Surprise developments today out of Rome, London and Washington create new possibilities for dissident Episcopal congregations that are increasingly splitting off from ECUSA and affiliating with new more conservative Anglican provinces. (See
prior related posting.) The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
announced:
[T]he Catholic Church is responding to the many requests that have been submitted to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world who wish to enter into full visible communion.... [T]he 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. Under the terms of the Apostolic Constitution, pastoral oversight and guidance will be provided for groups of former Anglicans through a Personal Ordinariate, whose Ordinary will usually be appointed from among former Anglican clergy.
Bloomberg News characterizes the new initiative as a way "to integrate disaffected Anglicans and enable the faith's married priests to become Roman Catholic clerics." In London, Roman Catholic Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster and Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams issued a
joint statement saying that today's announcement from the Vatican "brings to an end a period of uncertainty for such groups who have nurtured hopes of new ways of embracing unity with the Catholic Church." However, writing in the
London Telegraph, Jonathan Wynne-Jones says this about the developments:
Interestingly, the archbishop says that "this new possibility is in no sense at all intended to undermine existing relations between our two communions or to be an act of proselytism or aggressions". He is either putting on a brave face for the sake of Anglican pride, being incredibly naive or had this part dictated to him by somebody in Rome. For there is no way that this won't undermine the archbishop’s position and weaken the Church of England.
Meanwhile in the United States, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops quickly issued a
statement from Washington saying in part:
Today the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has received word of the new Provision in the form of an apostolic constitution issued by the Holy See for the reception into full communion with the Catholic Church of groups from the Anglican tradition. The USCCB stands ready to collaborate in the implementation of that Provision in our country.
The
New York Times reports on today's news conference held in the Vatican by Cardinal William Levada, the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:
Asked at the Vatican news conference what would happen if an Anglican congregation led by a woman priest wanted to join the Catholic Church, Cardinal Levada smiled and said, “I would be surprised” if that happened.
