For one former Anglican minister, the journey to the Catholic priesthood was a long one.
“When I was about 14, it was one of those things which I just kind of knew,” said Father Michael Shier, recounting his days as an Anglican teenager in England. Father Shier was ordained a priest two months ago, and his conversion story was recently featured on EWTN’s program “The Journey Home.”
“There wasn’t a time I fell off my horse like St. Paul, or anything like that,” he said. “It was a subliminal knowledge of my vocation without me being able to explain it to anybody.”
He went to Anglican seminary directly after finishing school. In retrospect, he realizes the schools he attended and books he read were more Catholic than they were Anglican.
“When I went to college, it was actually quite a Catholic college within the Anglican tradition. My interest in Catholicism probably started then.”
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Foolishness to the world 
Hi,
For the past couple of months I have been unable to read your posts on my IPad. Did you change how you sent out the emails
Sr. Carole Victoria
Sent from my iPad
>
Deborah,
I noticed this paragraph in the linked source for your quotation.
I did not realize that the fraction of clergy from the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC) who opted to come into the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter (OCSP) was quite that high. That’s actually a very good response! I know that we all would like to have seen 100% of the clergy of the ACCC come into the OCSP, but there were bound to be a few with various impediments to Catholic ordination.
Norm.
It’s more complicated than that, clearly. A number of ACCC clergy who were ineligible for ordination or uninterested therein for various reasons nonetheless joined or rejoined the Catholic church, while others who had no obvious impediment declined to get involved.
EPMS,
You wrote: It’s more complicated than that, clearly. A number of ACCC clergy who were ineligible for ordination or uninterested therein for various reasons nonetheless joined or rejoined the Catholic church, while others who had no obvious impediment declined to get involved.
I’m not aware of any former clergy of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC) who came into the Catholic Church and are not eligible for Catholic ordination.
The fact that an impediment is not “obvious” to you or to me does not mean that it does not exist. It’s entirely probable that many of those who did not come into the Catholic Church had marriages in the distant past, or lacked adequate means of financial support (which IS in fact an impediment right now), or had other delicts in the more distant past that are not publicly known but that nevertheless exclude Catholic ordination. And in some cases, it’s entirely possible that the impediment was inability to accept some aspect of Catholic doctrine, including the implication that their Anglican orders are not sacramentally valid.
Norm.
Two former ACCC clergy who had incurred the delict of schism were reconciled with the Church. At least six more former clergy have joined the Ordinariate but are not seeking ordination for various reasons.
EPMS,
You wrote: Two former ACCC clergy who had incurred the delict of schism were reconciled with the Church.
That’s great news! I won’t ask you to name names, out of respect for their privacy.
As best I can tell, those individuals are not canonically disqualified from ordination in the Catholic Church. Of course, they cannot formally join the ordinariate, and thus would have to seek ordination for their dioceses (or for religious orders, if celibate), if they received all of the sacraments of initiation (baptism, confirmation, and first communion) in diocesan parishes.
You wrote: At least six more former clergy have joined the Ordinariate but are not seeking ordination for various reasons.
I’m aware of two, but again I won’t ask you to identify them out of respect for their privacy. I suspect the primary factor here is lack of formal seminary training and the extent of the remedial formation that they would need.
Of course, some of these individuals may prepare for Catholic ordination at a later date if their circumstances change.
Norm.
The two clergy who were reconciled were among five ACCC clergy denied a nulla osta for the delict of schism. D of S seems to be a dealbreaker. I think a lot of TAC problems arose because a certain archbishop, whom we are not encouraged to speculate about publically, assured those in this situation to expect that dispensations would be widely forthcoming. But they were not.
EPMS,
You wrote: The two clergy who were reconciled were among five ACCC clergy denied a nulla osta for the delict of schism. D of S seems to be a dealbreaker.
