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Thursday 14 November 2013

Ontario Ordination to Priesthood for the Ordinariate


By the grace of God
and at the request of
Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson
Personal Ordinariate of The Chair of St. Peter

The Most Rev. Terrence Prendergast

Archbishop of Ottawa
will celebrate the Ordination
of
KIPLING COOPER 
DOUGLAS HAYMAN 
JOHN HODGINS 
JAMES TILLEY


to the Ministerial Priesthood of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Saturday, Dec. 14, A.D. 2013 at 9:30 A.M.
The Feast of St. John of the Cross 
 The Heavenly Birthday of The Servant of God
Catherine Doherty of Madonna House, Combermere

The Basilica of Notre Dame
385 Sussex Drive (by the National Gallery of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario CANADA
                       
                    Your prayers and, if possible, your presence are requested.

Monday 11 November 2013

Four from Ontario for priesthood in the CSP (Anglican) Ordinariate

Msgr Jeffrey Steenson has announced that four more Canadians (former Anglican priests) will celebrate their ordaination to the Catholic priesthood for the Personal (Anglican) Ordinariate  of the Chair of St. Peter (CSP) to serve in Toronto, Oshawa and the Ottawa region.
Former Anglican priests ordained for the Catholic priesthood in the Ordinariate

A father being ordained priest. His little son is imitating Daddy.
The four Ontario men are: Kipling Cooper (Ottawa), Douglas Hayman (Spencerville) John Hodgins (Toronto) and James Tilley (Oshawa). Each has completed a course of study in the areas of moral theology, ecclesiology, canon law, sacramental theology and liturgy.

The course is offered by St. Mary's Seminary in Houston TX (a part of St. Thomas University) where the CSP Ordinary, Msgr. Steenson teaches Patristics. The course is designed to cover areas of Catholic teaching with which Anglicans may not be familiar and  assumes that their degrees and training in Scripture, history, pastoral theology and other ecumenical disciplines meets Catholic requirements.

Over 1000 former Anglican men have been ordained to the Catholic priesthood over the past 20 years - many of them  married.
The initial sessions, held in Houston, were followed by a series of weekly Saturday day-long lecture sessions along with discussion in a virtual classroom on the internet using the Polycom web system. The technology is funded by the Knights of Columbus.

This is the second Ordinariate programme for candidates for the Catholic priesthood in North America. Over 40 men have previously been trained and ordained for CSP North America. The latest course included men from around North America and the Caribbean.

Msgr Steenson (centre), Ordinary of the CSP Personal (Anglican) Ordinariate with two of his supporters, US Cardinal Wuerl (left) of Washington DC and Cardinal DiNardo of Houston TX (right).
After extensive psychological, medical and other assessments, along with a complete record of ministry and personal life, including letters of support from their wives, the dossier for each man was approved with a votum (approval) sought from the local Catholic bishop as well as the Ordinary, Msgr Steenson. When complete and approved, each dossier then went to the Congregation for the Doctirine of the Faith (CDF) in Rome for final review and approval. The CDF oversees the Anglican Ordinariates.

Married men are ordained to the priesthood in the Ordinariates with dispensation from the discipline of celibacy. This is a requirement for married Anglican priests and bishops, though not for deacons in the Roman (Latin or Western Rite) of the Catholic Church. Like Ukrainian Catholics along with other Byzantine and Greek Catholics (who are also in communion with Rome), priests (but not bishops) of the Anglican Ordinariates may be married, though they may not marry or remarry after ordination and, in the case of the Western Church, each case must be personally approved by the Pope.

In order for dispensation from the rule of celibacy to be given, each man's dossier was approved personally by the Holy Father, Pope Francis I, who authorizes each married candidate for ordination. Though surprising to some Western "Roman" Catholics the practice of ordaining married men to the priesthood is not a matter of doctrine but of discipline in the West.  It is normal, and in fact the rule rather than the exception, in Eastern Catholic Churches. There are, for example, numerous married Catholic priests in Toronto serving the Ukrainian Catholic and other eastern churches in communion with Rome.

Well over 1,000 former Anglican priests worldwide, have been ordained to the Catholic priesthood in the Roman Rite over the past 20 years. Many of these men have been married. The norm of celibacy continues to be the rule throughout the Latin Church of which the Ordinariates form a part.

