Personal ordinariate


A personal ordinariate for former Anglicans, shortened as personal ordinariate or Anglican ordinariate, is a canonical structure within the Catholic Church established in order to enable "groups of Anglicans" and Methodists to join the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their liturgical and spiritual patrimony.
Created in accordance with the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus of 4 November 2009 and its complementary norms, the ordinariates are juridically equivalent to a diocese, "a particular church in which and from which exists the one and unique Catholic Church", but may be erected in the same territory as other dioceses "by reason of the rite of the faithful or some similar reason".
Three personal ordinariates were established between 2011 and 2012:
"Personal ordinariate" is the term used for each of the three existing ordinariates in the decree that established them: the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter and the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross. It is also the collective name given to all three in the official yearbook of the Holy See and is a name the ordinariates themselves use.
"Ordinariates for former Anglicans" is a term sometimes used by the ordinariates themselves, by news sources of the Holy See and episcopal conferences. This terminology, however, does not mean that an ordinariate's membership exclusively comprises former Anglicans. The head of the North American ordinariate has said that "ordinariates for former Anglicans must be a bridge to Christian unity and a force for true ecumenism" and the members must "build and rebuild our relationships with confreres who have stayed behind in the Anglican Church".
"Anglican ordinariates" is often used by newspapers, such as the Church of England Newspaper and the Canadian Catholic Register. It is also often used by communities belonging to the ordinariates. The name does not imply that the members of an ordinariate are still Anglicans. While those who have been Anglicans "bring with them, into the full communion of the Catholic Church in all its diversity and richness of liturgical rites and traditions, aspects of their own Anglican patrimony and culture which are consonant with the Catholic Faith", they are members of the Latin Church exclusively in communion with the Catholic Church and no other bodies.

History

Background

The apostolic constitution was a response by the Holy See to requests coming from Continuing Anglican churches, particularly the Traditional Anglican Communion; and from Anglo-Catholic sections of the Anglican Communion, such as those involved with Forward in Faith, and, within the Catholic Church, from the Anglican Use parishes which have existed since the early 1980s when, at the request of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Pope John Paul II granted the Pastoral Provision allowing the creation, within the territorial Latin Church dioceses of the United States, of parishes in which the liturgy would be celebrated in an approved form of the Anglican tradition and with a married clergy composed of former Anglican priests who were ordained in the Catholic Church on joining it. Many of these Anglican Use Catholics had left the Episcopal Church because of women's ordination especially to the episcopate, revisions of the liturgy, and changes in its moral teaching. These changes evidenced also in the consecration of a partnered homosexual man as a bishop and the blessing of same-sex couples have provoked serious tensions within the composite Anglican world, as Cardinal Walter Kasper said in 2009, leading to the requests to which the apostolic constitution was a response. The discussions that led to the granting of the 1980 pastoral provision raised some of the ideas that came to fruition in the decision of 2009. One was the setting up of a structure for former Anglicans similar to the military ordinariate, an idea that was not then acted on because of the small number of Anglicans involved at that time.
In October 2007 the Traditional Anglican Communion presented to the Holy See a petition for full union in corporate form with the Roman Catholic Church. This worldwide grouping, under a single primate, of churches of Anglican tradition but outside communion with the see of Canterbury, was founded in 1991. It was formed over a number of issues, including liturgical revisions, the ordination of women and open homosexuals as priests, the sanctioning of homosexuality and the importance of tradition.
On 5 July 2008, Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, responded to the formal request for "full, corporate and sacramental union" with the Roman Catholic Church giving written assurance that the CDF was giving serious attention to the prospect of "corporate unity" raised in that request. The request thus became a basis for the decision, announced by Levada on 20 October 2009, to issue the apostolic constitution.

Announcement and enactment

The decision to institute personal ordinariates for Anglicans who join the Catholic Church was announced on 20 October 2009 in simultaneous press conferences by the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, William Levada in Rome and by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, in London.
The apostolic constitution enacting the introduction of personal ordinariates for former Anglicans was released on 9 November 2009, together with supplementary norms for the ordinariates, allowing former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony. Provision was made for ordination as Catholic priests of married former Anglican clergy, but for historical and ecumenical reasons married men could not be ordained as bishops. The ordinary, who will usually be appointed from among former Anglican clergy, can therefore be either a priest or a bishop. Seminarians in the ordinariate were to be prepared alongside other Catholic seminarians, though the ordinariate might establish a house of formation to address the particular needs of formation in the Anglican patrimony.
In December 2009, Levada responded to each of the bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion who signed the October 2007 petition for corporate union with the Catholic Church, stating that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had completed its long and detailed study with the aim of making available a suitable and viable model of organic unity for their group "and other such groups". The Traditional Anglican Communion then undertook discussions with those other groups and with representatives of the Catholic episcopal conferences and planned to give a formal response after a meeting of their bishops in Eastertide 2010.

Acceptance by some Anglican groups

A number of Anglican groups soon petitioned the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for acceptance into ordinariates.
  • On 3 March 2010, in Orlando, Florida, the eight members of the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America voted unanimously to become part of the Catholic Church along with 3,000 fellow communicants in 120 parishes in four dioceses across the country. Following the vote, the bishops and the Pastoral Provision parishes sent a joint petition to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith requesting the establishment of an ordinariate in the United States and making some suggestions about how that could be done.
  • On 12 March 2010, the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada formally requested the erection of an ordinariate in Canada. The denomination subsequently split into two jurisdictions, one of which then detached and joined the ordinariate, when several congregations decided not to join the Catholic Church.
  • The Anglican Catholic Church in Australia and Forward in Faith Australia, mostly members of the Anglican Church of Australia, jointly applied for an ordinariate in Australia. However, two congregations later left the denomination over the issue.
  • The Church of Torres Strait, another province of the Traditional Anglican Communion in Australia, covering parts of Northern Queensland and the Torres Strait, also applied for a separate ordinariate.
  • A majority of the 17 clergy of the Traditional Anglican Church supported a petition for acceptance into the Roman Catholic ordinariate.

    Resistance by some Anglican groups

In September 2010, under the leadership of some Church of England bishops, the Society of St Wilfrid and St Hilda was founded on behalf of Anglo-Catholics otherwise drawn to the Roman Church who do not accept the ministry of the pope "as presently exercised".

Purpose

The structure of an ordinariate enables Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Pope while preserving some degree of corporate identity and autonomy from the geographical dioceses for other Catholics of the Latin Church and maintaining distinctive elements of their Anglican "theological, spiritual and liturgical patrimony". The ordinariates integrate these groups in such ways as "to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared", while also being members of the Latin Church and fully accepting the teachings of the Catholic Church.
The personal ordinariates were originally envisaged for former Anglican communities and clergy seeking to become Catholic, enabling them to retain many aspects of their Anglican liturgy and traditions. Accordingly, the ordinariates identify as Anglican culturally, but as Catholic theologically and ecclesiologically. Membership in the ordinariates, however, is not restricted exclusively to former Anglicans.