C of E bishop will defect to Rome

The Telegraph ^ | June 26, 2008 | Damian Thompson

[NYer]

At least one Church of England bishop will defect to Rome soon after the Lambeth Conference, I gather from Anglo-Catholic sources. And there could be more to follow.

I can't tell you much more than that at the moment, because the negotiations with Rome are so sensitive - and the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, who distrust Anglican traditionalists, are quite capable of throwing a spanner in the works.

It's shaming to have to admit that the bishops of my own Church are the chief obstacle to a significant move of Anglo-Catholic clergy and lay people into full communion with the Holy See - but that's the way it was last time, in the early 1990s, and it's still the case today.

Fortunately, Pope Benedict XVI is more open to experiment than Pope John Paul II. He is taking a close interest in the progress of the rebel Traditional Anglican Communion towards reunion - a process which is under the control of the Congregration for the Doctrine of the Faith, not the Vatican's woolly-minded ecumenists.

I can't betray confidences, but my advice is: look at the new church structures, such as Old Rite parishes, that the Pope is already encouraging, and ask yourself how those models might be adapted for the use of former Anglicans.

But I've already said too much...

[Hebrews 11:6]

So you are saying that it is offensive to you when someone converts to Catholicism?

No.

[tiki]

Then why do you seem to be so offended by NYers posts about people converting to Catholicism?

[Hebrews 11:6]

Read my comments above, friend. I laid it out in exquisite detail which I do not now care to rehash. I suppose if you come back then and demonstrate a sufficient grasp of the proceedings I might explicate further, but it started five days ago, and all of us have long since moved on--amicably as regards me and the two main participants, NYer and annalex.