I recommend Why it doesn’t matter if the Pope's Ordinariate for ex-Anglicans is small at first by Damian Thompson, because his lucid realism is to be admired.
Indeed, some Anglican and Catholic would-be commenters are sceptical about the Ordinariates because they think they have to be big, on a scale comparable with regular Catholic dioceses and parishes in England and America. Time and time again, we have read Archbishop Hepworth’s commentaries on the Apostolic Constitution saying how flexible it all is, and how it can be adapted to the complex practical issues of receiving groups of Anglicans. We're going to be small and intimate to begin with.
I have always liked smallness and the idea of a diocese of just fifteen to twenty parishes like in the south of Italy. The stability of priests in their parishes and the Bishop in his See provide the best setting for an in-depth pastoral ministry where clergy and laity can grow together in God's love, and also become attached to each other. This is the beauty of the TTAC in England, compared with the barren desert of so-called pastoral sectors in France in which priests are so rare that Christianity has passed into history in most rural areas.
This discernment period coincides exactly with Lent, and we can expect the first real beams of light to be seen shortly after Easter. Indeed Lent is for every Christian a spiritual renewal of our Catechumenate and Baptism. As I have read here and there, and heartily agree, we need to avoid the temptation to develop and “us and them” mentality like the generations of besieged traditional Catholics, some of whom are telling us to “convert properly”.
We are under pressure from all sides: conservative and traditional Catholics, “old guard” liberal Catholics and Anglicans, groups of Anglicans who do not wish to avail of the offer and think all should agree with them – and so forth. It is all so tiring, and we are going to need this Lent for prayer and conversion, and meditation on the Scripture readings the liturgy offers us.
Damian Thompson has the English situation uppermost in his mind, as he speaks of Ordinariate in the singular. The TAC, having voted for the offer even before the ink on the Apostolic Constitution was dry, is chafing at the bit. What about Forward in Faith? We will have to wait and read what their various bishops and parishes say. However, I would almost wager my Faith that they won’t all move at once. If I were the vicar of a lovely medieval or Victorian church, an adequate salary for my wife and children and an assured pension, would I want to give all that up for the incertitude of looking for a job in my 50’s and living on a shoestring? Also, such a move would often introduce a strain in a priest’s marriage – for wives are usually more interested in down-to-earth things, security at home, rather than “dreams” and intellectual luxuries! I can imagine it.
Damian Thompson expresses the idea that the “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is puzzled by the small numbers of members of the Church of England planning to join the Ordinariate, and are worried that elements in the Bishops’ Conference are pouring cold water on the project”. I would hope that the CDF is well informed and would not be disappointed in the beginning with relatively small Ordinariates. If everything has to be big with lots of money, expensive cars and perks, well – it won’t work. The Apostolic Constitution and Complementary Norms seem to take into account the situation of the average TAC priest running a business to live or being in full-time employment. We English should be reassured that Archbishop Bernard Longley, Bishop Malcolm McMahon and Bishop Alan Hopes seem to be sympathetic to the Holy Father’s scheme.
We may be very small to begin with. We in the TAC do not view Anglicanorum Coetibus as a last resort if women bishops go ahead in the Church of England. We have been out of the loop for decades and trying to survive on our own with precious little money and little other than our faith!
The kind of Church of England people who will come will be those who have already weaned themselves from their churches, rectories, stipends and pensions. The retirement age for Anglican clerics is much lower than in the Catholic Church. I am sure many retired bishops and priests will come along, because they are free.
In the end, however, the Catholic Church has to face the fact that, in England more than any other country, history has bequeathed us an almighty ecclesiastical mess. Anglo-Catholicism is part of the established religion of England; it is here that a movement of clergy and their patrons adopted a Catholic (sometimes ultra-Catholic) style of worship that developed in opposition to the Church of England hierarchy, and has always been embraced more readily by priests than by lay people.
