Let’s tend this fragile plant

It was exciting to see Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, standing alongside Archbishop Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, and Mgr Keith Newton, head of the Personal Ordinariate, at a reception to raise funds for the ordinariate at Archbishop’s House last week.
Cardinal Levada and Mgr Newton both used the opportunity to produce memorable short descriptions of the ordinariate. The cardinal called it “an important new structure for the Church”. The monsignor – until last year an Anglican bishop – referred to it as a “small and fragile plant”. Can they both be right? The answer is that, yes, they can. In creating an extra-territorial diocese with its own liturgy, Pope Benedict has invested his personal authority, as well as that of the papacy, in a daringly imaginative project to reconcile groups of ex-Anglicans and aspects of Anglican tradition with the Holy See. To describe this initiative as important is, if anything, an understatement. It has brought us to a turning point in the history of western Christianity. This structure will eventually be replicated in other countries, but it is in England, appropriately, that the design is being tested.
Yet Mgr Newton is also right to say that the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is still a fragile plant. It must be watered by the prayers and the money of the faithful. The brave clergy and their families who have joined the ordinariate, together with their still small congregations, are not ordinary converts who will be absorbed by established dioceses: they are a decisively new and enriching presence in our midst. We thank our readers for supporting our new neighbours so generously.
The Church in England and Wales, too, must work hard to cultivate this plant so that it is no longer small and fragile. Many Anglicans are tempted to join the ordinariate, but they are mystified by the failure to provide it with a principal church that can serve as the equivalent of an episcopal seat for Mgr Newton. The ordinariate has the potential to flourish, inspiring the rest of our Catholic community as it does so; but these are early days, and first the ordinariate needs a home. This challenge of putting a suitably imposing roof over its head must be met without any further delay.