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When challenged that women’s ordination and homosexual  marriage were grave obstacles to unity between Catholics and Anglicans, an Anglican priest countered by saying, “Let’s not forget the obstacles to unity of the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and Papal Infallibility.” At first this seems a reasonable response for the Catholic Church does indeed demand assent to these two doctrines which many Protestants either deny completely or wish were mere pious opinions. But can we really compare the issues of homosexual... Read more

It’s been observed that the gap between the Anglican Church and Catholicism is not wide but deep. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s speech at the Gregorian Pontifical University uncovered the real depth of the divide. Read the speech here. The Archbishop defended women’s ordination and argued that more unites the two churches than divides them. He said issuess that are not of the ‘first order’ should not be points of division and he suggested that the Anglican communion, with its sharp... Read more

Archbishop Rowan Williams is in Rome to give a speech at the Gregorian Pontifical University and he meets with the Pope on Saturday. I’d like to see a copy of the whole speech, but it seems he downplayed the importance of the new Apostolic Constitution, stuck up for women’s ordination and asked “Which way Ecumenism?” The Times reports on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s speech in Rome here. Ruth Gledhill–the paper’s religion correspondent, always manages to report on Anglican-Catholic relations with a kind of schoolgirl... Read more

What is going to be required for Benedict XVI’s Personal Ordinariate for Anglicans to succeed? First and foremost, I believe that what is required is a ‘paradigm shift’ on the part of Anglicans. Very often Rome is perceived as ossified, inflexible, unimaginative and legalistic. Both Pope John Paul II (“Be generous to these men.”) and now Pope Benedict XVI have been exactly the opposite. They have put together daring initiatives. They have stepped out in faith and made amazingly generous... Read more

Here’s a news story about a Massachusetts man who claims he was fired for expressing his opinions about a colleague’s lesbian ‘marriage.’  The story is interesting because the guy claims that he wasn’t radical and aggressive in his disapproval of the impending lesbian marriage, but that his homosexual colleague (and superior in the workplace) kept mentioning it until he gave some sort of response. In other words, he kept silent until he was goaded into a response, and being an... Read more

The present Anglican crisis is only one of  along line of such crises. For thought provoking posts on the continued anxiety faced by Anglo Catholics, you can’t do better than Jeffrey Steel’s blog. Jeffrey is an American who is married with six children and a former Anglo Catholic priest. He writes eloquently about his own conversion (he was received this Spring) and he is a  strong voice encouraging other Anglo Catholics to take the step. All his recent posts are... Read more

On Wednesdays I teach eighth grade confirmation at St Joseph’s Catholic School and RCIA in the evening, and it is curious and sweet to observe how often one class cross fertilizes the other. This week we are discussing the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ and it struck me that the Catholic approach to the life of Christ is so different from many Protestant approaches. The Liberal Protestant approach begins with Jesus the Rabbi, Jesus the healer, Jesus... Read more