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 ...
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.
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