As Bishops convert, Vatican moving on plan to welcome Anglican

From Zenit - Today 12th November 2010
Vatican City, November 10 (CNA/EWTN News) .- Just weeks after a papal pilgrimage to England, the announcement that five Anglican bishops plan to resign by year's end and join the Catholic Church is setting wheels in motion at the Vatican.

Anglo Catholic - High Mass

The Nov. 8 announcement seems to have caught Vatican officials by surprise. And the question of just how these bishops and other former members of the Church of England will enter the Catholic Church has quickly become an important topic of discussion inside the Vatican.
The bishops — Andrew Burnham of Ebbsfleet, Keith Newton of Richborough, and John Broadhurst of Fulham, along with retired bishops Edwin Barnes and David Silk — cited Pope Benedict XVI's "generous" invitation last year to Anglicans who are seeking "full communion" with the Catholic Church.

In Nov. 2009, the Pope issued the invitation in an apostolic constitution, "Anglicanorum Coetibus." The document proposed that former Anglicans could enter into "full communion" with the Church as members of specially-tailored jurisdictions, or "personal ordinariates."

According to the Pope's plan, these jurisdictions would be under the authority of local Catholic bishops, but members could maintain their "liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions," including the traditional permission for priests to be married.

With the five bishops' announcement, eyes are now on the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has yet to provide details on the final shape these ordinariates, might take.

But a timetable does seem to be on the horizon. The doctrine office's head, Cardinal William Levada, will be leading a special closed-door discussion of the matter with the College of Cardinals on Nov. 19.

One of the resigning bishops, Bishop John Broadhurst, told CNA that his decision to leave the Church of England came after many years of hoping that the Anglicans would move closer to Rome.

Instead, he said, Anglicans have distanced themselves further by embracing such radical departures from Christian tradition as permitting women bishops and blessing homosexual unions.

But Bishop Broadhurst, who has been a priest for 40 years and heads the traditionalist group, Forward in Faith, said disaffection with Anglicanism did not lead to his decision.

As one who "believed in unity with the Catholic Church for a very long time," he said, "I don't think I can say no to it. It's as straight forward as that. You can't become a Catholic because you don't like being something else. That's not where we are, any of us."

The difficulties facing Anglicanism, he said, have less to do with issues such as gay clergy or women bishops.

"The problem with Anglicanism is the nature of authority — we have no proper concept of authority so decisions are made that tear us apart," he said.

In their joint letter of resignation, the five bishops said they were "distressed by developments … in Anglicanism which we believe to be incompatible with the historic vocation of Anglicanism and the tradition of the Church for nearly two thousand years."

They said Pope Benedict's invitation was "a generous response" to distressed Anglicans and "a bold, new ecumenical instrument in the search for the unity of Christians. … It is a unity, we believe, which is possible only in eucharistic communion with the successor of St Peter."

Bishop Broadhurst said there remains a debate in more traditional Anglican parishes in England. Priests and lay people alike are contemplating their next steps. "Lots of people are interested" in pursuing the Pope's invitation, he said.

Auxiliary Bishop Alan Hopes of Westminster is the point man on the Anglican issue for the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales. He said the bishops will be considering the new "personal ordinariates" in their countries during their annual meeting next week.

Vatican Radio reported Nov. 10 that the head of the English Anglicans, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, will travel to the Vatican next week. He is to take part in celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Nov. 17.

Archbishop Williams is not scheduled to meet with the Pope. However, last year, when tensions arose after the Pope's invitation to Anglicans, Archbishop Williams did travel to Rome for a private meeting with the Pontiff.

Archbishop Williams greeted news of the five bishops' resignation with "regret." In a statement, he said: "We wish them well in this next stage of their service to the Church." he said.

Whatever shape the ordinariate takes, for now, they are interested in having a good relationship with English Catholic hierarchy and maintaining their friendship with the Anglican Church, Bishop Broadhurst said.

He compared it to a failed marriage in which the spouses "break up." Some "are nasty," while in others "people manage to be decent to each other. Well, I hope as Christians that we can be respectful."

"I really do think that it's got to work, but it's a sensitive situation both within the Church of England and in the Catholic Church," he concluded.

Msgr. Marc Langham of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told CNA that the new Anglican jurisdictions may produce some unexpected fallout in Catholic-Anglican relations.

"It perhaps will mean that there will no longer be a voice within Anglicanism ... speaking in defense of that relationship with the Roman Catholic Church," he said.

Pope Benedict has repeatedly said that he has no interest in encouraging the further splintering of the Anglican communion, Msgr. Langham said.

As for the unprecedented question of ordinariates, Msgr. Langham said that the interested Anglicans he has spoken with "really want to wait and see what the ordinariate looks like."

Questions such as "how it will work, how it will run, how it will be financed, what it's relationship will be to the local Catholic community" are on the top of their minds.

"Anglican ministers are going to give up a great deal before moving to this, and so I think are waiting really for a bit more information about it," he said.

The "short answer," Msgr. Langham said, is that no one knows how many people might eventually join the U.K. ordinariate.

An interesting ecumenical point for him so far in the dialogue about the creation of ordinariates is that Catholic authorities are receiving advice from their Anglican counterparts on how best to do so. This, he said, "is a great thing."

