Forward in Faith Australia, All Saints’, Kooyong, Melbourne

Saturday February 13, 2010

WHAT IS THIS “PERSONAL ORDINARIATE”?

Understanding Pope Benedict’s Offer to Traditional Anglicans

Bishop Peter J. Elliott

Auxiliary Bishop, Melbourne

Anglicans can no longer speak of “swimming the Tiber”. Pope Benedict XVI
has built a noble bridge, a symbol chosen as the cover illustration for the
Catholic 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 recent
past, particularly the era of Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey.
Now “United in communion but not absorbed” is realized in “a Personal
Ordinariate for Anglicans who wish to enter full communion with the Catholic
Church”, to use the Holy Father’s words in his Apostolic Constitution
Anglicanorum coetibus.

Defining a “Personal Ordinariate”

Anglicanorum coetibus establishes a distinct community for Anglicans who

choose to return to unity with the Successor of St Peter. But it is not accurate
to call this an “Anglican Rite Ordinariate”. A better expression would be an
“Anglican Use Personal Ordinariate”, that is, a structured community
maintaining its own traditions, at the same time enjoying distinct liturgical
privileges within the Roman Rite. To understand the proposed structure we
may compare it with similar structures that already exist within the Catholic
Church.

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. Anglicanorum
coetibus refers to this structure in footnote 12.

A Military Ordinariate is kind of diocese covering a whole country but also

“present” in places outside the country where military personnel serve, such
as Afghanistan or East Timor. The bishop of the armed forces exercises
ordinary jurisdiction over military chaplains and Catholic members of the
armed forces - wherever they may be. Therefore his ministry relates directky
to people and is more personal than territorial.

However, the structure proposed in Anglicanorum coetibis for an Anglican Use

Personal Ordinariate is closer to a territorial diocese. There could be several
Ordinariates in one country, which is not the case with the military structure.
Therefore to better understand an Anglican Use Ordinariate we look into the
venerable ancient Eastern Rites within the Catholic Church, properly called
the Eastern Catholic Churches.

One Church: East and West

These autonomous Churches are in communion with Rome, but their

members are not “Roman Catholics”, that is, not Catholics of the Roman Rite.
I now need to open up something essential that many Anglicans do not
understand – that the Catholic Church is not a monolithic structure. She is a
communion of Churches, led by bishops who are in communion with the
Bishop of Rome and with one another, members of one apostolic college. This
unity through a communion of particular or local Churches is set out in the
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church promulgated by the Second Vatican
Council. Lumen Gentium, 23.

Every diocese is a “particular Church”, governed by a successor of the

apostles. This is why we talk of the Church of Rome, the Church of
Melbourne, the Church of Washington etc. Through a complex history
beginning in apostolic times, most of these particular Churches today are
grouped together within the Roman Rite. Not only are they in communion with
the 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 Roman
Catholics, or Catholics of the Roman Rite, or Latin Catholics.

At the same time, many other particular churches are grouped within a series
of ancient Eastern Rites, also in communion with Rome, but using liturgies
appropriate to their origins: Syrian, Greek, Egyptian, Armenian etc. Their
members are Ukrainian Catholics, Maronite Catholics, Coptic Catholics etc.
They are not Roman Catholics. This is why it is wrong to lump us all together
and call everyone in communion with Rome a “Roman Catholic”. I can
describe 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 the
Catholic Church there is a wide range of Catholics and worshipping
communities of Christian people.

Diocese and Eparchy

Looking more closely into these Eastern Catholic Churches, we first find
typical territorial dioceses in the home country: Ukraine, Egypt, Lebanon,
Syria, India, Iraq etc. But then we find a second kind of diocese for those
members of these Churches who have emigrated and are now scattered
across 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 and
lay 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 cathedral
in North Melbourne is the bishop of the Eparchy of St Peter and Paul,
Australia. He has ordinary jurisdiction over all Ukrainian Catholics in Australia.
His people are also known as “Greek Catholics” because they celebrate the
liturgy 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 the
Archangel for Melchite Greek Catholics, all based in Sydney. The territory of
these bishops coexists with the dioceses of the Roman Rite in Australia and
the 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, “juridically
comparable to a diocese”. But he will “teach, sanctify and govern” within the
Western tradition, the Roman Rite, and that is the interesting and new
development in Anglicanorum coetibus. There is also another closer similarity
between the proposed Anglican Use Personal Ordinariates and Eastern
Catholic eparchies. That may be described as a distinctive “ethos” based on a
liturgical tradition and a wide range of customs, history, spiritualities and
culture, never forgetting the personal bonds between people and families. In
your case this will be the Anglican patrimony. We will look more closely at this
in due course.

In full communion with the Successor of St Peter, members of each Personal

Ordinariate will be gathered in distinctive communities that preserve elements
of Anglican worship, spirituality and culture that are compatible with Catholic
faith and morals. Members of an Ordinariate will be able to worship according
to own liturgical “use”, while still being Catholics of the Roman Rite. So in the
Ordinariate you will be “Roman Catholics” or “Latin Catholics”, part of the
largest group in the Universal Church. At the same time, like the Eastern Rite
Catholics, you will be the bearers of a distinctive and respected tradition. Your
Ordinaries, bishops or priests, will work alongside bishops of the Roman Rite
dioceses and the bishops of Eastern Rite eparchies and dioceses, finding
their place within the Episcopal Conference in each nation or region.

