Roundup on the Vatican and Anglican "personal ordinariates"

by Steve Thorngate

Tuesday, the Catholic Church announced a new canonical structure via which disaffected conservative Anglican priests, laypeople and entire groups can enter full communion with the Catholic Church. Below are some highlights of the week’s extensive coverage and commentary.

Ruth Gledhill posts video of the joint press conference by Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Anglican Communion, and Vincent Nichols, Catholic archbishop of Westminster. Paul Vallely offers a helpful what-does-this-mean FAQ, and Kendall Harmon and Andrew McGowan each provides insightful big-picture analysis. Bosco Peters gets into some of the practical issues for priests, while CCblogger Chris Sissons looks at the broader story for ecumenism.

In the Church of England, the news has serious implications for the ongoing debate over women bishops. Already this weekend, a large gathering of clergy on the “opposed” side--members of Forward in Faith, which welcomed the Vatican’s move--will meet in London to discuss options. John Chilton goes so far as to suggest that Rome’s real purpose here is to give traditionalists leverage in that debate.

Andrew Brown is critical as well but focuses on the expanded and diversified body of priests the Catholic Church stands to gain. C of E priest Doug Chapin, frustrated by Williams’s timid performance at the press conference, offers “what Rowan should have said.” Meanwhile, Edwin Barnes, bishop emeritus of Richborough, insists that those who do leave should take with them their churches and vicarages.

Elsewhere, it’s less certain how much of an impact all this will have. The Vatican’s move didn’t come out of nowhere; it was in part the result of efforts by conservative Anglo-Catholics, most notably Australian John Hepworth of the 400,000-strong Traditional Anglican Communion--which, like FiF, expressed wholehearted joy at the news and is already moving toward taking Rome up on the offer.

Responses from other conservative Anglicans, however, have been more muted. Rod Thomas, of conservative C of E group Reform, sees more promise in emerging conservative Anglican bodies than in Rome. Here in the States, conservative Anglican leaders have been similarly measured. And Scott Baldauf gives a good overview of the complicated situation among the African Anglican churches, where the archbishops of Kenya and Uganda have each indicated that becoming Catholic is a nonstarter. The common thread, as Gary Stern details, is that most conservative Anglicans aren’t hurting for ecclesial options right now.

Diana Butler Bass doesn’t see much of a story here either, pointing out that “in western Christianity, religious switching is a way of life.” What’s more, welcoming former Episcopal priests into the Catholic priesthood isn’t new; in the States it’s been going on for 25 years, though, as Catholic columnist Dan Rodricks observes, Tuesday’s decision will streamline the process--and help with the priest shortage. Thomas Reese foresees the Catholic Church revolutionized by a “steady supply of married priests.”

Other notable Catholic-oriented pieces include Rocco Palmo’s post emphasizing, somewhat counterintuitively, the church’s ecumenical sensitivity, and Francis Rocca’s overview of Catholicism’s growing “liturgical smorgasbord.”

Last and perhaps least, the parodies. Gregory Beyer crafts a pitch e-mail from the Vatican to individual Anglicans, Chris Hansen (via The Lead) imagines a second press conference, and the somewhat more freewheeling Adrian Worsfold offers a fairly ridiculous news writeup.