News Updates

First, my regular correspondent tells me that Msgr Peter Wilkinson has been named Dean of St John Baptist Deanery in Canada. Msgr Wilkinson had retired five years ago at age 74 as Parochial Administrator of the Blessed John Henry Newman community in Victoria, BC. This means that Msgr Wilkinson, now 79, can only be a temporary fix to the dire personnel issue facing the Canadian deanery, since this is an acknowledgement that no current OCSP priest can be a realistic choice to replace Fr Carl Reid, designated to become ordinary in Australia. Nevertheless, my correspondent estimates that the deanship in Canada can't be an especially demanding job.

I assume any dean in Canada is anyhow told not to interfere with the ongoing process of restoring the Gilbertines in Calgary. That calls for the expertise of a real pro like Fr Perkins.

Second, several visitors have informed me that the CDF on April 9 issued updates to the Complementary Norms for Anglicanorum coetibus. The biggest change is the addition of a new Article 15 concerning the celebration of the Divine Worship mass. An explanatory note goes into more detail:

In the new Complementary Norms, an entire article has been added, number 15, dedicated to the celebration of Divine Worship. It is acknowledged that the Missal proper to the personal Ordinariates, entitled “Divine Worship”, namely the form approved by the Holy See for use by the Ordinariate, expresses and preserves for Catholic worship “the worthy Anglican liturgical patrimony, understood as that which has nourished the Catholic faith throughout the history of the Anglican tradition and prompted aspirations towards ecclesial unity”.

This is the reason for the emphasis that public liturgical worship following Divine Worship is limited to the personal Ordinariates, as established by the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, explains Gori. “Any priest incardinated in the Ordinariate is authorized to celebrate using Divine Worship. This applies outside the parishes of the Ordinariate when the priest celebrates Mass without the participation of the faithful, and also publicly with the permission of the rector or parish priest of the church or of the parish concerned. Furthermore, when pastoral needs demand it, or in the absence of a priest incardinated in an Ordinariate, if requested, any priest incardinated in the diocese or in an institute of consecrated life or of a society of apostolic life can celebrate in accordance with Divine Worship for the members of the Ordinariate. Finally, it is granted to any priest incardinated in the diocese or in an institute of consecrated life or in a society of apostolic life to concelebrate following Divine Worship”.

There is nothing particularly new here, and reviewing the Complementary Norms as updated in their new form, I continue to be impressed with how loosely and creatively they're apparently enforced. Consider Article 5 §1:

The lay faithful originally of the Anglican tradition who wish to belong to the Ordinariate, after having made their Profession of Faith and received the Sacraments of Initiation, with due regard for Canon 845, are to be entered in the apposite register of the Ordinariate. Those who have received all of the Sacraments of Initiation outside the Ordinariate are not ordinarily eligible for membership, unless they are members of a family belonging to the Ordinariate.

But as far as I'm aware, "originally of the Anglican tradition" has never been explicitly defined, and both clergy and laity with only the most remote connection with "Anglicanism" seem to have full eligibility as "members" (whatever, of course, "membership" actually denotes).

As I say here frequently, the only good thing about this is how few people are involved.