CAN ANGLICAN PRIESTS AND BISHOPS CONVERT TO ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND STILL BE PRIESTS AND BISHOPS!

 CAN ANGLICAN PRIESTS AND BISHOPS CONVERT TO ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND STILL BE PRIESTS AND BISHOPS!

Rev Fr Utazi Prince Marie Benignus Z 

March 12 2025

1.0 INTRODUCTION 

On 11th March 2025, I made a post on Facebook that two Anglican Bishops have resigned to become Catholics. These former Anglican bishops are: Jonathan Goodall who was the bishop of Ebbsfleet, England for eight years, and John Goddard, former bishop of Burnley. These two bishops are married and have two children each. The post goes on to say that these two former Anglican bishops are set to be ordained as priests in the Catholic Church. Many people did not understand the post, on why married Anglican Priests and Bishops will become Catholic Priests. Here lies the crux of this article.

Recall that in 2024, these two bishops, Michael Nazir-Ali and Peter Forster, were received into the Roman Catholic Church. Not only that, since 2011, individual Anglican (UK) and Episcopalian (US) priests and bishops, as well as the entire congregation in some cases, have joined the Roman Catholic Church. 

Many questions are begging for answer: will they go back to Catholic Seminary? If ordained priests, are they going to stay in the parish house? Why is that the Roman Catholic Church will ordain them deacons and priests instead of accepting them, since they have been ordained priests and bishops already? What will become of their wives and children when they are ordained Catholic Priests? Be that as it may, these questions will be done justice to.

2.0 PASTORAL PROVISION FOR ANGLICAN OF 1980

In 1980, now Saint Pope John Paul II authorized a special pastoral provision to enable former Anglican clergy (deacons, priests, and bishops), including those who may be married, to be ordained as Roman Catholic priests and to establish personal parishes using Anglican traditions within existing Catholic dioceses. 

In July 1980, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Cardinal Franjo Seper, informed the President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), Archbishop John Quinn, about the special pastoral provision for former Anglicans in the United Sates. 

This provision allowed diocesan bishops, with the consent of the Holy See, to ordain married former Anglican clergy as diocesan priests, even though the Latin Rite Catholic Church typically requires celibacy. 

Too, this provision allowed for the establishment of parishes that use the liturgical forms of the Book of Divine Worship, which incorporate elements of the Anglican liturgy, known as Anglican Use within the Roman Rite. 

The Special Pastoral Provision is the first time of creating an Anglican form of Catholic liturgy as well as parochial jurisdiction for Anglican Use Catholics. This is a key papal act that explicitly paved the way for personal ordinariates in the Anglican tradition (Anglican ordinariates).

It is good to note that for generations leading up to the pontificate of John Paul II, Anglicans had engaged in prayer, hope, and discussion focused on the eventual healing of their schism (Anglican separation from Catholic Church) and their return to full communion with Rome and the rest of the Catholic Church. The formal manifestation of this took expression in the ARCIC dialogue with the Holy See which began in 1967.

In the mid-late 1970s, Anglican approaches to Rome by groups such as the Diocese of the Holy Trinity and the Pro-Diocese of St Augustine of Canterbury (PDSAC) culminated in the Holy See crafting a pastoral response that would provide a way for Anglicans to become fully Catholic while retaining their corporate integrity, their common identity, and their liturgical traditions distinctiveness.

On June 18th, 1980, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (SCDF) finalized a decree for papal approval that responded to the Anglican approaches and their desire to retain their distinctive identity in becoming Catholic. The decree comprised various decisions that would form the framework for a Pastoral Provision that, pending certain practical workings out by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) which has been renamed the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), would enable Anglicans in the United States entering full communion to form Catholic parishes belonging to them and characterized by their Anglican liturgical distinctiveness. Also, it would also enable married Anglican priests to continue leading those congregations as Catholic priests, the precedent for which had been set back in the early 1950s under Pope Pius XII.

On June 20th, 1980, these decisions were presented to the Holy Father, and now Saint Pope John Paul II gave his formal authorization to the provisions and signed the decree into law. This groundbreaking event, however, did not make headlines in the way Anglicanorum Coetibus did a generation later. In fact, the interested Anglicans were not even to learn of the act of the pope for months! Over a month after the historic act of St John Paul II, on July 22nd 1980, Cardinal Seper, the Prefect of the SCDF, sent a letter enclosing the substantive provisions of the decree to Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco, who was at the time the President of the NCCB.

