Oct 13, 2011 / 01:02 am
Updated Oct. 18, 2011 at 12:31 MDT. Changes title of Mark Lewis to reflect that he is not currently a Catholic priest and corrects references to St. Luke's as a Catholic parish.
Mark W. Lewis, rector of a small, formerly Episcopal parish in Bladensburg, Maryland, says the Holy Spirit guided the community’s decision “to accept the Holy Father’s offer” to enter the Catholic Church.
St. Luke’s congregation was received into the Catholic Church on Oct. 9 and plans to enter the Anglican ordinariate when in it is established in the United States.
“When Pope Benedict issued the apostolic constitution, Anglicanourm coetibus in 2009, it opened up a door for us that had previously been closed,” Lewis told CNA on Oct. 12.
“There had been a great deal of conversation within St. Luke’s parish about how the traditional beliefs we held were incongruent with the Episcopal Church,” he said.
“As we studied the Catholic faith and compared it to Anglicanism, we were drawn to the Church of Rome.”
After months of preparation and a unanimous vote by the vestry of St. Luke’s to enter the Catholic Church, a Mass and Rite of Reception for the community were held on Oct. 9 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.