London, England, Oct 20, 2009 / 09:52 am
Catholic Archbishop Vincent Nichols and Anglican primate Archbishop Rowan Williams held a press conference today in London to say that the newly announced structure for Anglicans to join the Catholic Church will not harm ecumenical dialogue between the two Churches.
Earlier on Tuesday morning at the Vatican, Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), announced that Pope Benedict has approved the creation of ‘Personal Ordinariates’ which will allow Anglicans to enter into communion with the Catholic Church while maintaining some aspects of the “distinctive Anglican spiritual patrimony.”
These ordinariates will be formed, “as needed, in consultation with local Conferences of Bishops, and their structure will be similar in some ways to that of the Military Ordinariates which have been established in most countries to provide pastoral care for members of the armed forces and their dependents throughout the world,” the cardinal prefect explained.
Meanwhile, at the offices of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, Archbishops Nichols and Williams jointly stated that the declaration by the Pope “is further recognition of the substantial overlap in faith, doctrine and spirituality between the Catholic Church and the Anglican tradition” which grew out of the last 40 years of dialogue.