In July 1980 the President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops received a letter from the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith indicating that the Holy Father, Pope Saint John Paul II, responding to requests received from some priests and laity formerly or actually belonging to the Episcopal Church in the United States and, after consultation with the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States, had decided to make a special pastoral provision for the reception of these priests and laity into full communion with the Catholic Church. The decision provided for the priestly ordination of married former clergymen coming from the Episcopal Church and for the creation of personal worship communities, which would be allowed to retain elements of the Anglican liturgy.

The decision, announced later on August 20 1980, was the result of requests addressed to the Holy See from two separate groups of members of the Episcopal Church in the United States: The American Church Union and the Society of the Holy Cross. As Fr. Jack Barker, one of the pioneers of the Anglican Use, writes, At a private meeting, hosted by Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco at his residence in San Francisco on August 19, 1980, the leadership of the Pro-Diocese of St Augustine of Canterbury (PDSAC) was informed that he intended to make a public announcement the following day. This announcement would state that Rome would make pastoral provision for former Anglicans thereby ensuring their identity and the preservation of elements of their worship and would consider for Roman Catholic priesthood even those Anglican priests who were married. The Archbishop read portions of the cover letter addressed to him together with the text of the Decree sent to him by the Holy See. The leadership and people celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving in Los Angeles the next evening.

Discussions took place in multiple meetings and conferences through 1981 about proposed provisional liturgies and what precise form the Anglican liturgical use was to take. In due course authorization was given and an Anglican Use Catholic mass became a reality, based on the American Book of Common Prayer and incorporating material from the Sarum and Roman liturgies. The first parish dedicated to the Anglican Use was Our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio, established in 1983, and more followed, including Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston, now the cathedral of the North American ordinariate. While the Anglican Use took shape in the 1980s, its actual publication in the Book of Divine Worship did not occur until 2003, and as is now well known, it has developed even further and exists in a more fulsome form in Divine Worship: The Missal.

The Holy See appointed an Ecclesiastical Delegate to oversee the implementation of the Pastoral Provision. The Delegate developed a proposal that defined the process by which married former Episcopal clergymen, sponsored by a diocesan bishop, could become priests. The process includes the gathering of information by the candidate and his sponsoring bishop concerning his suitability for ordination. This information is then submitted to the Holy See through the Ecclesiastical Delegate. The sponsoring bishop then oversees the necessary human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral training of the candidate. To this is added the academic assessment and certification of each candidate by a body of theologians established by the Ecclesiastical Delegate.

This process was approved by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It has led to the ordination in the Catholic Church of over 100 former Episcopal clergymen. In 2007, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith clarified the competence of the Provision to include clergymen from the so-called continuing Anglican communities.

Furthermore, due to the fact that these clergy from the Anglican Communion are married and accepted into the Latin Rite (Roman Catholic Church), the Church kept them away from the spotlight, assigning them to be hospital chaplains or diocesan administrators. But even that is changing. In 2011 Pope Benedict XVI took it a step further: He created something called the Personal Ordinariate. 

While the Pastoral Provision has been successful, challenges resulting from the different cultural environments of celibate and married clergy remain. For example, the financial arrangements for Catholic clergy are not suited to the needs of married men. The size of the flock is another issue. The average parish in the Episcopal Church might have fewer than 200 families; in the Catholic Church parishes of more than 1,000 families are common. Even though the married priest is prohibited from having the ordinary care of souls in a parochial setting, nevertheless his workload as a Catholic priest will usually be much greater, whether as a hospital chaplain or campus minister. Indeed, helping in a parish on the weekend, as most of them do, can be very time intensive. This can, and has, led to serious repercussions on married life. The pastoral care of the wives of priests is a new topic for the Catholic diocesan bishop as well as the integration of the wife of priest into his relationship with the diocesan Presbyterate and his pastoral assignment.

NOTE: Anglican Communion is referred to as Church of England in the Great Britain and Episcopal Church in the US.

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3.0 PERSONAL ORDINARIATE

Personal Ordinariate is the equivalent of a Catholic diocese, but it is not bound by geography.  Ordinariates are structures within the Catholic Church, similar to dioceses that facilitate the integration of former Anglican communities (every group related to Anglican) and clergy seeking full communion with the Pope while preserving their Anglican heritage and traditions. 

The Structure is that Ordinariates, or Personal Ordinariates, are non-territorial jurisdictions within the Catholic Church, meaning membership is based on individual choice, rather than geographic location. 

