping at the historic Portsmouth church of St Agatha’s, Landport, who hope to be received into the full communion of the Catholic Church this Easter.

Monsignor Keith Newton, the Ordinary (leader) of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, commented on Fr Mercer’s ordination, saying, “Fr Robert’s witness to the truth of the Catholic faith, and his commitment to the unity of all Christians, has led to this very happy day when we can welcome him as a brother Priest in the Catholic Church. His ministry in Africa, in Canada and here in Portsmouth, has been exemplary, and we look forward to his renewed ministry now - bringing many rich gifts from the Anglican tradition into the Catholic Church”.

Fr Jonathan Redvers Harris, who bears overall responsibility for the Isle of Wight & Portsmouth Ordinariate Group, said “As the Ordinariate continues to grow in Portsmouth, it will be good to have Fr Robert’s expertise and great wealth of experience. I welcome him warmly as a colleague and a friend”.

The Ordinariate

The diocese of Lancaster (England) has a very good description of the Ordinariate, including history and notes about the US, Canadian and Australian situation. My thanks to Fr. Smuts in S. Africa for pointing this out on his blog.


The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham
(under the patronage of Blessed John Henry Newman)

The apostolic constitution that allows for the institution of personal ordinariates for Anglicans who join the Catholic Church was released on 9 November 2009, after being announced on 20 October 2009 by Cardinal William Levada at a press conference in Rome and by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, at a simultaneous press conference in London.

A note of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith indicated that the personal ordinariates: "will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony. ... pastoral oversight and guidance will be provided for groups of former Anglicans through a Personal Ordinariate, whose Ordinary will usually be appointed from among former Anglican clergy. ... (The Apostolic Constitution offers) a single canonical model for the universal Church which is adaptable to various local situations and equitable to former Anglicans in its universal application. It provides for the ordination as Catholic priests of married former Anglican clergy. Historical and ecumenical reasons preclude the ordination of married men as bishops in both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The Constitution therefore stipulates that the Ordinary can be either a priest or a bishop. The seminarians in the Ordinariate are to be prepared alongside other Catholic seminarians, though the Ordinariate may establish a house of formation to address the particular needs of formation in the Anglican patrimony..."


Read the rest at the Lancaster Diocesan web site

HOUSTON, TX: The Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter takes shape

Boundaries stretch from the Mexican border to the Arctic Ocean and from sea to shining sea

A VOL EXCLUSIVE

By Mary Ann Mueller in Houston
Special Correspondent
March 26, 2012

The Rt. Rev. Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson has an incredibly difficult task ahead of him. On December 31, 2011, he was simply a Roman Catholic priest quietly teaching Patristics - his academic forte - at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. The Anglican Ordinariate was a gleam in Pope Benedict XVI's eye. On January 1, 2012, the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter was born, at least on paper, with Fr. Steenson, the former Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of the Rio Grande, was tapped as its leader.

As New Year's Day dawned, within the space of hours, the Pope, through the hands of William Cardinal Levada, challenged the new Ordinary, to do something that had never been done before. He was to create a nationwide diocese on the North American continent using the words of the Apostolic Constitution -- Anglicanorum Coetibus, the Complementary Norms for Anglicanorum Coetibus, and the Decree from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith establishing the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, coupled with the current Canons of the Catholic Church and the Catechism of the Catholic Church to guide him as the scuffling framework needed to complete his job and fully enflesh the Pope's prophetic vision.

"I'm basically starting a new diocese from nothing ... from scratch," the world's newest Anglican Ordinariate Ordinary explained. "The basic administrative work isn't finished yet. We wouldn't create an Ordinariate with people until we have a good corporate basis in which to do it."

On Jan. 1, there were no paid employees of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter. Msgr. Steenson and the Ordinariate's other officers: Fr. Scott Hurd, Canon to the Ordinary - or the Vicar General in Catholic parlance; Margaret Chalmer, Chancellor; Margaret Pichon, Assistant to the Ordinary; and Susan Gibbs in Media Relations are all highly qualified unpaid "volunteers". Only Barbara Jonte, the Ordinariate's new Executive Assistant, is a paid staff member. However, she did not join the team until after the Ordinariate was erected on Jan. 1. The other four "volunteers" had worked many long hours leading up to New Year's Day so when the Ordinariate was formally announced from the Vatican, there was a functioning rudimentary skeleton in place to implement immediate Ordinariate needs such as unveiling the design of the Ordinariate's crest, activating the Ordinariate's website, organizing the Jan. 2 Houston news conference, the planning of the Feb. 12 investiture of Fr. Steenson as the founding Ordinary, and preparing for his elevation as a protonotary apostolic monsignor.