Oh! How true. Throughout my time in churches, I have met few lay people who were “bitten” by the “liturgy bug”. Generally, lay people are not interested in liturgy and ritual. Protestantism is religion for lay people who are disgusted with priests! (I say that tongue-in-cheek with a big "smiley"). I know this sounds cynical, but it is one argument to finish with the “pastoral liturgy” experiment and return to clerical liturgies behind a solid stone choir screen (ooh, I'll be kind and just have one of those wooden see-through rood screens) leaving the laity to their devotions. It works in the Orthodox Church! The laity tend to be attached to their parishes for cultural rather than theological reasons, and thus more easily accept changes like “polyester” liturgies and female clergy. The TAC laity have already made the step, mostly to follow a priest they liked before becoming convinced by more theological considerations.
The Ordinariates will attract young priests and seminarians as the seminaries of Wigratzbad and Gricigliano did for continental traditional Catholics. But, I see this as the vitality the Holy Father is looking for like the fresh faces of Benedictine novices at Fontgombault. Lay people do move when they find an episcopal padlock on the door of their beloved parish church!
Anglicanorum Coetibus has no expiry date, as Mr Thompson reminds us. It may take years to develop even if the TAC dioceses and parishes form the first Ordinariates and get canonical approval this year. We are going to have to make a good go of it. It’s in our hands – and God helps those who help themselves. I am not expecting our structures to be any grander than they are. Perhaps some Catholic parishes may allow us a slot in their Sunday morning schedule – or an almost disused non-parochial chapel. Continuing churches have been renting cemetery chapels for years.
Like Damian Thompson, I don’t believe the English Ordinariate will have the use of one single Anglican parish church, any more than Catholic traditionalists. Remember, Kasper-style ecumenism is over. This is realism. The medieval cathedrals and parish churches are lost forever, and we have had nearly 500 years to get used to it. Catholics in the nineteenth century built their own churches, in some cases copies of the old medieval English heritage. We can too, even if our buildings must be less grandiose.
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PS. Please don't think I'm complaining about lay people. Newman was once in a conversation with some other priests, and one priest said "Oh! These lay people!". Newman replied, "Don't you think the Church would look a little silly without them?". If I have exaggerated in this article, it is rhetorical.
"Indeed, some Anglican and Catholic would-be commenters are sceptical about the Ordinariates because they think they have to be big, on a scale comparable with regular Catholic dioceses and parishes in England and America."
I am currently reading, "Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger – Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Millennium – an interview with Peter Seewald" (1996). On pages 15-16 of this book, [then] Cardinal Ratzinger was asked to comment about his apparent lack of ability to "bring about a large movement against the currents of our time and a general change of mentality", and "it seems that the substance of the faith has increasingly gone to ruin, that here is now even greater indifference with respect to all issues".
He replied, "I never imagined that I could, so to speak, redirect the rudder of history. And if our Lord himself ends up on the Cross, one sees that God's ways do not lead immediately to measurable successes. This, I think, is really very important. The disciples asked him certain questions: What's going on, why aren't we getting anywhere? And he answered with the parables about the mustard seed, the leaven, and the like, telling them that statistics is not one of God's measurements. In spite of that, something essential and crucial happens with the mustard seeds and the leaven, even though you can't see it now. In that sense, I think we have to disregard quantitative measures of success. After all, we're not a business operation that can look at the numbers to measure whether our policy has been successful and whether we're selling more and more. Rather, we're performing a service, and in the end, when we've done our job, we put it in the Lord's hands. On the other hand, this doesn't mean that everything is totally in vain. In fact, there are stirrings of faith among young people on every continent.
Perhaps the time has come to say farewell to the idea of traditionally Catholic cultures. Maybe we are facing a new and different kind of epoch in the Church's history, where Christianity will again be characterized more by the mustard seed, where it will exist in small, seemingly insignificant groups that nonetheless live an intensive struggle against evil and bring the good into the world–that let God in. I see that there is once more a great deal of activity of this kind. I don't want to cite any individual examples here. There are certainly no mass conversions to Christianity, no reversal of the historical paradigm, no about-face. But there are powerful ways in which faith is present, inspiring people again and giving them dynamism and joy. In other words, there is a presence of faith that means something for the world." *****
I find encouragement from his answer to these questions. I think that the TAC is a type of mustard seed or leaven that will have a very positive influence in the lives of many faithful people. Our task will be what it always has been – to remain faithful to our Lord and to proclaim the Gospel through Word and Sacrament. God will build His Church. There will be no doubt about that.