The purpose of Ordinariates is that they provide a way for groups from the Anglican tradition to enter the Catholic Church while retaining some of their liturgical, spiritual, and pastoral traditions. While members are fully Catholic, adhering to the teachings of the Church, the ordinariate allows for a unique identity that acknowledges the Anglican background. 

3.1 MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF ORDINARIATE

Liturgical Tradition: Ordinariates use the Anglican liturgical heritage approved for use in the Ordinariate, according to the Divine Worship. 

Clergy: The ordinariate can accept former Anglican ministers as priests and bishops. 

Formation: Ordinariate seminarians receive their theological formation alongside other seminarians of the Roman Catholic Church.

 

Identity: Ordinariates identify as Anglican culturally, but as Catholic theologically and ecclesiologically. 

The existing Ordinariates for the Anglicans are three. They are viz:

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham ((England and Wales, Scotland), established in 2011, was the first of these structures. 

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter for the United States (US, Canada) followed on June 1 2012. 

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross for Australia (Australia, Japan) established in June 2012. 

Ordinariates are not exclusively for former Anglicans, but are open to all Catholics who wish to participate in their life and traditions, or those with a family connection to the Ordinariate. 

3.2 THE PERSONAL ORDINARIATE OF THE CHAIR OF SAINT PETER

On January 1, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI established the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter within the territory of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Canadian Conference of Bishops for those groups of Episcopalians and Anglicans who desire full communion with the Catholic Church. It serves parishes, groups, and religious communities. Parishes previously established that preserve elements of a distinctive Anglican patrimony have become part of the Ordinariate. 

The Ordinariate is separate and distinct from the Pastoral Provision, each serving the cause of Christian unity in its own distinct manner.

4.0 ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS OF 4 NOVEMBER 2009

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.

The Introduction to the Apostolic Constitution lays out the ratio legis of the provision emphasizing a number of things which it might be useful to point out:

1. The Church, which in its unity and diversity is modeled on the Most Holy Trinity, was instituted as a sacrament  a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all people (Lumen Gentium, 1). For this reason every division among the baptized wounds that which the Church is and that for which the Church exists, and constitutes, therefore, a scandal in that it contradicts the prayer of Jesus before his passion and death (cf. John 17:20-21).

2. Ecclesial communion, established by the Holy Spirit who is the principle of unity in the Church, is, by analogy with the mystery of the Incarnate Word, at the same time both invisible (spiritual) and visible (hierarchically organized). The communion among the baptized, therefore, if it is to be full communion, must be visibly manifested in the bonds of the profession of the faith in its entirety, of the celebration of all of the sacraments instituted by Christ, and of the governance of the College of Bishops united with its head, the Roman Pontiff.”

3. Although the one Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church governed by the Successor of Peter and the Bishops in union with him, there are also elements of sanctification and of truth to be found outside her visible confines, in the Churches and Christian Communities separated from her, which, because these elements are gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling towards Catholic unity.

4. Those Anglican faithful who, under the promptings of the Holy Spirit, have asked to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church have been moved towards unity by those elements of the Church of Christ which have always been present in their personal and communal lives as Christians.

For this reason the promulgation of the Apostolic Constitution “Anglicanorum Coetibus” by the Holy Father, together with what will follow from this, indicate in a particular way, the movement of the Holy Spirit.

The juridical means by which the Holy Father has decided to receive these Anglicans into full Catholic communion is the erection of Personal Ordinariates (I § 1).

The competence of erection has been given to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The reason for this is that during the long process which has finally borne fruit in this Apostolic Constitution, many doctrinal questions have had to be addressed, and such questions will continue to arise as the time comes for the erection of particular Ordinariates and for the incorporation of groups of Anglican faithful into full Catholic communion through the Ordinariates. In any case, as specific issues emerge, each Ordinariate will be subject not just to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith but also to the other Dicasteries of the Roman Curia according to their competences (Ap. Cons. II). For example: for associations of the Faithful, the Pontifical Council for the Laity will have competence; for the formation and life of priests, the Congregation for the Clergy will have competence; for the various forms of consecrated life, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life will have competence and so on. For the visit ad limina Apostolorum, which the Ordinary is obliged to make every five years, the Apostolic Constitution specifically mentions that the Ordinary must consult not only with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith but also with the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Ap. Cons. XI).

