Scottish Catholic Observer

“I remain convinced this ordinariate will be a true expression of the Catholic Church,” Cardinal Wuerl (above), the Vatican’s delegate for establishing the US Anglican ordinariate, said.

The US ordinariate is designed to meet the desire of those Anglican communities in the US who seek to be united in communion with the Successor of St Peter. So far 67 US Anglican priests are seeking ordination in the Catholic Church, and 35 of those had received initial approval from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Cardinal Wuerl received the first US Episcopal parish into the Catholic Church  in October.

The cardinal, who was recently selected by Pope Benedict XVI to play a key role in the October 2012 world Synod of Bishops on New Evangelisation, told The Scottish Catholic Observer in September that a great deal of work had already been done in the US on the ordinariate, fully supported by the US Bishops’ Conference.

“We have had wonderful accord between the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, and its bishop, and our archdiocese,” he said.

The establishment of a US ordinariate follows the the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the UK which was established on January 15 this year and is  led by the Ordinary Mgr Keith Newton. Both ordinariates follow the November 2009 issuance by Pope Benedict of the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus.