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A personal ordinariate is a canonical structure within the Catholic Church enabling former Anglicans to maintain some degree of corporate identity and autonomy with regard to the bishops of the geographical dioceses of the Catholic Church and to preserve elements of their distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony. Its precise nature is described in the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus of 4 November 2009[1] and in the complementary norms of the same date.[2]
The new structure is intended to integrate these groups into the life of the Roman Catholic Church in such a way as "to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared".[3]
As an ordinariate of this kind is part of the Catholic Church, it professes that Church's principles and doctrines in their entirety and maintains fidelity to the leadership of the Pope.
Anglicans who join the Catholic Church can still choose to be part of the usual dioceses rather than of an ordinariate.
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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.[4]
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."[4]
The apostolic constitution is the response by the Vatican to concerns and requests coming from within the Catholic Church, particularly the Anglican Use parishes; from Continuing Anglican churches, particularly the Traditional Anglican Communion; and from Anglo-Catholic sections of the Anglican Communion, such as those involved with Forward in Faith.
In October 2007 the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) presented to the Holy See a petition for full union in corporate form (i.e., as a body, not merely as individuals) with the Roman Catholic Church. This worldwide grouping, under a single primate, of churches of Anglican tradition, but outside of communion with the see of Canterbury, was founded in 1991. It was formed over a number of issues, including liturgical revisions, the ordination of women and open homosexuals as priests, the sanctioning of homosexuality and the importance of tradition.
On 5 July 2008, Cardinal Levada responded to the formal request for "full, corporate and sacramental union" with the Roman Catholic Church[5] giving written assurance that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was giving serious attention to the prospect of "corporate unity" raised in that request.[6] The request thus became a basis for the decision, announced by Cardinal Levada on 20 October 2009, to issue the apostolic constitution.[7]
Anglican Use parishes have existed since the early 1980s, in line with the Pastoral Provision granted by Pope John Paul II at the request of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, allowing for the creation of parishes celebrating the liturgy in an approved form of the Anglican tradition and with a married clergy composed of former Anglican priests who on joining the Catholic Church were ordained in the Catholic Church. Many of these Anglican Use Catholics left the Episcopal Church because of women's ordination, revisions of the liturgy, and changes in its moral teaching. The discussions in 1977 that led to the granting of the pastoral provision in 1980 raised some of the ideas that came to fruition in the decision of 2009. One was the setting up of a structure for former Anglicans similar to the military ordinariate, an idea that was not then acted on because of the small number of Anglicans involved at that time.[8] The 1980 pastoral provision was granted only for the United States and it directly subjects those former Anglicans to whom it is applied to the governance of the existing local Latin Rite bishops.
Other Anglo-Catholics and in particular many of those involved in what is called the Continuing Anglican movement have also expressed interest in joining the Catholic Church, if ways are found to preserve aspects of Anglican identity and tradition. This movement is composed of jurisdictions that are numerous, usually quite small in membership, and that often splinter and recombine. Similarly, the movement Forward in Faith, which is formed of members of the Anglican Communion that share many of the same concerns over women's ordination and liturgical revisions that the TAC has, many of whom are Anglo-Catholics who have long desired to be in full communion with the Catholic Church, is not a church or a grouping of churches, each with its own bishop, as is the Traditional Anglican Communion.
