After Benedict's Trip To the UK The Future of the Ordinariate for Anglicans Looks Bright

Damian Thompson has a great piece that I will combine with another addressing recent developments our North American shores as to the Anglican Catholic Ordinariate vision and plan. See Benedict will bounce Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church



We’ll have to see whether the Pope’s visit will lead to a “Benedict bounce” of new vocations, as Cardinal Keith O’Brien predicts. But I’m pretty sure it will bounce more Anglicans into the Catholic Church – some of them under cover of the Ordinariate scheme,....

I agree that should happen. (By the way I wish people would stop using the word "scheme".

Perhaps we need to change the way we think about the Ordinariate. It’s a structure that will be built from the ground up on the Catholic bank of the Tiber. I don’t see many C of E parishes converting en masse: even the most Anglo-Papal congregations contain diehard Anglicans who simply cannot face the prospect of becoming “Romans”. ......

Exactly!! We need to see the reality but the reality is in fact good if not better in some ways.

The success of the Ordinariate doesn’t depend on mass transit. The crucial thing is that this new ecclesial structure lays solid foundations. I can envisage two or three parishes in London, and maybe one in each of our major cities, made of up former Anglicans from different congregations who are bound together by their Anglo-Catholic past and far stricter standards of worship than you would find in a typical Catholic parish...............

Yes the success of the Ordinariate does not depend on Mass Conversions of Parishes. In fact one should really think if that is a good idea to start with.


All this talk of “Anglican patrimony” is rather misleading in England, where Anglicans attracted to the Ordinariate scheme tend to be happy with the Roman Missal (and will be even happier with its new translation). The patrimony of the new communities may have more to do with liturgical style than with liturgical texts. But it’s important to remember that the first Ordinariate parish will be a jumping-off point rather than a final destination: we’re essentially talking about a new movement with the opportunity to develop its own charism. My main worry is that Anglicans planning to take advantage of Anglicanorum coetibus will be disheartened by the sneers and hand-wringing of reactionaries in both Churches. Please, don’t be. The Pope believes that the Ordinariate is prophetic: the next stage in the route to Christian unity.

Exactly. As to Liturgy there are different concern that have to met in different places. I actually think the "hand wringing" of reactionaries will go away one these folks have their own Bishops.

Now returning to our shores some Anglo Catholics got very disappointed with some Anglo Catholic Bishops in North American the last couple of days. See this hard hitting titled piece at Anglo Catholic Thirty Pieces of Silver.

Now the comments by some of the more informed folks as to this is where the meat at is in this post. Reading through them I am taken that this is not a disaster.

I thought these comments were good and show a reality:

Robert Smith says:
September 21, 2010 at 9:19 pm
So first of all the one really good ACA parish in Colorado is Diocese of Missouri Valley. I was so looking forward to them coming into the Catholic Church. The priest there thought it was a good idea but does this mean that he won't be coming in at all? Is it up to the individual parish?
Secondly how can the ACA pass up this opportunity? They are desperately in need of young fresh blood, which can only be provided by those of us who are in the Roman Catholic Church. I was offered the chance to be a ACA seminarian but declined because I could not see myself in 60 years having any sort of parish left. At 22 I am the youngest person in my ACA parish by 40 years! The average age of a congregant is 80! In twenty years there won't be a parish left! But I was SO eager to serve the same congregations as an Ordinariate priest because I knew that it would be sustaining. I know this because so many young Roman Catholics are eager to have an Ordinariate! Bishop, you haven't built up the body of Christ, all you've done is decided to build yourself and your parishes a coffin.

Lastly, and then I'll be quiet, I am not despairing for the future of the Ordinariate. As was pointed out in an early article, the majority of congregants for the Ordinariate in the US will come from RC parishes. In fact as a diocesan RC seminarian I have already received permission to study the Anglican Use to serve at, or start, an Anglican Use parish in Denver, regardless of the status of the Ordinariate. I will greatly miss my ACA brothers and sisters and I will pray that they will come around to their senses but I had no worries about the success of the Ordinariate. Anglicanism will find a home, back where it always belonged, in the Roman Catholic Church.

I quite agree with this and will have something to add on this later.

Another comment from the blogger at the Anglo Catholic blogspot which is a Anglican-Use Roman Catholic Community In Springfield Missouri says

Shane Schaetzel says:
September 21, 2010 at 11:36 pm
While the subject of this letter is disturbing and unfortunate, I am not the least bit worried about it. I am saddened that these bishops, and their followers, will not join us at this time, but the loss is more theirs than ours. I don't mean to come across as conceited here. This isn't about us. It's about history.

When it comes to the ordinariate I'm a firm believer in the saying "if you build it, they will come." The ordinariate will be built just as soon as the Holy Father names the bishop. Once that happens an unstoppable chain of events will begin. Parishes and missions will quickly be incorporated into his jurisdiction. Once that happens, other prayer groups from various areas will spontaneously form requesting pastoral oversight, quickly filling the void created by these few bishops and their followers who refused to join us. Yes, those prayer groups may be small at first, but they will grow, and with pastoral oversight from the ordinary bishop they will have a clear mission and identity.
In time the ordinariate will surpass in size all the "continuing" Anglican groups combined. Within a generation the American ordinariate will surpass the size of all the "continuing" Anglican groups and The Episcopal Church combined. It is inevitable, because it is Catholic, and the Holy Spirit Himself will make it happen, just as He has for every other Catholic body. So you see, the loss is more theirs than ours. We are fortunate and blessed enough to participate in the ordinariate and thus play a role in history that will not soon be forgotten. For some strange reason however, a few bishops from the ACA have chosen not to take part of that. Oh well.

