New rules allow some baptized Catholics to join Anglican ordinariates
July 12, 2013
Baptized Catholics who have not yet received Confirmation and First Communion may become members of an Anglican ordinariate under new norms approved by Pope Francis on May 31.
The Anglican ordinariates were established by Pope Benedict XVI to welcome former Anglicans into the Catholic Church. Under their original norms, the ordinariates were not open to baptized Catholics (except those who were members of a family that included former Anglicans). But in complementary norms, Pope Francis expanded the eligibility to include "a person who has been baptized in the Catholic Church but who has not completed the Sacraments of Initiation."
The Vatican cautioned that the new rule does not open membership to Catholics who prefer the Anglican ordinariates "for purely subjective motives or personal preference." Catholics who have completed the Sacraments of Initiation-- Baptism, Confirmation, and First Communion-- remain ineligible.
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