The possibility for the erection of Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church which is envisioned in the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus does not create a new structure within the current canonical norms, but rather, uses the structure of Personal Ordinariates, originally created for the pastoral care of members of the armed forces, in the Apostolic Constitution of John Paul II “Spirituali militum cura” of April 21, 1986. 

Notwithstanding the similarities between these two types of Personal Ordinariates, it is clear that given their different purposes, one for the Military and the other for those coming from Anglicanism, there are also significant differences between them. What we are dealing with are structures created by the Church in order to deal with specific situations which arise from the needs of the faithful, and which are, by definition, exceptional. The pastoral concern of the Church and the flexibility of her canonical norms permit the creation of juridical structures which are specifically adapted to the spiritual good of the faithful, while not contradicting the foundational principles of Catholic ecclesiology.

Just as the Military Ordinariates were not envisioned in the Code of Canon Law, so also Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church were not specifically foreseen. However, just as the Military Ordinariates are described in the Apostolic Constitution “Spirituali militum cura” as specific ecclesiastical jurisdictions which are similar to dioceses (Ap. Cons. I § 1), so also the Apostolic Constitution “Anglicanorum coetibus” describes Personal Ordinariates for the faithful coming from Anglicanism as juridically similar to dioceses (Ap. Cons. I § 3).

These Personal Ordinariates cannot be considered as Particular Ritual Churches since the Anglican liturgical, spiritual and pastoral tradition is a particular reality within the Latin Church. The creation of a Ritual Church might have created ecumenical difficulties. Nor can these Personal Ordinariates been considered as Personal Prelatures since, according to can. 294, Personal Prelatures are composed of secular priests and deacons and, according to can. 296, lay people may simply dedicate themselves to the apostolic works of Personal Prelatures by way of agreements. Members of Institutes of Consecrated Life or of Societies of Apostolic Life are not even mentioned in the canons concerning Personal Prelatures.

The Ordinariates for the faithful coming from Anglicanism are therefore personal structures in as much as the jurisdiction of the Ordinary, and consequently also of parish priests, is not geographically defined within the territory of an Episcopal Conference like a particular territorial Church, but is exercised "over all who belong to the Ordinariate" (Ap. Cons. V). Moreover, one or more Personal Ordinariates can be erected within the territory of the same Episcopal Conference, according to necessity (Ap. Cons. I § 2).

4.1 STEPS TOWARDS FULL COMMUNION BY THOSE OF ANGLICAN COMMUNION

The apostolic constitution was a response by the Holy See to requests coming from Continuing Anglican churches, particularly the Traditional Anglican Communion; and from Anglo-Catholic sections of the Anglican Communion, such as those involved with Forward in Faith, and, within the Catholic Church, from the Anglican Use parishes which have existed since the early 1980s when, at the request of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Pope John Paul II granted the Pastoral Provision allowing the creation, within the territorial Latin Church dioceses of the United States, of parishes in which the liturgy would be celebrated in an approved form of the Anglican tradition and with a married clergy composed of former Anglican priests who were ordained in the Catholic Church on joining it. 

Many of these Anglican Use Catholics had left the Episcopal Church because of the ordination of women as priests and bishops, revisions of the liturgy, and changes in its moral teaching. These changes evidenced also in the consecration of a man marrying another man as a bishop and the blessing of same-sex couples have provoked serious tensions within the composite Anglican world, as Cardinal Walter Kasper said in 2009, leading to the requests to which the apostolic constitution was a response. The discussions that led to the granting of the 1980 pastoral provision raised some of the ideas that came to fruition in the decision of 2009. One was the setting up of a structure for former Anglicans similar to the military ordinariate, an idea that was not then acted on because of the small number of Anglicans involved at that time.

In October 2007 the Traditional Anglican Communion presented to the Holy See a petition for full union in corporate form (i.e., as a body, not merely as individuals) with the Roman Catholic Church. This worldwide grouping, under a single primate, of churches of Anglican tradition but outside communion with the See of Canterbury, was founded in 1991. It was formed over a number of issues, including liturgical revisions, the ordination of women and open homosexuals as priests, the sanctioning of homosexuality and the importance of tradition.

On 5 July 2008, Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), responded to the formal request for "full, corporate and sacramental union" with the Roman Catholic Church giving written assurance that the CDF was giving serious attention to the prospect of "corporate unity" raised in that request.[37] The request thus became a basis for the decision, announced by Levada on 20 October 2009, to issue the apostolic constitution.

The decision to institute personal ordinariates for Anglicans who join the Catholic Church was announced on 20 October 2009 in simultaneous press conferences by Levada in Rome and by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, in London.