The Toronto Anglican CSP Ordinariate congregation - St. Thomas More (meeting in downtown Sacré-Coeur Church) will have their own priest working with them as well as assisting with work in the Archdiocese of Toronto.


Saturday 9 November 2013

Ordination to Diaconate in Toronto


With the kind permission of Our Holy Father, Pope Francis I

 and


Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson, Ordinary of 
The Personal Ordinariate of The Chair of St. Peter

Your prayers and presence are invited for the celebration by

His Eminence Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto,
of the Ordination of 

JOHN LEE HODGINS

and

JAMES TILLEY

to the Sacred Order of Deacons under the terms of the Apostolic Constitution 

Anglicanorum Coetibus

For service in the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter,
in unity of faith and full communion with the Apostolic See of St. Peter and 
the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Our Lord, Jesus Christ.

2:00 P.M. SUNDAY, DEC. 1, 

A.D. 2013

St. Thomas More Sodality

SACRÉ-COEUR CHURCH,

Sherbourne Avenue at Carlton St., Toronto


Wednesday 6 November 2013

Catholic but not Roman


Here is an explanation for the mandated terminology for official Ordinariate signs from a CSP Ordinariate priest sent in an e-mail response to the posting here: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND HER DISTINCT PARTS


I thought you might appreciate this feedback on your most recent posting. I'm pasting below a short bit from the US Ordinariate ministry manual regarding naming and public reference to Ordinariate groups:

So that the Ordinariate has common and uniform terminology for its communities and parishes in traditional and social media, as well as on websites and in other publications, Ordinariate groups will be referenced in this fashion:

a.  For groups that are not-yet parishes: “Saint Augustine Church – a Catholic community of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter”.

b.  For parishes and missions: “Saint Augustine Church – a Catholic parish of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter”.

c.  If further explanation is needed: As an Ordinariate community/parish, we are fully Catholic and in union with the Holy Father, while retaining many elements of our Anglican patrimony. The Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter was established by Pope Benedict XVI on January 1, 2012 for communities like ours across the United States. (See www.usordinariate.org)

For an explanation as to why the proper and official title of the Catholic Church does not include "Roman" except in the Diocese of Rome, see the previous posting on official documents and names "The Catholic Church and her Distinct Parts".

Received into Full Communion


Three young adults were received into the full communion of the Catholic Church at St. Thomas More (STM), Toronto this past Sunday in the Octave of All Saints.

Entrance to Sacré-Coeur  (home of St Thomas More Church) Sherbourne Ave at Carlton St., TORONTO

After catechesis this Fall using EVANGELIUM these young people from different backgrounds (none of them Anglican) had been attracted to STM and the (Anglican) Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter (CSP) by the liturgy, music and teaching offered weekly at Sacré-Coeur Church (Sherbourne at Carlton).

FR. ERIC RODRIGUES, CHAPLIN FOR STM CELEBRATES SUNG MASS OF ALL SAINTS


Each had been contemplating the teaching of the Catholic Church and in the course of study, discussion and prayer while working through Revised Edition of EVANGELIUM they came to affirm the magisterial teaching of the Catholic Church.


Divided into sections: Creed, Sacraments, Morals and Prayer, EVANGELIUM is providing a very useful method for the New Evangelization that Catholic parishes and communities are engaged in.

Several weeks of meetings before Sunday Mass allowed each of these baptized individuals to prepare for the sealing of Confirmation and First Communion at Sunday Sung Mass. At STM the course is provided for young adults, especially university students from Ryerson and U of T who have already been baptized but have not had catechized in the Catholic faith. STM provides an opportunity to explore the faith in the nurturing context of a small but growing community of faith.

This past Spring, Pope Francis expanded the mandate of the Ordinariates to include ministry and catechesis with baptized Catholics who have not received the sacraments of Confirmation and First Communion.

An invitation has been issued to Ryerson Catholics and U of T students to explore the Christian Faith as presented by the STM Ordinariate Catholic community, while sharing in its worship and patrimony in the rich setting of excellent traditional liturgy and music.

This Sunday the choir offered at Sung Mass the Missa O Quam Gloriosum by Victoria.

