Ordinariate Life. “The lay leadership kept the congregation not only growing, but thriving.”
An article of interest for those interested in the Personal Ordinariate and Divine Worship, the Mass of Ordinariate Catholics.
Read the full article by clicking on the link:
An excerpt or two:
English-Catholic Ordinariate Sees New Opportunities for Grace and Growth
by Peter Jesserer Smith
WASHINGTON — When Father John Vidal arrived to take charge of the St. Luke’s ordinariate parish in the nation’s capital in October, the community had been without a pastor for three months.
But rather than discover a church on hold, waiting for its new clerical leadership, the Catholic priest discovered a ordinariate community that had continued to grow.
“The lay leadership kept the congregation not only growing, but thriving,” Father Vidal told the Register.
While a priest on loan from the Archdiocese of Washington offered the English-Catholic ordinariate’s form of the Roman missal, Divine Worship, the all-volunteer staff of St. Luke’s helped another person enter the Catholic Church through catechism classes, arranged beautiful musical services of “Lessons and Carols” and organized a parish pledge drive.
Most Catholic parishes, Father Vidal said, consider themselves blessed to have 20% of the parishioners actively involved in building up the church. But he said “easily half” of his parish are active in building up the church.
“They don’t just come to Mass; they’re very involved at the lay-level in every aspect of the community,” he said. “I find that refreshing and exciting.”
The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is the diocesan home of the English-Catholic tradition in the U.S. and Canada, born of the combined efforts of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis to restore the English spiritual patrimony to the Catholic Church. Benedict created the special diocese, known as a “personal ordinariate,” in response to Anglican groups that wanted to reunite with the Catholic Church but maintain their distinctive patrimony, the English liturgical and spiritual practices that had developed within Anglicanism for the past 500 years.
Aaron McGarvey, an instituted acolyte (who assists at services) at Incarnation Catholic Church in Orlando, Florida, said the ordinariate parish experienced “a very busy year.” He said parishioners are aiming to expand the altar server guild, parish choir, the Legion of Mary, and Secular Third Order Franciscans, in addition to the Knights of Columbus council.
For the past two years, Bishop Lopes has instituted acolytes at parishes, both to provide a source of stable lay leadership, but also to make “Solemn Mass” more widely available, with the sacred ministers of priest, deacon and subdeacon, as intended by Blessed Paul VI.
Although Blessed Paul VI removed the subdiaconal ministry from the major orders with his 1972 apostolic letter Ministeria Quaedam, the Holy Father intended to restore the subdiaconal role to laymen, who could assist the deacon in the life of the local Church, particularly at the altar.
This kind of lay ministry had been preserved practically in the Church in England, since before the Reformation. Acolytes, sometimes called lay clerics or lay clerks, would help lead morning or evening prayer, or attend to the upkeep of the parish, and the role would tend to be taken up by sons who learned it from their fathers.
St. Barnabas’ Father Catania said instituted acolytes have been a source of leadership in his parish, and he is discerning whether any might have a vocation to the diaconate. Having a permanent deacon in the parish, he said, would help the parish have a Solemn Mass every week.
Yours truly and another Fellowship of Blessed John Henry Newman man was among the other thirty or so men installed with Aaron as acolytes by Bishop Lopes in September of 2017.
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