The Apostolic Constitution

Anglicanorum coetibus Providing for Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans Entering into Full Communion with the Catholic Church (November 4, 2009) - in English

Complementary Norms for the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus (November 4, 2009) - in English

I'm waiting to see what some canonists think, but at a first reading, it all looks pretty impressively done.

Notes on All Saints Day

I've read through the clarification from the Press Office on married men being ordained and I've read reaction and analysis to it around the blogosphere both saying that it both clarifies and muddies the issue. We'll wait for the apostolic constitution.

For those of you who have come upon this blog looking for information on papal appearances, I'm sorry to disappoint, but I do not have the fluency in Italian to serve as the Holy Father's social diary. I wish you well though in finding what you're looking for.

Rorate always has good posts compiling relevant excerpts from Catholic history and tradition: this is one of them.

Homeless Widows and Orphans

From the Belfast Telegraph care of Kendall Harmon:

At the moment when a Catholic priest retires, the church only has responsibility towards him.

But what if the priest was married, has a wife and family?

Where would they go if they had to vacate their parochial home? What would they live on? What would happen to clerical widows or, even more distressingly, orphaned children?

Secondly, how could the Catholic Church maintain its stance on clerical celibacy?

It cannot argue logically that it is permissible for married Anglican clergy to convert to full communion with the Catholic Church and yet deny Catholic clergy the right to marriage.

Bolding mine. I don't bring all these questions up in my posts because I'm opposed to this move by the Pope. On the contrary, I am all for it. The Anglican Communion has been a mess for years now and it's about time Rome stepped in in an authoritative way, especially with the TAC petitioning for entrance. However, these are all questions that are going to need to be answered in the Apostolic Constitution or any companion documents before people start coming over or else Rome is going to have a real mess on its hands as the usual circumstances of human life rear their ugly heads.

Kudos to Kendall Harmon for bringing together so many good links on all of this.

Contraception

From a Commonweal blog post linked to by Kendall Harmon:

A friend of mine, a former Anglican actually, brought up an issue that I hadn’t thought about with respect to the new Anglican rite: contraception. In 1930, the Lambeth Conference declared that contraception was not always immoral, and could be used (for serious reason) to regulate the number of children that a married couple had. That declaration prompted a negative response from the Roman Catholic Church–the encyclical Casti Connubii, which declared that the use of contraception was never morally permissible. As most people know, that stance was reaffirmed by Humanae Vitae.

Now, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that the prohibition against contraception is not a matter of “rite” or religious practice–it is a matter of natural law, binding not only upon Catholics, but upon all persons. So Anglicans who join the Catholic Church will be expected to conform to the prohibition There is no such thing as a dispensation from the strictures of negative moral absolutes. It’s true, of course, that many Roman Catholics make their own decisions about this matter, and come to their own private peace with God in the “internal forum” of their conscience. But the new influx of Anglicans will include people who will not be able to come to a purely private peace–the married members of the clergy, who will be required to follow Humanae Vitae no less than other married persons.

As far as I am aware, however, the morality of contraception under certain circumstances has been more or less a settled issue among Anglicans–even traditionally minded Anglicans. How will this change work out?

As we know, the leaders of the Traditional Anglican Communion have already signed the Catechism of the Catholic Church and they and their followers must be prepared to accept Catholic dogma and doctrine and all that it requires.

But for other Anglicans who may have issues with the Anglican Communion, but are not so interested in all that comes with Rome, one hopes Rome is prepared with its requirements for ordaining married Anglicans that this is singled out as a primary point.

Marriage

From Rorate, a quote by John Hepworth in an interview:

JH: Bishops in the new Anglican structure will be unmarried. This is out of respect for the tradition of Eastern and Western Christianity. But priests who come from Anglicanism will be able to serve as priests in the new structure, whether married or not, after satisfying certain requirements. The truly radical element is that married men will be able to be ordained priests in the Anglican structure indefinitely into the future. It is anticipated that Anglican bishops who are married when they joined the new structure will still be able to serve as priestly ordinaries, exercising some of the responsibilities of bishops.

Yeah...

