From the Catholic Herald:
The Pope has honoured three former Anglican bishops, the first members of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, with the title of monsignor.
Fr Keith Newton, the leader of the Ordinariate who has most of the functions of a bishop, has been granted the papal award of Apostolic Pronotary, the highest ecclesial title for non-bishops. Fr Andrew Burnham, the former Bishop of Ebbsfleet, and Fr John Broadhurst, the former Bishop of Fulham, have been granted the papal award of Prelate of Honour, and are therefore also monsignori.
The three former bishops receive honor upon honor from their new leader, Pope Benedict. One is even an Apostlic Pronotary. Imagine being a pronotary! But they're still not bishops.
These high papal officials are the highest class of Monsignor, are often raised directly to the cardinalate, and hold distinctive privileges in address and attire....They are addressed formally as "most reverend monsignor," and they wear the mantelletta, the purple choir cassock, the biretta with red tuft, and rochet for liturgical services, the black cassock with red piping and purple sash at other times, and may add the purple ferraiuolo to the black cassock for formal ceremonies of a non-liturgical nature, e.g., a graduation.
From Wikipedia.
I hope the lower classes of the ordinariate take note of the proper manner of address for their newly-named pronotory. How likely is it that that the Most Rev Monsignor Keith Newton will be raised to the cardinalate? Not very, in my humble opinion. And a biretta with a red tuft is not a mitre.
And what about the Roman Catholic priests who must serve for years before being named monsignors?
Thanks to Ann V. for the link.
