Only two ? three? days away

                                                                     

  The long-awaited and yearned for event is happening on Sunday.  Here's a picture of the rehearsal of the liturgy taken last night at St. Patrick's Basilica

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                                                                                                                           

Ottawa, April 13, 2012

ARCHBISHOP PRENDERGAST WILL RECEIVE MEMBERS OF THE ANGLICAN CATHOLIC CHURCH OF CANADA INTO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Most Reverend Terrence Prendergast, S.J., Archbishop of Ottawa will receive some 40 members of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada’s Ottawa Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Roman Catholic Church on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 15, 2012 at 3:00 pm at St. Patrick’s Basilica – 281 Nepean Street, Ottawa. Archbishop Prendergast will celebrate the Anglican Use Mass, approved for use in the Catholic Church. The parish-in-waiting will eventually join the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter under Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, as part of a Canadian Deanery of St. John the Baptist. All are welcome.

“April 15, 2012 is a date for us to remember for posterity, the day of our individual and collective reception into the Catholic Church,” said the Right Reverend Carl Reid, Auxiliary Bishop of the Pro-Diocese of Our Lady of Walsingham. “And not only us from the Annunciation, but also from several other parishes and fellowships across the country,” he added. “Initially, we shall be a ‘sodality,’ which would best be described as a ‘parish in waiting.’”

“I am honoured to receive members of the Anglican Catholic Church into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church,” said Archbishop Terrence Prendergast.

The Cathedral of the Annunciation is part of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada. It was founded in 1977 by conservative Anglicans opposed to the ordination of women, and other reforms introduced by the Anglican Church of Canada.

The Pope's overture, Reid said, is, in part, a response to a petition made in October 2009 by the 400,000 member Traditional Anglican Communion, of which the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada forms part.

It's expected that the Vatican will permit these new Catholics from the Anglican heritage to continue to use approved parts of the Book of Common Prayer, and to preserve other aspects of their traditions including, on a case-by-case basis, married priests.

In late February, the Right Reverend Bishop Wilkinson, Diocesan Bishop of the Pro-Diocese of Our Lady of Walsingham met with Msgr. Steenson, the Ordinary of the Ordinariate in the United States. Msgr. Steenson agrees that all of the Canadian sodalities, present and future, should be gathered as parishes into a Canadian Deanery of the American Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. He also happily concurs the Anglican Catholics’ choice of St. John the Baptist, with profound historical meaning for Canadians, is an ideal choice for their patronage.

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The pictures were taking during and after a rehearsal at St. Patrick's Basilica last night.