By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
VICTORIA, British Colombia, March 19, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The bishops of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC), part of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), have petitioned the Vatican requesting full communion with the Catholic Church through the implementation of "Anglicanorum Coetibus."
The apostolic constitution "Anglicanorum Coetibus," published in November last year, provides a way for groups of Anglicans to enter the Catholic Church through the establishment of personal ordinariates, a new type of canonical structure that would allow them to preserve much of their Anglican liturgical and spiritual traditions.
Zenit News reports that the petition from the ACCC, dated March 12, was sent to Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
In their petition, the ACCC leaders expressed the desire to "seek a communal and ecclesial way of being Anglican Catholics in communion with the Holy See, at once treasuring the full expression of Catholic faith and treasuring our tradition within which we have come to this moment."
"We have all read and studied with care the apostolic constitution 'Anglicanorum Coetibus' with the complementary norms and the accompanying commentary," they affirmed.
"And now," the Anglican bishops continued, "in response to your invitation to contact your dicastery to begin the process you lay out, we respectfully ask that the apostolic constitution be implemented in Canada."
The petition was signed by Diocesan Bishop Peter Wilkinson of Victoria, British Colombia, as well as two suffragan (or auxiliary) bishops for different regions, Bishop Craig Botterill of Halifax, Nova Scotia and Bishop Carl Reid of Ottawa, Ontario.
The petition by the ACCC follows closely after the March 3rd announcement that the Anglican Church in America (ACA), the U.S. branch of the Traditional Anglican Communion, were requesting a Catholic ordinariate.
Bishop Carl Reid of Ottawa is well known for his outspoken defense of life and traditional family values, and his ardent support of the National March for Life in which he has participated since 1998.
"As Church leaders," said Bishop Reid in the ACCC's diocesan newsletter following last year's March, "we are responsible not only for defending and upholding the faith 'once given for all', but also to represent the same sort of steady beacon in an increasingly confused moral landscape."
Following the announcement of "Anglicanorum Coetibus" by the Vatican last Fall, Bishop Reid told LifeSiteNews that while there were still weighty doctrinal matters to consider before deciding whether to take up the Vatican's offer, "When it comes to issues of morality, especially family and pro-life, our membership is very strongly on the same page as are Roman Catholics."
Australian Archbishop John Hepworth, Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion affirmed Bishop Reid's statements on life and family issues in an exclusive interview with LSN earlier this month.
Life issues are "at the heart" of Christianity, and one of the "founding premises" of the TAC said Archbishop Hepworth.
"If we get the life issues right, then we get the Incarnation right, the nature of God right, the nature of Christian worship right," he explained. "This is actually an entrance issue, not a side moral issue. It's the issue on which Christianity actually defines itself against the others."
See previous LSN coverage:
Exclusive Interview: Primate of Traditional Anglican Communion on Life and Family
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/mar/10030811.html
U.S. Traditionalist Anglican Group Votes to Enter Catholic Church
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/mar/10030402.html
Traditional Anglican Communion "On the Same Page" as Vatican on Life and Family: Canadian TAC Head
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/oct/09102207.html
The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada's Long and Ardent Support for the National March for Life
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09060409.html