This is stunning, yet wonderful news:
[O]n the morning of October 20, 2009, the Holy See has, by Apostolic Constitution, provided the canonical vehicle for Anglican Christians to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church.
The report goes on to note, inter alia, that:
Expectations had been that, in response to the formal petition of the “Traditional Anglican Communion” for a vehicle for corporate entry into full communion, the Holy See would offer a juridic structure under Canon Law similar to the “personal prelature” which is the global organizing vehicle for the ecclesial movement Opus Dei. In essence it provides a “floating” global Diocese wherein the prelature has its own Bishops and its own priests while welcomed alongside of the existing Dioceses of the Catholic Church.
However, the announcement from Rome is much farther reaching and, for Vatican watchers, nothing short of spectacular in its implications for Anglican Christians seeking a place in the Church captained by the successor of Peter. Pope Benedict XVI has offered to establish “Personal Ordinariates”, the structure offered for those in the military, within which to care for Anglicans, lay and clergy, while enabling them to maintain the liturgical and spiritual unique distinctives of their tradition. That is correct, the Roman Catholic Church by way of an “Apostolic Constitution” will provide the process which will allow for Anglican Christians to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.
Please do read the entire article.
October 20th, 2009 | 11:54 am
This is history in the making. Benedict is once again changing the Christian world by redefining the fault lines into “traditional morality” and “non-traditional morality” camps through open invitation, like a shepherd gathering his sheep.
October 20th, 2009 | 12:39 pm
Deo Gratias!!!!!!
October 20th, 2009 | 12:54 pm
I wish Cardinal Mahoney would let this happen in LA. It’s not that there are enough Anglicans here to make a decent sized Catholic parish, but there are priests and laity ready to go– and there are plenty of under-utilized Episcopal churches that could be bought from cash-strapped Bishop Bruno. Please, Cardinal Mahoney, make this happen in LA.
October 20th, 2009 | 1:19 pm
Wouldn’t these Anglicans have to accept the primacy of the Pope as well as all the other exclusively Catholic doctrines that Anglicanism does not agree with? I was not aware that there were that many Anglicans who subscribed to Roman Catholic beliefs, lock, stock, and barrel.
October 20th, 2009 | 1:27 pm
California,
My impression of the situation is that the local ordinary need not necessarily be involved with the process of re-unification. I am not sure of the details of how all of this will work, but my impression would be that the local RC bishop should not be able to obstruct a process set up by Rome for re-unification. The various groups seeking unity (like the Traditional Anglican Communion) will be able to set up their own governing structure that operates semi-independently of the local ordinary. Read the announcement from the Vatican for more: http://212.77.1.245/news_services/bulletin/news/24513.php?index=24513&lang=ge
October 20th, 2009 | 1:49 pm
This is wonderful in the abstract, but I have absolutely no idea how it will work practically. Will the realization of this invitation vary by region? How does one go about accepting this invitation in practical terms? Any illumination would be helpful.
October 20th, 2009 | 3:13 pm
Sounds arresting on paper, but I don’t really ‘get’ how it will have much larger effect. Also, traditional morality lines will not be redrawn at all until the likes of Mahoney and Co. are long gone. Nonetheless, for whatever good long term effect it does have, a hearty Praise The Lord.
October 20th, 2009 | 4:37 pm
It’s been interesting to read some of the sputtering commentary in the British press (particularly in Damian Thompson’s Telegraph blogs).
Apparently this announcement just wasn’t very sporting of Benedict XVI. He supposedly “spung this announcement” on Rowan Williams at a late stage (Oh , poor Mr. Williams, I wasn’t aware the Pope needed your approval in order to define the parameters of communion with Rome).
My favorite was this from Mr. Thompson, who fears the new policy will undermine “ecumenical dialougue”: “This dialogue between the Churches is entering a new, even more fruitful phase as the two Communions unite to halt global warming through joint parish initiatives.” Ah yes, “halting global warming through joint parish initiatives” is apparently the new central dogma of Christianity! Good grief. If this is what “ecumencial dialogue” is all about, we’re much better off without it!
October 20th, 2009 | 4:40 pm
There are more than you might think, Beth. My husband and I, with our children, are former Anglicans, now Catholic, and are a classic case of having “learned our Catholicism in Anglicanism.”
