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A flexible canonical structure for Anglicans |
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09/11/2009 (1:17)
A specific canonical structure has been prepared for Anglican clergy and faithful who wish to enter the Catholic Church. In fact, Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Constitution, entitled Anglicanorum Coetibus, was just published today, November 9th. The constitution was previously presented at a Holy See’s Press Conference, which these images refer to.
The document introduces a canonical structure that establishes Personal Ordinariates, which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their distinctive spiritual and liturgical patrimony. It provides for the ordination of married Anglican clergy as Catholic priests, though precluding the ordination of married men as bishops. The agreement was reached with the Anglican Communion and it represents a further step in the ecumenical path traced out by Vatican Council II, which the Catholic Church is resolutely determined to follow.
In an article published by L’Osservatore Romano, the rector of the Gregorian University, Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, noted that a flexible canonical structure is now introduced and that, just as the Holy Spirit guided the preparation of the Apostolic Constitution, it will likewise assist its implementation.
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