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10-21-09, 10:24 AM
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Catholics-Embrace-Anglicans-After-475-Years-1348
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1020/p06s14-woeu.html
Vatican welcome to Anglicans boldest move since Reformation
The Vatican on Tuesday opened the way for Anglican communities to switch allegiance en masse. Hundreds of thousands of Anglicans angry over the church's liberal stance on women and gays may convert.
By Nick Squires | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the October 20, 2009 edition
Vatican City - The Vatican launched an historic initiative Tuesday to make it easier for disgruntled Anglicans worldwide to join the Roman Catholic Church. The church said the move was not a swipe at the Anglicans but it could nevertheless result in hundreds of thousands of churchgoers unhappy with openly gay and female clerics defecting to Rome.
Pope Benedict XVI gave his approval to a new framework to bring back into the fold Anglicans who oppose their church's liberal stance on gay marriage and the ordination of women priests and gay bishops while allowing them to retain some of their separate religious traditions.
The move comes nearly 500 years after Henry VIII's desire for a divorce led him to break with Rome and proclaim himself as the head of the newly formed Church of England in 1534. The framework is the Vatican's most sweeping gesture toward any schismatic church since the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century and the Thirty Years' War that followed it in the 17th century. That war ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which acknowledged the right of monarchs rather than the Vatican to determine their national faiths, prompting Pope Innocent X to declare the document "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all time."
Over the centuries, relations between the various Christian faiths have improved and both Anglican and Catholic leaders were at pains on Tuesday to say that warming relations between the two churches will not be affected by the new plan. But both churches have been struggling to retain adherents in recent years, particularly in the developed world, with poorer countries their only growth spots.
Individual Anglicans have long been free to convert to Catholicism, as former British prime minister Tony Blair did after leaving office in 2007. But the so-called Apostolic Constitution will enable entire Anglican communities to transfer their allegiance en masse.
The pope was responding to "numerous requests to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in various parts of the world who want to enter into full and visible communion" with the Catholic Church, Cardinal William Joseph Levada told a news conference. He is the American head of the Vatican's doctrinal body.
Vatican officials declined to say how many of the world's 77 million Anglicans might take the opportunity to convert to Catholicism.
Anglican conservatives
The Traditional Anglican Communion, a vocal group of 400,000 conservatives who split from the Anglican Communion in 1991, are expected to move towards Rome.
"We have had requests from large groups, in the hundreds," said Cardinal Levada. "If I had to say a number of bishops, I would say it's in the twenties or thirties."
His American colleague, Archbishop Joseph Di Noia, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said after the press conference that he believed the number of bishops ready to convert was closer to 50.
They would come from the United States, Australia, and the island nations of the Pacific, he said.
Cardinal Levada was asked whether the Vatican's new policy weakened the Anglican Church's standing.
"I would not dare to make a comment on that. After the long years of the British Empire, and the work of Anglican missionaries, the Anglican Communion is a diverse and very varied worldwide communion."
Under the new constitution, married Anglican priests will be allowed to enter the Catholic Church but will not be ordained as bishops.
Will African Anglicans move?
The initiative was in response to years of lobbying by Anglicans who had become disenchanted with Anglican liberalism, a dissatisfaction which reached a crisis point in 2004 when the Episcopal Church in the United States ordained the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
That move and other liberal shifts, such as a Canadian diocese's willingness to bless same-sex unions, have been fiercely opposed by more conservative Anglicans, particularly in Africa.
The new framework was announced simultaneously in Rome and in London, where the head of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, said he did not see the Vatican move as "an act of aggression." (Read a Monitor profile of the archbishop here.)
Neither was it a vote of no confidence in the Anglican Church, he said, but a sign of maturity and understanding between the two faiths.
But Vatican commentators described it as a blow to the Anglican Communion. "For people who harbor the vision of Anglican unity, this will be a great disappointment," said Vatican analyst Francis X Rocca, of the Religion News Service.
"But it may also help to let off steam within the Anglican Church. If disaffected traditionalists leave, then they will lower the tensions over issues like gay marriage and women clergy."
