Anglican Bishops become Catholic Deacons

GLOBAL ZENIT NEWS
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Online Magazine Following Birth of 1st Ordinariate

Today, former Anglican Bishops Andrew Burnham, John Broadhurst and Keith Newton became Catholic deacons, and on Saturday they will be ordained Catholic priests.

The first "personal ordinariate" is being born, though its official birth awaits a decree from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and the Holy Father's naming of an ordinary.

The possibility of this ecclesiastical structure is outlined in "Anglicanorum Coetibus." It is designed for groups of Anglicans and Anglican pastors who wish to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church. It is expected that further ordinariates will be established around the world to respond to the desire of those Anglican communities who also seek full communion with the Catholic Church.

A free monthly online magazine is following the birth of this first ordinariate.

Titled The Portal, the magazine will be published on the first of each month, and is designed for those in the U.K. ordinariate, those Anglicans who are interested in the ordinariate, and all Catholic friends of the ordinariate. It is receiving financial support from The Catholic League and Cost of Conscience, and it defines itself as "an independent review in the service of the ordinariate."

The first issue is now available online.

The 12-page review features a profile of Deacons Burnham, Broadhurst and Newton, as well as an interview with Auxiliary Bishop Alan Hopes of Westminster, a former Anglican priest who became Catholic 17 years ago, and who has been charged with setting up the ordinariate. It announces that future issues -- "hopefully from February onwards" -- will include a reflection from the ordinary, whom the Pontiff has yet to name.

Contributors Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane -- described in the staff box as "Anglicans exploring the ordinariate" -- spoke with Bishop Hopes. He told them he expects between 50 and 60 priests and 30 and 40 groups to "move over." But, he added, "We are not in the numbers game."

Father Peter Geldard, Catholic chaplain of the University in Canterbury, will write a column for the Portal. He notes how he served as a priest in the Church of England for 23 years and worked with Cardinal Basil Hume, late archbishop of Westminster, to try to create a possibility for groups of Anglicans to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church. That possibility only became a reality with Benedict XVI's document, and Father Geldard, and those who shared his views, were received individually into the Catholic Church.

Drawing from his personal history in the process of Anglican-Catholic relations, he calls the beginning of the ordinariate the "most exciting ecumenical event to have ever occurred in my lifetime."