ORDINARIATE RISING: Three Anglican Bishops to Become Catholics Priests

Westminster (Catholic) Cathedral - where the three Anglican bishops were received into the Catholic Church and will be ordained into the Catholic priesthood.

(Telegraph) - According to the Friends of the Ordinariate website, the former bishops of Fulham, Ebbsfleet and Richborough will be ordained Roman Catholic priests in Westminster Cathedral at 10.30am on Saturday, 15 January, a fortnight after they were received into the Church. Everyone is welcome to attend. By that stage they will already be Catholic clergy, having been ordained deacons on Thursday 13 January...

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THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: The creation of the Anglican ordinariate in England is now upon us. The United States and Canada will likely follow immediately thereafter, as well as Australia and others. The time has come for Pope Benedict's "Reform of the Reform."

REFORM OF THE REFORM...

PHASE 1: Restore the 1962 Missal of Saint Pius V (Traditional Latin Mass) - check √
PHASE 2: Reintroduce traditional Anglo-Catholicism to the worldwide Catholic Church - check √
PHASE 3: Reform vernacular translations of the ordinary mass - check √ (later this year)
PHASE 4: Return of pre-conciliar liturgical traditions - in progress
PHASE 5: Revision of the Missal of Pope Paul VI - in progress (quietly)
PHASE 6: Clarification of disputed conciliar documents - in progress (discussions with the SSPX)

The first three phases are enough to reform the Church all on it's own over the next ten to fifteen years, however, phases four through six will accelerate the reform considerably.

Three Anglican bishops, with their wives
and three Anglican nuns, are received into
the Catholic Church at Westminster Cathedral
on January 1, 2011

For now Phase 2 is gearing into high gear. The Anglican ordinariate in England will likely be erected this month, with one of these three former Anglican bishops being named the new English ordinary. The other two priests will likely be his assistants if they are not named ordinaries for other countries, such as the USA and Canada. Regardless of how this plays out, ordinaries will be named for all three countries, and what will follow will be nothing short of the creation of a whole new rite within the Catholic Church (even though it's technically just a "use" and not a full rite - not yet anyway). Over the next ten to fifteen years, this new "Anglican Catholicism" will engage in a game of fraternal competition with the ordinary form of Roman Catholicism, drawing in Protestant converts on the one hand and pulling in traditionally-minded Catholics on the other. This will be similar to the kind of friendly "German thumb-wrestling" the Holy Father used as an analogy to describe the relationship between the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Roman mass. Catholics will be free to move back and forth between traditional Anglican and contemporary Roman liturgies within the Catholic Church. This is designed to force bishops and priests within the Roman Rite to once again embrace their traditional liturgical heritage in the hope of drawing more parishioners in the years ahead. Pure necessity will demand it, that is, if the bishops want to keep the collection plates filled. The effect of Latin traditionalism pulling on the Roman Rite from one side, and English traditionalism (Anglican ordinariates) pulling on the Roman Rite from the other side, will force traditional reform of the ordinary Roman Rite. It may be a slow process, but it is inevitable. What we are witnessing here is not an earthquake, but something more akin to a tectonic shift. The whole direction of the entire Catholic Church has just changed. It's more subtle than an earthquake, and probably not even noticed by the majority of people, but the long-term effects will be undeniable, and far more profound than a mere "earthquake" within the Church.

I should point out here that the reintroduction of Anglican Catholicism to the Catholic Church is far more comprehensive than just the English-speaking world. The Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), which was the body that originally petitioned Rome for the ordinariates, has large non-English affiliates in India, Pakistan, Africa, Latin America, Japan, and the Pacific islands. These metropolitan affiliates celebrate the Anglo-Catholic liturgies in their own native languages. So what we are looking at here is a whole new Catholic liturgy, highly traditional, that will have vernacular translations in multiple languages around the world!!! Stop and think about that for a moment. What does this mean for the Novus Ordo liturgy?

Naturally, only time will tell what the future holds. However, we must remember that in spite of everything the current Holy Father has done, he is not finished yet. What he has done so far will correct the Church over the next one to two decades regardless, but the Holy Father is only just beginning his operations. Already the ball is moving on more reforms that will run their course even after he is gone. Remember, the translation reform of the English mass began under Pope John Paul II. When our Polish pontiff expired many people thought that would be the end of his English reform. Not so! What John Paul II start, Benedict XVI has finished, and so it is reasonable to assume that Pope Benedict's reform processes will likely outlive his pontificate, with lasting effects stretching generations into the future. Could this pope be "Benedict the Great?" - the "Glory of the Olives" we've heard about in a prophecy of old? I'll let you be the judge of that.