Tuesday, 9 February 2010 - 2:29 AM CST

The Canon Law Society of America "Newsletter" (December 2009) has an article by Msgr. Thomas J. Green on the Apostolic Constitution "Anglicanorum Coetibus."  Interestingly, Green says, "Such a flexible canonical structure under the supervision of the Congregation of Doctrine of Faith is somewhat comparable to military ordinariates... However, the Anglican ordinariates differ from the military ordinariates since they (the Anglican) constitute an exceptional response to a special pastoral situation."  He continues, "Such a tradition (Anglican) is viewed as a particuar reality within the Latin Church; hence these new structures are not considered comparable to Eastern 'sui juris' chruches."  Prior to giving a presentation of the structure of the papal and CDF documents, Green notes, "...the present norms evision a new structure to meet the same pastoral objectives" (as the objectives of the previous and different norms of the CDF Pastoral Provision of 20 June 1980).  A footnote to Green's article mentions that a canonical commentary on the papal and CDF documents by Rev. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, S.J, Rector of the Gregorian University in Rome, whose article is entitled "The Significance of the Apostolic Constitution 'Anglicanorum Coetibus' " in Origins 39/24 (19 November 2009), 392-395.

Tuesday, 9 February 2010 - 2:55 AM CST

Rev. Richard P. McBrien in ESSAYS IN THEOLOGY (28 December 2009) in an article entitled "The Vatican and Dissident Anglicans" notes, "As we look more closely... one is struck not only by its canonical and pastoral complexity, but also by its ecumenical potential."  He continues, "Why could not all churches and ecclesial communities currently separated from full communion with the Catholic Church enter into that communion without sacrificing their own distinctive traditions --  liturgical, sacramental, spiritual, theological, and canonical?"  Realizing the difficulties involved, McBrien adds, "To be sure, these arrangements, like the recent Vatican outreach to certain Anglicans, would be complicated and require a lot of ecclesiastical fine-tuning over many years.  But that could very well be the harbinger of ecumenical things to come."