Anglican Ordinariate: 'We Don't Have to Swim the Tiber; A Bridge is being Built'

Three Anglican bishops will be ordained Catholic priests in January. Clergy and laity will undergo formation and instruction so they can be received into the Catholic Church during Holy Week. Anglican pastors to become Catholic priests will be ordained and incardinated at Pentecost.

P>LONDON, UK (Catholic Online) -  I received a response to an article we published on the "Becoming One" gathering of those coming into full communion through the Anglican Ordinariate in the United States. It was from an Anglican priest who identified himself as "Father Luke". He wrote, "I  am still in san Antonio. I wait for the plane back to Reno. My EMC (Episcopal Missionary Church) parish has voted to enter the Ordinariate, and I am pleased to have gotten together with my fellow travelers here in San Antonio. We do not have to swim the Tiber; a bridge is being built."

The imagery is apropos. This historic overture toward Anglican Christians is prophetic. A bridge is indeed being built and Pilgrims are crossing over and coming home. The implications have only begun to be realized; not only within the Anglican and Episcopal world, but within the Catholic Church. I am convinced this a part of an unfolding movement of the Holy Spirit which is fostering restored communion between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches as well as the healing of the divisions occasioned by the Protestant reformation in the West.  Pope Benedict XVI is the Pope of Christian Unity. We should not underestimate the significance of what is occurring in this pregnant moment in Church history.

I have followed the movement of Anglican Clergy and lay faithful toward the safe harbor that is found in the Bark of Peter and written extensively about it. I have grieved along with many Anglicans as their own Christian community was torn asunder by the rejection of both orthodoxy and orthopraxy. It is my conviction that the influx of these Anglican Christians into the full communion of the Catholic Church through the Anglican Ordinariate is a work of the Holy Spirit, a gift to the Catholic Church and marks the beginning of the coming full communion of the whole Church.

The Anglican Community is fracturing, splintering and falling apart. Some within it are abandoning the ancient faith handed down to us from the apostles. To many Anglican Christians, this is a tragedy. So, led by the Holy Spirit, Pope Benedict XVI, the Vicar of Christ and successor of Peter, offered a juridical structure which provides a place within the full communion of the Catholic Church where they can maintain their Anglican Ethos and become a part of a new missionary age in a restored Catholic Church. That is precisely what the Anglican Ordinariates provide. This bridge has been built through the implementation of the "Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus". It explains in its subtitle what it offers in these words, "Providing for Personal ordinariates for Anglicans Entering into Full Communion with the Catholic Church."

In a delightful little book entitled "Salt of the Earth" published toward the end of the Second Millennium, then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was interviewed by Peter Seewald. In the context of a question concerning the Venerable John Paul II's vision for Christian unity, he noted that "the first Christian millennium was the millennium of Christian unity - there were schisms, as we know, but there was still the unity of East and West; the second millennium was the millennium of great divisions; and that now, precisely at the end (of the second millennium) we could rediscover a new unity." Of course, Cardinal Ratzinger succeeded his friend to the Chair of Peter and he has become an historic figure in Christian history, helping to fulfill this vision.

In his first homily as Pope he said, "Nourished and sustained by the Eucharist, Catholics cannot but feel stimulated to tend towards that full unity for which Christ hoped in the Cenacle. Peter's Successor knows that he must take on this supreme desire of the Divine Master in a particularly special way. To him, indeed, has been entrusted the duty of strengthening his brethren. "Thus, in full awareness and at the beginning of his ministry in the Church of Rome that Peter bathed with his blood, the current Successor assumes as his primary commitment that of working tirelessly towards the reconstitution of the full and visible unity of all Christ's followers. This is his ambition, this is his compelling duty."

When the history of the Third Millennium is recounted, the actions of this Pope of Christian unity will be told with deep respect and honor. He is fulfilling that compelling duty. The pace of the implementation of the Anglican Ordinariates is accelerating. The Bishops of England and Wales made a stunning announcement today concerning the implementation of the ordinariate which we shared in full with our readers in an article from Randy Sly. Randy is the Associate editor of Catholic Online and a former Bishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church who resigned his ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church several years ago.

At a Press conference the bishops' liaison for the ordinariate, Auxiliary Bishop Alan Hopes of Westminster,  himself a former Anglican priest, explained: "The bishops have warmly and generously welcomed the Holy Father's initiative toward those Anglicans who are seeking full and ecclesial communion with the Catholic Church. We have placed it all in the context of our overall ecumenical journey - which is exactly where the Holy Father has placed it - which seeks full communion in faith and fullness of unity for which Jesus Christ himself prayed. It has become very clear that there are clergy and groups of people who wish to make use of this journey into the Catholic Church through the ordinariate structure. Sometime during the month of January the ordinariate will be set up and an ordinary - something like a bishop - will be appointed to have care of the ordinariate."

"The three serving Anglican bishops, whose resignations come into effect Dec. 31, will be ordained Catholic priests in January, and the two retired bishops will be ordained as priests before Lent. Clergy and laity will undergo formation and instruction so they can be received into the Catholic Church during Holy Week. Those Anglican pastors who wish to become Catholic priests in the new structure will be ordained and incardinated into the ordinariate at Pentecost." He explained that the priests would participate in a 12 week course directly overseen by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and noted that "After their ordination, we expect the clergy to continue their studies for some time so they can really get their feet under the table of the Catholic Church." 

This is the beginning of a new chapter in Church history. Pope Benedict XVI is the "Pope of Christian Unity" and the new chapter has only just begun to be written as the Third Millennium begins.

Find the best Christmas presents at Catholic Online Shopping

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'