The Anglican Ordinariate

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Forward in Faith Australia, All Saints, Kooyong, MelbourneSaturday February 13, 2010

WHAT IS THIS PERSONAL ORDINARIATE?

Understanding Pope Benedicts Offer to Traditional Anglicans

Bishop Peter J. ElliottAuxiliary Bishop, Melbourne

Anglicans can no longer speak of swimming the Tiber. Pope Benedict XVIhas built a noble bridge, a symbol chosen as the cover illustration for theCatholic Truth Society edition of his Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus.Today I want to try to describe where that bridge leads.

I have already summed up the papal offer as united in communion but not

absorbed, words which resonate with the ecumenical vision of the recentpast, particularly the era of Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey.Now United in communion but not absorbed is realized in a PersonalOrdinariate for Anglicans who wish to enter full communion with the CatholicChurch, to use the Holy Fathers words in his Apostolic ConstitutionAnglicanorum coetibus.

Defining a Personal Ordinariate

Anglicanorum coetibus establishes a distinct community for Anglicans whochoose to return to unity with the Successor of St Peter. But it is not accurateto call this an Anglican Rite Ordinariate. A better expression would be anAnglican Use Personal Ordinariate, that is, a structured communitymaintaining its own traditions, at the same time enjoying distinct liturgicalprivileges within the Roman Rite. To understand the proposed structure wemay compare it with similar structures that already exist within the CatholicChurch.

The Military Ordinariate

The proposed Anglican Use Ordinariate may be compared to the Military

Ordinariate, set up in many countries, including Australia, the UK and the US.The Anglican Church of Australia has a similar structure. Anglicanorumcoetibus refers to this structure in footnote 12.

A Military Ordinariate is kind of diocese covering a whole country but alsopresent in places outside the country where military personnel serve, suchas Afghanistan or East Timor. The bishop of the armed forces exercisesordinary jurisdiction over military chaplains and Catholic members of thearmed forces - wherever they may be. Therefore his ministry relates directkyto people and is more personal than territorial.

However, the structure proposed inAnglicanorum coetibis for an Anglican UsePersonal Ordinariate is closer to a territorial diocese. There could be several


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Ordinariates in one country, which is not the case with the military structure.Therefore to better understand an Anglican Use Ordinariate we look into thevenerable ancient Eastern Rites within the Catholic Church, properly calledthe Eastern Catholic Churches.

One Church: East and West

These autonomous Churches are in communion with Rome, but theirmembers are not Roman Catholics, that is, not Catholics of the Roman Rite.I now need to open up something essential that many Anglicans do notunderstand that the Catholic Church is not a monolithic structure. She is acommunion of Churches, led by bishops who are in communion with theBishop of Rome and with one another, members of one apostolic college. Thisunity through a communion of particular or local Churches is set out in theDogmatic Constitution on the Church promulgated by the Second VaticanCouncil. Lumen Gentium, 23.

Every diocese is a particular Church, governed by a successor of theapostles. This is why we talk of the Church of Rome, the Church ofMelbourne, the Church of Washington etc. Through a complex historybeginning in apostolic times, most of these particular Churches today aregrouped together within the Roman Rite. Not only are they in communion withthe Church of Rome, the See of Peter, but they also use the liturgy of Rome.The members of these particular Churches may be known as RomanCatholics, or Catholics of the Roman Rite, or Latin Catholics.

At the same time, many other particular churches are grouped within a seriesof ancient Eastern Rites, also in communion with Rome, but using liturgiesappropriate to their origins: Syrian, Greek, Egyptian, Armenian etc. Theirmembers are Ukrainian Catholics, Maronite Catholics, Coptic Catholics etc.They are not Roman Catholics. This is why it is wrong to lump us all togetherand call everyone in communion with Rome a Roman Catholic. I candescribe myself in those terms, but my fellow Ukrainian Catholic should not -and will not describe himself as an RC. So to sum it up, within theCatholic Church there is a wide range of Catholics and worshippingcommunities of Christian people.

Diocese and Eparchy

Looking more closely into these Eastern Catholic Churches, we first findtypical territorial dioceses in the home country: Ukraine, Egypt, Lebanon,Syria, India, Iraq etc. But then we find a second kind of diocese for thosemembers of these Churches who have emigrated and are now scatteredacross a country such as Canada or Australia. This kind of diocese is usually,not always, called an eparchy.

In an eparchy an Eastern Rite bishop has jurisdiction over all the clergy andlay faithful of his Rite, within a country or within a region in a big country such

as Canada. For example, the Ukrainian Catholic bishop with a fine cathedralin North Melbourne is the bishop of the Eparchy of St Peter and Paul,


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Australia. He has ordinary jurisdiction over all Ukrainian Catholics in Australia.His people are also known as Greek Catholics because they celebrate theliturgy of Constantinople, the Byzantine Rite.

