From the National Catholic Reporter:
Pope Benedict XVI established a new nationwide U.S. ordinariate Jan. 1 for U.S. Anglicans (Episcopalians) who wish to become Catholic. He named Fr. Jeffrey N. Steenson, a Catholic theology professor in Houston and former Episcopal bishop, as its first head.A sampling from the comments at NCR is below.
The new Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter will be based in Houston, according to Jan. 1 announcements released in Rome and Washington.
In a news release on its new Web site the ordinariate said that more than 100 Anglican priests in the United States and nearly 1,400 individuals from 22 communities are seeking to enter the Catholic Church as part of the ordinariate. Two of those communities entered into full communion with the Catholic Church this past fall after a period of preparation.
After 28 years of ministry in the Church of England and the U.S. Episcopal Church, in 2007 Steenson and his wife became Catholic. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2009 and was instrumental in establishing the formation program for Anglican priests applying for Catholic priesthood as part of the ordinariate, which has been in the planning stages for the past two years.
Fr. Steenson is currently a professor of patristics, the study of the early Christian theologians known as the Fathers of the Church, at the University of St. Thomas and St. Mary's Seminary in Houston.
The largest and by far the most flourishing Anglican Use Parish in the US, Our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio/TX has many members, probably the majority, who were never Anglicans, but came to them from other Latin Rite parishes, or who entered the Catholic Church through Our Lady of the Atonement.Correction: Rather than being received into the RCC by Cardinal Law, the Rev Steenson was ordained to the diaconate by the cardinal.
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WWJD comes to mind about the reason for their conversion to Catholicism? Is there a Catholic Church we women can join because we do not like the male clergy only of the Catholic Church? Would the Pope mind appointing such a church ordinariate so that we women can feel more fulfilled as fully formed in the image of God? I personally will welcome the day when there is a woman priest in the area where I live, so that I may attend a liturgy to help me heal from the injustice of the Roman Catholic Church.
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100 priests and 1,400 people already have asked to join? That's great, 1 priest for every 14 members! This has to be the best priest to member ratio in the entire world. No, "I can't get the priest to answer my call" in those parishes.
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Submitted by whiteycat (not verified) on Jan. 02, 2012. (yes, our whiteycat)
I guess the Vatican needs to bolster its anti-woman, anti-gay membership since American RCs appear to be going in the other direction.
At least those who don't like the new Roman missal will have an alternative!
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Submitted by Grandmère Mimi (not verified) on Jan. 03, 2012.
What's with the members of the ordinariate calling themselves Anglicans? They may use an Anglo-Catholic (Sarum) rite, but they are converts to the Roman Catholic Church, no more, no less.
And I'm pleased to see someone noted upthread that a good many of these folks had already left the Episcopal Church or were never part of it.
The new ordinary, the Rev Jeffrey Steenson, was received into the RCC by the recently retired Cardinal Bernard Law.
How the ordinariate brings about any sort of reconciliation with the Episcopal Church is a mystery to me.
Not just anyone will be permitted to join a parish in the ordinariate. One must have been Anglican/Episcopal or enter through marriage or family relationship. Some might say that the ordinariate fails the inclusive test.
And yes, I'm late to the US ordinariate party which started on New Year's Day, but not for lack of notification by my trusty stringers. I simply wanted to let the excitement die down first.
The office of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is located on Shadyvilla Lane in Houston, Texas.
Not real fussy if he'll accept ordination at the hands of Bernard Law, is he?
ReplyDeleteI would have asked for another bishop or cardinal, but perhaps the Rev Steenson had no choice.
ReplyDeleteSteenson still has his TEC pension and had his health care and a generous "sabbatical" package to live on while he studied to be RC and lead this movement. I think DioRioGrande people are feeling a bit used.
ReplyDeleteAnn, I understand the pension and perhaps the sabbatical, but how did Steenson have health care in the Episcopal Church?
ReplyDeleteI'm having a hard time getting worked up about this. That Rome despises the Episcopal Church is not exactly news. That there are ultra Anglo Catholics who would love to return to Holy Mother Rome and bring their Anglo Catholic identities with them is also not news.
ReplyDeleteThe tidal wave out of the church of Episcopalians angry over women and gays never materialized. And Rome certainly has its own problems with ex-Roman Catholics now equal in number to Roman Catholics in this country.
Counterlight, from where I sit, the formation of the new ordinariate seems close to a non-event.
ReplyDeleteGod bless the converts. I hope they'll be happy in their chosen church.