Vatican expert John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter wrote in a blog post that while the opening by the Vatican had long been rumored, some Catholics feared "potentially negative repercussions in relations with the Anglican Communion – whose leadership might see it as 'poaching.'"
Why did a quarter of Anglican bishops boycott the church's summit last year?
Catholics Embrace Anglicans After 475 Years
More
By Benjamin F. Carlson on October 20, 2009 3:58pm
Catholics Embrace Anglicans After 475 Years ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images Bridging a 475-year-old rift dating back to King Henry VIII's split with Rome, Pope Benedict XVI has made the historic decision to allow disaffected members of the Anglican communion to join the Catholic church. Converts would be allowed to keep many of their distinctive traditions. This has been called the "most sweeping gesture" the Vatican has made toward any schismatic church since the Reformation.
What does this mean? The 77-million member Anglican communion has been riven by conflict over ordaining women and gay clergy in recent years. The pope's decision could allow entire communities to leave the church, unraveling the attempts of Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, to heal divisions. The biggest reactions are from England, where many writers are asking whether this will result in an exodus of Anglicans, and pondering how it could change the Catholic Church.
* High Growth African Congregations May Split writes Nick Squires in the Christian Science Monitor. "The initiative was in response to years of lobbying by Anglicans who had become disenchanted with Anglican liberalism, a dissatisfaction which reached a crisis point in 2004 when the Episcopal Church in the United States ordained the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire."
* Archbishop Was Forced to Grin and Bear It, writes Ian Murray at National Review. "It may mean that the current Archbishop of Canterbury, has, in his desire to please everyone, presided over a schism that could prove fatal to his Church...There are signs, for instance, that His Grace had his arm twisted by the (Catholic) Archbishop of Westminster in their making a joint announcement."
* Anglican Churches Will Slide Into Irrelevance, says Scott Richert at About.com's Catholic Blog. Richert gives a Catholic perspective, saying the Anglican church's embrace of liberal reforms is to blame. "A few observations: By endorsing this statement, especially the first paragraph ('accept the Petrine [[TCeez - 'of Peter', meaning Papal]] ministry as willed by Christ for his Church'), the archbishop of Canterbury has essentially signaled that the game is over. Those in the Anglican Communion who truly believe that the Church is meant to be one, and to have one visible head, now have no excuse not to return to Rome...Parts of the Anglican Communion will now enter into full communion with the Catholic Church, and the rest will see its long, slow slide into irrelevance pick up pace."
* An Assertive Decree in the Interest of Worshipers, writes the editorial board of the Telegraph (UK). "The Pope's proposed high Anglican enclave within the Roman Catholic church offers a half-way home to those who will never be reconciled to the liberal reforms in the Anglican Communion - which might now avoid the schismatic clash that for so long has seemed inevitable over the ordination of women bishops. If that is now a less problematic issue for the Church of England, then Dr Williams may yet have cause to thank the Pope, even if he presently feels deeply aggrieved at the peremptory manner of this decree."
* Solution to Catholic Clergy Problems, writes Andrew Brown at the Guardian. "For a start, this establishes a tradition of married Roman Catholic clergy in the west. The language, the services, and the gorgeous choral music of Anglicanism are more obviously attractive, but the real long term significance of this announcement is the talk about seminaries. Those who leave now will not be the last Anglican Catholics...If the former Anglicans can train up successors who will also be able to have wives, the Roman Catholic church may have found a way to escape the prospect of a largely gay priesthood to which the doctrine of compulsory celibacy appeared to condemn them. It is ironic that Anglican efforts to deal honestly with the problem of sexuality should have provided the Catholics with the excuse they needed to strike this decisive blow. God always did move in mysterious ways."
This is basically the death knell for priestly celibacy. Lifelong Catholics can join the Anglican wing of the Church, marry, and still preside over Catholic mass.
