“…the Apostolic Constitution 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.”
Note from Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Catholic World News
Pope Benedict is promulgating an apostolic constitution that will permit Anglican communities whose members wish to be received into the Catholic Church to do so as communities.
The papal document allows for the creation of “personal ordinariates” to be headed by formerly Anglican priests, providing a structure within the Catholic hierarchy to supervise the pastoral care of Anglicans who have become Catholics. These “personal ordinariates” would be integrated into national episcopal conferences, but encouraged to preserve the distinctive aspects of the Anglican tradition.
“In this Apostolic Constitution the Holy Father has introduced a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates, which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony,” according to a note published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. “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 forthcoming 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,” the note continues. “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. The seminarians in the Ordinariate are to be prepared alongside other Catholic seminarians, though the Ordinariate may establish a house of formation to address the particular needs of formation in the Anglican patrimony. In this way, the Apostolic Constitution 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.”
Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster and the Archbishop of Canterbury– Dr. Rowan Williams, the primate of the Anglican Communion– issued a joint statement in response to the announcement. Their joint statement said that the new apostolic constitution was the fruit of years of ecumenical dialogue, without which such a rapprochement would not be possible. Acknowledging that recent developments in the Anglican communion have complicated the quest for reunion with Rome, the joint statement nevertheless insists that both the Vatican and the Anglican communion remain committed to the ecumenical process.
Statement from Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, a network of mostly former Anglicans holding to a very traditional pattern of Anglican Faith and Worship–”May I firstly state that this is an act of great goodness on the part of the Holy Father. He has dedicated his pontificate to the cause of unity. It more than matches the dreams we dared to include in our petition of two years ago. It more than matches our prayers. In those two years, we have become very conscious of the prayers of our friends in the Catholic Church. Perhaps their prayers dared to ask even more than ours.”
Remarks of Archbishop of Canterbury–”…we don’t believe that there’s anything to be gained by trying to score points at each others’ expense or to work separately when we can work together…it does not disrupt business as usual in the relations between our communions…
What is to me very interesting about the constitution proposed and the ideas behind it is that it is itself also another kind of product of our years of conversation, prayer together…
So I think it’s very important for us in the Anglican communion to be grateful for what has been achieved…
I’ve been aware for a few years that there have been some groups approaching the Holy See to discuss the possibilities of what might roughly be called “group reunion”. Prominent among those for example has been the Traditional Anglican Communion…I know there have been some groups in the United States of America, similarly who made contact, and I know of course that there are some within the Anglican communion, as it now is, who have been – as you might put it – looking at their options should the Anglican communion take any further steps which they would regard as problematic. It’s no secret that in this country the ordination of women as bishops is one of those test issues. However, I don’t think that this constitution should be seen as, in any sense, a commentary on Anglican problems offered by the Vatican. It is, as has been said, a response to this range of requests and inquiries from a very very broad variety of people, either Anglicans or of Anglican heritage, as you might say. And in that sense it has no negative impact on the relation of the Communion as a whole, to the Roman Catholic Church as a whole.”
Guardian (U.K.) –“It creates not so much a church within a church as an enclave operating under the auspices of the Vatican or a safe haven for endangered Anglicans.”
Time Magazine
“For Anglican leaders, the Vatican announcement is the latest minefield to manage in their ongoing effort to avoid a full-fledged schism within their 80-million-strong church, which includes 2.2 million American Episcopalians.”
Daily Telegraph
“Pope Benedict XVI has paved the way for thousands of Anglicans who are disillusioned by the church’s stance on female clergy and homosexuality to convert to Roman Catholicism.”
Reuters
“The move comes after years of discontent in some sectors of the 77-million-strong worldwide Anglican community over the ordination of women priests and homosexual bishops.”
Catholic News Service
COMMENTARY
Fr. George Rutler, former Anglican priest [h/t Deacon's Bench]–”The Apostolic Constitution is not a retraction of ecumenical desires, but rather is the fulfillment of ecumenical aspirations, albeit not the way most Anglican leaders had envisioned it.”
Phil Lawler–”On one hand, the Anglicans coming home to full communion will be active in practice, theologically aware, and proportionately resistant to gay and feminist faddishness. On the other hand we have to admit that a sizable minority of (nominally) Catholic clergy envy the Church of England for precisely the reasons its orthodox are bolting. Who knows how many of our own ecclesiastics, even unindicted ones, are gazing wistfully at the lighted windows of Gene Robinson’s honeymoon suite while Rembert Weakland’s autobiography slumbers in their lap?”
Canon lawyer, Ed Peters‘, commentary with Fr. Z’s reactions in a simultaneous read. Fr. Z points to implications for the next round of talks with SSPX.