I think it is rather a non-event too. Jeffrey knowingly licensed me, an openly gay priest from California, to officiate here in the Diocese of the Rio Grande where that sort of thing was just not done. He has a good pastoral heart but was not up to the challenge of holding this abused diocese together. I wish him well. I am less generous in my wishes for B16. Given those who flee the RCC, I yawn over those going the other direction.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, Mimi, they are now Roman Catholics. End of story.
Paul, it was kind of Steenson to license you. As for B16 and the folks who join the ordinariate, they will have their reward, which will be as God wills, and not as I will.
ReplyDelete"Given those who flee the RCC" - a flood, I imagine, compared to the small numbers joining the much-trumpeted "ordinariate". Posting at Thinking Anglicans, Robert Ian Williams, a fervent papalist and, as I recall, former Baptist, says "so far there are 4 Episcopal parishes intending to join the Ordinariate with about 130 members in total..that is 4 out of 7,300". Even less of an upheaval than in England.
ReplyDeleteHow anyone with the slightest knowledge of the papacy, from Constantine through 2012, can have any illusions about the validity of its claim to primacy, is beyond me. Even well-meaning, middle-of-the-road Anglican maunderings [eg Rowan Williams] about an "honorary primacy" kick-start my gag reflex.
1 in 3 cradle Roman Catholics will leave the church, largely because of disagreement with Church teachings about women, gays, and sex.
ReplyDeleteRecruitment is the only way they have of staying afloat.
But the same data show that 3 Catholics leave for every one that arrives.
Lapin, I've heard from Anglo-Catholics that the pope should be the primus inter pares of us all, and I quickly dismiss the idea. We have enough trouble from our own Anglican primus inter pares, and we know how easily the inter pares is swept aside.
ReplyDeleteI'm baffled by Rowan's love affair with Rome.
IT, the more the extreme conservatives become the face of the RCC, the more loss the church will suffer. Unfortunately, that is exactly what is happening.
How will the priests in the ordinate enclaves occupy themselves with the 1 to 14 priests-to-people ratio?
"Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter"
ReplyDeleteWhat could be more "Anglican" than that?
{sarcasm/Off}
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20 years ago, Mimi, I was one of those Anglo-Catholics prepared to converse re a Bishop of Rome as Primus Inter Pares (this was long before Rowan and the "Anglican" Covenant). There was a ghost-of-a-chance that was a possibility then (~ the time of Ut Unum Sint), but not in my lifetime now. So it's moot.
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As I'm not a Donatist, I wouldn't doubt Steenson's ordination by Law (actually, it's the other way 'round: they denied his ordination when an Episcopalian!)
However, I would want to wash off Law's *stench*. }-X
Could sumbuddy help me out here?? I thought the reason we were/are Protestant Episcopalians/Anglicans is that we do NOT want to have a pope. Where have I gone wrong?
ReplyDeleteIt's also not hard to figure out why so many people, especially young 'uns, are "none" when it comes to religious beliefs (per the Pew surveys): if the so-called leaders of the churches change their minds about what THEY believe, right in the middle of their journeys, how could their followers grab onto any firm belief systems?? I believe in miracles but I think it will take some HUGE ones to repair all this walking/swimming around. Just sayin'......
JCF, even when I was still part of the RCC, I was doubtful about the primacy of the pope, and especially about the pope's supposed infallibility, so, once I departed, I wanted no part of recognition of the pope as a primus of the Episcopal Church.
ReplyDeleteDoFW, one of the reasons I don't want to be a RC is because I don't want a pope. However, a good many Anglo-Catholics still would wish reconciliation with Rome, which, in theory, might be a good thing, but with Rome's my-way-only approach to unity, I would dread to see happen.
What can I say about mind-changing, when I changed my mind 15 years ago and left the church of which I was a member for over 60 years? And then there was the period when I still believed in God, but I thought God had not much to do with us once God set the works going. And then, I came, once again, to believe that God has very much to do with us.
I think we must be honest with ourselves about what we believe and not beat up on ourselves if we doubt or change our minds.
Merci, Grandmere! A beautiful testimony to faith AND free will! I keep changing my mind a lot, but I still, mostly, feel enfolded in the Faith of our Fathers. I just worry about all those who are searching for what to believe in as in God, but perhaps may feel betrayed by the very teachers who might have led them.
ReplyDeleteDoFW, no one has God in a box, or a book, or a sermon, for that matter. All people of faith see God only through a glass darkly. And the students' concepts of God will not be exactly the same as those of their teachers.
ReplyDeleteIn the Gospels, Jesus said, "When you've seen me, you've seen the Father." Jesus taught us to live by the Two Great Commandments, love God, and love your neighbor, and the Golden Rule, treat others as you would wish to be treated. I see those teachings as the heart of the Gospel, and that is how I try to live my life, with the help of God's grace.