The same kind of structure also applies to the Maronite diocese of St Maroun,

the Chaldean Diocese of St Thomas and the Eparchy of St Michael theArchangel for Melchite Greek Catholics, all based in Sydney. The territory ofthese bishops coexists with the dioceses of the Roman Rite in Australia andthe bishops are members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

The Anglican Use Ordinariate

The Ordinary of an Anglican Use Personal Ordinariate will be like an eparch,having jurisdiction and pastoral care over a series of parishes, juridicallycomparable to a diocese. But he will teach, sanctify and govern within theWestern tradition, the Roman Rite, and that is the interesting and new

development inAnglicanorum coetibus. There is also another closer similaritybetween the proposed Anglican Use Personal Ordinariates and EasternCatholic eparchies. That may be described as a distinctive ethos based on aliturgical tradition and a wide range of customs, history, spiritualities andculture, never forgetting the personal bonds between people and families. Inyour case this will be the Anglican patrimony. We will look more closely at thisin due course.

In full communion with the Successor of St Peter, members of each PersonalOrdinariate will be gathered in distinctive communities that preserve elementsof Anglican worship, spirituality and culture that are compatible with Catholicfaith and morals. Members of an Ordinariate will be able to worship accordingto own liturgical use, while still being Catholics of the Roman Rite. So in theOrdinariate you will be Roman Catholics or Latin Catholics, part of thelargest group in the Universal Church. At the same time, like the Eastern RiteCatholics, you will be the bearers of a distinctive and respected tradition. YourOrdinaries, bishops or priests, will work alongside bishops of the Roman Ritedioceses and the bishops of Eastern Rite eparchies and dioceses, findingtheir place within the Episcopal Conference in each nation or region.

United

WhenAnglicanorum coetibus was published, an elderly lady went to her vicarand said, Father, are we all Roman Catholics now? Of course it is not assimple as that, nor should it be. Entrance into full communion with Romethrough an Ordinariate involves a personal decision, and a sacramentalprocess. This decision for unity involves acceptance of the pastoral care andthe authority Christ entrusted to the successors of St. Peter.

The decision to be reconciled through an Ordinariate can only made throughfollowing personal conscience, that is, after prayer, study and reflection. Thisis a step of faith in Jesus Christ and his Church. It involves accepting all the

teachings of the Church on faith and morals.


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Such a personal assent of faith needs to be formed and informed. To use anAnglican expression, please read, mark, learn and inwardly digest theCatechism of the Catholic Church, described inAnglicanorum coetibus as theauthoritative expression of the Catholic Faith professed by members of theOrdinariate. This official resource summarises the Faith once given,

embodied in one Word of God that comes to us, as the Second VaticanCouncil teaches, through Scripture and Tradition.

Unity in Faith is preserved and animated by unity with the Vicar of Christ onearth, and with the bishops of the apostolic college gathered around him.However, we need to consider the practical dimension of unity, the disciplineof the Church and her laws. These are, set out for Catholics of the RomanRite, including members of the Ordinariates, in the 1983 Code of Canon Law,a new version of the 1917 Code, revised in light of the Second VaticanCouncil and reforms that developed after the Council.

Some Anglicans may be alarmed at the prospect of coming under Canon Law,but the code is also a detailed charter of the rights of clergy and laity. Forexample a bishops authority is regulated by the code. In that perspective thecode might even be called the constitution of the Church. However, I need tobe frank about one relevant area of the code, marriage.

In this area the Code is precise, maintaining what was once upheld withinAnglicanism, Christs teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. The Codeguides diocesan tribunals and higher tribunals in Rome, such as the Rota andcertain Vatican Congregations. Therefore, married people, clergy and laity,who intend to enter the Ordinariate need to be aware that they cannot bereconciled to the Church as members of the Ordinariate until any irregularmarriage situations are cleared up through diocesan tribunals. Unity in Christfor married people involves unity in his sacrament of Marriage. Access to thetribunals is easy and they are run along kindly pastoral lines.

Alongside the Code of Canon Law internal laws and statues will regulate thesacramental, pastoral and administrative life of the Ordinariate. The requiredadministrative structures are already set out in the Complementary Normsthat accompany the Constitution. Here again we find some similarity betweenthe Ordinariate and an autonomous Eastern Catholic Church. But there is a

separate Code of Canon Law for the Eastern Churches, which protects theirtraditions, customs and sacramental discipline.

But Not Absorbed

Some critics ofAnglicanorum coetibus have perceived the similarity betweenthe Ordinariates and Eastern Catholic Churches. Then they dismiss thePopes generous offer as Uniatism, that is, a unity imposed by submissionto papal imperialism. Catholics avoid the polemical term Uniate. Eastern RiteCatholics find it very offensive. It suggests that all their Churches broke awayfrom ancient Churches and returned to the jurisdiction of the Pope for

opportunistic political or economic reasons. Maronite Catholics in particularresent this rhetoric because they were never separated from Rome. But


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Eastern Catholics know that the freedom, autonomy and traditions they valueare protected by unity with Rome.

