Apostolic Constitution for Returning Anglicans Released

On November 9, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI released the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, which governs the creation of "personal ordinariates for Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church." The document, which was announced on October 20, is the culmination of two years of work in response to the October 2007 request of the Traditional Anglican Communion for "full, corporate, and sacramental union" with the Catholic Church. (Since the announcement, the U.K. branch of the TAC has voted to take the Holy Father up on his offer.)

If the October 20 announcement was a surprise, the contents of the Apostolic Constitution are an even greater one. Not in the sense that they show that Pope Benedict is committed to Christian reunification; he has made that clear from the beginning of his pontificate. Nor in the sense that it is very generous in allowing the celebration of

the Holy Eucharist and the other Sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical celebrations according to the liturgical books proper to the Anglican tradition, which have been approved by the Holy See, so as to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared.

As Francis X. Rocca pointed out after the announcement, the Holy Father might be described as a "liturgical pluralist" who encourages diversity in liturgical expression, so long as that diversity has developed organically and is not simply change for change's sake (much less for the sake of ideology).

Rather, the surprise in the Apostolic Constitution is how far Pope Benedict has been willing to go, short of compromising Catholic teaching on the invalidity of Anglican orders, to maintain the current structure of Anglican bodies entering into full communion with Rome.

Thus, while a married Anglican bishop (of which there are quite a few) will not be eligible to receive episcopal ordination in the Catholic Church, he will, like other married Anglican priests, be eligible for priestly ordination. Even beyond that, however, he will be "eligible to be appointed Ordinary" (since orinaries can be drawn from the ranks of either bishops or priests), in which case he (like any other ordinary) would have quasi-episcopal authority and may even "request permission from the Holy See to use the insignia of the episcopal office."

On a pastoral level, this provision is really quite brilliant; it will ease the transition of Anglican communities into the Catholic Church, while maintaining the Church's tradition that bishops must be unmarried.

One other interesting element of the Apostolic Constitution is the possibility of allowing married men who were not previously ordained in the Anglican Church to become priests. While, "as a rule," the ordinary "will admit only celibate men to the order of presbyter," he may also

petition the Roman Pontiff, as a derogation from can. 277, §1 [which establishes the norm of clerical celibacy in the Roman rite], for the admission of married men to the order of presbyter on a case by case basis, according to objective criteria approved by the Holy See.

Such men cannot come from the outside, however (for example, from the Roman rite), but must come from "only those faithful who belong to a personal parish of the Ordinariate or who were previously Anglican and have established full communion with the Catholic Church."

Along with other measures, such as the ability of ordinaries to "erect new Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life," these concessions to the sensibilities of former Anglicans make this Apostolic Constitution seem more like the creation of a new Anglican rite within the Catholic Church rather than the wholesale incorporation of former Anglicans into the Roman rite.

One thing is certain: It will be fascinating to watch this process unfold over the coming years and decades.

More on Anglicans Returning to Rome:

• Differences Between Anglicanism and Roman Catholicism
• Pope Benedict to Anglicans: Come Home to Rome
• The End of the Anglican Communion
• Pope Benedict XVI: Liberal?
• Saint Paul of the Cross and the Conversion of England
• The "Liturgical Pluralism" of Pope Benedict XVI
• Episcopal Bishops Coming Home to Rome
• "No Half-Way House Between Canterbury and Rome"
• Reader Question: Anglican Converts and Married Priests
• Traditional Anglicans Seek Return to Rome
• Will the Anglican Church Split Over Homosexual Bishops?
• Forum Friday: Anglican Catholics