Interview

In Ecclesiastical No-Man's-Land

The former pastor of a prominent Episcopalian church in Boston is quietly preparing for reception into the Catholic Church, along with many of his parishioners.

Sometime in the autumn of 1997, the members of the community will be received into the Roman Catholic Church, and Father Bradford will be ordained as a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston, under the terms of the Pastoral Provision--which allows, among other things, for the ordination of married men who have been Anglican priests. But that will be neither the first major step for this unique community, nor the last.

Richard S. Bradford, SSC: Well, as you know, there was a difficult period of time in the Episcopal Church after 1976, when the Episcopal Church abandoned apostolic orders, lasting until 1992 when the Church of England voted to do the same. Those of us remained in the Episcopal Church after 1976 were desirous of working with might and main for corporate reunion between the Church of England and the Church of Rome. So we had a strong desire not to desert our flocks--especially if we had our own parishes. All that seemed to come apart in 1992 with the Church of England's decision to ordain women to the priesthood. We really put that plan to rest and began looking for another way to accomplish reunion.

We began by educating our congregations--in my case, All Saints Church, preparing people for where we were going to go. Because I had been a member of the Society of the Holy Cross since the late 1970s, I was always what was called a pro-papist--meaning that we considered the magisterium, the office of Peter and his successors, to be of the essence of the Church. The only reason we stayed behind was because we were working for corporate reunion. So my mind was pretty much made up but my flock really had to do some homework. We stressed that whatever decision was made would be a spiritual decision: Where could we best remain faithful to the Lord Jesus and do his will. So the congregation was asked to do some soul-searching.

Meanwhile things were moving from one tense situation to another in our parish's relationship with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. In the end the pastoral relationship between me and the parish was dissolved by the Episcopal bishop of Massachusetts, according to a canonical process; that was in January 1996. At that point I was no longer a priest with the parish in the Episcopal Church.

At my last service at All Saints Church a lot of people asked "What are you going for Mass next Sunday?" And I said, "Well, I hadn't thought about it, but I probably will have a Mass in my rectory for my family." A lot of people said, "Well, we'll be there." I thought it was only because this was such the difficult moment--the parting of the ways, and so forth--that a lot of people were saying that. But about Tuesday or Wednesday, people were calling my rectory saying, "Is someone going to bring coffee; do you have a big coffee maker? Who's bringing the rolls? Is someone bringing altar flowers?" And I said to my wife, "Judy, I think some of these people are serious." Fortunately, the All Saints Rectory is a lovely house and has a large dining room which we converted into a chapel, and from that time on we have not missed a Sunday--both there in the rectory, and later in a former Catholic convent chapel.

Bradford: I had personally gone to see Cardinal Law in October of the previous year. I had written to him prior to that; of course I knew that he was the apostolic delegate for the Pastoral Provision when it was set up in 1980. I had known of him and of his work with former Anglicans since that time. He also just happened to be the local bishop here. So I went to see him personally in October of 1995.

Now early in 1996 I saw him again; I was really reporting back to him, bringing him up to date as to what had happened to me. I explained to him that I had now extricated myself from a difficult situation and I had group of approximately forty people with me who desired to enter the full community of the Catholic Church.

The cardinal instructed us to stay together as a group and not miss a Sunday together. In April of that year we began meeting with one of his assistants in order to plan our catechism study and to look at the way in which we might come into the Archdiocese of Boston. In June of last year we received the official word that he had accepted spiritual oversight for our congregation of Anglicans and had accepted me as a candidate for the priesthood of the Catholic Church.

But Cardinal Law did more than that, too; he put his actions where his mouth was. He was not only accepting pastoral care for us, but practical care as well. That involved providing us with a place to worship, since we wanted to obey his instruction that we stay together and not miss a Sunday. And in October, when I had to vacate the Episcopal Church rectory. it involved finding housing for my family. He did both these things. We're now living in a house owned by the Archdiocese of Boston--we have been living there since October of last year--and we have been worshiping in a former convent chapel outside Boston since September of last year.