In December 2009 Cardinal Levada responded to each of the bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion who signed the October 2007 petition for corporate union with the Catholic Church, stating that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had completed its long and detailed study with the aim of making available a suitable and viable model of organic unity for their group "and other such groups". The Traditional Anglican Communion then undertook discussions with those other groups and with representatives of the Catholic episcopal conferences and planned to give a formal response after a meeting of their bishops in Eastertide 2010.[9]
The personal ordinariates that the apostolic constitution envisages are similar to military ordinariates for the pastoral care of members of armed forces in that membership is on a personal rather than a territorial basis; but they differ in many aspects, as can be seen by a comparison of Anglicanorum coetibus with the apostolic constitution Spirituali militum cura of 21 April 1986 by which Pope John Paul II restructured the military ordinariates, which were previously called military vicariates. For instance, the military ordinariates must be headed by a bishop and lack structures such as the "governing council" of the ordinariates for former Anglicans.[10]
The personal ordinariates for former Anglicans differ also from personal prelatures, which, according to Canon 294, "are composed of deacons and priests of the secular clergy",[11] with no mention of members of religious institutes or of lay people, even those who, in accordance with Canon 296, "dedicate themselves to the apostolic work of a personal prelature by way of agreements made with the prelature".[12] Membership of a personal ordinariate for former Anglicans extends to "lay faithful, clerics and members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, originally belonging to the Anglican Communion and now in full communion with the Catholic Church, or those who receive the Sacraments of Initiation within the jurisdiction of the Ordinariate".[13]
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith establishes, in consultation with the episcopal conference concerned, personal ordinariates for former Anglicans within the episcopal conference's area. There may be more than one personal ordinarate, delimited geographically or otherwise, within the territory of the same episcopal conference. Each ordinariate, composed of lay faithful, clergy, and members of religious institutes originally belonging to the Anglican Communion and now in full communion with the Catholic Church, is juridically comparable to a diocese. The ordinary of each ordinariate, who may be either a bishop or a priest, chosen on the basis of a terna of names presented by the governing council of the ordinariate,[14] is canonically equivalent to a diocesan bishop and an ex officio member of the respective episcopal conference.,[15]
The ordinariates are to have "Governing Councils", composed of at least six priests and chaired by the ordinary, that exercise the combined functions of the Presbyteral Council and the College of Consultors of a diocese.[16] Each ordinariate is also to have a finance council[17] and a pastoral council to perform the same functions as the respective bodies in a diocese.[18] An ordinariate also may establish its own tribunal to process marriage and other cases, though the local diocesan tribunals retain jurisdiction if the ordinariate does not set up a tribunal of its own.[19]
The ordinary cannot be a bishop if married or with dependent children. In that case, while not having episcopal holy orders, in particular the power to ordain to the diaconate, priesthood and episcopacy, he has the powers and privileges of other prelates who are canonically equivalent to diocesan bishops, such as territorial prelates. It is he who by issuing dimissorial letters admits candidates to holy orders, having first obtained the consent of the governing council..[20] As an ordinary, he may personally install such candidates in the preliminary ministries of lectorate and acolytate. Like other equivalents of diocesan bishops, he is a full member of the episcopal conference and may use certain episcopal symbols, such as mitre, crosier, ring, pectoral cross, zuchetto, choir dress with purple cassock.
After having heard the opinion of the local diocesan bishop, the ordinary may, with the consent of the governing council and of the Holy See, erect "deaneries", each supervised by a "delegate", that encompass multiple parishes of the ordinariate.[20] The ordinary may also establish and suppress parishes and houses of formation and approve programs of formation with the consent of the governing council.[20]
Like diocesan bishops, the ordinary must make an ad limina apostolorum visit to Rome every five years. During this visit, the ordinary presents a report on the status of his ordinariate to the Pope through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and in consultation with the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.[21]
As currently proposed, the ordinariates would have full faculties to celebrate the Eucharist and the other sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical functions in accordance with the liturgical books proper to Anglican tradition, in revisions approved by the Holy See, so as to maintain the Anglican liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions. This faculty does not exclude liturgical celebrations according to the Roman Rite.[22]
The Complementary Norms clearly envision considerable pastoral collaboration between the clergy of parishes of personal ordinariates and the clergy of the dioceses within which they would be located.[23] The Complementary Norms also specifically grant faculties to the pastor of a geographical parish that has a parish of a personal ordinariate within its boundary to supply liturgical and pastoral services consistent with the needs of the congregation of a parish of an ordinariate that does not have a parochial vicar assigned in the event of the death, incapacity, or unexpected absence of its pastor.[24]
The apostolic constitution provides a juridical framework within which an Anglican religious community may join the Catholic Church as a group: “Institutes of Consecrated Life originating in the Anglican Communion and entering into full communion with the Catholic Church may also be placed under his (the ordinary's) jurisdiction by mutual consent.”[25] The ordinary also may erect new Societies of Apostolic Life and Institutes of Consecrated Life with the permission of the Holy See.
