400,000 Anglicans coming home to Rome?

UPDATE: Perhaps not, according to this report.

The Record (Australia) reports that "Rome is on the brink of welcoming close to half a million members of the Traditional Anglican Communion into membership of the Roman Catholic Church...":

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has decided to recommend the Traditional Anglican Communion be accorded a personal prelature akin to Opus Dei, if talks between the TAC and the Vatican aimed at unity succeed, it is understood.

The TAC is a growing global community of approximately 400,000 members that took the historic step in 2007 of seeking full corporate and sacramental communion with the Catholic Church – a move that, if fulfilled, will be the biggest development in Catholic-Anglican relations since the English Reformation under King Henry VIII.

TAC members split from the Canterbury-based Anglican Communion headed by Archbishop Rowan Williams over issues such as its ordination of women priests and episcopal consecrations of women and practising homosexuals.
The TAC’s case appeared to take a significant step forwards in October 2008 when it is understood that the CDF decided not to recommend the creation of a distinct Anglican rite within the Roman Catholic Church – as is the case with the Eastern Catholic Churches - but a personal prelature, a semi-autonomous group with its own clergy and laity.

Read the entire piece.

The American Catholic comments. As does Damian Thompson of The Telegraph.

Comments

[Jack Smith]

Wow. One difficulty in moving 400,000 people is that there are bound to be irregular marriages in the group per Catholic rules. These all had to be dealt with individually here when a traditional parish moved over this year.

I wonder if any of the canonists who lurk here can shed light on that process.

[Randy]

So the Traditional Anglican Communion will become like Opus Dei? I wonder if Dan Brown will write a book about them.

[Evan]

As I understand the situation (at least as it has been to this point), Walter Kasper and the pope have been somewhat at odds about the reception. It does raise some questions for ecumenical work when conversations already underway with various Protestant denominations are more or less short-circuited by a reception of traditionalist Protestants like this.

Is anyone more privy than I to the PCPCU/CDF dynamics of this development?

[Tito Edwards]

Thanks Carl for the link.

Again, these are rumors, but I hope they are true.

[Jeff Grace]

Interesting... how many of the these Anglican priests will be required to table their marital relations? :)

[Ed Peters]

JS, no marriage problems per se; Anglcians are not bound by form, so.

There are other issues tho: eg, would this p.p. be designed to preserve "Anglican" rites? If so, why, exactly? What about R. Catholics in Britain now, have they no traditions worth granting p.p. status to, and if not, what is about former Anglicans that deserves special preservation and treatment? I could phrase it more precisely, but there are real questions here.

[Jack Smith]

Ed - Thanks for that. I should have been more clear. I don't mean as to form, but rather those who may have been remarried under Anglican rules.

Is that a problem?

I'll check out what the difficulty was here in Kansas City. I may be mistaken.

[Jeannine]

This is the best news I heard in a very long time! Details will be ironed out because this unification is what God wants.

A few questions I have: If alive do you think that CS Lewis would be part of TAC? Do some Episcopalian churches in VA & TX who answer to the African Anglican bishop belong to this group, TAC? Can anyone hypothesize what will happen to the rest of the Anglican Church? My guess is that it will further evolve into an undistinguishable protestant religion.

Next mission for Benedict: unite w/all the orthodox churches.

[Ed Peters]

JS, oh that, yes, that would be a real problem, but for individuals, as always, not for a corporate body.

[Nick]

Marriages are not likely to be a problem. TAC is almost exactly as conservative on questions of marriage as Rome is. The congregation you are referring to is likely an Episcopalian conversion. TAC bodies in Canada reference the CCC for teachings on marriage.

[Nick]

And I have to be snippy with Jeff in that the answer is probably none. For heaven's sake there is a whole _set of churches_ within Catholicism for which this isn't an issue and has no friendliness with the liberal agenda.

[Ed Peters]

Nick, you do realize, the most conservative branches of Anglicanism all, in the end, accept divorce and remarriage. That is what I'm talking about and why it's a serious problem at the level of individuals. And, while Jeff's comment on clerical continence is premature, I suspect we are heading toward a serious re-examination of that issue at the universal level.

[Jeff Grace]

Ed, I share your suspicions. I wouldn't want to have any money riding on that one, though.

[Nick]

Once again, no. There's a difference between TAC and "Conservative Anglican's". TAC is seeking unity not (what is usually termed) the conservative Anglican groups. I challenge you to find a document provided by TAC that does allow for divorce that is substantially different from the Catholic view.

For example Canada's position:
http://www.anglicancatholic.ca/diocirc/200705circ.pdf

and
http://www.anglicancatholic.ca/bishlett/200512-Ad_Clerum-Marriage_and_Euth.pdf

The positions of the Anglican groups are all over the board. TAC is by far the most conservative. You shouldn't lump them together.