‘Mr Louis Campese, a Former Anglican Bishop…’
September 19, 2012 23 Comments
He shares his personal journey and that of his congregation into the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter:
Traditional Anglican Communion Bishop Louis Campese was speechless on Sunday, Sept. 16, as he joyfully witnessed his flock of American Anglicans be shepherded into the Roman Catholic Church.
“Oh, I’m still on Cloud Nine or Cloud 10,” the former bishop of the Anglican Cathedral of the Incarnation told VOL Tuesday afternoon. “It was just amazing”…
Currently, neither Bishop Campese nor any his former cathedral clergy – Fr. William Holiday, Fr. Scott Whitmore and Fr. Jason McCrimmon – have been ordained as Catholic clergy. He is praying that Fr. Holiday will be able to be ordained as a Catholic cleric in the not-too-distant future, but Fr. Whitmore has decided to take a little more time to discern the perimeters of his priesthood, while Fr. McCrimmon has chosen to remain Anglican and live out his priestly ministry as a chaplain in the US Navy.
As far as Bishop Campese goes, he is simply content to be a practicing Roman Catholic. He is now a Catholic lay person, and is addressed as “Mr. Louis Campese, a former Anglican bishop”, an Ordinariate spokesperson told VOL…
VirtueOnline has the whole piece here.
About Fr Stephen Smuts
Mr Campese has been a model of humility and self-sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel. However he ends up serving Christ in the future, I am sure that he will be showered with blessings.
Yes indeed and the way the VOL reporter raises the issue of Catholic holy orders could have been better put. While there is a mandatory retirement age for Catholic clergy, retired priests remain priests until death and for so long as their health allows, they may continue to celebrate mass. While there is an upper age limit for candidates for ordination, it has been waived for former Anglican bishops and I would very much hope that were it to be requested, the Holy Father would continue what has been the practice so far.
I am not sure that there is an upper age limit for Ordination. Over the years, I have known of men in their seventies and eighties being ordained. I think the measure is the individual’s health. Several of the Ordinariate priests in the OLW are at the top end of their seventies and I attended the Ordination of Fr Peter Peterkin in Nottingham Cathedral when he was 82.
The situation of former bishop Campese may have different complications (or not). He is certainly, along with his Canadian brothers, an example of humility before personal position.
I agree. I did not make myself sufficiently clear. It is not normal practice to ordain priests who have passed a certain age, but exceptions can be made and one of the areas where the exception is applied is in the case of former clergy coming into communion who wish to continue ministry. After all, if one had spent one’s adult life as a priest believing that one was exercing priestly functions, it would be a teriffic deprivation and, I could say, even cruelty, if an incidental of coming into communion was to remove the privilege of standing at the altar.
There is an interesting thread on Fr Ed Tomlison’s blog The Re-Ordination Conundrum which is worth a read and I was very much struck by this post from a former Anglican:-
“Many years ago, long long before anyone dreamed of an Ordinariate, I ministered for a short while in the C of E. They were happy and fruitful times. God richly blessed the ministry I exercised. I have been a Catholic priest for 15 years. All I wil say is that what I had then was fruitful, but what I have now is more fruitful; what I had then may have been sacramental, but what I have now most definitely is. You cannot compare apples with oranges – even though they’re both fruits.
It’s very hard to explain the difference but, as Ed will testify, I’m sure, the two ways of ministering are worlds apart and are, quite simply, not the same thing. I’m pretty sure God blesses authentic Anglican worship. I know for sure he blesses Catholic sacraments. I know from the teaching of the Church; from my own experience; and from the witness of every former Anglican, priest or lay, diocesan or Ordinariate Catholic who has sought peace in Peter’s arms. And you know what? My heart bursts over with gratitude for so great a gift as the Catholic priesthood. A gift of which I am entirely unworthy.”
How could one not want a person like that, whatever his age, to be raised to the altars in our Church?
Up to now it has been the practice for former Anglican and TAC bishops to be ordained and moreover for the retired ones to be made Chaplains to His Holiness (“Monsignor”) in recognition of their years of ministry. Tht was the case for the late former bishop of Lonodn, Mgr Graham Leonard among others and for Mgr Robert Mercer (former Anglian Bishop of Matabeleland and also a former TAC Bishop), for Mgr David Silk (former Anglican Bishop of Ballarat), and for Mgr Edwin Barnes (fomer Anglican Bishop of Richborough) and one would hope it would be possible for the life and work of former Bishop Campese to be similarly recognised.
Surrendering one’s self-identification as a priest for the greater good is certainly a great and admirable sacrifice. The episcopal role of these TAC bishops–perhaps not so much. They had a lot of very impressive vestments, but their “span of control” in organizational terms was less than that of many leaders of single Episcopalian or Catholic parishes.
Bishop Campese is a model. A man willing to give up his position in his church for the sake of unity and his flock, and doing so happily. He put his money where his mouth was, unlike another bishop we know…….
