Anglicanorum Cœtibus

Well, it's here, and I suppose (having held forth at length on this subject up until now) that I ought to write something on it, through really there is a lot of stuff already written around the web.

The thing that immediately struck me was that this time, the Vatican Information Service seemed to have got it right; the concerns voiced around the world, manifested in the speeches at Forward in Faith and on the blogosphere, seem to have been addressed. Maybe there is a model here for future similar initiatives: after careful initial research, announce a forthcoming document together with general outlines, and wait and see what ideas surface. Then one can address these in the final document. It might prevent a lot of pain.

The item likely to produce most dissatisfaction (in a document that has so much to please, however) concerns the celibacy requirement. Some wanted to maintain a priesthood that automatically had the right to marry—possibly even while in the clerical state. This last was probably never going to be a runner: the Church, East and West, has never permitted its clergy to marry (which is to say after having received Sacred Orders). But the Vatican might have permitted all future Ordinariate clergy to be married, as a matter of course.

I suspect that here it might be trying to avoid the rather unseemly situation that obtains in the East where a seminarian who has determined that celibacy is not for him is required, before ordination, to find a wife as quickly as possible. Were this transferred to the West, with its higher expectations of marriage, there might be a lot of unhappy relationships, not to say anullments due to lack of due discretion. Secondly, as many people have noted, the Vatican desires to safeguard the tradition of clerical celibacy in the Latin Church, of which the Ordinariate will be a part.

However, the Vatican has not closed the door on the ordination of married men. It says simply that it will be treated on a case-by-case basis. My guess is that the answer will be yes in almost every instance; the Holy See just wants to make it a little more difficult, in order to encourage what one might call a culture of celibacy among ordinands. I do not believe that the idea is to phase out a married priesthood altogether: as many have pointed out, this is one of the things considered to be 'patrimony' by many Anglo-Cathlolics.

A concession that many will have been pleased to see is the clear permission to celebrate using the Roman rites. This may be less important in the US, where there is a puzzling attachment to the Book of Common Prayer, but here in the UK, the Roman Rite is used by almost all Anglo-Catholics, and if not the Roman Rite, then the official liturgical book, Common Worship, with all the adaptions most resembling the Roman Rite selected. I do hope that they will think long and hard before adopting the existing US Anglican-Catholic liturgy—it's a strange beast, shuttling uncannily between archaic and modern vernacular.

I was interested to see that the Ordinariate has been conceded its own tribunal(s). How they will make this work we will see. I cannot imagine that this can be set up overnight; they are going to need Roman-trained canon lawyers, for a start, and that can't be done overnight, unless they can borrow some. They are also going to need their own supplement to the Code of Canon Law, which, also, cannot be done quickly.

Another interesting point is the identity of the Ordinariate's line manager: the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. One might have expected the Congregation for Clergy, or for Eastern Churches (with a change of name, perhaps; the Congregation for Non-Roman Churches or something like that), or Propaganda Fide (who oversee dioceses in missionary territories), or even the Secretariat of State or Christian Unity. Why the CDF? Are they going to be keeping an eagle eye on priests' sermons, watching for any hint of neo-Nestorianism or semi-Pelagianism? This after all, was the demon congregation that attracted such opprobrium in the 1980s for its rejection of ARCIC.

One must remember, of course, that in recent years the CDF has attracted several odd jobs to itself; Ecclesia Dei, for one—and the situation of this body is not unlike that of the possible ordinariate. Consider the S. John Vianney administration in Brazil; it has its own clergy, its own rite, and its own bishop existing in parallel to the 'normal' diocese. Now Ecclesia Dei has been subsumed entirely into the CDF (perhaps because it used to occupy rooms there and everyone simply got to know each other), it is maybe felt that the experience might be useful with the new Anglican Ordinariate.

The new Ordinaries are not going to be mere Confirmation dispensers, either. Selected from among the Anglican clergy themselves, (is this initially wise? I don't dispute the terna selection by the clergy themselves, though) their authority will be very like that of a territorial bishop, and though they will have a seat on Episcopal Conference, they will not be subject to individual bishops.

I noted that former Catholic priests will not be allowed to exercise ministry in the Ordinariate. That will be sad for Archbishop John Hepworth, who, no doubt expecting this, has acted with considerable self-abnegation in conducting these negotiations. He can be comforted by the provision that former bishops, even if not consecrated Catholic bishops, may continue to wear the gear. So, may we expect him to sit in the pews with his Mrs, in mitre, cope &c?

I don't think that the seminaries business has quite been worked out. It seems to be saying that the Ordinariate seminarians should be trained alongside 'Roman' seminarians, but also have their own house of studies for the rest of the stuff. Sounds complicated.

I think in the end that it will take a long time to settle down, and a certain amount of chaos is going to have to be tolerated in the meantime. Possibly it will be only in another generation that the situation will be easy for all concerned. But God is very patient.