So here we are: a group of Anglicans, because we are nothing else at this point, preparing to enter the Catholic Church but still worshiping as Anglicans in a Catholic convent chapel with the permission of the archbishop. It is a wonderful ecumenical moment. And it really goes to show, I think that the Church leaves no stone unturned in its desire to bring souls into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

Bradford: No, it hasn't held. It has changed. In some cases, some people have demurred or backed out. Some others have moved away from the Boston area and left the congregation. The numbers that we have on Sundays have not diminished, however, because some other people who have joined us. These new people are mostly Roman Catholics who just sit in on our worship and our fellowship--people who are interested in supporting us and what we are doing. I think they are going and making their communion somewhere else on Sundays. So the numbers on Sundays haven't changed but I think that the actual number of people who will presented for confirmation probably is closer to thirty at this point than forty.

Bradford: I think that some of the members of my congregation still have family there; certainly many of them have friends in All Saints Church, and I think that they still get together socially. I've been told that there is some tension because of the fact that our group has left. Initially there was some attempt made on the part of All Saints Church to bring back the people who had left with me. I think that they've pretty much given up on that. Nobody left my group because of those efforts to bring them back. The people who left my group were just not ready to make the decision to enter the full communion of the Catholic Church.

Bradford: Yes, on both counts. I'd been a priest for 27 years in the Episcopal Church; I'm getting close to the time when I could retire at full pension. Last year I had two children still in college, and was paying my share of tuitions and fees. The financial package for the rector at All Saints Ashmont was not inconsiderable, either. And so all of those considerations were weighing on me. I think they gave me the wonderful opportunity, on a very practical level, to decide to put the Lord Jesus first, and not hold back because of these worldly considerations. It was a risk.

I had been warned ahead of time by a priest who has experienced this type of change that I should not be surprised by the people who supported me in the Episcopal Church but who, when push came to shove, didn't go with me--nor should I be surprised by the people who showed up on the first Sunday against all expectations. It has been a wonderful thing to look out, week by week, and see people who came with me motivated by nothing less than their desire to remain faithful to the Lord Jesus.

The sacrifice these people made was clear especially in the early months, when we were worshipping in the All Saints rectory and they were kneeling for Mass on the hardwood floor of the rectory They had left one of the loveliest church settings in Boston, with a beautiful sanctuary and lovely windows and wonderful music; they had given up all that because of their love for the Lord Jesus. That really spoke unwritten volumes, and nurtured my own spiritual health.

I must say, in addition to those people, there were many others--priests, lay people, and religious--who found out about us, perhaps through the grapevine within the Catholic Church, and quietly sent us messages of support: "We're praying for you." This really is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Bradford: Well, the guarantee at that point was that we would be received into the Church. The other guarantee was that I would be ordained a Catholic priest if the Vatican granted permission for my ordination and I passed the subsequent testing which is part of the terms of the Pastoral Provision.

As you may know the establishment of an Anglican-Use or common-identity congregation in a diocese is left up to the decision and discretion of the local bishop, because he is the one who has the vision and mission plan for his diocese. So even though the Vatican allows for this to happen, the local bishop has to give permission. We are looking at that option and I fully expect that to happen in the Archdiocese of Boston. We would then become the first Anglican-Use parish in New England.

Bradford: Well first of all the service will be taking place in a Catholic church, and that church won't look necessarily like All Saints Church. Second, while we will retain many elements of Anglican liturgy in the Mass there will be parts of the liturgy--especially involving the Canon of the Mass--which will confirm to Catholic worship. So there will be differences. At the same time there will be lots of things that remain the same. You would see an Anglican style of preaching. Certainly we are allowed to use whatever music we want to use; we'll be allowed to use Anglican hymnody and chant. So the style of service will be something that is very familiar to Anglicans.

