THE
P RTAL
September 2012
Page 9
The Ordinary’s Page
Monsignor Andrew Burnham writes
With the
new academic year, children and students will be beginning another stage in their lives.
Moving to ‘big school’, beginning GCSEs, going to college or ‘uni’. It is worth us remembering that, in the
Ordinariate, we have our own ‘Church students’.
Three young married men are studying
for the permanent diaconate. Others are
pursuing a vocation to the priesthood,
including one man already at seminary and
another seeking to go to seminary. There are
also two or three young men beginning their
studies in Oxford this autumn.
All these courses – for the diaconate and
for the priesthood – take several years and
necessarily cost a great deal of money. We have been
richly blessed by the Catholic hierarchy, who for the
time being have allocated all the required funding
from the ordination funds available to them.
What is beyond doubt is that
these Catholic deacons and
priests of the future, whether
in Ordinariate or diocese, or
both, will be devoting many
years to the proclamation of
the reconciling love of God’s
kingdom, the care of his
people, and the offering of
the Sacrifice of the Mass for
the living and the departed.
Deacons and Priests
Solemn Evensong
and Benediction
for the Feast of
Bl John Henry Newman
patron of the
Personal Ordinariate of
Our Lady of Walsingham
The first two years are devoted mainly
to philosophy and learning the sacred
languages and there is no finer place to do
this than Oxford and no finer place in Oxford
than with the Dominicans. What happens
to these students after two years is still to be
determined: there is an argument for
them to stay put and do their theology in
Oxford; there is an argument for them to
become more obviously integrated with
diocesan seminarians. We shall see.
Meanwhile we are very grateful to the vision and
support of the Regent of Blackfriars and his Vice-Regent,
and the Brother Provincial
of the Order of Friars
Minor, and the Guardian
of Greyfriars. We are also
grateful to the long-suffering
priests of Catholic parishes
who will supervise weekday
and Sunday placements for
these students.
Year of Faith
The challenge for the
Ordinariate in the coming
year, in a way, is the opposite
of that facing the Church as a
whole. The Catholic Church
is struggling to recruit enough
priests to care for its people.
The Ordinariate, because it
has no buildings and ready-
made communities of its own,
is struggling to establish viable
congregations in viable places,
meeting at viable times.
Those studying for the St James’ Church,
diaconate are doing so
Spanish Place, W1
alongside those in the
diocese where they live, for Sunday 7th October
Ordinariate deacons will 5.30pm
also support the ministry of
local Catholic parishes. The preacher:
men training for priesthood Fr Paul Chavasse Cong Orat
in Oxford will be living sometime Postulator of the Cause
at Greyfriars, under the www.ordinariate.org.uk
tutelage of the Capuchins,
and studying at Blackfriars, alongside a couple of
As the Year of Faith begins, the words of Jesus, to the
dozen other students, mostly religious being formed ‘Church students’, to the Ordinariate congregations,
for ordination. It is the Roman model – living in a to the Catholic Church as a whole are these: ‘Lift up
House of Formation and studying in a local university your eyes and see how the fields are already white for
– rather than the seminary model, where much of the harvest…..One sows and another reaps’ (Jn 4:35, 37).
teaching is ‘in-house’.
Let’s get on with it.