Until the establishment of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham Ecumenism in the Catholic Church has been about dialogue but with the establishment of the Ordinariate it has become about Unity with the See of Peter. This is a dynamic change which reflects what the Second Vatican Council taught about the unique role of the Catholic Church. It also points to what the Church actually understands to be the fruit of Ecumenism: organic and visible communion with Peter.
The establishment of the Ordinariates of former Anglicans highlights what Lumen Gentium says, that the Church of Jesus Christ subsists within the Catholic Church. "Subsists" because in its structures: the Episcopacy, the Papacy etc, the sacraments, Revelation and in the Saints it is the Church of Jesus Christ. However, in so far as it contains dissident American nuns, barking heretical bishops, wickedly dissenting priests and uncatechised lay people the Church's unity is seriously damaged, and it deviates from Christ's intentions yet outside of the visible unity of the Church there are, as in the Anglican Communion, men and women who can actually with absolute sincerity sign the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Where is the Church, with the dissenters in it or with believers outside of it?
Through the internet these lectures we have been putting on have become international events: more people in Fiji have seen the last one than attended it in the Church! More Bishops and Archbishops have seen the videos than came here to listen, the same with members of Vatican dicasteries, enclosed nuns etc.
11 comments:
" there are, as in the Anglican Communion, men and women who can actually with absolute sincerity sign the Catechism of the Catholic Church. "
You are correct. My problem is how can they then continue to remain in the Anglican Communion which is "the Protestant faith by law reformed"?
The Ordinariate is a real fruit of the new and not so new evangelization and not false ecumenism. I would love to hear this talk. God bless Msgr. Newton et al the Ordinariate.
PS I might make it. Do we need to reserve seats? Or, just show up?
Super...,
There should be enough seating
EF Pastor,
It is the same reason, in part, why those who don't believe stay; it is about daring to change, and the real difficulties of it, which the Pope has recognised by establishing the Ord.
Fr Ray,
I take it from your post that the lecture will be available on the internet - is that by way of a live feed only or will it be possible to view whenever one likes? And is the url to view the one on the poster?
Thanks.
Pax
I hear what Pastor Emeritus is saying, but it is not so easy. It is similar to what we all experience in everyday life: “The good that I would, I do not…”
But it is all the more difficult for those like Mgr. Newton and the other clerics in the Ordinariate who have had to give up the security and material well-being of their former life – often with young families to provide for - and cast out into the unknown. I admire and commend them for it and pray for their continued resolve and success.
Fr Levi,
We are not so sophisticated, I hope it will be available with in a few days, providing the technical services are working.
I shall endeavour to attend.
I cannot attend unfortunately, but I do look forward to hearing it on the net.
Good Luck
Lawyeratwork.com
If the goal of ecumenism, from the Catholic viewpoint, is visible and organic communion with the Pope, should not the Catholic Church make this clear in any ecumenical dealings it has with other churches? It would be dishonest to pretend that there could be productive negotiations between partners treated as equal if one side really thinks that the others should submit to it. If this is the case Catholics should not take part in ecumenical discussions at all as there could be no point to them. In fact the Catholic Church does engage in ecumenical discussions, so either it does not believe that union can only come through submission to it or it is concealing its true position. No wonder that other Christians are sometimes suspicious of Catholics and consider them hypocritical and deceitful.
UNITATIS REDINTEGRATIO, is worth reading. The first paragraph, indeed the title of the document is "the restoration if unity". I think the documents of VII are available to anyone. Nothing is concealed, nothing is dishonest.
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