Posted on 10/20/2009 8:59:57 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
ROME, Italy (CNN) -- The Vatican said Tuesday it has worked out a way for groups of Anglicans who are dissatisfied with their faith to join the Catholic Church.
The process will allow groups of Anglicans, including bishops and married priests, to join the Catholic Church some 450 years after King Henry VIII broke from Rome and created the Church of England.
The number of Anglicans wishing to join the Catholic Church has increased in recent years as the Anglican church has welcomed the ordination of women and openly gay clergy and blessed homosexual partnerships, said Cardinal William Joseph Levada, the head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Their talks with the Vatican recently began speeding up, Vatican officials said, leading to Tuesday's announcement.
"The 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," Levada said.
Levada said "hundreds" of Anglicans around the world have expressed their desire to join the Catholic Church. Among them are 50 Anglican bishops, said Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia of the Congregation of the Divine Cult.
Should Anglicans be allowed to join the Catholic Church? Have your say below
The Anglicans will be able to retain their Anglican rites while recognizing the pope as their leader, Vatican officials said. The British monarch is the head of the Anglican Church.
While married Anglican priests may be ordained as Catholic priests, the same does not apply to married Anglican bishops, Levada said.
"We've been praying for this unity for 40 years and we've not anticipated it happening now," Di Noia said. "The Holy Spirit is at work here."
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Hmmm. I wonder if Roman Rite Catholics will be able to attend Anglican Rite masses?
BBC Adds the following to the news :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8316120.stm
EXCERPT:
Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams said he did not think it was a “commentary on Anglican problems”.
Causes of discord in the worldwide Anglican communion have included the election of an openly gay bishop and the blessing of same-sex unions.
In the Church of England, the ordination of women as priests, and the prospect of their appointment as bishops, has led many Anglicans to consider joining the Roman Catholics.
Two senior opponents of women bishops said they would announce their reaction to the Vatican move in February.
The measure, known as an Apostolic Constitution, was shown to leaders of the Church of England just two weeks ago.
Under its terms announced by the Vatican, groupings of Anglicans would be able to join “personal ordinariates”.
This would allow them to enter full communion with the Catholic church, but also preserve elements of the Anglican traditions including the possible use of Anglican prayer books.
Speaking at a Vatican press conference, Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the constitution was a response to “many requests” from groups of Anglican clergy and worshippers wanting to enter into full communion with the church.
Cardinal Levada said it “provides a reasonable and even necessary response to a worldwide phenomenon”.
ping
MORE NEWS
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE59J1SQ20091020
EXCERPT :
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Tuesday took a major step to make it easier for disaffected Anglicans who feel their Church has become too liberal to convert to Roman Catholicism.
The move comes after years of discontent in some sectors of the 77-million-strong worldwide Anglican community over the ordination of women priests and homosexual bishops.
While both sides stressed the step would not affect dialogue between the two Churches, it was clear it was taken because of the growing number of Anglicans who want to leave their Church.
The Vatican said the Pope had approved a document known as an “Apostolic Constitution” to accept Anglicans who want to join Catholicism, either individually or in groups, while maintaining some of their own traditions.
It marks perhaps the clearest and boldest institutional step by the Vatican to welcome disaffected Anglicans into the fold since King Henry VIII broke with Rome and set himself up at the head of the new Church of England in 1534.
The new structure allows for the appointment of leaders, usually bishops who will come from the ranks of unmarried former Anglican priests, to oversee communities of former Anglicans who become Catholics and recognize the pope as their leader.
“In this way, the Apostolic Constitution seeks to balance on the one hand the concern to preserve the worthy Anglican liturgical and spiritual patrimony and, on the other hand, the concern that these groups and their clergy will be integrated into the Catholic Church,” the Vatican said.
May I ask? What was Jesus’ opinion on the ordination of WOMEN?
Please read the article.
The RCC has arranged a way for Anglicans who object to the heresies of the Anglican communion to return to the Catholic Church, while retaining some of their rituals.
The RCC will not permit married AC bishops to practice as bishops in the RCC, though it is very likely married AC priests will be ordained as priests in the RCC if they wish to do so.
Ding Ding Ding!
Folks we have a winner for the wrongest supposedly factual statement in an article on this topic. Figues it would be CNN.
Yes. Catholics of any rite can attend liturgies of other Catholic rites.
Those Anglicans will most likely not be coming over the Tiber, and if they do, they would have to give up their claims to the priesthood.
