Ordinariate Watch: Catholic Church querying US Anglicans for possible ordinariate

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.

To read the full article, click here.

This article suggests hesistency and even reluctance on the part of the US Roman Catholic hierarchy to erect a personal ordinariate for former Anglicans in the US Roman Catholic Church. Cardinal Wuerl is certainly proceeding more cautiously than did the Conference of Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. The Our Lady of Walsingham Personal Ordinariate in the United Kingdom may have been a show case.

The United States does present its own particular difficulties including a raft of tiny Anglo-Catholic congregations and superannuated Anglo-Catholic clergy and US Roman Catholic dioceses that are closing and consolidating parishes and parochial schools.