A birthday/anniversary/Easter gift for the Pope of Christian unity?
Primate hopes all TAC synods
will approve joining Church by Easter
By Deborah Gyapong
P11/13/2009
OTAWA, Australia (CNS) -- The primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion said he hopes churches take action to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church before Easter.
Archbishop John Hepworth said he reacted "with overwhelming joy" to the apostolic constitution published Nov. 9 establishing the structure for Anglicans to be in full communion with the Catholic Church.
The archbishop described the constitution as "generous at every turn" in its description of the Anglican heritage, its dogmatic provisions and its pastoral language.
"We've been asked to show the rich heritage to the whole church, not just to ourselves," he said in an interview from Australia.
The Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) includes Anglican churches that have left the much larger Anglican Communion over the ordination of women and sexually active homosexuals as priests.
TAC is among the largest group of Anglicans likely to embrace the Vatican's action to welcome them into full communion with the Church.
Archbishop Hepworth expects a positive response from Traditional Anglican Communion member churches around the world. Already, the United Kingdom's Traditional Anglican Communion synod voted to accept the document prior to its publication.
He said he has heard from churches around the world, describing their comments as "powerful messages that 'we want it and we want it as soon as we can get it.'"
Archbishop Hepworth has delivered a timetable to Traditional Anglican Communion bishops involving a series of regional and national synods starting early in 2010.
"I want all the votes in by Lent," Archbishop Hepworth said. "Then I'm hoping in fact our bishops can meet in Rome after Easter and present the 'yes' votes and take advice on what to do next."
While Archbishop Hepworth wants to move fast, he said the structure outlined in the apostolic constitution does not require anyone to rush headlong into it. "There's no deadline; it's available way into the future," he said.
"If (the Pope) deals with other groups as creatively and as warmly and pastorally as he has dealt with us, he is the Pope of (Christian) unity," Archbishop Hepworth said.
The primate described the personal ordinariate structure established in the apostolic constitution -- which offers the jurisdiction of a diocese without being tied to a geographical area -- as "radical."
"It's a modern church structure that the rest of the Church in fact will have to consider," he said. It also paves the way for other groups to come into communion corporately.
The two issues likely to draw the most media attention in the document are the provisions for married priests and for married bishops to potentially serve in the new structure.
The norm is clerical celibacy, he said, but there is a provision for married men to be ordained on a case-by-case basis approved by the Holy See, Archbishop Hepworth said.
"It will be done according to the norms developed by the ordinariate and the bishops' conferences and submitted to the Holy See for approval," he said.
"Without married priesthood into the future, it would be very difficult at this stage to sustain the Anglican ordinariate into the future," he added. "
We Anglicans going into communion with the Holy See are going to have to deepen our understanding of the celibate priesthood."
Here is an excellent report on Anglicanorum coetibus in this weeks issue of the UK's Catholic Herald. It includes several reactions not previously reported:
Rome opens arms to world's Anglicans
by Anna Arco
13 November 2009
The Vatican has released an eagerly awaited document outlining the Pope's provision for Anglican groups wishing to enter into full communion with Rome.
The Apostolic Constitution
Anglicanorum coetibus ("On groups of Anglicans") was published on Monday, two weeks after the Vatican announced a new provision for Anglican communities that wish to become Catholic while retaining aspects of their Anglican identity.
The document, which introduces a new legal structure called a Personal Ordinariate, was accompanied by a set of complementary norms, clarifying some of the points outlined.
As expected,
Anglicanorum coetibus did not revise the discipline of priestly celibacy - an issue that was hotly debated when the Apostolic Constitution was first announced.
Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith clarified last week that priestly celibacy would be observed in an ordinariate, but that married men could be ordained on a case-by-case basis.
A day before the document's publication, Pope Benedict XVI strongly affirmed the Church's commitment to priestly celibacy during a Mass in Brescia, Pope Paul VI's birthplace.
Surprising aspects of the document include the provision that married former Anglican bishops can serve as the ordinary, or head of an ordinariate, take part in bishops' conference meetings and be able to keep the episcopal insignia - for example, their crosier and mitre.
Former Anglican clergymen entering the Catholic priesthood in the ordinariate would be allowed to take secular jobs, providing them with a means of supporting themselves.
Cardinal Levada said the provision "opens a new avenue for the promotion of Christian unity while, at the same time, granting legitimate diversity in the expression of our common faith".
