Ordinariate Clerics Likely to Take on Secondary Assignments, Coverage Duty in Latin-Church Dioceses
May 20, 2012 3 Comments
Writes Rocco Palmo - and he is someone who knows what he’s talking about:
… it’s worth noting that 2012′s largest ordination group for an ecclesial circumscription on these shores belongs not to any time-honored outpost, but the new kid on the block. Thanks to the recent establishment of the Anglican Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter and its unique circumstances, the nationwide entity comprising no more than a few thousand souls will welcome somewhere between 30 and 60 new priests over the remainder of this year as freshly-”Poped” Episcopal clergy are cleared for orders and commissioned following the new body’s Vatican-approved program of rapid, mostly online formation conducted by Houston’s St Mary’s Seminary and University of St Thomas.
As previously noted, the Chair’s first priestly ordination is slated to take place on June 3rd in South Carolina, with several others quickly to follow. Given the priest crunch in no shortage of US locales, the Ordinariate clerics — most of them married — are likely to take on secondary assignments or be sought out for coverage duty in the Latin-church dioceses where they reside. In exchange for the added manpower, at least several US bishops are pitching in to aid the priests and the Houston-based start-up alike by, among other things, providing health insurance and other benefits for their local Ordinariate clergy and their families.
The whole post is here. There’s also a homily by Archbishop Charles Chaput OFM Cap. posted. It’s always worth listening to that godly man.
About Fr Stephen Smuts
Anglicanorum Coetibus was designed to facilitate very close co-operation between the Ordinariate and the territorial diocesans. The Ordinariates should not be some kind of ghetto.
Thus the diocesan bishop where an ordinariate priest will reside is always consulted before the ordination since the ordinariate priest will need to have faculties from the local diocesan bishop to celebrate mass and administer the sacraments in diocesan churches as well from the Ordinary to minister to ordinariate groups. An ordinariate priest will also be a member of the priests’ council of the diocese of his residence.
In England, where the the legal owership of all CofE churches made it impossible for any CofE parish church to be transferred to the Ordinariate, virtually all ordinariate groups share a church with a diocesan congregation. A signifcant number of the OLW Ordinariate clergy hold diocesan appointments as priests in charge of diocesan parishes. In others they work in close co-operation with the parish priest.
I think that in this regard there is a historical differece between the UK and the USA in relation to the pre-Ordinariate situation. The USA had the Pastoral Provision. England had no similar structure. But under the Pastoral Provision, I understand that former Anglican clergy who did not bring a parish with them were not normally assigned to parishes but were assigned to chaplaincies and similar posts. In the UK a considerable number of former Anglicans have entered the Church over the years, especially when the CofE started ordaining women, and they were integrated into the normal diocesan structures. We are reminded of this every time we see the Auxiliary of Westminister, Bishop Alan Hopes (who is also the Delegate of the Bishops’ Conference for the Ordinariate) ordaining Ordinariate deacons and priests – since he too is a former Anglican.
In fact, if one looks at the history of the re-establishment of the Catholic Church in England after Catholic Emancipation, we must give thanks for those in the Oxford Movement for whom Father Aiden Nichols OP coined the phrase “separated Doctors of the Church”. The Oxford Movement brought many in the CofE to search for their Catholic roots and that in turn has led many, many Anglicans, lay and clerical, back to the faith of their fathers.
If your point is that there has been a steady flow of Anglicans into the Catholic church, no one can deny this. By your reasoning, however, AC had no point, since complete integration is clearly superior to the ‘ghetto’ of a separate service with a distinctive liturgy.
Full union of all Christians, worshiping God in the proper way as Sacred Tradition dictates, even if espousing differing, but orthodox, theological opinions, IS superior. But that exists only in Heaven, or if it occurs on our sinful Earth, it would be too far off in the future. Perhaps when our grandchildren’s grandchildren have become grandparents it’ll be a possibility. But then, relatively speaking, Anglicans are at a better position in a dialogue towards unity with Roman Catholics than, say, the Russian Orthodox Church. That’s what an Ordinariate is for, I think. It’s not just another isolated, Autocephalous fiefdom that can’t be interfered with, but some actual, substantial communion by the way of the Maronites, Ukrainian Catholics, Melkites, and all other groups in communion with Rome. In fact, I’m willing to bet that the Ordinariates have a greater role to play later on, as we orient ourselves towards Christian Unity and re-evangelizing the West.