Read the press releases before you make silly comments like this, they're very helpful. Had you read them you would have read that the Anglican groups that will be received are those who profess the doctrine set for in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Does that catechism allow for women or openly gay priests?
I suspect that the bias against women being ordained is rooted in the patriarchal societies from which the Christian faith sprang. And as they say: That is just my humble opinion.
(See Mother Angelica for a fine example.)
However, the Lord ordained only the Apostles to the priesthood. They were all men.
There is a symbolic argument as well. The priest, in the Mass, represents Christ the Bridegroom. The church is the Bride. You can't very well have a female imaging a bridegroom.
Of course, with Archbishop Raymond L. Burke celebrating the Tridentine Rite mass in Rome, there seems to be a growing momemtum for it. I may live to see a widespread availability of it.
I don’t want to be married to Christ, I just want to worship him.
An "Anglican Use Mass" is a valid Catholic liturgy, in communion with the Pope, offered by a validly ordained Catholic priest. (Who is most certainly not a female.)
Therefore, the answer is "yes".
I suspect that the bias against women being ordained is rooted in the patriarchal societies from which the Christian faith sprang.Jesus did not care what the sentiments of the "patriarchal societies" were. Besides, many pagan cults of the era had priestesses: it was not a novelty, really.
Finally, after all, His contemporaries brutally crucified Him. Why would He have cared about bucking the "patriarchy" when He knew they were going to kill him, anyway?
I also suspect that Jesus really would not care if a women were ordained to preach his word.
The Bible doesn’t really give you a choice. It ends with the “marriage supper of the Lamb”, after all.
You are not understanding what is happening here. This is not a recipricol thing happening here. The Catholic Church is welcoming Anglicans who convert and is telling them that they can keep their liturgy. There is already a “Book of Divine Worship” that Anglican-Use Catholic Churches use. It is a combination of the “Book of Common Prayer” with the Catholic Words of Consecration inserted into it, making it fully Catholic. This does not mean that Catholics will be attending Anglican services - unless the particular church involved has converted to Rome. They will not convert (or be received) unless they subscribe to all the tenents of the Faith as found in the Catechism. So your question is moot.
You wrote:
” But my question goes further -— The Anglican church NOW ordains Women and Gay Priests.”
You seem out of touch with the actual “Anglicans” being discussed here. We are talking about the TAC - not the Anglican Church. The TAC does not, and never has, and never will, ordain women or gay priests. That’s exactly why they came into being as a corporate body - to avoid ordaining women.
“The question is then to those Catholics who PLAN to attend Anglican masses”
There will be no such thing. It will be a CATHOLIC Mass said according to the Anglican Use. I have the option of attending one now where I live.
“would they want to do that IF the mass were being officiated by anyone of these ?”
Since your original point is moot - there are no women clergy or openly gay clergy in the TAC - no Catholic will have a problem attending a Catholic Mass according to the Anglican Use as said by a Catholic priest who formerly was a member of TAC.
“Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that THE THINGS THAT I WRITE UNTO YOU ARE THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD.” I Corinthians 14:34, 35, 37
You can preach God's word without being ordained.
All Christians already have the ability - and responsibility - to preach the Word of God.
Ordained priests and ministers carry out the central sacraments of the Church: most notably the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Celebration of the Eucharist. They do many other things as well of course, but the responsibility for these sacraments is committed to them.
No that won’t happen. If you read the article women being ordained was one of the reason they are upset with their Anglican churches.
Sure. Just as they are currently allowed to attend Eastern Rite services.
There’s a whole group called the Traditional Anglican Communion, which claims 400,000+ members worldwide, that this is attended to accomodate.
I don't think you understand Anglicanism or you wouldn't make this statement. Some Anglican churches ordain women and gays. Some do not. There is no single Anglican Church. Rome understands this and is dealing with it accordingly - that's why the Archbishop of Canterbury has that "lemon sucking" face today.
This situation is fraught with problems and I don't have any definite answers.
This is a very different question than the one you initially asked.
Look, I don't want to argue and I'm sorry the tone of my first post to you was uncharitably sharp. This development is cause for great joy, not for sniping. This issue has been in progress for a number of years and those of us in the pews just have to have faith that the guys who've been working on it for years have given thought to the issues that will have to be worked out.
Today is a day for rejoicing that the visible unity of the body of Christ on earth has been strengthened.
What the hell does he think it is then? Moral idiot!