The apostolic constitution enacting the introduction of personal ordinariates for former Anglicans was released on 9 November 2009, together with supplementary norms for the ordinariates, allowing former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony. Provision was made for ordination as Catholic priests of married former Anglican clergy, but for historical and ecumenical reasons married men could not be ordained as bishops. The ordinary, who will usually be appointed from among former Anglican clergy, can therefore be either a priest or a bishop. Seminarians in the ordinariate were to be prepared alongside other Catholic seminarians, though the ordinariate might establish a house of formation to address the particular needs of formation in the Anglican patrimony.

In December 2009, Levada responded to each of the bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion who signed the October 2007 petition for corporate union with the Catholic Church, stating that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had completed its long and detailed study with the aim of making available a suitable and viable model of organic unity for their group and other such groups. The Traditional Anglican Communion then undertook discussions with those other groups and with representatives of the Catholic episcopal conferences and planned to give a formal response after a meeting of their bishops in Eastertide 2010.

A number of Anglican groups soon petitioned the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for acceptance into ordinariates.

On 3 March 2010, in Orlando, Florida, the eight members of the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America voted unanimously to become part of the Catholic Church along with 3,000 fellow communicants in 120 parishes in four dioceses across the country. Following the vote, the bishops and the Pastoral Provision parishes sent a joint petition to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith requesting the establishment of an ordinariate in the United States and making some suggestions about how that could be done.

On 12 March 2010, the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada formally requested the erection of an ordinariate in Canada. The denomination subsequently split into two jurisdictions, one of which then detached and joined the ordinariate, when several congregations decided not to join the Catholic Church.

The Anglican Catholic Church in Australia (a province of the Traditional Anglican Communion) and Forward in Faith Australia, mostly members of the Anglican Church of Australia, jointly applied for an ordinariate in Australia. However, two congregations later left the denomination over the issue. The Church of Torres Strait, another province of the Traditional Anglican Communion in Australia, covering parts of Northern Queensland and the Torres Strait, also applied for a separate ordinariate. A majority of the 17 clergy of the Traditional Anglican Church (the Traditional Anglican Communion Province for England, Scotland and Wales) supported a petition for acceptance into the Roman Catholic ordinariate.

In September 2010, under the leadership of some Church of England bishops, the Society of St Wilfrid and St Hilda was founded on behalf of Anglo-Catholics otherwise drawn to the Roman Church who do not accept the ministry of the pope as presently exercised.

4.2 ELEMENTS OF ANGLICANORUM COETIBUS

The safeguarding and nourishing of the Anglican tradition is guaranteed:

1. by the concession to the Ordinariate of the faculty to celebrate the Eucharist and the other sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical celebrations according to the liturgical rites proper to the Anglican tradition and approved by the Holy See, without, however, excluding liturgical celebrations according to the Roman Rite (Ap. Cons. III);

2. by the fact that the Ordinary may determine specific programmes of formation for seminarians of the Ordinariate living in a diocesan seminary, or may establish a house of formation for them (Ap. Cons. VI § 5; CN Art. 10 § 2); the seminarians must come from a personal parish of the Ordinariate or from Anglicanism (CN Art. 10 § 4);

3. by the concession that those who were married Anglican ministers, including bishops, may be ordained priests according to the norms of the Encyclical Letter of Paul VI Sacerdotalis coelibatus, n. 42 and of the Declaration In June, while remaining in the married state (Ap. Cons. VI § 1);

4. by the possibility that, following a process of discernment based on objective criteria and the needs of the Ordinariate (CN Art. 6 § 1), the Ordinary may also petition the Roman Pontiff, on a case by case basis, to admit married men to the priesthood as a derogation of CIC can. 277, § 1, although the general norm of the Ordinariate will be to admit only celibate men (Ap. Cons. VI § 2);

5. by the fact that the Ordinary may erect personal parishes, after having consulted with the local Diocesan Bishop and having obtained the consent of the Holy See (Ap. Cons. VIII § 1);

6. through the capacity to receive into the Ordinariate Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic life coming from Anglicanism, and of erecting new ones;

7. by the fact that, out of respect for the synodal tradition of Anglicanism: (a) the Ordinary will be appointed by the Roman Pontiff from a terna of names presented by the Governing Council (CN Art. 4 § 1); (b) that the Pastoral Council will be obligatory (Ap. Cons. X § 2); c) that the Governing Council, composed of at least six priests, apart from fulfilling the duties established in the Code of Canon Law for the Presbyteral Council and the College of Consultors, will also exercise those duties specified in the Complementary Norms which include in some cases giving or withholding consent or of expressing a deliberative vote (Ap. Cons. X § 2; CN Art. 12).

