Tax-Chick:
From what I have read, this Bishop seems to have been influenced by the Oxford movement of the 19th century, which was a movement to re-claim the Catholicity of the Anglican Church. A large number of clergy that came out of that movement went to Rome (Cardinal Newman, Fr. Knox, Fr. Gerald Manly-Hopkins, etc). The Oxford movement was a viable force in Anglicanism in the 1950s and 1960s, and there was an agreement reached by Pope Paul VI and the leader of the Anglican Communion (Ramsey) after Vat II which pledged that the Anglican CHurch would seek full Communion with Rome. However, with the changing doctrinal stances of the Anglican Church in the 1970s (sexual morality, woman’ ordination, etc), the possibility of corporate re-union ended.
Many former Anglicans/Episcopalians came over to Rome and some of the more Catholic minded Anglicans have separted themselves from Cantebury. One of these groups is TAC (Traditional Anglican COmmunion), a group that has as part of its mission, to re-unite with Rome.
In summary, I think this Bishop is one of those Catholic minded Anglicans that has come to the realization that Corporate re-union between Anglicans and Rome will not happen.
P.S. I am a cradle Catholic, who has followed this issue for a long time, and not an Anglican who “swam the Tiber”.
Regards
Thanks, that is very informative. I’m familiar with Newman, Knox, and so on, but I didn’t know that the Oxford Movement was still influential into the mid-20th century.