Posts tagged Archbishop Hepworth
Part III of Archbishop Hepworth’s Interview with LifeSiteNews.com
Mar 10th
Here’s an excerpt. There’s more from Patrick Craine’s interview here.
“Homosexual sexuality played out in a same-sex relationship is, in fact, totally destructive of the heart of Christian teaching because it’s destructive of God as Creator, it’s destructive of God as Teacher, and it’s destructive of God as Redeemer,” he said.
“There is no space in Christianity for brute force condemnation, hate, and all that,” he continued. But, he said, “there is space within Christianity for absolutely, clearly teaching what Christ teaches. And if there’s one thing the New Testament and the Old Testament are clear on, it’s homosexuality.”
The archbishop spoke with LSN on Friday in Halifax, Nova Scotia before he addressed the local TAC parish, St. Aidan’s, about the Vatican’s recent offer to Anglicans for reunion with Rome. He began a worldwide tour over four weeks ago in order to encourage members of the TAC to accept the offer.
Archbishop Hepworth praised the treatment of homosexuality in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is primarily dealt with in paragraphs 2357-2359. “The Catechism of the Catholic Church is absolutely perfect,” he said. “It teaches what the Church teaches, and it then goes on to teach us a pastoral approach.”
The Church has always taught that homosexuals “are blessed in other ways, are in fulfillment in other ways,” the Archbishop said. “We’ve got to be game to teach that. … There are compensations that God gives for [disorder].”
“We just need to be much much more positive. If we simply condemn [homosexuality], we won’t win, and we’re not winning,” he continued. “But we’ve also been very reticent to teach exactly how God is present within marriage. In fact, most couples think God has little to do with marriage.”
“I think we need to teach more deeply about that,” he added.
The archbishop described the union of husband and wife as “God’s pathway for the world, in which the Creative God is closest to us.” True marriage, he said, is “a relationship open to creation, open to love, which is the love of God, which is the Spirit. This, in fact, is where God has chosen to dwell – within the family.”
He praised the pope for allowing Anglicans who reunite with the Church to continue ordaining married men because, he said, this “means there’s a family at the heart of the parish, in all its frailty.”
+Hepworth on Witholding Communion from Pro-Abortion Politicians
Mar 9th
In Part II of the LifeSiteNews.com interview with Archbishop Hepworth, the TAC Primate addresses the issue of barring pro-abortion politicians from Holy Communion.
“Anybody publicly espousing an anti-life stand against the clear teaching of the Church and the commandments would be immediately removed from any office, and certainly would be told they can’t receive Communion,” he explained.
Archbishop Hepworth further notes the challenges faced by Catholic bishops in maintaining the Church’s discipline in the public sphere.
“Since Vatican II, the Church has been squeamish about its ability to discipline its laity,” he continued. “This has been a moment at which the Church has tried to rediscover collegiality, the role of the laity, the ministry of the laity, and it causes some mental conflict to then have to say to somebody, quite publicly, ‘you’ve abandoned the teaching of the Church and you are now being disciplined.’”
The Archbishop opined that it was the fear of a public rupture, where priests may side with the layperson being admonished, that has caused many Catholic bishops to hesitate in applying discipline to notorious dissenters from the Church’s teaching. Interestingly, he suggests that the greater historic role for laity found the Anglican tradition may make it easier for Anglican bishops to admonish the erring faithful.
But Anglicans are more accustomed to “disciplining their laity,” he opined, “because we’re more used to lay roles.”
Archbishop Hepworth Interviewed on Life Issues
Mar 9th
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 8, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Life issues are “at the heart” of Christianity, said Archbishop John Hepworth, Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), in an exclusive interview with LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) on Friday.
“If we get the life issues right, then we get the Incarnation right, the nature of God right, the nature of Christian worship right,” he explained. “This is actually an entrance issue, not a side moral issue. It’s the issue on which Christianity actually defines itself against the others.”
LSN spoke with Archbishop Hepworth in Halifax, the capital of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, where he made an overnight stop to address the local TAC parish, St. Aidan’s. The Australian native came to Halifax as part of a worldwide tour that he began four weeks ago to encourage TAC communities to accept the Vatican’s offer to Anglicans, issued in October, to reunite with the Roman Catholic Church.
Hepworth told LSN that the TAC’s commitment to life is “total.” “It’s one of our founding premises,” he said.
He continued by explaining that the TAC is “absolutely stark and clear on where we stand” on life issues because of the environment they have left in the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Communion, he says, has come “to an extremely liberal position where many provinces are totally shaky on abortion, if not regarding it as compulsory. It is shocking the extent to which they’ve slipped – contraception, marriage, all the life issues are denied.”
But he also explained that the TAC has needed to be clear on life issues as part of its efforts for unity with the Catholic Church. “Our position is not to fight the Catholic Church, it’s to fully absorb its teachings,” he said.
In both his interview with LSN and his homily to the parishioners of St. Aidan’s, Hepworth spoke out against the practice of embryonic stem cell research, comparing it with cannibalism. “Killing embryos in order to harvest stem cells to make drugs is simply our form of cannibalism, and it’s just as wrong as cannibalism,” he told LSN.
He described the experience of a tribe in New Guinea, which can still remember when war canoes would come down the river and take a young person to eat for strength before a battle, a practice which only ended in the 1960s.
Using stem cell drugs derived from killed human beings in order to wave off disease is no different in the human attitude,” he said. “Same temptations everywhere, we just think our temptations are more civilized.”
* * *
There’s more. And this is only part one! The joys.
Ottawa Citizen Reports on Cardinal Levada’s Kingston Talk
Mar 8th
My colleague at the Ottawa Citizen, Jennifer Green, has a report in today’s paper on Cardinal William Levada’s talk in Kingston, Ontario Saturday night, March 6.
I will be writing a longer version for Catholic papers that I hope to file about midday today. Here’s an excerpt of Jenny’s piece, with my bolds. I think she did a pretty good job of encapsulating some of the key points, though I have some minor quibbles (see below).
William Cardinal Levada, prefect the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told a dinner of about 300 in Kingston that “union with the Catholic Church is the goal of ecumenism (at least), we phrase it that way.”
“Yet the very process of moving towards union works a change in churches …”
The Catholic Church is enriched when another group adds its means of worship, although he hastened to add it would not be any “essential elements of sanctification or truth.” Those were already provided to the Church by Christ.
“Visible union with the Catholic Church does not mean absorption to the greater whole, as a teaspoon of sugar would be lost in a gallon of coffee.”
Instead, he compared it to an orchestra with “… all instruments tuned to the piano, … all playing same notes of doctrinal clarity … the beautiful and inviting sound of the world of God.”
The issue has become pertinent after Pope Benedict XVI made overtures to traditional Anglicans, particularly in Britain, who cannot agree with recent moves to ordain female bishops and accommodate gay clergy and “marriages” or unions of gay congregants.
In October, Levada announced that new rules would allow disaffected Anglicans to convert by parish or even by diocese. They would have their own governance within the Roman church, meaning they could keep traditions such as their liturgy.
