Vatican City, Apr 9, 2019 / 17:01 pm
The Vatican updated Tuesday the complementary norms of the constitution governing personal ordinariates, a structure by which Anglicans may enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.
The complementary norms, approved by Pope Francis and published April 9 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, correspond to the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, which was promulgated by Benedict XVI in 2009.
An ordinariate is a special type of jurisdiction under church law. It is a canonical structure similar to a diocese that exercises jurisdiction over a particular group of Catholics, as determined by the Holy Father. They are overseen by an ordinary, who is either a bishop or a priest, and have a governing council, which assists in decision making for the ordinariate.
There are currently three Personal Ordinariates: The Chair of St. Peter in the United States and Canada, Our Lady of Walsingham in England, and Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia.
A new complementary norm regards the celebration of Divine Worship, the liturgical form which is approved for use in the Ordinariates and which "gives expression to and preserves for Catholic worship the worthy Anglican liturgical patrimony, understood as that which has nourished the Catholic faith throughout the history of the Anglican tradition and prompted aspirations towards ecclesial unity."