News reported by the BBC today says that about 600 Anglicans (Episcopalians) are about to follow the 900 or so who’ve already converted and celebrate Catholic Mass at Easter, in protest at the decision of the Church of England to ordain women as bishops.
“They will join a special section of the Catholic Church – the Ordinariate – which has been created specifically for them by Pope Benedict XVI. The group from dioceses in England and Wales includes 61 former clergy.”
What’s interesting is that Ordinariate priests are not expected to be unmarried and celibate – essentially, the Vatican has decided to ignore its own rules in order to poach some priests from another branch of Christianity. Of course, it also means that quite a lot of Anglicans have sold out their own brand of faith just because it no longer officially condones one of their prejudices and gone over to their traditional rival because they officially condone all sorts of prejudice.
I shall watch developments with interest, but in the meantime it’s over to you guys: Is this a watering down of both faiths? Is it part of a survival fight for believers in an increasingly secular environment? Who wins and loses with these conversions?
They are expected to follow Eastern rite tradition regarding ordination (which the Roman Catholic church recognizes but does not follow in the Latin rite) which is that priests can be married when ordained but can’t marry after ordination (from the Roman Catholic point of view none of the Anglican priests are really priests though they are being ‘properly’ ordained after their switch). Bishops have to be single so the handful of married bishops switching can only be priests. This has happened before (though not in such large numbers) so is not that innovative.
I suspect from the standpoint of a fair number of Anglicans it is good riddance (though they probably won’t say this) and perhaps the church might actually get around to making a woman bishop (they are still arguing about how though the US Episcopal church among others has had female bishops for a couple of decades). From the liberal Catholic standpoint, worry since the switchers are considerably more conservative than the average Catholic. However Catholic bishops even conservatives might worry that these converts who are use to arguing with authority and getting their own way might continue to do so.
From a historical perspective, this is hardly the first time the RCC has fudged on the celibacy issue. It doesn’t seem like a big deal at all, in that context at least.
True. At least this time it doesn’t involve anybody underage.