Look Before You Leap

By Robin G.Jordan

”We say…Loke yer thou lepe, whose literal sense, is doo nothinge sodenly or without avisement.” William Tyndale, Obedience of Christian Man, 1528

Anglican congregations and clergy in North America weighing the option of converting to Roman Catholicism and joining a personal ordinariate in Canada or the United States under the provisions of Anglicanorum coetibus (Groups of Anglicans) would be wise to explore what is going to happen to them in the Roman Catholic Church before they make any decisions. They should thoroughly investigate what they can expect upon becoming Roman Catholics. They should seek answers to these questions.

1. What is the likelihood that their particular congregation will be granted personal parish or personal quasi-parish status? Will they know beforehand?

Anglicanorum coetibus and its complementary norms do not guarantee personal parish or personal quasi-parish status to every Anglican congregation that converts to Roman Catholicism.

2. What is the likelihood that their priest or priests will be reordained? Here again, will they know beforehand?

Anglicanorum coetibus and its complementary norms do not guarantee the reordination of every Anglican priest who converts to Roman Catholicism. A number of them will be laicized.

3. What they will be expected to do if their congregation is not granted personal parish or personal quasi-parish status and their priest or priests are not ordained? Will they be expected to attend a regular Roman Catholic parish in their area?

Anglicanorum coetibus and its complementary norms do not rule out this possibility.

4. What will happen to any church buildings and property they own?

Anglicanorum coetibus and its complementary norms do not address the issue of property ownership. Once a congregation converts to Roman Catholicism, there is strong likelihood that the Roman Catholic Church will take possession of its property. If the Roman Catholic Church disbands the congregation, there is a very real possibility that it will dispose of the property as it sees fit.

5. What is the present situation of the Roman Catholic Church in their area?

The present situation of the Roman Catholic diocese in which their church is located warrants their attention. The personal ordinariates will not be entirely independent of the Roman Catholic archdiocesan and diocesan structure in North America. The Roman Catholic diocesan bishop with jurisdiction in a particular area must be consulted by the ordinary of the ordinariate on certain matters and the Vatican will consider his opinion in its final decision on these matters. He will also have oversight over personal ordinariate clergy resident in his diocese in certain matters. The present situation of the Roman Catholic diocese also warrants attention in the event a congregation is not granted personal parish or personal quasi-parish status and its priest or priests are not reordained.

Was it affected by the sexual abuse scandals of recent years? How was the sexual abuse handled?

Is it suffering a shortage of priests?

Are churches being closed and consolidated?

Do some churches have Sunday celebrations without a priest at which a nun gives a “reflection” after the readings and distributes the reserved communion elements with the assistance of lay ministers of communion?

A statement that one of the country’s leading ecclesiologist Lyle E. Schaller makes in the introduction to his book Small Congregations, Big Potential prompted this article:

Fifth, the current resident pastor is a woman. That is an increasingly common pattern for small and midsized Protestant and Roman Catholic congregations in America, but not yet the norm.

This was a reminder of what I have read elsewhere. In a number of Roman Catholic dioceses women, usually religious, are pastoring Roman Catholic congregations due to the shortage of priests. They do not preside at Mass or consecrate the bread and the wine for the Eucharist. They do, however, provide spiritual care and guidance to the congregation. The congregation is yoked to other congregations that are served by a single priest who celebrates Mass at each congregation on one or more Sundays in a month. The woman pastor presides at the congregation’s Sunday celebrations on those Sundays the priest is elsewhere.

Do nuns and women pastoral assistants preach homilies at the Mass?

The canons of the Roman Catholic Church strictly prohibit lay preaching in the Mass. However, a number of dioceses ignore this prohibition. The lay homilists in these dioceses are often women.

What kind of music is used in the area’s Roman Catholic churches?