"It means that the ordinariate is helping to bridge the ecumenical divide rather than to exaggerate it."

Models of Church and the Church of Christ

With the recent state visit by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, what media had threatened would be a great roar from secularists, atheists and forces generally opposed to the Catholic Church turned out to be a squeak. The anti-catholic BBC and media in general, got it seriously wrong - and support for the Pope was overwhelming.

The British Hierarchy notorious for it kowtowing to the extreme liberal agenda of the Tablet, was a given clear and emphatic lead as to the direction the church should be taking in the U.K. It is time that the Tablet was either shut down or reconstituted and brought into line with the teachings and thought of Catholic Church - and prised out of the hands of the liberal elite.

But the Tablet is a respectable journal I hear you say! It, like so many other things that where once good, is living on the capital of it's past. During the 1980s the Tablet increasingly became the darling of Roman Catholic liberal elite, it's position became firmer in this role in the 1990s. It's current incarnation sees it occupy not only the position of the leading voice of catholic liberal (heterodox) thought in Britain but arguably in the English speaking world.

The Tablet and the liberal elite in general seem to be having great difficulty coming to terms with the fact that their time is at an end. The projects, experiments and changes for which they fought and on which they laboured for half a century have been a colossal failure - one which they refuse to recognise or own, prefering to justify all with the mantra of possessing "a different models of church" to you.

Sadly the end game is at play and we are fast approaching a sink or swim situation. Ageing liberals often local curial officials with the diocesan ordinary under their spell, continue to squander diocesan funds on projects which have already failed elsewhere. The saddest if not ironic thing of all is their complete failure to read the signs of the times, which have now clearly turned against them both in secular and religious terms.

The term "different models of church" is code for what is inexplicable... Whilst hailing the most abohorent liturgical practices and robbing the liturgy of it's sacral character, if confronted or challenged the all encompassing response was "it's obvious that you have different model of church" - meaning that you are:

1. Ignorant of their model of church and therefore out of touch.
2. Not going in the same direction as the church.
3. Entitled to your view - but keep it to youself.
4. An obstruction - just go away and let us get on with it
5. an individual with a vision of church different to ours - so lets just agree to differ.

The failure of Religious life - Ageing religious in institutions which have embraced the liberal agenda have utterly failed to attract vocations. Their religious observance and dress, when compared with those in late 1960s is unrecognisable. "A different model of church" gives a vision of hope, to those who might otherwise have despaired at least on a human level, that this is all part of the divine plan - and that their order has run the course of it's natural life, but that's it's contribution will never be forgotten - and indeed in these latter days of the order it is their mission to make sure that no one does. But seriously how can a house that in 1964 boasted 140 religious and is now closed, not have requested or desired some internal review or honest self appraisal, things essential to good management let alone common sense.

As regards the priesthood - the story is similar. Candidates suspected of being "conservative" or orthodox are treated with suspicion even turned a way for spurious reasons (and by reason of lack of transparency can never be questioned), whilst others who are clearly unsuitable are favoured because their lack of conservatism/orthodoxy makes them desirable. Needless to say few candidates if any are sustained. An immediate solution recently come upon by failing dioceses who refuse to give up the liberal agenda is to import seminarians from poorer countries, educate them badly, and after a few years of service, send them back to where they came from, in the hope that their liberal formation will prosper else where. The funds, particularly the capital of the past, has however almost dried up - conveniently ways are being found to introduce the laity to a "different models of church" emphasising the role of the laity in every aspect of parish life to an extent where a priest is supernumerary in everything but the administration of the sacraments.

Again, it is an ageing congregation mostly, who are expected to answer the call, this because of the complete failure of the liberal agenda to inspire, challenge or even capture the imagination of youth with the the truths of the Catholic religion, but rather prefering watering it down where ever possible, removing from it it's supernatural and transcendant truths in favour of a social gospel.

Like the chosen people who would not recognise the Messiah in Christs coming, so too have these liberals hardened their hearts against Christ in his church. This blindness seems almost incurable, and it is perhaps understandable, when to many despair is the only other option. I am minded of the dwarves in the "Last Battle" of C.S. Lewis, who refused to see the truth, goodness and beauty placed before them.

Ever mindful of the guarantees which Christ gave to his Church, an important fact which itself undermines all "different models of church" is the action of Christ himself in his Church re-iterating his own model. The Tablet and the liberal elite are well aware that the phoenix of Traditional Catholicism is rising... and rapidly. Logic dictates their position must be one (we can but judge their actions) of obstruction where ever possible.

This however will fail as it must. The Church "soul by soul and silently" by the power Christ drawing all to him, cannot fail. Even as we speak the new renaissance is underway - even against the odds, can we doubt that this is of divine origin.

Laudetur Jesus Christus!

Footnote: WHAT TO LOOK FOR NEXT;


1. Clarifications regarding aspects of Summorum Pontificum - is due very soon. I am informed by a reliable source that these will be quite extensive and put many current injustices to rest.


2. The commencement of the Ordinariate: for Anglicans coming into communion with Rome - I have on a reliable source that it will be up and running by Pentecost next year.