Tag Archives: English Ordinariate

William Oddie on the English Ordinariate

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William Oddie writes in the Catholic Herald:

The English ordinariate, it seems, will be well on its way by the middle of this month. Three former Anglican bishops were received into full communion with the Catholic Church during a Mass at Westminster Cathedral on January 1. One of the comments following the Herald online report, noting that they were received in secular clothing, opines that “For Bishops to wear ties is simply saintly and to lose all that prestige they once held is stunning to the mind of a Catholic Bishop”.

Well, indeed. But I think that their former prestige is the least important aspect of what they are giving up: they are abandoning certainty and recognition within an established institution, for uncertainty within an institution – the ordinariate – that doesn’t even exist yet. What this shows is an absolute faith in the Catholic Church of which it will be a part, especially as it is embodied by the present Holy Father.

I last saw the most senior of the three, John Broadhurst, formerly Bishop of Fulham, splendidly caparisoned in full episcopal fig (I have known him, on and off, for over 30 years, and have never seen him except in clericals: I can hardly imagine him in a secular collar and tie) at the 150th anniversary of that great Anglo-Catholic institution, Pusey House, Oxford, just after the publication of Anglicanorum coetibus. I asked him for his reaction to the document (it was pretty clear that most of those present were elated by it): his reply had to do, not with the visionary excitements of the proposed ordinariate, but with its practicability: “it’s doable”, he simply replied.

Now, it’s being done (by him and others), and at a dizzying speed. After their ordination on January 1, the three former “flying bishops” will be ordained to the Catholic diaconate on January 13, and to the priesthood two days later. This, I am pretty sure, is unprecedented: Anglican clergy have previously had to undergo a period of seminary training before they are accepted for ordination in the Catholic mainstream.

What this new development demonstrates, apart from anything else, is the degree of knowledge, gained by the former Cardinal Ratzinger after a decade and a half of discussions with these men, of their already existing understanding of and belief in Roman Catholic doctrine and practice (entirely based, since its publication, on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and on other essential Catholic texts). The Pope is well aware that the Anglo-Catholic clergy who will inaugurate the world’s first ordinariate already have a degree of authentically Catholic priestly formation which some of our seminaries are today far from achieving or even attempting.

Read the whole article here.

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Ruth Gledhill: The Anglican Receptions

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Over on the Ordinariate Portal there is a transcript of an interview with Ruth Gledhill which aired on BBC Radio 4. She had spoken with the three former bishops who have been received into full communion with the Catholic Church, and she has some observations about this most recent event, as well as her thoughts about the Ordinariate.

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Interview with Ruth Gledhill

At midday today a special Mass was held at Westminster Cathedral: the moment marked the conversion to Catholicism of three former Church of England bishops, two of their wives and three Anglican nuns. They became the first to take part in a scheme set up by Pope Benedict, allowing Anglican opponents of women bishops to defect to the Catholic Church. Some predict that these first conversions could be followed by many others, from up to twenty Church of England parishes, in the months to come. Ruth Gledhill, the Religion correspondent for the Times is with me. Ruth, you’ve spoken to one of those who took part. What are their reasons?

They are responding to an offer made by the Pope which they believe is very generous. But their reason is that they believe that the Church of England, despite claiming to be part of the one holy, apostolic and catholic church in the Creed, has in fact departed from apostolic teaching, particularly over the issue of women’s ordination.

Will they be followed by many others?

Well there were many priests in the congregation at Westminster Cathedral today who are likely to join the Ordinariate. I think it will be a small stream at first; the question that nobody knows the answer to, is whether that will turn into a river or a flood.

In practical terms, what happens to the parishioners they’ve left behind?

The parishioners they’ve left behind will be able to keep the churches and it will be their job, then, to rebuild their congregations, almost from scratch in some cases. The ones who are going will, in some dioceses perhaps, continue to share the use of that church, but for the most part they’ll probably be offered some kind of accommodation in a local Catholic parish.

And what happens—there may be a clear answer to this—the wives of these bishops?

Well, the wives have converted with them in two cases out of the three bishops. And there’s no problem there really because, just as in the Eastern Rite Catholic churches, the clergy are allowed to be married, so the clergy are in the cases of former Anglican clergy in England who convert—and these aren’t going to be bishops in the Catholic Church, they’re going to be priests.

What will this do, in terms of unity of the Anglican Church? Would it be better for them to leave in this way in order to restore and maintain unity, rather than being a more divisive presence if they stayed?

The Pope believes that this exercise is a pathway to unity. It’s a little bit tragic, really, for the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose goal in office has been to try and maintain unity in the face of schisms over gays and women’s ordination.

Because the Pope’s offer was considered to be controversial at the time, wasn’t it?

It was, yes, it was seen as even possibly an aggressive act, but in fact the Pope wouldn’t see it like that, and neither do the people see it like that who are going. In fact it is a form of bridge, really, between the two churches and, I think, rather than being seen as divisive, it might in the end turn out to be a bringing together—as implied by the name of the constitution itself, Anglicanorum coetibus—bringing them together: a union of the Anglicans and Catholics, particularly the catholic wing of the Anglican church, which is really unprecedented—ever—since the Reformation: it’s never been known before for serving Anglican bishops to convert while they’re still holding office, or, you know, during their working lives—they’ve all just resigned—but, during their working lives they’ve gone, they haven’t waited to retire before going, so it’s really unprecedented. No one really knows what shape it’s going to take or how it’s going to work, but it does seem to be happening, confounding the sceptics who believed it wouldn’t.

Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent for The Times, thank you very much.

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