The Anglican ordinariates have been given permission by Pope Francis to evangelize lapsed Catholics. On 31 May 2013 the pope amended Article 5 of the ordinariates governing Norms, widening its base for evangelization from ex-Anglicans to include those Catholics who had fallen away from the church before being confirmed.
The new Article 5 §2 of the ordinariate’s Norms states:
A person who has been baptised in the Catholic Church but who has not completed the Sacraments of Initiation, and subsequently returns to the faith and practice of the Church as a result of the evangelising mission of the Ordinariate, may be admitted to membership in the Ordinariate and receive the Sacrament of Confirmation or the Sacrament of the Eucharist or both.
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Good. Now they need to allow them to evangelize lapsed Catholics who *have* been confirmed. It’s not like there’s going to be this seismic shift so that the tail ends up wagging the dog and everybody rushes off to a parish with married clergy and other novelities.
I am grateful to Pope Benedict for the provision of the Ordinariate. It is something that becomes more and more valuable here in the U.S. when the orthodox lose property wars. It also is something of a consummation of the Anglo-Catholic movement as it achieves, for some, the long-desired communion with the See of St. Peter.