The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

"[T]he Holy Spirit has moved groups of Anglicans to petition repeatedly and insistently to be received into full Catholic communion individually as well as corporately" (Anglicanorum coetibus, 1). 

Beginning in 1977, several married Anglican priests inquired about the potential to convert to Roman Catholicism and to be able to function as Catholic priests. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) liked the idea and proposed a way to allow for the necessary dispensation (exception to the rule about priestly celibacy). In 1980, the Holy See in Rome decided to accept their petitions, and Pope John Paul II authorized the Pastoral Provision in 1981. This was the next step after Vatican II. 

The Pastoral provision allowed former Episcopalians in the United States to be granted access to new personal parishes for former Anglicans now received as full Catholics, parishes established by local bishops. (Personal parishes are designated for a special purpose, such as the place where a community of former Anglicans can come together for Mass that uses a special liturgy that is allowed to be used for only that purpose.) A new Mass, the Book of Divine Worship (1984), was developed for the personal parishes that keeps some elements of the Anglican liturgy from the 1928 and 1979 Book of Common Prayer. Since the theology of the Eucharist differs between Anglicans and Roman Catholics, the Eucharistic Prayers were taken from the Roman Missal (the Novus Ordo) and the ancient Sarum Rite. Local bishops were then also able to ordain married former Episcopal priests as Catholic diocesan priests after obtaining from the Holy See dispensations from the usual rule requiring priestly celibacy.

This desire by Anglican clergy offered an opportunity for the Vatican to engage in ecumenical dialogue according to the precepts of Unitatis redintegratio. Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was involved with the project beginning in the 1980s. 

Canterbury's knocking on Rome's door did not stop but continued. From 1983 to 2009, more than 80 former Episcopalians were ordained for priestly ministry. By 2008, shown in the timeline above, ever greater numbers of Anglicans and former Anglicans petitioned the Holy See to be received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. They desired to convert in deeper ways than the Pastoral Provision allowed for, ways that had been worked out over the years of ecumenical dialogue.

In 2009, in response to the repeated and insistent petitions by Anglicans, Pope Benedict XVI promulgated the Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum coetibus. Guided by the Holy Spirit, the Church now accepts and integrates some of the “many elements of sanctification and truth” which are “found outside her [the Roman Catholic Church’s] visible confines.” As the first tangible fruits of the ecumenical aim of Vatican II, it provides the institutional home for former Anglican laity, priests, deacons, bishops, and consecrated brothers and sisters who desire—as individuals or as groups—to “enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.” By doing this, the Church may "maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion . . . as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared" (III).

This is the document which established the Personal Ordinariates, a new part of the Roman Catholic Church. The document provides the general structure for regulating their institution and life.

It declares that the faith professed within this new institution, like the rest of the Roman Church, will be anchored in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The document specifies that the Ordinariates will have their own priests and deacons who are trained in both the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions. While seminarians will be formed in doctrine and pastoral care along with other Catholic men, there will be special Ordinariate programs and seminaries for training in the Anglican traditions and liturgy. It continues the Pastoral Provision by specifying the pathway for already married Anglican clerics to become Catholic priests while remaining married. Those who are not married when they enter the Church are to remain celibate, following the norms for Roman Catholic priests.

These pioneers emerging from Vatican II, the Personal Ordinariates, are a model for how reunited Christians of any denomination can be integrated into the diverse Roman Catholic Church. Thus the document also prescribes the integrated relationships between the new Ordinariates and other levels of the Church: Rome, the national Conferences of Bishops (USCCB, etc.), and local dioceses where parishes are located. It specifies that the new bishops are to be members of the national Conferences of Bishops. Priests and deacons are to be integrated into the life of their local diocese. Its bishops will also maintain relationships with several congregations (now dicasteries) in Rome.

Pope Benedict XVI issued three additional decrees, each establishing a specific Personal Ordinariate in English-speaking countries. In 2011, the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was established in England and Wales. Those who were nurtured in the Anglican Communion and experienced the Gospel in that context could now enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church via brand new Ordinariate parishes and cathedral that were established soon after the decree was issued.

This decree extended the provisions of Anglicanorum coetibus by specifying the conditions for entry and membership in the Ordinariate. Those faithful who originally belonged to the Anglican Communion and converted to become Roman Catholic in England and Wales are members of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. So too, are those who receive the sacraments of Holy Eucharist and Confirmation within an Ordinariate parish. Family members of those who are members of the Ordinariate are also counted as its members. Persons may belong to either a local diocese or the Ordinariate, but not both at the same time.

The Ordinariates have a formal process by which Anglicans can convert to Roman Catholicism. It involves a program of formation similar to the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) that is used in diocesan parishes. Tailored to the specific needs of these Catholics, its content is determined by the Ordinariate bishop in agreement with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) in Rome.

These Ordinariates provide for not just one-way but mutual enrichment in the Catholic faith. Catholics are also enriched by the presence of former Anglicans, who bring new perspectives on the faith.

In 2012, similar decrees established two more: the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter in the United States and Canada, and the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia. All of the Personal Ordinariates were established to have identical structures, basic functions, and relationships with others in the Roman Catholic Church.

The medieval Church celebrated several rites in Latin, including the ancient Sarum Rite in England. These rites had Gregorian chant but little truly active participation of the faithful during Mass. During the Renaissance, innovations in sacred music found new ways to express the human voice in sacred polyphony. Although it was mathematically and aesthetically beautiful, it was difficult for the laity to understand the words that were sung. The Protestant Reformation rejected liturgies in which the people were challenged to be engaged and to understand what was going on around them. 

And so, Thomas Cranmer, the sixteenth-century author of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer (1549) and architect of the new Anglican worship services, made participation an important theme for his innovations. He started with the Sarum Rite and modified it, translating selections into the vernacular English for the English people. He replaced the sacred polyphony and Latin chant with a new genre of Anglican chant in English for sung Mass and new hymns in English that congregations could sing together. The resulting High Mass appeals to the five senses with language and music, "smells and bells", the Eucharist, and the use of books.

Nearly 500 years later, Cranmer's innovations in language and music have been enhanced, extended, and perfected, but never rejected by those who love the Anglican High Mass. They are considered among the beloved treasures of the Anglican Communion. Now, in the twenty-first century, the old Catholic Rites, with their holy, beautiful, and mature Anglican accretions, come full-circle from Canterbury back to Rome.

Since the main goal of the Ordinariate is "to retain liturgical elements of Anglican heritage and Catholic faith", a Vatican commission spent five years (2010–2015) reviewing a wide variety of historical Anglican liturgical books from 1549 to the present, along with Vatican II documents about the liturgy, in order to develop a new Mass for the Ordinariates. The result is Divine Worship: The Missal. According to the Ordinariate's website, it "provides a way . . . to celebrate the sacred liturgy of the Catholic Church with an 'Anglican inflection.'" This exciting ecumenical project, which vindicates part of the Council Fathers' interpretation of the "spirit of the age", blossoms with Divine Worship! Pope Francis approved the new liturgy and books.

The missal uses the same Prayer Book English that Anglicans have lived by for centuries—complete with plenty of "thees" and "thous." The Mass has three parts. The Liturgy of the Word looks, smells, sounds, and feels like Anglican High Mass, though it is not identical to any historical version. It does everything the Novus Ordo's Liturgy of the Word does—and more. The Penitential Rite comes from the Anglican tradition. The Liturgy of the Eucharist combines the Novus Ordo and Anglican prayers with an option to use the Novus Ordo text. For music, it uses The Hymnal 1940—arguably the best hymnal ever published. Thus, the Anglican liturgical heritage has been adapted to be "fully Catholic in expression and content."