‘Anglican Use’ paving the way for new priests to enter the church

Hawkins	Vietor

BY CAROL BAASS SOWA
TODAY’S CATHOLIC

SAN ANTONIO • “As Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, I was an Anglican of the Anglicans,” acknowledged Father Allan Hawkins, addressing the national Anglican Use Conference held July 10-12 at Our Lady of the Atonement Parish. Born and educated in England and the son of an Anglican priest, Father Hawkins served the Church of England as a priest there for 20 years before coming to the United States and eventually making a faith journey into the Roman Catholic Church.

The former pastor of the then Episcopal St. Mary the Virgin Church in Arlington, Texas, was received into the Catholic Church, along with all 150 of his parishioners, in 1994 under the Pastoral Provision to the Anglican Usage of the Roman Rite. It was the first time an entire U.S. parish had done so, and further unique in that they were allowed by the Episcopal Church to transfer their parish property from Episcopal to Catholic ownership.
Father Hawkins’ wife and two grown children converted at this time as well, and he was ordained as a Catholic priest by Bishop Joseph P. Delaney of Fort Worth shortly thereafter.

St. Mary’s had previously been in the conservative wing of the Episcopal Church as an Anglo-Catholic congregation, whose customs and practices emphasize continuity with Catholic tradition. Members of such churches have been in ecumenical dialogue with Rome for a number of years, with interest in reunification with the Catholic Church intensifying following the more liberal doctrinal shifts of both the Episcopal and Anglican churches in recent times.

The July 7 ruling by the General Synod of the Church of England (mother church of the Anglican Communion) to proceed with plans to allow ordination of women bishops has led to predictions of an increasing wave of defections among both Anglo-Catholic clergy and laity. Previously, the ordination of women and homosexuals had alarmed many in this sector, who were concerned at this marking a deeper drift from orthodoxy.

“I have a real commitment to our heritage,” said Father Hawkins of his Anglican roots. “There is a great deal that is worth preserving.” He referred to the Book of Divine Worship, which contains the approved liturgy for Anglican Use churches, as well as to a rich heritage in music, culture, poetry, literature and art.

He encouraged those interested to become members of the Anglican Use Society, which promotes the work of the Pastoral Provision, calling it a “best kept secret.”

“You mention the Pastoral Provision to people,” he said, “and they say: ‘What’s that? Never heard of it.’ Or they come to our church and they express surprise that we exist within the Catholic Church.”

As to how to found an Anglican Use chapter, his answer was the forthright: “Just go out and do it.” He added, “Find one or two who might sympathize with you. Get together. Put a notice in the local paper saying you are doing this. Use whatever means of publicity you can find in order to make the presence of the Anglican Use possible.”

He noted that Anglican Use chapters can serve as a means to bring together sympathetic Anglican clergy and people to establish the building of Anglican tradition parishes in the Catholic Church, such as Our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio.

Hawkins then turned over the program to former Episcopal priest Oliver Vietor of Phoenix for a look at a recent experience in transitioning through the Pastoral Provision. Vietor is currently working through the process of becoming an ordained Catholic priest.

Vietor noted he was an associate rector of an Episcopal parish in Virginia when controversy within the Episcopal Church reached a crisis point in 2003. The Episcopal General Convention that year approved the confirmation as bishop in New Hampshire of Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in Episcopal Church history.

On an Anglican blog, Vietor learned an Episcopal priest he had gone to seminary with, Father Eric Bergman, had renounced his orders and was hoping to become a Catholic priest and establish an Anglican Use parish. It was the first time Vietor had heard of the Pastoral Provision.

“And the minute I read that news, suddenly all sorts of hopes and aspirations and fleeting thoughts and uncertainties that I had had all gelled,” he said. “And I knew, even very dimly, ‘that’s the path I’ll have to go down.’”

He wrote to the bishop of Richmond about the possibility of doing what Father Bergman had done, but was gently told that would not be possible there. Feeling there was still work to be done in the Episcopal Church then, he and his wife and children moved to Phoenix to serve as assistant rector in an Episcopal parish.

Attending the Anglican Use Conference held in Scranton, Penn., in 2006, made him even more convinced that the Catholic Church was where he belonged. He gave Father Bergman there a rosary, asking him to take it to his bishop, Bishop John M. Dougherty, for a blessing, with the intention “that the Lord would give me the grace to become Catholic.”

The blessed rosary was returned to him and, buoyed by that, Vietor wrote to Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted in the Diocese of Phoenix, who was open to discussing his conversion to Catholicism under the Pastoral Provision, though it has been a slow process.

Practical hurdles involved Vietor having no job once he renounced his Episcopal priesthood, even more daunting since the couple was expecting their fifth child at the time. Adding to this, they owed the parish money for their home. “So I was really feeling somewhat trapped in that,” he said. “It was going to take God’s grace.”

Eventually he was able to negotiate a repayment settlement with his parish and left the Episcopal Church on May 1, 2007. There was still a way to go as far as being accepted for Catholic ordination to the priesthood, however, so in the interim he took his current job, helping start a Christian school.

There were others in his former parish who felt as he did and were interested in becoming Anglican Use Catholics as well, and they and Vietor took instructions in the faith from another priest convert in Phoenix, Father Doug Lorig. This group of 18, including children, was received into the Catholic Church this past December.

“So we’ve been received and we’re Catholic and it’s wonderful,” he said. “It’s the best. It’s the truth.” He continues to work with the Diocese of Phoenix in the process of becoming a priest, including submission of his dossier and undergoing psychological examinations. His theological assessment will come in September.

Vietor observed that the process is slow, but this is understandable as both a bishop and the converting priest need to be sure of each other’s commitment. “There’s a testing and a risking period,” he said, “and that just has to come together.”

In closing, he noted, “the perseverance of the saints” is called for — “to voluntarily lay down your life and persevere in laying down your life when you don’t have to, but because Christ calls you to and you want to.”

“You make that decision again every day and night,” he added. “When we persevere that way, this ministry will flourish in Christ.”