The Catholic Church does not recognise the validity of Anglican ordination (see Apostolicae Curae), so all who were ordained in the Anglican Communion must receive ordination in the Catholic Church to continue their ministry. The Apostolic Constitution does not dispense from the provisions of the Code of Canon Law of the Catholic Church forbidding ordination of women and ordination of those in irregular marriages, but it does make provision for ordination of married former Anglican clergy to the orders of deacon and priest in the service of an ordinariate: "Those who ministered as Anglican deacons, priests, or bishops, [...] may be accepted by the Ordinary as candidates for Holy Orders in the Catholic Church″,[26] Ordination to the priesthood in the Catholic Church is also open to married former Anglican clergy: "In consideration of Anglican ecclesial tradition and practice, the Ordinary may present to the Holy Father a request for the admission of married men to the presbyterate in the Ordinariate.”[27] This request is granted on a case-by-case basis,[28] not as a matter of course but by exception: "The norms established in the Encyclical Letter of Pope Paul VI Sacerdotalis coelibatus, n. 42 and in the Statement In June are to be observed."[29]
On the basis of objective criteria determined by the ordinary in consultation with the episcopal conference and approved by the Holy See, the ordinary may petition the Pope, on a case-by-case basis, to admit married men to the priesthood as a derogation of canon 277 §1[30] of the Code of Canon Law, but the general rule is that the ordinariate will admit only celibate men.[31] No married man may be ordained a bishop.
Ordination of married men to the episcopacy is excluded in the Catholic tradition, but the Apostolic Constitution's Complementary Norms include provisions which take into account the position of married former Anglican bishops.
Overall, these provisions provide considerable flexibility to preserve both the dignity of office and the opportunity for comparable pastoral leadership of former Anglican bishops who are not eligible for episcopal ordination in the Catholic Church. Note that a former Anglican "diocese" with a married bishop could in fact remain intact as an "ordinariate" with its former bishop, ordained as a priest but granted permission to wear episcopal insignia, serving as its "ordinary".
These provisions do not extend to former Anglican bishops who are in so-called "irregular" marriages.[32]
While members of some Anglican parishes and similar groups have been received into the Catholic Church and have there preserved elements of their Anglican heritage (see Anglican Use), the new structure would accommodate corporate union with the Catholic Church of larger grouping of Anglicans. The personal ordinariates are canonically within the Latin or Western Church[38] and thus differ, even jointly, from the Eastern Catholic Churches, which are autonomous particular Churches.
The personal ordinariates for former Anglicans, being part of the Western Church, come under the discipline of this Church, which, as a rule, restricts to celibate men ordination to the priesthood and even to the diaconate, except where, by decision of the episcopal conference, married men "of more mature age" (at least 35 years old) who are not intended to become priests may be ordained to the diaconate.[39] In this also the ordinariates for former Anglicans differ from those Eastern Catholic Churches in which priesthood and diaconate are open to married men as well as to celibates. The Holy See may grant for the ordinariates, as it does also for other components of the Latin Rite, exceptions to the general rule on a case by case basis.
A number of Anglican groups soon petitioned the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for acceptance into ordinariates.
