PLANS FOR THE FUTURE RC ORDINARIATE IN THE US

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette blog:

Wednesday’s session of the meeting of the U.S. conference of Catholic Bishops was a feast for ecclesiology wonks of both the Catholic and Episcopal/Anglican persuasion. Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington DC, better known to my readers is the former bishop of Pittsburgh, reported on the progress of starting an ordinariate – a sort of non-geographical, nationwide diocese – for Anglican parishes that wish to convert en masse to Catholicism.

The project stems from a constitution that Pope Benedict approved in 2009, following years of lobbying by some theologically conservative Anglicans worldwide, particularly in Australia. One was founded in England and Wales in January and Cardinal Wuerl said that he wouldn’t be surprised to see one in the U.S. by the end of 2011. But in the meantime there are complex issues to address, ranging from retraining for priests to assisting Anglicans who are divorced and remarried through the annulment process in the Catholic Church. He also addressed a mistaken public perception that married priests will remain the norm in these Anglican-heritage parishes.
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Cardinal Wuerl is a good friend of Archbishop Robert Duncan of the Anglican Church in North America, who is on record that he doesn’t expect many parishes in his new church to be interested in converting to Catholicism. Many of them identify with the evangelical or charismatic traditions rather than Catholicism. And the ACNA bishop for Anglo-Catholics in that body has said that he’s not interested because of differences with the Catholic Church over papal authority and other doctrinal issues.

Friendship only goes so far for "Archbishop" Duncan.

“It’s only the first generation that will have married clergy. In the second generation the intention is that candidates for priesthood coming out of the community will be celibate. Provision has been made for an ad hoc petition [for an exception] to the Holy See, but the presumption is that this is for the first generation,” he said.
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Ultimately the inquirers will be sorted into three categories: Those who can he ordained as Catholic priests after a specially-developed nine-month intensive seminary course; those who require more intensive seminary education and "those whose formation histories would not recommend them for either of these options.”

Among those who will not be accepted as Catholic priests are those who were originally Catholic priests and left the Catholic priesthood for the Episcopal or Anglican churches, Cardinal Wuerl said.

“They are automatically excluded. . . A former Catholic priest cannot apply for this,” he said.

So. To the priests who left the Roman Catholic Church, married, and now wish to be welcomed back into the RCC fold as a priests, forget about it. And any Roman Catholic priests who have ideas, you are forewarned.

Married Anglican bishops can be ordained as Catholic priests, but not as Catholic bishops, Cardinal Wuerl said. This maintains a tradition shared with Orthodox Christianity, which has a married priesthood, but celibate bishops.

Sorry, Your Graces, no mitres for you.

A practical and pastoral problem is the number of Episcopalians and Anglicans who are divorced and remarried. While such remarriage requires permission of the bishop in the Episcopal Church, the Catholic Church requires an annulment in which a church court determines that the first marriage didn’t meet the church’s standard for a sacramental union. He asked the bishops to make their marriage tribunals available to these couples. Causes for a declaration of nullity can range from having signed a pre-nuptial agreement, to a marriage forced by pregnancy to being hung over on the day of the wedding.

I did not know being hung over on the day of the wedding invalidates a marriage. Actually, what I've seen a time or two is a groom and his groomsmen who have obviously been hitting the bottle on the very day of the wedding. I wonder what the rules are about that situation.

The tribunals will determine “what can be regularized,” he said. But if there are no grounds for annulment, “then there is the pastoral decision of who cannot, therefore, receive the Eucharist.”

All right, then. Do I have this right? Converts will be received into the RCC church, but they will not be able to take communion until they obtain an annulment. Come on in, but don't come to the table. The folks who are divorced will have to get what looks to me very like another divorce, a Roman Catholic divorce with only a change of name to an annulment.

There you have it - a glimpse of the rules for parishes, bishops, and priests who wish to join the RCC en masse.

Two items of note in the announcement by Bishop Cardinal Wuerl:

The St. Mary’s faculty member in charge of it is the Rev. Jeffrey Steenson, formerly the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande, who was received into the Catholic Church in 2007.

Hmmm.

And:

Once all of that documentation [on the clergy] has been sent to the Vatican, the candidate will cease celebrating the Anglican Eucharist.

Why would an Episcopal priest continue to preside at the Eucharist after he believes his orders are invalid?

Thanks to Ann V. for the link.