The Anglo-Catholic remains on hiatus, but I thought that I would share the story of a friend's recent ordination to the diaconate in Orlando. On Saturday, God willing, he will be ordered a priest in the Catholic Church.
From this moment there will be an indefinite pause here on The Anglo-Catholic. The purpose of this blog from the start has been to encourage the development of Personal Ordinariates according to the will of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, as expressed in his Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus and the preservation and propagation of that Anglican Patrimony in harmony with the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. I believe that we have played an important role in the formation of the existing Personal Ordinariates, and I hope a positive one. Unfortunately, the powers that be have made it known that our help is not wanted at this time. In deference to them, this blog will comply and leave them to their business. Please pray for the Ordinariates, especially that of the Chair of St. Peter.
There seems to be a bug in the polling system where an old poll gets associated with a new question. While I am investigating the problem, the "Liturgical Language Poll" post has been taken offline. The UK Poll is still active and working as expected.
I am happy to announce that Deborah Gyapong has rejoined the Staff of The Anglo-Catholic. Please join me in welcoming her to the blog!
It's time to pay the bills again! While I and our other Contributors provide our literary services freely, as we are a high-traffic web site with our own dedicated server, we do have certain, not insubstantial, costs in hardware and connectivity. There is a Donate button on the right sidebar. Please be generous and help keep The Anglo-Catholic at the very forefront of the worldwide Ordinariate conversation!
I apologize for the blog's slowness over the past hour, but I have been performing some very long overdue database maintenance. Things should be back to normal shortly.
In his enthusiasm, Fr. Longenecker has reversed our usual protocol for Contributor introductions here on The Anglo-Catholic: his first post is already published!
Still, on behalf of all of our Staff, I would like to offer Fr. Longenecker a hearty welcome to the blog and I encourage our readers to do the same in the combox!
It has been many months since I have made an appeal to our readership for the financial support of this apostolate, but circumstances again require me to ask for your assistance.
While our distinguished contributors give freely — and sacrificially — of their time to compose the wide range of offerings to be found on The Anglo-Catholic, we do have certain fixed monthly expenses related to our Internet hosting. As the founder and technical mastermind behind the project, I alone have borne the expense of the dedicated (virtual) server which is necessary to power this ever-growing project. Our large worldwide readership, coupled with the rich media we deliver, and other resources offered demand significantly more computer processing power and network bandwidth than the typical freely-hosted blog (e.g. Blogger).
You will notice, on the right sidebar of the page, a "Donate" button which will enable you to make a contribution towards the upkeep of The Anglo-Catholic via PayPal. You can transfer funds from an existing PayPal account or charge your donation to a credit card. Any amount would be appreciated (our monthly hosting fees total around ~$250/mo. [without considering maintenance and future development] and I am happy to discuss details with anyone who might inquire). We've become a respected, trusted, and influential voice in the the process, and I intend for this project to continue as long as its mission of reconciling traditional Anglicans with the Catholic Church exists.
In recent days, at least one errant Anglican cleric has written to members of the faithful that, having received a letter of notification of the receipt of a decision nulla osta from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, that he "has been accepted for ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood."
This is absolutely false.
The decision of nulla osta simply means that, based on the dossier submitted to the CDF, there appears to be no canonical impediment to ordination in the Catholic Church. The letters presently emanating from an office in the Archdiocese of Washington make it perfectly clear that this finding simply allows the individual concerned to continue in the "evaluation process."
Further, let it be known that it is the policy of The Anglo-Catholic to refrain from publishing the names of Anglican ministers who have, or have not, received a letter of notification of nulla osta — or those few who have received a letter stating that their application has been denied.
For the moment, these decisions should remain confidential between the CDF, the Archdiocese of Washington, and the Anglican priest and community involved. Unless and until it be discovered that there is any impropriety or a decision made which seems to grievously impact the mission or integrity of the future Ordinariate, this will remain the policy of the blog.
Today is the second anniversary of the foundation of The Anglo-Catholic. A tremendous thank you to our Contributors and our army of loyal readers!
The site is running a bit slowly at the present, for understandable reasons; please be patient! Comments in the moderation queue will be processed as quickly as possible.