The integration of the Ordinariate into the life of the Catholic Church is assured by those norms which govern the profession of faith and the relationships of an Ordinariate with an Episcopal Conference, and with individual Diocesan Bishops. According to these norms:

1. the Catechism of the Catholic Church will be considered the authentic expression of the faith of the members of the Ordinariate (Ap. Cons. I § 5);

2. a Personal Ordinariate will be erected by the Holy See within the territorial confines of an Episcopal Conference, after having consulted with that Episcopal Conference (Ap. Cons. I § 1);

3. the Ordinary will be a member of his respective Episcopal Conference and will be obliged to follow its directives, unless they are incompatible with the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus (CN Art. 2);

4. the ordination of ministers coming from Anglicanism will be absolute, on the basis of the Bull Apostolicae curae of Leo XIII of September 13, 1896. Given the entire Catholic Latin tradition and the tradition of the Oriental Catholic Churches, including the Orthodox tradition, the admission of married men to the episcopate is absolutely excluded (NC Art. 11 § 1);

5. the priests incardinated into an Ordinariate constitute its Presbyterate, but are obliged to cultivate bonds of fraternal unity with the presbyterate of the Dioceses in whose territory they exercise their ministry. They are to encourage joint initiatives and pastoral and charitable activities, which may be regulated by agreements between the Ordinary and the Diocesan Bishop or Bishops concerned (Ap. Cons. VI § 4; NC Art. 3). The Complementary Norms envisage the possibility of mutual pastoral assistance between priests incardinated into the Ordinariate and those incardinated into Dioceses in which there are faithful of the Ordinariate (NC Art. 9 §§ 1 and 2);

6. the priests of the Ordinariate are eligible for election to the Presbyteral Council of the Dioceses in whose territory they exercise the pastoral care of the faithful of the Ordinariate (NC Art. 8 § 1);

7. the priests and deacons of the Ordinariate are eligible to be members of the Pastoral Council of the Dioceses in whose territory they exercise their ministry (NC Art. 8 § 2);

8. the authority (potestas) of the Ordinary is exercised together with the Diocesan Bishop in the circumstances envisioned in the Complementary Norms (Ap. Cons. V; NC Art. 5 § 2);

9. candidates for Holy Orders will be formed together with other seminarians, especially with regard to doctrinal and pastoral formation, even though particular programmes or houses of formation may also be established for them (Ap. Cons. VI § 5; CN Art. 10 § 2);

10. before establishing a personal parish the Ordinary must listen to the opinion of the Diocesan Bishop of the area (Ap. Cons. VIII § 1);

11. the Complementary Norms establish when the rights and duties proper to a parish priest of the Ordinariate are to be exercised in mutual pastoral cooperation with the parish priest of the territory in which the personal parish has been erected ( Ap. Cons. VIII § 2; CN 14 § 2);

12. the competent tribunal for judicial cases regarding the faithful of the Ordinariate is that of the Diocese in which one of the parties has domicile, presuming that the Ordinariate has not constituted its own tribunal (Ap. Cons. XII).

4.3 ELEMENTS OF THE ANGLICAN PATRIMONY

Some elements of the Anglican patrimony included within the charism of the Ordinariates include:

Call to community faith and devotion; Evangelical charity; Sacral English; Reverence and beauty in Worship; Music and Congregational hymn singing; Gospel preaching; English theological tradition; Prospective members

Through the ordinariates, Anglicans who wish to enter the full communion of the Catholic Church, bringing with them some of the traditions and beauty of the Anglican heritage in which they were nurtured, may do so. However,  Anglicans who join the Catholic Church are not obliged to become members of an ordinariate and can choose to belong to the Latin diocese of residence. In either form they are received by individual profession of faith. The rite of reception would normally also include the sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist.

Anglicans, who join the local Latin dioceses, either before or after the erection of an ordinariate, are permitted to join an ordinariate. Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson is an example of someone who first became a member of a Latin diocese before later being a member of an ordinariate.

