This is the second of Thompson's articles for the Telegraph on today's news - he has also posted blog entries - in which he starts to deal with the historicity of Pope Benedict's move.
New era begins as Benedict throws open
the gates of Rome to disaffected Anglicans
By Damian Thompson
Oct. 20, 2009
This is astonishing news. Pope Benedict XVI has created an entirely new Church structure for disaffected Anglicans that will allow them to worship together – using elements of Anglican liturgy – under the pastoral supervision of their own specially appointed bishop or senior priest.
The Pope is now offering Anglicans worldwide “corporate reunion” on terms that will delight Anglo-Catholics. In theory, they can have their own married priests, parishes and bishops – and they will be free of liturgical interference by liberal Catholic bishops who are unsympathetic to their conservative stance.
There is even the possibility that married Anglican laymen could be accepted for ordination on a case-by-case basis – a remarkable concession.
Both Archbishop Vincent Nichols and Archbishop Rowan Williams are surprised by this dramatic move. Cardinal Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was in Lambeth Palace only yesterday to spell out to Dr Williams what it means. This decision has, in effect, been taken over their heads – though there is no suggestion that Archbishop Nichols does not fully support this historic move.
Incidentally, I suspect that Rome waited until Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor’s retirement before unveiling this plan: the cardinal is an old-style ecumenist who represents the old way of doing things. His allies in Rome, and many former participants in Anglican-Catholic dialogue, are dismayed by today’s news, which clears away the wreckage of the ARCIC process.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is unlikely to be pleased, though he was vigorously concealing any displeasure at a press conference this morning. (There was a lot of spin about this decision “arising out of dialogue”.)
The truth is that Rome has given up on the Anglican Communion. With one announcement, the Pope has given conservative Anglicans a protected route to union with Rome – and promised that, even once they are members of the Catholic Church, they will be offered a permanent structure that allows them to retain an Anglican ethos.
Thousands of Anglicans who reject women bishops and priests and liberal teaching on homosexuality are certain to avail themselves of this provision.
Within a few years, there will probably be “Anglican ethos” Catholic parishes in England and Wales (and one wonders how many conservative cradle Catholics will gratefully start attending Mass there).
Under the supervision of a “Personal Ordinary”, who can be a priest or unmarried bishop, ex-Anglicans will be able to put forward their own candidates for ordination. In the short term, there will be no difficulty in ordaining married former Anglican clergy.
The Vatican would not use the phrase, but this is very close to the setting up of a “Church within a Church”. Yet that is not as unusual as it might seem: Eastern-rite Catholics have their own liturgy and church structures, and in America a small number of ex-Anglicans use service books that borrow from the Book of Common Prayer.
Anglicans will have to request their own “Personal Ordinariate”, to use the Vatican’s clunky term. How might that play out in England? This is just a guess, but the most pro-Roman C of E bishop, the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet, could submit a request to Rome.
He would be ordained a (married) Catholic priest, and might himself be made “ordinary” (bishop in all but name) of ex-Anglican clergy and lay people who have been received into the Catholic Church together.
This unprecedented canonical structure will affect different countries and dioceses in different ways. But we are not talking about the creation of an “Anglican-Rite” Catholic Church.
Although some parishes will want to use the Anglican-usage liturgy, in England many ex-Anglican congregations will be only too happy to avail themselves of the new English translation of the Roman Rite, to be introduced next year.
This is a decision of supreme boldness and generosity by Pope Benedict XVI, comparable to his liberation of the Traditional Latin Mass. The implications of this announcement will take a long time to sink in, but I suspect that this will be a day of rejoicing for conservative Anglo-Catholics and their Roman Catholic friends all over the world.
I realize from previous stories about married Anglican priests in the United States who have turned Catholic that they were allowed to continue serving as priests under individual dispensations from John Paul II. But now that this will become a general rule under the new Apostolic Constitution, how will the pro-married priest activists in the Church use this to promote their campaign and justify their cause? What will Milingo do about it, for instance?
On his blog, Thompson reports the initial reaction from the ultra-liberal Tablet on what its editor refers to as 'Ratzinger's crazy plan'. The view from the Tablet is truly outlandish, to say the least. Imagine claiming that the CDF did this to distract attention from climate-change activist Christians!
The Pope's shock move:
the Tablet writes
Oct. 20, 2009
I’ve just hacked into Ma Pepinster’s
[Tablet editor Catherine Pepinster] computer, which she’s currently pounding furiously in response to the shocking news from Rome…
Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to offer special arrangements for conservative Anglicans is a bold gesture that is intended to address a very real pastoral need on the part of members of that Communion who are unable to accept its progressive teaching on homosexuality and the ministry of women.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has stated that this is not an aggressive move on the part of Rome. Other commentators may feel otherwise, particularly considering the inappropriately short notice the Bishops of England and Wales were given of this controversial decision, which undermines the occasionally troubled yet undeniably rewarding ecumenical dialogue undertaken by ARCIC.