In some Roman Catholic parishes a small ensemble consisting of guitar, keyboard, and vocalists leads the congregational singing, using hymns and songs from one of a number of contemporary Roman Catholic collections like Gather and Ritual Song. The ensemble may play the hymns and songs from a paperback missalette. In other Roman Catholic parishes such as those that use a Roman Catholic hymnal like Worship the music is more traditional with a cantor or choir leading the singing and accompanied by an organ. In charismatic parishes contemporary Christian and praise and worship songs are popular.

6. If the congregation is granted personal parish or personal quasi-parish status and its priest or priests ordained, what liturgical rites will they be allowed to use?

Anglicanorum coetibus and its complementary norms stress that all liturgical rites used in the personal ordinariates must be vetted and approved by the Vatican. The Book of Divine Worship, the Anglican Use service book used in the United States, is out of print; the Vatican has not produced a replacement. The Book of Divine Worship is based upon the Episcopal Church’s 1979 Book of Common Prayer and has a Rite I and a Rite II. It is not based upon the 1928 Prayer Book and the American Missal. In its official statements the Roman Catholic Church has emphasize that the personal ordinariates will not be ecclesial bodies with their own rite. They will be Roman Rite. They may always use the Roman Rite liturgy. The Roman Catholic Church is introducing a new liturgy in November of this year. All regular Roman Catholic parishes will be expected to use it. There is a very real possibility that the personal ordinariates will be encouraged to use it and the Vatican will take its time in authorizing a new Anglican Use service book. If the ordinariates are persuaded to use the new Roman Rite liturgy, the incentive for the Vatican to authorize such a service book disappears.

7. What worship aid such as hymnals will they be permitted to use?

When the Roman Catholic Church in its official statements speaks of “worthy patrimony,” it means what it considers estimable, deserving respect, or entitled to recognition. Vatican officials, not the ordinariates themselves, will be determining what customs, music, and the like personal parishes and personal quasi-parishes may retain in the Roman Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholic Church is being forthright in its official statements but Anglican congregations and clergy may be misreading these statements and giving heed to those who are misinterpreting them. A small traditionalist Anglo-Catholic congregation that takes the Pope’s offer and converts as a congregation to Roman Catholicism will be deeply disappointed if having been received into the Roman Catholic Church it discovers that its aging priest will not be reordained and the congregation will not be granted even personal quasi-parish status. It will be outraged if it further discovers that the congregation is to be disbanded and its church building sold. It is expected to attend a regular Roman Catholic parish in the area, a parish in which a worship leader with a guitar leads the congregational singing and a nun officiates at the Sunday celebration twice a month.

This list of questions is not exhaustive. I am sure that Anglican congregations and clergy contemplating migrating to the Roman Catholic Church can think of additional questions. For some Anglican congregations and clergy becoming Roman Catholic will be a real coming-home experience. They are Roman Catholics at heart. For other Anglican congregations and clergy becoming Roman Catholic may prove a great disappointment. All Anglican congregations and clergy considering such a momentous decision need to ask these questions and similar ones to help them in discerning what will be the right choice for them. They need to take all necessary steps to ensure that they do not make a rash and precipitous decision.

As well as asking questions of this kind, they also need to give ample time to the process of discernment. They need to be wary of those who seek to rush them into making a hasty decision for reasons of their own. They do not want to make an unwise choice at the urging of such individuals and groups that they will regret later on. They should always consider the motives of an individual or group in pressing for a particular course of action and in the case of an individual the temperament of that individual, his judgment, past decisions that he has made, the outcome of these decisions, and so forth.

A young man I know suffered a serious head injury when he as a teenager went bicycling without a helmet. He has not completely recovered from the effects of this injury. However, he has come a long way. His story is an example of courage, faith, and perseverance against great odds.

He and some fraternity brothers were this past spring diving off the roof of a pontoon boat they had rented. The boat drifted too close to shore. They were having so much fun that they did not notice the boat’s shoreward drift. One after another his fraternity brothers dived off the roof into the water. The young man’s turn came. He dived headfirst into the water without first checking the water where he was diving. He rammed his face into the gravel bottom of the lake. He was fortunate. He received no more serious injuries than a number of cuts and abrasions to his face.

“Look before you leap” is an old saying. It is also very sound advice.