On the Pope's remarks on Anglicanorum coetibus

Fr. Anthony Chadwick ponders what the Pope said in the UK yesterday:

First the Holy Father:

“The other matter I touched upon in February with the Bishops of England and Wales, when I asked you to be generous in implementing the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. This should be seen as a prophetic gesture that can contribute positively to the developing relations between Anglicans and Catholics. It helps us to set our sights on the ultimate goal of all ecumenical activity: the restoration of full ecclesial communion in the context of which the mutual exchange of gifts from our respective spiritual patrimonies serves as an enrichment to us all. Let us continue to pray and work unceasingly in order to hasten the joyful day when the goal can be accomplished”.

Now Fr. Anthony:

The goal of all ecumenism is the restoration of full ecclesial communion. It is all well to develop friendship between Churches, and this is what the Holy Father is doing with the Church of England. The door remains open, and charity, friendship and mutual respect remain in place. But, that relationship is going no further whilst the Anglican Communion ordains women to the priesthood and episcopate. This goal of the restoration of full ecclesial communion is now only possible for groups of Anglicans who are ready to make their commitment to enter communion with the Successor of Saint Peter and profess the entire Catholic Faith. But, this full ecclesial communion, so desired by us all, is quickly qualified by a new and prophetic context – the mutual exchange of gifts from our respective spiritual patrimonies serves as an enrichment to us all. This is going to be an exchange of gifts. We have as much to receive as we have to give. We would be giving our tradition of sacred vernacular liturgy, our music, our spiritual tradition, everything we have discussed in our blogs over the past year. We would be receiving back the ancient patrimony of patristic and medieval Catholicism, something we have been seeking to do since the days of the Oxford Movement in our separation and estrangement from both Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy. We have also assimilated the patrimony of Counter-Reformation Catholicism with our use of the English Missal and decoration of some of our churches in Baroque style. We celebrate the feasts of Saint Theresa of Lisieux and the Curé d’Ars among so many other canonised men and women of modern times. We accept the Catechism and the best of twentieth century ressourcement theology. We will never cease to learn and marvel at the wisdom of the one Church of Christ.

This discreet snatch leaves me with hope that Anglicanorum Coetibus was not something published in haste and the subject of brushing under the carpet or back-peddling. The Holy Father really does want this, and I think we can confidently wait for the details to be given in new announcements and the establishment of the first Ordinariate.