4. What is the role of former Anglican bishops?
A married former Anglican bishop is eligible to be appointed Ordinary. In such a case he is to be ordained a priest in the Catholic Church and then exercises pastoral and sacramental ministry within the Ordinariate with full jurisdictional authority.
A former Anglican bishop who belongs to the Ordinariate may be invited to participate in the meetings of the Bishops’ Conference of the respective territory, with the equivalent statutes of a retired bishop.
A former Anglican bishop who belongs to the Ordinariate and who has not been ordained in the Catholic Church, may request permission from the Holy See to use the insignia of the episcopal office.
5. What is the role of former Anglican priests?
Former Anglican priests who are married may be re-ordained to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church. “Those who have been previously ordained in the Catholic Church and subsequently have become Anglicans, may not exercise sacred ministry in the Ordinariate,” the constitution says. “Anglican clergy who are in irregular marriage situations may not be accepted for Holy Orders in the Ordinariate.”
“But the future of Christian unity foreseen in this text is found by returning to the past.”
Implied in Franklin’s statement is a claim that the past (starting with the 11th-c Gregorian reform) is bad or at least compromised and that Rome made a mistake by veering away (to some degree or other) from ecumenical activity in the more recent past (i.e., the past 40 years). I think I am correct in stating that for some RCs and Anglicans, ecumenical dialogue of the past 40 years – the track Franklin seems to believe Benedict XVI should have maintained – has been not that “the only road to Christian unity is for all to admit their errors and return to Rome†but that the only road to Christian unity is for the RCC to admit its errors, abandon the past and catch up with the Anglican Communion on all the “forward-looking†issues. What I find off-putting about Franklin’s piece is the assumption that his value judgments concerning past and future speak for themselves.