Allentown Catholic Diocese anticipates new structure to welcome Anglicans

A priest of the Archdiocese of Washington has told a Pennsylvania newspaper that the decision over whether to establish a personal ordinariate of former Anglicans in the United States is now in the hands of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“I wish I were able to offer a definitive timeline,” said Father Scott Hurd, who is assisting Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s delegate for the implementation of Anglicanorum Coetibus in the United States. “The decision is reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and we are awaiting their decision.”

Father Hurd indicated that an affirmative decision is likely.

“A number of people have been motivated because they have experienced a widening chasm between their beliefs and the practices and policies of the Episcopal Church,” he added. “But really this is about the movement of the Holy Spirit leading these people. Instead of it being a rejection of something, it's an embrace.”