24 November 2015

Eugepae!! Eugepae!!!

News of a most splendid appointment from the Vatican! I can think of few things more likely to enhance the positions and missions of the three Ordinariates, both in the Universal Church and more widely!  Ad multos annos, plurimosque annos!! Eis Polla ete Despota!!

14 comments:

Leo Bass said...

So is Msgr. Steven Lopes a good appointment, then? Good for the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter?

Doodler said...

And a liturgist! He will help to ensure that the new Ordinariate Missal is implemented fully right from the start and that all the old 'Divine Worship' service books thrown away!!!

Fr John Hunwicke said...

200% Good News!! An absolutely splendid bloke who has taken the trouble to get to know all of us ... even us on this side of the Herring Pond ... very well. He has been part of the whole Ordinariate game from Day One.

He also, of course, knows his way around Rome. He will be thoroughly BAD news for people who dislike the entire Ordinariate project ... er ... if there are any ... that is ... how could there possibly be ...

Andrew said...

There is some irony here. On the ground, there has been some fuss made about who can and cannot join the Ordinariate - one must have some tenuous claim to Anglicanism of some kind - cradle Catholics strictly forbidden from the membership roles. However, our new man has no such connection, and yet he will soon be the bishop!

It is not that I am complaining, only that it looks like those rules need to be re-examined.

Doodler said...

@Andrew I am assuming that he is not 'joining' the Ordinariate of Saint Peter - he is becoming the Bishop (Ordinary) with jurisdiction. When any new Bishop is appointed he does not have to be selected from those already incardinated into his new Diocese.
I think it more interesting that the appointment has come from outside the Ordinariates.
This appointment, coinciding with the new Missal, brings the Ordinariates more closely under central supervision and control and will help to rein in some of the more maverick interpretations of the vision of Anglicanorum Coetibus.

tradgardmastare said...

Amen to that...

Leo Bass said...

'help to rein in some of the more maverick interpretations of the vision of Anglicanorum Coetibus.'
Care to elaborate?

Andrew said...

@Doodler - Yes, of course. But isn't this even more strange? "Sorry, you can't join the Ordinariate, but you can be its bishop."

Doodler said...

@ALG Bass: 'Little' things like continuing to use Cranmer's Prayer of Consecration because 'we like it' and 'it's Patrimony'.
We are slowly moving from seeing ourselves as Anglicans with a Catholic liturgical orientation to becoming Catholics with important but secondary Anglican echoes.

Doodler said...

@Andrew; I see it more as being ordained to the College of Bishops and given jurisdiction as Bishop/Ordinary of an Ordinariate. Much as the Bishop to the Forces (another Ordinariate in the UK) is not a member of the military - and need never have been. It is interesting though!

Leo Bass said...

@Doodler: I was not aware that any in the Ordinariates were doing that! As far as I knew, the use of that prayer was right out from the beginning. Is this going on in the US Ordinariate?

William Tighe said...

"Is this going on in the US Ordinariate?"

Not that I've heard. In any case, it it were it would be a case for censure and discipline upon whosoever they are that have done so.

Edwin said...

Prayers of course for the Ordinariate of the Chair of Peter, and also for Mgr Lopes. I hope it does not signal a view of the Anglican Patrimony which is principally about Liturgy. Pope Benedict's vision was much greater than that, and we have scarcely begun to give proper expression to that wider Patrimony. Our little contribution to the Catholic Church is not simply to be found in Dr Cranmer's interesting little book.

Athelstane said...

"I think it more interesting that the appointment has come from outside the Ordinariates."

They made a priority of wanting a man who could be a bishop. And that ruled out well over 90% of the U.S. Ordinariate's priests right from the get-go, including some very worthwhile candidates who would have made good ordinaries.

They also wanted someone with clout in Rome (esp. the CDF), and Lopes has that, too.

He's not strictly speaking "one of them," but his long work with the Ordinariates, especially on the Missal, has given him that status in an honorary way. He's someone that the clergy of the Ordinariates trust and like, and that's really what's most important.