[C of E] Bishops plan conversion to RomeOf course, there is an angle to this regarding Pope Benedict XVI and Summorum Pontificum (i.e., another of its fruits):
It's no surprise that the Anglican bishops are talking to the CDF, where the former Cardinal Ratzinger always lent a sympathetic ear to potential converts - and also expressed his appreciation of the Anglo-Catholic tradition. His warm personality, his intellect and his programme of liturgical renewal are tremendous incentives for traditionalists to take the plunge.Fr. Z. has a related post: The Telegraph: Anglican bishops in secret Vatican summit
If there is a deal between Rome and the departing Anglican bishops, what might it look like? I'm working on an article for the Herald on that subject: I think one key to understanding the situation is a grasp of the possibilities opened up by the Motu Proprio, which the English bishops have ignored at their peril. But, however extensive the Vatican's concessions, we are still talking about Anglicans becoming Roman Catholics. There is no half-way house between Canterbury and Rome, as more and more Anglo-Catholics are now aware.
UPDATE:
Damian Thompson has another blog post regarding this ongoing saga:
Liberal Catholic bishops kept in the dark over secret talks
1 comment:
Thank you for this thread. Two reports need to be kept in mind here. The first is the formal submission delivered to the C.D.F. of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC). This group is separate and distinct from most of those now planning on swimming the Tiber. But they can be united under Rome. This needs to be kept in mind.
In October of 2007, the TAC, a communion of twelve national traditionalist Anglican churches, submitted its proposal for "full corporate and sacramental union". Essentially, they want a uniate church and they'll likely get it, since they have signalled that they will take just about any change in practice which Rome insists on (such as the abolition of married bishops, if need be). Many of those still in the Canterburian Communion want to convert to Rome but keep their Anglican traditions. They could do so by joining a uniate TAC.
The other report is one made about two months ago by Darío Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos. He said that one of the fruits of "Summorum Pontificum" was that a non-Catholic 'bishop', representing not only priests and laics but also "several other bishops" wanted to enter corporately to celebrate our Gregorian Mass exclusively. Now, we don't know that these people are Anglican. They might be Old Catholics or Polish National Catholics. But I have heard, since then, that many Anglo-Catholic Anglicans are now using our Gregorian Mass, in a translation in liturgical English (i.e. thees and thous). Are these the gents in question? We don't know yet. It raises the possibility that our hoped-for international diocese for tradition could be erected for this mystery group, plus the I.B.P., plus the Transalpine Redemptorists, and others. His Holiness might also 'invite' (i.e. deliver an implied demand) that the F.S.S.P. and I.C.R. become incorporated in it as well.
There are two crises facing the Church of England. The first comes today. It is the votes on episcopettes. The second comes early next month, at the close of the Lambeth Conference. Different Anglican bishops have signalled their departure from Anglicanism for *both* events (the latter being concerned with homerasty). In other words, there is about to come two separate and distinct exoduses out of the Canterburian Communion this summer, one over episcopettes, and the other over sodomites in the parlour.
Some will come over to us. Best that we know how to receive them. One solution that is likely is a uniate TAC using the Anglican Missal or Sarum Use or modified Anglican Prayerbooks. The other is an international apostolic administration or diocese for all those attached to the Gregorian Mass. We may be about to get both.
One thing not noticed by many commentators of "Summorum Pontificum" is that it almost never refers to our Mass as a *Latin* Mass. I have good reason to believe that it is licit to celebrate our Mass entirely in the vernacular, using a translaton approved during the transitional period of 1964 to 1974. If that is the case, it would obviously be possible to have it in liturgical English (for those former Anglicans who want this: not for us). In other words, an international diocese could 'make space' for it both in Latin and in the liturgical English of the 'English Missal' (written in the nineteenth century). Food for thought.
P.K.T.P.
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