Thank you for this moving piece. You have been touched by the spirit of wisdom and you have understood!
If the Church allows me to be a priest in an Ordinariate, the first thing I will do is say a Mass of thanksgiving at a side altar in Fontgombault Abbey. Those communities of monks and spiritual powerhouses are probably what are holding things together right now. I agonised for years, because I don't have a monastic vocation – not even before I got married!
I think I will write to the Abbots of Fongombault, Le Barroux, Triors and Randol – and ask them to charge their communities with praying for these intentions, for the TAC and those from the Church of England and other former Anglican Communion people who have the courage to walk forward towards the light.
Thank God for Lent !!!!
"Anglicanorum Coetibus has no expiry date"
How very different from the grudging provision made by the C of E after the ordination of women, and the subsequent impatience for the end of the "period of reception".
"If I were the vicar of a lovely medieval or Victorian church, an adequate salary for my wife and children and an assured pension, would I want to give all that up for the incertitude of looking for a job in my 50’s and living on a shoestring?"
Each of us indeed is different. Several clergymen have done just that here in America, going into the ACNA. I doubt any of them will accept the invitation from Rome after having made the previous transition with all it's emotional and financial complexities. I wonder what would have happened if the generous invitation had been made several years ago, before AMIA and ACNA came about? But, as the Holy Father has said, it is not in the numbers. May the Lord bless the Ordinariate and the Spirit guide it to the glory of God and the well being of His people, the church!
I notice too that even Dwight L.'s blog had a sobering post by him about the reality that very few will take advantage of AO.
This is interesting as Fr. L. was far more optimistic about the numbers embracing this back in November. As were others. I recall a sitting CofE bishop made a slightly positive comment and suddenly he was about to convert. Fr. L's blog even championed that story. It never came to pass.
The reality appears far different and folks are quickly lowering expectations.
Among the Episcopals/Anglicans I know here in California, none are expressing interest. At the lay level here in California the conversion seems to be more in the direction of Orthodoxy than Catholcism. By contrast, the conversions to Catholicsm seem more to come from ordained Episcopal ministers.
It may start out small, but believe me – it won't stay small!
You are certainly right, Father. The more fearful will wait to see how the TAC gets on with the few other Anglican priests and people ready to go over now. Then, when more confidence is gained, others will follow.
It happened this way back in 1988 when the Fraternity of St Peter was taken onboard by Rome. Then other communities joined the Ecclesia Dei provisions, and now there must be more than 20 different religious orders and priestly societies using the old Roman rite – and training their own priests.
Found religious houses and parishes in the right places and Anglicanorum Coetibus will rock!
We have to think in God's time and not our own time. Cardinal Newman's conversion still is effecting us to this day. We have no reason to be discouraged. I am praying for those who may take advantage of the provision.
Yes being a small community of light is the way to go. Also I am sure many Catholic Ex-Anglicans like myself will also want to join the Anglican Ordinariates once they are up and running. Also Anglican in the future who want to become Catholic will find it alot less daunting when they have the Anglican ordinariates to join.
By the way if the Anglican ordinariates are part of the Roman rite then what is the best name to call the rest of the Roman or Latin rite to distinguish it from the Anglican ordinariates of the Roman Rite? Mainstream Roman Rite? Norvos ordo latin rite? any ideas?
Just Roman. Refer to yourselves as Anglo-Roman or Romano-Anglican
#9 and 10
You know, I don't like labels. It is an Anglo-Saxon illness that leads to acronyms and alphabet soup. I prefer that we would all be Catholics, no more and no less.
BUT, in the medieval pre-Tridentine way, with diversity of liturgical tradition and spirituality. That is at the bottom of this Holy Father's mind, and not a monolithic Church.
The Latin rite are Catholics, and we Anglicans are Catholics – at least by intention and desire. That's as far as I would take it.
Then only one letter is needed, a "C", which can stand for Catholic or Christian.
"Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." (1 Corinthians 3:5-15)