Paul Zalonski – Page 480

Msgr. Stetson speaks about the Personal Ordinariate

Zenit ran an interview the other about the recent
development of possibilities of full communion of the Anglicans with Rome. The
details of how this gesture of the Church has yet to be revealed by the
Magisterium. Here is part of Karna Sawanson’s interview with Monsignor
William Stetson, secretary to the Ecclesiastical Delegate of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith for the Pastoral Provision for former Episcopal
priests. This part of the interview has to do with “personal ordinariates,” the
ecclesial structure proposed for living in the context of Anglican ways.

ZENIT:
What is the aim of establishing the personal ordinariates? Why was the pastoral
provision not sufficient?

Msgr. Stetson: The pastoral provision is merely an
administrative process for preparing married, former Episcopal priests to be
ordained as Catholic priests at the request of diocesan bishops. The new
ordinariate will provide a canonical structure similar to a diocese for the
pastoral care of lay faithful who convert from the Episcopal church.

ZENIT:
This canonical structure seems to respond directly to a petition made two years
ago by the Traditional Anglican Communion, which has about 400,000 members
worldwide. Do you see many or most of these members entering into communion
with the Catholic Church through the personal ordinariate?

Msgr. Stetson: The
Traditional Anglican Communion is in reality a confederation of so-called
dioceses located in many different countries; it is made up of priests and lay
people and bishops. The Traditional Anglican Communion as such has never been
part of the Anglican Communion under the Archbishop of Canterbury. What will
happen to the dioceses in particular countries will depend on the decisions
reached by the Catholic hierarchy in the respective countries together with the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Their numbers are greater in Africa
and Asia.

ZENIT: What will the process look like for Anglicans, especially
priests and bishops, entering the Church through the ordinariate?

Msgr.
Stetson: The Apostolic Constitution allowing for the creation of ordinariates
in each country has not yet been issued. For this reason we do not know the
nature of the process. I would anticipate that it will be similar to that used
for the last 27 years by the Pastoral Provision here in the United States, and
its counterpart in England (that did not, however, provide for parishes and liturgy,
as in the United States.)

ZENIT: The Vatican announcement provided for the
possibility of an Anglican ordinariate having seminarians, who are to be
prepared alongside Catholic seminarians, “though the ordinariate may
establish a house of formation to address the particular needs of formation in
the Anglican patrimony.” Would this include the possibility of marriage
for these Anglican seminarians?

Msgr. Stetson: The specifics have not yet been
made known on this question. At the very least I would assume that the
seminarians would have to be both married and studying in an Anglican seminary
at the time they sought to enter into full communion, and then continue
studying for the priesthood in a Catholic seminary. They would have to be
dispensed from the norm of celibacy on a case-by-case basis by the Holy See.
Future seminarians would have to be celibate.

ZENIT: What other traditions will
the Anglicans retain when they enter the Catholic Church by way of the personal
ordinariate?

Msgr. Stetson: Small parishes that allow for greater cohesion
together. A rich tradition of liturgical expression (language, music,
vestments, space, etc.) in English, dating back to the 16th century. This would
also include a great tradition of the use of sacred Scripture in preaching,
love for the Fathers of the Church and theological expression beyond that of
Roman Catholic scholasticism.

ZENIT: Why is the Vatican able to offer this
concession only to Anglicans, and not Lutherans, Presbyterians, etc., who would
like to enter the Church?

Msgr. Stetson: Anglicans have always enjoyed a
special place in Roman Catholic attitudes toward the rupture of Christian unity
in the West after the 16th century. The Church of England sought to retain many
elements of the Catholic Church while at the same time being Protestant. The
Church of England maintained a greater unity within itself and thus could be
dealt with as a single entity in conversations with Rome.

Unity among ourselves only lasts because of the Eucharist

Be united with one another, and God will bless
you. But let it be by the charity of Jesus Christ, for any union which is
not sealed by the blood of Our Savior cannot perdure. It is therefore in
Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ, and for Jesus Christ that you ought to be united
with one another. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is a spirit of union and of
peace. How can you attract people to Christ if you are not united with
one another and with him?

Saint Vincent de Paul

Saints Simon & Jude (Thaddeus)

O God, Who through Thy blessed Apostles Simon and Jude, has brought us unto the knowledge of Thy Name, grant us both to celebrate their eternal glory by making progress in virtues and by celebrating their glory to advance in virtue.

Blessed Bonaventure of Potenza

Lord, Your strength gives joy to the just. They greatly delight in Your saving help. You have granted them their heart’s desire.

Almighty God, You have made blessed Bonaventure Illustrious in the virtue of obedience and in love for neighbor. Through his prayers and example grant us to comply with Your precepts, to rejoice in spirit, and to advance on the way of perfection.

Blessed Bonaventure’s bio

Saint John of Capistrano

They sang, O Lord, Your holy name and praised in unison Your conquering hand.

God, our Father, You raised up in Saint John to strengthen the faithful in a time of stress. Establish us in Your safe protection and keep Your Church in lasting peace.

Poor Saint John gets associated with the migration of the swallows. How unfortunate to have your life and life’s project get linked with the fowl. There is always a back story. He studied law, a civil servant, was married but the marriage was annulled with the wife’s permission because as it was never consummated, a priest, a very effective preacher, healer and reformer and ecclesial servant. A disciple of Saint Bernardine of Siena and therefore had a devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus and promoted it. See the Wiki article on Saint John and Catholic encyclopedia article on him is here. A Franciscan hagiographical piece on the saint is noted here. Reading all this I’d say the birds didn’t reveal the saint’s importance.

