I wish we had this kind of news more often from the Ordinariates that have been the fruit so far of Benedict XVI's Anglicanorum
coetibus, the kind of genuine ecumenism that the Catholic Church should encourage. Or similarly heartening news, for that matter,
about ordinations in regular Catholic dioceses...The Ordinariate of Walsingham was, of course, the very first of the Ordinariates.
Ordinations in the Ordinariate
June 20, 2017
What a superb occasion, last Saturday! As England enjoyed ... or endured ... a flow of very hot weather from Spain, the Ordinariate happily migrated to the cool spaces of the old Spanish Embassy Chapel: St James Spanish Place.
The Sacrament of Order was solemnly administered by our dear friend Bishop Robert Byrne, who ordained Deacons for England, Scotland, and Wales (yes ... poor old Ireland is still inordinariate).
[We actually have to thank Pope Francis for Bishop Byrne because it was he who appointed him auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham in 2014 - the first Oratorian bishop in England for 140 years. Fr. Byrne was a founder of the Oxford Oratory. Oratorians are followers of St. Phillip Neri.]
This seems to me a most welcome advance on the old practice of ordinands being 'done' by the geographical diocesan Bishop of their place of residence. That could appear to suggest that they are really clergy of the diocese and that the Ordinary is just a sort of Vicar General for iffy converts.
The new arrangements make visible the fact that the Ordinariate is a totally separate jurisdiction, directly subject to the Holy See, distinct from and equal to the dioceses.
The fact that Spanish Place as an old Embassy Chapel goes back to before the Restoration of the Hierarchy, makes the point even more crisply (the same is, of course, true of our Principal Church, the old Bavarian Embassy Chapel).
And indeed, Bishop Robert's titular See, Cuncacestre, takes us right back to the glory days of the Anglo-Saxon Church. Proto-ordinariate! Memories of the sweet talent with which St Bede the Venerable married together Englishness and Romanita!
The S tJames's Choir and servers did splendidly by us. So did the blessed providers of the Repast which followed. But the biggest stars were
our ten new clergy. As well as eight in Anglican Orders, two had discerned their priestly vocation as lay members of the Ordinariate ... the first such two.
I wonder how many dioceses in Northern Europe have ordained as many clerics this summer. Last Saturday offered the Catholic World a vivid picture of a Traditional jurisdiction which is really going places! Four cheers for Mgr Keith [Newton, who heads the Walsingham Ordinariate]!!
All we need now is for diocesan bishops to 'think Ordinariate' when they wonder what to with their imminently redundant churches and presbyteries. And a relaxation of the rules confining membership of the Ordinariates to those with Anglican or Methodist connctions, would help us enormously. Is it really in accordance with the New Evangelisation for us to have to turn people away?
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 21/06/2017 09:14]