Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl said in an interview that the Catholic
Church has sent out questionnaires to learn more about U.S. Anglicans
who have expressed an interest in becoming Catholic. A sufficiently
large response would mean the creation of an Anglican ordinariate in the
U.S.
The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has named
Cardinal Wuerl, the Archbishop of Washington, as its delegate to assist
Anglican groups who want to become Catholic through the ordinariate, a
special church structure similar to a diocese.
“We’re hearing from those Anglican communities and those Anglicans
who wish to explore more fully what the ordinariate will mean and who
wish to be a part of it,” the cardinal told CNA in a Jan. 31 interview.
The first step is to respond to all U.S. Anglicans who have indicated
an interest in the ordinariate and to learn more about them.
“Questionnaires have gone out asking them to identify more clearly
who they are and what the nature is of their current community,”
Cardinal Wuerl explained.
“The goal is to determine whether there is a
response substantial enough to warrant the establishment of an
ordinariate here in the U.S.”
“We’ve already seen how the Holy See, at the request of Pope
Benedict, has established an ordinariate in England, Our Lady of
Walsingham. And that would probably be a model for what we would do here
in the U.S.”
“We’re a little ways off yet,” he said.
Anglicans entering the Catholic Church will need faith formation, and
the U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults, prepared by the U.S. bishops,
will be “at the heart” of that process, Cardinal Wuerl reported.
“That much we can say. We already have the tools. Our next step now is to have the Holy See determine whether there
are sufficient numbers and sufficient response to establish an
ordinariate.”
In recent decades the Anglican Communion has suffered division over
theological and moral issues, including the ordination of women as
priests and bishops and sexual ethics.
In November 2009, Pope Benedict XVI issued the apostolic constitution
“Anglicanorum Coetibus,” which allowed the creation of ordinariates for
Anglicans who want to become Catholic while retaining aspects of their
heritage and liturgy.
The ordinariates are similar to dioceses but can be led by either a
bishop or a priest.
Members of an ordinariate are under the jurisdiction
of its leader, the “ordinary,” even if they reside in another bishop’s
canonical territory.
The Vatican established the first Anglican ordinariate in England and
Wales on Jan. 15.
The Catholic bishops of Canada, under the leadership
of Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto, are currently reaching out to
Anglicans in their country.