Divine Worship Mass, Incarnation Ordinariate Parish in Orlando, Florida with Bishop Steven J. Lopes on August 13th, 2017
It’s a little known fact, and seldom reported, that regular diocesan Catholics, who have no historical attachment to Anglicanism, Methodism or the English Patrimony, can join Ordinariate parishes as full-fledged members. This is how it works…
The Ordinariates of English Patrimony, are not part of a separate rite in the Catholic Church. They’re technically part of the (Roman) Latin Rite, and members of the Ordinariate actually fall under the same Code of Canon Law (for the Latin Church). The Ordinariates aren’t a rite. They’re jurisdictions, like a diocese. This means the parishes within that jurisdiction are part of the same (Roman) Latin Rite, and under the same Code of Canon Law. So becoming a member of such a parish is perfectly permissible to any regular Roman Catholic. The only catch is, you may not quality to become a member of the Ordinariate itself. You can only be a member of the parish.
What’s the difference?
Practically speaking, there is almost no difference at all. After day-to-day parish life would be indistinguisable for a member who is part of the Ordinariate, versus one who is part of the local Diocese. If you want to know the actual distinction though, here is it…
Parish membership defines who your priest is. Ordinariate membership defines who your bishop is. See the difference? I’ll use my own Ordinariate parish (St. George Catholic Church in Republic, Missouri) as an example.
If you’re a member of St. George, then your priest is Fr. Chori Seraiah and St. George is your parish. However, if you are a regular diocesan Catholic, then your bishop remains Bishop Edward Rice, of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau. So your priest is Fr. Seraiah and your parish is St. George. However, your bishop remains Bp. Rice and your dioceses remains the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau. Got it? This is actually a very common arrangement and perfectly normal. If somebody asks you; what’s you’re parish? You say “St. George.” If they ask you; who’s your priest? You say “Fr. Seraiah.” If they ask you; who’s your bishop? You say “Bishop Rice.” That’s it. There’s nothing complicated. If you’re already Catholic, it’s no different than joining any other regular Catholic parish. You just walk into the parish, introduce yourself to the priest, say “I want to join,” then sign the papers. Done! You’re now a member of the parish. To make matters easier, our own parish (St. George) even lets you start this process online through the website. Come on! It doesn’t get any easier than that!
Now some members at St. George are not only members of St. George, but they’re also members of the Ordinariate too. That means they’ve effectively switched dioceses and have a new bishop. That’s the difference between Ordinariate membership and parish membership. When you join a parish, you’re just making that parish your home and that priest your priest. That’s all. When you join the Ordinariate, however, your switching bishops and going under a completely different juridic diocese. Not every Catholic can do this. This is where the special rules come in. You have to be eligible for Ordinariate membership to switch your bishop. Eligibility includes one or more of the following…
- A Catholic who has an Anglican or Methodist background.
- A Catholic who receives a sacrament of initiation (baptism, confirmation, first communion) in an Ordinariate parish by an Ordinariate priest.
- A Catholic who has an immediate family member (spouse, child, parent, sibling) who is already a member of (or joining) the Ordinariate.
If a Catholic meets any one of these preconditions, he/she is automatically eligible to switch bishops and become a member of the Ordinariate too. In the case of my local parish (St. George), that would mean switching from Bishop Edward Rice of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, to Bishop Steven Lopes of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.
Now beyond that, if somebody is not yet a Catholic, and wants to come into the Catholic Church, said person can join both an Ordinariate parish and the Ordinariate itself at the same time as being received into the Catholic Church. One’s religious background does not matter. He/she could be Baptist, Pentecostal, Mormon, Jewish, Muslim or Atheist. It’s irrelevant, because said person will make his/her profession of faith, and receive his/her sacraments of initiation, in an Ordinariate parish. So according to the second precondition above, that automatically qualifies him/her for Ordinariate membership.
In other words, the only restrictions for Ordinariate membership (switching bishops) are set on people who are ALREADY Catholic. Those are the three preconditions I described above. A Catholic only need meet ONE of those preconditions to be automatically eligible to join the Ordinariate (switch bishops), BUT any non-Catholic can join the Ordinariate by simply coming into the Catholic Church through an Ordinariate parish. Beyond that, if a regular Catholic thinks there might be some other reason why he (or she) would be eligible to join the Ordinariate, the best thing to do is talk to the priest about it. Sometimes these reasons are valid. Sometimes they are not. The only way to truly know is to talk to the priest, and it never hurts to ask.
We find that most regular, diocesan Catholics are perfectly content to simply join an Ordinariate parish without having to join the Ordinariate itself (switch bishops). After all, this is exactly what would happen if they attended a Fraternity (FSSP) or Institute (ICKSP) parish, or any similar type of specialty parish. One’s parish membership changes but the bishop remains the same.
The whole point here is that Ordinariate parishes are not ghettos for Catholics who used to be Anglicans. They are full-fledged Catholic parishes, which any Catholic can join, and you don’t need to be a member of the Ordinariate to do it. Most regular Catholics are happy to simply join the parish and keep their regular, diocesan bishop. They can sit side-by-side in the pews with Ordinariate Catholics and fully participate in parish life just as much as they do. As to WHY regular Catholics would want to join an Ordinariate parish, I’ll explore that in my next essay on this topic. For now it suffices to say that Ordinariate parishes are full-fledged parishes, for all Catholics, that are fully engaged in the Great Commission to evangelize ALL PEOPLE who are not yet Catholic. That’s what needs to be understood. They are real Catholic parishes that are open to EVERYONE!
Shane Schaetzel is an author of Catholic books and he is an Evangelical convert to the Catholic Church. His articles have been featured on LifeSiteNews, The Remnant Newspaper, Forward in Christ, and Catholic Online. You can read Shane’s books at ShaneSchaetzel.Com
Shane, what happens if you convert by joining an Ordinariate parish and the parish closes or you have to move where there is no Ordinariate parish? Can you then join a traditional Latin Mass parish e.g. FSSP?
Yes, of course.
Being an Ordinariate member is no different than being a member of a diocese. It just determines who your bishop is.
You can also leave the Ordinariate any time you want, and place yourself under a regular diocesan bishop. It’s up to you.
Here’s my quesyion: if someone is baptized into the Roman Rite but his/her mother who’s now deceased was born in England, baptized an Anglican and then moved to the US and joined the Episcopal Church, is that son/daughter eligible to join the Ordinariate i.e. switch bishops?
Ordinarily, the answer would be “no” based on that limited information, because you didn’t say the baptized person was at any time a member of an Anglican jurisdiction (or at least raised in one) — ordinarily — because it doesn’t meet the ordinary criteria. However, this is a special case with unusual circumstances. Exceptions have been made in the past for unusual circumstances, but it’s beyond my competency to speak to this. In such cases, it is best to speak with an Ordinariate priest, and if he believes the case has merit for membership, he could act as an advocate to see what happens.