Rome said it wasn’t “poaching” Anglicans, just responding to requests from traditionalist bishops.
Just as I don’t like the word “disaffected” as the adjective to describe us, I’m not crazy about “traditionalist” either. “Traditional” is better and more accurate. The “ist” smacks of ideology, as if our being traditional is some kind of fetish, or form of legalism, a focus on the externals of rites and rubrics without regard to the content of the Catholic faith. We are capital “T” Traditional in that we believe in Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition as our authority. And interestingly, the bishops in the U.K. are not “traditionalist” in the sense of being Prayer Book traddies, while we in Canada can be accused of that.
Cardinal Levada did not (as I recall) mention the TAC in his talk. I’ll correct this if I discover in going over my notes this morning. Were gay blessings on the horizon in the early 1990s, shortly after the TAC came together, and the first informal talk with Rome took place? I don’t think so.
Our desire for unity has always been a positive desire, one of obedience to Christ’s command and prayer that we be one in Him.
One picture shows Cardinal Levada greeting Traditional Anglican Primate Archbishop John Hepworth for the first time at the gathering. The group shot shows the crowd at the Catholic Christian Outreach fundraiser. Jenny Green is in the bottom right corner, wearing the blue/green dress. The empty seat next to her is mine. For more pictures of the event, go here.
Archbishop Hepworth Greets Cardinal Levada in Kingston, Ontario
Mar 7th
Cardinal William Levada and Archbishop John Hepworth met face-to-face for the first time last night at a dinner in Kingston, Ontario where the Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith spoke on Anglicanorum Coetibus.
I will post more on this later, but here are some pictures from this excellent event.
National Catholic Register Reports on U.S. Ordinariate Request
Mar 7th
ORLANDO, Fla. — The bishops of the Anglican Church in America have voted to accept Pope Benedict XVI’s invitation to bring their 3,000 members into the Catholic Church.
The unanimous vote of eight members of the House of Bishops, who met in Orlando, Fla., brings 120 parishes in four dioceses across the country into the Church.
Also present at the March 3 vote and in support of it were representatives of “Anglican use” parishes admitted on a one-by-one basis to the Catholic Church in accordance with the Pastoral Provision of Pope John Paul II in 1980.
The move is seen as significant for both the “AngloCatholics” in the Anglican Church in America and the worldwide Traditional Anglican Communion — and the Catholic Church.
“We are returning to the Roman Catholic Church as community with a common past and a common future,” commented Christian Campbell, a Florida lay member of the Anglican Church in America and coordinator of a blog called theanglocatholic.com.
TAC Formally Requests Personal Ordinariate for USA
Mar 3rd
The House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America, the American Province of the Traditional Anglican Communion, have issued the following press release.
Orlando, FL – 1 pm EST – Bp. George Langberg
Released by the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America, Traditional Anglican Communion 3 March 2010
We, the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America of the Traditional Anglican Communion have met in Orlando, Florida, together with our Primate and the Reverend Christopher Phillips of the “Anglican Use” Parish of Our Lady of the Atonement (San Antonio, Texas) and others.
At this meeting, the decision was made formally to request the implementation of the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum cœtibus in the United States of America by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
ACA HOB Meeting Day 2
Mar 2nd
As I write this, the bishops have successfully concluded Day 2 of the conference. Due to the nature of the deliberations, there is little that can be reported except to say that things are developing very positively and that an official statement should be published on The Anglo-Catholic as soon as tomorrow evening. Please continue to pray for the bishops as they continue to meet on Wednesday.
ACA House of Bishops Meeting Begins Today
Mar 1st
Beginning later today, the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America (TAC) will assemble in Orlando, Florida for discussions expected to last several days. The ACA HOB is to be joined by Archbishop John Hepworth, Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, along with representatives of Forward in Faith UK and the Anglican Use/Pastoral Provision in the USA. This House of Bishops meeting is an important step toward the implementation of Anglicanorum Coetibus in the USA. Please pray the the Holy Spirit will guide the bishops in everything they do!
Realistic Expectations
Feb 18th
On another post, we recently received a comment bemoaning the fact that, despite media reports that his “conversion” was imminent, a certain Church of England bishop (i.e. The Right Rev. John Hind, Bishop of Chichester, whose remarks at the time were misconstrued) had not yet swum the Tiber. ”It never came to pass,” the commenter lamented. What a remarkably myopic perspective some people have!
I shouldn’t have to point out that it’s only been three and a half months since the Apostolic Constitution and its Complementary Norms were released (and there is evidence to suggest that their announcement several weeks earlier was premature). The personal ordinariates proposed in these documents do not yet exist. The Holy See has defined only the contours of the scheme; the details of its implementation must still be negotiated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith with the various Anglican constituencies involved. Basic practical questions remain unanswered. Specific legal norms and statutes must be drawn-up for each new personal ordinariate. And, it should also go without saying that, as Anglicans, we have our own synodical processes with which to contend.
But things are happening. Yesterday, I provided an abridged timeline:
Just this past Saturday, Forward in Faith Australia directed its National Council “to foster by every means the establishing of an Ordinariate in Australia.” In just a few days, on February 22, the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, Anglicans in Forward in Faith UK, led by the provincial episcopal visitors, will be praying for discernment. Beginning on March 1, the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America (TAC) will convene in Orlando, Florida; the ACA bishops, together with Primate John Hepworth, will be joined on March 2 by representatives of FiF UK (the Bishop of Fulham) and the Anglican Use/Pastoral Provision in the USA. This conference will be an important step in formulating our response to Anglicanorum Coetibus. In mid-March, bishops of the TAC and Forward in Faith will be in Rome to consult with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and to seek clarification on a number of important points. In Low Week, the College of Bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion will meet in Rome. And it is expected that the first personal ordinariates will be erected as soon as the end of June 2010.
Anglicanorum Coetibus was primarily aimed at the Traditional Anglican Communion, which formally petitioned the Holy See in October of 2007 for such a mechanism to effect corporate reunion with the Catholic Church. After prayer and reflection, this historic appeal on the part of the bishops and vicars-general of the TAC was unanimous and ultimately expressed in the solemn act of signing the Catechism of the Catholic Church, its Compendium, and the Petition to the Holy See in the context of Holy Mass. In the intervening two years, there have been minor changes in the makeup of the TAC College of Bishops, and, of course, the bishops now have the Holy Father’s offer in hand, but the commitment of the Communion remains solid. As Archbishop Hepworth stated in a letter to members of the College of Bishops only yesterday:
…it is the policy of our College, and therefore of the whole Traditional Anglican Communion, to seek unity with the Holy See in the terms of the Petition.
But while the TAC is committed to moving forward — and as expeditiously as possible — the practical considerations which derive from the corporate nature of this transition must not be underestimated. Apart from concerns about liturgy, ordination, and the process for the reception of laity which must be referred to the Holy See, there are complex legal and organizational questions peculiar to the present configuration of TAC entities which must be addressed. How do we migrate our existing legal structures, property, trusts, &c. into the new personal ordinariates? How will we maintain the bonds of communion with — and honor our commitments to — those who remain behind or have yet to make the transition?
