Another View -- Part II

Here is Part II of my visitor's very thoughtful and thorough e-mail, with some of my comments:

More recently, the Vatican established two bodies for those who continue to adhere to the Tridentine form or the Roman liturgy after the Second Vatican Council.

• In 1988, Pope John Paul II constituted the Fraternal Society of St. Peter (FSSP) as a clerical religious order for former members of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) who chose not to follow Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the rest of the SSPX into schism.
• In 2002, Pope John Paul II canonically erected the Personal Apostolic Administration of St. John Mary Vianney, officially with the same territory of the Diocese of Campos, Brazil, for the newly reconciled former Priestly Union of St. John Mary Vianney, with Bishop Lucinio Rangell of the former organization becoming its first apostolic administrator. Pope John Paul II subsequently appointed Fr. Fernando Arêas Rifan, then Bishop Rangell's vicar general, as Coadjutor Bishop of this body. Bishop Rifan subsequently became the Apostolic Administrator by automatic succession upon Bishop Rangell's death in December 2002. Like each of the ordinariates, this body is canonically equivalent to a diocese.

Pope Benedict XVI also put an autonomous ecclesial structure for the SSPX on the table in negotiations with the SSPX. Unfortunately, that body's doctrinal errors are standing in the way of reconciliation. It seems pretty clear the establishment of some sort of structure that would enable former Anglicans and former Protestants to retain their liturgical and ecclesiastical traditions and their pastoral leadership within the Catholic Church would be consistent with all of this precedent. Of course, there are two significant differences.

1. Anglican and Protestant Christians generally do not teach the whole of Catholic doctrine, nor are they validly confirmed, nor are their clergy validly ordained. The process of reception must rectify these deficiencies, and thus must be more substantial than the stroke of a pen to create a new jurisdiction.
2. Bishops, or those in similar positions of leadership, in Anglican and Protestant bodies typically are married. The Orthodox Communion maintains a celibate episcopacy, so the Vatican has no small concern that ordination of married men to the episcopate would create new issues in ecumenical relations with the Orthodox Communion -- which, BTW, are progressing very, very well. The Vatican decided to call these jurisdictions "ordinariates" rather than "dioceses" to permit a married presbyter to serve as the "ordinary." The intent, indicated in the apostolic constitution "Anglicanorum coetibus" and the associated "Complementary Norms," has always been that a celibate "ordinary" will receive episcopal ordination, but that a married "ordinary" will not.

The Holy Father's visit to Lund, Sweden as some sort of ecumenical gesture is problematic. It doesn't seem as though the Vatican's stance over Lutheranism will change, yet vague moves or statements could lead to confusion here. In any case, nobody in Sweden seems to have taken it seriously. But this does raise serious questions about the specifics of any such Protestant reconciliation, which goes to the issue I will raise below. My visitor continues,

The ability of pastors to retain their positions of leadership is vital if we are to realize full Christian unity, which is the Catholic Church understands to be the ultimate goal of all ecumenism.

Pastors who will be "out of a job" upon receptions of their congregations into the full communion of the Catholic Church are not likely to lead their congregations in that direction.

Parishioners who know and love their pastors are not likely to be so eager to come into the full communion of the Catholic Church if doing so means unknown and uncertain pastoral leadership. So the result is that congregations and larger bodies will remain separate in the absence of such provisions. The present ordinariates are prophetic, in that they show the way to reconciliation and full Christian unity.

The inability of pastors to retain their positions was a major factor that contributed to the disappointment in the startup of the OCSP. The ACA St Columba Lancaster, CA parish stayed out of the OCSP when Houston discovered obstacles to its pastor's ordination. The inability of St Mary of the Angels and Our Lady of the Atonement to join appears to have been related directly to political maneuvering to replace the pastors in those parishes. There may have been other such cases, and by the summer of 2012, the opinion was expressed that former Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth clergy were corrupting the selection process.

The difficulty in any attempt to take a Protestant body into the Catholic Church is always, it seems to me, going to be tied up with who keeps his job. Clearly Houston was insufficiently sensitive to this issue.