THE
P RTAL
April 2018
Mgr Keith responded, “When the Apostolic
Constitution was published, there was a commentary by
Fr Girlanda, a senior lawyer from Rome, about what the
Ordinariate is. It was very clear there are two aspects.
“One: it was a way to allow former Anglicans to enter
into full communion with the Catholic Church. That’s
really important, as we want to be part of the Catholic
Church and integrate ourselves into the life of the
church; we are not separate, especially from the life of
the Latin Church. We aren’t a ritual church.
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encouraged that more people are using Divine Worship
than I would have thought and more are using the
customary than I would have thought for their Office.
This is to be encouraged, but our patrimony is much
more than this.
“We are as much Catholic as anyone else, but we
have treasures which we need to share in the Universal
Church. That is a really important thing so no one
should suggest that our priests and people should just
be absorbed into the wider church.
“The other part which is very clear is that the
Ordinariate is to maintain the liturgical, spiritual
and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion
within the Catholic Church as a precious gift nurturing
the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and the
treasures to be shared. That’s really important. “We are here to preach the gospel to the world.
Most people out there, whether they are nominal
Anglicans, Catholics or Methodists, know little about
the Christian faith. They are all there to be evangelised
and we have an important part to play. We must have a
right mind about this
“The reason I say that there’s misunderstanding is I
think you will meet people who think that really what
the Ordinariate should do is be just like a leaven in
the Catholic Church in England and Wales and make
a contribution; help to improve things in this way,
bring little bits of the Anglican patrimony which will
be a bit like spoon full of sugar in coffee, it will just be
dissolved and won’t be very obvious. “I just want to encourage all our members to be
committed to what Pope Benedict XVI gave us, and I
think we have an obligation to him. We were so grateful
for what he did through the CDF and I think the way
to show our gratitude is to try to fulfil the vision that
he had - and it’s an ecumenical vision. People should
not minimise that. Our numbers are small but the
Ordinariate’s significance ecumenically is enormous.
“That is not what the Apostolic Constitution
says. Quite clearly, it is not for the Ordinariate to be
absorbed into the local Church. In fact, interestingly
recently I was sent a published doctoral thesis about the
Ordinariate which said at one point that anecdotally
there have been some comments from clergy that there
is still an Anglican feel about some of our Ordinariate
communities without a feeling of wanting to integrate
fully into the Catholic Church. Well if there isn’t that
Anglican feel, then there is no point in the Ordinariate
so that is a total misunderstanding from a diocesan
point of view. Such people want these traditions to be
absorbed but they are not to be absorbed they are to
be shared. “The question is, if there is to be corporate unity
between the Catholic Church and other ecclesial
bodies, what might it look like? The Ordinariate is
the only example of wh