Giving Up on the Ordinariate?

Sad, coming from such once staunch pro-Ordinariate folk:

In so many words, a couple of weeks ago I expressed my grave concern for the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, and my conviction that God was not leading me to participate in this voluntary juridical structure at this time.  I can not do so without violating my conscience.  I believe that both the spirit and the letter of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum cœtibus are being twisted or ignored and that the Holy Father’s express will is being openly flouted.  The Ordinariate in the United States has (slowly) gotten off on the wrong foot and is doomed to failure unless very significant course adjustments are made.

I remain loyal to the Catholic Faith, to the Anglican Patrimony which is in accord with that Faith, and to the Holy Father’s spectacular vision for Christian Unity.  I may not be able to enter the Ordinariate at this time, but I continue to pray for the experiments in reconciliation which we have come to call Personal Ordinariates, and that, perhaps one day, when the Ordinariate ship is righted, I will be able to fully and joyfully consent to membership.

I also am privileged to continue my work with the Contributors here on The Anglo-Catholic.  Some of them share my concerns; others hold to a different view.  That has always been the case.  This blog is not the tool of any diocese or jurisdiction; its existence and import do not depend on the success of any endeavour which springs from the Pastoral Provision, the Anglican Use, or the Personal Ordinariates.  Its mission is very simple: to draw into the communion of the Holy Roman Church as many Anglicans and as much of their unique and beautiful Patrimony as possible.  We have always seen this work as a mission, and one to be pursued with fervour!

And regardless of our varying positions on individual issues or what we are permitted to express in public, all of us here know that with God nothing is impossible.  What might look like an impending failure now, may quickly turn around to be a glorious success!

I write the above by way of a preface for the article below.  Mr. Vincent Uher was a long-time member of Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston and has recently posted this piece on his personal blog.  He has asked that we give it the largest possible circulation, and, as it raises grave concerns over the future of the Ordinariate project in North America, it is something we should all consider carefully.

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Giving Up on the Ordinariate?

When a friend learned that I was withdrawing my application for membership in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter and its Ordination process, she asked if I were giving up on the Ordinariate.  Quite to the contrary, I shall pray for the Lord God to prosper everything that is of Him that is within it.  The Church will be enriched by those entering in the USA and Canada, and many will find the real home for which they have been longing.

The Lord has given me a different vision and course to take for now, but I can envision a future where I am a member of one of the Personal Ordinariates.  There are many places in the Catholic Church where I am very welcome, but the new US Ordinariate is not where I need to be.

As a former Angican priest and a member of some years in an Anglican Use Parish in Texas, I have seen the best and the worst of the Pastoral Provision.  I remain enthusiastic about Anglicanorum coetibus.  However, I was given a very different vision from the Lord of what He requires and expects from Catholics of Anglican heritage than what one finds in the advent and development of the US Ordinariate in its organisation.

One wag has suggested that the Ordinariate will be that perfect marriage of the worst of Catholic secrecy and Anglican navel-gazing.  The central and fundamental problem is the lack of any expression of a clear vision or a willingness to embrace all Anglicans desiring to enter and all previous Anglican Use Catholics.  Also, there has been a great dishonouring of some of the faithful and some of the clergy who have built up the Anglican Use parishes.  All of this will stunt the growth of the US Ordinariate and set its new DNA at odds with the vision of Pope Benedict XVI expressed in Anglicanorum coetibus and subsequent norms.

One could say ‘vision’ is the main issue but it is not simply generating a mission statement or vision statement and congratulating each other over having done so.  No, vision is far broader and more significant.  There is no expressed vision for the US Ordinariate beyond a vague “living out” of Anglicanorum coetibus, and that is not enough.  Without a vision one is left with the satisfying of the personal tastes of those in charge, and that is a recipe for catastrophe to be avoided at all costs.

Some would say, as they always do, that it is too soon.  But on the contrary, the vision and missionary objectives should have been set before the whole thing was inaugurated.  Why didn’t it happen that way?  None of the men involved seem to have ever planted a new church, and apparently none of them have been in charge of a new business start-up.  Naturally, they will only replicate the DNA of their own experience and values, and those values are certainly Christian but they are not missionary, “missional”, or that of the New Evangelisation enunciated by Blessed Pope John Paul II.

