In its 100-plus years Westminster Cathedral, the mother church of English Catholicism, will have seen few stranger sights than Saturday’s procession of three Anglican bishops’ wives, in matching beige coats, one with an outsized brown hat, going up on to the high altar to embrace their husbands, all newly ordained as Catholic priests. Catholicism isn’t that keen on women on the altar ”“ to the pain of the demonstrators from the Catholic Women’s Ordination movement protesting outside the cathedral’s doors ”“ and it doesn’t usually countenance priests having wives.
But this was no ordinary ceremony. Almost everyone who spoke during it used the word “historic” to describe the ordination as Catholic priests of John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton, all formerly Anglican bishops.
Peter Stanford’s article seems a bit snarky (or is it smarmy). He wrote of the “pain” of women demonstrating for priestesses to be ordained in the Catholic Church. How about the pain of people tired of seeing vital Traditions going back to the apostles being trashed by such demonstrators.
He then refers sarcastically to the Catholic-Orthodox ordination Tradition as being a “safe female-free haven.” Well, then the Last Supper can likewise be so sarcastically described.
As for the married priest issue that so perplexes him, he ought to be aware that not all the churches in communion with the pope follow the Latin Church’s celibacy tradition. Many Eastern Catholic Churches have a married parish clergy (Maronites, Ukrainians, Chaldeans, etc.) Other phrases he used such as “ringfenced section” and the choir “up in the gods” strikes me as being typical of a bitter liberal Roman Catholic who is afraid of the orthodox Catholic Faith becoming stronger through creative–even daring– unions of orthodox Catholic believers in communion with the successor to St. Peter.
Indeed, #1, and after seeing the NYT’s incomplete and misleading coverage and now this article here, one might wonder why this blog has not posted a straightforward and factual report on the event, such as this one (from the paper that Peter Standford apparently used to work for):
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/breaking/2011/01/15/priests-ordained-to-the-worlds-first-ordinariate/
TACit–Thanks for the link. I had not seen that professionally done news story on the event. The comments were also of interest.
Duly noted, deaconjohn25.
The Guardian’s reporting has been pretty weak gruel. Lots of bellyaching about aggrieved women lobbying to become priestesses. But there’s just flat-out innaccuracy here, too. They seem to be unaware that the Prayer Book and Anglican rites won’t be imported into the Ordinariate. It seems obvious to this observer that any liturgies or rites will not only have to be approved by the Vatican, but conform to RC doctrine.
No 4.,
What’s really bizarre, if I understand what the Ordinariate is going to do liturgically, is that they will eventually end up with some Anglican-sounding turns-of-phrase liturgy that’s been approved by the Vatican. The kicker is that a lot of the English Forward in Faith priests and parishes that are going to go over to the Ordinariate currently use a modified Roman missal anyway and not the prayerbook. So, if that occurs, you are going to have ex-Anglican priests doing a Anglicanish type liturgy for the first time, having never done so in the Anglican church proper.
Likwise, I don’t understand what the flight of fancy in the article was about referencing the protesters outside who want women priests. I thought that detracted from the article. It seems to me that the Ordinariate would be something they celebrate, as allowing mainstream married clergy in a non-Uniate branch of the Catholic church is in fact a reform.
But then, I guess you just can’t please some people.
#4 and #5 — doubtless most of the readers of this site are aware of this, but an example of Anglican rites modified to conform to Catholic usage can be found here:
The Book of Divine Worship (note: 7MB PDF)
This is the approved prayer book for Anglican Use parishes, which operate under an arrangement somewhat similar to the Ordinariate. I don’t know if the Ordinariate liturgical texts, when such appear, will resemble the BODW; but it seems at least plausible to imagine that they might.