Canadian Ordinariate timetable

OTTAWA (CCN)—Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins has asked Canadians interested in joining a Personal Ordinariate for former Anglicans to signal their intention in writing by May 31.

He told the Anglicanorum Coetibus Conference on March 26 he wanted to “clarify the commitment” of individuals to find out “who wants to proceed, understanding exactly what it means.”

Archbishop Collins, who is the Episcopal Delegate representing the Holy See in the formation of a Personal Ordinariate for former Anglicans within the Catholic Church, stressed the importance of individual conscience, and that each individual have “fully informed consent to this.”

Though May 31 is not a deadline and Anglicans can commit to joining later, Archbishop Collins said he wanted to provide the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) with an idea of preliminary numbers.

“My role is to facilitate this,” he told the 140 delegates from the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, the Anglican Church and former Anglicans who are already Catholics.

The setting up of Ordinariates, which will be on a parish by parish basis, is “more complex than it looks,” he said, noting that each country has different circumstances requiring the set-up of ordinariates to be different as well.

The archbishop described himself as a “sympathetic friend doing my best” to deal with what he sensed was a “certain tension and anxiety out there.”

“It is based on a great degree of suffering, rejection and mistrust, often because of bitter and difficult experience,” he said.

As a friend, “hoping to be a brother,” he wanted to “just simply say 'relax; be at peace. It’s a liberating experience to have one Pope.'”

Because of the strain and uncertainty, Archbishop Collins said he hoped to move as quickly as possible.

“We’re going to do this right,” he said. “It is worthy of that.”

He pledged there would be “no delay, no dithering,” but the Ordinariate would need to have a solid foundation.