Great news for the Ordinariate

The Catholic Herald this morning is reporting that 5, yes 5, Anglican bishops are to join the Ordinariate!

From the headline article on the Catholic Herald website:

This morning, the Rt Rev Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury accepted the resignation of three flying Church of England and two retired assistant bishops in what is a major development in the move towards establishing an Ordinariate in Britain.

The Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Rev Keith Newton, Bishop of Richborough and Rt Rev John Broadhurst Bishop of Fulham as well as the Rt Rev Edwin Barnes the emeritus Bishop of Richborough and the Rt Rev David Silk, an emeritus assistant bishop of Exeter released a statement announcing their resignations.

They said: “As bishops, we have even-handedly cared for those who have shared our understanding and those who have taken a different view. We have now reached the point, however, where we must formally declare our position and invite others who share it to join us on our journey. We shall be ceasing, therefore, from public episcopal ministry forthwith, resigning from our pastoral responsibilities in the Church of England with effect from 31st December 2010, and seeking to join an Ordinariate once one is created.”

Nearly home now Bishops! You are assured of our prayers.

Official prayer of preparation for the Papal visit

God of truth and love,
your Son, Jesus Christ, stands as the light
to all who seek you with a sincere heart.
As we strive with your grace
to be faithful in word and deed,
may we reflect the kindly light of Christ
and offer a witness of hope and peace to all.
We pray for Pope Benedict
and look forward with joy
to his forthcoming visit to our countries.
May he be a witness to the unity and hope
which is your will for all people.
We make our prayer through Christ our Lord.
Amen.


Our Lady, Mother of the Church - pray for us
St Andrew - pray for us
St George - pray for us
St David - pray for us 

 

Habemus Papam

Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum:
Habemus Papam!
Eminentissimum ac reverendissimum Dominum,
Dominum Iosephum,
Sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ Cardinalem Ratzinger,
Qui sibi nomen imposuit Benedictus XVI.

And so follow the Canadians

Following hard on the heels of traditionalist Anglicans in Australia and America comes the news that The Anglican Catholic of Canada have requested the implementation of the provisions of Anglicanorum coetibus.

And so the Pope of Christian Unity's ecumenicalism continues to bear fruit.

After the Australians come the Americans

I love it when a plan comes together!

In February we had the news that Forward in Faith Australia had voted in favour of accepting the Pope of Christian Unity's offer for an Ordinariate.

Now comes the news that the Traditional Anglican Communion in the USA have made the decision to formally request an Ordinariate for the USA.

Deo gratias

Australian Anglicans take up the Holy Father's offer!

The Telegraph is reporting here that Forward in Faith Australia, the traditionalist Anglican grouping for Australia has voted in favour of returning home.

God bless the Pope of Christian Unity.

Source: Wikipedia

Oh dear, this is horrid

Damian Thompson has the story of a vicar who has been threatened with violence if he accepts the Holy Father's generous offer. How very sad. The story is here.

Plain old fashioned Pope bashing, nothing more, nothing less.

Thought for the day

For the correct formation of the liturgical conscience, it is important to stop condemning the liturgical form as it was known up to 1970. Those, who at this moment defend the validity of the traditional liturgy or its continued use, are treated like lepers: all tolerance for them ceases to exist. In the whole history of the Church we have never before seen such intolerance manifested! This stance shows a contempt and scorn for the whole history of the Church.

How can we ever trust the Church, with such a point of departure? I have never been able to understand why so many bishops, with no plausible reason, have given themselves over to this law of intolerance and thereby work against the needed reconciliation within the Church.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger: "God and the world" (2002)

Anglican converts

Fr Dwight Longenecker has a very interesting interview with a former Episcopalian (Anglican) priest who converted to Catholicism along with 65 of his Episcopalian parishoners. This is well worth a read.

Fr Dwight is himself a former Episcopalian priest.

The Bitter Pill

I see failed priest Nicholas Lash is foaming at the mouth in the latest issue of The Tablet. I won't bother with a link as I see no reason to increase traffic to their site but predictably he is suffering a grand mal seizure brought on by the details of the Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans being announced.

