Foot traffic reported from England heading toward Rome

As you likely know, the Church of England is officially all for bishopettes. And enough is enough for some Anglicans, as Damian Thompson of The Telegraph reports:

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, is to lead his fellow Anglo-Catholics from the Church of England into the Roman Catholic Church, the Catholic Herald will reveal this week.

Bishop Burnham, one of two "flying bishops" in the province of Canterbury, has made a statement asking Pope Benedict XVI and the English Catholic bishops for "magnanimous gestures" that will allow traditionalists to become Catholics en masse.

He is confident that this will happen, following talks in Rome with Cardinal Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Kasper, the Vatican's head of ecumenism. He was accompanied on his visit by the Rt Rev Keith Newton, Bishop of Richborough, the other Canterbury "flying bishop", who is expected to follow his example.

Bishop Burnham hopes that Rome will offer special arrangements whereby former Anglicans can stay worshipping in parishes under the guidance of a Catholic bishop. Most of these parishes already use the Roman liturgy, but there may be provision for Anglican prayers if churches request it.

Anglican priests who are already married will not be barred from ordination as priests, though Bishop Burnham would not be able to continue in episcopal orders, as he is married and there is an absolute bar on married bishops in the Roman and Orthodox Churches.

The Vatican responds to the news from the C of E, as reported by Catholic World News:

In a statement released after the Anglican synod vote, the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity said that the Church of England was making "a break with the apostolic tradition maintained by all of the churches of the first millennium." That step, the statement continued, constitutes "a further obstacle to reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Church of England."

Cardinal Walter Kasper (bio - news), the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, had warned Anglican leaders that the approval of female bishops would jeopardize dialogue "which had up until now borne fruit," the Vatican statement noted.

Cardinal Kasper delivered that warning in June 2006, when he spoke to the bishops of the Church of England at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The cardinal has been invited to address Anglican leaders once again when the Lambeth Conference convenes later this month.

Meanwhile, one Catholic is less than thrilled that Anglican bishops who went along with priestettes are now setting sail toward the barque of Peter:

Only now, 14 years later, when it is proposed to promote priestesses to the Anglican episcopate, are these prelates moved to approach Rome. This is church politics, not conversion. Where do these gentry stand, for example, on Transubstantiation, Papal infallibility, or artificial contraception? The Catholic Church does not exist to provide a funk hole for pick 'n' mix Anglicans upset by the prospect of gays and girls on the episcopal bench. It is a comprehensive deposit of faith which the believer accepts in its entirety.

If these people have truly been moved to conversion, they should return publicly to the lay state which the document "Apostolicae Curae" of Leo XIII confirmed is the actual condition of those in Anglican orders, pray, take instruction and make formal submission to the Sovereign Roman Pontiff.

Former Anglican priest Fr. Dwight Longenecker has some predictions:

1. Anglo Catholicism will endure. Some Anglican priests will still do worship in a Catholic way. They've been Catholic congregationalists all along anyway. They'll just pull up the drawbridges even more. They'll probably be allowed to keep their 'flying bishops' arrangement a bit longer. Even when that is withdrawn many of them will learn how to get used to female clergy. They've always operated within their own little 'church within a church'. That will simply become more pronounced.

2. Evangelical Anglicanism will survive. Like the ACs, they've always done their own thing anyway. They've always had their own theological colleges, mission boards etc etc. They'll just ally themselves with FOCA and continue to be a church within a church.

3. The Liberals will dominate the existing ruling structures of the church, but they'll find that the only people they have to rule are themselves and their cronies. They'll have won a Pyrrhic victory. Like winning the toss at a football game, then finding that the other team decided to take the ball and play somewhere else.

Out of all this there are two things that are certain: Large scale ecumenism with the Catholic Church is definitely over. There's no point talking with the Anglican Communion. They spit in our face every time. Furthermore, there is no way a unified body could be identified to talk with even if we wanted to. Ecumenism will now be with individuals and smaller groups.

Check out his blog, Standing On My Head, for much more about the Anglican situation.

Much, much more water in this stream, I'm sure.

Comments

[Telemachus]

I'm confused by the statement by the Vatican. Was there some hope of reconcilliation despite female priestettes to begin with? As others have noted, CoE has gone as far as this, so why not bishops? Was there some sort of hope that CoE would go back on this decision?

[LJ]

For those of us who, in the interests of clarity, have accepted Carl's use of the term "priestettes" to denote a woman who believes herself to be a priest, it seems that a corresponding term has not been yet coined for those women who believe that they have been validly ordained to the episcopacy. This discussion of the Anglican communion brought this once more to my mind. I cannot say that I agonized over it, but the answer was provided today, quite inadvertently by a radio commentator discussing the Anglican situation.

He was trying to say "women bishops" quickly and instead called them "Wishops," and then corrected himself.

I liked it immediately. "Wishops." It suggests a certain element of wishful thinking that seems appropriate.