While we lived in England, my husband was an active member of both the Society of Mary and the Catholic League, an organization of both Roman and Anglo-Catholics whose end is to pray for the reunification of Anglicans (if not all Anglicanism) with Rome, and our parish church operated in high-Catholic mode, with Eucharistic Adoration, Marian devotions, Confession, etc.
In the end, accepting papal authority was a no-brainer, because we had already submitted ourselves, by degrees, to everything else. And although there are certainly breaches in the moral dike, the difference between bringing up your children in a “your personally-preferred-but-totally-optional-beliefs here” Catholic-flavored environment, and bringing up your children in an environment in which you can say, “Here is what we believe, and if you don’t believe me, here’s the documentation,” is enormous.
The good news is that Anglicans crossing the Tiber are crossing it because they *actively* want the latter — they’ve had it with the former. That’s that many more avid, orthodox, tradition-minded Catholics in the pews, not to mention that much more good liturgy at the altar. Every little bit feeds the larger culture.
Incidentally, my most-used prayer book now, including the Examination of Conscience which I use before Confession, is the 1947 Episcopalian Saint Augustine’s Prayer Book.
October 20th, 2009 | 5:41 pm
It is a wonderful move, and speaks volumes for Benedict’s pastoral abilities.
Exciting times! I’ve had a spring in my step all day.
Dennis, the comment about “halting global warming through joint parish initiatives”, was, in fact, Damian Thompson satirising what he predicts will be the ‘liberal Catholic’ response to this. His own views are quite the opposite.
October 20th, 2009 | 6:06 pm
Dennis,
I believe Mr. Thompson was facetiously quoting an article from the British RC newspaper, the Tablet, which he constantly disparages.
-AML
October 20th, 2009 | 6:12 pm
> He supposedly “sprung this announcement” on Rowan Williams at a late stage
Given that the TAC separated from the Church of England over the issue of woman’s ordination ages ago, I don’t see why Rowan Williams would care any more than if Lutherans were welcomed into the Roman Catholic Church. Actually, it would be curious to see if the new constitution will be applied to Lutherans and other apostolic denominations as well since the little that I’ve read doesn’t seem restricted to Anglicanism.
Hopefully, this will force the Church of England to deal the mess created by the Episcopal Church rather than just paper over it and say that all is well…pay no attention to that (gay) man behind the curtain.
October 20th, 2009 | 7:00 pm
Just to clarify, Damian Thompson doesn’t fear the new policy will undermine ecumenical dialogue. Thompson was parodying someone else when he made the comment quoted above by Dennis.
October 20th, 2009 | 8:39 pm
Regarding “sprung this announcement”, some think the Vatican has learned it lesson with recent announcements that have been leaked and misinterpreted. This time they didn’t let it leak and were able to explain the decision as opposed to defend the decision.
Regarding Cardinal Mahoney, the Vatican has structured this in such a way to avoid that the TAC can avoid reporting to liberal Catholic bishops.
October 20th, 2009 | 9:21 pm
Those who read Damian Thompson regularly will be aware that he commonly refers to The Tablet – the newspaper of the liberal Catholic establishment in the UK – as The Bitter Pill. He’s really not a fan.
October 20th, 2009 | 10:41 pm
Here’s a different perspective:
http://www.liturgy.co.nz/blog/end-of-anglican-communion/1756
October 21st, 2009 | 6:36 am
Brain- and leadership-drain could be the biggest impact of this decision for the wider Anglican Communion.
Whatever the scale of realignment on the parish and diocesan level, the impact of *priests* converting might be the most significant. Very few parishes are homogeneously catholic enough to manage wholesale conversion. But many “orthodox” parishes–catholic or not–are headed up by Episcopal priests, usually married, who have longed for communion with Rome. As employment prospects for “orthodox” priests get slimmer (and for those lucky enough to land a job, it may be like joining an ailing Microsoft–good pension, but will it still be there, and can you stick it out?), jumping ship for emergent Anglican-Roman Catholic configurations will start to look relatively more secure.