I think, more precisely, that resolution of a delict of schism is a more complicated process than reception of someone baptized in a separated church into full communion of the Catholic Church. Also, most of those who have a delict of schism completed the sacraments of initiation in the Catholic Church, and thus are not eligible to join the ordinariates — meaning that they would have to be ordained for their local dioceses rather than for the ordinariates.
You wrote: I think a lot of TAC problems arose because a certain archbishop, whom we are not encouraged to speculate about publically, assured those in this situation to expect that dispensations would be widely forthcoming.
There’s no doubt that there was a fair amount of optimism that was not grounded in reality within the Traditional Anglican Communion, but it is far less clear who was to blame for this. It’s entirely plausible that some officials of the curia might have contributed to that optimism by not being clear as to what would and would not be acceptable to the Vatican.
Norm.
I would say that about 90 per cent of what a certain archbishop speculated would come to pass has come to pass. That’s pretty good, I say.
Yes, in Anthony Chadwick’s blog post on this subject, from which Mrs Gyapong quoted extensively just about a year ago, the passive voice was used—“many of us were brought to believe in some kind of ‘amnesty’ operation worked out by the Pope and Cardinal Levada”. His figure on the extent to which what TAC got was what they thought they were getting would not approach 90%, it seems to me, but perhaps this is inherently a personal rather than an organisational judgement.
Deborah,
You wrote: I would say that about 90 per cent of what a certain archbishop speculated would come to pass has come to pass. That’s pretty good, I say.
Yes, but not in the way that he had sought — that is, the provinces of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) simply becoming ordinariates within the Catholic Church. But more significantly, those caught up in the nuances of the other 10% face some pretty high hurdles.
Norm.
Former traditional Anglicans do ot necessarily come into the Ordinariate; some attend Novus Ordo masses at parishes near them. Some former Anglican priests do not become priests of the Ordinariate, but diocesan priests.
Judith,
You wrote: Former traditional Anglicans do ot necessarily come into the Ordinariate; some attend Novus Ordo masses at parishes near them.
First, there is no liturgical use properly called “Novus Ordo” in the Catholic Church. When the liturgical revisions were in process back in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the people working on the revisions used the term Latin novus ordo (note lower case) to distinguish the revised rites in process from the Tridentine form then in use — but it never became a proper designation. Each revised rite became the “ordinary form” of the Roman Rite with its promulgation, and that is the term that the Vatican now uses in official documents. The Tridentine form of the respective rites is now an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite. Note that the liturgical rites approved for ordinariates and the parishes for former Anglicans erected under the so-called “pastoral provision” here in the States, collectively called Divine Worship, are another extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, so it also is not proper to use the term “extraordinary form” to refer exclusively to the Tridentine form.
Now, to your point, the fact that former Anglicans who do not live near an ordinariate community must worship in a normal diocesan parish does not mean that they cannot join the ordinariate.
You continued: Some former Anglican priests do not become priests of the Ordinariate, but diocesan priests.
Yes. The so-called “pastoral provision” established by Pope John Paul II in 1980 remains in effect, so each former Anglican cleric may choose between the ordinariate and the local diocese.
Norm.
It is not “some”, surely, but “most”. A former Anglican clergyman, especially one with dependants, who is not receiving a pension or otherwise financially self-sufficient will not find many employment opportunities in the OCSP. And former Anglican laity who enter the Church outside of about two dozen North American communities will not be able to attend an Ordinariate rite service. Nonetheless the Pastoral Provision Office and local diocesan catechetical efforts continue to attract former Anglicans. The Ordinariate is a niche market.
EPMS,
You wrote: And former Anglican laity who enter the Church outside of about two dozen North American communities will not be able to attend an Ordinariate rite service.
The number of ordinariate congregations in North America that have their own services is about three dozen, and growing.
Norm.
No, because not every one of the current 34 OCSP groups has a local Ordinariate Rite service. At least half a dozen are in this situation. And I would dispute “growing”. Do you have any notice of a pending group reception?