A new idea of the Ordinariate is emerging:
No longer as a halfway house for disaffected
Anglo-Catholics leaving the Church of England
Editorial
By The Catholic Herald
Saturday, 2 October 2010
The plans for the Ordinariate for ex-Anglicans are gathering pace.
One of the last things Pope Benedict XVI said before leaving Britain, and one of the most important, was to emphasise that the Ordinariate is the next step towards Church unity.
It was not the step that we were led to expect during the years of negotiation with Anglicans about corporate unity. But it is prophetic – and the prophet in question is our present Holy Father, who believes that Anglicans who already accept the Magisterium of the Church should be given freedom to worship and evangelise in communion with Rome as a matter of urgency.
A new image of the Ordinariate is emerging. When
Anglicanorum coetibus was first published, the media and some religious commentators depicted it as a halfway house for “disaffected” Anglo-Catholics who were “defecting” from the Church of England and other Anglican churches around the world. That language is increasingly redundant.
The leaders of the Ordinariate project have passed through their stage of disaffection. As the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, the Anglican Bishop of Ebbsfleet and one of the architects of the scheme, made clear at an Anglo-Catholic synod held immediately after the Pope’s visit, we will soon see the formation of “small congregations, energetically committed to mission and evangelism and serving the neighbourhood in which they are set”.
Similar plans are being drawn up in other countries with a strong Anglican presence: last week, Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington was chosen to oversee the formation of Ordinariate parishes in America.
It is time to set aside, for the time being, the much-debated question of how many Anglicans will take advantage of the Apostolic Constitution. Let us focus instead on the core words of Bishop Burnham’s message:
his flock is “energetically committed to mission and [local] evangelisation”.
Future members of the Ordinariate are offering to help revitalise the Christian mission of the Catholic Church in England and several other countries.
It is a wonderful prospect, made possible by their faithful witness to the Gospel over many years and the vision of the Holy Father. Ignore the cynics and hand-wringers who see only difficulties in this historic development: we live in exciting times.
The first anniversary of Anglicanorum coetibus is fast approaching. After the initial media hustle-and-bustle about it, little has been made of it, considering that it is an unprecedented and therefore historical document in the history of the Church and of ecumenism.
Where all the other Christian denominations that split off from the Catholic church since the Reformation have gone on to splinter into dozens of offshoots themselves, the Church of Rome has not had a single serious splinter group since the Counter-Reformation.
The nearest one can name because it has been remarkably organized and has a worldwide following, even if numerically insignificant. are the Lefebvrians who have not declared an independent Church, only that they are not in communion with Rome over objections to some Vatican II interpretations.
Surely all this says volumes about the strength of the Church as an institution compared to all the other breakaway 'churches' which now, more than ever, are likely to fragment further as they seek to adapt to every shift in the world's social and cultural mores.
Perhaps I am too naive - and all I know about Church history is what I can fact-check easily - to consider Anglicanorum coetibus as potentially the most forward-looking and original of Benedict XVI's many initiatives. Not as dramatic as John XXIII convoking Vatican II but perhaps more significant and enduring in the long run. Nonetheless, may it be so! [At least, until he springs his next surprise.]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 04/10/2010 18:37]