...I was afraid of this. Ruth Gledhill yesterday:

A source in Rome tells me that the African bishops have been watching the Anglican developments with interest, in some cases with amazement. Even though England, Wales and the US have been quietly receiving married former Anglican priests to work as Catholic priests for decades, it seems that until this new Apostolic Constitution with its juridical implications was announced, the African bishops had no idea this had been going on.

Now that it is to get canonical standing, some of these bishops are asking, understandably, 'If they can, why can't we......?'

Maybe those who are suggesting the Anglican annexe about to be built onto Rome may be better described as a Trojan horse are on to something. Even the superbly-informed Francis Rocca is writing about the new light this throws on the celibacy issue, so you never know.

Ruth certainly represents a specific constituency (above the passage cited here, she was giving praise to NCReporter for its reporting on the Anglican ordinariate announcement), but if her source is reliable, then certainly such rumblings will have to be headed off immediately. Hard and fast rules are needed now to both clarify the situation for possibly incoming Anglicans and answer those Catholic clerics who are less attached to celibacy than the Pope, especially with Archbishop Milingo still in recent memory.

I just thought maybe...

Married Men Installed As Priests in N.J.

I read this headline and I thought just maybe Forbes was doing an article on Father Kimel (congratulations to him on his ordination), but I knew it would be about Archbishop Milingo and his company. It's the standard AP wire story. Pretty basic.

In front of a congregation that included nearly two dozen members of the media at the Trinity Reformed Church, Raymond A. Grosswirth of Rochester, N.Y., and Dominic Riccio, of Newark, were installed by Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo.

Then I saw this at Catholic News Agency this morning. I thought it was rather funny.

Parsippany, NJ, Dec. 08, 2006 (CNA) - Two groups made up of former Catholic priests, who are pushing for a married priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church, have issued warnings to married former priests about a third, similar organization, Married Priests Now, which is headed by the excommunicated Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo.

The recently formed Married Priests Now is holding a convention, from Dec. 7 to 10, at the local Sheraton Hotel. As of Wednesday only 200 people were registered to attend, far less than the 1000 organizers had expected.
[...]

CORPUS and CITI [two married priests associations] cited Milingo’s excommunication after his illicit attempt to ordain three married men as bishops. CORPUS also expressed concern about the new group’s connection with the Unification Church's Rev. Sung Myung Moon, who has called himself the Messiah.

At the big meeting, Archbishop Milingo publicly praised the Reverend Moon for his support, thus proving wrong the archbishop's early assertions that his group is completely independent.

While Archbishop Milingo moving around out there and ordaining people is certainly not good, the only people he's going to get are the extremists. Groups that hold out hope of effecting change in the Church are not going to embrace Milingo's Moonie Marriage Movement.

Spin your headline

The Age: Vatican softens line on married priests

THE Catholic Church may be preparing to readmit priests who left to marry — as long as they are now celibate.

A Vatican meeting chaired by Pope Benedict on Thursday discussed readmitting priests and issued a more neutral statement than many expected, while upholding celibacy.

Calgary Sun/AP: Vatican sticks with celibacy stance

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican yesterday reaffirmed the value of celibacy for priests after a summit led by Pope Benedict that was spurred by a married African archbishop who has been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.

The three-hour meeting's conclusions "were not a change in how the present rules (on celibacy) are applied," Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said by telephone.

The actual communique:

"In the Apostolic Palace this morning, November 16, the Holy Father presided at one of the regular meetings of the heads of dicasteries of the Roman Curia, for a moment of shared reflection.

"The participants in the meeting had at their disposal detailed information concerning requests for dispensation from the obligation of celibacy presented during recent years, and concerning the possibility of readmission to the exercise of the ministry of priests who currently meet the conditions established by the Church.

"The value of the choice of priestly celibacy in accordance with Catholic tradition was reaffirmed, and the need for solid human and Christian formation was underlined, both for seminaries and for ordained priests."

And there you have it

From the BBC:
"The value of the choice of priestly celibacy... has been reaffirmed,"

The interdicasterial meeting

From VIS:

VATICAN CITY, NOV 16, 2006 (VIS) - As announced earlier, this morning in the Vatican, the Holy Father met with heads of dicasteries of the Roman Curia in order to examine the situation that has arisen following the disobedience of Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo. The order of the day also included an examination of requests for dispensation from the obligation of celibacy, and requests for readmission to the priestly ministry presented by married priests over the course of recent years.