This dialogue between the Churches is entering a new, even more fruitful phase as the two Communions unite to halt global warming through joint parish initiatives; it is therefore mystifying that the all-male Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith should have chosen to issue this declaration in the sensitive weeks ahead of the Copenhagen Summit – unless, of course, the CDF (never the most enlightened of dicasteries) is trying to distract attention from the fate of the planet by flagging up the plight of a few Christians who share climate change deniers’ determination to preserve a vanished past.
We therefore hope that ordinary Catholics will join with mainstream Anglican justice and peace activists to dialogue with so-called “traditionalists” hoping to take advantage of this crazy plan of Ratzinger’s, and, if they fail to see the error of their ways, drive them out of the village with flaming torches and pitchforks.
And the second blog entry from Thompson is that, contrary to what I rashly supposed, the Archbishops of Westminster and Canterbury were only informed yesterday about the Pope's decision by Cardinal Levada.
Archbishop of Canterbury criticises Rome
for springing this announcement on him
Good Lord, I’ve just seen the letter Dr Rowan Williams has sent to the bishops of the Anglican Communion. He sounds humiliated – and, I suspect, furious that the Vatican sprang the plans to welcome ex-Anglicans on him “at a very late stage”.
The Vatican announced today that Pope Benedict XVI has approved an ‘Apostolic Constitution’ (a formal papal decree) which will make some provision for groups of Anglicans (whether strictly members of continuing Anglican bodies or currently members of the Communion) who wish to be received into communion with the See of Rome in such a way that they can retain aspects of Anglican liturgical and spiritual tradition.
I am sorry that there has been no opportunity to alert you earlier to this; I was informed of the planned announcement at a very late stage, and we await the text of the Apostolic Constitution itself and its code of practice in the coming weeks.
But I thought I should let you know the main points of the response I am making in our local English context– in full consultation with Roman Catholic bishops in England and Wales – in the hope of avoiding any confusion or misrepresentation.
Personally, I think Rome was entirely justified in acting as it did: can you image the wretched confusion and misleading rumours if Anglican bishops all over the world had been told about this decision months in advance?
And personally, I think there was no need to alert everybody on such a sensitive announcement that various interests could have exploited negatively for their own ends and to 'hijack' the initiative [as they did when they got advance notice of the decree lifting the FSSPX bishops' excommunication].
And on second thought, of course it was right that even Archbishop Williams was only given short notice because he would otherwise have shared it with all his bishops prematurely!
But he could not really have been all that surprised, seeing that the TAC has been actively lobbying for mass admission into the Church, and after Cardinal Levada's letter to the TAC in July 2008. My goodness, if Williams had the opportunity to welcome 500,000 new members into the Church of England in one fell swoop, he'd have played his cards close to the chest, too!
Sandro Magister's take on the news today sees an interesting link to the rapprochement between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches [my translation - Magister has not yet posted an English translation]:
'Knock and it shall be opened...'
The door is open for traditional Anglican dioceses and parishes to join the Roman Catholic Church.
Papa Ratzinger's ecumenism appears ever more nourished by fidelity to tradition.
As it is with the Lefebvrians, and even more, with the Orthodox Churches.
ROME, Oct. 20, 2009 – Until yesterday, bishops and priests from the Anglican Communion had been coming into the Roman Catholic Church one by one - those who feel more in agreement with the Bishop of Rome than with the 'modernist' trends in Anglicanism.
In the United States, in order to regulate such crossovers, a "Pastoral provision' has been in effect since 1980, prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [before Cardinal Ratzinger's time] and approved by John Paul II.
Under those rules, some 80 Anglican priests, mostly married with children, have become Catholic priests.
Two years ago, a bishop, Jeffrey Steenson, was welcomed into the Roman Church with a ceremony at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
Steenson, 57, with three children, was ordained a priest and assigned to the Diocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he teaches Patristics in the seminary.
These priests were often followed by some of their previous flock, deciding on their own. The only case of a crossing over en masse to date took place in Amritsar, in the Indian Punjab, in 1975.
[Amritsar is also the spiritual capital of the Sikhs.]
From hereon, however, the 'collective migration' from Anglicanism to Catholicism may no longer be exceptional but normal, thanks to an Apostolic Constitution that Benedict XVI is preparing to publish, possibly in three weeks.
But it was solemnly announced this morning in two near-simultaneous news conferences - one in Rome, by Cardinal William levada, Prefect of the CDF, and one in London, with the Catholic Primate of England and Wales, Mons. Vincent Nichols, and the Primate of the Anglican Communion, Mons. Rowan Williams.
