sábado, 15 de enero de 2011

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham - Telegraph.co.uk (blog)

The three ex-bishops face the congregation as Catholic priests (Photo: AFP)

The three ex-bishops face the congregation as Catholic priests (Photo: AFP)

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, under the patronage of Blessed John Henry Newman, was set up by decree of the Vatican today as three former Anglican bishops were ordained Catholic priests to lead their flocks to Rome – and one of them, Fr Keith Newton, was appointed the Ordinary. I'm sorry if that seems a rather convoluted sentence, but I'm trying to convey how many extraordinary things have been accomplished simultaneously. At a service in Westminster Cathedral, a new form of "corporate reunion" – the words used by the Holy See – was established that offers Anglicans who wish to become Catholics everything they could reasonably ask for, and more than they expected. To start with, the Ordinariate is Personal: it has been set up by decree of the Pope and cannot be dismantled by its opponents. It is dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham, thus establishing a spiritual bond between the Ordinariate and the pre-Reformation devotion that inspired the Catholic movement in the Church of England. Its patron is Newman, signifying that its members are following in his footsteps in leaving Anglicanism. And it will be led, not by a Catholic bishop of England and Wales, but by a Catholic priest who was an Anglican bishop until last month, assisted by two of his former fellow bishops.

It really is almost too much to take in at once, even though we knew this was coming. Let me recommend the Catholic Herald's coverage of today's events by Anna Arco. And here is the official statement by the Vatican. My first reaction was one of relief that the Catholic Church has had the courage to entrust stewardship of the Ordinariate to a former "flying bishop" who knows intimately and is trusted by the Anglo-Catholics preparing to make the journey. This is a powerful affirmation of the doctrinal orthodoxy of the departing Anglicans: Rome has finally recognised that only impaired communion separates many Anglo-Catholics from the Holy See. At the same time, the Ordinariate puts on the spot those traditionalists who say they recognise the primacy of the Pope but, for one reason or another, have no plans to take up his radical offer, made in the teeth of opposition not only from members of the Catholic Bishops' Conference but also from within the Curia. The setting up of the Ordinariate will be fascinating to observe; equally interesting, I reckon, will be the manoeuvring on the Anglican bank of the Tiber.

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