And, of course, FiF UK (the other significant group to whom the Apostolic Constitution was addressed) has unique problems of its own…
I want to reassure the readers of The Anglo-Catholic that there is a tremendous amount of work going on behind the scenes to answer these challenging questions to which I have alluded. Much depends on next month’s meeting of Anglican bishops with the CDF; only in the aftermath of this consultation will we have received clarification on a number of key issues. Having established the foundational points, things will finally begin to proceed apace. The bishops of the TAC and Forward in Faith have much work ahead of them — curial consultations, episcopal conferences, presbyteral councils, standing committee meetings, synods must all be conducted — and the next several months will, no doubt, be stressful for the faithful shepherds who have brought us thus far. Please pray for them!
It is understandable that many people are anxious. After all, we have seen human pride — both on the part of Anglicans and Roman Catholics — scuttle many a scheme for reunion. But those to whom the Apostolic Constitution is addressed are pressing ahead. I would simply caution folks to have realistic expectations. It has taken faithful Anglican Catholics over four hundred years to reach this point — another six months or so is not that much more to ask! To despair of the fact that hundreds of thousands of Anglicans have not yet been received into the Catholic Church via the (non-existant) personal ordinariates is extraordinarily naïve and such an attitude can not help but mislead people who are not well-informed. By all reasonable standards, this process is moving at an extremely rapid pace.
The Smoke of Satan
Feb 17th
Damian Thompson has commented on the despicable report by The Guardian blogger Andrew Brown of a “leaked” email from the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Andrew Burnham, to Melbourne auxiliary (and the Australian bishops’ delegate for Anglicanorum Coetibus), Bishop Peter Elliott. This whole episode is reprehensible, but I am moved to offer a few observations and a short reflection on the matter. My emphases and comments.
* * *
The cloak and dagger Catholics
An email from an Anglican ‘flying bishop’ to a Catholic bishop in Australia sheds light on the machinations of the Anglo-Catholics
An extraordinary correspondence has fallen into my hands showing some of the detail of the Anglo-Catholic intrigues about their departure from the Church of England. [I think that it's the other way around.] It shows the Anglican “flying bishop” of Ebbsfleet, Andrew Burnham, conspiring with a sympathetic Roman Catholic bishop in Australia to work behind the back of the Catholic bishops here. He talks about his “cloak and dagger” correspondence with a sympathiser in the Vatican, and suggests that he can write personally to Pope Benedict XVI to smooth things over if his correspondent is caught. This may come as news to the pope.
Firstly, we have to assume that the email is genuine (did Mr. Brown confirm its authenticity with either the sender or the recipient?). And why is it that Mr. Brown has not seen fit to publish the message in its entirety? Certainly quoted passages such as “clearly a charming man … but not everything he says … synchronises fully with what we know from other sources” are open to interpretation (and look as if their sense has been manipulated).
And does Mr. Brown really think it surprising that FiF UK might be working directly with the Roman authorities, bypassing a bishops’ conference which, even now, is working to undermine Anglicanorum Coetibus? I am happy to independently confirm from my TAC sources, for what it’s worth, that no one in Rome trusts the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales to deal charitably with incoming Anglicans!
The Australian bishop, Peter Elliott, is himself an Anglican convert [Boo, hiss!], and is in charge of the pope’s outreach to Anglican opponents of women priests in Australia [Yeah, we're "disaffected" too.]. Most of these are grouped in a body called the Traditional Anglican Communion, which claims to have half a million members world wide: Burnham warns Bishop Elliott against complete confidence in their leader, Archbishop Hepworth (“clearly a charming man … but not everything he says … synchronises fully with what we know from other sources”).
I’d like to see the full quotation in context. Still, it seems quite a stretch to characterize this as a warning that Bishop Elliott should not have confidence in the TAC Primate. I have the opportunity to consult with (extremely well-placed) TAC and FiF UK sources almost daily and I can personally vouch for the fact that there is a lack of “synchronicity” all around. There is a good deal about the future of the personal ordinariate scheme that is, for the moment, uncertain. Mr. Brown obviously desires to interpret this uncertainty as division or suspicion.
I would also point out that, much to the chagrin of the pundits, history has shown (so far) Archbishop Hepworth to have been correct at every turn. Today we take the revolution of Anglicanorum Coetibus for granted, but before October 20, 2009, it was merely the fantastic dream of the TAC Primate, a dream which certainly failed to synchronize fully with what the experts thought they knew from other sources.
But the passage which will cause discomfort in this country is this:
“I am taking the liberty of mentioning, in confidence and with his permission, that we are in touch with Mgr Patrick Burke at the CDF [the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]. It has all felt a little bit like Elizabethan espionage but, truly, the informal contact with the CDF has been invaluable, and, if ever Mgr Burke got into trouble, I should write to the pope and say how splendidly helpful he has been.
This is not known about fully in England and Wales because we are trying to ensure that the whole Anglicanorum Coetibus project, which will begin in small ways, is not smothered by the management anxieties of a hierarchy, some of whom think that Anglicans are best off doing what they are presently doing and some of whom think the project would impact adversely on the Catholic Church in England. Needless to say Fr Pat’s help, and the support of Archbishop DiNoia, need, to a lesser extent, to be protected from disapproval at higher levels of the dicastery [Vatican department]. Hence the cloak and dagger.”
Anglicanorum Coetibus is the pope’s plan to allow disaffected Anglicans to convert as a group, and to keep their own bishops. As Bishop Burnham says, the Catholic hierarchy in this country is not enthusiastic about the prospect. The plan was sprung on Archbishop Vincent Nichols, the head of the Catholic church in England and Wales, with very little notice and although attention at the time was concentrated on the obvious discomfort of Rowan Williams, the Catholic archbishop had known no more than him.
This is the whole point. The Apostolic Constitution was “sprung” on the Archbishop of Westminster and the other English bishops precisely because the CDF did not trust them to respond obediently and charitably to the will of the Holy Father. And they have not reformed since! ”Hence the cloak and dagger.”
It’s still not clear how much autonomy the Anglican “ordinariates” will have; but Bishop Elliott told an Australian audience they would be comparable to the Eastern churches in communion with Rome; the Maronite Christians of the Lebanon, and the formerly orthodox “Uniate” churches of the Ukraine. “The structure … is much closer to an Eastern Rite Church in its autonomy than some might imagine.”