On 8 November 2010, three serving and two retired bishops of the Church of England announced their intention to join the Roman Catholic Church. The serving bishops were Suffragan Bishops Andrew Burnham of Ebbsfleet, Keith Newton of Richborough, and John Broadhurst of Fulham, who declared their intention to resign from the offices they held with effect from 31 December 2010.[47] The retired bishops were Bishop Edwin Barnes, formerly of Richborough, and Bishop David Silk, formerly of Ballarat in Australia. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, announced that he had with regret accepted the resignations of Bishops Burnham and Newton. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales gave assurance of a warm welcome for those who wished to be part of an ordinariate.[46] In a pastoral letter concerning his resignation as Bishop of Richborough, Bishop Newton stressed that he had done so not for "negative reasons about problems in the Church of England but for positive reasons in response to our Lord's prayer the night before he died, [that] 'they may all be one'."[48] Ruth Gledhill, religious affairs correspondent of The Times, said that the announcement could prompt "hundreds, possibly thousands" of lay ministers to follow the bishops' example. She added: "It's quite significant as it means the ordinariate - that quite a few people have been saying might not get off the ground - could be a force to be reckoned with."[46]
On 19 November 2010, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales announced that work was proceeding with a view to establishing an ordinariate in January 2011, at about the same time as the putting into effect of the decision announced by the Anglican bishops on 8 November 2010 to be received into the Roman Catholic Church. The announcement stated that all five Anglican bishops would receive ordination "to the Catholic Diaconate and Priesthood" before Lent 2011 would then assist in the reception of other Anglicans. Other Anglican clergy and groups would begin a period of preparation before Lent leading to their reception, probably in Holy Week, followed during Eastertide by diaconal ordinations and priestly ordination around Pentecost of those former Anglican clergy whose requests for ordination would have been accepted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The announcement identified Bishop Alan Hopes, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster and a former Anglican priest, as both the delegate of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the liaison from the Conference of Bishops of England and Wales to co-ordinate the implementation of the ordinariate.[49]
On 1 January 2011, Bishop Alan Hopes received Broadhurst, Burnham and Newton, together with their wives and three former Anglican nuns of a convent at Walsingham, into the Catholic Church.[50] Bishop Hopes subsequently ordained the three former Anglican bishops to the Catholic diaconate on 13 January 2011. Two days later, on 15 January 2011, they were ordained to the priesthood.
On 15 January 2011, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith established the first personal ordinariate "for those groups of Anglican clergy and faithful who have expressed their desire to enter into full visible communion with the Catholic Church" and Pope Benedict XVI appointed Keith Newton as its first ordinary. Territorially the ordinariate, officially named the "Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham", covers England and Wales, the area of competence of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. Newton, being married, is not permitted to receive Catholic ordination to the episcopate. The decree of erection designates Blessed John Henry Newman as the principal patron of the ordinariate, but does not designate either the location of the see or a principal church.[51][52]
At Easter 2011, about 900 laity and about 60 former Anglican clergy (some retired from active ministry) joined the Catholic Church as members of the ordinariate. There were about 20 members in Scotland, but none in Wales.
In September 2010, under the leadership of some Church of England bishops, the Society of St Wilfrid and St Hilda, a new grouping which intends to stay within the Church of England, was founded for Anglicans who do not accept the ministry of the Pope at least "as presently exercised".[53] This association published a pamphlet critical of the ordinariate.
At the end of November 2010, Bishop Peter Elliott, an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne, Australia,[54] said that the Australian bishops intended to follow the example of England and Wales so that an initially "very small" ordinariate could be established in that country, with specific churches designated for its use, by Pentecost 2011. A former Anglican layman, Bishop Elliott is designated as the delegate of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and a liaison to the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. He expected that, once established, the proposed Australian ordinariate would attract "a much larger number of people".[55] An Australian ordinariate implementation committee was formed in mid-December 2010.
A national Australian ordinariate festival was held in February 2011 at Coomera in Queensland.[56] The conference was hosted by Elliott and Archbishop John Hepworth of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia (and primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion).
People from the Catholic Church attended, as well as members of the Anglican Church of Australia, the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia, the Church of Torres Strait and the Ukrainian Catholic Church, as well as some Anglican religious who wish to be part of the ordinariate. The implementation committee had its inaugural meeting after the conference.
The consensus of the festival was that unity can be achieved while also preserving the distinctive Anglican heritage of the churches.[57] Bishop Elliott said that membership in the ordinariate by interested persons is sought by a formal application in writing. All clergy transferring to the ordinariate will require a Catholic priest as sponsor and ordination within the Catholic Church.
