(Saint Peter's Basilica is seen in downtown Rome behind the Tiber river January 9, 2010. REUTERS/Max Rossi)
The new leader of disaffected U.S. Anglicans who have converted or want to convert to Catholicism has said his flock would strive to learn the culture of the Catholic Church without forgetting the “noble Anglican tradition.” Rev. Jeffrey N. Steenson, a married former Anglican bishop, assumed his post in Houston, Texas, Monday after Pope Benedict named him at the weekend to lead converts from the Episcopal Church, the main branch of Anglicanism in the United States.
“Pray that we may strive to learn the faith, laws and culture of the Catholic Church with humility and good cheer. But pray too that we do not forget who we are and where we have come from, for we have been formed in the beautiful and noble Anglican tradition,” he said in a statement on Monday.
Pope Benedict decreed in 2009 that Anglicans who leave, many because they feel their Church has become too liberal, can find a home in Catholicism in a parallel hierarchy that allows them to keep some of their traditions, such as parts of the Anglican liturgy and the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.
Steenson, 59, converted in 2007 and will head a “personal ordinariate,” roughly equivalent to a nationwide diocese, that will oversee ex-Episcopalians who have converted and be a point of contact for those wishing to do so.
