We’ll have to see whether the Pope’s visit will lead to a “Benedict bounce” of new vocations, as Cardinal Keith O’Brien predicts.But I’m pretty sure it will bounce more Anglicans into the Catholic Church – some of them under cover of the Ordinariate scheme, which Benedict XVI made clear is to be given a high priority by the English bishops.
Perhaps we need to change the way we think about the Ordinariate. It’s a structure that will be built from the ground up on the Catholic bank of the Tiber.
I don’t see many C of E parishes converting en masse: even the most Anglo-Papal congregations contain diehard Anglicans who simply cannot face the prospect of becoming “Romans”.
There isn’t much of a future for them in any Church unless they change their beliefs. One thing the Church of England is good at is taking spiky Anglo-Catholic congregations, merging them with a more mainstream parish, shipping in a less “extreme” vicar – and, 10 years down the line, a woman is celebrating the Eucharist (amid clouds of incense, naturally).
There will be a lot of that.
(Incidentally, if certain ultra-Caaaartholic north London parishes decide to stay Anglican, I think the least they can do is take down their pictures of the Pope.)
The success of the Ordinariate doesn’t depend on mass transit. The crucial thing is that this new ecclesial structure lays solid foundations. I can envisage two or three parishes in London, and maybe one in each of our major cities, made of up former Anglicans from different congregations who are bound together by their Anglo-Catholic past and far stricter standards of worship than you would find in a typical Catholic parish.
An exciting prospect has opened up for these Christians: that of doing liturgy properly as real Catholics but without interference from a local RC bishop whose idea of solemn Mass is one of those Star Trek-style concelebrations.
All this talk of “Anglican patrimony” is rather misleading in England, where Anglicans attracted to the Ordinariate scheme tend to be happy with the Roman Missal (and will be even happier with its new translation).
The patrimony of the new communities may have more to do with liturgical style than with liturgical texts.
But it’s important to remember that the first Ordinariate parish will be a jumping-off point rather than a final destination: we’re essentially talking about a new movement with the opportunity to develop its own charism.
My main worry is that Anglicans planning to take advantage of Anglicanorum coetibus will be disheartened by the sneers and hand-wringing of reactionaries in both Churches. Please, don’t be. The Pope believes that the Ordinariate is prophetic: the next stage in the route to Christian unity.
Such was the impact of Pope Benedict’s visit, however, that I reckon there will also be a wave of individual defections by Anglicans who want to become ordinary Catholics. We’re living in a post-ecumenical age in which Rome has once again placed conversion at the heart of its encounter with Anglicans: not for nothing did the Pope choose the date of Blessed John Henry Newman’s reception into the Church as his feast day.
Even Anglicans who have no intention of “poping” recognise that Benedict exercises a teaching authority over his Church that highlights Rowan William’s increasingly fragile position within his own comunity.
(And, as someone observed during the visit, he is able to express himself more clearly in his third language than +Rowan can in his first.)
Newman himself was an enthusiast for the notion of corporate reception of Anglicans into communion with the Holy See – but, in the end, he decided to take the plunge alone.
After the extraordinary scenes of the past week I expect many members of the Church of England to do likewise.
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