Snapd
ragon
THE P RTAL
March 2015
The tools to do the job
B
eing a
‘lodger’ can be difficult. Snapdragon makes a suggestion about the
Ordinariate and buildings. Towards the end of his state visit to the United Kingdom
in 2010, Pope Benedict urged the bishops of England and Wales, in an address to them at
Oscott College, to support his project of the Ordinariate.
At that point, it was still just
words on paper, but very much in
the making. As he spoke, groups of
Anglicans were excitedly preparing
for their reception into the Catholic
Church and thanking God for Pope
Benedict’s courageous ecumenical
vision.
Several months later, the Ordinariate came
into being and its first three priests, Fathers
John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham and Keith
Newton, were ordained. A few months later
there followed a round of receptions and
ordinations. The Ordinariate was well under
way, consisting of both laity and
clergy.
The following year, the
Apostolic Nuncio to the United
Kingdom, Archbishop Antonio
Mennini,
made
the
fledgling
Ordinariate
top of his agenda when
speaking to the bishops;
quite a statement in itself, given that there
were plenty of other issues for he and the
bishops to be grappling with at the time. Archbishop
Mennini said to the bishops, “Do please continue to be
generous in support of their endeavours.”
It’s pretty safe to assume that a year after the
Ordinariate’s birth, the Pope’s man in the UK was
conveying a message from his boss that the Ordinariate
was something of great importance and to be given
the bishops’ full backing. Soon afterwards, a cheque
for £150,000 arrived at ordinariate HQ from the boss
himself, on top of the £250,000 already given by the
bishops.
The Ordinariate needs buildings
Be generous. Financially, the bishops were very
generous (though it doesn’t take long for an institution
just setting out to get through £250,000). But I’m sure
that the Holy Father was not just asking for money. He
was hoping for a generosity of spirit to be shown to
those who would accept his invitation and be part of
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this unprecedented ecumenical project so close to his
own heart.
Money is just one of the tools that the Ordinariate
needs to succeed in the task it was given. It also needs
buildings out of which it can engage in its particular
mission and in which it can lead a full and distinctive
liturgical life. Isn’t that the same as needing money?
Not necessarily. The Catholic Church in England
and Wales has plenty of buildings, some of which
in most areas of the country it could frankly do
without. The Ordinariate needs buildings. It’s
not, as they say, rocket science.
Some Ordinariate communities
have, under various agreements,
been given a church building
and parish by the local diocese,
including the central church
in Warwick Street, London.
But others, four years down
the road, are still lodgers,
and
feeling
frustrated that a
limit is being set
on the extent to which they are able to
realise Pope Benedict’s vision.
As a member of a group that is feeling curbed, I can
fully understand why another group would feel the
need to break out and take the plunge in buying its
own church, but surely with a bit of generosity of spirit
and a measure of common sense, it doesn’t have to be
that way.
Yes, we didn’t come in droves; no, we are not as big
numerically as we had hoped to be. But Pope Benedict’s
plan was more imaginative and visionary than simply
getting as many Anglicans into the Catholic Church as
possible.
Even a modest number of small and fragile
Ordinariate communities living the Catholic life in a
distinctively ‘best of Anglican’ way can realise the Holy
Father’s ambition of a Catholic unity that celebrates
diversity. If, that is, there’s a generosity of spirit to give
them the tools they need to do the job.