The appointment of Fr David Waller as the first Bishop Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham represents not only a major new chapter in the life of the Ordinariate, but a rare landmark moment for the Church throughout the Anglosphere: the elevation of a former Anglican clergyman to the episcopate.
Well into its second decade, the Ordinariate continues to thrive and intrigue in equal measure. As a former Anglican, I chose not to follow that path upon joining the Catholic Church. And by the time I attended my first Ordinariate Mass, I had developed a strong preference for the Old Rite, making the experience reminiscent of a Traditional Mass in Old English with an Anglican twist. For a cradle Catholic brought up exclusively in the New Rite, the sight and sound of the priest facing ad orientem whilst speaking words from the Book of Common Prayer might seem rather peculiar.
The outgoing Ordinary, Monsignor Keith Newton, is a married man and thus ineligible to become a bishop, even though he is one of many married ex-Anglican clergymen to be ordained priest, and holds pontifical faculties. Some commentators have wondered whether the growing number of Anglophone married clergy might lead to the abolition of mandatory priestly celibacy throughout the West, a question which continues to divide opinion.
Many Catholics remain uneasy with the idea of married priests, even if in some cases due to cultural conditioning rather than theological objections. Be that as it may, the prohibition of married men being consecrated as bishops is sacrosanct.
There is one fact, though, that makes it highly regrettable that most former Anglican clergymen can never become bishops unless widowed (because this fact would likely make them ever more mindful of their duty to courageously shepherd their flocks and defend the truths of the Faith). Whether they were received into the Church in the Ordinary Form or the Ordinariate Use of the Roman Rite, they were required to make a public, solemn profession of faith just to be admitted to the Sacraments as laymen: “I believe and profess all that the Holy Catholic Church believes, teaches and proclaims to be revealed by God.”
I, of course, had to speak those words before being received and confirmed in 2013. Had I not already been validly baptised in the Church of England (or elsewhere), I would have been baptised and confirmed without having to profess anything but the Creed – which most Protestants could do in good faith. Likewise, throughout the Western Church, no cradle Catholic is required to make that solemn statement before Confirmation.
As retired MP Ann Widdecombe, a high-profile convert, explained in her autobiography, she had to extensively research areas of Catholic teaching that she found problematic, lest she “commit perjury at the point of reception”. In contrast, a cradle Catholic “may develop doubts about half the canon but still stay a Catholic.” Here Widdecombe encapsulated the de facto situation that has arisen from the “Spirit of Vatican II”.
Although, officially, all Catholics are bound to accept all the Church’s teachings, in practice one required to profess this before the altar, on peril of his soul, will surely feel a heavier burden of orthodoxy than one who grew up in a Catholic family; who was not given the catechesis required of the Anglian convert to fully assent to all the Church’s teachings; and never had to explicitly affirm this.
Less considered, but somewhat ironic, is the fact that the far lengthier Traditional Rite of Reception only requires the candidate to profess the Creed, the Church’s Dogmas and Canons of her General Councils, which one could conceivably profess without necessarily accepting all the Church’s moral prescriptions.
The New Rite formula, however, leaves you with nowhere to hide: speak those words and you must accept purgatory, the prohibition of contraception, the indissolubility of marriage, the higher dignity of consecrated virginity – in short, the works, until you die (or God help you).
While a convert who makes his profession in good faith based on what he understands at the time, then subsequently develops doubts is not retroactively guilty of perjury, he cannot plead past ignorance as an excuse for failing to accept or abide by any teaching from then on. A cradle Catholic might, however, in some circumstances be spared full culpability for ignorance in matters of faith.
That dichotomy may be largely confined to the English-speaking world, since in Catholic-majority countries it is rare for an already-baptised adult to join the Church. Yet while there is no escaping the historic fallout of the Reformation, it seems a strange quirk that the geo-historical preponderance of Protestantism across the British Empire could create a niche of Catholics who, in practice, are held to higher standards than all other laity, clergy, prelates – and even the Pope.
And purely because they were unfortunate enough to have been validly baptised in a schismatic ceremony. Although, admittedly, any perception of the Ordinariate faithful as being more Catholic than most, whilst they retain aspects of their Anglican patrimony, may be a fittingly ironic sign of the times we live in.
Let us hope and pray that Bishop-elect Waller will be a shining example of orthodoxy to his brother bishops in England and Wales, and ultimately that all Catholics will eventually be required to publicly affirm the full treasure of the Faith before they are sealed with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Once confirmed, we are Soldiers for Christ, and no army should admit a recruit to its ranks without requiring him to swear allegiance to the cause. If all current members of the Church’s hierarchy were required to take that oath, could they do so in good faith?
Photo: The outgoing Ordinary, Monsignor Keith Newton, leading Ordinariate Evensong and Benediction. (Image courtesy the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.)
Matthew Showering is a Latin schola singer and occasional freelance writer (working in finance by day) based in London. A lay convert from Anglicanism, he has previously written for the Latin Mass Society’s ‘Mass of Ages’ magazine and ‘The Catholic Times’.
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