Vatican opens doors for Anglicans against gay, women clergy
Francis X. Rocca/Religion News Service
Issue date: 11/1/09 Section: Divine Intervention
Williams attempted to assure Anglicans of Rome's good intentions. "This new possibility is in no sense at all intended to undermine existing relations between our two communions or to be an act of proselytism or aggression," Williams wrote in an open letter to bishops of the Church of England and the primates of other Anglican provinces.
In a statement, the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, said the Vatican's move "reflects what the Roman Catholic Church, through its acceptance of Anglican rite parishes, has been doing for some years more informally." The statement also said Episcopalians "will continue to explore the full implications of this in our ecumenical relations."
The new Catholic dioceses, called "personal ordinariates," will be set up by national bishops conferences in response to local demand, following guidelines the Vatican plans to release within a couple of weeks.
Each diocese will be headed by a former Anglican clergyman, who will exercise an administrative and leadership role equivalent to that of a bishop. Unmarried men in such positions will also be eligible for ordination as Catholic bishops, giving them the power to ordain new priests.
"There's no structure like it in the modern history of the Catholic church," said Monsignor William H. Stetson, who has personally supervised the conversion of approximately 100 Episcopal priests since early 1980s. "This is a historic moment."
Anglican clergy who are already married will be eligible for ordination as Catholic priests (but not bishops) within the new structures. The new provision does not allow for the perpetuation of a married priesthood, which some Anglicans have called a condition of their conversion to Rome.
Members of the new dioceses will be able to preserve much of the Anglican liturgy and devotional traditions developed over the more than 450 years since the Church of England split from Rome.
The goal is to "respect the language and forms of their worship, and their hymnody, intangible things in fact that are hard to describe - to capture those in a way that is agreeable to them but nonetheless completely in conformity" with Catholic teaching, said Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia, who holds the number two post at the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Vatican's ecumenical council, has repeatedly and publicly discouraged the en masse conversion of Anglicans to the Catholic Church. "We are not fishing in the Anglican lake," Kasper told a Vatican press conference as recently as last week.
In a statement, the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, said the Vatican's move "reflects what the Roman Catholic Church, through its acceptance of Anglican rite parishes, has been doing for some years more informally." The statement also said Episcopalians "will continue to explore the full implications of this in our ecumenical relations."
The new Catholic dioceses, called "personal ordinariates," will be set up by national bishops conferences in response to local demand, following guidelines the Vatican plans to release within a couple of weeks.
Each diocese will be headed by a former Anglican clergyman, who will exercise an administrative and leadership role equivalent to that of a bishop. Unmarried men in such positions will also be eligible for ordination as Catholic bishops, giving them the power to ordain new priests.
"There's no structure like it in the modern history of the Catholic church," said Monsignor William H. Stetson, who has personally supervised the conversion of approximately 100 Episcopal priests since early 1980s. "This is a historic moment."
Anglican clergy who are already married will be eligible for ordination as Catholic priests (but not bishops) within the new structures. The new provision does not allow for the perpetuation of a married priesthood, which some Anglicans have called a condition of their conversion to Rome.
Members of the new dioceses will be able to preserve much of the Anglican liturgy and devotional traditions developed over the more than 450 years since the Church of England split from Rome.
The goal is to "respect the language and forms of their worship, and their hymnody, intangible things in fact that are hard to describe - to capture those in a way that is agreeable to them but nonetheless completely in conformity" with Catholic teaching, said Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia, who holds the number two post at the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Vatican's ecumenical council, has repeatedly and publicly discouraged the en masse conversion of Anglicans to the Catholic Church. "We are not fishing in the Anglican lake," Kasper told a Vatican press conference as recently as last week.
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