This rank gives Msgr. Steenson a seat in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) - the Catholic version of the House of Bishops - and entitles him to clutch a crozier, don the mitre, have a heavy-chained pectoral cross draped across his chest, and a wear bishop's fuchsia-colored cassock with oversized red cuffs. His new Catholic coat of arms boasts a fuchsia galero - the large, broad-brimmed tasseled hat associated with upper ranking clergy - and twin triple layers of red tassels in keeping with his new ecclesial hierarchical rank.

"There's no policy manuals ... we don't have the particular norms that, like what we used to call in The Episcopal Church, the Diocesan Constitution ... we don't have that," he said referencing his previous experience as an Episcopal bishop.

The closest equivalent he has to a diocesan constitution would be the Complementary Norms for Anglicanorum Coetibus that is still not detailed and is very sketchy. He has to figure things out as issues present themselves and needs are identified.

As the VIII Bishop of the Rio Grande, Msgr. Steenson inherited an established Episcopal diocese, albeit small. His Episcopal diocese encompassed the entire state of New Mexico, save the Four Corners region of the Navajoland, and spilled into Texas as far as the Pecos River.

As the Ordinariate's founding "bishop", Msgr. Steenson's new "diocese" temporarily encompasses the entire United States and all of Canada - until a separate Canadian Ordinariate can eventually be established. The Monsignor's new jurisdiction slices through 197 American Catholic dioceses and 71 dioceses north of the 49th Parallel. His spiritual authority stretches from the Arctic Archipelago in Canada to Ka Lae, South Point, Hawaii and Key West, Florida in the United States and from the Alaskan Aleutian Islands in the West to Newfoundland in the East and all points in between. His people pray for Queen Elizabeth II in Canada and Barack Obama in America. To the North, they look with joy to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrating her 60 years on the throne, while farther South all eyes turn to the battle for the White House...

Read the rest of this report on Virtue Online.

Former Anglican bishop ordained a Catholic deacon

By Catholic Herald Staff Reporter

Thursday, 22 March 2012


From left: James Bradley; Mgr Keith Newton, Ordinary; Robert Mercer; Bishop Alan Hopes; Daniel Lloyd

A former Anglican bishop has been ordained a deacon for the ordinariate.

Robert Mercer, who was received into the Catholic Church in January, was ordained by Auxiliary Bishop Alan Hopes of Westminster at Allen Hall seminary in London. He will be ordained a priest on Monday.

Mr Mercer, 77, was Bishop of Matabeleland, Zimbabwe, in the Anglican Province of Central Africa. He was bishop for 11 years before leaving the Anglican Communion to join the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, part of the worldwide Traditional Anglican Communion. He served as metropolitan bishop from 1988 to 2005, when he retired to England.

He is one of three former Anglican clergy to be ordained priests for the ordinariate. More than 200 former Anglicans are also expecting to be received into the Catholic Church in Holy Week.

Mgr Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, presented Robert Mercer for ordination. Other members of the Ordinariate, together with staff and seminarians from Allen Hall, were present for the celebration.

During his homily, Bishop Hopes said: “Robert, your life has been one of profound commitment and witness. Your formation and ministry within the Anglican tradition have provided you with a solid spiritual bedrock on which your life has been built … You have been a bold witness to Christ and to the truths of Catholic Christianity – often at great cost to yourself”.

“Coming into communion with the Catholic Church through the ordinariate, you bring with you some of the spiritual riches that are to be found in the Anglican church. You take on a new mission in your ministry of bridge building – that of building bridges between the Catholic Church and the ecclesial communities of the Anglican tradition”.

Mgr Newton, speaking after the ordination, said: “It is a great joy to be here today to celebrate Robert’s ordination. We hope and pray that it will be an encouragement to members of the Traditional Anglican Communion – an assurance of the respect and warmth of welcome, which the Ordinariate offers to them and to all Anglicans who are faithful to the vision of Christian Unity”.

