Anglican Bishop John Broadhurst, the Bishop of Fulham, has posted a first reaction to today's publication of Anglicanorum Coetibus on the Forward in Faith website. He is a married Anglo-Catholic bishop who some have speculated would be a likely selection as Ordinary for an Anglican Ordinariate, permissible under the new Apostolic Constitution although he would be a Catholic priest, and not a Catholic bishop. He called the Apostolic Constitution and accompanying papers "extremely impressive", and added: "Indeed it has offered the requests of Consecrated Women? with the completion of its ecumenical
hopes." Consecrated Women? was a book co-authored by members of Forward in Faith, with Catholic Fr. Aidan Nichols, O.P. as Catholic observer, and Orthodox Bp. Kallistos Ware as Orthodox Observer, discussing the theological basis for the opposition to the ordination of women and asking for a new province of the Church of England as a solution to accommodate Anglicans who oppose the ordination of women. The Church of England denied the request for a separate province.
The Vatican today posted the text of the Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans becoming Catholic, Anglicorum Coetibus, in English, together with Complementary Norms. The Daily Bulletin's posting included the Apostolic Constitution, Norms, a press release, and also a commentary titled "The Significance of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus" by Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, S.J., Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University.
Fr. Ghiranda's analysis explains, among other things, why the Apostolic Constitution provides for Personal Ordinariates, similar in structure to those provided for the military, rather than a Particular Ritual Church or a Personal Prelature:
"These Personal Ordinariates cannot be considered as Particular Ritual Churches since the Anglican liturgical, spiritual and pastoral tradition is a particular reality within the Latin Church. The creation of a Ritual Church might have created ecumenical difficulties. Nor can these Personal Ordinariates been considered as Personal Prelatures since, according to can. 294, Personal Prelatures are composed of secular priests and deacons and, according to can. 296, lay people may simply dedicate themselves to the apostolic works of Personal Prelatures by way of agreements. Members of Institutes of Consecrated Life or of Societies of Apostolic Life are not even mentioned in the canons concerning Personal Prelatures."
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