An Anglican Bridge Across the Tiber
A former Anglican vicar now a Catholic priests reflects on the Apostolic Constitution

by Fr. Dwight Longenecker
Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6923444.ece
November 19, 2009

Last Monday I was traveling to Tampa, Florida for a week long retreat with other Catholic priests who were once Anglican priests. In the airport I got an email with the news that the new Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus had been published. Suddenly the rest of the week's program was decided. My brother priests and I spent time studying the document and discussing its implications.

Cardinal Kasper says provision for Anglicans is not anti-ecumenical

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The establishment of special structures for Anglicans who want to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church absolutely is not a signal of the end of ecumenical dialogue with the Anglican Communion, said the Vatican's chief ecumenist.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said the visit Nov. 19-22 of Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, primate of the Anglican Communion, to the Vatican "demonstrates that there has been no rupture and reaffirms our common desire to talk to one another at a historically important moment."

LONDON: It's time for Dr Rowan Williams to square up to a rampant Rome

On Thursday, Dr Rowan Williams makes his own journey to see Pope Benedict in Rome Dr Williams must challenge the Pontiff over his raid on Anglo-Catholics

OPINION

By George Pitcher
The Telegraph
http://tinyurl.com/yhqu66m
November 16, 2009

I've lost count of the times I've been asked joshingly over the past couple of weeks whether I'm going over to Rome. I'd love to go to Rome, I reply, not least because my daughter has promised to buy me a Bellini in her favourite bar by the Pantheon. But there is about as much chance of me taking up the Vatican's offer of conversion to Roman Catholicism, under its new Apostolic Constitution, as there is of Pope Benedict XVI subsidising free condoms for Africa.

Rome opens arms to world's Anglicans

By Anna Arco
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/articles/a0000684.shtml
November 13, 2009

The Vatican has released an eagerly awaited document outlining the Pope's provision for Anglican groups wishing to enter into full communion with Rome.

The Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus ("On groups of Anglicans") was published on Monday, two weeks after the Vatican announced a new provision for Anglican communities that wish to become Catholic while retaining aspects of their Anglican identity. The document, which introduces a new legal structure called a Personal Ordinariate, was accompanied by a set of complementary norms, clarifying some of the points outlined.

Anglicans focus on home, and Rome

By Trevor Timpson
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8340022.stm
November 13, 2009

New rules on admission to the Roman Catholic Church have been hailed by some discontented Anglicans as an answer to their prayers. But not by all.

Anglicans in Sevenoaks, Kent, have given mixed reactions to the Apostolic Constitution published by the Vatican.

Since the Church of England first ordained women priests in the 1990s several hundred Anglicans have taken the road to Rome; many married Anglican priests have been ordained in the Roman Catholic church.

VATICAN: Pope 'is not trying to lure Anglicans into the Catholic Church'

By Nick Pisa in Rome
http://tinyurl.com/yg2xp9v
Nov. 10, 2009

Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope's official spokesman, spoke out following the recent announcement that the Pontiff would allow traditional Anglicans to "move to Rome" - which was seen as a possible shift in policy on the celibacy of priests.

In the Roman Catholic Church, priests are not allowed to marry or have sexual intercourse and Father Lombardi made his comments after the Vatican published a guide for Anglicans who want to convert called "The Apostolic Constitution".

Pope's historic offer creates an Anglican tradition within the Catholic Church

By Damian Thompson
http://tinyurl.com/yjzxpz3
November 9th, 2009

Pope Benedict XVI's Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans wishing to convert, published today, has surprised everyone by the scope of its ambitions and its extraordinary tributes to Anglican spirituality, elements of which the Pope believes will greatly enrich the Catholic Church. There is a sense in which Rome is recognising, for the first time, that you can be Anglican and Roman Catholic.

The immediate reaction from Forward in Faith has been very positive indeed. Bishop John Broadhurst of Fulham said this morning: "I had thought the original notice from Rome was extremely generous. Today all the accompanying papers have been published and they are extremely impressive."

LONDON: GAFCON Primates statement on Vatican offer

A Statement from GAFCON/FCA Primates Council

November 10, 2009

RESPONSE TO OFFER OF AN APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION TO ANGLICANS

We have received the Archbishop of Canterbury's letter informing us of the Pope's offer of an 'Apostolic Constitution' for those Anglicans who wish to be received into the Roman Catholic Church. We believe that this offer is a gracious one and reflects the same commitment to the historic apostolic faith, moral teaching and global mission that we proclaimed in the Jerusalem Declaration on the Global Anglican Future and for this we are profoundly grateful.

We are, however, grieved that the current crisis within our beloved Anglican Communion has made necessary such an unprecedented offer. It represents a grave indictment of the Instruments of Communion whose very purpose is to strengthen and protect our unity in obedience to our Lord's clear command. Their failure to fully address the abandonment of biblical faith and practice by The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada has now brought shame to the name of Christ and seriously impedes the cause of the Gospel.

Vatican Commentary on New Norms for Anglicans

by Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda

This commentary was written by Jesuit Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, who currently serves as rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University.

