One U.S. Episcopal Church Becomes Catholic - A Sign Of Things To Come?
 |
| Mount Calvary Episcopal Church in Baltimore |
(Catholic Online) - In a letter to parishioners, the Reverend Jason Cantania, rector of Mount Calvary Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland, announced that the vestry of the parish had voted unanimously in favor of two resolutions. First, they have voted to leave The Episcopal Church (TEC) where they are a part of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, and, second, to become an Anglican Use parish in the Catholic Church through the new initiative from Rome - the Anglicorum Coetibus.
Under the terms of this apostolic constitution, the Church has provided opportunities for "personal ordinariates for Anglicans entering full communion with the Catholic Church." As an Anglican Use parish, they will be authorized to use an authorized version of the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer called the "Book of Divine Worship."
Mount Calvary Episcopal Church, founded in 1842, is located in the heart of the city of Baltimore. On their website they describe themselves as a parish that has "borne faithful witness to the essential truth of Catholic Christianity and the tradition of the Oxford Movement for over 150 years, and remains to this day a bulwark of orthodox Anglo-Catholic practice...
read full story here
12 comments:
Although the letter is from the 'priest,'will he not have to be re ordained?
No Marco. The man serving as a "priest" to his congregation is in actuality a layman. That is through no fault of his own, as he was falsely led to believe his Episcopalian ordination was valid according to apostolic succession. It's impossible to "re-ordain" somebody. Rather, this "priest" will finally be getting what he signed up for years ago, which is a valid and apostolic ordination to the priesthood, backed by the Pope, the bishops of the Catholic Church, and even the Eastern Orthodox Christians as well. In other words, his ministry of priesthood will finally become indisputable. Not even the Anglicans/Episcopalians will deny it.
Sir Knight,
Could you explain in more detail what you mean by not being validly ordained according to TEC? I would assume he was ordained in the same way all TEC priests are ordained.
What is unusual is that a parish within TEC in coming into the Church through the Ordinariate, as most of the Anglicans coming in are within the Continuing Anglican groups.
Anonymous, this recent blog entry should answer your question...
http://catholicknight.blogspot.com/2010/09/popes-subtle-statement-to-anglicans.html
Will the Church building be bought from TEC? Exactly how will that be handeled? The Church property held by TEC seems to inhibit parishes from making the break with TEC.
That depends. Recent court decisions in the United States have consistently ruled in favor of the parish in regards to Church property held by The Episcopal Church. That means that in the US anyway, for the most part, Episcopalian parishes can break away and take their property with them. In England however, the situation is different. It appears that English law tends to favor the diocesan bishop in the Church of England. I'm not sure about other countries.
A close friend of mine attends this parish. While many of the parishioners are staying and converting to the Catholic Faith via the Ordinariate, my friend is probably becoming an Eastern Orthodox, unfortunately. Oh well, still, this is great news to have good stalward Catholic converts coming in with their church.
This makes me wonder, what will the church sign read as? Mount Calvary Catholic Church? Mount Calvary Catholic Church (Anglican-Use)? Mount Calvary Anglican Catholic Church?
The last one would be confusing to most passers-by, and even more so because their is an Anglican denomination which goes by the name "Anglican Catholic".
Wow, Catholic Knight, you present yourself as some sort of expert but are giving out completely erroneous information regarding court decisions concerning break-away Episcopal parishes and the property they have attempted to take with them. Consistently, the courts have either ruled in favor of the properties belonging to the national Episcopal Church or, in rare cases were lower courts ruled it favor of parishes, state supreme courts have overturned the rulings. The properties belong to the national church as a whole. The canons & constitutions of every diocese and of the ECUSA confirm this fact.
It looks like you're right Pamela, though the issue is not yet settled entirely. My previous answer was given based on old information. It appears the lower courts did indeed rule in favor of the parishes, most of the time, but the state supreme courts ruled against them. In many of these cases the matter has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court where (if I'm not mistaken) they are still waiting a decision.
My apologies for the erroneous information. It was based on old data from memory.
I have so many questions about this, but particularly the priest issue. I know that Protestant "priests" do not have valid orders. So technically there is no priest, but will the minister then automatically receive ordination? Will he have to go to seminary for a short period of time for theology and training? It seems weird to me. I know that when a NO priest becomes SSPX he has to go to seminary for 1 year to be "learn" Catholic theology and how to offer the Mass. What about the parishioners? Will they just sign a document and "become" Catholic? No catechism class or anything? Personally, I just don't like it. It doesn't sit right with me for some reason. I know you are a fan Sir Knight, but something just doesn't make sense to me.
Anonymous, in order to understand what the Holy Father is doing, you must first understand exactly WHO this is designed for.
Typically in the United States we are used to seeing the typical Episcopalian parish which is basically a Protestant church with a quasi-catholic ethos. Basically the US Episcopal Church is everything the modernists would want the Novus Ordo mass to become. You have to understand these are NOT the people who will be entering the ordinariate. They have no interest in the Catholic Church whatsoever, and wouldn't dream of accepting the ordinariate offer even if you paid them.
In contrast there are small groups of traditional Anglicans who have remained faithful to the Oxford movement and have consistently rejected the modernist innovations, they have steadily moved toward the Catholic Church in every way imaginable, even to the point of petitioning Rome for corporate reunion with the Catholic Church. These Traditional Anglicans have been using the Catechism of the Catholic Church as their official theology for decades. Their bishops and priests have actually signed copies of the Catechism and pledged their ministerial teaching to it. In every way these Traditional Anglicans have imitated the Catholic sacramental life, asking of Rome only to make "real" what they already know in practice. As a group they put many Novus Ordo Catholics to shame, and are comparable to nobody in the religious world other than Traditional Catholics. These are the people who want to accept the pope's ordinariate offer, and these are the people whom the pope made the offer to begin with. When the ordinariates have had time to mature, they will in turn help remind Novus Ordo Catholics what it means to be Catholic.
In answer to your questions, yes the priests will need to receive proper ordination, and they will. Yes, they need proper training, and yes, most of them have already completed it. Yes, the laymen who joins the ordinariate will also have to sign a pledge to the teachings of he Catechism and will likely have to receive a new confirmation from their Anglican ordinary bishop. In many ways their entry into the Catholic Church is nothing new or innovative. What is different is the episcopal structure that will be created, as well as the liturgical rite they will use. I assure you however, they're form of Catholicism will be no less strict than what the Vatican has always required.
I see more and more posts from Continuing Anglicans complaining that they are now out in the street, as their parish voted to come into the Ordinariate. The opposite happened to me when years ago our parish voted to not accept the Pastoral Provision and we were out in the street. We became Catholics and had to convert individually and attend Latin Rite parishes.
I just don't understand what their problem is as there are so many different groups of Continuing Anglicans, that one should be able to find at least one where they agree with most of what they stand for. In fact, I think this proves they are as protestant as any other denomination. No one will ever find a church that agrees with everything a person believes. Yes the basic doctrines one must accept, but the more minor disciplines should be a small problem.
I also find much anger towards Anglicans entering the Ordinariate, where were these folks when their priests were talking about joining the Church? Were they not at that point looking for another avenue more to their liking?
There is much animosity towards the Catholic Church by some who claim to be Anglo Catholic and use to even pray for the Pope. I am at a loss to explain this, except Anglicans in general don't like authority and just as other protestant denominations have their own popes in their pastors so do these Anglicans.
I don't care personally if they join the Church, but please don't disregard or disrepect the ones who choose too.
Post a Comment