In a radio discussion on 20 February 2011, Archbishop Hepworth said that some 800 people of his own church, the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia, were committed to joining an ordinariate and that he believed, once implemented, it would grow strongly. The possibility of the Church of Torres Strait (some 9,000 people) joining was also discussed on the radio program.[58]
A conference and synod of the Church of Torres Strait, held from 3 to 5 June 2011, decided unanimously to accept the idea of the church becoming a Catholic ordinariate and set a target date of the First Sunday in Advent in 2011 for its implementation after first finding out how many of its membership wish to join the ordinariate.[59]
In his address to an ordinariate information day in Melbourne on 11 June 2011, Bishop Peter Elliott said that the Australian ordinariate is expected to be established in 2012. He also confirmed that the petition of the Church of Torres Strait had been sent to Rome.[60]
The Holy See has subsequently decided that Archbishop Hepworth, a former Catholic priest who has been married two times (first marriage ending in divorce), could not be an ordained member of the proposed ordinariate.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith appointed Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Archbishop of Washington, as its delegate for the implementation of an ordinariate in the United States. Cardinal Wuerl also led a liaison committee of three bishops of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for implementation of the ordinariate.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith also appointed the Most Reverend Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, as its delegate for implementation of an ordinariate in Canada. Archbishop Collins also led a liaison committee of bishops of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In November 2010, the Parish of Our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio, Texas, an Anglican Use parish, hosted a seminar called "Becoming One" to build relationships and to disseminate information about the possibility of establishing a personal ordinariate in the United States. It was well attended by interested parties from the United States and Canada.
A pastoral letter dated 30 November 2010 from John Hepworth, primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, stated that announcements similar to those for England and Wales and for Australia were expected to be issued soon concerning Canada and the United States. He also stated that Robert Mercer, a retired bishop resident in England who was formerly the Anglican Bishop of Matabeleland and then a bishop in the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (a Continuing Anglican church), intended to join the ordinariate for England and Wales.[61]
However, most of the "continuing" Anglican Church in America (TAC) drew back from joining the ordinariate. Only three parishes from the Episcopal Church (Anglican Communion) were interested, and two of these were embroiled in multi-million law suits over their church property. In Canada only one mainstream Anglican parish (out of 1,800) announced its intention of joining the ordinariate.
In May 2011, preparations for members of the Traditional Anglican Communion in Canada to join an ordinariate were put on hold in view of reports about intended announcements by Archbishop Collins that those intending to join the ordinariate would have to close their Traditional Anglican parishes and attend a Catholic parish for four to six months and that the dossiers submitted by the clergy concerned showed that their training was inadequate, requiring them to attend a Catholic seminary for an unspecified time. Archbishop Collins denied the reports.[62]
In early June 2011, in advance of the report that Cardinal Wuerl was due to present to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on interest shown in joining an ordinariate, a 100-member Episcopal parish in Bladensburg, Maryland was reported to have become the first in the United States to ask to be received into the Catholic Church while keeping aspects of its Anglican traditions.[63] Other accounts give Mount Calvary Church in Baltimore as the first, and the Bladensburg church as the second.[64][65]
In his report to the Bishops Conference, Cardinal Wuerl stated that the Holy See had indicated its wish to establish an ordinariate in the United States before the end of 2011.[66] At the next meeting of the Bishops Conference, on 15 November, he announced that, with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI, 1 January 2012 would be the date of establishment of the new ordinariate for former Anglicans in the United States.[67] He said that of 67 petitions by United States Anglican clergy for ordination as Catholic priests 35 had already received the nihil obstat of the Holy See and would be examined locally for possible acceptance. He also said that two Anglican communities had already entered into full communion with the Catholic Church, one in the Diocese of Fort Worth, the other in the Archdiocese of Washington.
On 1 January 2012, the ordinariate for the United States was established with the name of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter. Fr Jeffrey N. Steenson, a former bishop of the Episcopal Church, was named as its first ordinary.[68]
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