Mr Mercer will be ordained to the Sacred Priesthood on March 26 in Portsmouth Cathedral.

from the Catholic Herald.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller

We begin our Eucharistic fast in preparation for April 15

by Deborah Gyapong



Today we began our Eucharistic Fast in preparation for our reception into the Catholic Church on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 15, 2012 at St. Patrick’s Basilica in an Anglican Use Mass and initiation celebrated by Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast.

So we had Solemn High Mattins, the Liturgy of the Word and Spiritual Communion.

I can scarcely contain my joy as I write this. What a difference ever since we made a collective decision across the country among parishes and groups in the pro-diocese of Our Lady of Walsingham of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, a temporary diocese to accommodate those of us who want to join an Ordinariate. All the anguish of the past year is gone...

Read the rest on the blog English Catholic

Archbishop of Canterbury to be Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge

While not directly connected with the Ordinariates and Anglican Use of the Roman Rite, this will be of interest to readers here.

Archbishop of Canterbury to be Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge

Friday 16th March 2012

Archbishop Rowan Williams has today announced his acceptance of the position of Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge with effect from January 2013. He will therefore be stepping down from the office of Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of December 2012.

Dr Williams’ intentions have been conveyed to The Queen, who is Supreme Governor of the Church of England and who formally appoints the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Dr Williams was appointed the one hundred and fourth Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002. He said today:

It has been an immense privilege to serve as Archbishop of Canterbury over the past decade, and moving on has not been an easy decision. During the time remaining there is much to do, and I ask your prayers and support in this period and beyond. I am abidingly grateful to all those friends and colleagues who have so generously supported Jane and myself in these years, and all the many diverse parishes and communities in the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion that have brought vision, hope and excitement to my own ministry. I look forward, with that same support and inspiration, to continuing to serve the Church’s mission and witness as best I can in the years ahead.

Dr Williams will continue to carry out all the duties and responsibilities of the Archbishop of Canterbury, both for the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, until the end of the year.

The Crown Nominations Commission will consider in due course the selection of a successor.

from The Archbishop of Canterbury's web site.

Hat tip to Paul Zalonski on his blog Communio.

Anglican Catholics and the experience of the Ordinariate

More than two years ago, Pope Benedict XVI published the apostolic exhortation Anglicanorum Coetibus, that allows groups of Anglicans to collectively convert to the Catholic Church while still keeping their Anglican identity.

It envisaged the creation of structures called 'Ordinariates' for returning Anglicans.

The first such Ordinariate was established last January in the United Kingdom.

One year after its creation, about a hundred of its members have come to Rome for a week, to celebrate the anniversary.

To date, fifty seven priests and three deacons have joined the Ordinariate, together with over one thousand lay people.

Two hundred more faithful will be received this year.

Twenty of the Ordinariate's priests are still being trained.

Mgr. Keith Newton, a married Anglican priests and father of three takes stock of this unprecedented experience in the relationship between Christian Churches in the West...

Read the rest of this interview with Msgr. Newton, originally published last week, on the web site Clerical Whispers.

Hat tip to Fr. Chadwick's "English Catholic" blog.

Convert priest thrilled to host Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury

Rome, Italy, Mar 9, 2012

(CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic convert Father Peter Hughes prefers to describe himself as “an Anglican who is now in full communion with Peter.”

“In a personal sense I have made this journey, and it has been both a fascinating and a demanding one,” said Fr. Hughes, the prior of San Gregorio al Celio monastery in Rome, in an interview with CNA.

Fr. Hughes was received into the Catholic Church in 2000, after many years as an Anglican vicar in his native Australia and in England.

This weekend he will experience his life come full circle as he hosts both Pope Benedict XVI and the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. The two religious leaders will pray Vespers together to mark the 1,000th anniversary of the monastic Camaldolese Order, which has overseen San Gregorio since the mid 1500s.

“The thought of living one’s own ecclesial tradition in a different context and celebrating what is rich in both …is reflected in this whole celebration,” said Fr. Hughes...

Read the rest on the web site of the Catholic News Agency.

Hat tip to Fr. Z.