The UK Catholic Herald reports that the Walsingham Ordinariate to receive & ordain Anglican clergy, and to receive Anglican laity into the bosom of communion with Rome, is going to last beyond the retirement of Benedict XVI. http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/new...eature-for-the-church-says-vatican-spokesman/ I have bolded what I consider to be the most important statement of the entire article. This shows what a facade the idea of "Ecumenism" is, for modern Romanism. They don't want co-existent unity around the basics; they want the destruction of all churches that will not submit to Rome's yoke. Do not be deceived by ecumenism, fellow catholics.
No, brother. I am a catholic just as you are; that is, I am under lawful bishops, believing the Nicene & Apostles' Creeds. That is what makes a man catholic, not loyalty to one see or another. Your very mindset is a great example of how Rome has overtaken the definition of things. "Catholic" automatically means "Roman" in most peoples' minds. That is not fair, or true, and must be reversed. I will always call myself a catholic, because I am an Anglican. That's the point of all this.
As the article above says, This is the false guise of ecumenism. "The unity of the episcopate" is guaranteed by our Lord Jesus Christ in apostolic succession. The unity exists just by virtue of the fact that there are already bishops. What an utterly false presentation of the unity of the Church. Benedict ought to read Cyprian of Carthage!
More like Star Trek Borg assimilation if you ask me. Funny isn't it, many that entered the Ordinariate were Anglicans pretending to be Romanists, now they're Romanists pretending to be Anglicans.
Great allegory! This adversative inspires me to make a stand. We must formulate pithy sayings like this one, in order to show out what a sullen sham all this pretension is. How about this: "What do you call the Catholic faith? 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church'. What do we call the Catholic faith? 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God'." In essence, that is the difference between us. They put a man and his office far above all else in importance. Unity, doctrine, faith, reason, logic, and love are placed beneath loyalty to Peter. We strive to put Christ back on His Throne as King of the Cosmos. Under Him, all bishops are united in doctrine, faith, reason, logic, and love, growing out of Peter's first Confession. The establishment of this Ordinariate is a direct attack on the legitimacy of the Reformation, and of all good things that have come of it. Rome's time is over; Vatican II proved as much. We must show them their hypocritical stance, and once they are knocked down, offer a hand to help them back up to the true Catholic faith.
I often wonder if they realize that they will lose their Anglicanism within a generation? There will be no married priests to replace the current ones. Preaching taught out of the Roman seminaries is nil. The whole character of the parish will change especially going from a married to celibate priest.
That's an interesting point, Dave. Remember, however, that these people joined Rome because they believe her claims. If she will refuse marriage to the sons of Ordinariate priests who become priests themselves, they will say "the sacred tradition has spoken; the Magisterium has taught the truth", and no more. Here is a beautiful quote from C.S. Lewis (in the essay Christian Reunion) addressed to a Roman: That is what these poor deluded people have gotten themselves into.
The sad part is that there is much to love about RC Church. But due to their megachurch sizes (they don't have enough priests for parishes smaller than 1000, with many much bigger than that -- at least here in Dallas area), at least one of the two priests at each church is from over-seas and a non-native English speaker, and very limited fellowship opportunities -- it's very difficult to do more than run in get communion and run out. Did I mention that the music is absolutely horrible??!!! I've seen Epsicopal churches with 100 people at the service have a 10 person choir that is 100X (at least) better than most any RC Church choir I've heard -- go figure.
This was my experience in the local Cathedral, even though it was never more than 400 (on Easter & Christmas). Even these smaller numbers do not allow for fellowship, for you must understand that this is originally a protestant idea. Romans come to Mass to get communion; that is their fellowship. There is no such thing as after-service Coffee in most parishes. People don't tend to want to get to know each other. It's a huge edifice without family feeling. Our brethren who left the Church for the Ordinariate of Rome will be finding out what it means to be part of this monumentally-large culture. Their protestant fellowship groups, their humble bible studies, and their parish coffee hours will not be replicated. They will miss much that is retained here. This has been my experience in every Roman church I've visited. Usually the 11 AM service has bad music, but the evening services are terrible: the worst garbage anyone could imagine. That's probably due to their wish to cater for university students, who can't be bothered to get up in the morning for Mass. Interestingly, 'fellowship's do exist for evening-Mass-goers, with coffee & food in large quantities. Sometimes you get the impression that the young people go to the evening Masses not for worship, but for the jokes & food afterward. How ironically "protestant"-like! Ordinariate people are going to feel sad, & that they are sorely-missing something. Once they find out what it is, we should be here to receive them with open, forgiving arms.
The Eastern Catholic churches on the other hand are much more feloowship inclined -- usually coffee or lunch after Divine Liturgy and pot luck on some days.
