Our pastor and I were kindly invited to attend the Funeral Mass in honor of the former Roman Catholic Bishop of Albany and the past executive director of Catholic Relief Services, Bishop Edwin Broderick.

I very much appreciated that Fr. Mike Farano, Pastor of St. Pius X, invited us.

As best as I can tell from our parish history, Bishop Broderick was particularly kind to our Church from an ecumenical perspective —“ long before there was any official dialog between the Roman Catholic and PNC Churches.

I was surprised by the fact that there weren’t more ecumenical guests. It was us and Bishops Daniel Herzog and David Ball from the Episcopal Diocese of Albany (not for long) along with the Very Rev. Marshall Vang, Dean of the Cathedral parish.

We attended in choir dress (cassock, surplice, stole) as did the Episcopal contingent (although Bishop Herzog had a kind of a long red garment on —“ being unfamiliar with Episcopal Church vestiture I’m not sure what it was).

I want to mention my thanks to the Rev. David Mickiewicz who acted as Mater of Ceremonies and took us under his wing, and the Rev. James Kane, Director of the Albany R.C. Diocesan Commission for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, for their kindness.

There were six or seven R.C. Bishops and Archbishops in attendance. The Funeral Mass was presided over by the Current Bishop of Albany, Howard Hubbard.

Not much surprised me during the Mass but there were three things that stood out.

They are still using glass pitchers on the altar to hold the precious blood. I thought that had been stopped and was a no no.

The other thing that stood out was the way people received the Eucharist. Even with all the bowing while walking up it was even less reverent than I remember it. The topper was one elderly nun who walked up with a cane. Because of her condition, not being able to receive in one hand while placing the Eucharist in her mouth with the other hand, I figured she would receive on the tongue. Nope, she received in the right hand and popped Jesus into her mouth like a tic-tac. I almost fell over.

The last thing that really amazed me was when they brought the Bishop’s body out of the church. The assembled clergy spontaneously sang Salve Regina IN LATIN. I joined right in.

Eternal rest grant unto him o Lord and may the perpetual light shine upon him.

Fr. Peregrinator at the Canterbury Tales blog makes the following comments regarding information he gathered at the recent Anglican Use conference held in Scranton, PA.:

Will There Be an Anglican Rite?

All the buzz surrounds the very explicit statement by Father William Stetson with reference to a rumored Anglican sui juris “uniat” Church. Fr Stetson related that it is nearly impossible to arrange Anglicans in an ecclesiastical structure akin to the Eastern Catholic sui juris Churches.

It essentially centers on a question of Catholic ecclesiology. The ancient metropolitan see of Canterbury and that of York were metropolitan sees established by Rome and governed by Rome. From the Roman point of view, these two sees fell into schism. It is therefore impossible to create a sui juris ecclesiastical body that exists at a greater canonical status than it possesed [sic] prior to schism. To put it briefly, Canterbury and York belonged to the Roman patriarchate and their descendents will continue to belong to that patriarchate as they return to full communion with Rome.

There is also information posted on the conference by Mr. Kimel (Pontifications) and by David Virtue of Virtue Online.

I’ve previously commented on Anglican Use and the fact that it is just a stop-gap. It will last 20-30 years and then disappear. There will be no new Anglican clergy converting (anyone with a mind to join a Catholic Church will have done so already) and the converting generation will have died off.

Rome is at least being somewhat honest in not holding out hope for something greater. As David Virtue opines: ‘No Refuge for Anglicans Seeking Unity with Rome’. None should be expected —“ and those who hope for more delude themselves.

The key here is how does Rome’s opinion regarding Anglican Use translate for other Churches seeking unity? Could the PNCC ever be a sui juris Church in communion with Rome?

Based on the opinion of Father William Stetson, and whomever he represents, absolutely not. If you agree to be in communion then you are left with options such as personal prelatures and apostolic administrations. That is just slow death by strangulation and absorption (look at Campos). All those who wish to rush headlong into unity, please remember to do so based on the reality of the situation, rather than your own personal assumptions and fantasies.