Friday, January 17, 2020

What Means "Ordinariate Catholic"?

I've noticed an increasing use of the term "Ordinariate Catholic" as part of the North American ordinariate's recent rebranding, which pretty clearly includes dropping the term "Anglican", except when it doesn't. A web search of the specific phrase brought up a good many hits, like this article in the Register from September 2018, "Passion to Evangelize Drives New Ordinariate Catholic Communities":
The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is one of three established dioceses under the Holy See that reintegrate the Anglican patrimony with the Catholic Church. In North America, the ordinariate began with a wave of Anglican and Episcopal communities that entered into full communion with the bishop of Rome. But the ordinariate is seeing its own communities grow, and new communities develop, through active evangelization built on common prayer, fellowship, hard work and perseverance.
But this description was actually out of date as of 2018. There was never much of a "wave of Anglican and Episcopal communities", and it had washed back off the beach within a couple of years. The communities aren't growing; their membership seems universally stagnant in double digits, while Our Lady of the Atonement is clearly shrinking. The best hope is a new model of groups that can find an angel donor who will fund a facility in hopes it will appeal to cradle Catholics.

The incoherence of the mission is apparent farther down. It first quotes Bp Lopes:

Bishop Lopes explained that the ordinariate “flows from the ecumenical vision of Benedict XVI,” who taught “the unity of faith allows for a diversity of expression of that faith.” He said Benedict XVI, when he established the ordinariates through the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, recognized the Anglican patrimony is a “treasure to be shared with the whole Church.”

“He is saying there is something about the way the faith was lived, celebrated and expressed in an English context that is actually an enrichment for the whole Church,” he said.

This illustrates a continuing question about the so-called "Anglican patrimony". Does Bp Lopes mean "the way the faith was lived, celebrated and expressed in an English context" before the Reformation or afterward? Certainly the most historically visible practice of the faith can be characterized much more accurately by Gavin Ashenden when he says, " Anglicanism in the 17th century tried to ride two horses at once, both -- both Catholic and Reformed, . . . now that was a real failure, they didn't manage that".

So culturally, which horse was the good horse? How do we tease the Catholic from Anglican? Bp Lopes never gets to this point. The Register piece thinks it has the answer, though:

One of the engines of the ordinariate’s development and growth is the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society (ACS), which has a mission to nourish and pass on the Anglican patrimony within the Catholic Church.

“There’s a great interest in the ordinariates and our Anglican patrimony that Pope Benedict described as a ‘precious gift’ and a ‘treasure to be shared,’” explained Deborah Gyapong, president of the ACS. “That passion animates the society, but our focus is also on evangelization and deeper conversion to the Catholic faith.”

. . . “Our interest is not in studying our patrimony as some kind of historical society, but in keeping it alive because of its beauty, its truth and its goodness,” she said. “Our liturgy, our daily offices, our high sacral language and our community life have helped us grow ever deeper in our Christian faith.”

So we aren't going to try to figure any of that historical stuff out. We're going to just sorta-kinda do the ordinariate thing, because Pope Benedict thought it was a good idea, or something like that.

Another issue continues to be the conflict in public statements about who the ordinariates are meant for. Father down:

Eric Waltemate, a chiropractic doctor in St. Louis, Missouri, is part of a similar effort called the Anglican Patrimony Community of St. Louis that hopes to attract enough eligible members, such as current or prospective Catholics from Anglican, Episcopal, Methodist, or African Methodist Episcopal churches (either a Catholic group with members from those English Church backgrounds, or an Anglican, Episcopal, Methodist or African Methodist Episcopal congregation) to form an eventual ordinariate Catholic community. Waltemate said he has already been in contact with “current Anglicans and former Anglicans and Episcopalians who are now Catholic” who have expressed an interest.
Well, this was 2018, and they were still talking about "eligible members" As of 2019 and Presentation, the Woodlands or St John Fisher Orlando, it's "We encourage all Catholics to join us for the Sacrifice of the Mass."

There's no clear leadership vision, either in Houston or at the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society. "Ordinariate Catholic" is a meaningless term.