It still remains to be seen whether RC parishes can figure out how to support financially clergy with families. And if, as is likely, very few new Anglican-RC parishes are formed under the personal ordinariate, there just might not be a place for all these converted priests to go. But even a few dozen sharp young priests would constitute quite a drain of intellect, energy, and vision from the aging, intellectually unsophisticated pool that is the Episcopal clergy.
October 21st, 2009 | 7:53 am
R McD, the not all Anglicans long to join the Roman Catholic Church. Being half way between the Protestants and Roman Catholics, there are many that disagree with some Roman Catholic doctrines that have been introduced in the last century. As such, they are closer theologically to the Eastern Orthodox:
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=11321
and some have already left, particularly to Western Rite churches.
Given what’s happening in the Lutheran church now, they may have to make a similar decision — renounce the reformation or finish what Luther suggested and go Eastern Orthodox.
Given that the current Pope seems very serious about healing the Schisms, an the Eastern Orthodox have all but healed the schism with the Oriental Orthodox, I would not be surprised if by the end of the next decade, there will be a common communion of all Catholics — united by at minimum the 7 ecumenical councils that unite them.
October 21st, 2009 | 1:16 pm
The article suggested that the model that had been expected was that of a “personal prelature,” such as is found in Opus Dei, but that what the Pope had done is establish, instead, “Personal Ordinariates.” Could someone explain to me what precisely this means in practice and why this is more far-reaching than the prelatic model? I am not clear what this means in practice. Maybe I should know from the article, but I could not pick up the differences. Thanks in advance.
October 22nd, 2009 | 2:09 pm
Several bloggers have also noted the remarkable timing of Pope Benedict’s offer to the Anglicans–that of the feast of St Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionist Order.
The Catholic Encyclopedias entry on St Paul of the Cross explains how he prayed for over 50 years for the conversion and reconciliation of England, and he encouraged his spiritual sons to do the same.
Perhaps the timing of this offer by the Pope on St Paul of the Cross’ feast day was intentional, given Paul’s fervent desire for the reconciliation with the Church of England.
I did a bit of research and wrote a brief article concerning St Paul of the Cross and his desire for the reunion of the Anglicans. For those interested it can be found here:
http://www.saintpaulofthecross.com/2009/10/rome-vatican-pope-reaches-out-to.html
Glenn D.
October 22nd, 2009 | 10:01 pm
The Wall Street Journal described Anglicans as “disgruntled.” Another paper as “disillusioned.” Neither correspond to the truth. Devout Anglicans have endured an abusive institutional culture — similar to our universities and corporations — that elevated inclusion above the Mass, the Creed, the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. Heartsick, longing for a Church that is True — these words better describe who we are. Alienated, lonely are others. I entered the Church at Easter Vigil this April. If Anglicans do encounter a difficult passage, conflicts, even hostility, it will be because cradle Catholics will understand little of what I’ve just said. The Gospel does not offer ease or comfort. Those of us who might be called Catholics within the Anglo-Catholic tradition may understand that at least as well as any devout Catholic. And just as Poles have a special affection for the late John Paul the Great; I will feel a deep gratitude for Pope Benedict XVI; this courageous Vicar of Christ.
October 26th, 2009 | 9:59 am
As a former Catholic who read the bible, studied the Scripture in original Hebrew (OT) and Greek (NT) , and bible symbolisms and types, I shake my head at those who still think the Pope is infallible and subscribe to the Vatican’s man-made legalistic excuses.
I am glad I’m no longer within the RC Church and its corruption.
A Church that changes the 10 commandments to suit its purposes and misquotes scripture for its own gain imho does not deserve my respect.
And whilst I have respect for Mary the woman who gave birth to Jesus the Son of Man, there is nothing in the bible that calls her the Son of God. God hasn’t a mummy. He made Mary. =p
Anyone note that Christ often called her “Woman” not “Mother”?
October 29th, 2009 | 12:58 pm
Congratulations , The reformation , and all the martyrdom was for nothing. I was under the impression that Roman Catholic Doctrine hadn’t changed. Don’t you still believe in transubstantiation, and purgatory, don’t you hold the pope as infallible, and that’s not to mention the veneration of Mary, and the move to make her co redemtrix. Co redeemer with Jesus. Don’t you still hold Roman Catholic dogma, above the word of God.
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