Andrew Gerns, blogging at Andrew Plus has posted what he has written to his congregation about the recent news:
The burglar admires your decor
You may have noticed the story which supplanted the “balloon boy” as this week’s “holy cow!” news event: the Vatican has announced a process to receive en masse disaffected Anglicans around the world into the Roman Catholic Church. I have received enough inquiries, questions, and news stories forwarded to me by e-mail from parishioners that I feel I need to say to all of you what I have said to some since yesterday morning.
What the Pope has done, apparently (if some press reports are to be believed) against the advice of his ecumenical advisers, has set up a process wherein whole groups of unhappy Anglicans and other long separated former Anglican can now become Roman Catholics in such a way as to allow them to their prayer books and the clergy to keep both their wives . A denomination which broke from the Church of England in 1991 applied to Rome for recognition and became the occasion for this new scheme.
The intent of the new rule is scoop up newly separated Episcopalians and other Anglicans around the world who are mad over the ordination of an openly gay bishop, the ordination of women and prayer book revision. Some of this unhappiness stretches back forty or fifty years!
At Entangled States, Nick Knisely blogged about the reaction to the Vatican’s announcement, especially on the part of some Anglicans:
Personal Ordinariates = calling the cards?
Now that the surprising news about the Vatican’s new welcome for male Anglican priests has had a day or so to sink in, people are starting to publish their reactions….
Most surprising has been the pretty much across the board rejection of this possibility by the leading voices of the ACNA here in the US. Archbishop Duncan has come out to say that, while he’s grateful for the offer, thanks but no thanks. Bishop Iker of Fort Worth and the Southern Cone, a prominent Anglo-Catholic conservative voice for years, is saying that he can imagine some would rather stay with the Evangelical leaning Province of the Southern Cone (Argentina) than become a Roman Catholic priests. Though Bishop Iker points out that any definitive answer on his part is going to have to wait for the full details of the new process to be announced.
The leader of breakaway Anglo-Catholics in Canada has written to say “thanks but no thanks. I’m already Catholic. No need to submit to Rome.”
It seems to me that this action on the part of Rome is having the effect of calling the hands of a whole bunch of disaffected Anglicans around the world. “Okay, you’re upset and want a full formal rigorous belief set? Come on over.” Or in other words, “Gentlemen, I call. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
I wonder what people are going lay down?
Ann Fontaine points us to the Friends of Jake Blog, where she is one of the collaborating bloggers. Today, the Friends of Jake had this reaction:
Anglican Follies, next Act: the Vatican Steps In.
This seems sensible, overall. Just as there are numbers of liberal Catholics moving to TEC, the conservatives may move back. If they prefer their women to cover their heads and be silent, their gays closeted, go for it. I suspect that the yoke of Roman authority might be a little harder to bear than they think, but whatever. Via con dios, amigos. Oh, and I’m sure they’ll be leaving the keys. After all, the RCs have plenty of emptying church buildings, and as an episcopal structure themselves, they aren’t going to advocate stealing churches lest someone do it to them. And this may be a way of cracking open the door towards non-celibate clergy for the RC. I suspect they might one day embrace the Orthodox view that clergy can marry but bishops can’t. Of course, those of liberal bent who want to stay RC may be somewhat dismayed by the effects of an influx of fractious conservatives.
Still, don’t underestimate the liberals who go the other way. I am confident that a significant fraction of the population in all of the Episcopal churches we’ve visited have been RC by background…. there are certain little “tells” in the handful of words that differ. (For example, in the creed, the occasional word change, e.g., “in fulfillment of the scriptures”, vs. “in accordance with the scriptures”. ) BP isn’t the only one, not by a longshot. The number of people greeting BP at coffee with “I used to be RC too!” including one former priest….! And as BP has found, it’s an easy transition to make, liturgically speaking.
No, I think the interesting thing HERE will be the schismatics. Because it’s quite clear you can’t be married and a bishop in the RC church….priests are one thing, bishops quite another. So those with power have no incentive to move. But the people they ostensibly represent….THEY might.
Peter Carey, blogging at Santos Woodcarving Popsicles, had a variety of reactions to this announcement – many with tongue in cheek:
Lions and Tigers and Bears and former Anglicans becoming Roman Catholic, oh my!
Lots of ink, and plenty of digital code, has been spent on the actions by the Vatican to reach out to some former Anglicans and allow them a way to become Roman Catholic. Is this a big deal, or not? Is this a major historical moment, or a move of pastoral and ecclesial care for a few (very few, it seems) people without a denominational home? Is this a way to get a toe in the door in favor of doing away with the celibate Roman priesthood? Is this a move by the Pope to drive a wedge into the Anglican Communion? Time will tell.