2009 · Vatican City
Ordinariates for Former Anglicans Established
Pope Benedict XVI created a new structure allowing groups of Anglicans to enter the Catholic Church while keeping their liturgical traditions, prayers, and pastoral customs.
In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI issued the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, establishing Personal Ordinariates for groups of Anglicans seeking full communion with Rome. It was a direct response to requests from Anglican clergy and laity, many of whom had been moving toward Rome for years, often pushed by disagreements within Anglicanism over women's ordination and sexuality. The ordinariates were something genuinely new. They were not dioceses but Church-wide structures, similar to military ordinariates, that allowed former Anglicans to retain their distinctive liturgical heritage, including adapted versions of the Book of Common Prayer, Anglican hymns, and certain pastoral customs. Married former Anglican priests could be ordained as Catholic priests. Three ordinariates were established: the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England and Wales (2011), the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter in North America (2012), and the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia (2012). The numbers have been modest. The ordinariates are small, and some Catholics questioned whether the arrangement was worth the institutional effort. But the principle behind them mattered: the Catholic Church was saying that unity does not require uniformity. Anglican patrimony — centuries of beautiful English-language prayer, choral music, and theological reflection — was worth preserving within the larger Catholic family. The ordinariates sit alongside the Eastern Catholic Churches as examples of the Church's capacity to hold diverse traditions together under one roof.
Why it matters
Created a new canonical structure demonstrating that Catholic unity can embrace diverse liturgical traditions, offering a model for how reunion with separated Christians might work in practice.
What Happened
Pope Benedict XVI issued Anglicanorum Coetibus on November 4, 2009, creating Personal Ordinariates for Anglican groups entering the Catholic Church. Three ordinariates were established between 2011 and 2012, covering England and Wales, North America, and Australia. Former Anglican clergy, including married men, could be ordained as Catholic priests. Communities retained adapted Anglican liturgical forms, including elements of the Book of Common Prayer, within the Roman Rite framework.
Why It Still Matters
The ordinariates represent a practical experiment in Christian reunion. Rather than asking Anglicans to abandon everything distinctive about their tradition, the Church said: bring it with you. This has implications far beyond Anglicanism. If reunion with other separated communities ever becomes possible, the ordinariate model offers a template. The arrangement also enriches the Catholic Church itself, bringing in centuries of English-language liturgical poetry and musical tradition that the Latin Rite had not previously incorporated.