In studying the interesting history of past projects to reunite Rome andCanterbury, some forgotten or hushed up, we find proposals that are now

included in Anglicanorum coetibus, summed up in the phrase dear to PopePaul VI and Archbishop Ramsey, united but not absorbed:. This is why, in arecent article, I said: Yet you do not come to the Ordinariates with emptyhands. As I learnt forty two years ago, you will lose nothing but you willregain an inheritance stolen from us four centuries ago. That heritage waslargely recovered by the giants of the Oxford Movement. I believe they smileon us now.

What precisely is this inheritance stolen from us four centuries ago? It is thedistinctive ethos of the whole tradition of English Catholicism, from theRomano-British and Irish Christians up to the Reformation. Then we see it

continuing is two directions.

First there was the subsequent development of Catholicism in light of theCouncils of Trent, Vatican I and Vatican II, first maintained secretly byrecusants and then by English Catholics of the Roman Rite who receivedemancipation in 1829. The Venerable John Henry Newman joined thesefaithful people in 1845. Their heroic story is marked by continuity. Theybravely maintained what would have been part of Christian life had notcommunion with the Successor of St Peter been severed at the Reformation.My own experience of the Catholic Church in England has been of awelcoming community, an Anglo-Irish (or today an Anglo-Polish!) melting pot,but distinctively English in culture, spirituality and identity.

At the same time, we look to the parallel development, your heritage whichAnglicanorum coetibus recognises, honours and seeks to maintain. Within thediverse structure of the Anglican Settlement, Anglicans with Catholicconvictions sought to maintain, enrich or restore continuity, often at great cost.We think of the Caroline divines, Scottish Episcopalians, the Wesleys, and thescholars and heroes of the Oxford Movement: men like Keble and Pusey,priests of the Society of the Holy Cross, valiant men and women who formedreligious communities, clergy selflessly committed to serve the poor, bringiing

them social justice and a vision of the Kingdom through beautiful Catholicworship. Nor let us forget the brilliance of Dom Gregory Dix, Michael Ramsey,C.S. Lewis, Eric Mascall, T.S. Eliot and Dorothy Sayers. All of this heritagecan enrich a unity of faith shared by all English-speaking Catholics. Thebridge over the Tiber leads to that unity.

As Anglicanorum coetibis indicates, each Personal Ordinariate is meant tointer-relate with other Catholics of the Roman and Eastern Rites. It is not akind of national park for a rare and endangered species. Yet I would suggestthat, at the end of the day, the only significant communities with an authenticOxford Movement tradition left on earth will be found in the Personal

Ordinariates within the Catholic Church.


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is completed it will need the recognition of the Holy See. But somespeculation at this stage may be of interest.

Considering its history and strong influence in the first editions of the Book ofCommon Prayer, the Sarum Rite might well be a major source. Queen Mary I

published a national edition of the Sarum Missal to replace all those missalsfor the diocesan uses that went into the fire when the first Book of CommonPrayerappeared in 1549. Therefore the Sarum Use was the last version ofthe Roman Rite in England before the universal Missale Romanum, RomanMissal, was authorised by St Pius V in 1570. At the end of the nineteenthcentury when Westminster cathedral was being built, it was proposed that theSarum Rite be revived as the use proper to the cathedral. Nothing came ofthis project, lost I suspect in the cross-currents of liturgical controversies andan Ultramontane trend to standardise liturgy along Counter-Reformation lines,even down to the shape of chasubles.

The various editions of the Book of Common Prayerwill obviously influencethe preparation of this use for the Ordinariates. Yet a note of caution isnecessary. Cranmers prose is majestic, but all his doctrine is not sound.Some editing will be needed to deal with expressions which are not inharmony with Catholic Faith, particularly those that come down from hisseverely Protestant 1552 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. In AngloCatholic circles you have tried to manage these matters, as may be seen inthe English Missaland theAnglican Missal.

I give one example that concerns me as a sacramental theologian. Do this inremembrance of me should never appear in a Catholic rite. Do this inmemory of me is a more accurate rendering of the original languages andtakes us away from memorialism. The meaning of the Eucharist as the greatsacrificial Memorial is set out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1362-1367.

Next year a new ICEL translation of the Mass of the Roman Rite will comeinto effect. More gracious poetic English will mean that the beauty of thelanguage used in the Ordinariates will not clash with the banal and inaccurateold ICEL translation we currently endure.

Let me add that an Anglican use will add to the diversity of uses that alreadyexists within the Roman Rite, starting with the two forms. ordinary (NovusOrdo) and extraordinary (Usus antiquior, traditional Latin liturgy), andincluding efforts to revive the uses of religious orders and regional uses. InMilan there are now two forms of the venerable Ambrosian Rite, ordinary andextraordinary. This variety is reported from time to time in the New LiturgicalMovementwebsite, also an indicator of Pope Benedicts liturgical project andvision.

One dream of mine is that the churches of the Ordinariate will resound withfine music - from Stanford to Palestrina, from Vaughan Williams to Bruckner.

We need the kind of music that gives greater glory to God and also atreasure to be shared by all Catholics.

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