Wednesday, 02 December 2009 02:38
Again, in recent weeks, Pope Benedict XVI has electrified the Christian world, as well as men and women of religious faith everywhere, by opening up new roads to Rome in behalf of perhaps a half million Anglicans committed to safeguarding Biblical Tradition.
The news broke with the announcement of the Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum coetibus, dated 4 Nov., which, in the words of a joint statement by Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster and Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, “brings to an end a period of uncertainty for such [Anglican] groups who have nourished hopes of new ways of embracing unity with the Catholic Church.”
From the words of the Constitution, it should be clear to anyone interested that its substance should not be viewed as a Vatican initiative, but rather as a response.
It is an especially blessed response by an especially inspired Pontiff.
For some time now, many Anglicans and Episcopalians, both individually and in groups, have manifested deep concern over overtures within the Communion to disregard or revise Biblical Tradition. This concern has intensified with the ordination of women priests and bishops, the ordination of practising gay persons, and efforts to allow or ritually accept same-sex marriages. Many Church members who were born and raised in the Anglican Communion have consequently experienced a sense of alienation from the familiar and the meaningful, not only at worship, but also in their desire to live by Biblical values.
According to Archbishop Augustine DiNoia of the Vatican’s Congregation for Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the number of Anglicans or Episcopalians interested in embracing the Church of Rome is quite substantial; possibly a half million, including 50 Anglican bishops. Pope Benedict is simply saying that the doorway is open to them.
To ensure and facilitate the process of entering into visible communion with Rome, the Holy See is providing new canonical structures, described as “Personal Ordinariates,” remotely comparable to the Military Ordinariates already functioning in most countries of the world to minister to military personnel and their dependents. According to Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, these new structures will allow Anglicans desirous of entering into full communion with Rome the means of retaining their Anglican “traditions of spirituality and worship for their faith journey.” The presumption is that the Anglicans who petition full communion will have already 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.”
The beautiful phrase referring to Anglican “traditions of spirituality and worship” is a reminder of two magnificent persons whose “faith journey” began within Anglicanism; namely, Cardinal John Henry Newman, whose Beatification Cause is currently being vigorously pursued; and the very first native-born United States citizen-saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton. Mrs. Seton (the first saint in history who can be invoked in the English idiom, “Mrs.”) often spoke or wrote about how her Episcopalian background in Manhattan proved a sturdy foundation for her eventual embrace of the Church of Rome. Cardinal Newman experienced the same, often recalling how his Anglican roots prepared him for his entrance into full Communion with Rome.
Implementation of the new Constitution will entail some adjustments, of course, but none is seriously problematic. The issue of clerical celibacy in the context of married Anglican priests is not really a difficulty. Indeed, this circumstance is not unlike that already experienced by Anglican clergy who have opted for Rome; specifically, such married clergyman will be able to continue to choose Catholicism without prejudice to their marriage. The tradition of ordaining married men, long observed in Ritual Churches sui juris, will apply to married Anglican priests entering the Catholic Church. Which means, of course, that (contrary to some reports in the secular press), the new Constitution has no bearing whatever on Apostolic norms for priestly celibacy as observed for centuries in the Latin Church.
Adaptations in liturgy are also contemplated; Anglicans entering the Catholic Church are ensured ritual modifications reflecting many Anglican customs; the Holy Father has already begun to address such petitions. (Sec. III of the Constitution) And there are practical decisions to be made; e.g., provisions for parsonages with living quarters for a pastor’s or vicar’s family. However, peripheral considerations should not distract from the exciting goal; namely, unity in faith.
We continue to live in exciting times, for which we are all grateful. We should all be especially thankful for this Holy Father, as well as for his earlier predecessors while the 20th century was drawing to a close, for leading us so rapidly, by the Holy Spirit’s power, toward the one Church of Christ intended by the Lord, and for which He prayed during the Last Supper. The centrifugal forces of the Reformation have waned so dramatically, thank God, that we can all give witness to Christ through his one Church – a necessary development as Planet Earth teeters beyond secularism toward absolute rejection of religious Truth.
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Source: http://www.catholictranscript.org/editorials/1141-blessed-papal-reply.html
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