As you can understand, there hasn't been much publicity given in the Anglican press either to the Pastoral Provision in general or to the provisions for an Anglican-Use Congregation. So most Episcopalians--including most of the people at All Saints Church--are quite ignorant of the status of things. I think that after we are established, God willing, as an Anglican-Use congregation, and are allowed to do some publicity, that Anglicans wandering in just to see how we are doing will be surprised to find that the same restrictions that apply to who may receive the sacrament in the Catholic Church will apply to us, and to them, because we will be fully Catholic.

Bradford: Yes. Under the terms of the Pastoral Provision, for priests there are initial interviews. First the candidate goes to see his local bishop and then if he approves then the candidate meets with various professors and teachers in all of the different disciplines of the Church: history, theology, scripture, canon law, moral theology and the like. There is an initial assessment, and as a result of that assessment some reading is assigned. Usually a priest is designated to give some oversight to the reading period. Then when the Vatican approves--and approval from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is a step required by the Pastoral Provision--the candidate sits for written and oral examinations. If all that goes well, then the recommendation goes to the bishop for ordination.

In my case, we're in the study period now. A year ago I had the initial assessment, and now I have been doing reading on my own, with some oversight, and am waiting for the word to come back from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. When that rescript comes back I can sit for the examinations, written and oral. And then we'll go from there.

The St. Athanasius community began in September with a study of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, guided by a priest appointed by Cardinal Law. He has met with us every other Sunday since last September. We're basically through with that study period now.

Bradford: I think if we are granted permission to form an Anglican-Use congregation it will certainly be following the initial hope and vision for the Anglican Use, which was provided by Cardinal Ratzinger. This is not a way to accommodate married Episcopal priest (there are other ways of doing that); rather that Anglican Use is seen as a way to present worthy elements of the Anglican ethos, for the edification of the whole church and a way to reach out to non-Catholics. In other words, evangelization is the key to it all. So what we will be doing is bringing many elements of our heritage back into its right and proper relationship to the primacy of Peter.

Bradford: We've been very clear from the outset that our desire--our petition--was to be prepared for entering into the community of the Catholic Church. We were prepared to come with no strings attached.

We realized that in order to be faithful to the Lord Jesus, we had to be in communion with the Church. So we came, really, with no strings attached, but rather as stewards of a heritage. We simply asked, "Is there a place for our Anglican heritage within the diversity of the Catholic Church?. Is there a role for us to play?" And the answer we got was, "Yes, indeed there is." Now we are expected to pull our chair up to the table and play a part in evangelization in the Archdiocese of Boston. We are grateful for that, and we expect to be players.

Bradford: Some of the priest who have come into the Catholic Church, even as early as the 1980s (the first ordinations were in 1982) became Latin-rite priests, as I will, but Latin-rite priests serving as chaplains or teachers or assisting pastors in regular parishes of their dioceses. A few of them petitioned for and were given permission to organize Anglican-Use or common-identify parishes. I must say that the fraternity and fellowship among all the former Anglican priests is very good. I say that having attended a recent retreat here in Boston for all of the Pastoral Provision priests. The affection and bond among them all is simply wonderful.

Here I am, arriving late in the day. It is 1997, and many of these priests--some of whom were my brother priests in the Society of the Holy Cross--came in years ago. But there was no sense of "What took you so long." Instead, the reaction I received was simply one of welcome-- of "glad you're with us." There wasn't any recrimination at all or any tension between the people who came in later and the ones who came in earlier--or, I should add, between the priests who are working in regular parishes and those who are working with an Anglican-use provision.

Bradford: From the very beginning, I think, we saw that coming into the Catholic Church would not put an end to our opportunities to bear witness to the fullness of the faith. We were prepared, in a way, to continue the battle. At the same time the Catholic Church is a place where Catholic theology is still done and the Anglican Church no longer a place where Catholic theology is done at all.