Yes, Bishop Elliott said that the Anglican personal ordinariates would be similar to these Eastern structures in some respects. This is exactly what Archbishop Hepworth has said all along. To beat a long-dead horse:
There will be an Anglican leader who relates to the Holy See on behalf of the Anglican Catholics. Thus establishing a body that is Anglican Catholic as distinct from Roman Catholic, Ukrainian Catholic, Maronite Catholic, or whatever. It’s not a rite but it looks awfully like one… (Archbishop Hepworth at the 2009 National Assembly of FiF UK)
This kind of autonomy, a church within the church, has long been the dream of the former Anglicans who converted in the early 70s. But it is not what the Catholic hierarchy thinks it is getting in this country. Monsignor Andrew Faley, the assistant secretary to the Bishops’ conference here, said “He’s wrong – he’s not entirely right, would be more ecclesially correct … Uniate status is concerned with rite; but the Anglican liturgy is so close to ours that it’s not possible in this case. The Pope asked our bishops to ‘be generous’ and in asking this was recognising their generosity to be genuine. Their hospitality to former Anglicans is 100% assured and the authority of the Church in working this out rests with the bishops’ conferences and not with the CDF.”
Allow me be very blunt. I would not trust a single thing Msgr. Faley has to say about the matter. This spokesman for the obstructionists has already been sent out to spread disinformation about the Apostolic Constitution (and was smacked down by Rome for it, as I understand).
This nonsense about “uniate status” (and it is most assuredly nonsense) is simply a misdirection. The Apostolic Constitution and the Complementary Norms speak for themselves — and these documents do provide for an ordinary authority that will exist independently of — and in no way subject to — the local territorial dioceses or the national episcopal conference. The English Catholic hierarchy may not yet fully appreciate this — and they certainly won’t like it when they do — but it’s coming nonetheless.
And Msgr. Faley’s contention that the Holy Father recognizes the English bishops’ generosity is utterly laughable! Is he speaking of the same Joseph Ratzinger, who, just a few short years ago, asked, “Why are the English bishops so unapostolic?” Were the Holy Father to be assured of the genuine nature of the bishops’ generosity, he would hardly need to ask. In this request, Msgr. Faley would, no doubt, like to be assured that Rome intends the bishops’ conference to have a decisive role in the erection of the English ordinariate. I think he’s going to be sorely disappointed.
But no groups have yet actually approached the Roman Catholic authorities in this country, according to Mgr Faley.
Why should they? Applications for the erection of a personal ordinariate will go directly to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Do not pass the bishops’ conference. Do not collect $200. As I wrote a few days ago:
On the subject of bishops’ welcoming committees, I will also note that it is the understanding of the TAC bishops involved in discussions with Rome that the two principal parties to be involved in the erection of any future personal ordinariates are 1) the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; and 2) the interested Anglican group itself – and that all applications must originate from the Anglican group seeking full communion. Local episcopal conferences will be consulted in due course, but the notion that these bodies will be the originators (or even decisive factors in the erection) of the new structures (as the episcopal conferences in England and Wales and Australia seem to think and as Cardinal DiNardo has recently suggested) seems to run contrary to the intentions of the CDF.
There is plenty of work going on behind the scenes. And, I am proud to say, at the present moment, the readers of The Anglo-Catholic are just as informed as most English Catholic bishops.
The other intriguing admission in Bishop Burnham’s letter is that “the project … will start in small ways”. This suggests that enthusiasm for the ordinariates is still much greater among the priests and bishops who hope to lead it than among the ordinary Anglicans who are supposed to follow them and fill its churches.
* * *
If the Holy Father’s offer in the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus is indeed a movement of the Holy Spirit, it should come as no surprise that the Enemy will stop at nothing to destroy it. Whoever leaked this message, and the one who published it, knowingly or unknowingly, are his instruments.
In the coming several months, Anglican groups around the world will request of the Holy See the erection of personal ordinariates and will begin to cross the threshold into the full communion and unity of the Catholic Church. The timing of this “leak” is not a coincidence. Just this past Saturday, Forward in Faith Australia directed its National Council “to foster by every means the establishing of an Ordinariate in Australia.” In just a few days, on February 22, the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, Anglicans in Forward in Faith UK, led by the provincial episcopal visitors, will be praying for discernment. Beginning on March 1, the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America (TAC) will convene in Orlando, Florida; the ACA bishops, together with Primate John Hepworth, will be joined on March 2 by representatives of FiF UK (the Bishop of Fulham) and the Anglican Use/Pastoral Provision in the USA. This conference will be an important step in formulating our response to Anglicanorum Coetibus. In mid-March, bishops of the TAC and Forward in Faith will be in Rome to consult with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and to seek clarification on a number of important points. In Low Week, the College of Bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion will meet in Rome. And it is expected that the first personal ordinariates will be erected as soon as the end of June 2010.
The Adversary who has thwarted our desire for corporate reunion with the rest of the Western Church for over 400 years now sees that our vindication is at hand! He despises our Holy Father and all who would cooperate with him. And as we move ever closer, we should expect that more manipulative reports like this one from Andrew Brown will surface.
I have had the opportunity to hear from so many readers of The Anglo-Catholic who are patiently waiting for news from Archbishop Hepworth, the PEVs, sources in Rome, or even the Holy Father himself. Many of you visit the site several times a day for the latest information (which I, of course, very much appreciate). And, no doubt, many of you feel like there is nothing that you can do to help. This ecclesiastical politics, after all, seems to be the exclusive province of insiders — priests, bishops, archbishops, and even popes! But there is something you can do to help. Pray! Pray for the Holy Father. Pray for the shepherds of the Anglican groups who will shortly be leading their people into full communion with the Holy See. Pray that God beat down Satan — and our many enemies — under our feet. And never for a moment underestimate the forces arrayed against us!
Bishop Elliott Clears the Air
Feb 5th
In his article United in Communion, but Not Absorbed: Understanding the Pope’s Welcome, Bishop Peter Elliott helps set the record straight, confirming the public statements of Archbishop Hepworth and the analysis of The Anglo-Catholic which have been questioned by armchair theologians and Internet controversialists, who, through their own study of the Apostolic Constitution, have concluded that the TAC’s characterizations of the scheme provided by Anglicanorum Coetibus were unsupported by the plain reading of the texts. The Apostolic Constitution, we are told, is but a slightly more generous revision of the Pastoral Provision in the USA, now extended throughout the world — and those who believe otherwise are simply deluding themselves (or else falling into a popish trap!). Bishop Elliott, the delegate of the Australian Catholic bishops’ conference for the implementation of Anglicanorum Coetibus, a former curial official and distinguished liturgist, has gone on the record to support the genuine interpretation of the Holy Father’s most gracious invitation to Anglican Catholics.
The Pastor of the nations is reaching out to give you a special place within the Catholic Church. United in communion, but not absorbed – that sums up the unique and privileged status former Anglicans will enjoy in their Ordinariates.
Catholics in full communion with the Successor of St Peter, you will be gathered in distinctive communities that preserve elements of Anglican worship, spirituality and culture that are compatible with Catholic faith and morals.
The detractors of the Apostolic Constitution interpret the injunctions requiring cooperation between the Anglican ordinary and the local Roman Catholic bishop as the subordination of the personal ordinariate. The local bishop will interfere with the personal ordinariates at every step, they say, preventing their erection wherever he is able, vetoing the decisions of the Anglican ordinaries, and generally making things as difficult as possible. The “converts” will only begrudgingly be allowed to retain a few incidentals of Anglicanism. There will be no honored place for a genuine expression of our tradition in the Catholic Church.
