The arrangement designed to welcome disaffected Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church is apparently not catching on in England. After taking in their first members when the scheme was set up in 2011, membership has remained flat. Apparently the demand for an Anglican-acting Roman Catholic sect who are opposed to ordained women and gays was loud but not very deep.
ACNS News Service reports:
ACNS News Service reports:
The leader of the ordinariate has lamented the lack of growth of the group, set up in 2011 to allow former Anglicans to enter communion with the [Roman] Catholic Church.Mgr Keith Newton, the ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, said more must be done to boost the numbers in the canonical structure established under Benedict XVI to allow Anglicans to become Catholics while prserving their "Anglican Patrimony".
In a Chrism Mass homily last week, Mgr Newton conceded: "We must be honest and say the ordinariate has not grown as much as we hoped itmight. the vision has not been caught... We Must communicate our message much more widely and with more vigour and enthusiasm."
The group, which has around 85 priests and 1,500 lay members, is preparing an "exploration day" on 6 September named "Called to be One".
