Ordination

A very happy occasion last night at the Oratory when Fr Joseph was priested (as we Anglicans term it). And how different the ethos from that of an Anglican ordination. With us, it is very much more prelatical. A man from Mars would assume that an all-important individual in a hat was doing things to a suppliant. In the Roman Rite - even the new one - there is a greater sense of the whole church - especially the presbyterium - engaged together. The man from Mars would, I think, go away with the idea that the ordinand was being admitted to a (presbyteral) club.

Some Anglican bishops are so deeply mired in prelatical arrogance that they have started issuing edicts claiming that the participation in the laying-on-of-hands by the presbyterium is 'simply a blessing' and not an organic part of the rite of priestly ordination. And this is despite the fact that Anglican sources, like the Catechism of the Catholic Chuch, make very clear that the action is a profound expression of collegiality.