As many as 100 US Anglican priests and 2,000 lay people could be the
first members of a US Personal Ordinariate for former Anglicans who want
to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church, Cardinal Donald
Wuerl of Washington has said.
Cardinal Wuerl was appointed by the
Vatican last September to guide the incorporation of Anglican groups
into the Catholic Church in the United States under Anglicanorum
coetibus, an apostolic constitution issued by Pope Benedict XVI in
November 2009.
At a news conference, Cardinal Wuerl said he
“wouldn’t be surprised” if the Vatican were to establish the US
ordinariate by the end of the year.
“I think it will be sooner rather
than later,” he said. He was speaking after he had addressed the US
bishops on the subject.
Two Anglican congregations in Maryland, on
the country’s east coast – St Luke’s in Bladensburg, near Washington
DC, and Mount Calvary in Baltimore – have announced their intention to
join the new ordinariate once it is established.
Addressing the
bishops at the close of the first day of their spring general assembly
near Seattle, the cardinal said St Mary’s seminary in Houston has
developed and the Vatican has approved an intensive nine-month programme
of priestly formation for Anglican clergy who wish to become Catholic
priests.
Fr Jeffrey Steenson, the former Episcopal bishop of the
Rio Grande who became a Catholic in 2007 and now teaches at St Mary’s
Seminary, was instrumental in developing the programme, which focuses on
“the areas of historic theological divergence” between the Catholic and
Anglican churches, Cardinal Wuerl said.
The only ordinariate
created thus far under Anglicanorum coetibus is Britain’s Personal
Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, which includes 60 former Anglican
clergy and about 1,000 lay people.
Ordinariates are also under consideration in Australia and Canada.
Cardinal
Wuerl said he had received “a significant number of letters, emails and
calls” from interested Anglicans after his appointment last September.
The
cardinal leads a task force that also includes Bishop Robert McManus of
Worcester, Massachusetts, and Bishop Kevin Vann of Fort Worth, Texas.
Fr Scott Hurd, a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington who had been an
Episcopal priest, serves as liaison to the US Conference of Catholic
Bishops for implementation of Anglicanorum coetibus.
Cardinal
Wuerl said the task force reported earlier this year to both the Vatican
and the US bishops that the establishment of a US ordinariate “would in
fact be workable”.
The current task involves preparation of
dossiers to be sent to the Vatican on each of the Anglican priests who
is seeking admission to the priestly formation process, he said.
“This
information will include the results of criminal background checks, a
psychological evaluation, a letter of resignation from their Anglican
entity” and letters from Cardinal Wuerl or the head of the ordinariate
once it is established, the Catholic bishop in the diocese in which the
candidate resides and, if possible, his former Anglican authority, the
cardinal said.
Once that information has been submitted to the
Vatican, the candidate “will cease celebrating the Anglican Eucharist”
and begin leading his congregation in the catechetical preparation for
them to become Catholics, he said.
Cardinal Wuerl suggested that
the US bishops could assist in the process by providing worship space to
small communities in their dioceses that are seeking to become
Catholic; assigning a priest to serve as liaison to such groups; making
available the resources of diocesan marriage tribunals to assist
Anglicans, clergy and lay, whose marriages need to be regularised; and
offering the services of a local director of religious education or
other educator to assist in the catechetical preparation of those
seeking to become Catholics.
The questions directed at Cardinal
Wuerl by his fellow bishops indicated a certain level of anxiety about
how the ordinariate will operate in relation to their dioceses and how
they might respond to members of other denominations who are attracted
to the ordinariate idea.
Although the ordinariates are designed to
be fully Catholic while retaining elements of the Anglican heritage,
Cardinal Wuerl acknowledged that it is not entirely clear what those
elements are and how they will be maintained.
The cardinal also
stressed that the reception of formerly Anglican congregations into the
Catholic Church through the provisions of Anglicanorum coetibus is
distinct from the Pastoral Provision established by John Paul II through
which married Anglican clergy could join the Catholic Church as
individuals.