Anglican conservatives to go home to Rome

An announcement came on October 20 that Pope Benedict is setting up special provisions for Anglicans, including married clergy, to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church, while preserving aspects of Anglican liturgy. They will be given their own pastoral supervision, according to a press release from the Vatican "In this Apostolic Constitution the Holy Father has introduced a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony."

The Pope is therefore creating an entirely new Church structure for Anglicans that will allow them to worship together and use elements of Anglican liturgy under the pastoral supervision of their own specially appointed bishop or senior priest. This would allow Anglicans a worldwide “corporate reunion” and allow them to have their own married priests, parishes and bishops. Under the supervision of a “Personal Ordinary”, ex-Anglicans will propose their own candidates for ordination.

They would also be free of interference in their liturgy by modernizers, whether Anglican or Catholic, who are unsympathetic to their conservative stance. Married Anglican laymen, much like Catholics of the Byzantine rite, could be accepted for ordination on a case-by-case basis. Indeed, the Byzantine Catholic eparch of Parma Ohio ordained a married man to the priesthood in 2008. Anglicans who reject women bishops and priests and modern teaching on homosexuality are thought to soon avail themselves of this provision.

Cardinal Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, consulted with Anglican leader Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on October 19 to inform him of the forthcoming move by Rome. Religion blogger Damian Thompson of the Telegraph of London, who also edits England’s foremost Catholic newspaper, suggested that Canterbury was surprised by the announcement. Wrote Thompson, “The Archbishop of Canterbury is unlikely to be pleased, though he was vigorously concealing any displeasure at a press conference this morning. (There was a lot of spin about this decision “arising out of dialogue”.) The truth is that Rome has given up on the Anglican Communion. With one announcement, the Pope has given conservative Anglicans a protected route to union with Rome – and promised that, even once they are members of the Catholic Church, they will be offered a permanent structure that allows them to retain an Anglican ethos.”

In a statement released from Lambeth Palace, Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams gave assurances of continuing dialogue with the Catholic Church. The statement declared, “The Apostolic Constitution is further recognition of the substantialoverlap in faith, doctrine and spirituality between the Catholic Church and the Anglican tradition. Without the dialogues of the past forty years, this recognition would not have been possible, nor would hopes for full visible unity have been nurtured. In this sense, this Apostolic Constitution is one consequence of ecumenical dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. Today's announcement of the Apostolic Constitution is a response by Pope Benedict XVI to a number of requests over the past few years to the Holy See from groups of Anglicans who wish to enter into full visible communion with the Roman Catholic Church, and are willing to declare that they share a common Catholic faith and accept the Petrine ministry as willed by Christ for his Church.”

What remains to be seen is whether the move by the Vatican would create an Anglican rite within the Catholic Church, joining other such rites such as the Byzantine, Melkite, Syro-Malabarian, and Maronite. In the United States, some Episcopalians who joined the Catholic Church utilize The Book of Common Prayer and other elements of Anglican worship under "Anglican-use" provisions.