I think he right on many things there. However I find his size prediction in the next ten years to be way too optimistic. However when the Holy Father names the Bishop/Bishops for the various jurisdictions then we are off to the races. It will become quite clear that these are not just some second Class Churches under the regular Ordinary of the geographic region. Thus it should become clear to many Anglicans they shall be protected.

Joshua of Psallite Sapienter get to one of the big problems as to TAC itself:

Joshua says:
September 22, 2010 at 2:30 am
This is sad – but understandable.
After all, as the comments of a learned Canadian TAC member indicate (see earlier post), even doctrinal issues that any Catholic would imagine were unquestioned by these very confidently self-identified Anglo-Catholics – the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption – are in fact real stumbling blocks in a way that speaks of the reactions of High Churchmen in 1854, not 2010. Add to that issues disciplinary and pastoral – the question of irregular marital situations, plus fears, real or imaginary, of Rome and her priests and bishops – and the sad truth that even this once-in-400 year offer will prove a bridge too far for many becomes evident.

No one should cross the Ponte Benedetto unless they can do so with a clear conscience. At the same time, we must continue to point out, in real concern not in haughty meanness, that to try and forge unity in the Alphabet Soup, while better than nothing, will not in the end amount to much: as a friend of mine said, "In the TAC, it ain't springtime" – Hepworth and all others who have fought for this reunion with Rome are the ones with eyes wide open, since they know that, whatever the very real costs, the only long-term hope for Anglicanism is back in full communion with Peter: "Look to the Rock whence ye were hewn" (Isaiah 51:1).
Pastors should know that leading their flock means gently but firmly guiding them to good pasture and springs of living water – not letting the sheep wander withersoever they please, not following the flock.

What HAS been needed, and HAS been conspicuously lacking, it transpires, has been the TAC clergy, at least in the States, fulfilling their appointed ministry of teaching their people – and that means teaching the Catholic beliefs that the TAC episcopate solemnly declared they held. If signing the Catechism was just a nice gesture, and really these men in mitres were High Church Protestants at heart, then the fear of Catholics that Anglicanism is Janus-faced have been confirmed yet again.

Which is why I welcome this process. For those that cannot accept the Full Faith we shall consider them our Firends in Christ but it is best they stay put. That being said that is not a disaster.

The Ordinariate will be a great blessing. We have seen successful Anglican Use Parishes in the USA where the local Bishop if fulling welcoming. One example is The Church of the Our Lady of the Atonement is a remarkable Anglican Use parish in the Archdiocese of San Antonio (whose Archbishop is about to be Archbishop of L.A. The Church that blogs at Atonement Online does say We have a problem... . That is as you can see they are growing by leaps and bounds and so is there school.

Now this is a small glimpse of what the Anglican Catholic Ordinariate will look like in the future. It is strong parish in union with Rome based in the Anglican Patrimony with perhaps a excellent school to boot. When we see the Ordinariate get their own Bishops (yes I think we need to start moving faster) then I see no reason why this will not be duplicated in major cities and then in various other parts of the country. See his past post at Anglo Catholic It's Déjà Vu All Over Again. The upside will be that the process this time should be less painful in some regards.

Next door in the Diocese of Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston , where we have a very friendly Cardinal as to the Anglican Use Parishes that being Dinardo we see Our Lady Of Walsingham. Cardinal Dinardo talked about this Parish and the future of the Ordinariate here. See
Cardinal DiNardo is positive about the future of Anglican Use. He also used the occasion to give the good advice of Don't Rush Things.

Although Cardinal DiNardo is very supportive of the Anglican Use personal parish and the fruition of the Anglican Ordinariates, he advises caution in the fleshing out of the skeletal structure put into place by Pope Benedict with the Anglicaorum Coetibus and its accompanying Norms. He noted that the Anglicaorum Coetibus was not only a work of the Holy See but more importantly the document was a work of the Holy Spirit seeking unity.

Cardinal DiNardo also sees the Anglican Use parish as an effective Catholic evangelization tool to not only reach out to the spiritual marooned Episcopalians in this country and Anglicans abroad to bring them into the fullness of faith in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church through the See of Peter and to also bring those disenfranchised Catholics who have left the Church and discovered Her again through the beauty and majesty of the Anglican Use liturgy.

However the Cardinal warned against Anglican Use parishes becoming a select group and failing to enter into the cross pollenization of liturgical and spiritual enrichment with the wider Latin Rite Catholic Church. He thinks it would be very prudent if once the Ordinariate gets up and running that the Pastoral Provision priests stay temporarily incardinated within their local Latin Rite diocese for on-going financial support at least in the terms of health insurance and retirement benefits until the Ordinariate can afford to foot the entire cost of a married priest and his family needs. That in the beginning the Ordinariate will be small with few self-sustaining parishes and would therefore be financially strapped while the Ordinariate will have to immediately be able to support its own Ordinary and his immediate chancellery structure.
"Go slow!" Cardinal DiNardo emphasized, reminding his Anglican Use audience several times to be patient as the internal workings of the Ordinariate are developed and put into place, reminding the group that the Anglican Ordinariates are a work in process. He noted that patience, common sense and good humor were needed to by all as the details of the Ordinariates are developed and hammered into place well all the while imploring the intercession of Our Lady of Walsingham and realizing that eventually things will fall into place.

I should also note that the this new arrangement shall in time be the place where many non Anglican Protestants and other come in the union with the Church

The ex Church of England Priest now Catholic Priest blogger Standing On My Head in South Carolina notes this at Evangelical Anglican Catholics?

So I think the future looks bright.