In the church there are many ways for clergy, esp. bishops, to be role models. The now Mr. Campese had a flock who wanted to join the Ordinariate. They so joined as did he. But others had or have flocks who don’t want to do that. Are they supposed to abandon their flocks? Wouldn’t that be selfish?
In Christian congregations, the role of the priest, and especially the bishop, is to lead, rather than simply follow, his flock. Certainly, the flock may be so stubborn not to go in a particular direction that even a saint could not lead them there. Yet more often than not, determined leadership and patient clarification of doubts will persuade most, whereas a stance: “I leave it to you to decide”, seemingly neutral but actually with an underlying negativity tone, will tend to produce opportunistic choices (i.e. voting for the status quo).
Bp Campese is really an inspiring example of pastoral care and exceptional humility, and even – dare I say – Christ-like sacrificing things which are precious to him for the well-being of his flock.
On the parish website, there is a recording of his moving sermon of 9/9, when he recalls in a faltering voice all those who have not made it to that day, particularly his wife Eudora (http://www.theparish.org/html/sermons/sermons.html).
I do not see any grounds for alleging selfishness. Firstly, if one genuinely feels called to join another church, one resigns one’s office. The Church authorities will know what to do because any normal church has well-oiled procedures for continuing pastoral care.
The specific situations that have happened here and elsewhere are what they are; however, does it seem very charitable to subtly impugn the actions of other bishops whose circumstances are different? I suspect Mr. Campese’s choice was made far, far easier by the collective decision of his flock and his local church to join the Ordinariate. But what if Mr. Campese’s church had decided not to join the Ordinariate? Or if the basic endeavor itself started to tear the local church apart (e.g., the situation at a Los Angeles area church?)? A bishop has a responsibility to his flock, a responsibility that should not be abrogated unilaterally except in the most serious of circumstances.
And another former Primate?
Campese….with a name like taht, he must have been Catholic?
Wasn’t true of the Rossettis.
Like anyone named “Williams” must have the misfortune to be Welsh, perhaps? Not a serious observation, of course.
True.
Dwyn Cymro…the original British.
English are fifth century German immigrants!
“Non Angli sed Angeli si forent Christiani” which, however, is sometimes mistranslated to read “If Angles were Christians they would be Anglcans”
And then add the Normans. (Who were vikings before becoming french. I think.)
The desire to protect the civilised part of our Islands from the barbarians on the fringes certainly predates the Norman Conquest.
When Hadrian built his wall he sacrificed to the Roman deity “Terminus” with the intention that his wall should deliniate the end of the civilised world. But, “Hadrian built the Roman Wall, to keep the Scottish out. But he did not build it high enough, or wide enough or thick enough, and look at us today!”
The equivalent protection against the Welsh would be “Offa’s Dyke”. Offa ruled from 757 to 796 AD and he constructed these earthworks to protect Mercia from the depredations of the Welsh who had (and are said still to have) a predeliction for the gratuitous acquisition of other peoples’ sheep. Hence the Nursery Rhyme: “Taffy was a welshman, Taffy was a thief….”.
Recent attempts to export a modicum of civilisation by the means of English purchases of weekend second homes in Wales were not wholly sucessful by reason of (i) the arson attacks, (ii) the incessant rain (which at least put the fires out – even if it made for pretty dismal weekends) and (iii) navigational difficulties.
Just imagine punching a place name like this into your satnav if you’ve forgotten the postcode: “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch”.
When the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain, the native Romano-Britions fled westwards to what would become Wales and Cornwall. Some went to northern france and founded Brittany.They had no desire to bring salvation to these Germanic hordes, and this is the origin of the myth of a separate Celtic Church,later exploited by Protestant polemicists, like the Anglican, John Foxe.
Whilst I think Hepworth could learn from Campese…please remember that in its hey day the Incarnation did a roaring trade as a wedding chapel. Plus to be strictly an Anglican bishop you have to be in communion with the See of Canterbury…
What I think might be more pertinent, is that clergymen brought up in the schismatic churches who receive the gift of faith and are received into the Catholic Church and later ordained generally turn out to make very good priests and bishops.
By contrast, Catholic adults who forsake the Church for some other denomination, and in particular those in holy orders, often exhibit quite serious character defects. Perhaps by reason of some eagerness to acquire trophy “former Catholics”, the Anglican churches have taken on board some pretty unstable people over the years, perhaps without sufficient preliminary enquiry.
It’s like when atheists show off “Gay former Catholic priests, talk about gayness and how Catholic teaching is wrong!” or “Former Catholic Nun Supports Abortion! Reveals Hypocrisy in Church!”
I know Bp Campese personally and have known him many years. He married my wife and I some 21 yrs ago. I would hope that the work he did was done with intentions to achieve what he long had sought out when I was at the parish for many year. In fact, I was a founding member of that parish back in 1977 I think it was. I was just a young boy then. His work at Incarnation has been his life’s mission and while not perfect, I think he tried to do as he felt God wanted him to do. I am sure the Monsignor will give him the provisional re-ordination he deserves. He at least deserves to continue to celebrate mass for the rest of his days. He really enjoyed that.