Be taken for granted

vía Women's Ministries Update el 8/12/11 - Paul Donovan writes in the Universe Catholic Weekly....

What sort of welcome are those Anglicans who have followed the Ordinariate path to Catholicism receiving?

The thought occurred to me after attending a Mass in east London, cele­brated by one of the clergy who had come into the Ordinariate. He conducted the Mass correctly and gave a homily which was lively and thought-provoking.

However, when it came to communion, the people streamed towards the Eucharistic ministers, leaving the poor priest somewhat marooned in the centre of the altar - a clear act of exclusion.

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The church in question, it should be added, is not renowned for its radicalism, and the congregation are usually reluctant to go to a Eucharistic minister if a fully fledged priest is available.

The behaviour is not very Christian. People have been asked to open up and welcome the Anglicans who come over via the Ordinariate but this behaviour sug­gests the exact opposite.

Part of the problem rests with how this has been done by the Church hierarchy No-one in the Catholic Church has actu­ally been asked whether they like the idea of married priests coming over from the Anglican faith - it has effectively been foisted upon them.

There is a populist belief that many of those coming over - priest and laity - are doing so purely because they have a big problem with the idea of women priests.

When recently interviewed, Keith New­ton, the Ordinary, was at pains to point out that he was not anti-women, but saw other forms of ministry for them.

There is also a feeling among the laity of a real injustice at the heart of the process, with married Anglicans able to quickly become priests, while Catholic priests who enter the Church in a more traditional way are denied the right to marry and must remain celibate.

This has been nicely illustrated in the Brentwood parish, where many of the first wave of Anglicans to join the Ordinariate have come over.

“No-one in the Church has actually been asked whether they like the of idea of married priests ”

Former Anglican Bishop Keith Newton can come over with the minimum of fuss and be welcomed into the Catholic Church, but Fr John Glynn of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Wickford, Essex, who has given most of his life to the priesthood, must leave in order to marry the woman he loves. In the pews, at grassroots level, this is not seen as a level playing field.

The reaction to some of the Ordinariate is not the only sign that some of the laity are less than happy with some of the proclamations coming from on high.

There was much protest across the world to what has been seen as the imposition of the new translation of the Mass, which has again been carried out with minimal consultation.

A petition raised last year, calling for a delay in implementing the translation, was signed by thousands of people.

The translation is now in use in Britain and Ireland. Co-founder of the Associa­tion of Catholic Priests in Ireland, Columban Father Sean McDonagh, has called on the bishops to conduct a survey among the laity as to the level of satisfaction with the new translation. Fr McDonagh noted that a number of women in his congregation had voiced objection to the amount of non-inclusive language in evidence.

There is a growing sense of dissatisfac­tion about how some of these things are being handled, a feeling that things are being rolled back to a pre-Vatican II posi­tion. This may well not be the case but the hierarchy of the Church needs to make a bigger effort to consult and be seen to be consulting with the laity on such mat­ters. 

Otherwise, people might start simply walking away.

In the past, it may have been fine to pass down edicts from on-high. Whether that was right or wrong is not the point, the reality is that today, in a democratic, accountable world occupied by educated people, this approach will simply not wash.

The hierarchy also need to remember the immense damage done to the Church by the child abuse scandal. A huge amount of trust has been lost, making the mass of people much less tolerant of decisions seen as being taken without consultation.

It has to be time for the institutional Church to democratise itself, recognise that the Church is all of its people and that they need to be consulted and taken notice of on the most basic of questions.

Paul Donovan is a journalist who writes weekly columns for the Irish Post and Universe newspapers on political/social justice issues. www.paulfdonovan.blogspot.com