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HOUSTON — In a majestic Mass at Houston’s Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart on Tuesday evening, history was made for the Anglican ordinariates established by Pope Benedict XVI: Their first bishop was ordained. “In a nutshell, it means we’re here to stay,” summarized Msgr. Harry Entwistle, the ordinary of Australia’s ordinariate, which is under the patroness of Our Lady of the Southern Cross. The new bishop, Stephen Joseph Lopes, 40, a native of California, was in fact instrumental in the creation of the ordinariate that he now leads — the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. The...

This Christmas was particularly joyous for Father Albert Scharbach, who celebrated its liturgies just a few weeks after his ordination as a Catholic priest for the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. “I feel like myself again, but much more,” Father Scharbach said of his Nov. 15 ordination. “I am humbled and grateful to be part of the gracious exception (the ordinariate) in the life of the church.” Initially ordained an Anglican priest in 2005, Father Scharbach was ordained a Catholic priest through the ordinariate, established in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI to make it easier to welcome...

The new Pope has reportedly said the Church universal needs Anglicans and that the Ordinariate is "quite unnecessary". In a note released after the election of the first ever pontiff from Latin America, the Anglican Bishop of Argentina and former Primate of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, the Rt Revd Greg Venables said Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was "an inspired choice". "Many are asking me what is really like. He is much more of a Christian, Christ centered and Spirit filled, than a mere churchman. He believes the Bible as it is written. "I have been with him on...

Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson. Washington D.C., Jul 4, 2012 / 02:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Holy See has announced the first liturgical texts approved for use around the world by the Personal Ordinariates for former Anglicans who have become Catholic. “We welcome with gratitude these texts, which bring into Catholic liturgical life some of the most beloved and memorable texts in the Book of Common Prayer,” said Msgr. Jeffrey N. Steenson, head of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. “These texts have blessed and comforted generations of English-speaking Christians and will be deeply appreciated in the Ordinariate communities,”...

...This former Protestant Archbishop knew that coming home to the fullness of the Catholic Church meant selling all to buy the treasure in the field.(Matt. 13:44) He laid aside a thriving ministry of many years with no assurance of any possibility of ordination to either the diaconate in Christ or the Holy Priesthood. Over the years that followed his entry into the Church he humbly offered his multiple gifts in many ways, including serving as the Associate Editor of Catholic Online. He has been a model in his love for the Lord and fidelity to the Church. The fruit was...

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - A sixth former Anglican bishop was ordained to the priesthood in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham at St. John's Cathedral in Portsmouth on Monday, the Feast of the Annunciation. Robert Mercer, 77, was ordained by the Right Reverend Alan Hopes, the Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, who is also a convert from the Church of England. During his homily, Bishop Hopes was quoted by the U.K. Catholic Herald as saying: "Robert, your life has been one of profound commitment and witness. Your formation and ministry within the Anglican tradition have provided you with...

Monsignor Keith Newton and other members of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham pose in St. Peter's Basilica Rome, Italy, Feb 24, 2012 / 05:17 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Over 100 former Anglicans from the British Isles concluded a pilgrimage to Rome Feb. 24 in thanksgiving for the creation of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. “It has been quite poignant because almost all of the people who are with me were not Catholics until Easter last year,” Monsignor Keith Newton, the head of the U.K. ordinariate told CNA on Feb. 24. The ordinariate was established...

Over at the National catholic Fishwrap, which sports the word “Catholic” in their title despite having been explicitly told not to by the local bishop, has an amusingly flaky piece by Sr. Maureen Fiedler, whom we have seen several times in these electronic pages. Sr. Fiedler is worked up over the new Personal Ordinariate for Anglicans/Episcopalians in the USA.Why? Because we should not welcome anyone into our Church who are against human equality!These new Anglican Catholics are fleeing from a welcoming, inclusive, non-homophobic community into one which denies that women and the abnormal sex acronym crowd can be ordained. Get...

...More than 1,300 Anglicans, including 100 Anglican priests, have applied to be part of the new body, essentially a diocese. Among them are members of St. Luke’s in Bladensburg, which this summer became the first group in the country to convert to Catholicism.St. Luke’s and Baltimore’s Mount Calvary, which also applied to join, were part of the Episcopal Church, the official wing of American Anglicanism. But most of those joining the new structure are Anglicans who aren’t part of the Episcopal Church.It’s unclear how many priests and their followers will ultimately convert to Catholicism. Compared with the tens of millions...

Rome will formally announce appointment on New Year's DayFormer Episcopal Bishop of the Rio Grande, Jeffrey Steenson, is to be named the Ordinary when the Anglican Ordinariate is erected on January 1, 2012, sources tell VOL. Word seeped out from the Vatican late last week that Steenson -- who left The Episcopal Church in 2007 over TEC's polity - has been tapped for the new post as the Ordinariate gets its first foothold in the United States. The former Episcopal House of Bishops' member has been deeply concerned with the continued fracturing of Anglicanism. The Episcopal Church's insistence on autonomy...

Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl announces the U.S. Ordinariate will begin January 1, 2012 Baltimore, Md., Nov 15, 2011 / 06:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl announced today that an Anglican ordinariate in the United States will be canonically erected on Jan. 1, 2012, the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.“I remain convinced this ordinariate will be a true expression of the Catholic Church,” said Cardinal Wuerl, who made the announcement Nov. 15 at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ fall general assembly in Baltimore.Cardinal Wuerl is serving as the Vatican's delegate for establishing a U.S. Anglican...

.........In addition to Catholics, attendees for annual event come from a variety of traditions, including Anglican, Lutheran and other Protestant denominations.With the beginning of the U.S. Anglican Ordinariate anticipated for the near future, attendees will be eager to hear the latest news on its establishmentThe original purpose of the Anglican Use Society, established in 2003, was to promote the usage of the liturgical practices contained in The Book of Divine Worship and evangelical outreach to members of the Anglican Communion seeking union with the Roman Catholic Church and to promote an understanding of the special pastoral provision initiated by Pope...

The latest priests to turn their backs on the Anglican Communion and join the specially established Catholic Ordinariate are Father David Elliott, of Reading, Berks, Father Jonathan Redvers Harris, of the Isle of Wight and Father Graham Smith, of Christchurch, Dorset. Earlier this month The Christian Post reported how seven former Church of England clergy were ordained into the Ordinariate, as part of a series of ordinations taking place over Pentecost...According to the BBC, one of the three, Father Elliott, resigned from his post as the Anglican vicar of Holy Trinity in Reading in April. He moved to the Catholic...

The interior of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Bladensburg, MD. Credit: Mohamedu Jones Bladensburg, Md., Jun 8, 2011 / 06:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The small congregation of St. Luke’s Episcopal parish in Bladensburg, Maryland will join the Catholic Church through the Anglican ordinariate structure created by Pope Benedict XVI.“We welcome the St. Luke community warmly into our family of faith,” Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington said June 6. “The proposed ordinariate provides a path to unity, one that recognizes our shared beliefs on matters of faith while also recognizing and respecting the liturgical heritage of the Anglican Church.”He...

London, England, Mar 12, 2011 / 02:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The English and Welsh Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has launched a website to inform others about the new church structure for Anglicans who want to join the Catholic Church. Its head noted the “real excitement” at being involved in the new endeavor.The website, www.ordinariate.org.uk, bears a welcome message from Fr. Keith Newton, the head of the ordinariate.Fr. Newton, who is the former Anglican Bishop of Richborough, invited readers to learn more about the ordinariate’s structure and purpose.“I am very happy to have this opportunity to present to you...

Seven Anglican priests and 300 members of six congregations are to join a new section of the Catholic Church, the Catholic Diocese of Brentwood says. The move involves three parishes in Essex, and three in east London. It is the largest known influx to date into the Ordinariate The Anglican Bishop of Chelmsford, the Right Reverend Stephen Cottrell, said he was disappointed that 300 members in Essex were converting to Catholicism. "Although I'm sorry these people are going, I do respect their decision. But it is a small group of people. The Church of England remains the church for everyone."

At the first Mass of Fr Andrew Burnham at the Oxford Oratory on Sunday, the great Dominican theologian Fr Aidan Nichols described the Ordinariate as “nothing less than the reconfiguring of Anglicanism by union with the Petrine centre and its criteria of orthodoxy”. That is a sweepingly ambitious statement of the Ordinariate’s purpose – and it might have seemed over the top had it not been for the extraordinary scenes at Westminster Cathedral the day before, when Archbishop Vincent Nichols ordained the former Anglican bishops of Fulham, Ebbsfleet and Richborough. Rather to the surprise of some commentators, the Bishops of...

Bishop Andrew Burnham gave this homily at St John the Evangelist, New Hinksey, Oxford, at a Solemn Mass of St Andrew on Saturday 27th November 2010.  At the end of the Mass he laid aside his crozier and mitre at the feet of Our Lady.In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? John 14:2Thank you, all of you, for getting out the snow-chains and coming here today.  It was a bit of an after-thought to put on this service: I am supposed...

An Anglican bishop has attacked his Church as "vicious" and "fascist" as he explained his decision to defect to the Roman Catholic Church.The Rt Rev John Broadhurst, the Bishop of Fulham, accused the Church of England of breaking promises to make provisions for opponents of women's ordination. He warned that the Pope's invitation to disaffected Anglicans to join the Catholic Church would appeal to traditionalists dismayed at their treatment. His comments came as a parish in the Archbishop of Canterbury's own diocese became the first in the country to announce that it would defect to Rome, with one parishioner declaring:...

Some things about the Eucharistic worship of the Ordinariates are already clear. Since Ordinariate clergy will be part of the Roman Rite, they will be able lawfully to use the Ordinary Form in a translation which will have received the recognitio of the Holy See – and I am of course thinking of the new ICEL translation of the Roman Rite. Doubtless many will use this rite, since (particularly in England) very many Anglican Catholic clergy have in the past used the OF. Those who adhered to more ‘Anglican’ forms – the Alternative Service Book or Common Worship – commonly...