DIOCESE OF ORANGE RECEIVES FORMER EPISCOPALIANS
INTO CATHOLIC CHURCH
One Priest Ordination and 70 Members at Mission Basilica
ORANGE, CA. (July 3, 2012) – In response to inquiries from Anglican groups worldwide seeking to join the Catholic faith, Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 issued an apostolic constitution, Anglicanorum coetibus, authorizing the creation of "ordinariates," geographic regions similar to Catholic dioceses. Parishes in these ordinariates can become Catholic, and still retain distinctive elements of Anglican theological, spiritual, and liturgical practices.
The Ordinate was established January 1, 2012 in the United States and today the Diocese of Orange convened the first of its kind Ordinariate service at San Juan Capistrano Mission Basilica.
The Most Rev. Tod D. Brown, Bishop of Orange, presided over the Catholic priesthood ordination of former Episcopalian priest, Andrew Bartus, as well as a celebration into full communion of the Catholic Church for former Episcopalian members of Blessed John Henry Newman and Saint Augustine of Canterbury.
Bishop Brown confirmed members of Blessed John Henry Newman (Orange County). Bishop Cirilo Flores, Bishop Coadjutor of San Diego, confirmed members of Saint Augustine of Canterbury (San Diego County). And Msgr. Jeffrey N. Steenson, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, presented the nearly 70 former Episcopalians for reception into the Catholic Church.
PHOTO CREDIT: Fr. John Moneypenny
IN PHOTO: Ordination of former Episcopalian priest, Andrew Bartus, as a Catholic priest.
Bishop Tod. D. Brown presiding. Location: Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano