Article after article, blogger after blogger, wonder how many Anglicans will actually avail themselves of this generous offer the Pope is making. But with the speculation over how many Anglicans will come into the Catholic Church, the larger effect is ignored. What the Apostolic Constitution establishes is a permanent thing, and will reach the point that it will not require converts for its existence. If the Holy Father had done this only for the conversions it might enable, he would not be giving it its permanent nature. No, what he has done is to say that the Anglican Patrimony (everything consonant with the Catholic faith that forms its ethos) is worthy not only of preservation, but of growth. It won’t take long for the strength of the Personal Ordinariates to depend not so much on converts as on its own organic growth. Children will be raised up in this form of Catholic spirituality, and they will grow up to have children; seekers after truth will be attracted to the spiritual life of the Ordinariates, just as people used to be attracted to Anglicanism; clergy will be trained and educated for work in the Ordinariates, and they will in turn become missionaries throughout society, planting new parishes and forming new Religious communities.
The Holy Father is taking the best and most worthy elements of Anglicanism, which are now wilting and near death, and he’s giving them a new place in which to grow and thrive. Certainly, this is a most welcome open door to those Anglicans wanting to come into full communion with the See of Peter; but more importantly, Pope Benedict is giving a new beginning to all that is lovely and true in Anglicanism, so it can continue into the future as a legitimate and worthy expression of the fullness of Catholic Faith.
7 comments:
An excellent post, Father. Organic growth will prove to be the driving force of this initiative.
God bless the Pope for having the foresight, courage and willingness to listen to the Holy Spirit as he seeks to unify the Church.
Father,
Thank you for such a marvellous blog which has come to my attention because of the Holy Father's recent inspired action.
I have put a link to your blog on my poor blog. Best wishes to you and your parishioners.
Father Eamonn
Father Phillips' blog is available on Facebook at Our Lady of the Atonement which can be looked at or automatically sent as a feed to a personal facebook page. PH
It was amazing to see the growth of the parish during the time I lived out of state! It seems that fewer and fewer congregants are making the same gestures as the "old timers" though. Is it time for a refresher course? Aside from genuflecting as the processional Cross passes, and at the mention of the Incarnation during the Credo, what other customs/gestures are particular to our AU worship? We only know what we see, unless there is something in print of which I am unaware.
A major impediment Father is that for those of us Anglican Catholics within the Anglican Catholic Church, to embrace the Anglican Use is to deny the sacramental validity of every mass we have received at and every hard wrought confession we have made. How can we do this?
David, when I was ordained as an Episcopal priest I firmly believed in the validity of Anglican Orders. One of the reasons for my eventual departure from ECUSA was that I began to doubt the validity of the Orders I had received. However, even if validity was lacking, God still allowed grace to come to the people I was caring for, in response to their faith.
If you were to enter into full communion with the See of Peter, no one would ask you to deny that you had been receiving God's grace, and that your clergy were ministering to you. It was important for me to be part of the Church that was assuredly founded by Christ, and to receive Sacraments that are not questioned. That cannot be said by Anglicans. No matter how sincerely one believes, the vast majority of Christendom would not consider the orders of your clergy to be unquestionably Catholic orders. I wouldn't be able to continue in that situation.
The one tradition that I recall in my Anglo Catholic parish was that we all bowed when the Priest processed by. Also everyone bowed their heads at the name of Jesus. I see that the servers and priests do at OLA, but wasn't sure about the congregation. Otherwise I can't think of anything else.
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