A Holy Desire

‘[T]his initiative of Pope Benedict is a response to a holy desire - your holy desire - both as groups and as individuals; that its purpose is to open a new way for the unity of the Catholic Church, visible under the successor of Peter, to be enlarged. It is a generous initiative and one which has always expected a generous response. 
 
…“Anglicanorum Coetibus” seeks not only to offer a new invitation to those seeking the full communion of the Catholic Church, but it also seeks to enrich the Church with “elements of sanctification and truth” to be found within what is called “Anglican patrimony”. “Anglicanorum Coetibus” seeks to release that “force” by which Catholic unity can be more fully and visibly expressed, its beauty made more evident and its appeal more widely appreciated. Here it is so important to note that mission and communion are inextricably bound together. 
 
…It is never easy to do something new in total fidelity to something familiar to so many. The tension is clear: for some the newness appears to be outside the familiar, not truly belonging to what they already know and love; for others it is important to move beyond the familiar precisely so as to demonstrate newness. So the questions still arise in the minds of many: on the one hand, some will ask if members of the Ordinariate are really Catholics? On the other, those who have joined the Ordinariate will ask if they are being truly distinctive enough or whether absorption into diocesan parishes and structures will be the inevitable end? This is not an easy path. 
 
…This, I believe, is your challenge: to make evident aspects of the truth and beauty contained in Catholic teaching and life in a way that may have a particular appeal to sensitivities fashioned by the Anglican tradition and influence. This, perhaps, is at the heart of the specific gift you bring to our Church and to our common task of evangelisation’.

from an address by Vincent, Cardinal Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster
to the first Ordinariate Festival, Westminster, September 2014