Anglican Parish in Towson, Maryland, Switches to Catholicism

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Awesome! Praise the Lord!!!

Good article too. Well-written and without any major mistakes or biases.
 
Sounds like a thread that should be moved to the ‘catholic news’ forum then! 👍
 
I thought I had read somewhere that former Catholics would not be ordained in the Ordinariate. I could be wrong, or mixing up some of the details, of course.
 
**Interesting that this group is taking the physical parish church with them. There are just a few such situations. Most have to leave their physical premises behind and these groups are worshipping in Catholic parishes.

Does anyone know how this works? What was different with this group and the one in Baltimore that also took their church with them?

It seems like 2000 or so people will take advantage and come into the Ordinate in the US. Far below initial expectations.

What went wrong or were the first predictions just totally off-base?**
 
Tobias2 said:
**Interesting that this group is taking the physical parish church with them. There are just a few such situations. Most have to leave their physical premises behind and these groups are worshipping in Catholic parishes.

Does anyone know how this works? What was different with this group and the one in Baltimore that also took their church with them?

It seems like 2000 or so people will take advantage and come into the Ordinate in the US. Far below initial expectations.

What went wrong or were the first predictions just totally off-base?**
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It’s complicated, but the answer is the latter. As I suspected would be the case.

GKC
 
Tobias2 said:
**Interesting that this group is taking the physical parish church with them. There are just a few such situations. Most have to leave their physical premises behind and these groups are worshipping in Catholic parishes.

Does anyone know how this works? What was different with this group and the one in Baltimore that also took their church with them?

It seems like 2000 or so people will take advantage and come into the Ordinate in the US. Far below initial expectations.

What went wrong or were the first predictions just totally off-base?**
Click to expand...
From the article:
“The move can be complex. The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland owned Mount Calvary’s building and agreed after negotiations to let the Baltimore parish buy it. For Christ the King, which wasn’t Episcopal and owned its property, the switchover was somewhat simpler.”
 
From the article.

Liberal stances by Anglican leaders, particularly Episcopalians, have driven some clergy and members to the Roman Catholic Church. But Meeks, who studied to become a Catholic priest as a young man, speaks not of rejection but of reunification — becoming one with the “authentic apostolic authority” of the church that dates back 2,000 years.

Thanks be to God.

-Tim-
 
mdgspencer said:
This article in Maryland’s biggest daily newspaper recounts the adventure of the biggest Anglican parish in the U.S. so far to become Catholic en masse.
see www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/towson/bs-md-anglican-catholic-church-20120624,0,2426543.story
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A few questions if someone could shed some light:

I’d be curious to find out what happens to the irregular marriages in a parish where there is such an en masse transfer, if anyone happens to know. Maybe these people would have simply been part of the 1/3 that left beforehand?

Also, the article indicates that “A handful of parishioners haven’t decided whether to make that leap, though they’re remaining in the congregation…” So are these parishoners barred from communion once the parish becomes officially Catholic? One would think so?

I’m also curious how readers interpreted the comment about some of those who left the congregation: “…those who opted for a more traditionally Catholic experience.” Do you think that perhaps the congregation is high charismatic (as the photo may imply)? Or what does this mean?
 
Dave_Noonan said:
A few questions if someone could shed some light:

I’d be curious to find out what happens to the irregular marriages in a parish where there is such an en masse transfer, if anyone happens to know. Maybe these people would have simply been part of the 1/3 that left beforehand?

Also, the article indicates that “A handful of parishioners haven’t decided whether to make that leap, though they’re remaining in the congregation…” So are these parishoners barred from communion once the parish becomes officially Catholic? One would think so?

I’m also curious how readers interpreted the comment about some of those who left the congregation: “…those who opted for a more traditionally Catholic experience.” Do you think that perhaps the congregation is high charismatic (as the photo may imply)? Or what does this mean?
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Any irregular marriages would have to be sorted out like those of any other non-Catholic couple who decides to convert. The couple would need to submit any previous marriages to the marriage tribunal to see if they can be annulled/see about having a marriage convalidated.

Yes, anyone who decided not to become Catholic would be barred from Communion. One lady in the article mentions how she can no longer receive Communion at the church because she isn’t converting at least yet.

I thought the photo did imply that the parish might be somewhat charismatic and maybe the others who left for a traditional Catholic experience wanted a more traditional style parish. Or maybe that just meant they wanted to convert the “regular” way on their own, not come in with the parish as a whole, because they wanted to speed the process up, or they wanted to attend the regular OF Mass, not an Anglican Use Mass.
 
Wow. Quite a story! How fitting that it happened in Maryland; the cradle of American Catholicism. Good luck, and God speed to them!

:signofcross::highprayer::gopray2:
 
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