Pope Benedict Welcomes the Growth of the Ordinariate in England

Edit: Our Lady of Walsingham's enthusiastic laity has been patiently growing in body and soul.   This is especially fortuitous in light of recent developments in the Church of England which has drifted still further away.

Benedict XVI has welcomed the progress of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and has said he is “glad” that its church has been established on the site of the historic Bavarian embassy chapel in London. 

Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory’s in Warwick Street is situated where the Bavarian embassy chapel, which was pillaged during the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots in 1780, once stood.

The Pope Emeritus made his comments in a letter to the Friends of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, in reply to Nicolas Ollivant, chairman of the Friends of the Ordinariate, who had written to the retired pope to express his gratitude for the gift of the ordinariate. He had also sent Benedict a brief history of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory’s.

Link to Catholic Herald... 

Anglican Bishop: Most Look to Rome to Stem Islamic MIlitancy

Edit: important that the Ordinariate in Union would bring this up, for there is surely a strong point of ecumenical interest involved.  

[Our Lady of Walsingham] The prominent Anglican Bishop, Michael Nazir-Ali, formerly the Bishop of Rochester, has spoken of the overriding importance of the Catholic Church's global voice for the future of Christianity in a world threatened by Islamic militancy and secularism. 

He said the Catholic Church potentially had "a great future and a huge opportunity" in the emerging world order and that it now had allies in upholding orthodoxy, even in unexpected quarters. However, he said that how effective it would be depended on how Rome viewed its own position and on its willingness to address its approach to certain issues. He identified these as culture and language and discipline. 

Bishop Nazir Ali, who has both a Christian and a Muslim family background and is now President of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue (OXTRAD), made his remarks to the clergy of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham - the structure set up by Pope Benedict to allow Anglicans to enter the full communion of the Catholic Church, bringing with them elements of their Anglican patrimony. He was speaking on the subject: "A Global Christianity in the Making" to the Ordinariate clergy's plenary session at St Patrick's Catholic Church in Soho Square, London (on 2 October).

Continue Reading at Our Lady of Walsingham...

Still More Hundreds of Anglicans Will be Catholic by Easter

Hallelujah -- More Hundreds of Anglicans Will be Catholic this Easter

Around 20 priests and 600 laity are entering into the newly structured Peronal Ordinariat "Our Lady of Walsingham".

LLondon (kath.net/KAP)In Great Britain, beginning this Ash Wednesday, there are in total 33 large groups of Anglicans which will make the step to cross over to the Catholic Church in Easter.  It is consists of around 20 Priests 600 Laity, which  will enter the newly structured Catholic Personal Ordinariat "Our Lady of Walsingham", according to the Italian Catholic News Agency 'SIR' this Tuesday.  After additional weeks of preparation the converts could receive the Sacrament of Confirmation by Easter Sunday or Holy Thursday in the Catholic Church.  The first priestly ordination for the new Ordinariat should fall on Pentecost.

The Vatican decree of 2009 "Anglicanorum coetibus" made a church structure, created to enable  Anglicans who wanted to come over. They allow the converts the maintenance of a series of Anglican Traditions.  In the middle of January 2011 the first Personal Ordinariat was erected and the earlier Anglican Bishop Keith Newton was named as its leader.  Further Ordinariats could be erected next in the USA, in Canada and Australia, according to Rome.

The Vatican has repeatedly explained that the new structures will not disturb the ecumenical dialog between Catholics and Anglicans.  It does not constitute active wooing away of members of other churches; in any case one wants persons, who for their part, are seeking a new spiritual home.

Link to kath.net...