The “Anglican Mass “ as it presently exists in a Protestant setting must be distinguished from the Anglican Rite Mass which will be blessed for use by those who make this journey. The Anglican Rite Mass will be celebrated by those who intellectually agree with the dogma and doctrine of Rome and there will be a physical separation of the Anglican Mass and the Anglican Rite Mass. Protestants go to one church Catholics to another. Those Protestants who make the journey will probably be more orthodox and more observant than the current spiritually bankrupt peasants who currently occupy the RC churches. If not, then why would a current Protestant Anglican make this journey? That is why I facetiously remarked in a prior post that the current devout RC crowd might well attend an Anglican Rite Liturgy to escape the current morass in the RCC occasioned by its present hierarchy and prominent politicians. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer is substantially more sacred than the tunes belted out by the master of the current Catholic regime.
This quote is pretty bad. Uhh... Anglicans have ALWAYS been allowed to join the CC, moron.
Have you ever noticed that that painting says “Year Of The State, 49.” We all think about Henry’s divorces, we forget what a proto communist he was.
Yep, they can preach the word of God all they want, they just can’t confect the eucharist. Strictly speaking, they shouldn’t give the homily or be anywhere in the sanctuary part of the church, but I’m not a stickler.
Oh, and they really ought to cover their heads when in church. Rather undecent to do otherwise, eh wot.
Yes but, it talked of an Anglican Rite, and there is no such thing at this time. There is an Anglican Use Divine Liturgy, but no rite. I would not LIKE to see an Anglican Rite. I joined the Latin Rite, and I think the Anglican liturgy and music are divinely inspired and should be allowed to work into the Roman Catholic community as a whole, not be sealed off into a separate rite as the Maronites have been. It is the Sarum Use liturgy, it predates the C of E, and it should be retained.
However, with that said, I’m a bit torn about the use of the prayers of the heretic Thomas Cranmer. Our Cardinal said mass in our little chapel and it hurt my heart a little bit to hear him use the words of Cranmer.
You know, after the reformation, they removed the crucifix from the roodscreens of a lot of English churches, and replaced it with the royal coat of arms and something about loyalty to the monarch.
They can start new churches the way everybody else does. Start meeting in someone’s living room. Move up to a school gymnasium or as secret guest congregation to an existing church. Get a strip mall storefront church. Buy some land, build a temporary church. Build a real church, use the temporary as a parish hall. Buy the surrounding land, kick out the neighbors. Build a school.
I was just talking about this with a coworker earlier. Ironically, the 1928 prayer book is decidedly low church, but that does not mean it is not very conservative and orthodox. It is the prayer book of the church that only did communion once a month, meaning that morning prayer the daily office are that much more important. It’s the mass where when you finish communion, you don’t get up and go, you’re only getting toward the end, you’re on your knees for another eternity before you’re released. It’s the church of the Priest consecrating the elements ad orientem, and “doing his business” with his hands over the bread and wine. But there is no emphasis on chasubles and headgear, incense or crucifixes, latin or chant. It’s a good lesson that low church does not have to mean unorthodox.
If it's any consolation, Cranmer was appalled when the catholic clergy (those who hadn't been routed out of the church in England by 1549) were comfortable using his liturgy. He left it muddled enough (in typically English fashion) that it could be interpreted catholic or protestant. Most of the liturgy is a straight english translation of the Sarum Rite. Asthetically, it is superior to the current english translation of the Latin Rite - but I'm probably biased having grown up with it and only recently having made the swim.
This was done for the Traditional Anglican Communion - not for some generic "here you go if you're interested" purpose. It's being rolled out in that fashion so as to soothe the shattered egos of the "official" Anglican Communion and the English Catholic clergy. It may become a model for others somewhere down the road but this is being done for the TAC and the TAC has no interest in the Anglican Use liturgy. They'll modify the 1928 BCP and the other uses based on that book if they have to, but I don't think there'll be too much of that.
I swam too, Confirmed in 2006. Didn’t go Anglican Use, but went the traditional way, through RCIA. After a while I decided I needed something different than the Novus Ordo and the heavily gay parish I was confirmed in and found my way to the Anglican Use parish in town. Stayed there for about three years. Recently have returned to my piskie parish for a number of reasons, but mostly because I haven’t found a Catholic community that fits my needs. I have some regrets, but... before I left the only problem was that I wasn’t catholic, and now I am, so I’m having my cake and eating it too.
I would say welcome home...
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