Now we wait.

The Anglicans

I was going to wait and post on this closer to the Archbishop of Canterbury's visit to Rome, but with the recent remarks of Professor Tighe making the rounds, I think I'll take a moment to contemplate the situation.

For background, Professor Tighe left a comment to the post on the Archbishop's trip to Rome at titusonenine. In the midst of talking about the plight of the Archbishop of Canterbury's own making as far as the Church of England's support of women's ordination and actively gay clergy, Tighe noted the following (bolding is mine):

However, one would really like to be privy to their conversations, especially as I have heard that a proposal is due to land on the pope’s desk on November 16, a proposal that has something to do with facilitating the entry into the Catholic Church of disgruntled Catholic-minded Anglicans. I know nothing of the details, but I would guess that it might involve some sort of expansion and “globalization” of the present “Pastoral Provision” set up some 20+ years ago here in the USA for Episcopalians distressed over WO. My guess is that it may involve a “Personal Prelature” for these people (as for Opus Dei) or else an “Apostolic Administration” like that that was erected a couple of years ago for a whole schismatic “Tridentine Mass” group and their bishop in Brazil. (And it may be that certain ECUSA bishops received a “sneak preview” of what’s in the works on September 6th, but verbum satis sapientibus est, ans we won’t know about it till after January 31st at the earliest.)

Following up yesterday on Professor Tighe's comment was The Times' (of London) religion correspondent Ruth Gledhill at her online column. In part (be sure to read Ruth's actual post, she had all kinds of relevant links throughout her post):

The comment on Titus was posted by the well-informed US church history professor William Tighe. So it cannot be discounted. But the truth actually might be a little more complex. One possible option, for example, is that the document Tighe refers to and the [Tridentine Mass] indult are one and the same. That the indult will contain a more general permission for the Anglican Use rather than it being confined to the US. This was not adopted as the solution to the Anglican women priest's crisis in the first place because it was opposed by the late Cardinal Hume, as William Oddie reported in his book The Roman Option.

This speculation is not, according to a well-informed Anglican source, a step too far. Fr Aidan Nicholls wrote a wonderful essay on the Anglican Use recently. And Paddy Power has him as 5-1 to be the next Archbishop of Westminster. He was also the theologian offered by the Archbishop of Westminster to Forward in Faith, when they asked him for a Catholic to contribute to the discussions for their recent paper, Consecrated Women.

Kudos to Amy for pulling all this together.

So...

1. I think the major indicator in this not being likely in the near term is the fact we have not seen any kind of response from the hierarchy. On the one hand, this document could be really secret and people are being discreet in their comments. However, as we've seen from the French response to the alleged motu proprio on the Mass of Pius V, the hierarchy isn't afraid of publicly making its thoughts (both for and against) known.

2. Benedict XVI has if nothing else proven himself to be a step-by-step kind of man. The tsunami of curial reform never materialized. In place of it, the Pope has steadily appointed people over the months. It just doesn't seem likely that any progress on an Anglican Use document would be pursued while the Tridentine Mass document is still out there. The latter could realistically take months to be processed. When Professor Tighe suggested nothing would be seen of the Anglican Use document until after January 31st of next year, I would agree with that assessment.

3. The Milingo factor. As it was mentioned at some point out there, a canonical framework for the Anglican Use as suggested by Professor Tighe would grant the ability to form seminaries for Anglican Use clergy. Let's consider a hypothetical. The Pope creates an Anglican Use prelature. Masses of Anglo-Catholics make the transition around the world. We now have the Latin Rite with its celibate clergy and the Anglican Use with its married clergy coexisting in may locales. Without trying to generalize the dynamics, it stands to reason that Benedict XVI would be considering such possibilities and any messages that might be sent while Archbishop Milingo's actions remain in recent memory.

Finally,
4. The time factor. It's November 15th. Ash Wednesday falls on February 21st, 2007. That is just over three months away. Assuming that Benedict follows the precedent he set this year during Lent, it's quite possible we'll see another consistory in early to mid-March. I would suggest that unless things breaks sooner rather than later, a lot of what everyone is waiting for could be held in limbo until March at the earliest.