My favorite part of being raised Catholic is the knowledge that the Papacy is the longest running institution on earth essentially the continuation of the Western Roman Emperors. Even in our modern instant gratification 24 hour news cycle you can watch an event play out that is basically Benedict XVI continuing maneuvers that spanned 46 Popes and 475 years.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1020/p06s14-woeu.html
Vatican welcome to Anglicans boldest move since Reformation
The Vatican on Tuesday opened the way for Anglican communities to switch allegiance en masse. Hundreds of thousands of Anglicans angry over the church's liberal stance on women and gays may convert.
By Nick Squires | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the October 20, 2009 edition
Vatican City - The Vatican launched an historic initiative Tuesday to make it easier for disgruntled Anglicans worldwide to join the Roman Catholic Church. The church said the move was not a swipe at the Anglicans but it could nevertheless result in hundreds of thousands of churchgoers unhappy with openly gay and female clerics defecting to Rome.
Pope Benedict XVI gave his approval to a new framework to bring back into the fold Anglicans who oppose their church's liberal stance on gay marriage and the ordination of women priests and gay bishops while allowing them to retain some of their separate religious traditions.
The move comes nearly 500 years after Henry VIII's desire for a divorce led him to break with Rome and proclaim himself as the head of the newly formed Church of England in 1534. The framework is the Vatican's most sweeping gesture toward any schismatic church since the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century and the Thirty Years' War that followed it in the 17th century. That war ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which acknowledged the right of monarchs rather than the Vatican to determine their national faiths, prompting Pope Innocent X to declare the document "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all time."
Over the centuries, relations between the various Christian faiths have improved and both Anglican and Catholic leaders were at pains on Tuesday to say that warming relations between the two churches will not be affected by the new plan. But both churches have been struggling to retain adherents in recent years, particularly in the developed world, with poorer countries their only growth spots.
Individual Anglicans have long been free to convert to Catholicism, as former British prime minister Tony Blair did after leaving office in 2007. But the so-called Apostolic Constitution will enable entire Anglican communities to transfer their allegiance en masse.
The pope was responding to "numerous requests to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in various parts of the world who want to enter into full and visible communion" with the Catholic Church, Cardinal William Joseph Levada told a news conference. He is the American head of the Vatican's doctrinal body.
Vatican officials declined to say how many of the world's 77 million Anglicans might take the opportunity to convert to Catholicism.
Anglican conservatives
The Traditional Anglican Communion, a vocal group of 400,000 conservatives who split from the Anglican Communion in 1991, are expected to move towards Rome.
"We have had requests from large groups, in the hundreds," said Cardinal Levada. "If I had to say a number of bishops, I would say it's in the twenties or thirties."
His American colleague, Archbishop Joseph Di Noia, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said after the press conference that he believed the number of bishops ready to convert was closer to 50.
They would come from the United States, Australia, and the island nations of the Pacific, he said.
Cardinal Levada was asked whether the Vatican's new policy weakened the Anglican Church's standing.
"I would not dare to make a comment on that. After the long years of the British Empire, and the work of Anglican missionaries, the Anglican Communion is a diverse and very varied worldwide communion."
Under the new constitution, married Anglican priests will be allowed to enter the Catholic Church but will not be ordained as bishops.
Will African Anglicans move?
The initiative was in response to years of lobbying by Anglicans who had become disenchanted with Anglican liberalism, a dissatisfaction which reached a crisis point in 2004 when the Episcopal Church in the United States ordained the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
That move and other liberal shifts, such as a Canadian diocese's willingness to bless same-sex unions, have been fiercely opposed by more conservative Anglicans, particularly in Africa.
The new framework was announced simultaneously in Rome and in London, where the head of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, said he did not see the Vatican move as "an act of aggression." (Read a Monitor profile of the archbishop here.)
Neither was it a vote of no confidence in the Anglican Church, he said, but a sign of maturity and understanding between the two faiths.
But Vatican commentators described it as a blow to the Anglican Communion. "For people who harbor the vision of Anglican unity, this will be a great disappointment," said Vatican analyst Francis X Rocca, of the Religion News Service.
"But it may also help to let off steam within the Anglican Church. If disaffected traditionalists leave, then they will lower the tensions over issues like gay marriage and women clergy."