The two primates also released a joint statement - another element that is an absolute novelty. Because in fact, when someone abandoned a Christian confession for another in the past, doors would shut on both sides.
But this time, it seems as though the passage has been blessed by common agreement of both sides.
A harmony that makes one think how close reconciliation would appear today between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion - if only the latter had not opened the way to ordaining women and cohabiting homosexuals as priests and bishops, with the consequent split between those in favor and those against.
Once the new Apostolic Constitution is published, the Anglican dioceses and parishes which have been asking Rome for permission to come into the Catholic Church - from Great Britain, the United Sattes, Australia, South Africa and other nations - will now be able to do it according to the rules set in such a Constitution.
Married priests and bishops, after being ordained as Catholic priests, can exercise the priestly ministry, as has been done traditionally in the Orthodox churches and some eastern Catholic churches.
Their communities would be under a 'personal ordinariate' headed by unmarried bishops of their own. This, too, is a practice in the eastern Churches.
They would continue to use their Anglican liturgy, which in the form used by traditonal Anglicans, is very close to the Tridentine Mass.
It is thought that at leasy 40 bishops and more than a hundred priests, witht heir respective congregations, are standing in the wings, waiting for the go-ahead.
It is understood all those who have been knocking at the Vatican's door are ready to accept the primacy of the Pope and profess Catholic doctrine as expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
In any case, these communities ready to become Catholic are all part of the 'traditionalist' wing of the Anglican Communion.
In the same way that the Lefebvrians are, whom Benedict XVI has been trying hard to get back into full communion with Rome.
And in the same way the Orthodox Churches - with whom the present Pope's ecumenical efforst appear to be most fruitful - are attached to their great traditions in liturgy and other matters.
From Octobere 16-23, the second round of the Catholic-Oethodox dialog - the first was in Ravenna in 2007 - is taking place in Cyprus on the subject of the primacy of the Pope, in the light of the history of the first millennium before the Great Schism.
Today, more than ever, with Joseph Ratzinger as Pope, the ecumenical journey appears to be not a resort to modernity but an attempt to encounter each other on the terrain of tradition.
[Magister then publishes the texts of the CDF note today and the joint statement by the Archbishops of Westminster and Canterbury.]
AP's wrap-up story for the day offers some other background information. Note the headline - it completely ignores the fact that the Vatican is responding to a flood of requests from disaffected Anglicans,not 'seeking to lure them'!
Vatican seeks to lure disaffected Anglicans
by NICOLE WINFIELD
ROME, Oct. 20 (AP) - The Vatican announced Tuesday it was making it easier for Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism _ a surprise move designed to entice traditionalists opposed to women priests, openly gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions.
The decision, reached in secret by a small cadre of Vatican officials, was sure to add to the problems of the 77-million-strong Anglican Communion as it seeks to deal with deep doctrinal divisions that threaten a permanent schism among its faithful.
The change means conservative Anglicans from around the world will be able to join the Catholic Church while retaining aspects of their Anglican liturgy and identity, including married priests. Until now, disaffected Anglicans had joined the church primarily on a case by case basis.
"The unity of the Church does not require a uniformity that ignores cultural diversity, as the history of Christianity shows," said Cardinal William Levada, head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in announcing the decision.
The spiritual leader of the global Anglican church, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, was not consulted about the change and was informed only hours before the announcement. He nevertheless tried to downplay the significance and said it wasn't a Vatican commentary on Anglican problems.
"It has no negative impact on the relations of the communion as a whole to the Roman Catholic Church as a whole," he said in London.
The decision could undermine decades of talks between the Vatican and Anglican leaders over how they could possibly reunite. Although Levada insisted such discussions remain a priority, the Vatican move could be taken as a signal that the ultimate goal of ecumenical talks is to convert Anglicans to Catholicism.
[WHAT ROT! Once again, all of the overtures came from the Anglicans, as the media itself has documented inr ecent years.]
Still, the decision confirmed Pope Benedict XVI's design of creating a unified, tradition-minded Catholic Church _ a goal he outlined at the start of his pontificate and has been steadily implementing ever since.
This drive also involved a recent move to rehabilitate four excommunicated ultra-conservative bishops, including one who denied the full extent of the Holocaust, in a bid to bring their faithful back under the Vatican's wing.
Levada made the announcement hours after briefing Williams and Catholic bishops in London about the decision. Notably, no one from the Vatican's ecumenical office on relations with Anglicans attended; Levada said he had invited representatives but they said they were all away from Rome.
Austen Ivereigh, a former adviser to the Catholic archbishop of Westminster, called the Vatican announcement historic because it allowed for the "gradual absorption into the Catholic Church of huge numbers of Anglicans," who are conservative in their theology and liturgy.
