Jesus said unto them: Therefore every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven, is like to a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things and old.
Matt. 13.52 (Douay-Rheims)
Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
We have many reasons to rejoice in this glorious Eastertide, this week of weeks. Last week was Divine Mercy Sunday, and the 25th anniversary of the first universal celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday in 2001. It was also the 14th anniversary of the first time an Anglican parish in Ottawa entered the Roman Catholic Church as a Catholic parish.
The Catholic Church has an amazing gift for bringing forth new things and old. Married Catholic priests were an ‘old thing’ in the Eastern Catholic Churches. If you have ever been to the thriving Ukrainian, Maronite, or Melkite Catholic parishes in Ottawa, you may have have met one. Yet it was a new thing in the West, so Pope St John Paul II borrowed from the Eastern tradition to create the Pastoral Provision which allowed married Protestant ministers who joined the Roman Catholic Church to petition for ordination. They would then be like Eastern priests (and Western married Deacons) who are given a temporary easement of the vow of celibacy but embrace the celibate life after the married state no longer exists. Some joke that is why we take such good care of our wives, but the truth is that we are humbled by God’s grace and want to give our best to God in both our priestly vocation and married life.
Another ‘old thing’ is the non-geographical diocese called an Ordinariate, which Pope St John Paul II had also created for the military as an upgrade to the existing military for vicariates. What was new was that instead of membership based on occupation (previously-the military) Pope Benedict XVI created these new ordinariates for those former Anglicans and related protestants (Methodist and Salvation Army which came out of the Anglican tradition) who personally petitioned to join these new structures. Pope Francis later intervened to first expand the potential membership to all former Protestants, and later to include any Catholics who wished these new ventures. There is currently one ordinariate for North America, one for the UK, and one for Australia and south Asia.
May God grant a gracious outpouring of his Holy Spirit to call more of those currently outside the full communion of the Church to share in the riches lavishly bestowed upon those who hear the call that all may be one.
