THE
P RTAL
June 2017
Page 21
The untold story of how
the Ordinariate was created
Peter Jesserer Smith from the National Catholic Register
has discovered what actually happened in the CDF in Rome
P
ope Benedict XVI gave a tremendous gift to the English-speaking world in 2009, when he finally
realised a dream which had been centuries in the making, and established a permanent canonical home
for groups from the Anglican tradition seeking to enter the Catholic Church with the Apostolic Constitution
Anglicanorum Coetibus.
is a lifelong Catholic whose
Today,
the
Catholic
work with the Congregation
Church has three Personal
for the Doctrine of the
Ordinariates that preserve
Faith (CDF) over 10 years
the Anglican patrimony
immersed him in the
in their Catholic parishes,
Anglican patrimony and
communities, and religious
the project of corporate
orders. These Personal
reunification
between
Ordinariates have the only
groups of Anglicans and the
English form of the Roman
Catholic Church.
Missal,
promulgated
by Pope Francis, called
Lessons learned
Divine Worship — an
from past attempts
actual English form, not an
As the CDF searched for
English translation of the
how to respond in 2007 to
Latin Mass — written in
so many requests for entire
traditional, poetic “Prayer
Pope Francis with Bishop Lopes
Anglican
communities
Book”
English.
Each
Personal Ordinariate covers a region of the globe to join the Catholic Church, Bishop Lopes said they
(Oceania, the United Kingdom, and North America) tried to find out how the CDF had handled this in
and is headed by a bishop or ordinary who falls the past. Archbishop Augustine DiNoia, the CDF
directly under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for undersecretary, found that from 1960 to 2005, there
were at least “seven serious attempts to effect a corporate
the Doctrine of the Faith.
reunion of an Anglican Ecclesial Community with the
But how did the Vatican determine the solution for Catholic Church.”
corporate unification with the Catholic Church had to
Why did these attempts fail? Well, the bishop
be this structure called a “Personal Ordinariate”?
indicated that some of these attempts failed because the
The story behind that answer can be found in an CDF had trusted episcopal conferences and dioceses
illuminating theological address on the CDF by Bishop to carry out Rome’s proposals, and they found ways
Steven Lopes, who was chosen by Pope Francis to to kill these efforts instead for whatever reason — an
lead the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter age-old story in the 2,000 year history of the Church,
but distressing none the less. Bishop Lopes explained
(covering the USA and Canada) in 2016.
it in these general terms:
th
Bishop Lopes delivered his 28 March address
“Unity of Faith in a Diversity of Expression: The Work
“Let us say, for example, that if the Holy See
of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” to
worked with a group of Anglicans to elaborate a
a gathering of students and professors of the Institut
proposal, and if that proposal was then entrusted
für Historische Theologie, Liturgiewi ssenschaft und
to an Episcopal Conference for implementation,
Sakramententheologie at the University of Vienna.
and if that Episcopal Conference then simply
killed the proposal in committee, then a new
The bishop is not a convert from Anglicanism, but
approach might involve consultation with local