The Pastoral Provision of Bl. John Paul II

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A Personal Note:  When I learned the Pastoral Provision would continue alongside the new U.S. Ordinariate, I was confused and not sure that this was a good idea.  Clearly, it is one of those moments of genius where the Church makes the bold decision that one-size does not fit all.  The Pastoral Provision offers a place of welcome and entrance, a kind of formation, and a place within the Latin Rite diocese that is distinct and different from the U.S. Ordinariate.  A tip my former biretta to the genius of the few who figured this out from the beginning.  Now the Church has two gifts of inestimable value for reuniting those in the Protestant communities with the Catholic Church founded by the Lord Jesus Christ upon His Apostles.

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Most Rev. Kevin Vann

The Pastoral Provision of Blessed Pope John Paul II confirmed by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI is an alternative to the Ordinariate Process in the USA.  Pre-dating Anglicanorum coetibus, the Pastoral Provision Office has gone through a wonderful evolution into the provider a fully transparent ordination process under the Most Reverend Kevin Vann, the Bishop of Fort Worth.  The Pastoral Provision Office offers a beautiful, concise, and effective website for discovery by all and particularly valuable for those former clergyman who feel they may have a vocation to the Catholic priesthood to be lived within the territorial dioceses of the Latin Rite in the USA.  This process has many strengths and is appropriate for those who will not have the ordinary cure of souls in a parish among others.

This article in the National Catholic Reporter on the differences between the 1980 Pastoral Provision and the very recent U.S. Ordinariate may be read HERE.