Fort Worth, apostolic tradition and communion with Peter

Reports are emerging from the United States that 6 Episcopal parishes (almost certainly in the Diocese of Fort Worth) are preparing to join the soon-to-be established US Ordinariate.

The Vatican Insider quotes Monsignor Mark Langham, head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity:

For at least ten years these communities have expressed a desire for full communion with Rome. Now they too will become part of the Ordinariate foreseen by the  Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus to accommodate former Anglican pastors and faithful ... The reason is to be found in the faithfulness of the communities to apostolic tradition.

This reflects a process that began in 2008, when a group of Forth Worth Episcopal priests approached the local Roman Catholic diocesan to explore entering into communion with the See of Peter.  In their presentation, the Fort Worth priests commenced with the following statement:

We believe the See of Peter is essential not optional.  Unity with the Holy See is esse that is, essential for Catholic Christians (not bene esse, merely beneficial.)

The presentation continued with a recognition of the source of the present Anglican crisis:

Anglican "comprehensiveness" has no boundaries and no real center ... If there is a future, particularly for Catholic minded Anglicans, it is clear that a magisterium is absolutely essential ... We know what happens in a church which lacks a magisterium and whose polity makes the continuing of a Catholic witness impossible.

It appears as if this process of discernment will now find its culmination in these parishes entering the Ordinariate.  The conclusion of the process of discernment should be prayerfully considered by Anglicans who seek to be faithful to apostolic tradition - such fidelity requires the teaching office of Peter.

(The picture is of Bishop Iker, Fort Worth diocesan, celebrating the Holy Eucharist in a Fort Worth parish at Pentecost.)