The Catholic Church and Her Distinct Parts

The following article is excerpted here in light of the current discussion about how we in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter are to refer to ourselves in relation to the universal Catholic Church and how our liturgical rites which are a "use" of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church should be referred to.  


It has been recommended that we not officially employ the term "Anglican Use".  Perhaps "Ordinariate Use" will find acceptance, though this might be confused with the military or other ordinariates in the Church.  


One thing is clear from the following article, the (Anglican) Personal Ordinariates based upon the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus should identify themselves as in communion with the Catholic Church not "Roman" Catholic.  


Further, we need to explain that we worship using an approved "Use" of the Latin Rite based on Anglican sources.  How one does that succinctly is a good question.






* In the following article the highlighted [brackets], italics and underlining for emphasis are mine.


How Did the Catholic Church Get Her Name?

by Kenneth D. Whitehead

The Creed which we recite on Sundays and holy days speaks of one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. As everybody knows, however, the Church referred to in this Creed is more commonly called just the Catholic Church. It is not, by the way, properly called the Roman Catholic Church, but simply the Catholic Church.

The term Roman Catholic is not used by the Church herself; it is a relatively modern term, and one, moreover, that is confined largely to the English language. The English-speaking bishops at the First Vatican Council in 1870, in fact, conducted a vigorous and successful campaign to insure that the term Roman Catholic was nowhere included in any of the Council's official documents about the Church herself, and the term was not included.

Similarly, nowhere in the 16 documents of the Second Vatican Council will you find the term Roman Catholic. Pope Paul VI signed all the documents of the Second Vatican Council as "I, Paul. Bishop of the Catholic Church." Simply that -- Catholic Church. There are references to the Roman curia, the Roman missal, the Roman rite, etc., but when the adjective Roman is applied to the Church herself, it refers to the Diocese of Rome!

Cardinals, for example, are called cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, but that designation means that when they are named to be cardinals they have thereby become honorary clergy of the Holy Father's home diocese, the Diocese of Rome. Each cardinal is given a titular church in Rome, and when the cardinals participate in the election of a new pope. they are participating in a process that in ancient times was carried out by the clergy of the Diocese of Rome.

Although the Diocese of Rome is central to the Catholic Church, this does not mean that the Roman rite, or, as is sometimes said, the Latin rite, is co-terminus with the Church as a whole; that would mean neglecting the Byzantine, Chaldean, Maronite or other Oriental rites which are all very much part of the Catholic Church today, as in the past.







In our day, much greater emphasis has been given to these "non-Roman" rites of the Catholic Church. The Second Vatican Council devoted a special document, Orientalium Ecclesiarum (Decree on Eastern Catholic Churches), to the Eastern rites which belong to the Catholic Church, and the new Catechism of the Catholic Church similarly gives considerable attention to the distinctive traditions and spirituality of these Eastern rites.

So the proper name for the universal Church is not the Roman Catholic Church. Far from it. That term caught on mostly in English-speaking countries; it was promoted mostly by Anglicans, supporters of the "branch theory" of the Church, namely, that the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of the creed was supposed to consist of three major branches, the Anglican, the Orthodox and the so-called Roman Catholic. It was to avoid that kind of interpretation that the English-speaking bishops at Vatican I succeeded in warning the Church away from ever using the term officially herself: It too easily could be misunderstood.

Today in an era of widespread dissent in the Church, and of equally widespread confusion regarding what authentic Catholic identity is supposed to consist of, many loyal Catholics have recently taken to using the term Roman Catholic in order to affirm their understanding that the Catholic Church of the Sunday creed is the same Church that is united with the Vicar of Christ in Rome, the Pope. This understanding of theirs is correct, but such Catholics should nevertheless beware of using the term, not only because of its dubious origins in Anglican circles intending to suggest that there just might be some other Catholic Church around somewhere besides the Roman one: but also because it often still is used today to suggest that the Roman Catholic Church is something other and lesser than the Catholic Church of the creed. It is commonly used by some dissenting theologians, for example, who appear to be attempting to categorize the Roman Catholic Church as just another contemporary "Christian denomination"--not the body that is identical with the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of the creed.

