Here is my article from the most recent issue of The Mike:
On October 20th, Pope Benedict XVI made an astonishing announcement that will usher in a new era within the Holy Roman Catholic Church and will have far reaching implications throughout the whole Christian world. During a Vatican briefing, Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, announced that Pope Benedict has approved, within the Apostolic Constitution, a canonical structure that provides for Personal Ordinariates, which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of distinctive Anglican spiritual patrimony. This decision will also allow Anglicans who want to return to the Catholic Church to do so while retaining the Anglo-Christian traditions such as their liturgical style. The Vatican also made concessions for married Anglican priests to convert and remain married (though bishops still have to be celibate) and, in the future, on a case-by-case basis, married laymen will be considered for ordination. The phrase that the English Press has been using and that the Vatican has been avoiding is “Church within a church.” Returning to the Catholic Church does require that Anglican converts recognize the authority of the Pope and acceptance of Catholic doctrine. There is still a lot of work to be done by the Vatican, as the announcement signals the Holy See’s intention of amending canon law so the details still need to be fleshed out.
Since the announcement is so open-ended, there has been a lot of speculation as to the size and scope of the Apostolic Constitution’s effects. Some have estimated that several thousand priests along with up to 400 000 laypeople will “Swim the Tiber.” However, conversion is very much a two-way street and though there are Anglican conversions to Catholicism every year there are still a percentage of Catholics who leave the Church for the Church of England, especially in Africa and the United States. The idea of a “Church within a Church” is not that the Catholic Church has been reunited with 22-Eastern Rites (members of the Byzantine Orthodox that returned to Rome) for many years.
Thankfully, the television show “The Tudors” has filled us all in on the history of the English Reformation. In the 16th Century, King Henry VIII of England split with the Catholic Church because he wanted to get a divorce from his wife who would not bear him an heir. The Pope, however, would not grant him the divorce. Unlike other Protestant churches, the Anglican Church remained very similar in practice to the RCC in terms of the liturgy and some doctrine. However, modern day Anglicanism is very diverse and ranges from extremely liberal to more conservative with pockets that are very close to Catholicism in all but recognition of the Pope’s authority.
Today, the Anglican Church has 80 million members all over the world, including 2.2 million in the United States. Like the RCC, the Church of England is a big-tent but without the centrality of the Papacy (the C of E is lead by the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Dr. Rowan Williams, but he is known as “first among equals” and not a supreme authority). Anglicans lack unity. In 2003, a large group of so-called “Conservative/Traditionalist” Anglican Bishops met in Texas to discuss the ordination of a Homosexual Episcopalian (American-Anglican) Bishop. The C of E also ordains women into the priesthood which, along with many other issues, has lead to different factions emerging within the Church of England.
This announcement was only made possible by over 40 years of ecumenical dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Church of England, which was itself enabled by the Second Vatican Council held from 1962- 1965. It has also been revealed by the British Newspaper The Sunday Telegraph that the Vatican has been in secret talks with senior Anglican Bishops since 2006, without the head of the Church of England being aware. Dr. Williams was present on October 20th when the announcement was made but he was not briefed beforehand. The Archbishop of Canterbury stated publicly that he does not believe that Pope Benedict/the Vatican is “fishing” for converts, although he did send an e-mail to his bishops clarifying and apologizing for the fact he was taken by surprise. Other reactions have varied from within the Church of England. While the Rt Rev John Hind, the Bishop of Chichester, has announced he is considering becoming a Roman Catholic, others have said that this will disrupt ecumenical dialogue between the two churches. The Roman Catholic Church’s position on ecumenism is impeachable. It is understandable that one observing from the outside would not be able to reconcile the Holy See’s decision to open its doors to disaffected Anglicans while still engaging the Church of England as an equal.
Every day, millions of Anglicans and Catholics Recite the same words as part of our Creed: “We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.” Pope Benedict’s announcement is a leap of faith with this utopian vision of a world united in Christ as its goal.
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3 comments:
This is huge news in the UK. Front page of a bunch of papers. Some are calling it the most important event in Christianity since the Reformation.
I am an Anglican but there isn't any way that I would become Roman Catholic. Especially with a present Pope who would like to take the RC Church back to Medieval times. The RC Church is looking for priests and a way to dominate further.
I am a practicing Anglican, and I too would not join the Roman Catholic Church, mostly by reason of a very few distinctions.
I see no reason for priests not to marry - though I understand the reasoning behind it - and I also see no reason to ordain only men. There are a few other minor things, but I have no ill will or feelings about the RCC.
To me, the difference is mainly one of how we choose to worship, and while in some churches it can be very different, there doesn't seem to be a huge gulf between the C of E and the RCC.
The way I like to think about it is this:
In order for the faith to survive, while being spread across the world amongst very diverse peoples, there simply had to be some flexibility in order the messages to have as much meaning as they ought to have. While liturgy has its own special symbolism, it may not have the same feeling behind it in one quarter of the world as it does in another, simply because of the other cultural differences which result is dissimilarities in worldview.
Changes were necessary in order for the word to be proclaimed in way that respective nations and cultures of people could understand it and make it their own.
And since there is but one Christ, who is forgiving and understanding to those who love him and accept him as their saviour, what difference do a few variations make anyway?
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