Liturgical Developments in the Anglican Ordinariate

The following press release was issued yesterday by the communications offices of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham:

Holy See approves first liturgical resources for Ordinariate

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has published a Decree permitting the use of the Revised Standard Version (Second Catholic Edition) for liturgical use in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

This edition of the Holy Bible allows those Catholics originally from the Anglican tradition, to worship using a version of scripture which is familiar to them. It also promotes the English Bible tradition and recent efforts to renew Catholic liturgy with more accurate translations.

Alongside this, the Congregation has also approved and confirmed the Proper Liturgical Calendar of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, which retains certain celebrations in the Church year that are significant to those from the Anglican tradition. The Calendar reflects very closely the General Roman Calendar used across the Catholic Church in England & Wales, but also makes use of some older titles, such as 'Sundays after Trinity'.

These developments represent the first of the liturgical resources to be approved by the Holy See for former Anglicans who have entered the full communion of the Catholic Church.

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI published the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, which allows 'groups of Anglicans' to come into communion with the Holy See, whilst retaining important aspects of their tradition and heritage.

Monsignor Keith Newton, the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, commented on the news:

"This is very welcome. For the Ordinariate to make a distinctive contribution to Catholic life and witness in England & Wales, these liturgical resources are essential. They show - as Pope Benedict has recently said - how traditions (small 't') can thrive within the wider Tradition (capital 'T') of the Catholic Church".