“United…”

When Anglicanorum coetibus was published, an elderly lady went to her vicar
and said, “Father, are we all Roman Catholics now?” Of course it is not as
simple as that, nor should it be. Entrance into full communion with Rome
through an Ordinariate involves a personal decision, and a sacramental
process. This decision for unity involves acceptance of the pastoral care and
the authority Christ entrusted to the successors of St. Peter.

The decision to be reconciled through an Ordinariate can only made through

following personal conscience, that is, after prayer, study and reflection. This
is a step of faith in Jesus Christ and his Church. It involves accepting all the
teachings of the Church on faith and morals.
Such a personal assent of faith needs to be formed and informed. To use an
Anglican expression, please “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, described in Anglicanorum coetibus as “the
authoritative expression of the Catholic Faith professed by members of the
Ordinariate”. This official resource summarises the Faith “once given”,
embodied in one Word of God that comes to us, as the Second Vatican
Council teaches, through Scripture and Tradition.

Unity in Faith is preserved and animated by unity with the Vicar of Christ on
earth, and with the bishops of the apostolic college gathered around him.
However, we need to consider the practical dimension of unity, the discipline
of the Church and her laws. These are, set out for Catholics of the Roman
Rite, 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 Vatican
Council 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. For
example a bishop’s authority is regulated by the code. In that perspective the
code might even be called the “constitution” of the Church. However, I need to
be frank about one relevant area of the code, marriage.

In this area the Code is precise, maintaining what was once upheld within
Anglicanism, Christ’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. The Code
guides diocesan tribunals and higher tribunals in Rome, such as the Rota and
certain Vatican Congregations. Therefore, married people, clergy and laity,
who intend to enter the Ordinariate need to be aware that they cannot be
reconciled to the Church as members of the Ordinariate until any irregular
marriage situations are cleared up through diocesan tribunals. Unity in Christ
for married people involves unity in his sacrament of Marriage. Access to the
tribunals is easy and they are run along kindly pastoral lines.

Alongside the Code of Canon Law internal laws and statues will regulate the
sacramental, pastoral and administrative life of the Ordinariate. The required
administrative structures are already set out in the Complementary Norms
that accompany the Constitution. Here again we find some similarity between
the Ordinariate and an autonomous Eastern Catholic Church. But there is a
separate Code of Canon Law for the Eastern Churches, which protects their
traditions, customs and sacramental discipline.

“But Not Absorbed”

Some critics of Anglicanorum coetibus have perceived the similarity between

the Ordinariates and Eastern Catholic Churches. Then they dismiss the
Pope’s generous offer as “Uniatism”, that is, a “unity” imposed by submission
to papal imperialism. Catholics avoid the polemical term “Uniate”. Eastern Rite
Catholics find it very offensive. It suggests that all their Churches broke away
from ancient Churches and returned to the jurisdiction of the Pope for
opportunistic political or economic reasons. Maronite Catholics in particular
resent this rhetoric because they were never separated from Rome. But
Eastern Catholics know that the freedom, autonomy and traditions they value
are protected by unity with Rome.

In studying the interesting history of past projects to reunite Rome and

Canterbury, some forgotten or hushed up, we find proposals that are now
included in Anglicanorum coetibus, summed up in the phrase dear to Pope
Paul VI and Archbishop Ramsey, “united but not absorbed:”. This is why, in a
recent article, I said: “Yet you do not come to the Ordinariates with empty
hands. As I learnt forty two years ago, you will lose nothing – but you will
regain an inheritance stolen from us four centuries ago. That heritage was
largely recovered by the giants of the Oxford Movement. I believe they smile
on us now….”

What precisely is this “inheritance stolen from us four centuries ago”? It is the
distinctive “ethos” of the whole tradition of English Catholicism, from the
Romano-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 the

Councils of Trent, Vatican I and Vatican II, first maintained secretly by
“recusants” and then by English Catholics of the Roman Rite who received
emancipation in 1829. The Venerable John Henry Newman joined these
faithful people in 1845. Their heroic story is marked by continuity. They
bravely maintained what would have been part of Christian life had not
communion with the Successor of St Peter been severed at the Reformation.
My own experience of the Catholic Church in England has been of a
welcoming 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 which
Anglicanorum coetibus recognises, honours and seeks to maintain. Within the
diverse structure of the Anglican Settlement, Anglicans with Catholic
convictions sought to maintain, enrich or restore continuity, often at great cost.
We think of the Caroline divines, Scottish Episcopalians, the Wesleys, and the
scholars and heroes of the Oxford Movement: men like Keble and Pusey,
priests of the Society of the Holy Cross, valiant men and women who formed
religious communities, clergy selflessly committed to serve the poor, bringiing
them social justice and a vision of the Kingdom through beautiful Catholic
worship. 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 heritage
can enrich a unity of faith shared by all English-speaking Catholics. The
bridge over the Tiber leads to that unity.

