Posted on 03/12/2013 7:47:33 PM PDT by marshmallow
Catholics may not believe in all the Roman church stands for yet are still seduced by its all-encompassing culture and ritual
What's the appeal of Roman Catholicism to a fairly liberal person? Why don't they jump ship? They say they dislike clerical celibacy, which they largely blame for the abuse scandals. Well, there's a church close at hand that rejects it. They say they want to see the ordination of women. Well, there's a church close at hand that ordains women (more or less). They say they dislike the church's intransigence on homosexuality. Well, there's a church close at hand that has an honest, messy debate about this issue. They say they dislike the church's legalistic approach to birth control, abortion, and various other moral issues. Well, there's a church close at hand that rejects such an approach. They say they dislike the church's authoritarian structure, the monarchical aura of the papacy. Well, you know what.
Why do they stay in a church that is so full of things they dislike, when there is one close at hand that is more or less free of those objectionable things? Presumably they would reply: because, despite everything, the Roman church seems to us the authentic church, and the Anglican church does not. But there is a sector of Anglicanism whose style of worship is scarcely distinguishable from that of Roman Catholicism. Yes, they might reply, but the institution lacks authenticity: it was founded by a randy monarch, and remains confined by its national character. Fair point perhaps, but does it really outweigh the benefits of Anglicanism to a liberal believer? Is this really a reason to stay in an authoritarian, illiberal church – that at least it wasn't founded by Henry VIII? The man had his faults but he wasn't Satan.
So what's.......
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
I once asked that question of a professor of theology I had, a woman who really, really, really wanted to be a priest. Her response was, “I love the Church.”
I almost laughed right out loud at that as I had spent the semester questioning everything she said as being false teaching and against Catholic theology.
I think there is a tremendous need in those people to be right, more right than the Church along the lines of those who are “more Catholic than the pope.”
They have no right to fashion something in their own image.
I find it mildly hysterical that all the conservative Anglicans are swimming over the Tiber to Rome but liberal Catholics are staying put-—WHY-—because the feel that if they stay, they eventually break the back of a traditional mindset—CHANGE FROM WITHIN is their tactic.
Yes, they want to form Christ to themselves rather than form themselves to Christ.
I grew up as an Episcopalian, at that time as close to Anglican as one could get.
In my earlier days, the episcopal church in America was as fine as one could get.
In my later years I became the senior warden of the oldest (1832) episcopal church in west Tennessee.
Later came the gays to take over not only my church, but the entire ECUSA, and destroy it.
Now in the Philippines, I have no option but to align with the RC church. The central Catholic church in my town is older then America.
No doubt, many former Episcopalians have moved to the Catholic or Anglican church.
Unfortunately, it may be only a short time before the Anglican church becomes infected.
Your post made me laugh. I had the same experience with a theology professor (a priest) who had a man-crush on Hans Kung.
I battled the guy for a semester. In the end, I figured that he just didn’t like anything about the Council of Trent and it was his belief that the Cliff Notes version of the Vatican II Council would be, “forget everything after the Last Supper, we’re starting over.”
Worked my tail off...got a B. Next semester took another theology with a “nun” from the same school of thought. I told her what she wanted to hear, didn’t do a lick of work...got an A.
Higher Ed...go figure.
I’m RC. When I was younger I went to an Episcopalian service with a friend. I thought it was one of the most beautiful and elegant forms of worship I had ever seen.
I got an A in her course, which surprised me, but she admitted that she enjoyed the back and forth of our discussions.
” I thought it was one of the most beautiful and elegant forms of worship I had ever seen.”
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Yes, a ECUSA service anywhere in the country was elegant.
There were, however, two types of churches in the ECUSA.
Some we called “high church”....more like Catholic, with incense and other traditions associated with Catholics.
Unfortunately , the gays and perverts also recognized that.
As my brother says, it is one of many parts of America that has “Gone with the wind”.
The Anglicans are doing quite well, at least the majority in Africa, that hold to very traditional moral views, and now shun both the British Anglicans and the American Episcopalians.
Conservative Episcopalians in the US have been taking their churches out of their liberal dioceses and becoming African Missionary churches, which is perfect timing, because they now send wealth to Africa, where it is needed to build a huge number of churches right now, to handle all the formerly Muslim converts. Islam is hemorrhaging in black Africa.
Some of the conservative African Anglican bishops and archbishops have so many in their dioceses that they are effectively princes. Not leftist blowhards like Desmond Tutu, but profoundly conservative and moral people.
I went to an Episcopalian mass back in the 1990s. It was very good and reminded me of Catholic mass when I was a very little girl in the 60s. In particular, I remember that they responded “and with your spirit”, instead of the post-Vatican II phrase “and also with you”. Now, of course, Catholics have gone back to “and with your spirit”.
What I find strange about women who want to be priests is that they think that their role as women of the Church is somehow lessened by not being priests. That is false. Women have a distinct role in the Church and that is equal in respect to men, yet not the same. Who were the first to see the empty tomb? Women. They never left the foot of His cross, while His apostles did — women bring a uniqueness to the Church by being women. Men do that by being men.
“The Anglicans are doing quite well, at least the majority in Africa,”
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Yes, I have heard about the African Anglicans, and I am aware that some former US Episcopal churches have affiliated with the African Anglicans.
It is possible that the old British Anglicans may be falling from grace, just as the ECUSA.
My disclaimer...I have been out of the USSA for twelve years
and no longer keep up with what is happening with the church there.
won’t work. hasn’t worked for 2000 years, won’t work, thanks to the Holy Spirit.
As the Catholic church created the Anglican Ordinariates, for Anglicans to become Catholic; perhaps it is time for them to also create a Catholic Ordinariates, recognizing that many who call themselves Catholic are not, and in truth do not wish to be.
As nations accept immigrants, most of them also permit the renunciation of citizenship to those who are not compatible and wish to go. It is an orderly process and a thorough one.
In this case it could be as easy as a questionnaire. Ask them to fill out a form to determine if they are Catholic, and wish to remain so. As often the case may be that they are not, and stay only out of inertia; that they may have another faith, or no faith at all.
It would help the church considerably, certainly the clergy and the laity, to know that those beside them in church are there out of faith and hope, and that their hearts are in it as well.
And we’re using “consubstantial with’”...now there’s a term you don’t just through around every day. Funny how words do matter ;-)
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