The US Ordinariate is clearly not set up to lead but to follow.  Though it could make rapid strides in the New Evangelisation, its leadership prefers to take baby steps.  If one bears that in mind, then a big hurdle can be overcome for those who may be disappointed in what they are encountering.  But let us be clear, those baby steps are important and need to be celebrated when taken.  For those for whom those baby steps are enough then the US Ordinariate is a good fit.

The Ordinary is a historian and scholar and not a missionary.  (The grace of office and the grace of state do not make one a missionary.)  The gifts and skill-sets are different, and one must pray that the very special gifts possessed by the Ordinary will provide what the new clergy and new people need at this time.

Without a vision the people perish, and to simply say you are “living out Anglicanorum coetibus” is completely meaningless.  Without a missional orientation and a clear expression of comprehension of the Anglican patrimony … who are its people and clergy first and foremost — all included, no exceptions … then there can only be a very limited embodiment of what Pope Benedict XVI had hoped to provide to the Church and the world through his extraordinary gift.

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Without a clear vision, one is usually left with reactionary responses to problems.   Time for some folks to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest Christifidelis laici among other things… and learn to embrace the gifts and talents being brought forward by the laity with an eager desire to serve.  Any leader who says to such willing people, No thanks for we’ve got that covered, has profoundly missed the mark.  Learn to make use of such people.  You will be held accountable by the Lord for those driven away from the bosom of the Church otherwise.

See, this is what happens when things don’t go the way we want them to go.

 

Psalm 62

Thanks to the godly person who has just who suggested I give Psalm 62 a read. I share it with you at this time:

1. In God alone there is rest for my soul, from him comes my safety;

2. he alone is my rock, my safety, my stronghold so that I stand unshaken.

3. How much longer will you set on a victim, all together, intent on murder, like a rampart already leaning over, a wall already damaged?

4. Trickery is their only plan, deception their only pleasure, with lies on their lips they pronounce a blessing, with a curse in their hearts.

5. Rest in God alone, my soul! He is the source of my hope.

6. He alone is my rock, my safety, my stronghold, so that I stand unwavering.

7. In God is my safety and my glory, the rock of my strength. In God is my refuge;

8. trust in him, you people, at all times. Pour out your hearts to him, God is a refuge for us.

9. Ordinary people are a mere puff of wind, important people a delusion; set both on the scales together, and they are lighter than a puff of wind…

11. Once God has spoken, twice have I heard this: Strength belongs to God,

12. to you, Lord, faithful love; and you repay everyone as their deeds deserve.

An Unkind Brother…

My fellow TAC Priest, Fr Anthony Chadwick, has decided to post a rather unkind (and dishonest) little ad hominem post on yours truly over on his blog.  I thought it rather ironic that he gives it the title: A little respite to the bitterness.

I left a comment – which I hope he will moderate. In it, I said:

… I always strive to live my life by a little dictum: ‘ if my conduct will not vindicate itself, it is not worth vindicating’ – William Carey.

I really have no idea what has prompted this ad hominem post of yours, other than to think it must have been due to my suggesting that you were (are) involved with Archbishop Hepworth in an ugly attempted subversive, mutinous, and schismatic act that has now been exposed for the world to see.

I’m just so glad that there are many other people out there who know me far better that he does.

Perhaps in the end, it all speaks more of him than it does of me?

UPDATE:  Since Fr Chadwick will not allow my comment – and why not? – to be posted, I reproduce it in full here:

… ‘bad-mouthed’? When, Fr? I ask you to produce but one example. I was (and have been) both kind and charitable in all my dealings with you, even offering my prayers for you in your particular situation. But then again, you know this Fr.