Bishop Elliott echoes the words of Dom Lambert Beauduin at the Malines Conversations: “The Anglican Church united but not absorbed.” We are to have a “unique and privileged status” in the Catholic Church.
Each Ordinariate will be an autonomous structure, like a diocese, but something between a Personal Prelature (as in Opus Dei, purely spiritual jurisdiction), or a Military Ordinariate (for the Armed Forces). In some ways, the Ordinariate will even be similar to a Rite (the Eastern Catholic Churches). You will enjoy your own liturgical “use” as Catholics of the Roman Rite.
This is reminiscent of Archbishop Hepworth’s characterization of the personal ordinariate structure at the 2009 Forward in Faith UK National Assembly.
There will be an Anglican leader who relates to the Holy See on behalf of the Anglican Catholics. Thus establishing a body that is Anglican Catholic as distinct from Roman Catholic, Ukrainian Catholic, Maronite Catholic, or whatever. It’s not a rite but it looks awfully like one…
Legally, the personal ordinariates will be part of the larger Latin Rite, governed by the Code of Canon Law, but the provisions for our unique Anglican liturgical use, elements of our synodical tradition, and our practice of married clergy, for examples, will give the new structures many of the distinguishing characteristics of a ritual church.
There is no “hidden agenda” here, no popish trap! So beware of warnings from certain traditional Anglican bloggers or pamphleteers. They distort the Pope’s offer because they cling to small fiefdoms and purist enclaves – where they do as they wish. Indeed, the Ordinariates come under the discipline of the Church and her laws, but the Code of Canon Law is also a detailed charter of our rights as clergy and laity.
And we know who these folks are, of course… unless… wait… could Bishop Elliott himself be part of the papist plot?
In the end, I am sure that Bishop Elliott’s analysis will prove true. Few of our people will reject the Holy Father’s offer on theological grounds. These are almost always a cover for meaner excuses. It’s much easier to “cling to small fiefdoms and purist enclaves” — where everyone’s a canon, a bishop, or even a metropolitan — than to sacrifice for the unity of Christ’s Church. It’s much less demanding when everyone’s his own pope.
Yet you do not come to the Ordinariates with empty hands. As I learnt forty two years ago, you will lose nothing – but you will regain an inheritance stolen from us four centuries ago. That heritage was largely recovered by the giants of the Oxford Movement. I believe they smile on us now. In these early days, let us keep praying with them, so that together we may patiently work out how Pope Benedict’s project can be achieved.
I do hope we’ll lose a few things, actually. While valuing all that is good and true in the English Reformation, we must forever lose our sectarianism and anything and everything that does not accord with the Catholic Faith that comes to us from the Apostles. Above all, we must lose our pride — and finally submit to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church in humility and with filial obedience to the Successor of St. Peter, to whom we owe a tremendous debt for allowing us to finally achieve that goal of “united but not absorbed” that we have so long desired.
Fr. Z on Archbishop Hepworth Interview and Papal Address to Bishops
Feb 2nd
Of course, most of you have already dropped by Father Z’s What Does the Prayer Really Say? blog once or twice. But just in case you missed these posts, here are links and excerpts. First on Archbishop Hepworth (his bolds and comments in red):
“The ball is in our court. We asked for this and this is what we got. This is becoming Anglican Catholics, not Roman Catholics,” Archbishop Hepworth said, speaking from Australia. [Anglican Catholics, not Roman Catholics.]
-snip-
“So our way of doing theology is there, as is our way of discipline. Our group will have the right to elect our bishops. We asked the CDF for election by council. They laughed at us at first, but we got it. [!] We are also working with a commission with Forward in Faith to produce our liturgy. [They will have to make some adaptations.] We signed the Catechism as ‘the most complete and authentic expression and application of the Catholic faith in this moment of time’.
“We did that to put our commitment beyond dispute, but we did not have to agree to Apostolicae Curae [which declares Anglican orders absolutely null and utterly void], because that is not in the Catechism.” [!]
A consultation was taking place on “reordination in the TAC context”. “We separated from the Anglican Church. Some left because of sacramental and doctrinal issues, and have got lost. We chose to take up ARCIC [the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission], and we have got what we wanted. People who said we could not are having to eat humble pie, and I am sinfully enjoying that.”
The Archbishop said that he was issuing TAC’s original 2007 petition to the CDF at the same time as his pastoral letter.
In his letter, he writes: “Re-ordination is an issue because the Church requires absolute certainty in the matter of future sacramental life. I have been told that the TAC should understand this because we ourselves moved beyond the Angli-can Communion in order to ensure the validity of sacramental life. Rome is now seeking the same assurance.” [Reasonable. Entirely]
The Apostolic Constitution “speaks of Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church. There at the outset are the three critical factors: Anglicans, full communion and Catholic Church.”
Cool, eh? Now here is Father Z on the Holy Father’s most excellent exhortation to the bishops of England and Wales. Some excerpts (with his bolds and remarks in red):
Ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue assume great importance in England and Wales, given the varied demographic profile of the population. As well as encouraging you in your important work in these areas, I would ask you to be generous in implementing the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, so as to assist those groups of Anglicans who wish to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. [And they are traditional Anglicans.] I am convinced that, if given a warm and open-hearted welcome, such groups will be a blessing for the entire Church.
Of course, we here at The Anglo-Catholic love what Pope Benedict XVI said, not only about us, but also about the importance of speaking the truth in the public square and not watering down the Church’s message.
However this salient portion (with Father Z’s bolds and comments) is causing an uproar in the mainstream British media:
Your country is well known for its firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all members of society. Yet as you have rightly pointed out, the effect of some of the legislation designed to achieve this goal has been to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs. In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed. [Here goes…] I urge you as Pastors to ensure that the Church’s moral teaching be always presented in its entirety and convincingly defended. Fidelity to the Gospel in no way restricts the freedom of others – on the contrary, it serves their freedom by offering them the truth. Continue to insist upon your right to participate in national debate through respectful dialogue with other elements in society. In doing so, you are not only maintaining long-standing British traditions of freedom of expression and honest exchange of opinion, but you are actually giving voice to the convictions of many people who lack the means to express them: when so many of the population claim to be Christian, how could anyone dispute the Gospel’s right to be heard? [Note the connection between the clear teaching of faith and the need to have an impact in the public square? The connecting term is our Catholic identity. If we don’t have a strong identity, we have nothing of interest to offer in the public square. This is what I have been hammering at for years regarding Pope Benedict’s plan,"Marshall Plan", for the Church. He is trying to rebuild, revitalize our devastated Catholic identity.]
Don’t you love it when there’s a lot of red on Father Z’s blog?
