The First Anglican Ordinariate!

The National Catholic Register is carrying an article about the first Anglican ordinariate. The ordinariate, in fact, has been established this weekend as three 'bishops'- John Broadhurst Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton- are ordained into the Catholic priesthood (here's the Holy See Press Office announcement). These 'bishops' have previously resigned their posts in the Church of England, and they have already been received into the Catholic Church. The ordinations will take place in Westminster Cathedral, the cathedral of the diocese of Westminster in London (not to be confused with Westminster Abbey, which was stolen from us by the Church of England). Furthermore, the Register is reporting that "at least 35 groups and 50 Anglican clergy will enroll as candidates for the ordinariate [at Lent] and will be received into the Catholic Church at Easter. The clergy will then be ordained around the time of Pentecost."

All of this is very symbolic, of course. Priests being ordained at Pentecost (the Holy Spirit descending upon the priests mirroring the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostle's and Mary), the ordinations of the bishops occurring at the center of where the Church of England broke from the Catholic Church, etc.

There's also more information on how the ordinariate will function. The ordinary, the head of the ordinariate, will function similar to a diocesan bishop, and he will even be an ex officio member of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. The ordinary will be assisted by at least six priests acting as a governing council who will give consent on whether a candidate may be admitted to holy orders or if a particular parish can be erected or suppressed (read as closed). Who this ordinary will be is still unknown, but will be appointed by the three incoming bishops.

Most interesting is the way in which the ordinariate will function. The ordinariate will not be a diocese, but the ordinary will simply oversee the members of the ordinariate. Catholics will be allowed to attend ordinariate services, but will not be allowed to join the ordinariate. To quote the Register, "membership of the ordinariate is for former Anglicans: Catholics cannot join it." While this seems like a simple enough idea, and makes sense in order to better facilitate incoming Anglicans, this cannot be self-sustaining. If the only members of the Anglican ordinariate can be incoming Anglicans and their children, then the numbers will be very few indeed. I guess, however, that if the Pope wanted anyone to join the ordinariate he would have created it as a rite.

It is my assumption, then, that they will be of the Latin Rite in an organization similar to the way Opus Dei works. For example, non-married Anglican 'priests' that want to be ordained into the Catholic Church will not be able to marry once they are ordained (Of course; no priest has ever been legitimately married after ordination), and no married man will be made an ordinary (a previously married man whose wife is no longer living may be made an ordinary).

Finally, the ordinariate will be based upon numbers, not geography or diocese. Just as a diocese cannot be formed from just two or three parishes, so too the ordinary will not be formed from just 15 or 20 people. There's no specific, magical number out there of how many people are required for an ordinariate, but the interest in the ordinariate will be the main deciding factor.

I think that Archbishop Vincent Nichols, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, had the best idea of what this represents: "this is a unique moment and the Catholic community in England and Wales is privileged to be playing its part in this historic development in the life of the universal Church."

What are your thoughts? On the ordinariate, on the Anglican conversions, etc.?

The Bishops' Conference of England & Wales on the ordinariate. This is the best information on the ordinariate that you will find.


Update (1/19/2011): Father Keith Newton has been named the ordinary for the new Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.