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 9, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the official Vatican commentary on the significance of the apostolic constitution "Anglicanorum Coetibus." Both the constitution and the commentary were published today by the Holy See, along with the constitution's complementary norms.


* * *

The Apostolic Constitution "Anglicanorum Coetibus" of November 4th 2009, provides the essential norms which will govern the erection and the life of Personal Ordinariates for those Anglican faithful who wish to enter, either corporately or individually, into full communion with the Catholic Church. In this way, as it says in the Introduction, the Holy Father Benedict XVI - Supreme Pastor of the Church and, by mandate of Christ, guarantor of the unity of the episcopate and of the universal communion of all the Churches - has shown his fatherly care for those Anglican faithful (lay, clerics and members of Institutes of Consecrated life and of Societies of Apostolic Life) who have repeatedly petitioned the Holy See to be received into full Catholic Communion.

ANGLICAN PERSPECTIVE: Vatican's Apostolic Constitution explained

By Bill Franklin
Episcopal News Service
November 9, 2009

The text of the new Apostolic Constitution for former Anglicans entering into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church has now been released. Pope Benedict announces a new path of unity for Christians separated from the Roman Catholic Church in his letter. He says: "This Apostolic Constitution opens a new avenue for the promotion of Christian unity."

But the future of Christian unity foreseen in this text is found by returning to the past. The document, "On the Groups of Anglicans," seems to be a return to the philosophy of the 1928 papal encyclical Mortalium Animos of 1928, "On Fostering True Religious Unity."

VATICAN CITY: Papal document on former Anglicans maintains some Anglican traditions

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0904970.htm
November 10, 2009

Former Anglicans entering the Catholic Church can preserve their liturgical traditions, married priests in some circumstances and even a shade of their consultative decision-making processes, according to Pope Benedict XVI's document on new structures for welcoming the former Anglicans.

The pope's apostolic constitution "Anglicanorum Coetibus" ("Groups of Anglicans") was published Nov. 9 at the Vatican along with specific norms governing the establishment and governance of "personal ordinariates," structures similar to dioceses, for former Anglicans who become Catholic.

"Conversion is not necessary and absorption is not appropriate"

By Archbishop Mark Haverland
November 9, 2009


A response from the Anglican Catholic Church to Rome's Offer to Former Anglicans

1. Rome's Offer

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) on October 20th issued a widely publicized Note that summarizes a forthcoming Apostolic Constitution concerning former Anglicans seeking to be received into full union with the Roman Catholic Church.. This Constitution, as best one can judge from the Note, mainly will do two new things:

First, it will extend internationally terms offered already to some in North America by the Pastoral Provision and by the Book of Divine Worship. The Pastoral Provision permits ordination as Roman Catholic priests for some married, formerly Anglican clergy who join the Roman Catholic Church, and this despite the general Roman demand for clerical celibacy. The Book of Divine Worship contains some liturgical forms which have sources in the Anglican tradition: the so-called Anglican Use. At present these forms may be permitted by the local Roman bishop when both a group of former Anglicans desiring the Use and also a competent priest are present. The Pastoral Provision has permitted many dozens of former Anglican clergymen to become Roman Catholic priests. The Anglican Use, in contrast, has had little success, with fewer than ten congregations. In any case, the Apostolic Constitution will extend beyond North America permission both for the Roman Catholic ordination of married, former Anglicans and also for some Anglican liturgical usages within the Roman Church.

OFFICIAL TEXT: APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS PROVIDING FOR PERSONAL ORDINARIATES FOR ANGLICANS ENTERING INTO FULL COMMUNION WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

9.11.2009

APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS PROVIDING FOR PERSONAL ORDINARIATES FOR ANGLICANS ENTERING INTO FULL COMMUNION WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

# PRESS RELEASE

# APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS

# COMPLEMENTARY NORMS FOR THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS

Forward in Faith UK offers first reaction to publication of Anglicanorum Coetibus

by John Broadhurst
November 9, 2009

The Holy See has today published the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, which will provide for Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church. The text of the Apostolic Constitution, and its Complementary Norms, can be read here.
http://tinyurl.com/ygzfha7

The Chairman of Forward in Faith, Bishop John Broadhurst, has issued the following interim statement to those clergy who look to him, as Bishop of Fulham, for episcopal care at the present time and he is happy to share it with the membership of Forward in Faith worldwide.

UK: Church Society Responds to proposals from Rome

Church Society Council Response
http://www.evangelicals.org/news.asp?id=1074
November 4, 2009

The following is a response from the Council of Church Society to the plans by the Church of Rome to receive disaffected Anglicans.

According to its own doctrinal standards and history, the Church of England's true nature is that of a Protestant, Reformed, Evangelical and catholic (in other words, universal) church. Orthodox Anglicanism is therefore defined by reference to these characteristics only, which are set out in the Thirty-nine Articles and the Church of England's submission to the over-arching authority of Scripture alone. Church Society seeks to defend and promote these defining characteristics, especially the Gospel of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone which is at the heart of the message and mission of the Church of England.