News round-up

BBC: Vatican enters Muslim veils debate

Cardinal Renato Martino said immigrants must respect the traditions, culture and religion of the nations they go to.

They ought to abide by local laws banning the wearing of certain types of Muslim veils, he added.

"It seems elementary to me and it is quite right that the authorities demand it," said Cardinal Martino, who heads the Vatican department dealing with migration issues.

I agree wholeheartedly with His Eminence's words. It just struck me though. What if he were talking about for instance Mexican immigrants in the US and the Church's efforts to provide them with Spanish language services at the expense of English and assimilation? What would the response to be that? I'll leave you all to guess.

CNS: Pope calls Curia to discuss married priests, Archbishop Milingo
I really hope that there isn't any kind of a relaxation on this. It's a feel-good bandaid to the general lack of discipline in leading Christian lives. Not enough priests? Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because they don't get to have wives? Hey, one answer is as good as another!

Interfax: Alexy II is prepared for personal meeting with the Pope of Rome only after the differences between the two Churches are resolved

‘A possibility of personal meeting with the Pope has never been eliminated. We have always insisted that such a meeting should open a new page in our relations and not be just a protocol meeting before TV cameras to show that we have no problems, while in fact we have them,’ the Patriarch said in his interview to Paris Match published Thursday.

He noted that the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church had never met with the head of the Roman Catholic Church. If this meeting takes place, ‘probably in a third country, - it would have become an exclusive historic event.’

‘Therefore, this meeting should be thoroughly prepared with the betterment of relations between our Churches as its primary object,’ Alexy II underscored.

Does anyone ever get the feeling that the Russian Patriarch has... pretensions? Maybe it's just the translation and all that, but Alexy and his subordinates always ocme off as rather imperious in tone. 'We aren't going to meet with you until you see things our way...' 'Play the game the way we want or we'll take our ball home.'

AKI: VATICAN: TOP CLERIC SLAMS SATIRE OF POPE

Rome, 14 Nov. (AKI) - Pope Benedict XVI's personal secretary Georg Gaenswein on Tuesday slammed a TV and radio satire of the pontiff and himself. "I hope it stops right away," Gaenswein told Adnkronos. "I hope these programmes will end immediately: satire is fine but these things have no intellectual level and offend men of the Church. They are not acceptable."

Gaenswein's comments follow an article in Avvenire - the newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference - which slammed a satire of the pope by comedian Maurizio Crozza on private television channel La7 and the imitation, by another popular Italian showman, Fiorello, of the pontiff's secretary in a radio programme on state broadcaster RAI Viva Radio 2.

Avvenire lashed out at the programmes saying they were trying to "ridicule Catholic figures."

Gaenswein stressed that he would never watch nor listen to these programmes and noted he wanted "to forget" the entire episode.

He also stressed the pontiff had never commented on the programmes: "A comment of the pope would really honour too much these people."

I wish I had a secretary... :)

Milingo's appeal back home

Spero has a nice translation of an African journalist's thoughts on the whole Milingo affair and what Africans back home think about the Archbishop's fling with his wild side.

Is it foreseeable that many of Milingo’s followers in Africa will join “Married Priests Now!” (the archbishop’s newly-minted sect) and Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s family federation. Not likely.

It is true that Milingo impressed many people, in Africa and elsewhere, with his alleged supernatural gifts. However, for the people here, religion and the sacred is much more than that: if not, it would be little more than the services rendered by a witch doctor or faith healer – those who only the very poor and uneducated take seriously today. In matters of religion, people want to trust: a Church that they can trust, with ministers they can trust.

The experience with Milingo shows that people will not follow false prophets, at least not for very long. Also, priests are like the village elders, men who are chosen for upright conduct and clear minds; they are expected to be good examples of both.

That kind of cultural respect for the office of priest/bishop is a very positive sign. That view of the office as being sacred and a position of respect is something the West has definitely lost in a lot of ways. Martyn Drakard the journalist's thoughts are quite heartening when it comes to a continent that is known for its faith supposedly being ten miles wide and only an inch deep.