Pope preparing to welcome
500,000 traditional Anglicans
back into the Church?
by Salvatore Izzo
VATICAN CITY, Oct. 19 (Translated from AGI) - Papa Ratzinger is probably preparing to receive into full communion with Rome the bishops, priests and faithful belonging to the Traditional Anglican Communion, a group that has for some time broken communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and since 2007, have been asking to be admitted 'as a bloc' to the Roman Catholic Church.
The TAC numbers around 500,000.
This move, which has been anticipated since January 2009 by the Australian media (the TAC Primate, Mons. John Hepsworth, is the Anglican Bishop of Perth), may finally be confirmed at a news briefing at the Vatican tomorrow to be held by Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, "on a matter relating to relations with the Anglicans".
Also with Cardinal Levada at the briefing will be Archbishop Augustien Di Noia, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship.
Sources say that the TAC prelates have already signed a profession of adherence to the Catechism of the Catholic Church which they have deposited a Marian sanctuary in England [possibly the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk, who is thepatron of the TAC}.
Once in the Roman Catholic fold, the TAC would retain the right to use Anglican liturgy which, as the TAC practises it, is very close to the Tridentine Catholic Mass. They would keep married priests, but not married bishops, as in the Orthodox Church, where only celibates can be bishops.
Equally important, the TAC priests will need to be re-ordained under Catholic rites, as the Church does not recognize Anglican Holy Orders. This has been SOP for a number of Anglican bishops and priests who have 'returned' to Rome in recent years.
The traditionalist Italian site messainlatino.it observes that
"This reunification will have upsetting effects far beyond the TAC, serving as an example to numerous Anglican groups who have remained within the Anglican Communion (Lambeth Conference) and therefore loyal to Canterbury, who are strongly uneasy about the recent elevation of women to be bishops after allowing them to the priesthood in the 1990s".
According to Damian Thompson, editor of the British
Catholic Herald, the TAC could be given the status of a personal prelature similar to the Opus Dei.
[Also the status that the Lefebvrians would eventually like to have once they are in full communion with Rome. The jurisdiction of a personal prelature, unlike a diocese, is not delimited by territory but by its membership, wherever they live. While a personal prelature is not under the jursidiction of whiever diocese their members happen to live in, it is under the supervision of the Congregation for Bishops like regular dioceses and military ordinariates. .]
Thus, it would be like a worldwide diocese with its own bishop and apostolate. similar to what is hypothesized for the FSSPX.
The January 2009 story in The Australian newspaper The Record gives more background on the TAC,
and may be seen on
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=354498&p=114
In July 2008, the TAC made public a letter from Cardinal Levada
in which he said th CDF was studying the TAC proposals.
P.S. According to Damian Thompson today
Oct. 19, 2009
And this, from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office:
PRESS CONFERENCE INVITATION
(not for publication)
You are invited to a press conference with Archbishop Vincent Nichols (Archbishop of Westminster) and Archbishop Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury) on Tuesday 20 October at 1000. The press conference will take place at 39 Eccleston Square, London SW1V 1BX.
Clearly, the Vatican news briefing and this unusual joint press conference
are related, if not coordinated.
THIS NEWS HAS TO BE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT EVENT OF ITS KIND
SINCE THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND BROKE OFF FROM ROME IN THE 16TH CENTURY.
But what can the Archbishop of Canterbury say to put the best spin he can
on this mass defection from the Anglican Communion?
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 22/10/2009 10:18]