THE
P RTAL
November 2016
Page 21
Letter from America
Fr James Bradley writes from Washington DC
In June
2013, Monsignor Newton assigned me to studies in Canon Law at The Catholic University
of America in Washington DC. In May this year I completed the first of two ecclesiastical degrees, the
Licentiate of Canon Law (JCL), and in June began the doctorate (JCD), with a dissertation entitled “The
Provenance and Purpose of Personal Ordinariates”. As this work continues, the editors of The Portal asked
me to offer some thoughts about my time here, my studies, and Ordinariate life in America.
The Catholic University of America
Studying the Personal Ordinariates
The Catholic University of America was founded
in 1887 to provide for American clergy who needed
ecclesiastical qualifications, but for whom the distance
from Rome meant this was otherwise impossible. The
School of Canon Law is one of two English-language
schools in the world, and attracts students from
dioceses and religious congregations across the United
States and further afield.
I have also been able to study matters directly
affecting the personal Ordinariates—from parishes
and clergy remuneration to our liturgical life, the role of
the laity, and collaboration with local dioceses. In all of
this, I have tried to take a dual historical and canonical
approach; showing that by tracing the development of
personal Ordinariates we can understand better what
we are called to be.
This makes it an excellent place
not only for the study of Canon
Law, but also for a formation in the
life and workings of the Catholic
Church. Those of us in the personal
Ordinariates have come to embrace
the Catholic faith, but we are perhaps
less familiar with the institution
and day-to-day operation of the
Church, and so to study Canon Law
in a context like this has been both
interesting and useful.
This has taken me from the
conversion of Newman in 1845,
through the ecumenical movement
and the fundamental changes in
the nature of Anglicanism, to the
present day, all in order better to
understand the responses of the
Holy See to groups of Anglicans
requesting communion. This has
been fascinating; discovering whole
dioceses that petitioned for corporate
reunion, and even finding draft
documents for structures similar to
Studying Canon Law
personal Ordinariates going as far
Canon Law is a study in the art of the detail, always back as the 1970s.
with a care for Christ’s faithful and thus led by the desire
for truth. Cardinal Raymond Burke, perhaps the most
I hope that I will have the chance to share this research
eminent Anglophone canonist, has written, “Canon more widely once my studies are complete, not least
Law is not for the faint of heart!” Pope Benedict XVI’s because it makes clear that principle: understanding
private secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, said of the developments that led to Anglicanorum cœtibus
his own studies: “I’d always studied gladly and easily, are the key also to understanding what the apostolic
but studying Canon Law I felt to be as dry as work in constitution means now, and how it is to be effectively
a quarry where there’s no beer—you die of dryness.”
implemented.
Well, perhaps the “beer” I discovered is an area of
study about which I am particularly passionate. I have
found my professors and colleagues to be not only
supportive of my focus on our personal Ordinariates,
but also interested in the work because of the newness
these structures represent. I have been able to
contribute in areas that I never expected, because the
viewpoint of the Ordinariates is respected in a way
that (I pray) will in time assist our growth, as well as
aid the mission of the wider Church.
Pastoral and Parish Work
During this time, I have been fortunate to live in a
wonderful parish on Capitol Hill: Holy Comforter—
Saint Cyprian. Members of the community here hosted
families during the famous March on Washington led
by Martin Luther King in 1963, and the life of the
parish involves many of the same parishioners and
their families. The Sunday Mass remains firmly in the
African-American tradition, with a strong emphasis
on Gospel Music.