Until now, Anglicans had been allowed to join the church primarily on an individual basis. With the new provision, groups of Anglicans from around the world will be able to join new parishes headed by former Anglican prelates, who will provide spiritual guidance to Anglicans who wish to be Catholic. Called personal ordinariates, they will be established within local Catholic dioceses.
The new provision also allows married Anglican priests and even seminarians to become ordained Catholic priests - much the same way that Eastern rite priests who are in communion with Rome are allowed to be married. However, married Anglicans cannot become Catholic bishops.
A model for the future exists in the United States, where a handful of such parishes function - including three in Texas - thanks to a 1980 Vatican decision to accommodate Episcopal faithful and priests who wanted to convert.
These parishes use a Vatican-approved Book of Divine Worship, based on the Book of Common Prayer, that includes Catholic and Anglican rituals, said Monsignor William Stetson, who manages the initiative.
The new entity is also modeled on Catholic military ordinariates, special units of the church established in most countries to provide spiritual care for members of the armed forces and their dependents.
In addition, within the Catholic Church there are ancient communities in the Middle East and others in Eastern Europe that follow different rites and allow married priests while remaining loyal to the Pope.
The new model doesn't create a new rite, but rather an Anglicanized liturgy within the Latin rite.
Levada said Tuesday's announcement was in response to many requests that have come to the Vatican over the years from Anglicans disillusioned with the progressive bent of the Anglican Communion. Some have already left and consider themselves Catholic but have not found an official home in the 1.1-billion strong Catholic Church.
Levada declined to give exact figures, though he said 30 to 40 bishops had been in touch, accounting for a few hundred would-be converts.
One group, known as the Traditional Anglican Communion, has publicly stated its desire to join the Catholic Church. The group, which split from the Anglican Communion in 1990, says it has 400,000 members in 41 countries, although only about half are regular churchgoers.
"This is a moment of grace, perhaps even a moment of history, not because the past is undone but because the past is transformed," the group's leader, Archbishop John Hepworth said in a statement welcoming the Vatican decision.
Anglicans split with Rome in 1534 when English King Henry VIII was refused a marriage annulment.
Since then, the Anglican Communion, which includes the Episcopalian Church in the United States, has fashioned itself as a kind of big tent of fellowship with a wide variety of worship styles and theological outlooks that include Anglo-Catholics.
It's not known how many Anglicans consider themselves Anglo-Catholic. However, the biggest impact of the Vatican announcement is likely to be felt in England, where the Church of England has been involved in a bitter battle over whether female priests can become bishops. British Anglicans opposed to the ordination of women simply leave and join the Catholic Church.
The announcement is likely to have far less impact in the U.S., where many Anglo-Catholics left the Episcopal Church more than a decade ago. More recently, four theologically conservative Episcopal dioceses and dozens of individual parishes broke away and formed a rival church in North America.
Still, no one expects a sudden mass exodus out of the Anglican Communion because of the Vatican announcement.
"We're not talking floodgates," said Paul Handley, editor of the
Church Times a London-based weekly that covers Anglican affairs.
"There are a significant number of people who remain loyal Anglicans who will be seriously (tried) by this," he said, adding that they may want to remain part of the Church of England but will "feel increasingly exposed if their friends start disappearing to Rome."
Some Anglo-Catholics who have not yet left the Anglican fold could choose to stay for a variety of reasons, including a desire to avoid lengthy and expensive battles over parish property. Others may oppose the ruling that married Anglicans cannot become Catholic bishops.
The Rev. Christopher Stainbrook, pastor of St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, an Anglo-Catholic parish that is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, said it was far too soon to know the implications for his parish or others like it in the U.S.
Indeed, Levada made clear that the next step - publication of the pope's Apostolic Constitution outlining the new provision - would be the start of a lengthy process of consultation with Catholic bishops around the world about how to implement the change.
Still, Stainbrook and other traditionalist Anglican groups were elated by the Vatican announcement.
While some Anglicans will want to remain in the Anglican Communion, others "will begin to form a caravan, rather like the People of Israel crossing the desert in search of the Promised Land," said two traditionalist Anglican clerics in Britain, Bishop Andrew Burnham of Ebbsfleet and Bishop Keith Newton of Richborough.
The Anglican Communion has been divided for decades over interpreting the Bible on many issues, including ordaining women. But the rift blew wide open in 2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
Williams has struggled ever since to keep the church from splitting, frustrated by moves by churches in the United States, Canada and elsewhere to bless gay relationships.
At least four conservative U.S. dioceses and dozens of individual Episcopal parishes have voted to leave the national denomination, with many affiliating themselves with like-minded Anglican leaders in Africa and elsewhere.
Associated Press writers Rachel Zoll in New York and Gregory Katz and Robert Barr in London contributed to this report.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 22/10/2009 10:24]