Ecumenical Breakthrough!
VATICAN CITY : Benedict XVI has decided to create a structure for Anglican clergy and groups who want to join the Catholic Church. The forthcoming Apostolic Constitution will provide for “Personal Ordinariates”, thus allowing “for the ordination as Catholic priests of married former Anglican clergy.”
The ordination of Anglican priests in the Catholic Church is nothing new. In 1982, John Paul II had approved provisions whereby married Anglican clerics who wanted to become Catholic priests could perform their ministerial service.
Benedict XVI has decided to provide a framework for such a situation, this according to a Note of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith about personal Ordinariates for Anglicans entering the Catholic Church.
Personal Ordinariates “will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony. Under the terms of the Apostolic Constitution, pastoral oversight and guidance will be provided for groups of former Anglicans through a Personal Ordinariate, whose Ordinary will usually be appointed from among former Anglican clergy.”
The Apostolic Constitution “provides a reasonable and even necessary response to a world-wide phenomenon, by offering a single canonical model for the universal Church which is adaptable to various local situations and equitable to former Anglicans in its universal application. It provides for the ordination as Catholic priests of married former Anglican clergy. Historical and ecumenical reasons preclude the ordination of married men as bishops in both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The Constitution therefore stipulates that the Ordinary can be either a priest or an unmarried bishop.”
Ultimately, the papal document “seeks to balance on the one hand the concern to preserve the worthy Anglican liturgical and spiritual patrimony and, on the other hand, the concern that these groups and their clergy will be integrated into the Catholic Church.”
This, according to the Note, is due to events that occurred since the Second Vatican Council, most notably the decision by some Anglican communions to ordain women and “openly homosexual clergy” and bless “homosexual partnerships.”
Following such experiences, in addition to decisions by individuals, “Sometimes there have been groups of Anglicans who have entered while preserving some ‘corporate’ structure. Examples of this include, the Anglican diocese of Amritsar in India, and some individual parishes in the United States which maintained an Anglican identity when entering the Catholic Church under a ‘pastoral provision’ adopted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and approved by Pope John Paul II in 1982.”
“We have been trying to meet the requests for full communion that have come to us from Anglicans in different parts of the world in recent years in a uniform and equitable way,” said Card William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
“They have declared that they share the common Catholic faith as it is expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and accept the Petrine ministry as something Christ willed for the Church. For them, the time has come to express this implicit unity in the visible form of full communion,” he added.
The provision of this new structure, the Note of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said by way of conclusion, “is consistent with the commitment to ecumenical dialogue, which continues to be a priority for the Catholic Church, particularly through the efforts of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.”
Courtesy : AsiaNews
Comments (7)
Praise God for this. Pope Benedict was perceived to be a conservative but has really made remarkable progress on ecumenical matters. The Spirit moves in mysterious ways indeed.
Posted by John | October 23, 2009 5:42 PM
Is this really 'ecumenical'?
"This Roman action is a dramatic change of course: steering away from the well-proven ecumenical strategy of eye-level dialogue and honest understanding; steering towards an un-ecumenical luring away of Anglican priests, even dispensing with medieval celibacy law to enable them to come back to Rome under the lordship of the pope... " (Hans Kung)
Posted by Joshua Woo | October 28, 2009 2:27 PM
Hi Joshua,
I'm sure you'd know that the term "ecumenical" can be very elusive, since it means different things to different groups of Christians.
In Catholic parlance, "ecumenism" refers to the search for full unity in dogma/theology with other Christians. To go further, we also believe that this full dogmatic and theological agreement would naturally lead to acknowledgement of the role of the Pope as the visible head of the Universal Church. In that sense, we see the Roman Catholic Church itself to BE the Ecumenical Church. This does not mean full uniformity; it merely means full conformity to the dogmatic teachings of the Church and due acknowledgement of the juridical authority of the Pope as the successor of St Peter.
Having said that, I understand that other Christians may/would have their own interpretations of what "ecumenism" may mean. But what I have described above just about clarifies the official Catholic position on ecumenism. It does not whitewash our differences by saying that "we are all very different and it's okay". There are differences that are okay, and those that are not.
It is precisely in this regard that the Holy Father is releasing the Apostolic Constitution permitting for Anglican ordinariates with the right to preserve their own rites. Those things about the Traditional Anglican communities that do not contradict the Holy Tradition of the Church would be retainable, and utter uniformity in those aspects is something that the Catholic Church does not seek to inforce unnecessarily.
I would think that the Pope's gesture of invitation in response to the request of the Traditional Anglicans is very forthcoming. Inasmuch as it dispenses with unnecessary inforcements commonly perceived by people about the Catholic Church, it also doesn't compromise on those things which are very clearly constrained by the Sacred Tradition of the Church. In the case of the medieval celibacy law, indeed, there does exist such a law. But there also exist sufficient anomalies in the Sacred Tradition to permit for this law to be dispensed with, although ALWAYS AS AN ANOMALY and not the norm.
Hence, to truly understand the Catholic position on this issue (or any issue, for that matter) would require an openness to refer to Catholic theologians in good standing with the Church rather than those like Hans Küng whose authority to teach Catholic theology has been rescinded by the Holy See (and for those who wonder why so, the quote above from Hans Küng is good a case in point). After all, a person cannot call himself a Catholic theologian if that which he articulates contradicts the official positions of the Church he claims to represent.
Posted by SK sfo | October 28, 2009 3:37 PM
Thanks sk, now at least we know what is the RCC church's agenda when they promote "ecumenism".
So don't have to go one big round expecting Rome is opening its arms for mutual embrace, rather its opening its door for other "ECCLESIASTICAL COMMUNITY" to walk into her dominion.
Heil Seig die Römisch-Katholische Kirche!
Posted by ultraright | October 31, 2009 4:49 PM
Hi ultraright,
Thank you very much for expressing your sentiments here. In a way, having been an Evangelical Christian for many years prior to becoming Roman Catholic, I can understand why you might be upset about this.
Ecumenical Protestants generally take the position of looking beyond denominations and accepting one another as we are. Since we are all the same in Jesus Christ, there is no need for conversion into one denomination or another.
But on the same note, I also hope that you can understand that the Roman Catholic Church (and the Orthodox Churches too, for that matter) does not see itself as merely one of the many denominations to be accepted by Ecumenical Protestants. Our self-understanding is far different from that.
My suggestion would be that people outside of the Catholic Church seek to understand our definition of Ecumenism and how it works in our theological position. You do not necessarily need to agree. But at least begin by learning to understand, and then accepting and respecting that this is who we are, whilst not necessarily agreeing.
Our understanding of ecumenism stems from our Ecclesiology. Understanding our Ecclesiology would be a good place to begin.
Posted by SK sfo | November 4, 2009 12:02 AM
It's a wonderful step towards communion with our RC Church. Praise God Almighty.!
Thanks for the article and your input on this.
And now for the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches.
Posted by Patrick | November 5, 2009 6:53 PM
The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches will have to be in communion with one another first before they can be in communion with us.
Posted by Collin Michael Nunis | November 7, 2009 2:10 PM