Speaking on the day the document was published, the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet, who is one of the Church of England's "flying bishops" who minister to Anglicans who do not accept women priests, said that traditionalists have been given what they asked for "handsomely". He said that any transition would be difficult and it was a time for prayer and discernment.
"If we're open-hearted and imaginative enough to accept the offer and realise that it will be an untidy transition, but that the ministry is not about that, then the difficulties can be overcome," he said.
Bishop Burnham has chosen February 22 as the day for his priests and faithful to make their "initial" decision about the offer. The day falls after the Church of England's General Synod session.
He said: "If Catholics could throw open the doors of their churches on that day and pray together with Anglicans in front of the Blessed Sacrament or have Forty Hours, I think we could see some amazing things."
In a statement on Monday, Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster said: "I welcome the publication of the Apostolic Constitution and the complementary norms. This now makes clear the provision made by the Holy See and enables those who have made requests to the Holy See to study it in detail.
"It is important to remember that this is a response to requests made to the Holy See by Anglicans and former Anglicans from across the world. It is not a provision specifically for England and Wales and clearly there is much reflection to be done by all concerned."
The Rt Rev Christopher Hill, Bishop of Guildford and chairman of the Church of England's Council for Christian Unity, said: "It will now be for those who have requested and at this point feel impelled to seek full communion with the Roman Catholic Church to study the Apostolic Constitution carefully in the near future and to consider their options."
He stressed that the Apostolic Constitution did not deflect from the Church of England's "longstanding commitment to seeking the unity of all the churches, including the Roman Catholic Church".
Canon Robin Ward, the principal of St Stephen's House, an Anglican theological college and a Permanent Private Hall at Oxford University, said: "The Apostolic Constitution establishes just the sort of jurisdiction which traditionalist Anglicans have asked of the Church of England and not received, and in doing so it has also resolved the ecumenical aspiration to complete the work of ARCIC in visible unity which those who asked for the jurisdiction said they wanted.
"It is difficult to see how a refusal to accept this could leave traditionalist Anglicans with any ecumenical aspirations at all in the future. The respect given to the idea of Anglican patrimony, and the resolve to preserve it in the future for those who value it as a contribution to the whole Catholic Church, is a remarkable endorsement of the real value of the Catholic Movement in the Church of England, which could not have happened without the ecumenical imperative laid down by the Second Vatican Council."
The Rt Rev John Broadhurst, Bishop of Fulham and chairman of Forward in Faith International, the main organisation for conservative Anglo-Catholics, said Anglicanorum coetibus was "extremely impressive".
He added that Rome had offered "exactly what the Church of England has refused".
He said: "For some of us I suspect our bluff is called! This is both an exciting and dangerous time for Christianity in this country. Those who take up this offer will need to enter into negotiation with the Church of England about access to parish churches and many other matters."
Personal ordinariates will be led by an ordinary, who can be a celibate bishop or a priest who may be married. The ordinary may also be a former Anglican bishop who is married and has been ordained a Catholic priest.
Fr Benjamin Earl OP, a canon lawyer, explained the role of the ordinary.
He said: "The ordinary has 'vicarious' authority rather than 'proper' authority, which means he won't govern in his own name (as a diocesan bishop or military ordinary would), but in the name of the Holy Father. The ordinary is appointed ad nutum Sanctae sedis (literally 'on the nod of the Holy See'): unsurprisingly, there will be close supervision of these new structures."
A personal ordinariate can cover an area as large as the territory covered by a bishops' conference, though some bishops' conferences might have more than one ordinariate. The document establishes that an ordinariate will have a governing council which will take the place of the council of priests and the college of consulters, which is the cathedral chapter in many dioceses in England and Wales. The governing council would consist of at least six priests.
Stephen Parkinson, director of Forward in Faith UK, said he had not expected the clause which allows former Anglican clergy to take up secular work as well as being ordained in the Catholic Church. He said this aspect of the provision could solve problems for Anglican clergy considering taking up the offer.
He said: "Priests of the ordinariate might be ministering to a congregation that is not large enough to support them. They might be starting from scratch, without a church building and would have to find a way to beg, buy, borrow a building. But this might open a number of doors for people."
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is due to meet Pope Benedict at the Vatican on November 21.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/11/2009 19:35]