Name of Church Blessed John Henry Newman Catholic Church
Address Currently meets for Mass at St. Joseph Church, 727 North Minter Street, Santa Ana CA 92701
Website www.jhnewman.org
Mass times Sundays, 3 p.m. Sung Mass according to the Anglican Use (Missa Cantata)
Confessions 2 – 2:30 p.m., or by appointment.
Names of priests Father Andrew Bartus. Father Bartus was once a Baptist, became an Anglican priest and served at St. Mary of the Angels Anglican Church in Hollywood. On July 3, Bishop of Orange Tod Brown ordained him a Catholic priest. He is one of many Anglicans who have looked to Rome after the liberalization of the Anglican/Episcopalian church (e.g. the election of the openly homosexual Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire Gene Robinson). Father Bartus is orthodox and pious, and delivers a good homily. He is married, and has a baby girl. His “day job” will be teaching high school at St. Michael’s Abbey.
Special parish groups/activities Many of the parish’s activities and groups are in the formation stage. Groups developing include: St. Martha’s Altar Guild, Blessed Dominic Barberi Acolyte Guild (for men and boys who are altar servers), St. Cecilia’s Choir, Tallis Chapel Society, St. Vincent de Paul Society, Knights of Columbus, St. Francis de Sales Guild. Also in the planning stages is a Wednesday, 6 p.m. parish dinner followed by an Adult Forum and Youth and Children’s Classes.
Liturgy/Music It’s a high liturgy (“smells and bells”), with traditional English chant and hymns, accompanied by an organ.
Parking This can be a challenge. St. Joseph’s has two lots, a small one by the church and a larger one across the street, and also rents parking space from the nearby Ebell Club. Street parking is limited, and much of the street parking nearby the church is reserved for the handicapped.
Acoustics Fine. New sound system.
Cry room No.
Additional observations Blessed John’s is a mission church of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. On January 1, 2012, Pope Benedict established the ordinariate for groups of Anglicans in the United States desiring full communion with the Catholic Church (for additional information, visit https://www.usordinariate.com/). The parish’s first Mass, and the first Mass of Father Bartus as a Catholic priest, was on July 8, 2012. The parish is named for Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-90), who left the Church of England and joined the Catholic Church in 1845. Similar ordinariate parishes can be found in communities across the country. Visit with the budding community of Blessed John’s at 4:30 p.m. after Mass in the parish hall (or outside on the lawn, if the weather is good).
Benedict XVI must have a direct line from the Holy Ghost, as it makes no sense, in any respect (except one) to permit a married man to be a priest. The one respect, of course, is that this is a test case for an optional married order. Perhaps there is something else to this, but at least it shows a glimmer of hope yet for regularization of the SSPX. Anyone know if our Anglican seminarians can be married and still become priests? What about someone saying that they are Anglican and wanting to go to a Catholic seminary?
CHRIS you continue to be delightfully unaware of the world around you.
the catholic church is bigger than your experience, and some eastern catholic priests have been married for a large part of our history; hnow, the fo0rmer anglican priests who are becoming catholic priests are (thank GOD) not being asked to dump their wives.
to answer your qusetions about marriage:
– once your are ordained a deacon or a priest, you cannot get married.
– if your wife dies, you must live a celibaqte life from then on.
“max”: Returning the compliment, you continue to be delightfully ignorant ot Church history and even contemporary views on celibacy among the clergy. Two points: (1) SInce the Council of Nicea, there has been no concession on celibacy among the clergy, only liberal theologians consider this merely a question of discipline, many traditionalists, and others, consider celibacy to be divinely inspired; and (2) The fact of “Eastern Church” departures of mandatory celibacy is not correct: a number of Eastern Catholic Churches have established mandatory celibacy, and, further, a good number of theologians agree that papal “recognition” of Eastern Catholic Church clergy marriages was to avoid a complete rupture with them (due to the hardness of their hearts, ad duritiam cordis, according to a nice summary of the SSPX on this issue). Thank you for the other information.