Ordinariate membership as an entry to full communion with the Catholic Church is not limited solely to members of churches in the Anglican Communion. The founding document of personal ordinariates stated that their members would either be people originally belonging to the Anglican Communion and now in full communion with the Catholic Church (former Anglicans) or those who receive the Sacraments of Initiation within the jurisdiction of the Ordinariate. The sacraments of initiation are baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist.

Moreover, the personal ordinariates have extended the meaning of the word Anglican in this context to include members of any Protestant Church linked to the Church of England, such as the Lutheran or Methodist Church in Great Britain or to anyone who has ever been an Anglican, Episcopalian, Methodist, or [Black Methodist] in the United States. Therefore, many individuals who have never formally been part of a church in the Anglican Communion may become Catholic through an ordinariate, just as they might through any diocesan parish.

5.0 TESTIMONY FROM JOANNA BOGLE 

This writer is an English Catholic with no special link to the Church of England; childhood visits to Anglican churches were for special services or to explore history on country walks. But our family believed in goodwill between all Christians, and this was also the era of strong ecumenical efforts. Like most Catholics of my generation, I grew up to work with, and admire, and serve under Christians of all denominations on campaigns supporting marriage, opposing pornography, and defending unborn babies.

My husband is a convert; he joined the Catholic Church a couple of years before we met. My involvement in the Ordinariate, therefore, is that of a Catholic who, recognizing the riches of an Anglican tradition which I am aware is a part of my countrys heritage, felt a thrill when news of the Ordinariate burst upon our mass media. It seemed the fulfillment of so many hopes and prayers.

Some four hundred years after Henry VIIIs break with the Church, the Ordinariate comes in the wake of ecumenical goodwill generated by the Second Vatican Council and following two highly successful papal visits to Britain by John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Of course, the Ordinariate has its own specific history. It came formally into existence in 2009 with the announcement of Benedicts Anglicanorum Coetibusliterally, an appeal to groups of Anglicans. And the origins of this in turn lay further back.

In 1992 the General Synod of the Church of England voted to ordain women as priests, and this closed the door on any formal reunion with the Catholic Church. After this, there were meetings in Rome between Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Anglicans who longed for union with the Church but were in anguish over the Synod decision and seeking some way forward.

And so to the Ordinariate. Its founding in Britain in January 2011 involved the ordination in Westminster Cathedral of three former Anglican bishops as Catholic priests. These had been the flying bishops created by the Church of England to minister to Anglicans who could not in conscience accept womens ordination and who had formed a network of parishes under the banner Forward in faith.

Now ordained Catholic priests in full communion with Rome, these former bishops would minister to the parishes of the newly formed Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, under the patronage of Bl. John Henry Newman (beatified by Benedict XVI in 2010). The leader, Msgr. Keith Newton, was appointed the ordinary, with the authority and status of a bishop; the other two were appointed his assistants.

Thus, today, as an English Catholic, I can attend evensong in a London Ordinariate church with a Sunday school, church wardens, harvest Thanksgiving, and other Anglican traditions. There is an Ordinariate rite of Mass, with language from the Book of Common Prayer (though most Ordinariate priests use the ordinary Roman Rite).

But the number of Ordinariate-run parishes is small. There had been hopes, given the years of goodwill that preceded the Ordinariate, that when Anglican clergy and their flocks wished to unite with Rome they would be allowed to continue using their own churches, perhaps under a sharing arrangement.

But nothing of the sort has been offered by the Church of England. Instead, when the first wave of Anglicans sought to join the Ordinariate, they were told to leave their churches and vicarages and were suddenly homeless and without income.

The Catholic Church, of course, rallied with funds and accommodation. While the former Anglican clergy were undertaking study and training in preparation for ordination as Catholic priests (a procedure known among them as being resprayed), they continued to meet with the members of their flocks who had entered the Catholic Church with them.

And then after ordinationwhat happened? The situation has varied. Some former Anglicans have been given Catholic parishes and are functioning as ordinary Catholic priests, sometimes in parishes, sometimes as hospital chaplains or in similar roles. But some Catholic churches have been given over officially to Ordinariate care.

6.0 WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WIVES OF ANGLICAN PRIESTS WHO CONVERT TO CATHOLICISM

When Anglican priests who are already married convert to Catholicism, the Catholic Church allows them to maintain their marriages and continue to serve as priests, though this is done on a case-by-case basis after Vatican approval. 

(1) Exception to Celibacy: The Catholic Church generally follows the discipline of clerical celibacy, meaning priests are typically unmarried. However, there is an exception for married former Anglican priests who convert to Catholicism. 