As Anglicanorum coetibis indicates, each Personal Ordinariate is meant to

inter-relate with other Catholics of the Roman and Eastern Rites. It is not a
kind of national park for a rare and endangered species. Yet I would suggest
that, at the end of the day, the only significant communities with an authentic
Oxford Movement tradition left on earth will be found in the Personal
Ordinariates within the Catholic Church.
Other Anglicans

At this time we are aware that many Evangelical Anglicans are also following
their consciences and making decisions under the Word of God in Scripture.
Our understanding of the Word of God may be different to theirs because we
include Tradition alongside Scripture as making up one Word of God. At the
same time we honour their fidelity to the Bible, fidelity to the great dogmas of
the Incarnation, Redemption and Resurrection, to Gospel truths and to the
ethics of Jesus Christ. Some Evangelicals are sending messages of
encouragement to Anglo Catholics considering the Ordinariate. Do not
imagine that because of greater numbers in some places that they are exempt
from feelings of sorrow, hurt, scandal and rejection that you have suffered.

The difficult problem at present is surely resolving a tense relationship with

mainstream Anglicans. Yes, I have heard unkind comments against those
considering the Ordinariate (“You can have them…” etc.). But I have also
heard words of good-will and understanding. Let us hope and pray that
kindness and mutual respect may prevail.

If you choose the Ordinariate, the challenge will be to keep the doors open,
not to set up clubs or cliques. Through established Ordinariates you can reach
out with the love of Christ to another group, that unknown number of drifting
and bewildered traditional Anglicans. But let us also respect those traditional
Anglicans who choose to continue in their own circles. Some of them slide
into uncharitable comments or play at logic chopping, even regarding the
papal offer with suspicion. But “the ball is in their court”. The challenge is:
“Well brothers and sisters, where are you now and where are you going?”
Pray for them as you pray for all who consider making that short but decisive
journey across the bridge of Anglicanorum coetibus.

My final appeal is that you should lay to rest anguish and polemics over the
liberal agenda that at present divides the Anglican Communion. One of the
effects of unity with Rome through the Ordinariate should be freedom from the
recent past and a healing of memories, inner peace. Jesus Christ calls us all
to peace, and to a renewed commitment to his mission, above all the ministry
of charity to the poor and bringing good news to the spiritually poor in our
secularised society. All the structures in Holy Church should serve this
glorious cause of his Kingdom. To him we raise our eyes as we prayerfully
look forward in hope.

A Postcript: The Future Liturgy of the Ordinariates

Anglianorum coetibus authorizes the Ordinariates to use books that carry the
Anglican liturgical heritage: “so 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.” Note those last words. What the distinctive “Anglican
rite” liturgy of the Ordinariate will be is yet to be worked out. When that project
is completed it will need the recognition of the Holy See. But some
speculation at this stage may be of interest.

Considering its history and strong influence in the first editions of the Book of
Common 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 missals
for the diocesan uses that went into the fire when the first Book of Common
Prayer appeared in 1549. Therefore the Sarum Use was the last version of
the Roman Rite in England before the universal Missale Romanum, Roman
Missal, was authorised by St Pius V in 1570. At the end of the nineteenth
century when Westminster cathedral was being built, it was proposed that the
Sarum Rite be revived as the use proper to the cathedral. Nothing came of
this project, lost I suspect in the cross-currents of liturgical controversies and
an Ultramontane trend to standardise liturgy along Counter-Reformation lines,
even down to the shape of chasubles.

The various editions of the Book of Common Prayer will obviously influence
the preparation of this use for the Ordinariates. Yet a note of caution is
necessary. Cranmer’s prose is majestic, but all his doctrine is not sound.
Some editing will be needed to deal with expressions which are not in
harmony with Catholic Faith, particularly those that come down from his
severely Protestant 1552 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. In Anglo
Catholic circles you have tried to manage these matters, as may be seen in
the English Missal and the Anglican Missal.

I give one example that concerns me as a sacramental theologian. “Do this in

remembrance of me” should never appear in a Catholic rite. “Do this in
memory of me” is a more accurate rendering of the original languages and
takes us away from “memorialism”. The meaning of the Eucharist as the great
sacrificial 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 come
into effect. More gracious poetic English will mean that the beauty of the
language used in the Ordinariates will not clash with the banal and inaccurate
old ICEL “translation” we currently endure.

Let me add that an “Anglican use” will add to the diversity of uses that already
exists within the Roman Rite, starting with the two forms. “ordinary” (Novus
Ordo) and “extraordinary” (Usus antiquior, traditional Latin liturgy), and
including efforts to revive the uses of religious orders and regional uses. In
Milan there are now two forms of the venerable Ambrosian Rite, ordinary and
extraordinary. This variety is reported from time to time in the New Liturgical
Movement website, also an indicator of Pope Benedict’s liturgical project and
vision.

One dream of mine is that the churches of the Ordinariate will resound with
fine music - from Stanford to Palestrina, from Vaughan Williams to Bruckner.
We need the kind of music that gives greater glory to God and also “a
treasure to be shared” by all Catholics.