CHRIS, more on the history of celibacy in our church, regarding pope gregory vii in the eleventh century:
“This battle for the foundation of papal supremacy is connected with his championship of compulsory celibacy among the clergy and his attack on simony. Gregory VII did not introduce the celibacy of the priesthood into the Church, but he took up the struggle with greater energy than his predecessors. In 1074 he published an encyclical, absolving the people from their obedience to bishops who allowed married priests. The next year he enjoined them to take action against married priests, and deprived these clerics of their revenues. Both the campaign against priestly marriage and that against simony provoked widespread resistance.”
in other words, even a thousdand years ago, lots of priests had wives and families…
Christopher, The Pope can allow these men to be married and ordained. It is a discipline of the Church not a dogma that has most all of the Latin Rite priests to be celibate. The Church has millions of Eastern Rite Catholics and they have married priests. So read some of what the Pope has said and try talking to some of these very brave men and their wives to see how the Lord has been working. People are coming to the Church. Plus these men who are bing ordained are FAITHFUL Catholics.
This parish is wonderful. Father Bartus is a great priest. I would encourage everyone to come out and worship with us.
St. Christopher,
In case you didn’t know it, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church which Pope Benedict shepherds has many churches within it that have married priests and have had so since their foundations. Eg.: The Maronites (Except in N. America), the Coptics, the (Greco) Greek Roman Church, etc. etc.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
I’m glad to see this parish posted. Just a few weeks ago I participated in the first mass that this parish celebrated as a community. It still seems like a very significant moment in history. The Anglican Use liturgy is a bit different but they do provide a very good guide book. Some familiar prayers that are used in the mass are worded differently but for some the language is quite beautiful. I would encourage anyone who is interested in this parish or who would like to welcome them to the Catholic Church to experience their mass on Sunday afternoon. If you are interested in staying in touch with them, Fr. Bartus maintains a facebook page.
I first attended an Anglican Catholic Rite Church at a Wanderer Forum, and was happily surprised to find that it more closely resembled the Tridentine Mass in English, which is what was supposed to happen after Vatican II, than it does the Novus Ordo!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
The High Church Anglicans are sad to say, more ROMAN CATHOLIC than the Novus Ordo Catholics. The Anglo-Catholics have a lovely Holy Mass with bells, incense, Gregorian and English chant, kneeling, bowing using Latin and Elizabethan English and most are Ad-orientem with communion rails and stunning vestments like we had prior to the tossing out of everything that was Roman and Catholic after V2!! To answer St. Christopher’s question I believe they cannot be married and enter our seminaries only if they are to be re-ordained Catholic priests and married already with approval from Rome. I for one welcome the Anglican Catholics, yet at the same time they are most likely horrified at the Novus Ordo worship service with dancing girls, altar girls, guitars, drums, polyester vestments, hand holding and just plain ghastly music.
Like Father Z. states, Pope Benedict the XVI is the Pope of Christian unity!! Deo Gratias
I went to their site, which by the way i could not find by searching, and I could not find an E-Mail address. Does anyone know Father’s E-Mail address?
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
KENNETH, there is no listing on any of the links, but you may want to go to his blog and request his email address.
One thing I will say about this parish is that more about what we are for than what we don’t like about the other places. While we do not like the abuses we like to focus on what is great about the Church and how much we love the Liturgy. It is a very positive parish.
This looks like a great priest and church! I’m glad it’s so close to me. As an aside, I knew a wonderful priest when I lived in Chicago who was a convert from the Anglican church. He was ordained an Anglican priest and was married, but when he converted to the Catholic Church, his wife left him. He went through the process of becoming a Catholic priest and thus he was a divorced Catholic priest. He was such a holy man and all those years ago, I thought he really understood marriage and women in a way that was uncanny. I thought it was because he had been married. (When I ran the young adults group at a local parish I had him come give a talk on marriage and I wish now I had taped is since he is deceased and the talk was so wonderful.) All the single women I knew (all my friends) would wait in his line for confession. I realize now that he understood human nature well because he was so holy and loved God so much. I just think the diversity in the Church is so beautiful and reading about this parish reminded me of my priest/friend who was such a treasure to the Church in Chicago for many years.