(2) Case-by-Case Vatican Approval: The ordination of married ex-Anglican priests as Catholic priests requires individual approval from the Vatican. 

(3) The Agreement of the Wife: The wife of the Anglican priest must also agree to the conversion and the ordination of the husband as a Catholic priest. 

(4) Continuing Ordination: Once approved, the married Anglican priest can be ordained to the priesthood and continue to serve the Catholic Church while remaining married. 

(5) Vatican Statement: The Vatican has stated that its plan to allow married Anglican priests to convert to Catholicism does not mean a change to the rule of celibacy for Catholic priests. 

(6) No Remarriage: If their spouse should die, they may not remarry. 

Note that long before the Ordinates were created, married Anglican priests entering the Catholic Church and who became Catholic priests kept their wives. Remember that there are many married Catholic priests; most of them are not in the Latin Rite, and it is the Latin Rite which is the largest and the one we see in our daily lives in the West and in the media.

Suppose a married Anglican priest decides to become a Roman Catholic along with his family. Can he remain an ordained priest! First, the word remain is inappropriate. The Catholic Church does not recognize Anglican orders (or to be precise, does not recognize them as the same as Catholic priestly orders), so there is a need for ordination. As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, he is not a priest, because Anglican orders are not valid. Pope Leo XIII stated this in his letter Apostolicae Curae. If he wants to be a Catholic priest, he would have to be ordained by a Catholic bishop. And of course would need to be admitted into communion first.

The training process takes account of previous experience and training, and is far shorter than would be the norm for a Catholic layman. And this has been followed by a number of Church of England clergy who left because it started ordaining women.

The Roman Catholic Church does not permit married bishops at all. The Roman Catholic Church allows only married Permanent deacons. For the Personal Ordinariate under Roman Catholic Church, married deacons and married priests are allowed.

Therefore the bishops who are coming from Anglican (Church of England, Episcopal Church, Methodist Families, Lutherans) are not ordained as a bishop, but as a priest. 

7.0 NAMES OF SOME OF THE ANGLICAN BISHOPS THAT ENTERED INTO COMMUNION WITH VATICAN

RT. REV. RICHARD PAIN

The Right Rev. Richard Pain, who served as the Anglican Bishop of Monmouth, joined the Catholic Church on Sunday, July 2, 2023 at St. Basil and St. Gwladys in Rogerstone, Wales. He is the first Welsh Anglican bishop to convert to Catholicism through the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. 

Pain married his wife, Juliet, more than 40 years ago, and they have two sons. In a statement, Pain said the Benedictine understanding of obedience and hearing the Lord was significant is his personal formation and ultimate conversion to the Catholic faith. 

At least 15 Anglican bishops have converted to Catholicism through the Anglican ordinariate since its inception, which included four bishops in 2021. 

RIGHT REV. DR. MICHAEL JAMES NAZIR-ALI 

One of the 2021 coverts, the Right Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali, had been a prominent member of the Anglican hierarchy. He was considered to be a future contender for the role of the archbishop of Canterbury, which is the highest-ranking position in the Church of England and in Anglican Communion. He was a former Bishop of Rochester (1994-2009) and Bishop of Raiwind, Pakistan (1984-1986). He was ordained a Catholic priest in the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham on October 30 2021 by Vincent Cardinal Nichols. With the permission of Holy See, he was ordained a deacon on October 28 2021 by Archbishop Kevin McDonald. In 2022, he was made a Monsignor and Prelate of Honour of His Holiness to the Holy See.  

Richard Pain: Former Anglican Bishop of Monmouth in Wales, received into the Catholic Church and ordained a priest within the Anglican Ordinariate on July 2, 2023, making him the first Welsh Anglican bishop to do so. 

Jonathan Goodall: Former Bishop of Ebbsfleet. He was ordained a Catholic Priest on 12 March 2022 by Vincent Cardinal Nichols at Westminster Cathedral. He is the parish priest of St William of York Catholic Church Stanmore.

John William Goddard: Former Bishop of Burnley. 

Peter Robert Forster: Former Bishop of Chester. 

Gavin Ashenden: Former chaplain of Queen Elizabeth II and former missionary bishop of the Christian Episcopal Church. 

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster ordained the three former Anglican bishops Catholic priests at Westminster Cathedral in London on January 15 2011. They are Fr. John Broadhurst, Fr. Andrew Burnham, Nichols and Fr. Keith Newton. The priests became part of the Personal Ordinariate for former Anglicans. 

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