Here’s an example of how this is playing in the U.K., though, and the Holy Father’s remarks have fanned up the ire of the secularist fundies (aka the useful idiots of the Western Civilisation’s attempted suicide). Ruth Gledhill of The Times has the following on her blog (my bolds and comments in red):
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster today attempted to defuse a row that threatens to overshadow the Pope’s forthcoming visit to Britain by claiming that Benedict XVI was merely giving voice to what many people felt when he attacked this country’s record of promoting equal rights for gays. [!!!!! Gag me. No, Ruth, he is saying that promoting equal rights for gays should not then mean that suddenly Catholics or any other group's religious freedom becomes a casualty of one-size-fits all politically-correct orthodoxies that crush everyone else's freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of conscience.]
Surprise at the Pope’s remarks was today giving way in Britain to more determined opposition to his views, with the National Secular Society vowing to set up a Protest the Pope campaign to hold demonstrations during Benedict’s visit. [I'm sure the pope is quivering in his boots]
Ruth is such a nice person. But such a liberal Anglican. Thus, I wonder if she has any insight into how the liberal orthodoxy is itself fundamentalist position that squelches true pluralism and freedom of thought and action. Why cannot there be space for a robust Catholic position and practice in the public square and in their own hospitals, adoption agencies and so on AND a recognition of the rights of gays and lesbians to robustly defend their position and create their own adoption agencies, etc. without forcing their sexual dogma on the rest of society?
Alas, when the radical jihadists come knocking, the secular fundies will cave and resort to appeasement and gays will be thrown under the bus. As the prophetic and humorous Mark Steyn wrote in Macleans Magazine last year:
Yet the shifting hierarchies of multiculturalism are not too hard to discern: in Britain, an educational establishment gung-ho about forcing the kindergartners of evangelical Christians to be taught the joys of same-sex marriage crumbled in nothing flat when Muslim parents in Bristol objected. If it’s a choice between Heather Has Two Mommies or Heather Has Four Mommies And A Big Bearded Daddy Who Wants To Marry Her Off To A Cousin Back In Pakistan, bet on the latter. Any gay couple or blind man with a Seeing Eye dog who takes on a Muslim bed-and-breakfast proprietor will get short shrift from the “human rights” commission. The OHRC is currently champing at the bit to force gay altar servers on Ontario Catholics. At the local mosque, no imam need worry about such state encroachments on religion.
The “human rights” bureaucracy has had a grand run sticking it to Christians and other unfashionable groups. The internal contradictions of the rainbow coalition will prove harder to negotiate.
In other words, the secular fundies so vocally defending the rights of gays to trump the rights of Christians of various stripes will be the first to cave when real persecution begins. And by the way, it’s already happening in cities like Amsterdam and Malmo and elsewhere and only courageous folks like Bruce Bawer speak up about it.
There is only the sounds of crickets chirping in the mainstream media about physical assaults on gays simply for being out on the streets.
It will be only the Catholics, the Evangelical Christians and the Jews who will stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians to live free from the real persecution that is already happening but getting roundly ignored.
Interestingly, it is a gay Jewish friend here in Ottawa who is one of the few who bothers to report on persecution of Christians around the world. We may agree to disagree about same-sex marriage and a host of other things, but he would defend my right to disagree with him and vice versa. What ever happened to that kind of pluralism and willingness to share the public square?
Pastoral Wisdom
Feb 2nd
Whilst the sectarians of the Continuum blog have been trying to trash us as deluded liars or whatever, and our own replies have provoked even more violent responses, the quiet and wise voice of our Archbishop-Primate has gone largely unnoticed. Indeed, a comment was sent to a posting dealing with the recent Pastoral Letter and the eagerly-awaited Letter from Portsmouth to Rome.
There is one eminently pastoral provision coming from our own Archbishop, which shows him in a completely different light from the image our adversaries would like to propose for our judgement. We do not have an irresponsible man seeking his own agenda or even his own “death” as a kamikaze! We have a caring, thoughtful and responsible pastor who is leading us.
I would like to bring up this passage of Archbishop Hepworth’s Pastoral:
What of those who are not yet ready to make this decision?
I have been discussing this question with national groups of our bishops and with some of those whom Catholic Bishops Conferences have appointed to liaise with us. There is no time limit on the acceptance of this Constitution. It is designed to have a lifetime of centuries. Some people are ready and anxious to move now; others are seeking more time for prayer and reflection. Others are confused by the surge of public argument about the Constitution. We are committed to the pastoral care of all our people, those who will quickly move into full communion and those who are not yet ready. We are already discussing the structures for this. The Traditional Anglican Communion will not disappear, but will endure for the same purpose that it was created to fulfil, and which is so clearly described in the text of our petition.
Many of us will be going over as soon as our local Ordinariate is up and running and (presumably) ready to incardinate clergy by groups coming from the TAC. I make no speculation what will happen to me personally, as I have always considered this consideration as off-topic on The Anglo-Catholic. I know many TAC clergy in many countries, together with their faithful, are ready to cross over in a heartbeat.
Others are going to take longer, and I see this paragraph from our Archbishop as an order not to apply any pressure on people who are going to take time in making a decision for whatever reason. The present dispute caused by the rudeness and fanaticism of Rev. Robert Hart and his friends has probably caused a considerable amount of confusion and indecision. I learn they have been going to the extent of writing private letters to our people, effectively proselytising and attempting to “poach”. This also has caused damage, alongside the prejudice many of us Ango-Saxons entertain in regard to the Church of Rome and her worldwide communion in all her Rites.
The boats will not be burned as the first waves of clergy, parishes, missions and people begin to move over. Some will stay behind, for a time, a longer time, for the rest of their lives. There will remain the TAC in some form to look after these people. They will not all be belligerent sectarians, merely people who have grown up Protestant and are invincibly convinced that the Catholic Church is wrong for some reason. We do not have the right to violate their consciences. Religious freedom is a fundamental human right (though the limit of that freedom is the freedom of others).
I have to admit that I find it difficult to imagine what form this “remnant” TAC would take. Would it be staffed by priests who themselves do not cross over? Would there be some way by which priests of the Ordinariates (Catholic priests) could assure some form of pastoral ministry to those who are “not yet ready”? Archbishop Hepworth tells us that these structures and pastoral problems are being discussed.
Rome has been extremely pastoral from the beginning. We are also called to be pastoral. This situation is the very first time that laws are being bent and adapted for the greater pastoral good. It is a new experience for the established Catholic Church. It is also a new experience for us. Flexibility and adaptability are the keywords. We are indeed marching towards the unknown. The old strategies of “bait and switch” and “grab it and run” are over. They are in the past. Rome has no interest in bringing in Anglicans to make us into “Irish Catholics”. Why would they go to the bother of doing that? They had only to leave us out in the cold as conventional wisdom would have dictated.
I think there are surprises to come. The Scribes and Pharisees of our time are going to be shocked and scandalised, just as they were when Jesus forgave the women condemned to be stoned for her sins.
Salus animarum suprema lex – the supreme law is the salvation of souls.
Ordinariate: the sceptics ‘are eating humble pie’
Jan 31st
This article from the Church Times (UK) sent to me by Fr Ian Westby (TTAC-UK). Mention is made of the TAC Bishops’ meeting in Rome after Easter. It’s surprising to see that publication (Church of England) as positive as this towards the TAC. I see Ordinariate in the title in the singular. I suppose the author would have the English Ordinariate in mind as there will be several Ordinariates in the world.