There is no doubt the liberals don't like genuine ecumenical movement. Thank God for the Pope of Christian Unity.

Anglicans and the Apostolic Constitution

Damian Thompson has the norms and the Apostolic Constituion on his blog.

The norms are here and the Constitution here.

The Pope of Christian Unity

Fr Z has a post suggesting we should refer to Pope Benedict XVI as "the Pope of Christian Unity".

I like that.

Considering what the Holy Father has managed to achieve in 4 short years that couldn't be achieved by vast swathes of liberal theologians over the last 40 years, the suggestion really does make sense.

You can read all Fr Z's reasons here

More on the Anglicans

Fr Z has some more on this exciting story. Courtesy of VirtueOnline he has a fisked statement from ++ John Hepworth, Primate of the Tradional Anglican Commuion.

Statement of the Primate
of the Traditional Anglican Communion
20th October 2009

I have spent this evening speaking to bishops, priests and lay people of the Traditional Anglican Communion in England, Africa, Australia, India, Canada, the United States and South America.

We are profoundly moved by the generosity of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. He offers in this Apostolic Constitution the means for “former Anglicans to enter into the fullness of communion with the Catholic Church”. He hopes that we can “find in this canonical structure the opportunity to preserve those Anglican traditions precious to us and consistent with the Catholic faith”. He then warmly states “we are happy that these men and women bring with them their particular contributions to our common life of faith”.

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. [This is a key point to keep in mind when considering what Pope Benedict does.] 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. [This is very interesting. What the Holy See did exceeds their expectations.]

While we await the full text of the Apostolic Constitution, we are also moved by the pastoral nature of the Notes issued today by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. My fellow bishops have indeed signed the Catechism of the Catholic Church and made a statement about the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, reflecting the words of Pope John Paul II in his letter “Ut Unum Sint”.

Other Anglican groups have indicated to the Holy See a similar desire and a similar acceptance of Catholic faith. As Cardinal Levada has indicated, this response to Anglican petitions is to be of a global character. It will now be for these groups to forge a close cooperation, even where they transcend the existing boundaries of the Anglican Communion. [hmmm… even beyond the Anglican Communion.]

Fortunately, the Statement issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury reflects the understanding that we have gained from him that he does not stand in our way, and understands the decisions that we have reached. Both his reaction and our petition are fruits of a century of prayer for Christian unity, a cause that many times must have seemed forlorn. We now express our gratitude to Archbishop Williams, and have regularly assured him of our prayers. The See of Augustine remains a focus of our pilgrim way, as it was in ages of faith in the past.

I have made a commitment to the Traditional Anglican Communion that the response of the Holy See will be taken to each of our National Synods. They have already endorsed our pathway. Now the Holy See challenges us to seek in the specific structures that are now available the “full, visible unity, especially Eucharistic communion”, for which we have long prayed and about which we have long dreamed. That process will begin at once.

In the Anglican Office of Morning Prayer, the great Hymn of Thanksgiving, the Te Deum, is part of the daily Order. It is with heartfelt thanks to Almighty God, the Lord and Source of all peace and unity, that the hymn is on our lips today. This is a moment of grace, perhaps even a moment of history, not because the past is undone, but because the past is transformed.

Archbishop John Hepworth

Primate

See Fr Z's blog here for his original post.

Big news from the Vatican

A big, big story from Damian Thompson posted at his Telegraph blog within the last few minutes.

Pope announces plans for Anglicans to convert en masse

By Damian Thompson Religion Last updated: October 20th, 2009

The Vatican has announced that Pope Benedict is setting up special provision for Anglicans, including married clergy, who want to convert to Rome together, preserving aspects of Anglican liturgy. They will be given their own pastoral supervision, according to this press release from the Vatican:

“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.”

More on this very important story later. But this is clearly a historic gesture by Pope Benedict which will encourage thousands of disaffected Anglicans to become Roman Catholics.

The original post is here