Finally an Anglican Use Catholic church in California. For those of you who would like to read or print out the Holy Eucharist Rite One from the Book of Divine Worship, just put “Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Church, Houston, Texas” in your search bar, click on their website, then click on Liturgy of the Anglican-Use on the left side, and it will pop up. This has the words to the liturgy and many other prayers.
“Annie, Max, Kenneth Fisher”: what a disappointment to hear such Vatican II liberalism, none of which represents an accurate understanding of the issue of celibacy for clergy. In fact, the Council of Nicea’s admonition was never abrogated, except in weakness to avoid an outright schism. Further, the nature of the celibacy requirement has been looked at by Benedict XVI a number of times, including for heretical Archbishop (and a married one) Milingo, with any change being rejected. Many theologians reject the notion that celibacy is a mere “discipline” and instead see it as formed by, and supported through, “Apostolic Tradition”. Can the Pope wake up and say, “Today we will have married priests”? Perhaps, but only with the most dire consequences. In fact, there is consistent discussion about the issue of whether married priests are full canonical. Finally, the same, very same, “non-scriptural” and “discipline” reasons are offered by a large chorus chanting for women priests. Bl. John Paul II said that the Church was powerless to ordain women, and he was correct. Married priests are likewise against Church tradition, virtually since apostolic times (and, no, it does not matter that a number of the apostles were married). Priests cannot marry. They were historically permitted in the Eastern rite (although a number now demand celibacy), essentially to avoid schism. It is a mistake to permit Anglican married priests (unless you look forward to the day when this is used as an example of why married priests must be permitted in the Latin rite). It is wonderful to welcome Anglicans into the Church as practicing Catholics, but this should be done consistent with all requirements of the Church, including celibacy. Gee, a cynical person might wonder about the rush to permit a major variant practice such as celibacy for priests, when compared to the highly difficult time that the SSPX has received by the Vatican on its reintegration efforts. Too bad Bishop Fellay did not offer married priests, or Mass in French and German dialects — he would have been welcomed right in immediately. The more the Church refuses to define itself, and to enforce that definition, the more confused its “people” become. Yes, be confident that all is OK with the Church when the folks in the diocese of Camden say that Jesus sinned and was like other men of His time. What comes next? Whatever it is, Catholic priests should not marry.
CHRIS, hate to wake you up, but KENNETH (of all people!) is no wild liberal.
furthermore, the catholic church has always had married priests, so you migth as well get used to it.
in the past, most of them were eastern catholics; now also former anglicans.
i personally think celibacy is better for priets, but we’re not talking about my preferences (or yours) here — we’;re talking about reality.
St. Christopher:
Please don’t misunderstand I’m not for (or against) married priests. Being a simple housewife and mother, I’m for whatever the Church allows and teaches. Our Lord said, ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against my Church.’ And this is what I cling to since it is, after all, the Church that our Lord suffered and died for.
The Anglican church is coming apart at the seams and the people, and their priests, have nowhere else to go sometimes but back to the wholeness of truth. Many of them feel their only other option is to give up on objective truth completely. This is a ‘non-option’ if you will. We, as Catholics need to welcome them with loving and open arms.
And so what do you do with an Anglican priest? I assure you, in the case of the priest that I knew though St. John Cantius in Chicago, it was no mistake. His life as a Catholic priest was an absolute blessing. He was willing to have his wife leave him to be Catholic, and this is before he became a Catholic priest, so that says something. He wanted to live his life in the truth, no matter the cost.
I know many people in the SSPX, and so I know what a delicate matter it is for them to come under the umbrella of Rome. My husband was present with many family members at the recent ordination in June in MN since a family member was ordinated. (I would have gone had our young children been able to stand the 4 hour ceremony.) He is a good, solidly formed, well intentioned man. I pray for their unification with Rome. Reuniting the SSPX with Rome has little to do with bringing the others under the same umbrella. It is only similar in the sense that all must be united with Rome for the sake of their own souls.
I hope this is helpful .
on an amusing note, i once met an anglican priest from down south with a bit, fat southern accent.
however, when i popped into his church one day and he was the celebrant, he sounded like he had attended school in england with prince charles!!!
the whole accent had changed.
i wonder if this is part of their seminary training…?