The dioceses of England and Wales have pooled a quarter of a million pounds to fund the Ordinariate, it was announced today.
The news was announced at a press conference this morning by Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Catholic bishops’ conference of England and Wales, and Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark.
Archbishop Nichols said that according to the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus the clergy are the responsibility of the Ordinariate, financially and otherwise, but that the bishops had been looking at putting together money from contributors and trusts to form a fund. He said the dioceses have put in a quarter of a million pounds.
He said: “We’ll do it together to start with and then it all depends on the Ordinariate.”
Bishop Alan Hopes, who has been one of the bishops in charge of liaison with Anglicans wanting to take up an ordinariate, added that places in which groups were formed, the local dioceses would provide help to Anglican clergy coming over both in terms of housing and financial aid.
The archbishop stressed that the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus was in no way about “acquiring property through this”He said “the simpler route is the best in that those who come in use Catholic churches.” But he said that the question of buildings would be settled on a local basis, depending on the size of the groups of Anglicans and the arrangements made by the local churches.
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