Personal ordinariate
If membership by reception of the sacraments of initiation within an ordinariate is open not only to the Catholics mentioned in the 2013 amendment but to others also who have no Anglican background - something on which no express statement has been issued - anyone who has not yet received all three sacraments of initiation may join. This includes non-Christians, those who, in the view of the Catholic Church, do not have valid baptism (such as Mormons), and those who, again in the view of the Catholic Church, have valid baptism but not valid confirmation or Eucharist. Protestants in general are seen as lacking valid confirmation, but the Eastern churches and some Western ones, such as some Old Catholic churches and the Polish National Catholic Church, are recognized as having valid sacraments.
Herbert Ratner
Another phenomenon was also taking place at the University of Chicago among Ratner’s friends and acquaintances. Impressed with the writings of Thomas Aquinas, many were becoming attracted to the Catholic Church. One psychiatrist friend and medical school classmate became a Trappist monk. Having been raised with no religion by an atheist father, Ratner, too, felt this attraction and entered the Catholic Church in 1938. He remained a committed Catholic throughout his life, becoming an active, long-time member of the Chicago Catholic Physicians’ Guild, as well as serving a term as president of the National Federation of Catholic Physicians Guilds, which later was renamed the Catholic Medical Association.