What the new Motu Proprio really means

My editor Luke Coppen has flagged up a new Motu Proprio coming out of Rome which heralds some changes to Canon Law. Motu Proprio Omnium in mentem looks like it is mainly revising laws that have to do with people formally leaving the Church and getting married. It looks like it might be a generous revision. I asked a canon lawyer what it meant. Here is the reply:

Anglican speculations…(cont.)

There’s been a lot of speculation about married men and the Catholic priesthood. It’s not so long ago that people would have thought it unthinkable that married Anglican clergy could become (Roman)Catholic priests, but this happens quite often now when an Anglican clergyman converts to Catholicism.

Perhaps the most novel aspect of the Anglican provision–barring the novelty of the new structure–is the idea that Catholics in the Ordinariate will be able to put forward seminarians for ordination. While it is likely that ordinariates will hold themselves to the Church’s teaching on priestly celibacy, married men will be able to be put forward for the priesthood on a case by case basis (and with the permission of course of the local bishops’), somewhat along the lines of the Eastern Rite model.

Could this be preparing the way for a Catholic-Orthodox reunion?