For many years, groups of Anglicans repeatedly asked the Pope if it would be possible for them to become Catholics while at the same time being allowed to keep their liturgical, musical, spiritual, and pastoral traditions which had developed over the 500-year history of Anglicanism and which they greatly valued. In November of 2009, in response to these requests, the Holy See established a new structure within the Catholic Church through the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus (Groups of Anglicans) and its accompanying norms to allow Anglicans who become Catholics to do just that. It is important to note that Anglicanorum Coetibus is not an initiative of the Holy See: it is a response by the Holy See to initiatives by groups of Anglicans over the course of many years. Rather than merely making it possible to establish Anglican Use parishes under local bishops, as the 1980 Pastoral Provision had done in the United States, this structure allows such parishes to exist under their own bishop, called an ordinary, in non-geographical personal ordinariates. In this exclusive WITNESS interview, Fr. Thomas Rosica speaks with Fr. John L. Hodgins, Priest Administrator of St. Thomas More Catholic Church of the Personal (Anglican) Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter in Toronto. Fr. Hodgins shares his journey from Anglicanism to the Catholic Church, and how Anglicanorum Coetibus is lived out in his life and faith community.

• published: 06 Sep 2014
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