The Vatican’s doctrine chief called on Anglican communities that have
entered the U.S. Catholic Church to have courage in bringing their
patrimony into the larger Catholic community.
“Be courageous pioneers of communion, placing the diversity of your
gifts at the service of the universal Church,” Archbishop Gerhard Müller
said on Feb. 2. “The distinctiveness of your traditions and manner of
prayer and worship are no obstacle to true unity in the Church.”
The archbishop, who is the Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith, spoke at St. Mary’s Seminary in Houston,
Texas, during a symposium on the mission of the U.S. ordinariate.
Erected Jan. 1, 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI, the Personal Ordinariate of
the Chair of St. Peter is a special diocese-like structure that allows
entire Anglican communities to enter into full communion with the
Catholic Church while retaining certain elements of the liturgy and
other customs.
The Holy Father had authorized the creation of ordinariates for
Anglican communities seeking to enter the Catholic Church in his 2009
apostolic constitution, “Anglicanorum Coetibus.”
There are currently two other ordinariates for former Anglicans: the
Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, which covers England and Wales
and the Australia-based Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross.
In his talk, Archbishop Müller said that the ordinariates serve Christ’s “vision of unity.”
“It can certainly be said that, in creating this new structure, the
Holy Father was responding to a movement of the Holy Spirit,” he said.
“It is the Spirit that draws the disciples of the Lord together,
fashioning them into the ecclesial Body of Christ.”
Archbishop Müller explained that the communion of the Catholic Church
“flows from the communion of the Blessed Trinity,” and its unity is not
based on uniformity.
“Uniformity tends toward the elimination of those who do not conform or
comply,” he said.
“Conversely, another way the world tries to achieve
oneness is by simply overlooking or ignoring the differences that do
exist, even to the point of allowing contradictory claims to truth.”
But because the Church finds its unity in God, he noted, diversity in
liturgical expressions, in some governance structures and in parish
culture “does not threaten ecclesial communion.”
“The overarching structure which holds together these expressions is
the faith of the Church, ever ancient and ever new, and expressed
eloquently in the Catechism of the Catholic Church,” the archbishop
continued.
Therefore, he said, the ordinariates’ preservation of “distinctive
Anglican liturgical and spiritual patrimony” is “a hallmark of their
parochial life” and “a contribution to the vitality of the Catholic
Church.”
Archbishop Müller told the ordinariate leadership that they have the
“delicate but all-important task” of preserving their communities’
integrity while integrating them into “the larger Catholic community.”
He stressed the need to foster a “culture of communion” with the
bishops, the local dioceses and parishes, the Catholic faithful and
“those still separated from the Church,” an important task that requires
“wisdom, humility, and a firmness of intention to avoid divisiveness.”
The archbishop said that ordinariate communities will face “scrutiny”
both from interested members of the Anglican Communion and from
Catholics who “will want to know that you are here to stay,
strengthening our ecclesial cohesion rather than setting yourselves
apart as another divisive grouping within the Church.”
He noted that members of the ordinariate have displayed “great courage”
in entering full communion with the Catholic Church, and he continued
them to continue exercising such courage.
At the same time, he warned against taking a “defensive or contentious”
position towards Catholic Church authority, saying that “unity is
easily undermined by a culture of suspicion.”
“The openness of the wider Catholic community to the rich Anglican
patrimony which you bring will be encouraged when they experience in
your communities the joyful and peaceful embrace of our common faith,”
the archbishop said.
“In a world marked by division and discord, a culture of communion can
be an especially eloquent witness to the truth of our faith and in
fidelity to our Lord’s prayer ‘that they might be one.’”
Archbishop Müller also noted that the Holy Father has been heavily
involved in the ordinariate, assuring its members that they “are very
much in his thoughts and prayers.”
Other featured speakers at the symposium were Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl
of Washington, D.C., who had served as the Vatican delegate for
establishing the ordinariate, and Monsignor Steve Lopes, an official at
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Msgr. Jeffrey N. Steenson, who leads the ordinariate, also spoke, and
Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston welcomed the attendees.