Saint Peter of Alcantara

May I never boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! Through it the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

Almighty God, You were pleased to distinguish Saint Peter with the gift of remarkable penance and lofty contemplation. May his merits help us to mortify our bodies so that we may deserve to share in the gifts of heaven.

He did what we are encouraged to do today: preach on the Prophets and Wisdom books of the Bible. The Catholic encyclopedia’s entry on Saint Peter may be found here and the Wiki article may be read here.

Leaning on the Master

I frequently
stand in awe of people who, like Pope Benedict, can draw my attention to the
essentials of faith, reason and culture. His audience on Wednesday where he
speaks about St. Bernard is one of these instances because he shows me the
beauty of St. Bernard, the purpose of theology study, life with the saints, and why we have to suffer some things for the Kingdom. For example, the Pope
offers a corrective in my work as a seminarian.

Here are a few germane sentences with emphasis added: In one place in the talk Pope says: “Faith is above all an
individual and intimate encounter with Jesus; it means experiencing His
closeness, His friendship and His love.” He continues “St. Bernard, solidly
based on the Bible and on the Fathers of the Church, reminds us that without a profound
faith in God, nourished by prayer and contemplation, by a profound relationship
with the Lord, our reflections on the divine mysteries risk becoming a futile
intellectual exercise, and lose their credibility. Theology takes us back to
the “science of the saints,” to their intuitions of the mysteries of
the living God, to their wisdom, gift of the Holy Spirit, which become the
point of reference for theological thought.”

And given that I think there’s much discussion
in a seminary work, sometimes too much discussion, I am leaning St. Bernard as
he says, “but perhaps He can be sought better and found more easily with
prayer than with discussion. We put an end here to the book, but not to the
search.”

(Pope Benedict XVI,
Wednesday General Audience, October 21, 2009)

Thoughts on the Holy See’s offer to the Anglicans to come to Rome

It is a dramatic slap-down of
liberal Anglicanism and a total repudiation of the ordination of women,
homosexual marriage and the general neglect of doctrine in Anglicanism. Indeed,
it is a final rejection of Anglicanism. It basically interprets Anglicanism as
a spiritual patrimony based on ethnic tradition rather than substantial
doctrine and makes clear that it is not a historic “church” but
rather an “ecclesial community” that strayed and now is invited to return
to communion with the Pope as Successor of Peter.

The Vatican was careful to
schedule simultaneously with the Vatican announcement, a press conference of
the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster and the deeply humiliated Anglican
Archbishop of Canterbury to enable the Anglicans to save some face by saying
that this recognizes the spiritual patrimony of Anglicanism and that ecumenical
dialogue goes ahead. That is like George Washington at Yorktown saying that he
recognizes the cultural contributions of Britain and hopes diplomatic relations
flourish. The Apostolic Constitution is not a retraction of ecumenical desires,
but rather is the fulfillment of ecumenical aspirations, albeit not the way
most Anglican leaders had envisioned it.

The press, uninformed and always
tabloid in matters of religion, will zoom in on the permission for married
priests. They will miss the most important point: that this reiterates the
Catholic Church’s insistence that Anglican Holy Orders are invalid, and
perforce so is their Eucharist. These married Anglican priests have to be fully
and validly ordained by a Catholic bishop. Following Orthodox custom, they
are allowed to marry only before ordination and not after. And no married man
may become a bishop. (Thus, any Anglican bishop joining one of these
“ordinariates” would no longer be recognized as a bishop. Under
special provision, Anglican bishops would have some right to pastoral authority,
but would not be bishops.)

It remains to be seen how many Anglicans
(Episcopalians in the USA) will be received into the Catholic Church under
these provisions, but it is a final nail in the coffin of the rapidly
disintegrating Anglicanism at least in the West and will radically challenge
Anglicans in other parts of the world. Perhaps most importantly, it sets a
precedent for reunion with Orthodox churches whose Holy Orders the Catholic
Church already recognizes as valid. I should not be surprised if the Anglican
Archbishop of Canterbury eventually is received into the Catholic Church, at
least when he retires and gets a patent of nobility and a pension.

Fr. George
Rutler is pastor of The Church of Our Saviour in New York City and is a convert
to Catholicism from the Anglican Communion.

Saint Rose Catholic Forum

Saint Rose Catholic Forum

is pleased to present

“Celebrating
the Faith”

Luncheon with special guest Dr. Peter Kreeft

Professor of
Philosophy at Boston College

October 25th – 1:00 pm

St. Rose Church, 46 Church
Hill Road, Newtown, CT

$10 dollar donation for adults, $5 for children requested not required. Please reserve your place by email: Strosecatholicforum@gmail.com or call the St. Rose Parish Office at 203.426.1014.

Luncheon from 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

Event #1

1:30pm: “Is the Church ‘beautiful’? And is
that a good reason to be a Catholic?”

Event #2

3:30 pm: Book signing and talk- Monsignor Conroy Room – Precious
& practical profundities in the greatest book of the 20th Century: The Lord
of the Rings

Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy at Boston
College and at the King’s College (Empire State Building), in New York City. He
is a regular contributor to several Christian publications, is in wide demand
as a speaker at conferences, and is the author of over 45 books. For more
information, go to www.peterkreeft.com

Weak but love by You, O God

We are weak, O God, and capable of giving in at the
first assault. By your pure loving kindness you have called us; may your
infinite goodness, please, now help us persevere. For our part, with your
holy grace, we will try with all our strength to summon up all the service and
all the faithfulness that you ask of us. So give us, O God, give us the
grace to persevere until death. This is what I ask of you through the
merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ with confidence that you will remember me.

Saint
Vincent de Paul