The entity in question, of course, is just that: the very visible, worldwide Catholic Church, in which the 263rd successor of the Apostle Peter, [Francis I], teaches, governs and sanctifies, along with some 3,000 other bishops around the world, who are successors of the apostles of Jesus Christ.
As mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, it is true that the followers of Christ early became known as "Christians" (cf. Acts 11:26).

Very early in post-apostolic times, however. the Church did acquire a proper name--and precisely in order to distinguish herself from rival bodies which by then were already beginning to form. The name that the Church acquired when it became necessary for her to have a proper name was the name by which she has been known ever since-the Catholic Church.

The name appears in Christian literature for the first time around the end of the first century. By the time it was written down, it had certainly already been in use, for the indications are that everybody understood exactly what was meant by the name when it was written.

Around the year A.D. 107, a bishop, St. Ignatius of Antioch in the Near East, was arrested, brought to Rome by armed guards and eventually martyred there in the arena. In a farewell letter which this early bishop and martyr wrote to his fellow Christians in Smyrna (today Izmir in modern Turkey), he made the first written mention in history of "the Catholic Church." He wrote, "Where the bishop is present, there is the Catholic Church" (To the Smyrnaeans 8:2). Thus, the second century of Christianity had scarcely begun when the name of the Catholic Church was already in use.

Thereafter, mention of the name became more and more frequent in the written record. It appears in the oldest written account we possess outside the New Testament of the martyrdom of a Christian for his faith, the "Martyrdom of St. Polycarp," bishop of the same Church of Smyrna to which St. Ignatius of Antioch had written. St. Polycarp was martyred around 155, and the account of his sufferings dates back to that time. The narrator informs us that in his final prayers before giving up his life for Christ, St. Polycarp "remembered all who had met with him at any time, both small and great, both those with and those without renown, and the whole Catholic Church throughout the world."

We know that St. Polycarp, at the time of his death in 155, had been a Christian for 86 years. He could not, therefore, have been born much later than 69 or 70. Yet it appears to have been a normal part of the vocabulary of a man of this era to be able to speak of "the whole Catholic Church throughout the world."

The name had caught on, and no doubt for good reasons.

The term "catholic" simply means "universal," and when employing it in those early days, St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. Polycarp of Smyrna were referring to the Church that was already "everywhere," as distinguished from whatever sects, schisms or splinter groups might have grown up here and there, in opposition to the Catholic Church.

The term was already understood even then to be an especially fitting name because the Catholic Church was for everyone, not just for adepts, enthusiasts or the specially initiated who might have been attracted to her.

Again, it was already understood that the Church was "catholic" because -- to adopt a modern expression -- she possessed the fullness of the means of salvation. She also was destined to be "universal" in time as well as in space, and it was to her that applied the promise of Christ to Peter and the other apostles that "the powers of death shall not prevail" against her (Mt 16:18).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church in our own day has concisely summed up all the reasons why the name of the Church of Christ has been the Catholic Church: "The Church is catholic," the Catechism teaches, "[because] she proclaims the fullness of the faith. She bears in herself and administers the totality of the means of salvation. She is sent out to all peoples. She speaks to all men. She encompasses all times. She is 'missionary of her very nature'" (no. 868).

So the name became attached to her for good. By the time of the first ecumenical council of the Church, held at Nicaea in Asia Minor in the year 325 A.D., the bishops of that council were legislating quite naturally in the name of the universal body they called in the Council of Nicaea's official documents "the Catholic Church." As most people know, it was that same council which formulated the basic Creed in which the term "catholic" was retained as one of the four marks of the true Church of Christ. And it is the same name which is to be found in all 16 documents of the twenty-first ecumenical council of the Church, Vatican Council II.

It was still back in the fourth century that St. Cyril of Jerusalem aptly wrote, "Inquire not simply where the Lord's house is, for the sects of the profane also make an attempt to call their own dens the houses of the Lord; nor inquire merely where the church is, but where the Catholic Church is. For this is the peculiar name of this Holy Body, the Mother of all, which is the Spouse of Our Lord Jesus Christ" (Catecheses, xviii, 26).

The same inquiry needs to be made in exactly the same way today, for the name of the true Church of Christ has in no way been changed. It was inevitable that the Catechism of the Catholic Church would adopt the same name today that the Church has had throughout the whole of her very long history.

Excerpted from The Catholic Answer, May/June 1996?
Published by Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750, 1-800-521-0600.