(Catholic Herald)
Dr Edward Norman...
... argues that Anglicanism has “no basis for its authority” as its confession “varies from place to place and person to person”. He says: “At the centre of Anglicanism is a great void.”Eight years ago he said that Anglicanism is going to tip into the sea.
He adds: “The Church of England provides a masterclass in equivocation; it also, however, is the residence of very many good and faithful Christian people who deserve respect – for their perseverance in so many incoherent spiritual adventures.
“To leave their company is a wrench; to adhere to the Catholic faith is to join the encompassing presence of a universal body of believers in whose guardianship are the materials of authentic spiritual understanding… I have immense gratitude.”
It is not clear to me whether Dr Norman is already a Catholic and entering the Ordinariate as a layman or with a view to being ordained a priest for the Ordinariate. Either way, this is a piece of good news for the Catholic Church in England.
Does this mean that ex-Anglicans who became Catholics a while ago can now be received into the Ordinariate? I can think of quite a few who changed their allegiance in the early 90's who were advocating something very like it.
ReplyDeleteYes, and several have done so.
DeleteI can't see any reason why not.
ReplyDeleteThe decree of erection of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham states:
"The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham ... includes those faithful, of every category and state of life, who, originally having belonged to the Anglican Communion, are now in full communion with the Catholic Church, or who have received the sacraments of initiation within the jurisdiction of the Ordinariate itself, or who are received into it because they are part of a family belonging to the Ordinariate."
I can remember Dr Norman's short history of the English Catholics being reviewed in the "Times" by Dr Duffy under the headline "Ideal of the Norman Church". Norman was even then much more indulgent to Catholic history than Duffy showing the Catholic Church as much more pastoral and apolitical then the C of E.
ReplyDelete