There is only one small Ordinariate group in my Diocese. About a third of the original Anglican congregation entered the Ordinariate together with the Priest (about 20 out of 60 people). They are not using an Anglican style liturgy but the OF of the Roman Rite. The Priest has been made Priest-in-Charge of a Roman Catholic parish in the next county and travels down for the Ordinariate Masses on Sunday and Wednesday evenings. They share the RC building so the regular RC parish have their Sunday Masses in the morning whilst the Ordinariate group have theirs in the evening. There is already some assimilation as sometimes the Ordinariate have to join with the regular RC parish to fulfill their obligation on certain days. They no longer have after-service fellowship. So much for Anglican patrimony.
At least this is practical evidence that Benedict's plan was not a preservation of Anglican patrimony. It was just another cheap theater-of-light-and-magic trick to assimilate more "separated brethren" into their fold. Interesting story...
Despite these solemn prophecies of gloom and doom, I pray those who took the road to Rome find the peace and clarity of faith they have been longing for, it is not my way but I wish them well on their journey. 'Where Christ is, there is the church' that's a phrase all of us would do well to understand. Christ's promises to not abandon his followers applies equally to Catholics as to Anglicans. And as I puruse the headlines of the episcopal websites and watch bishop Schori defile one altar after another, degrock and demonize one faithful bishop and priest after, and ruin one parish after another, with the whole communion teetering on the brink of destruction, I can't hwlp but be happy for those who've found a lifeboat before the shoot completely sinks. Perhaps in this case GK Chesterton and JRR Tolkien proved wiser than CS Lewis. Judging from his quote above, everything he hoped to avoid by being Anglican has come to pass. Maybe, Chesterton's reason for converting to the RCC have more the ring of truth to them: "I accepted for a time the borderland of Anglicanism; but only on the assumption that it could really be Anglo-Catholicism... I did not start out with the idea of saving the English Church, but of finding the Catholic Church" (The Catholic Church and Conversion,New York: Macmillan, 1926, 27, 30-31) and "The difficulty of explaining why I am a Catholic, is that there are 10,000 reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true."
The thing is that Christ's promises are conditional upon certain things. Whosoever believes in Him, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Whosoever lives & believes in Him shall never die. What is living in Christ, and believing in Christ, though? Living the rosary? Believing transubstantiation? Rome's profession of faith is in the centrality & authority of man - one man, Peter. Is this faith in Peter the same as the faith in that Christ whom Peter confessed to be the Son of the living God? If we believe & live wrongly, Christ's promises are null & void. We may claim things, but our Father alone is in possession of the good gifts to be given. This is why so many of us doom & gloom people are dead-set against Rome. The problem, my friend, is that the Papist "lifeboat" already sank 1000 years ago. The moment she arrogantly separated herself from the East, initiating the schism on the ground of papal authority, she threw the rafts off the sinking ship. The moment she ran Trent's blasphemous attacks on holy Scripture, she sank. The moment Infallibility of Man was declared, the ship hit the bottom. We've got to stop making this comparison between solid papists vs. heretical episcopalians, as if the heresies & errors of Anglican progressives are somehow unique in the world. There are Romanist bishops who are just as heretical, schismatic, and attack the orthodox just as much. Benedict XVI would have been excommunicated as a theologian 100 years ago. No pope would have gone into a Lutheran church to pray with protestants, as he did. The Roman Church has changed itself many times. For every Schori there is a Rahner, a de Chardin, and a Schönborn. If you believe the facts presented in that quote from Gilbert Keith, then you'd best get to the Ordinariate. Thankfully, 10 000 Fathers are against Rome, and that is the basis of our refusal of the Ordinariate. Here is what Lewis said, further, in a letter dated June 16, 1945: Bravo, Clive.
The thing is that Rome's motto isn't "Ubi Christus, ibi ecclesia"; it is "Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia". That's the difference. We do not know where Christ is, or isn't, but we can make an educated guess. Once that is done, we know where to concentrate.
As someone who is very new here, I'd expected to find more on the Ordinariate (perhaps I've missed it).To my way of thinking, the whole thing is rather sad, on various counts. First, the underhand way it was set up, without any consultation or even discussion with the CofE beforehand. This gave great offence to many Anglicans, and was harmful to inter-Church relations, which are generally good in England. Second, in those few parishes where a handful of the congregation moved to the Ordinariate, various office holders simply walked off the job, with no handover. Apparently they had been advised to do this. Thirdly, I gather that many RC clergy are not happy with it. "They stick out like a sore thumb" was one comment I received. Meanwhile, two years later, the "seismic change" forecast in the Murdoch press simply has not happened. The Ordinariate is a top-heavy organisation which numbers only a few hundred and is beset with financial problems. I hesitate to predict its future, but am conscious of the words of Isaac Watts: "they fly forgotten as a dream dies at the opening day".