<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt">http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=28588<br><br><p><font color="#660000" size="4">Ex-Anglicans will bring New Life to our Church</font></p>
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By Damian Thompson<br>7/15/2008</div><p>The Catholic Herald (UK)</p>
<p>The
really good news, from the Catholic point of view, is that Rome and the
two flying bishops seem to have agreed on the bare outline of a deal
between Romeward-bound Anglicans and the Vatican.</p>
LONDON (The Catholic Herald) - "Most of all we ask for ways that allow us to bring our folk with us."
<br>
<br>Well, you can't put it plainer than that.
<br>
<br>The Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet and one of the
Church of England's three "flying bishops", wants to lead his people to
Rome. And - this time round - Rome seems ready to provide the "ways"
that will allow the exodus to consist of more than simply a mass of
individual conversions.
<br>
<br>On Monday night the General Synod of the Church of England, meeting
in York, voted to consecrate women bishops without offering objectors
anything more than a flimsy code of practice. <br>
<br>"Make no mistake," wrote George Pitcher in the Daily Telegraph,
"the Anglo-Catholics were done over." But with love, mind you: as
Pitcher nicely put it, the Synod is like a mafia movie "where the
luckless are stabbed in the back while they're being hugged". <br>
<br>Bishop Burnham - whom I remember from my religious correspondent
days as one of the nicest and wisest Anglo-Catholics - saw this coming.
<br>
<br>So did the Rt Rev Keith Newton, Bishop of Richborough, Canterbury's
other Provincial Episcopal Visitor (as flying bishops are officially
known). <br>
<br>That is why they travelled to Rome to talk to Cardinal William
Levada, the Pope's successor at the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith, and Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican's head of ecumenism.
<br>
<br>The situation is confusing, because there have been two meetings
between Anglican bishops and the Vatican: one involving the flying
bishops, and a more mysterious one attended by Anglican diocesan
bishops, not necessarily with a view to converting, but with the aim of
sorting out the almighty mess in Catholic-Anglican relations.
<br>
<br>The really good news, from the Catholic point of view, is that Rome
and the two flying bishops seem to have agreed on the bare outline of a
deal between Romeward-bound Anglicans and the Vatican. <br>
<br>If it seems presumptuous for Anglicans to ask for a deal, remember
this: in the mid-1990s, after the Church of England ordained women
priests, many Anglo-Catholics drew back from union with the Holy See
because the Bishops of England and Wales were so unwelcoming, and
because they were so depressed by the low standard of liturgy in our
parishes.
<br>
<br>The situation now is very different. Pope Benedict XVI is an old
friend of conservative Anglo-Catholics in England and America; he
shares their dismay at the shoddy state of the liturgy in many
churches, and he is seeking to renovate the vernacular Mass by exposing
Catholics to the treasures of pre-1970 Latin worship. <br>
<br>All this would have been inconceivable in 1994, as would a
Ratzinger papacy, and old-fashioned "Sandalista" liberals are still
hoping to wake up from their bad dream. The cheering from the
Anglo-Catholic sidelines at these developments has been hearty and loud
- much louder, I'm sorry to say, than that from the Catholic Bishops of
England and Wales. <br>
<br>Yet it is now looking less likely, thank God, that our diocesan
bishops will dig in their heels and refuse to allow special measures
for former Anglicans. Roma locuta est, I suspect - quietly and
diplomatically, but decisively. (One thing I do know, though it is a
different issue, is that Ecclesia Dei has instructed the English and
Welsh hierarchy to implement the Motu Proprio.) <br>
<br>So what might an agreement between Rome and former Anglo-Catholics look like? Here are some informed guesses:
<br>
<br>1. Rome will set up an "apostolic administration" under a Catholic
bishop to offer pastoral care to former Anglican priests and their
parishioners.
<br>
<br>2. The ex-Anglicans will form an umbrella organisation called
something like the Fellowship of St Gregory the Great. The Fellowship,
under the guidance of their new Catholic bishop, will consist of former
Anglican priests who have been ordained into the Catholic priesthood.
Their parishes, though open to anyone, will consist largely of
ex-Anglicans.
<br>
<br>3. Some Fellowship parishes will occupy their former church
buildings, though this will require an unprecedented degree of
co-operation with the Church of England.
<br>
<br>4. Former Anglican communities may - if they wish - be allowed to
use parts of the Book of Common Prayer adapted for Catholic use, as in
a few American parishes. In practice, there will be little demand for
this concession, I suspect.
<br>
<br>5. Former Anglican priests will undergo an accelerated programme of
study allowing them to be swiftly ordained. (Conditional ordination is
unlikely to be on offer.) Marriage will be no bar to ordination, but no
actively gay priest will be knowingly ordained, and this will be
strictly enforced.
<br>
<br>6. However there will be no question of married lay former
Anglicans becoming priests, since this would effectively abolish the
rule of celibacy in the Western Church.
<br>
<br>7. There will therefore be no Uniate Anglican-Rite Church; there is
not enough demand for it, and it raises too many questions about
celibacy and jurisdiction.
<br>
<br>8. That said, there could well be a future for the Fellowship of St
Gregory once its original supply of ex-Anglicans has died out. The
treasures our new brethren will bring with them - a poetic and
contemplative spirituality, glorious prayers, fine music - will
permanently enrich the Catholic Church in England; they belong to us
all.
<br>
<br>As I say, these are just informed guesses. I have only one plea to the Vatican and the Catholic bishops:
<br>
<br>Please, get it right this time.
<br>
<br>This article first appeared in The Catholic Herald, the Premier Catholic Newspaper of the United Kingdom
<br><div> </div><div><div><div><font color="#0000bf"><em><font face="comic sans ms"><div><em><font color="#0000bf" face="Comic Sans MS">Like a deer that longs for running waters so my soul longs for you, O God.</font></em></div></font></em></font></div><div><font color="#0000bf"><em><font face="comic sans ms">Ps 42:1</font></em></font></div><div><em><font color="#0000bf" face="Comic Sans MS" size="1"></font></em> </div><div><em><font color="#0000bf" face="Comic Sans MS" size="1"></font></em> </div></div></div><div><br></div></div><br>
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