I reproduce quoted direct speech from the Archbishop in bold print.
Ordinariate: the sceptics ‘are eating humble pie’
by Bill Bowder
A meeting of bishops who have petitioned the Pope to be received into full communion while retaining an “Anglican” identity is to take place in Rome in Low Week.
It would be the culmination of the response to Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Constitution (Anglicanorum Coetibus) to establish personal Ordinariates for former Anglicans, Archbishop John Hepworth of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), a Continuing Church, said on Wednesday.
He was due in Rome in three weeks’ time for a meeting with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) after a series of regional TAC synods, and would then, two weeks after Easter, meet most of the bishops who had petitioned the Pope to make their formal response on the Ordinariates.
“The ball is in our court. We asked for this and this is what we got. This is becoming Anglican Catholics, not Roman Catholics,” Archbishop Hepworth said, speaking from Australia.
The letters from the Vatican replying to all those who had responded to the Pope’s offer had now been received. He had followed that with a pastoral letter to TAC members last week.
“After an introduction about church unity, we talk about our original meeting with the CDF. They gave us advice and we followed it. A team of Roman Catholic bishops and scholars were helping us to reflect on unity. They provided a critique of the TAC, and we quote some of that back to them. The TAC wants to achieve communion while ‘maintaining those revered traditions of spirituality, liturgy, discipline and theology that constitute the cherished and centuries-old heritage of Anglican communities throughout the world’.
“So our way of doing theology is there, as is our way of discipline. Our group will have the right to elect our bishops. We asked the CDF for election by council. They laughed at us at first, but we got it. We are also working with a commission with Forward in Faith to produce our liturgy. We signed the Catechism as ‘the most complete and authentic expression and application of the Catholic faith in this moment of time’.
“We did that to put our commitment beyond dispute, but we did not have to agree to Apostolicae Curae [which declares Anglican orders absolutely null and utterly void], because that is not in the Catechism.”
A consultation was taking place on “reordination in the TAC context”. “We separated from the Anglican Church. Some left because of sacramental and doctrinal issues, and have got lost. We chose to take up ARCIC [the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission], and we have got what we wanted. People who said we could not are having to eat humble pie, and I am sinfully enjoying that.”
The Archbishop said that he was issuing TAC’s original 2007 petition to the CDF at the same time as his pastoral letter.
In his letter, he writes: “Re-ordination is an issue because the Church requires absolute certainty in the matter of future sacramental life. I have been told that the TAC should understand this because we ourselves moved beyond the Anglican Communion in order to ensure the validity of sacramental life. Rome is now seeking the same assurance.”
The Apostolic Constitution “speaks of Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church. There at the outset are the three critical factors: Anglicans, full communion and Catholic Church.”
Anglican Church in America Developments
Jan 30th
Virtue Online has posted the text of a recent email message sent by Bishop Louis Campese (TAC/ACA Diocese of the Eastern United States) to his diocesan clergy. We will not reproduce the text of the message here as a matter of principle. The message was evidently shared with David Virtue by one of the original recipients and without the bishop’s permission. As there is nothing especially secret about the contents of the bishop’s message, we will confirm the following details here.
In the last week of February, the Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, Archbishop John Hepworth, with Bishop Robert Mercer, Bishop Peter Wilkinson, and Archbishop Louis Falk, will be in Rome to meet with officials of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. After the public release of Anglicanorum Coetibus, the TAC bishops, after consultation with clergy and laity, compiled a short list of the most pressing practical questions regarding the implementation of the Apostolic Constitution. The purpose of the meeting(s) with the CDF is to get answers to these important questions and to discuss the logistics of the implementation process moving forward.
At the invitation of Bishop Campese, the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America, joined by Archbishop Hepworth, will meet in Orlando, Florida beginning March 1, 2010 to discuss the implementation of Anglicanorum Coetibus in the ACA. Bishop John Broadhurst, provincial episcopal visitor for the Church of England Dioceses of London, Southwark, and Rochester and Chairman of Forward in Faith, and representatives of the Anglican Use/Pastoral Provision, including Fr. Christopher Phillips, pastor of Our Lady of the Atonement, San Antonio, Texas, will present at the conference at the invitation of Archbishop Falk.
After these meetings, Bishop Campese will convene a special meeting of the DEUS Standing Committee and a convocation of the entire diocesan presbyterate to discuss any developments.
Rite of Mass Approved in the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia on August 15th, 2003
Jan 28th
I have found that the rite of Mass approved by Archbishop Hepworth for the TAC in Australia is of interest and certainly represents the kind of liturgical patrimony we would like to see approved by the Holy See. However, I do have a few reserves which I express in a spirit of respect and deference to my canonical superior.
My comments are in blue and the rubrics are in red.
* * *
As the priest and other ministers enter, a hymn or psalm appropriate to the Season may be sung. Then the priest goes to the foot of the altar and says:
Priest: +In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
People: Amen.
Priest: I will go unto the altar of God!
People: Even unto the God of my joy and gladness!
This is similar to the 1965 Roman rite. The Give sentence with me psalm has always been omitted at Requiem Masses. No big deal.
The following Collect for Purity in the Use of Sarum is said before the Judica me after after the Veni Creator said during the vesting of the priest. I approve its being placed here.
Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
“On the Gathering of Anglicans”
Jan 27th
“On the Gathering of the Anglicans”
The Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus
A Pastoral Letter to the Bishops, Clergy and Faithful of the Traditional Anglican Communion
20th January 2010
My Dear Fathers, Brothers and Sisters,
Introduction: the dreams of Christian unity
Few things could be expected to excite more controversy than the reunion of churches that have long been living in animosity.
Europe, and the world that Europe colonised, has been shaped in its languages, its politics, its law, as well as its religion, in large part by those animosities. The identity and culture of people and nations have been significantly shaped by religious conflict and division.
The healing of religious division has been one of the most welcome features of 20th century Christianity. The great conflicts of the last century between Christianity and communism, and between Christianity and Fascism, that turned that century into one of the most persecuting since the great persecutions of the Roman Empire, diminished the sense of division and emphasised the wisdom of unity.
In the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church embraced the vision of unity. For Anglicans, dramatic meetings occurred between Archbishops of Canterbury and Bishops of Rome. With great optimism the two churches embarked on theological examinations of the issues that had divided them for centuries and began what at first were tentative and awkward steps in cooperation. Even praying in each other’s churches demanded a confrontation with the habits and assumptions of generations.
At the same time, Christians in Europe and in the Third World began to experience the challenges of a militant and fundamentalist Islam. Confrontation and persecution began afresh. In Europe and the developed world, a renewed interest in pagan and humanist philosophy, combined with a diminished sense of identity of Christians with their churches led to a dramatic diminishing of religious practice and belief.
It was against this background that the Anglican/Roman Catholic dialogue took place. At first optimistic, the dream of full organic unity – what Pope Paul VI described as the supreme grace of true and perfect unity in faith and communion – faded from reality.