Vatican expert John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter wrote in a blog post that while the opening by the Vatican had long been rumored, some Catholics feared "potentially negative repercussions in relations with the Anglican Communion – whose leadership might see it as 'poaching.'"
Why did a quarter of Anglican bishops boycott the church's summit last year?
Catholics Embrace Anglicans After 475 Years
More
By Benjamin F. Carlson on October 20, 2009 3:58pm
Catholics Embrace Anglicans After 475 Years ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images Bridging a 475-year-old rift dating back to King Henry VIII's split with Rome, Pope Benedict XVI has made the historic decision to allow disaffected members of the Anglican communion to join the Catholic church. Converts would be allowed to keep many of their distinctive traditions. This has been called the "most sweeping gesture" the Vatican has made toward any schismatic church since the Reformation.
What does this mean? The 77-million member Anglican communion has been riven by conflict over ordaining women and gay clergy in recent years. The pope's decision could allow entire communities to leave the church, unraveling the attempts of Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, to heal divisions. The biggest reactions are from England, where many writers are asking whether this will result in an exodus of Anglicans, and pondering how it could change the Catholic Church.
* High Growth African Congregations May Split writes Nick Squires in the Christian Science Monitor. "The initiative was in response to years of lobbying by Anglicans who had become disenchanted with Anglican liberalism, a dissatisfaction which reached a crisis point in 2004 when the Episcopal Church in the United States ordained the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire."
* Archbishop Was Forced to Grin and Bear It, writes Ian Murray at National Review. "It may mean that the current Archbishop of Canterbury, has, in his desire to please everyone, presided over a schism that could prove fatal to his Church...There are signs, for instance, that His Grace had his arm twisted by the (Catholic) Archbishop of Westminster in their making a joint announcement."
* Anglican Churches Will Slide Into Irrelevance, says Scott Richert at About.com's Catholic Blog. Richert gives a Catholic perspective, saying the Anglican church's embrace of liberal reforms is to blame. "A few observations: By endorsing this statement, especially the first paragraph ('accept the Petrine [[TCeez - 'of Peter', meaning Papal]] ministry as willed by Christ for his Church'), the archbishop of Canterbury has essentially signaled that the game is over. Those in the Anglican Communion who truly believe that the Church is meant to be one, and to have one visible head, now have no excuse not to return to Rome...Parts of the Anglican Communion will now enter into full communion with the Catholic Church, and the rest will see its long, slow slide into irrelevance pick up pace."
* An Assertive Decree in the Interest of Worshipers, writes the editorial board of the Telegraph (UK). "The Pope's proposed high Anglican enclave within the Roman Catholic church offers a half-way home to those who will never be reconciled to the liberal reforms in the Anglican Communion - which might now avoid the schismatic clash that for so long has seemed inevitable over the ordination of women bishops. If that is now a less problematic issue for the Church of England, then Dr Williams may yet have cause to thank the Pope, even if he presently feels deeply aggrieved at the peremptory manner of this decree."
* Solution to Catholic Clergy Problems, writes Andrew Brown at the Guardian. "For a start, this establishes a tradition of married Roman Catholic clergy in the west. The language, the services, and the gorgeous choral music of Anglicanism are more obviously attractive, but the real long term significance of this announcement is the talk about seminaries. Those who leave now will not be the last Anglican Catholics...If the former Anglicans can train up successors who will also be able to have wives, the Roman Catholic church may have found a way to escape the prospect of a largely gay priesthood to which the doctrine of compulsory celibacy appeared to condemn them. It is ironic that Anglican efforts to deal honestly with the problem of sexuality should have provided the Catholics with the excuse they needed to strike this decisive blow. God always did move in mysterious ways."
This is basically the death knell for priestly celibacy. Lifelong Catholics can join the Anglican wing of the Church, marry, and still preside over Catholic mass.
My favorite part of being raised Catholic is the knowledge that the Papacy is the longest running institution on earth essentially the continuation of the Western Roman Emperors. Even in our modern instant gratification 24 hour news cycle you can watch an event play out that is basically Benedict XVI continuing maneuvers that spanned 46 Popes and 475 years.