With regards to the accusation that you level against me for having allegedly ‘deleted comments from Deborah Gyapong’. Firstly, I never received any such comment (on the blog or otherwise). Secondly, I have found that woman to be a real lady (in every sense of the word), and I am only ever honoured when she takes the time to visit my lowly blog. Thirdly, I am not in that habit of deleting comments unless they insult a holy, pure and perfect God (and that includes His Son, Jesus Christ) and comments that are filled with hate-speech. In fact I have frequently maintained that anyone is free to disagree with me, as long as there are no vulgarities or offensive personal insults directed towards me and/or others. Such will not be tolerated.

So, say what you will… Fortunately for me in the dishonest picture you choose to paint of my person, you don’t know me well enough to make such rash judgments. Moreover, I always strive to live my life by a little dictum: ‘ if my conduct will not vindicate itself, it is not worth vindicating’ – William Carey.

I really have no idea what has prompted this ad hominem post of yours, other than to think it must have been due to my suggesting that you were (are) involved with Archbishop Hepworth in an ugly attempted subversive, mutinous, and schismatic act that has now been exposed for the world to see.

 

Australian Ordinariate Erection on 15th June Approaches

Over on the blog Vexilla Regis:

FEBRUARY 2012 GATHERED FOR ORDINARIATE FESTIVAL IN PERTH
(L to R ) TAC Abp HEPWORTH, CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP Hocking PERTH,CATHOLIC BISHOP PETER ELLIOTT AUX. MELBOURNE, ANGLICAN BISHOP ENTWHISTLE and CATHOLIC BISHOP SPROXTON AUX.PERTH

THE AUSTRALIAN to-day reports that on Friday 15th June – the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and  the day the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross under the Patronage of Saint Augustine of Canterbury is formally erected by the decree of the Holy Father, in St. Mary’s Cathedral Perth,WA, the Archbishop of Perth will ordain as a Catholic Priest the present Anglican ( TAC) Bishop Harry Entwhistle ,72. Father Entwhistle is expected to be followed into the Catholic Church by most of his present TAC flock of 70 people at Saint Ninian and Saint Chad’s Church in Perth , through the Ordinariate.This will be the first of the Anglican Parishes to do so.

This is a promising beginning for the Ordinariate and no doubt many more such moves will follow. “Other bishops, priests and parishes are expected to follow, including the Church of the Torres Strait and four Priests and a bishop from the TAC group in Japan”the paper reported.

We pray for the growing strength of the Ordinariate, and we look forward with interest to the appointment by the Holy Father of its new Ordinary expected to be announced on Friday.

 

Court Finds Priest Guilty for Ringing Church Bells

UCA News:

According to recent reports, Fr Andrzej Wrobel, the Catholic parish priest of Lewin, Poland, was sentenced to 30 hours community service yesterday for ‘noise pollution’, because he had disturbed parishioners and local residents by ringing his church bells.

When I first noticed the headlines surrounding this story, which appeared in both the Telegraph and on Polish radio, my immediate reaction was, ‘Oh no, yet another example of the creeping tide of secularism!’ Having read the background to this sorry tale, though, I am beginning to see why the priest in question was dealt with so harshly.

It seems that since his appointment as parish priest of Lewin in 2009, Fr Wrobel took it upon himself to install a high tech automated bell system for the church, which was paid for by his parishioners. The electronic ‘bells’ consisted of chimes and gongs that were set to ring at various points throughout the day – beginning at 5.00am! The system had also been set to play hymns on a daily loop, including one every night at 9.37pm, which was Fr Wrobel’s way of commemorating the death of Blessed John Paul II.

Needless to say, Fr Andrzej Wrobel’s parishioners started to complain once the noise pollution had become unbearable. Those with little children and pets were particularly affected, as it seems the bells made dogs howl and also frightened the town’s toddlers.

In response to the complaints, the priest defiantly added another hymn to his sound system, which was set to play at 1.30am! Having to listen to a hymn at that time of the morning, whilst aware that a set of bells was about to start ringing in just over three hours, I’m surprised that it wasn’t just the town’s dogs that were howling!

Full Story: What do you make of this? A Catholic priest is sentenced to 30 hours community service for ringing his church bells

Source: A Reluctant Sinner