I raise these issues because it is of great importance now that people in our Communion clearly understand why Archbishop Falk, Bishop Crawley of Canada and myself stood in St Peter’s Square, Rome some 17 years ago. We had spent the day with the Pontifical Council for Christian unity, briefing it on the developments within the Anglican Communion that had led to the formation of the Traditional Anglican Communion and of our yearning for the unity that was even then becoming improbable between the Anglican Communion and Rome. The publication by Pope Benedict XVI of the Apostolic Constitution is the culmination of the prayers, dreams and efforts of Traditional Anglican Communion bishops for a quarter of a century, and of the prayers, dreams and efforts of many other Anglicans around the world. In his recent letter to our bishops, Cardinal Levada spoke to us of the delicate process of discernment that will no doubt need to be embarked upon by many of our Anglican brothers and sisters, and no less of the many difficult practical issues that will need to be faced. I speak to you now, as the one whom my fellow bishops elected to carry through the work of unity between the Traditional Anglican Communion and the Holy See, to assist and deepen that delicate process of discernment.
Text of the TAC Petition to the Holy See
Jan 27th
The following is the complete text of the October 2007 Portsmouth Letter, the Petition of the Bishops and Vicars General of the Traditional Anglican Communion to the Holy See. Though excerpts of this document have been released to the media, the full text has remained confidential pending a formal response from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as is normal in such circumstances. As the CDF has formally responded to the TAC bishops and vicars general, it is now published exclusively on The Anglo-Catholic at the behest of Archbishop John Hepworth, Primate of the TAC.
In the coming days, we will publish additional analysis and commentary on the Petition — and the Primate’s long-awaited pastoral letter (the release of which is imminent) will also reflect on the Portsmouth Letter — but, for now, I would refer readers to the recent post entitled “The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Papal Infallibility, and the TAC“ which lays the foundation for discussion of the doctrinal significance of this landmark letter.
* * *
From the Bishops and Vicars General of the Traditional Anglican Communion, gathered in Plenary Meeting at Portsmouth, England, in the Church of Saint Agatha, to the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, concerning their desire for unity with the See of Peter.
5th October 2007
Grace and peace in the Name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour!
“A new hope arises that those who rejoice in the name of Christians, but are nevertheless separated from this apostolic see, hearing the voice of the divine Shepherd, may be able to make their way into the one Church of Christ….to seek and to follow that unity which Jesus Christ implored from his Heavenly father with such fervent prayers.”
In these words in his moto proprio, Superno De Nutu, the Blessed John XXIII, responded to the visit of Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher.
A few years later, in the Sistine Chapel, in March 1966, the next Bishop of Rome, Paul VI, told the next Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, that he should look on his journey as an approach to a home:
As you cross the threshold we want you especially to feel that you are not entering the house of a stranger but that this is your home, here you have a right to be.
The Holy Father warned of the difficulty of the task of bringing about the unity of “the Church of Rome and the Church of Canterbury”:
In the field of doctrine and ecclesiastical law, we are still respectively distinct and distant; for now it must be so, for the reverence due to truth and to freedom; until such time as we may merit the supreme grace of true and perfect unity in faith and communion.
The next day, at the Basilica of Saint Paul’s Without the Walls, the Holy Father placed his ring on the Archbishop’s finger. They had just signed the Joint Declaration that was intended to begin a dialogue that would lead to full communion between Anglicans and the See of Rome. The Pope used the phrases “our dear sister church” and “united but not absorbed’. These phrases inspired Anglicans who yearned for the reuniting of the Anglican Communion with the Holy See. They waited in prayerful optimism for the fulfillment of the work of the Anglican – Roman Catholic International Commission. The Lambeth Conference of 1968 powerfully endorsed the approach to the Holy See of the Archbishop and the proposed work of the Commission. The Holy Father noted this acceptance in his homily at the Canonization of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales in 1970, when he reflected on the nature of the unity that he anticipated:
There will be no seeking to lessen the prestige and usage proper to the Anglican Church.
These words exchanged between Anglican bishops and the Holy See transformed centuries of profound mistrust and unconsummated dreams of unity.
Traditionalist Anglicans Prepare Response to Holy See
Jan 22nd
By Anna Arco
22 January 2010
The bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) are to give the Vatican their answer to the new Anglican provision.
Archbishop John Hepworth, the primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, a group of Anglican churches which have broken away from the mainstream Anglican Communion, said the bishops would come together at Easter to formulate a response to the Pope’s decree Anglicanorum coetibus.
The Anglican provision allows groups of Anglicans who consider themselves Catholic to enter into full communion with Rome while maintaining aspects of their heritage and identity. The document provides a new canonical provision called a Personal Ordinariate which most resembles the structure of military dioceses.
In 2007 the leaders of the TAC signed a petition to the Holy See asking for “corporate reunion with the Holy See” as well as “a communal and ecclesial way of being Anglican Catholics in communion with the Holy See, at once treasuring the full expression of Catholic faith and treasuring our tradition within which we have come to this moment”.
According to Archbishop Hepworth, the bishops and vicar generals have each received a letter from Cardinal William Levada, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, saying that the recent decree constituted “the definitive response of the Holy See” not only to the TAC’s original request but also to “but also to the many others of a similar nature which have been submitted over the last years”.
Archbishop Hepworth said the letter from Cardinal Levada would allow the bishops belonging to TAC to move towards making a decision about taking up the Pope’s offer of Personal Ordinariates. He said that he would produce a commentary on the decree for the TAC in the coming week and would release the full text of the original petition made by the members of the group in 2007.
Emphasising that the process of discernment “concerns the primary command of Jesus to His Church”, he said the process could not be hurried.
But he also made it clear that a delay in making a “implementing the fullness of communion” that the traditionalist Anglicans had sought “would be in serious defiance of the will of Jesus for his Church”. He outlined the steps the college of bishops and the traditionalist communion as a whole would have to take towards making a decision. TAC, he said, was already in talks with liaison bishops of bishops’ conferences around the world.
Archbishop Hepworth plans to meet with TAC members in Japan, Central America, the United States, Canada, Australia New Zealand and the Torres Strait in the coming weeks. Regional meetings of bishop, clergy and people are being organised to discuss Anglicanorum Coetibus.
After the meeting of the full college of bishops at Easter, they will make a formal response to the Holy See, which will be followed by canonical steps in the churches belonging to TAC.
The news came days after Pope Benedict XVI said the desire of the groups of Anglicans wishing to be in full communion with Rome revealed the ultimate aim of the ecumenical movement which was “the full and visible communion of the disciples the Lord”.
Pope Benedict was speaking to the members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and thanked them for their work in “the full integration of groups and individuals of former Anglican faithful into the life of the Catholic Church, in accordance with the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus”.
He said: “The faithful adherence of these groups to the truth received from Christ and presented in the Magisterium of the Church is in no way contrary to the ecumenical movement… rather, it reveals the ultimate aim thereof, which is the realisation of the full and visible communion of the disciples of the Lord.”
